Orakei Basin Walk

Last weekend after a busy Coastguard duty on Saturday, I decided to 'chillax' on Sunday, and take a walk to Orakei. Orakei is a suburb of Auckland that lies between the city centre and another suburb called Meadowbank. It's probably about a 10 minute drive from where I live, but quite a good walk. They are both lovely suburbs, very green and safe to live in, but also much more expensive! The walk to Orakei Basin from our house goes directly through Meadowbank, so I took a few snaps on my way. I'd love to live there, but sadly the scholarship of a Phd student doesn't stretch to such luxury!

The walk itself begins at Meadowbank Train Station, with a purpose-built boardwalk for cyclists and pedestrians to use. The weather was pretty good last weekend, so the basin was a little busier than usual, but still quiet enough to appreciate the serenity.

After completing the boardwalk, the route swings around the corner and changes to more of a woodland trail. In the wooded area I noticed lots of Tui in the trees making their odd whistle-like calls. I did actually take a couple of videos of them calling, but for some reason they won't upload to the blog, so I've put on a video that someone else has made. The picture is pretty poor, but the sound is good, so you'll get the idea! These birds are completely black apart from a small tuft of white feathers at the front of their neck. They are apparently very intelligent, and are able to clearly imitate human speech. I've never actually heard them speak, but they have a beer on sale, so I figure they must be pretty clever; there's nothing simple about producing a good lager!

Once through the woodland, the path turns once again into boardwalk, and includes some bridges over the basin. The basin itself is used for watersports such as waterskiing, wakeboarding and paddleboarding. On this occasion there were no activities taking place, but I sometimes see people out on the water when I take the train into the city. 

Once over the bridge, the walk climbs up the hill back towards Meadowbank Station, with some amazing views of the city. After I had completed such a gruelling walk, I felt that I deserved a small treat and so made a brief pit-stop in the Meadowbank Bakery for a custard slice and cup of tea. It was delicious, and gave me the energy (and sugar high) needed to make it back to Glen Innes.

In total I was out for around 3 hours, so the feet were slightly sore afterwards. It was nothing a hot jacuzzi bath and evening in front of the TV couldn't cure though!