And finally, PIHA

The last day of our trip was a short one. We left Auckland around 11:30am to get to Piha, which is a beach/town/hiking area about an hour west of Auckland. I'd seen pictures but I was really pleased to actually get there myself. It was really warm in Auckland that day so all of us underdressed for the chilly Tasman winds but we made do.

We got to the beach. lay our things down, and ran to the water where we found out it was a) freezing and b) had a strong rip tide. Five of us walked down the beach and climbed up Lion Rock, which is the big rock in Piha. It looks like a lion head from an angle. I couldn't ever see it though. Mmph. It sunshowered while we were up there and so we came down but then walked around on the other side of the rock. An especially massive wave that I thought would be mid-calf height soaked me mid-thigh and made it look like I wet my pants - though all of us experienced that to some degree. The beach was beautiful.

The five of us walked back to the other two who were on the beach with our stuff and then I vegged out and listening to my iPod for a while while laying on my towel in happiness. Originally we had thought we would stay to see the sunset, but all of us were cold by about 3:30 and couldn't imagine toughing it out for another two and a half hours, so we left.

Piha was successful, and I'm glad I finally made it out there. And there were no conflicts between any of us over the four days so it was amazing and happy and I loved traveling with all of the six of them. Hooray!

Lion Head

superheroes!

at the top of Lion Rock
Piha :)