So I'm a bit late in posting this, but better late than never right? For my first excursion out of the city, we went to Piha Beach. First we stopped at the visitor center where I continued learning Maori. They had a small museum about nature, native trees, and how to pronounce the Maori words (which are often used to name the various towns and landmarks). It was a nice stop on the way into the Waitakere Range. Here is a framed landscape courtesy of the regional park visitor center.
Before heading down to the beach, we turned off a fork in the road to Kite Kite falls (it looked a bit cloudy for beach weather yet). It turned out to be a beautiful day for a hike and we worked our way back to this stunning waterfall in under thirty minutes. I had worked up a small sweat by then (even though it is the dead of winter!) and briefly considered taking the roommate's challenge of swimming to the fall, but after dipping my toes in the chilled water I reconsidered. It is winter after all, and that water was cold!
We did manage to cross the little stream just to the right of this photo and loop back around the other trail to the car. At the end of the trail, they had a metal grate and some cleaning spray and foot brushes to clean your shoes. I guess there's a fear of spreading some sort of bug.
Finally, we made it to Piha beach, just in time for the sun to come out. What a glorious day! We parked on the wrong side of the stream cutting through the middle of the beach, so we had to remove our shoes once more (I'll have to remember to bring my water shoes next time!) to cross over and hike up the rock formation. The stream was bigger than it looks in this photo!
It was all worthwhile though as once we got to the top of the formation, well as high as we could safely go, we were able to take in these views of the beach. We also enjoyed walking along the beach and listening to the waves crash in and out. Something about the sea just makes me feel peaceful. 
No comments:
Post a Comment