October 19th was the perfect beach day. The strong New Zealand winds were taking a break for the day, the winter rains were starting to fade into sunny spring days, and we had time on our hands. We had heard about Piha Beach, a famous black sands beach on the North Island.
We had such a fantastic day. The drive was lovely. We rolled the windows down and took our sweet time on the windy roads. Apparently we are super slow, though, because we had to pull over multiple times to let faster cars pass. They have slow car pull-offs all over the place so it must not be uncommon. I thought we were going a pretty decent speed, too! What Kiwis lack in general lifestyle pace they make up for in driving. Tailgate city.
It is about an hour drive to the beach. We arrived early afternoon to this view.
There were several hiking paths around the area so we took one that brought us to an overlook of the beach.
It was low tide so we took it down to a cove of sand. The waves crashing against and through the rocks created a pleasant mist on the sunny day.
We hiked up one of the random rock/hills that we saw upon first arriving. There wasn't an official path so we just made one up. The views were amazing.
This is the rock we climbed. See those little people up top? That's where we were.
We ate a late lunch on the beach while James played in the sand and water. He seemed intrigued by the former and unimpressed with the latter.
Of course our little guy couldn't go out in the sun without complete protection- sunscreen, hat, glasses, and rash guard. He is related to his pale German father, after all. Surprisingly he left the hat and glasses alone and they survived the entire excursion. What a trooper!
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