The Upside Down Yank: And Now For A Completely Different Country

This past weekend was another international jaunt, to New Zealand. Jeff and I were last there in 2000 for our honeymoon. We also have friends who used to live in DC but retired back to NZ 6 years ago. He'd made it abundantly clear that he would not be pleased if I got this close to NZ and didn't make it to see him.

So, time for a hop across the Tasman Sea.

Jeff and Linda live on Waiheke Island, which is in the Auckland bay. I decided to spend a day in Auckland doing the 10-mile Coast-to-Coast walk before taking the ferry to Waiheke for 3 days with Jeff and Linda.

The C2C trail takes you across the city, passing through several parks and peaks. It's a nice idea, though I found the neighborhoods kinda dull (and empty, mid-day on a Friday). The peaks -- spent volcanoes since that's what created most of New Zealand -- were fun. Excellent views.

Sadly, I found the map put out by the Department of Conservation to be half-assed. It presumes you already know the city pretty well, which is a spurious presumption, given how many visitors Auckland gets, especially of the walking variety.

I ended up walking 7 of the 10 miles due to fatique (spent at least an hour between all my meanderings off-map) and sunset.

Waiheke was gorgeous and Linda and Jeff were superb hosts. The island is something of an artists colony (which I also dubbed "The Island of Short-Haired Women") so we spent time in several art galleries. The rest of the time was spent wandering the gorgeous countryside (and catching the finale of Masterchef New Zealand, which was a bona fide nail biter!).

I could keep going but I think I'll let the pics tell the story.

Near the beginning of the trail in Aucklands' Domain.

The trail through the Domain.

The tree at the top of rise in the Domain.

Heading up Mt. Eden.

The view towards downtown from the top of Mt. Eden.

Mt. Eden has the most clearly delineated volcanic crater on the walk. It's tough to appreciate how deep and steep it is from this pic but, trust me, it's steep and deep!