Black Sand is Really Hot

After grabbing a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast (and coffee for Cheryl) at Dizengoff’s, we headed out to check out Auckland and the surrounding areas. While Auckland and the surrounding region is the most populated area of New Zealand, it really isn't a very impressive city. It's actually not very big. There isn't an impressive skyline (e.g. NYC, Hong Kong, San Francisco) or a unique landmark (e.g. Sydney Opera House or Golden Gate Bridge). Even the harbor was disappointing. Good thing we're only here for a day!

We we went to One Tree Hill, which is a park in Auckland. It really didn't feel like any of the parks I'd been too. It was open and pastoral with rolling green hills, trees, walking paths and sheep (yes, sheep) right in the middle of the city. We had our first sheep sighting as we hiked up to the top of the hill.

After enjoying the views at One Tree Hill, we headed out of the city to the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park to visit black sand beaches, Karekare and Piha, with a short stop at the Arataki Visitor Center.

Karekare beach was made famous by the film The Piano. Too bad neither one of us has seen that movie. We had a picnic lunch at Karekare and discovered that black sand is really hot on bare feet. (ouch!). At Piha, we climbed up Lion Rock, which sits just off the beach. We both like Karekare beach better because it was more rugged and less populated than Piha beach.