Whangarei – Returning to Te Ika-a-Māui

55. Whangarei – Auckland

Thursday, April 4: Cool and somewhat cloudy in Whangarei, sunny in Auckland

Jocelyn’s (airbnb, $62.7)

All packed up quite neatly after breakfast, which was not as populated today as it had been two days ago. The instant coffee still seemed to have an admixture of coffee grounds in it though, but the orange juice and mild could be finished before the journey began.

I left @ 8:40 and it took only a couple of minutes to get to the Hub. Had the podcasts playing away on the ipod and hope to make a dent on the backlog. Barbara turned up shortly after me, and just after 9:00 the bus was already there, and so could make a longer break. I raced up to the top to claim a front seat, and we pushed off at pretty much on the dot of 9:15. this is an “express” service, meaning: Stops along the way, but no break in Kaiwaka. Traffic flow was fairly good until we reached a critical point just before Warkworth. After that Auckland was not far. A couple of rainbows made an appearance along the way. Read more…

54. Rainy Day in Whangarei

Wednesday, April 3: Some sunshine to begin with, clouding over and showery in the afternoon

The Cell Block

Tried not to get up too early this morning, but not much can stop me waking as the sun starts to rise. I had used my beach towel to block light from the hallway last night & that worked well, and stayed in place, but the outside window had no curtains so nothing stops the light from getting in in the early morning.

After breakfast and checking the internet for whether airbnb were cancelling again I took off down to the Hub to investigate the shops a bit further. Had a look around at some souvenirs, but not much of interest. Decided that today would be the day for a haircut so went along the yacht harbour (marina) to Bank St where I had seen two barbers and took the second one, as there were no other customers. The barber himself inquired whether I had been a redhead in a previous incarnation which I negated but it brought the conversation to his accent – he was originally from Galway, so the family history was trotted out again. Anyway for $29 head hair and beard are now in fine form. Read more…

53. Whangarei: Te Whara

Tuesday, April 2: A bit cloudy to begin with, clearing up to sunny an only fairly warm

Tramping: 8.7 km

The Cell Block

Today was the day of the last tramp, so it was up @ 7:30 & breakfast, lunch preparation and the internet all got their turns before I headed for my shuttle. This had been organised late last night with Trail Drop Whangarei – for a section of the Te Araroa path known as Te Whara. Walking time to the pickup location was less than ten minutes, putting all of the equipment on the outside of the pack likewise and just before 9:00 Hannah Ffrost turned up in her van to pick up the only fare for the day, myself.

Drive was about thirty minutes in the direction of the Heads through what appeared to be little holiday villages, quite pleasant. There was one Natural Jetty, which would have to be photographed at some point as one of the series “Jetties” and we were soon in Urquhart Bay for the start of the walk. Read more…

52. Paihia – Whangarei

Monday, April 1: Showers the whole day, very humid, clearing in the afternoon

The Cell Block, 91 Cameron St., single with toilet ($60)

The alarm hadn’t yet rung (by about a minute or so) but I was still up @ 7:30 and had plenty of time for breakfast and to check the net to see if my further booking in Auckland had been reneged upon (it had not), and pack the rest of the stuff, which was all done by 9:00. Locked up Jarrad’s place and put the key into the safe and away I was having selected a relatively rain-free period via radar to time my walk to the bus stop.

Was about the first there, although peu-a-peu people gathered, and so far the weather held, I was in no rush to get on the bus when it finally arrived with about ten minutes’ delay, as I was going to be one of the first passengers off again. When I came to load my luggage the driver told me to put it inside the bus (a double-decker again) which also made sense. Read more…

45. Paihia: Lookout Track

Monday, March 25: Sunny and quite warm

Tramping: 6.5 km

Jarrad’s

Was up bright and early, well before the others and had my breakfast (finally finished off the hiking crackers). After that travel planning was on the agenda. Managed to get a response from the Cell Block in Whangarei and had to decide between a simple room for $45 and the deluxe version for $60. Decided on the latter and sent off my credit card details via SMS. Still have no confirmation, but we’ll take that as it comes.

Still no news from ATHop so I called them and fifteen minutes later the account was set up and I could see the balance down to the cent. Had to use the uni-hannover.de email account to get an email through at all, and even then stuff went into the trash folder. Read more…

43. Rotorua – Paihia

Saturday, March 23: Cloudy in the morning, a lot of places in fog, clearing somewhat during the day, showers in the evening

Jarrad’s (airbnb, $72.6)

A day for an early start. I had managed to get to bed before 10:00 last night, and was awake @ 5:30 for the alarm. Had the remains of the orange juice, a cup of coffee, then what was left of the milk. Everything packed up OK and I was ready to go by 6:30. Was down at the bus an hour before it left and realised I could have taken one of the city buses down, since they started early enough. Next time set the alarm for 6:00. Read more…