Day 29: Piha Beach

Today we took an all day trip to the black sand beach at Piha on the west coast near Auckland. The drive out through the mountains took several hours and gave us some great views from some outlooks along the way. We got to stop at a Maori cultural center in the mountains that had a lot of interesting information on the history of the Maori tribes from that region.
Once we got to the beach, it was easy to see why the refer to it as a black sand beach. It literally looked like we were walking around on oil sands. The sand looked like tar when it got wet. It also got incredibly hot when the sun would shine due to its dark color and high metallic content.
While at the beach we climbed up a large stone structure near the beach called Lion Rock. For some reason we were all barefoot. The top of Lion Rock gave us a great perspective on the mountains around us and the beaches below us. Piha is another beautiful area in the north island of New Zealand.

Seriously. BLACK sand.

Barefoot climbing was a mistake. The steps didn't go all the way to the top.

Channeling my inner R Kelly.

Awesome pizza with delicious ginger ale

Weird awesome coniferous trees all over NZ

 After another great meal at Piha (chicken and artichoke pizza with feta, for dad) we headed back to Auckland to spend the afternoon meeting with professors discussing thesis progress and general classwork issues. It was boring. We ate dinner at the Viaduct Harbor which had some beautiful scenery of the Auckland rivers and harbors. Bedtime came pretty early since we will be rolling out for Queenstown at 445 tomorrow morning. See you on the south island!