It was another busy week at Unitec, with a fair bit of scaffold being removed throughout the week which made the interior of the building a lot more visible. There was as ever a fair amount of lifting, although with the rain over the weekend the roof flooded again. The roof flooding is basically the old roof from an original two story block which they've renovated. The issue is where they built the new three story building to connect with this building the old roof tilts towards the new building which is not good. They've rectified this by building a wooden structure on the roof tilting the other way, but this is currently unfinished which means every time it rains the roof collects water. With it raining a couple of times throughout the week this meant a fair bit of time on the roof. We did get good news during the week when they brought us in pizza for lunch and told us we've got a $1 an hour pay rise.
Come weekend I decided to head away from Auckland for a couple of days, catching a bus to Warkworth to see the Matakana coast, about an hour north of Auckland. This area of coastline is particularly popular with divers, due to its abundance of reefs and marine life and various areas are classified as marine reserves. The hiking opportunities are also in abundance with an array of beaches to explore. When arriving in Warkworth I caught a local bus out to Omaha to spend the day exploring the Tawharanui Regional Park.
First stop was Omaha Beach which was a long sandy beach which seemed very popular. With it being low tide I continued following the coastline round instead of taking the road into the park, which took me over some rocky terrain round to Anchor Bay. This was a large sandy beach and the main information point for the park. From here I headed further along the coast before heading upwards and inland towards Tokatu Point. I then headed back down the sea level via Maori Bay and along the coast to this lagoon at the park entrance. All in all it was a very nice walk with great weather.
When leaving the park I had to decide where to sleep for the night. I concluded my best bet was to get to Matakana and have dinner before deciding what to do there. I managed to hitch a ride with some Canadians here. Matakana is a popular picturesque village with lots of cafes and restaurants, and I had dinner here before deciding to head towards Leigh as the plan the next day was Goat Island. It got incredibly dangerous however as I was walking down a dark narrow country lane and every time a car came I couldn't see anything. I eventually came across a bus shelter and just decided to sleep there for the night.
After a surprisingly good night's sleep I was off at sunrise to get to Goat Island Marine Reserve, going via Leigh. The marine reserve was more of a divers paradise that hikers but it was still very picturesque, and I followed the coast path from here back to Leigh. One issue with New Zealand however is they put fields full of fully grown bulls all together on public footpaths. With all the bulls by the fence line I warily tried to go round them but they started moving towards me. I therefore instead followed the fence line but they started charging at me so I had to somehow get over the fence, although it was electric so I hurt myself getting over. I personally think it's ridiculous putting fields of bulls on public footpaths but oh well.
When arriving back in Leigh I walked round the small harbour before following the coastline getting great views across the Huaraki Gulf. I then headed back to Matakana for lunch which was nice to explore during the day with its picturesque river setting and bustling cafes, where I went to one and ordered a full English which was really good. I then headed back to Warkworth where I had about an hour to explore before getting the bus back to Auckland, arriving back in darkness. Come evening I was just tired so after doing my shopping and just grabbing a takeaway for dinner I had an early night.
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