Karekare & Piha

Today we worked in the morning, then explored the Waitekere Ranges in the afternoon, visiting Karekare and Piha.  (It's going to take a while to get used to the strange place names here!)  It's time for Chris to do a blog post, so here he goes:

This is Karekare falls,  it is so much taller than what the picture captures!

 The Karekare hike actually starts after you see the falls, the path leads off right under this crazy tree.  When we try and describe what the vegetation is like the first thing that comes to mind is the oversized rain forests of the "Jurassic Park" film.  Absolutely breathtaking!

A gorgeous view from the hike over looking Karekare valley.

The Reward of the hike is a huge over looking view of Karekare beach.

We then walked to the beach past the sand dunes.  All the beaches in the area are made of volcanic rock which makes the beach sand look very black.

The beach is so wide it takes ages to walk to the water.  Carrie thinks it looks like I'm crossing a desert.

Unfortuanately we had to start heading back, it was a very long walk to and from the water!

As we drove to the town of Piha, you see one of the most recognizable land marks in the Auckland area,  Lion Rock, which separates Piha beach and North Piha beach.

Not until you get on the beach do you realize just how big the expanse of the beaches are and how huge Lion Rock is, standing alone guarding the harbour.

The setting sun was causing a great mirrored affect along the beach.

I got a little close to the water trying to feel how warm it was and got caught off guard by a rogue wave.

Damn thing chased me for half a kilometer!

Lion rock needed to be tamed and I was the person to do it!

Success!! (That's me in the middle of the photo below.)

Another breath taking sunset with the mist rolling in across North Piha.

The drive home revealed the full moon hanging over the harbour and Auckland city.