Day 29: The Black Sand Beaches

I woke up around 7:30am today (definitely feeling better, but not 100%) to take a shower and catch some breakfast before heading out as a group at 8:00am. Today, the group would be heading to the Black Sand Beaches! Anoop had arranged for us to ride out to Piha Beach in a 19 passenger bus.

Along the way, we stopped for a few minutes at a building famous for it's architecture and took in the sights of Auckland from a higher elevation. Here's a look at the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park:

Waitakere Ranges Regional Park

Picture frame!

I was there!

The building famous for its architecture

We climbed back in the van after a fairly long break and continued on our way. Our driver got a little turned around in a roundabout, but eventually we headed in the right direction as we meandered our way through the mountains. Around 10:40am we go our first glimpse of Piha Beach. Here's a look:

Looking down on Piha Beach

Before I go further into our adventures at Piha Beach, I will go into detail about what Anoop mentioned just before we all piled out of the van. Apparently Piha Beach had 284 deaths in a single year (last year, I think) due to the swift rip currents, making it one of the more dangerous beaches in the world. There were also tons of jellyfish in the water that have been stinging folks recently. Moreover, since the sand is black it gets very hot, so be careful.

With that we piled out of the van and got to experience the beach for ourselves. It was quite wonderful. The black sand had been created by the weathering of iron ore volcanic rocks (It was magnetic, too!) and was really soft. There were several gnarly surfers out in the water and as the morning went by, way more folks showed up with their kids than I was expecting. Given my history with jellyfish, I kept to walking in the shallows. Even this far in it was easy to see why so many folks die here. The tide was supposed to peak at 11:40am and so dry sand one moment could turn into water up to your knees after a wave or two. The current was really swift and it was definitely not too far-fetched for folks to get swept out to sea.

Instead of swimming, several of us decided to climb Lion Rock, pictured above. It took about 30 minutes to get all the way up, but it was a fun climb. Here is a look from the top:

Reel, Andrew, Steele, and I made it to the top!

Piha Beach

The other side of Piha Beach

Looking Back Inland

Panorama of the beach-side mountains

We climbed down and enjoyed the remainder of our time at the beach. A sign said to look out for penguins on the beach, but we didn't see any. Apparently they come out more at dawn and dusk. (Which makes since because the sand was HOT!) After a couple of hours we headed up the road to Piha Cafe and enjoyed a nice lunch on the side of the mountain overlooking the beach. I ordered a salmon wrap and a Pepsi that was pretty tasty. After lunch, we loaded up for the ride back to Auckland.

We were back at the hotel about an hour later, at which time Brittany and I had devo over the phone and then I took a nice long nap. I woke up just before 5:00pm and got on the internet to find that Brittany was also online, so we were able to skype for a good bit before dinner.

I left the hotel around 7:00pm in search of dinner and a temporary structure to use for class. I found a building that had scaffolding around each side and also had shrink wrap around the entire facade to make it water proof while work was occurring. Here's a look:

Shrink Wrap Scaffolding!

After taking several photographs of various parts of the building, I headed in the direction of Subway to get some dinner. On my way back to the hotel I stopped by a convenience store to purchase a breakfast drink (We are leaving really early in the morning - before breakfast!) and a Powerade to help me get through the remaining part of the evening.

When I got back to the hotel, I packed up all my things to get ready for the trip to Queenstown! I also managed to edit a video (to be posted soon) documenting our trip to the Twelve Apostles in Melbourne. After I finished working with the movie in iMovie, I took a quick shower, set my alarm for 4:45am, and hit the hay. Today had been a wonderful day, but I was excited to be heading down to Queenstown on the South Island of New Zealand! More adventures await!!