On Saturday 14 May 2016 I picked up 6 people at Auckland Institute of Studies at 9.50am, 4 people at their apartment in the city at 10.15am and the final passenger at Britomart a few minutes later. This made a group of 9 from South Korea, 2 from Japan and myself, and we went to Piha and Karekare. The day was beautiful – a mostly clear blue sky and about 22 degrees, so it was warm when we were in the sun but it was cooler in the shade.
Piha and Karekare – $65 per person, full day tour.
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Destination: Piha and Karekare
We first went to Piha Beach and as there was very little traffic, the drive only took about 45 minutes. We stopped briefly for photos at Piha Lookout before heading down the hill to the beach.
Low tide was at 10am and the tide was coming in so we went directly to the southern end of the beach – to The Keyhole and The Gap. There had been some storms in the Tasman Sea during the week, so the incoming sea was coming through The Keyhole in very fast, powerful surges.
At the Keyhole we were standing on dry land one minute and a few seconds later the sea was racing around our knees. When we got to The Keyhole there were some people doing yoga while posing for photos. After a while there we moved on to The Gap.
As with The Keyhole, the sea was powerful at The Gap. It was crashing on to the rocks on each side of The Gap in a spectacular way. Just like at The Keyhole, the incoming tide changed from ankle deep to rushing around our knees and upper legs with amazing speed, which made posing for photos an interesting experience.
Near The Gap, there are some big rocks sticking out from the rock wall – a site which makes for great ‘weightlifting’ photos.
We headed back to the main beach before we were cut off by the tide, but the sea had come in a long way, so there was no way to avoid getting a bit wet. Back on South Piha Beach, we had some fun before getting in the vehicle to drive to Karekare.
The main road to Karekare is closed for road works at the moment, so we had to take a detour down Lone Kauri Road, which turned a 10 minute drive into a 30 minute one. We had a picnic lunch at Karekare Falls, but as this area was in the shade, it was a little cool, so we moved on to Karekare Beach.
A short walk from the carpark took us to the lookout, and we then went down the narrow, slightly overgrown track to the beach, over the stream which comes from the waterfall and onto the beach. We enjoyed the wide expanse of Karekare Beach for about an hour and left there near high tide, at 4pm.
We went back to Piha, had some delicious hot chips at Adey’s – the takeaways on Piha Beach – and then walked up the short but steep track to Tasman Lookout and settled down to watch the sun set. Unfortunately, many clouds had gathered on the horizon, so the sunset was not a great one. Still, the view from Tasman Lookout is wonderful, so the walk was worthwhile.
We left Piha at 5.50pm and after dropping some of the group off at their city apartment, I dropped the others at Auckland Institute of Studies at 7pm.
