We’ve fought our way through the Sculpture walk and are now at the crossroads of our walk. We can either continue along the coast and then into Oneroa – or cut off up the paved road to Oneroa and cut off 30 minutes of the walk. Normally, we’d take the long way – but we’re a little leery of the times that are listed on our web print out – and on the sign posts along the way of the walk. It took us over an hour to get to this point – granted we were swimming upstream, but still, we’re fast. And the walk we have shows a total of 2 hours – which is not even remotely possible judging from where we are currently.
We decide to strike out over the road and go straight into town. It’s a “hearty” walk! Uphill for most of the way, then over some small valleys and uphill again. Scenery is gorgeous – it’s all fallow fields and vineyards, and even a faithful British Cotswold house reproduction…
…beautiful. But all our material – and the signposts on the road – say it’s only a 30 minute walk into town. Ha! We are thinking there is some bizarre New Zealand minutes/hours conversion thing we are missing. Because we haul – we don’t stroll – we walk – fast – and we’ve way passed the 30 minute mark without even a glimpse of the town. Turns out it is more like 45-50 minutes to town – which – hey – we don’t care, we’ve got nothing but time – but it’s frustrating to have such bad information!
So, that rant over, the walk was nice – great exercise – and we did get a shot of this adorable mailbox:
The town of Oneroa is a typical resort tourist town – shops, restaurants, pubs, and the like. It’s cute –sitting up on a hillside above a pretty beach and bay below. We perch on a tree stump at the top of the beach park with great views over the water and eat our lunch of bananas, apple and cake from our morning breakfast basket. Nice!
After lunch, we find a cute little bar, the Sandbar, with an awesome deck overlooking the water in the distance, and treat ourselves to a glass of wine and beer. We deserve it after our long steep walk!
Walking back to the ferry (this time their time estimate was actually correct!) we pass the Humble Pie Company! Love it!!! “All animals are equal…but some are tastier!”
On the walk back, I spy a parking sign – 48 hours – or 2880 minutes – in case you need to micro-manage your parking that much!
We get to the ferry dock early again – but it’s better to be up front in these lines with so many people on the island. We’re one of the first on the 2pm ferry – get comfy inside seats and then just relax our way back into Auckland.
Back up the hill to the hotel, we stop on the way for photos….sky tower and gothic church…
…and beer, Pepsi Max and rice for our leftover dinner. We went to the Asian grocery on the corner, thinking we’d buy a small bag of rice and figure out how to measure and cook it without the proper utensils. But all the rice is just too big there. So, we head back down the street to the Bubbly Laundromat, where they also happen to sell food, and have a “rice box” for 2.50NZ – already cooked and ready to go! This is a first! we bought our dinner at the Laundromat! LOL
Back at home for an early dinner and laundry – and the blog! We’re up to date! And all clean and ready for the ship in the morning!
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