Piha and Muriwai

We travelled back up to Auckland, via Huntly to pick up Tom´s newly fixed car. He was very pleased to have it back, and we set off in convoy once again (not letting him out of our sight this time) up to the west of Auckland into the Waikakere Ranges Regional Park.

The park is 16,000 hectares of complete wilderness bordered by beautiful rugged black sanded beaches on the west. Our first stop was the lovely popular beach town of Piha which is famous for its surf breaks. The weather wasn´t great while we were there so we didn´t even get in the water, but we did climb up the 101m Lion Rock which is right in the middle of the beach to get great views of the surrounding bays.

We stayed in a camp-site right on the beach which had the added benefit of baby ducklings!!

We then visited Muriwai Beach, a bit further north of Piha, another rugged black sand surf beach stretching about 50km. Our reason to visit Muriwai was the large Takapu Gannet Colony that nest here from August to January.

Every August the big sea-birds return to this spot right off the beach on surrounding cliffs, to meet up with their mate and produce a cute little chick! And luckily the best time to see the little chicks is December..and we saw lots! It was fantastic! We walked to several look outs to see the birds and their babies, we watched them at sunset and it was a beautiful sight!