Preparation in auckland

The flight to Auckland was long (25 hours from taking of in Frankfurt or 30ish hours from saying good bye to Mathias‘ mom in Oberwesel). But it wasn’t too bad we enjoyed a nice dinner in Frankfurt and had three seats for us on the first leg to Hong Kong.

The transfer there seamed easy. We walked up and down the gates to stretch a little and were in the front of the line when boarding. But then.... (dramatic pause) .... the automatic boarding gates showed an error and we had to go to the desk to get our passports checked again. They said we could not board the plain to New Zealand without having a return ticket! After telling them that we had a visa and that we specifically checked this with the immigration office they called them and waited for them to check it. It took long and we already started the process of booking some random flight out of New Zealand. But then last minute they said it was okay and we boarded the plane second to last.

On the second leg we booked something special. A „sky couch“ where you get three seats and you can also pull up foot rests from the seats to turn everything into one (tiny) bed. Thanks to a „cuddle belt“ that Leah loved a lot, you can still be safe laying down. We got some good sleep at the beginning. At the end the place seemed smaller and smaller, but it was still a good investment. Recommended (for small enough people)!

Auckland treated us well. Our Airbnb was a cute and cozy little place bordering the downtown area. Our host Liz was lovely. We were just a 5-minute walk from Ponosby road, which was filled with boutique shops, coffee roasters and restaurants galore. We stopped by Archie’s coffee (and went back again the following day) and enjoyed flat whites and avocado 🥑 toast (Leah’s favorite). The people at Archie’s were so nice and remembered us when we returned the following day. We searched the city for last minute items and stocked up on food for the beach walking days ahead. And just to better help prepare us for the strenuous days ahead, we booked ourselves some Thai massages. Once we had relaxed bodies and all of our supplies, we were ready to lay it all out and pack our tramping packs.

it was an early start to the day. We threw on our packs and headed to the bus station (all while questioning the weight...). We were quickly spotted by another tramper about to start the TA. His name was Hans, and his pack was considerably smaller than ours... and he was going to start on the same day as us.

After the quick change in Kerikeri, we arrived in Kaitaia where we were picked up by Tania (from Utea Park). We had arranged a package with her previously which included 2 nights at Utea, a transfer from the bus station to Utea park and then another transfer the following day to Cape Regina (the starting point of the TA).

At Utea we met 3 couples and 1 solo TA hiker that had just finished their third day of the trail. They put it in different words, but for the most part they were ready to get off the f-ing beach! This made us a little anxious 😬.

We ended the day watching the beautiful sunset on the beach and anticipating our day tomorrow.