Piha Beach

The day did not start off great... My friends and I had rented a car to drive up to Piha Beach (about an hour away). I got up really early, ate a big breakfast, packed a lunch, and got everything together for the beach. In Auckland, I have to walk everywhere. It seems like everything is uphill. Running a bit late, we powerwalked to the car rental place to find out that they don't have a reservation under our name. Next, we took an uber, made 3 phone calls, walked in a couple of circles, and then ended up at the same car rental place. Luckily, the man in front of us was returning his car which we then got to rent. All of these catastrophes happened before 10:30 am. This is what we looked like when we finally got the keys.

So, I'm finally in the car heading to Piha Beach. There are windy roads surrounded by beautiful tree-covered hills. I arrive at Piha Beach shortly after and it is like nothing I've ever seen before. First off, it is a black sand beach. The sand gets so hot! The water was light blue and extremely clear and the surf was rough. But the unique thing about Piha is the landmasses in the middle of the beach. Right in the sand are massive mountains made of trees and rocks that have been eroded into funky shapes and caves. They are so overwhelmingly tall.

I explored around the base of some of them, finding neat things like a starfish and some mussels (see photo gallery). There was even a beached baby shark! I tried climbing some of the rocks but they were rough and my feet couldn't handle it. But there were amazing caves and alcoves everywhere I looked. This was probably one of the most beautiful scenes I have seen in my life.