Popping into Piha

Thursday, July 9th

We woke up in the most cosy, amazing bed and it took about 2 hours for us to finally pull ourselves away from it and start getting ready to leave. It was really the world's most comfortable bed. 

We set out in search of an ATM that Ashland could use to avoid exchange rates, Bank of America's sister bank, West Pac. We were successful! While walking down one the city streets of Aukland, Ponsonby Rd, we found a little café. There, we decided to take full advantage of their free wifi and delicious muffins. Murphy had a berry and cream cheese muffin and Ashland had something with pumpkin seeds and peppers in it. Both were yummy! 

We strolled around a little while longer and enjoyed the views around the little city streets, before heading off to Piha. 

The drive there was less than ideal... Ashland learned how successfully navigate a roundabout and after multiple wrong turns (we've been spoiled by smartphone navigation til now) we finally made it to Piha. The drive only took about an hour. 

The last bit of the drive through the mountains surrounding Piha beach was absolutely beautiful. 

When we got to our little hut, the first thing we did was drop our stuff and head out to the one little restaurant nearby, that would be closing soon. We each ate half of a sausage roll (Ashland) and Veggie roll (Murphy). 

We walked down to the beach to see the ocean and Lyon rock and out of no where the sky went from sunny, to chucking down HAIL. Yes, it started hailing on us at the beach. It was so weird. It stopped almost as quickly as it started though. We wandered up and down the shore for a little while.

When the sun hit the black sand it looked like it was sparkling with bits of glitter everywhere. We rushed back to our hut to grab hats and gloves before the sunset. 

Sunset was amazing. We ran into other groups of tourists who were trying to catch a glimpse of the sunset. We wanted to climb up Lyon rock, but there was no easy way to get to it, because a river of ocean water had formed a moat around the base. A few people started climbing up a small rock and jumping across the water.  It must have been at least a 6 foot wide jump.  Meh...what have we got to lose.  Our feet may get wet but we're already cold so what the heck? Luckily we both had on our waterproof boots, like true adventurers (insert plug for Vasque Boots!).  We each only got one foot wet! Not too shabby. 

 We climbed part of the way up Lyon rock. And even though the wind was freezing and trying to whip our scarves off our necks, the view was worth it. No way to describe it well enough so I'll just put in pictures. 

As soon as the sun disappeared, the rain started pouring down again. The weather here is ridiculous. It changes at the drop of a hat. Cold (again) and worn out, we went back to our hut and were in bed with tea and books by 6:30.  

We finally met our host, Claire when she returned from dinner at a friend's home. She was so sweet! She stopped by to make sure found everything alright and make sure we were warm enough in our hut. We had about 4 think blankets and hot water bottles, so we were very cosy. It wasn't even 10 before we started falling asleep.