So I thought I would start writing stuff from when I left Christchurch as I have had a mini pre-adventure adventure in Auckland catching up with friends and family. I arrived in Auckland on Friday night (27/7/12) to stay with Grant for a few nights. I was introduced to a tasty beverage called "Booker Noe" which has a hearty 64.55% alc/vol content. Needless to say I had a great night shooting the shit with Grant and Bea. On Saturday we decided to go for a run in the Waitakere Ranges. After a little winging from a mildly hungover Bea we were on our way and ran out along a mint wee coastal track to Whatipu and then back along a creek track to the car. All up about 8km we reckon. On Saturday night we went to the night markets for dinner where we replenished our fatty stores with some tasty deep fried treats, not to mention chocolate pancakes and waffles for dessert.
On Sunday Rowan, Sean and Farah drove up from the Hamiltron and we went over to Rangitoto island to investigate the new habitat for some Kiwi and Takahe. We reckoned the birds were gonna be pretty pissed off when they got there to discover much of the island is aweful, sharp volcanic rock leftover from when liquid hot magma was spewing out of the volcano. Rowan had a brilliant idea to run the last 15 minutes (according to DOC time) of the track to the top of the crater. It turned out to be a terrible idea and I nearly had to reverse-eat the pie and sausage roll I had for breakfast. All in all it was a pretty cool place and we were very lucky with the weather as it was raining quite heavily on the ferry going to and from the island. On Sunday night we went to Grant and Julie McKechnies for dinner to talk about travelling and eat some amazing Chicken curry. We also ate a metric shit-tonne of cheese which, in retrospect, turned out to be poor nutrition for the next part of the story.
On Monday morning Grant, Bea and I went for a 5:30am run and felt a bit crook. Grant stopped for a "rest" but I suspect that he may have been jettisoning some cheese from the night before. Later that morning I decided I needed to practice using public transport, or at least make peace with it by catching a bus into the Auckland CBD for a goodbye lunch with a certain Beckinator. Turns out busses are still as crap I remembered them being, and I have concluded that our relationship will remain firmly in the "love-hate" status. On Monday night I had a tasty double down for dinner from KFC (to make up for all of the walking I had done to catch busses).
For lunch on Tuesday I did some more walking from Grants place to Silvia park to meet Esther for lunch and I am now writing this just before I cruise over to an old peanut-headed mate of mine for some drinking and zombie-killing. I get to drive Hersela the Pontiac over to the North Shore.
