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19th Dec 2010 - Awkward Auckland Again

Another short day, from Orewa Top 10 Holiday Park to Auckland International Youth Hostel, via the Gulf Harbour ferry. Auckland is awkward in the sense you can't easily get around it by bike. Today we only did about 18kms or 11 miles. Not much it's true but it was raining as if it was time to build an ark. This was intended to be a day on the beach before we headed into Auckland and, having done a circuitous route from Wellington to Auckland to Cape Reinga to Auckland, we then are going to get a train back to Wellington so we can be on South Island for Christmas and set off on the second longer track of getting to Cape Bluff at the south of South Island. We were faced with heavy rain again and so we hung around at the campsite until 12 noon but at that point we felt that we needed to start cycling since the Gulf Harbour Ferry goes at 3.50pm and you need to allow time for punctures. So we cycled in heavy rain the 15kms (10 miles) to Gulf Harbour, picking up food as we went. The ferry got us into Auckland in about 40 minutes and saved us a repeat journey through the endless sprawl that is northern Auckland. Then, collecting food and drink (Schneider's wonderful Wheat Doppelbock called Aventinus) and noting the complete impossibility of finding either choral evenson or a carol service at 5pm on a Sunday evening, we headed for the youth hostel. Churches seem very behindhand on the web. It's easier to find a good pub than info about which church is doing what of an evening. We checked into the YHA International Hostel and then visited an excellent cheap Thai restaurant that we visited when we were in Auckland earlier - the Ruang Thong 2 - a cheapie Thai place where delicious flavours (we only ate vegetarian, mostly tofu, food) seem standard. We are now planning the South Island route and drinking tea.

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