We were already renting a car to take care of some errands that were a bit difficult using public transit (chief among them: the purchase of a BBQ grill), so we got our errands done in a brutal 5 hour retail marathon and headed out to the West.
Our chosen destination was Piha, a small beach town on the west coast, not far from Auckland:
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After a few navigational adventures, we finally made it to the beach, where we immediately determined that our hiking boots had been a bad idea and ditched them so that we could walk across the black sand beach to stand in the surf. At this point, we somewhat regretted not bringing swim wear.
However, there was plenty of awesome scenery on which to climb, especially Lion Rock, which was a land mark of some significance to the Maori people who lived here.
We climbed up as high as we could, before the "Danger: You Will Die Horribly If You Go Past This Sign" sign (that may not be what the sign actually said, but you get the gist), and got a pretty breathtaking view of the surrounding area.
After climbing down, we decided to secure ourselves a nice patch of beach from which to watch the sunset (which was one of the goals of the trip). We found such a place and hunkered down for some people (and dog) watching while the sun slid towards the horizon.
The Kiwifruit Kiwi paid us a visit, which was a little surprising, given how far we had traveled. I suspect that he stowed away in our car for the trip out, then went and played in the sand dunes while Jen and I were on Lion Rock.
Then we got the payoff: Sunset over the Pacific.
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1 comment:
Sweet.
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