Rugby, Karekare and Piha Beach

What a weekend! On Saturday there was a big rugby game between the All Blacks (New Zealand's rugby team) and the Australian Wallabies. Due to the fierce rivalry between the teams, whose home countries are constantly trying to out-do one another, as well as the fact that NZ is hosting the Rugby World Cup in a month, the energy leading up to the game was huge. Tickets were $115, though, so while some people I knew did go to the game, me and a few friends chose to watch the game at a sports bar. Even from the TV screens, the All Black's performance of the Haka looked ferocious. The atmosphere in the bar was great, and watching the game was a good time. I looked up the rules beforehand, so I was actually able to follow the game, too. The All Blacks dominated, easily winning 30-14. Go New Zealand!

A friend's picture from the game

On Sunday, Allie, Emily, Eli, Scott and I took a day trip to the west coast of New Zealand, just an hour out of Auckland. Unfortunately, since Saturday was a busy day, some of our planning was fairly last-minute. This caused a bit of a rough departure. We almost didn't get a car, but after some negotiations with the rental company, everything worked out fine, and we were off.

First, we hiked Mt. Zion, which overlooks the magnificent Karekare Beach. Although it was overcast, the views of the ocean still stretched far out to the horizon.


The trail was a muddy mess. It felt like for every step forward, we slid back two. Before long, our pant legs were streaked with mud.

Scott and Eli skirting a mud pit

There was no view at the summit, as it was shrouded in trees, but that was fine since there were multiple lookouts along the way.




After hiking through forest and over a couple babbling streams, we came out onto a coastal valley with mountains surrounding us. A boardwalk through a bog with extraordinary flowers lead us to a large black sand dune.


Once we climbed the dune, it got extremely windy. We were blasted by sand, but then it started to rain, which kept it down. Then it POURED. My pants were soaked through in under a minute. With the high winds, it felt more like hail than rain. We managed to stay in high spirits, however, and we etched IES NZ into the sand for a good picture. Here's to hoping we win IES' photo contest!

Getting blasted by wind on the sand dune

Braving the wind. Note the windblown sand patterns.

The trail continued along a narrow path through tall dune grass. As we approached an old tram tunnel through a hillside, the rain finally began to let up.


The trail began edging its way towards the ocean, until finally we arrived on Karekare Beach, with stunning cliffs to our right and a ferocious ocean surf to our left.


Watchman Rock, an outcrop just offshore, was being battered by waves.


A walk through grass-shrouded dunes brought us back to the carpark.


Before returning to the car, we took a short walk to check out a couple waterfalls nearby.


Next, we got back in the car and drove 10 minutes to Piha beach, just to the north. Luckily, by now it had really cleared up, and a nice sunset was in store. The main attraction of Piha Beach is Lion Rock, a prominent landform that is the erosional remnant of the core of an ancient volcano (or a volcanic neck/plug in geology terms).


We climbed the rock and were rewarded with a spectacular panorama of the ocean and surrounding beach scenery. Between the views, magnificent sunset, slightly hair-raising ledges, and the sound of ocean waves breaking on the rocks below, it might just have been my favorite place in New Zealand yet.

We wished we could have stayed in such a magical place forever, but as the sun set it grew darker, and we had to descend Lion Rock and return to Auckland.