Waitakere

Vicky had lectures again so we once again picked her up outside the uni, today we were headed to the western side of Auckland and the Waitekere ranges, a much shorter journey of only around 45mins, this is where Aucklanders tomato the seaside. We started off at Piha, a small town with a big beach. The beach a famous for surfing but there was no one on it, except one man and his dog. It was also a little chilly even though the sun was out and the sky blue. In the middle of the beach is a huge rock called lion rock, use your imagination. 

In New Zealand health and safety is very lax and Chris was able to climb almost to the top legally, which he gleefully did, and lived to tell the tale. We then visited Kitekite falls, a nice waterfall in the middle of a Kauri forest. Kauri are famous New Zealand trees that unfortunately have been getting some deadly disease that causes them to bleed and die, so the path too the falls had a boot sanitising station on it to try and stop the spread. Good idea. The falls were really lovely and you can swim in the pool at the base if you live, NZ H and S again.

Next up was bethells beach which we didn't like as it was like cleethorpes with black sand.

We then drove through the ranges back to Auckland.

Tea was a lovely mexican under the shadow of the sky tower (the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Chris looking very cross.