Bethells Beach & Piha Beach

This morning we drove up the hill to the lookout point for Muriwai Beach and then walked out along the muddy path and down the slippery steps to view the gannet colony which must be a spectacular sight when the birds are nesting between August and November. The hundreds of nesting mounds look rather like rock at this time of the year when all the young ones have flown over the Tasman to Australia, 25% of them returning again at nesting time. Meanwhile their parents are fishing up and down the coast - something we enjoyed watching when Len had his line out at Pouto. There were several gannets there dive bombing into the water, one of them flying right into the fishing line but luckily it managed to extricate itself quickly. Today there were just a couple of gannets on the flat nesting rocks but several cute fantails flitting about in the showers.

Empty nesting sites a pecking distance apart

Bethells Beach was the next stop on the wild, wet west coast - a fairly remote tiny settlement with huge puddles through and around the carparking area and quite a long walk over the black sand to the sea and the little stream running into it. It was just raining lightly when we went for our walk down the beach but it wasn't long before it was pelting down sideways with a few hailstones added in. In our shorts and jackets we soon looked like we had just stepped out of the sea and we rather admired the tenacious dog-walkers who had ventured out, particularly the 2 girls with 5 dogs between them. Imagine all of them jumping back into your car drenched through!

Running for cover!

With the weather how it was we had no wish to linger so set off along the lovely scenic drive through the Waitakere ranges with all the little driveways leading to the numerous houses hidden in the beautiful bush to the next beach, Piha, which is known as a great place to surf but which is also a dangerous swimming beach with lots of rescues carried out each year. Those who watch the TV programme, Piha Rescue, each week will be well aware of this with 3 swimmers apparently drowning here just a few weeks ago.
Lion Rock is the prominent feature and icon of the beach, tall and sitting mostly out into the sea, giving great views both up and down the beach as we found out when we climbed it today. It was once a fortified Maori Pa and, being culturally and spiritually significant to Maori has a carved guardian pou at the lookout.

We had a good walk down the beach, again pounded on by the intermittent heavy rain which has settled in now to gusty squalls. The weather forecast is bad for the whole of NZ over the next few days with heavy snow predicted in the south and rain and strong 120 km an hour winds for us just out of Auckland. We feel cosy in the camp ground with our heater on and the rain pelting on the roof but we are hoping to drive safely into West Auckland tomorrow before the strong winds come ( I have an acupuncture seminar to go to on Saturday) which means that we may not have a chance to do any of the other walks here or go to the Kitekite Falls which are the tallest and most spectacular waterfalls in the Waitakere Ranges. We'll just have to see what the morning brings!