On Sunday morning we braved some even more impressive, tighter, skinny roads to the little tiny no-horse town of Piha (just our way of saying its super tiny-no gas, just a corner store, cafe, art gallery, library, half a surf shop, and a food stand). The “town” is about 30 minutes southwest of Auckland… I think. The view from the top of the winding road was breathtaking, as it was from the top of Lion Rock. Even little Ry was eager to climb the big steps to the top of the world.

The weather here was pleasant, nearly too hot when the sun was out, and muggy when it wasn’t. There was just enough ocean breeze to cool you off, unless you were a baby trying to nap inside, then there wasn’t. Mom did both an ergo nap and a stroller nap in the heat of the day, on both afternoons, which means no restful relaxation time for her.

In the early morning light Zo and I went exploring to the beach at very low tide. There was much to explore and photo ops were plentiful. The sky was a magical blue/purple hue, and with the reflection off the wet sand it was hard to tell the sea from sky. Surfers were making their way down into the roaring, and raging overhead waves. We explored caves, inlets, and unique volcanic rock formations, before heading back to the Piha store for fantastic coconut mocha’s and one tiny fluffy (complete with giant pink marshmallows).

We never can sit on the beach for long, regardless of having children or not, but we did manage to hang out both days for a couple of hours, digging, building castles, and watching surfers. The black sand beach was super hot to walk across, but once down in the damp stuff it was all nice, until a rogue wave came and washed a little too close.

For three nights we stayed in Piha, as it was a nice relaxing spot with a great beach. We chatted with a few different travellers, which is one of the biggest perks to camping- everyone is outside and eager to share stories of where they are from, where they are going, and where they’ve been. At coffee on the last morning we ran into a family from Oahu with a baby 5 days older than Zo, and going the same direction as us.. in a big old campervan. Perhaps we’ll have another fam to jam with. Sweet as….

This portion is a bit of an add on. We found some additional Piha photos this afternoon and decided they should be posted. The images below are from our final day in Piha. This included a walk up Lion Mountain (we didn’t make it to the top as Ry ran out of gas). No worries though as we still managed a few good pictures.