Mel and her husband Martin had wanted to show me the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park today. We decided to go anyways, hoping for better weather up in the park.
The park is only a 30 minute drive away from Auckland. It's popular for its native rainforest and extensive coastline. There are many trails that provide access to beaches (swimming and surfing), rocks to climb, streams, waterfalls, and farms.
Also, the movie "The Piano" was filmed here, as well as episodes of "Xena" and "Hercules."
Up in the park it was still drizzling rain, so we decided to drive to Piha Beach, still hoping that the weather would improve.
Most of the roads for cars through the park are paved, but they are really curvy. Even in the rain the landscape looked beautiful. The plants are mostly green, tall palm trees, and of course all sorts of ferns.
Piha beach is popular with surfers, and we actually saw some brave souls in the water, trying to conquer the waves. In the summer, one can swim in the water, too, but only where the lifeguards are, because the currents are really strong.
We stopped at a little convenience store that also sold coffee and pastries on our way back. The pastries weren't spectacular, but a warm drink felt good!
When we drove back towards the city, coming from the clean mountains, we could smell the difference - the city stinks :P
Mel dropped me off in front of the little Asian supermarket, and I got cheap groceries :)
I didn't do much else today, because the weather is so yucky outside.
The park was so beautiful, though. We'll definitely come back on a sunny day!
Pictures are here:
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| Waitakere Ranges Regional Park |
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