Entering the Auckland region was exciting as it felt like the first really significant landmark south of Cape Reinga where you could say "wow, I've actually walked some way". In and around Matakana and Warkworth were nice because I got to meet and stay with some awesome family friends, but also the trail was still rural and 'bushy'. Once you hit Orewa the going got mentally quite tough (but thankfully was still being relieved by catching up and staying with friends!). The problem is you are hiking through civilisation...which just feels wrong. If I had the money to spring for some fresh walking clothes it would be so bad, but the realty is you're slogging through the hot sunshine (if you're fortunate to have good weather!) in clothes that will never be properly clean again (no matter how hard you try), wearing enormous boots and carrying an enormous pack, and walking past loads of people cheerfully walking their dog, swimming, or worst of all: just sitting or lying in the sunshine relaxing on the beach. Of course you want nothing more than to do the same! But you've got 15km left to do today and really shouldn't take anything more than a short break...and there's beach after beach of this as you was down the North Shore. And when it's not beach is increasingly more affluent suburbs where people ogle you from their mercedes as they drive past and wonder why there's someone tramping down their street (in fairness to them the trail has ony recently become popular, and lots of hikers skip the city sections, so residents may not yet even be aware of the trail running past their house). Also in fairness to people, the ones I stopped and talked to or who stopped and talked to me were lovely and friendly 'city-folk'. And the North Shore Coastal Walk is beautiful...I just wish I could have done it in sneakers in nice summery clothes, sporting only togs and a towel if anything at all.
Once you catch the ferry and hit the CBD the trail takes you through packs and the odd cricket ground, but there's still a lot of road walking. Personally I find it the easiest to get lost in towns. Out in the bush there's typically only one or two tracks that might lead you astray. In towns every intersection is a potential wrong turn and unless well signposted you have to pay close attention to the trail notes to ensure you stay on the right track. The upside to all this is (hopefully) if you get fed up and/or want to stop for lunch there's always the chance of stumbling across a nice cafe for a snack, lunch or just a cool drink and a rest on a proper chair.
Heading into South Auckland things get more suburban. There's a brief reprieve in Ambury Park but beyond that the trail surroundings feel distinctly industrial. Eventually you get through the Botanic Gardens (which on the whole I was a little underwhelmed by, but I didn't see it all...and it wa raining), and finally make it out of the built up area--only to be greeted be several kilometres of road-walking along roads that have a lot of heavy traffic in the form of trucks going to and from the quarry up ahead. Finally turning aside there's a short knackering farm and bush walk before you emerge in Clevedon, and it's really ony after this that you get back into proper bush. I found this quite jarring, torn between being back where a hiker lugging all their kit belongs, and lamenting the loss of cafe's en route offering fresh juice and iced chocolates.
Just as you start getting into it again, thinking sitting on an old stump to eat a museli bar is pretty comfortable (at least it's a seat), you reach the Waikato river and start walking through farmland for several days (but technically this is part of Waikato so enough about this here). So i guess all in all I found the constant transition from one thing to another and innumerable distractions that are part of 'life in the city' quite disjointed and mentally rather than physically exhausting. Constantly being around people who are not hikers and who are just going about their lives as usual and doing usual city stuff is, for me, quite tiring. If I was up for the weekend with a trundle suitcase and some half decent clothes and time to loll about in cafés or on the beach I might feel like I fit in, but as I am on this trip I couldn't help but look forward to getting further south and back into proper multi-day bush walks again.
In addition to (and probably largely because of) the somewhat sudden onslaught of all things metropolitan and civilised the Auckland region is environmentally quite different to Northland. As you head further south and the overall climate gets cooler (apparently!) some of the more colourful, larger leaved and glossy subtropical trees and shrubs disappear from the fields and hedgerows. Walking through the forests on approach to Auckland the numbers of birds noticeably lessens. There is no more kiwi habitats to walk through. Tui and fantail are still there but seemingly not as abundant. Also it seemed that the tui songs grew (in general) less tuneful and complex. I joked with myself that urban tui seemed to have a smaller vocabulary/repertoire than their rural relatives, but after listening to a tui who persistently sang the same short set of harsh tones for hours I wondered if the bird's song had adapted to a region where there was (presumably) more noise pollution from people and their activities. Are the bird songs shorter and less complex so that vital components are less likely to be lost amongst surrounding noises? Do harsher tones carry better in areas where they have to compete with the sounds of engines and machinery? Who knows...but I'm sure there's a research project in that too.
The one exception to the less birds rule is South African minors. These first appear north of Auckland and along with the usual assortment of blackbirds and thrushes seem to be the dominant bird species.
And that's what had stayed with me as I leave Auckland (and so far only have Northland to compare it to). The two regions are drastically different due to the increasing latitude and human population density, and so they cannot really be fairly compared. The Auckland region still has some lovely forest and beach walks, but for my part I preferred the more remote and bird-rich forests and people-free beaches in the north. I did however enjoy the higher probability of finding an iced chocolate or fresh orange juice while passing through Auckland! (Did someone say spoilt?).
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