On our one full day in Auckland, we decided to drive across the island towards Piha Beach. It was so refreshing to get out of the urban area once again.
On the way to the beach, we stopped at the Arataki Visitors Center, the gateway to Waitakere Ranges which is famous for its 250 km of walking trails.
It was an interesting and informative center explaining a lot of the preservation effort that is happening in the area.
I am sure if our kids were younger, they would have loved to chill here a bit longer.
The views were beautiful as we could see the other side of the ocean!
Picture perfect, almost.
Oh dang it, forgot to crop the picture...
We went on a little hike into the unknown, but it turned out to be a pretty quick hike with not much to see.
The coolest part was how we had to stand on an automatic shoe sprayer/cleaner after our walk so that we don't bring any spores to poison the rest of the plants.
Robert's favorite candid picture below, with statue whose significance I can't recall.
The rest of the drive to Piha beach was quite exciting with very-very narrow roads, sharp turns and blind driveways. We made it. In our Staria.
We first parked and walked to one side of Piha Beach by the big rock.
But shortly realized we wanted to be on the other side.
But not until after we snapped the picture of NZ 2024.
Literally, minutes after we arrived to the beach, Mark somehow almost lost his shoes and got soaked in the rushing going away tide. It used to be Alex's thing to do.
In any case, we quickly walked back to the car, and reparked to be closer to the majestic but really windy beach on the other side of the big rock.
Someday I will cherish each one of these pictures so I am going to leave them all here.
Robert taking pictures of me taking pictures.
How much I miss seeing them like this...
Katya with her best protectors and supporters--her "little" brothers.
Oh, this picture is my famous picture that made it to the Instagram profile picture.
A bit of fun on the beach.
Grateful we made it happen with this beautiful family of ours.
Mama and Mark.
Alex and Mark.
Robert and Alex and Mark.
Alex and Katya.
Mama and Alex and Mark.
Mama and the kids.
A closer look at mama and the kids.
Mark and Katya.
Actually a sweet picture of these two.
And the long awaited family jumping picture! The camera was set up on a lonely log lying around on the beach.
Wind+beach=hungry. We found a random village shop of "pasties"/pies and enjoyed it in the outside seating area surrounded by excited sparrows.
I think it was the right choice to leave the city for a bit again and see a very luscious part of the island. We headed back to Auckland in early afternoon as we still have a bunch of stuff to see in Auckland.
To Be Continued...
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