Devonport Peninsula
Early in the semester there tends not to be too much work that needs to be done at the weekend, so faced with plenty of time to spare I thought I'd go for a bit of an outing.
I took the 82 bus across the Harbour Bridge and got off just before Takapuna, and started walking down along Lake Road. I popped into a supermarket and when I came out accidentally took a wrong turn and headed towards Northboro.
I came across a 'Green Route' down to Devonport that made for a far better walk than simply following the perpetually congested and noisy Lake Road. Along the way I got some really cool views of the Harbour Bridge, and the city skyline poking out above the houses.
Eventually I left the Green Route and headed over to Narrow Neck, where it was a busy day at the beach.
From here I passed Takapuna Head and the Navy Training School before reaching Cheltenham Beach – where the most direct route towards my destination (North Head) was to simply walk along the beach.
There are some cute pastel houses at the north end that I tried, and struggled, to get a decent photo of.
This was a quieter beach, probably because it's less accessible without an esplanade.
Eventually I reached the steps to start climbing up to North Head.
North Head has been on my to-visit list for a long time, but it seems whenever I'm in Devonport I end up going up its neighbour – Mount Victoria – instead.
I picked a great day for it though, there were simply hundreds of boats heading out of the Waitemata and into the Hauraki, it was quite the spectacle.
It ended up being a solid ten kilometre walk, but the views were excellent and I was really pleased to have finally got to North Head after over three years in Auckland.
