Monday was back to work at the university, and I was a little tired after the pretty full on weekend, although it was a very full on day with primarily lifting which made the day go quick. It was a blessing in disguise however that Tuesday was Anzac Day which is celebrated every year in Australia and New Zealand on the 25th April, which meant the building site was shut for the bank holiday, giving me a lie in and a day off. Anzac is an acronym for Australia and New Zealand armed corps and the day commemorates all those who have died in war, the date relating to when Oz and NZ armed forces landed in Gallipoli in WW1 in 1915. I went and paid my respects by attending the service up at the war museum on Auckland Domain, which was heaving with people and included a few displays by planes. Come afternoon I did a few things in town with the shops opening at 1, before spending the evening relaxing.
The rest of the week at the university was as ever busy, with a lot more lifting than usual due to the interior work really coming along meaning many deliveries of materials. The scaffold also started coming down which gave the tedious job of removing things like lose nails which could fall a few stories and damage the glass. All in all though it was a good week accompanied by some very warm weather which was nice. It was also nice on Friday evening to catch up with an old friend from South America who has just arrived in New Zealand.
Come weekend the weather turned, however I decided to stay in Auckland which meant I could be flexible. I spent Saturday morning relaxing at the hostel due to the persistent rain. I was originally planning to either do a walk in the Waitakere Ranges or along the North Shore, or to just simply relax on a beach somewhere, but I couldn't be bothered to get wet so after lunch I instead caught the metro to Sylvia Park which is the largest shopping complex in New Zealand. I just looked round the shops which contained many of the flagship stores before heading back to the hostel after a couple of hours, the rain pretty heavy by this point. Come evening I managed to get a break in the weather and went out for dinner at pizza hut before having an early night as I was tired after a late night the night before.
Sunday was forecast to be rain the morning, clearing up by the afternoon. I didn't want to sit around doing nothing again so I decided to head into the Waitakere Ranges which I visited before when I went to Piha. I instead headed to the northern section of the park however, focusing on the Cascade Kauri Park home to an abundance of plants and waterfalls. After catching the train to Sunnyvale I walked about an hour and a half along the road into the park, before finally reaching the Fairy Falls track. This woodland track took me to an impressive waterfall, although the rain got harder when arriving here. The waterfall had an upper and a lower section and it was a pretty impressive sight.
I then headed to the Waitakere dam, although when arriving it was really windy as it was exposed. The visibility was also quite poor with the rain so I headed back into the woods in search of the Cascade Falls. I took a longer route here taking in the challenging Cascade Track which was incredibly slippery, before joining the Auckland City Walk to see a pou which was a Maori carving statue. I then followed a steam along an undefined path, scrambling over some very slippery rocks and fallen logs across the stream to reach the loud Cascade Falls. It was difficult to get a good view of it with it being in a gorge but it was impressive, and it even stopped raining by this point.
Next I headed back to the Waitakere dam, this time in sunshine where I had lunch. I then headed in search of Waitakere falls, however despite hearing it I couldn't work out how to get to it without jumping off a cliff. I therefore followed the Waitakere tramline, an old tramline which took me to Kelly Stream Falls, and did give me a few views across the valley back towards Waitakere falls and dam. The tramline itself took me through the forest including a tunnel to a disused tunnel at the end. From here I went up and over and when reaching the other side reached the road which took me to Swanson station to get to the city. It started to rain however when getting back, and I got wet again but it was good to do something for the day.
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