West Coast Beaches, Part 4: Huia and Whatipu

When an Aucklander says "West Coast beaches" we don't think they particularly mean Huia and Whatipu which are further south along the west coast only about 45 minutes from the city.  But for us, they are on the west coast and they fit very well with this series of posts.   We don't have any pictures of Huia because when we arrived it was low tide and not quite so nice.  The fish and chips, which is what we really stopped for, was pretty good.  We're not recommending the drive for either though.  However, to get to Whatipu (pronounced "Fah-tea-poo"), you have to travel through Huia and down a 7km gravel road.  Good thing we had a rental!

What we saw at the end of the road was just amazing.  First there was the huge cave that we walked through muck and mud to reach.  In the early 20th century (or maybe 19th-definitely before cars) dances with hundreds of people were held in a beachside cave.  We are told that the dance floor still exists three meters below the sand.   

 The kids were thrilled to be "trackers" along the path. This leading role has continued since then, and they trade off quite nicely:

And there are also creative ways to hike:

Now to the main event.  After hiking beside the cliffs, and again through the muck, we returned to the carpark to head to the beach.  It was one of our favorite places to date.  We walked through the sand dunes and bush and it opened up into a wide expanse of an amazing beach.  It is so difficult to believe that this is less than an hour from downtown Auckland.  The large rock is called Paritutu, but the scale is hard to show in photos.

A tram used to run from the southern part of Auckland, a place called Onehunga, to take kauri wood from the area into the city.

Those are the kids on the right in their own humungous sandbox...

This a picture of one of the more dangerous aspects of the coast, a blue jellyfish.

After the beach, we took a quick trip to see another perspective.  Here we were able to see the Waitakere Ranges.  Whatipu is around the far bay to the right.

We love the picture frame too.

West Coast Beaches, Part 3: Bethells Bay

Here's one more beautiful beach that we visited a couple of weeks ago: Bethells Bay.  This beach had the fine black sand as well as large volcanic rocks piled on the shore.  One thing to note with all of these beaches is they are not suitable for general swimming.  The kids found plenty of other ways to entertain themselves.  

Black sand is the perfect sand for making my favorite kind of dripping sandcastles.  The kids figured it out themselves:

West Coast Beaches, Part 2 Muriwai

It was a while ago now, but we also went to Muriwai--another West Coast beach, not far from Piha, with black sand.  It has an added bonus as well:  this place had hundreds of nesting gannets.  They only nest here for a short time on the cliffs while their eggs hatch and their babies learn to fly.  We had heard of these before, and were glad to have been able to catch them.

All those white dots on the cliffs are gannets:

They also dance a courtship routine that made us feel like we were living Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom (OMG: that definitely dates us):   

 Our kids were much more interested in reading the maps (Thanks Ms. Motl!):

West Coast Beaches, Part 1 Piha

We're so far behind with posting things at this point.  (I mean, did R really have to do work while we're here?  I  couldn't get on the computer with the pics!) Anyway, there are several amazing west coast beaches and I am primarily going to share photos over the next couple of posts.  These beaches are unique because the are all black sand beaches, so it sort of loos like the kids are playing in mud sometimes, but it really is black sand.

First up, Piha.  A wonderful little community with a more-than-decent cafe, known in the surfer community for its amazing waves and known by others because of the Lion rock and the cute little blue penguins that live here.  Unfortunately we didn't see any of them.



Many more pictures, if you click through to the website.

Rotorua

Rotorua is several hours southwest of Auckland, and it is one of the most concentrated volcanic areas in the world.  To top that off, Maori make up about 1/3rd of the city's population, so there is great opportunity to learn about the culture even more.  We've been waiting to go to a "cultural show" here since our arrival in New Zealand.  We saved it to visit with our friend Eric, who came all the way from Idaho to visit.  I know that none of us was disappointed in our time in Rotorua!

Rotorua sits on Lake Rotorua, a volcanic caldera and the second largest lake in New Zealand.  We got some lovely shots in the early morning.  In the distance, you can even see some of the thermal activity.  Pretty much anywhere you look, there is steam rising.

Besides the tell-tale sulphur smell in the air (which L described as smelling like a poached egg), it was a bit surreal to see steam rising, not only from the blocked off areas, but piles of rock that were seemingly placed there not too long ago because of new hot-spots developing.We also saw steam rising in the landscape, such as on people's farms, as we drove around as well.  We completely see why this is such an active volcanic field.  By the way, that's boiling mud!

We were able to test out the intensity of the heat as well by sticking our feet in a pool that was tempered with some cold water.

The kids were just as impressed (or maybe even more impressed--but I am afraid to ask) by the whirl pool on our patio at the hotel:

The Maori cultural evening that we had hosted by the Matai iwi was fantastic.  There are a number of cutural shows, but one of R's Maori colleagues at the university who is from Rotorua said this was the most authentic shows and, although there were some corny parts, overall we were extremely impressed.  
The whole deal seemed to be staffed by members of the family--from the emcee, to the patriarch who welcomed us, to the cousins who were serving, cooking, and entertaining us.  Part of the evening included the hangi, which may be easiest to describe as the Maori version of a luau.  Here's how the food is cooked:

But before we could dig in, we experienced a waka entrance and a long entertaining program describing the history and culture of the Maori, as well as song, dance, a haka, and many other elements.  It kept the kids and us enthralled all the way to about 8 p.m.  We were starving by that point!  

After that we had a night tour of the grounds, saw some replicas of Maori homes built on the original site, and got to see some glow worms.  Glow worms are fairly prevalent here in certain areas.  They look almost like blue LED Christmas lights suspended a bit above the natural spring, but then we could see them other places as well.  So cool!  The kids took it all in and were quite the troopers.  We got back to the hotel away later than their bedtime.

On our way home, we did some other touristy things in the area.  We visited the Green and Blue lakes, but really, we couldn't see the difference in the colors.  No pictures of those.  We visited Lake Tarawera, where a spirit waka was seen a couple hours before a huge volcanic eruption in the 1880s.  The eruption covered the pink and white terraces (which were a tourist attraction even in the 19th century and deemed one of the seven--or maybe the eighth--natural wonder of the world) and a Maori village. 

The lake levels rose quite a bit too, and we got to see some old Maori rock paintings of waka (and maybe a sea monster) that were discovered after the water receded.

Enough of this serious stuff, though.  Do you know the capital of kiwi fruit?  It is Te Puke, New Zealand, and since L has been scarfing down green and gold kiwi since we arrived here, we had to stop. We thought Kiwi360 would be a bit kitschy and we weren't disappointed.  This is the gold kiwi side, the other side is the more popular green kiwi color.  (L, however, likes the taste of the gold kiwi best--and he is our kiwi-connoisseur!)

We had NO idea that this is how kiwi grows.  

And, finally, we have come to love a New Zealand favorite;  Lemon and Paeroa, or more affectionately known as L&P.  It tastes a bit like a less sweet Sprite.  So, of course, since we were in the area of Paeroa, we had to stop and see the giant soda bottle.