Friday, January 18 Auckland to Piha Beach

    Now we had a van and we could finally get back on the road. You won't be surprised to hear that we didn't actually leave Auckland until 7pm. It was 10 o'clock before we finished with showers, packed up our stuff, and cleared out of the motel room. Then on to a local library branch to email, blog and research car insurance. Next to an AA office, (don't worry, AA is the New Zealand version of AAA, not Alcoholics Anonymous) where we found out that as non-residents we couldn't get coverage from them but would have to pick it up from someone else. Back to the library to do more insurance research, then to a Bunnings (similar to Lowes) to get new keys made to replace the worn and cracked keys that came with the van. A fill up of diesel and now we were on the way.

     We didn't have far to go. You may remember, the kids flew to NZ a week before we did, rented a car, and have been exploring parts of the north island since the 7^th. We haven't heard much from them, they didn't buy a broadband device for their computer so they've depended on free Wifi, which usually means McDonald’s, and I don't imagine there are many of them where they've been. They would be returning the car to Auckland on the 21^st so we had a few days to explore on our own before meeting up with them. I didn't want to go too far, so we chose to drive out to the small town of Piha on the west coast. It's calls itself the surfing capital of NZ, and has even has a TV reality show called Piha Rescue based there.

     After driving about 30 km of curving, winding, up and down road (I think that may be the norm for Kiwiland) we came to an overlook of Piha.

Looking down at Piha.  That's Lion Rock on the left center.  We stayed at
a campground located just to the right of this photo

       We checked into the campground behind Lion Rock. The attendant commented that they had been quite busy that week, and when Diana asked why she replied that Piha was hosting the New Zealand National Surfing Championships, and that the finals would be the next day. Were we lucky! We enjoy watching surfing anyways, and to get to see the best in the country compete should be fun.

     We found a place to park our van in the tenting area, then went for a walk along the “black sand” beach. It was nearing sunset, so there weren't many people on the beach, only a few people strolling along the surf's edge or walking their dogs.

     Most of the North Island is volcanic in origin, so like the beaches in Iceland, the sand is made of a mixture of minerals, the predominant color being dark gray or black. There are other lighter color grains mixed in, so the sand actually looks more like coarsely ground black pepper, and depending on the wave flow the sand sorts itself into interesting patterns on the beach.

Piha beach

After two weeks of being city-bound it's nice to be back on the road

      For dinner we had cheese and onions and crackers with some good South African wine (haven't found boxes of NZ wine yet), then set the middle seats flat in the van, and stretched out to sleep. I think it's going to work out quite well, and I'm pretty sure we're going to be glad to be able to sleep in the van in this cooler, wetter country.