Piha-Boo

 Piha is a black sand beach with a lot of history.


Firstly there is Lion Rock, which we partly climbed but sadly due to landslides were not able to continue all the way to the top. Lion rock is the eroded remains of a volcanic vent that would have erupted about 15-16 million years ago. To Te Kawerau (the natives to the land) Lion Rock was known as Te Piha, the name now given to the beach. Te Piha referred to the patterns of waves separating and breaking on the front of the rock. 



Following our morning walk up Lions rock we then ventured to find Kitekite falls which was a short hike through Waitakere’s regional park. After we had got to the top of the steep ascend we were tempted to swim in the river and shower in the falls but the spray back of the falls was refreshing enough. We found the preservation of the forest rather impressive, we had to scrub and disinfect our boots upon entry and exit of the forrest. This is due to a pathogen called Phytophthora agathidicida which is killing the Kauri trees which is in the same family as the disease that caused the Irish potato famine. There are many carriers of the pathogen (including ourselves) but scientists are still trying to find a way of preventing the spread of the disease. And that concludes our science lesson for today!




Also this little guy was at our campsite. Any guesses as to what bird it is?
P.S. The name of this blog post is inspired by Will’s idea to open up a bar shack on the beach called Piha-boo!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking back on 2023

Image
As it is the last day of 2023, we thought it would be nice to reflect on the year we have had. And what a year it has been. From spending last Christmas at a pet sit in Palairos, Greece, to this Christmas being on the beach in South Italy, it has been filled full of so many adventures as well as losses and a return trip home.   We sadly lost our Campervan Luna, who got us home limping, to then fail dramatically her MOT (yearly safety check), where they said at any minute the whole chassis could have fallen out! But she got us home safely, just. This meant we had to decide whether to get another Campervan or change our travel plans. We chose to get another one, this one is also a Ford Transit, but bright orange and called Solero! Clearly this left us with some financial difficulties as we had to find the money for a new van, but luckily with plenty of work we managed to scrape together what we needed. And then converted it to much the same design as Luna, which has allowed us to vent
Read more

Turkey and all it's delight

Image
A country that never ceased to amaze us at how big it is! You think where your heading is only an hour or so away, 4-5 hours later you arrive! So in hindsight, spending 5 weeks there just wasn’t enough and we would love to go back and take our time, maybe 3 months. And the people, wow, so hospitable.. within our first few days of being there we met some locals, who brought us a cup of Turkish tea each, and then recommended a beautiful bay to stay in. So we went there the next day, and the family was there, so they gave us more tea, plus some freshly caught fish! The locals are also so kind to the stray dogs, sometimes even paying out fo them to be neutered or spayed.   The bay recommended to us by locals Hammock out right away in Turkey Breakfast with a cow! Got the recording studio out! You may be aware already, but the cost of fuel in Turkey is so cheap, we were paying around €0.90 a litre, plus sometimes you’d even get a free cup of Çai (tea) with it! This helped balance out the cos
Read more

24 hours in Intriguing Istanbul

Image
A little blog post on our time in Istanbul, especially written for our friends Brett and Alan.  The buzzing city of Turkey, with mosques and bazaars, and a lot of culture and history. We spent 24 hours in this amazing city. We tried our best to figure out the tram situation but from what we could work out, you either needed a tram card or small notes (10 and 5 Lyra and exact change). It is cheap though, at just under 10 Lyra for one way. It’s a shame we didn’t manage to figure it out, or should i say, had the time to figure it out, as it would have been nice to venture to the other parts on the other side of the bridges. We visited the Blue mosque but sadly it was closed for repairs for a couple of months. But we enjoyed it nonetheless from the outside. Hearing the call to prayer between the Blue mosque and the Ayasofya mosque opposite was really special, sounding as though they are singing to each other. We did head back to the Blue mosque in the evening when it was dark to see i
Read more