Continuation of the 25 kilometer hike across Auckland. This part will be two of Auckland's most popular tourist hotspots: Mount Eden and One Tree Hill. Mount Eden is the crater of a once erupting volcano. It was a long time ago, about 28,000 years ago. And One Tree Hill is where the Maori lived before the Europeans arrived. The original tree was cut down back in 1870 by some white asshole. Later, John Campbell tried to re-grow the tree, but to grow the same tree of the species [totara] failed. Eventually two pine trees took root at the summit, but these too were cut down once again by the Maori in 1960 for being a foreign, non-sacred tree. Now there is an obelisk to John Kembel at the summit, and the mountain is popularly known as None Tree Hill 🙂

001 - final steps to Mount Eden

002 - road to the dormant volcano

003 - crater of the long-extinct volcano

004

005

006 - view of Auckland from Mount Eden

007

008 - a secret path that few people take

009

010 - I never stop being amazed by this flower in the wild

011

012 - descending back to civilization

013 - mythological description of the volcano’s origin

014

015 - they kept cutting it, but it just kept growing...

016 - fig trees

017 - a bare tree

018 - campus of the University of Technology

019 - everything looks so vintage

020 - moss, just moss

021

022 - fell in love at first sight. Abyssinian breed

023

024

025 - this is how houses are built here, entirely out of wood

026 - apple trees in bloooom...

027

028 - entrance to Cornwall Park

029 - fountain-monument to John Campbell

030 - parking on the grass is prohibited, and no one does

031

032 - grass on firewood

033 - next, I have to climb that hill, One Tree Hill

034 - a huge tree

035 - entrance to the toilets

036 - century-old trees

037

038

039 - not far from the park, sheep are grazing

040 - they live well and keep multiplying

041 - a little fence to keep the sheep out, with a special bench and post for people to climb over

042 - struck by lightning, the old 'birch'

043 - just a bit more, almost there

044 - people are having fun, arranging different inscriptions from stones

045 - obelisk to John Campbell, one of the first Europeans in New Zealand

046 - that's where I came from

047 - the Kindle logo come to life - a boy reading under a tree

048

049

050 - a lady really asked me to take her picture 🙂

051 - freshly poured concrete paths

052

053 - many houses are open, nothing is hidden

054

055

056 - oranges

057 - the end. Instead of 16 km, I walked about 25 km, getting lost and finding my way again 🙂