Piha

On my way to Piha, I stopped at a walking trail that took me to an impressive Dam and a beautiful waterfall. If you saw my camera roll from that walk, you’d have thought I’d never seen a waterfall before. Or a Dam. Or even trees or a river. I guess you could say I was pretty excited.

After getting my daily steps in it was time to visit Piha, I had no plans at all except to see what all the fuss was about. The road down to Piha in Vandalf was a memorable one. Steep and windy with Vandalf doing very well and me trying not to panic. I pulled over as much as possible to let drivers pass by, but the last stretch had nowhere to pull into so had a nice patient queue behind me whist I glided down the hill to Piha with my foot on the brakes. Eventually I came across somewhere to pull in to, which turned out to be a campsite!

I had the friendliest greeting from sober legend Fiona, who was running a “stay 3 nights, pay for 2” deal. In the end I stayed for 6 nights which cost be $80 for a powered site. I had no idea how to use my power lead yet so after watching a few others I plugged in, stuck the other end through my window taping a bin bag around the slightly open bit (which I no longer bother with) and plugged my extension lead in for my fridge and chargers, leaving only my lights and the sink to be used for the solar panel and still not knowing what the invertor did.

There were toilets, showers, kitchen with all you needed, and laundry which I never used as still needed to sort my banking out for cash withdrawals. The toilets had cute inspirational quotes and pictures all around the sinks. There was also a bowls club next door that was recommended for food, and plenty of walking trails around, not to mention the beach a stones throw away. After getting sorted, the beach is where I headed.

I must have sat on that beach for hours staring at what was probably the best sunset I’d seen (which says a lot as Burnham on Sea actually has incredible sunsets). I wasn’t the only one, there were families all sat watching, and surfers in amongst the waves which only added to the picturesque setting as well as being so impressive as those were beautiful but terrifying waves. There was a photographer taking, what I imagine, beautiful photos of a pregnant women in the tide with her partner. They were just as excited as I am when a flock of birds flew across the sunset creating a stunning moment that yes, I caught on video. I do enjoy these things without recording them too, but do so just in case anyone else wants to see them you know?   

After a while of sinking my feet in the black Piha sand I walked back. The sand felt addictive to play with, so soft like playing with my hair when its smooth or a new silky blanket. The next day was spent exploring as much as the beach as possible. I met a Canadian lad named Ryan who was travelling as much of New Zealand as possible in a hired car. He had just been to Cape Reigna where he said he saw the prettiest sunrise he’d ever seen whilst pissing off the side of the cliff. (his words). We walked barefoot across the west side of the beach until he left, I carried on for a further 3 hours exploring all of Piha beach with my shoes slung across my shoulders. My feet felt fantastic afterwards. (no, they really did).

I was camped next to a lovely man from England called Robert who had just bought a campervan and was a bit jealous of mine. He gave me mayonnaise and jam! But the greatest connection I made was to a couple from England called Leti and Layla who were as big a Lord of the Rings nerds as I was. They invited me to dinner with them at the bowls club and I was so surprised how good the food was. We played pool and basically chatted like we’d known each other for years. It was thanks to Leti that I had a reserved place for a sold-out pork roast the next night which was one of my favourite meals I’ve had in this country.

I’d seen on the walking trails Fiona had given me that there was a waterfall nearby, Kitekite Falls. So, I got my walking gear on and headed out. My walking gear wasn’t what it is now, and I only took half a bottle of water which would have been find if I’d just done the walk to the waterfalls but typical me found another adventure on the way. There was a sign for another track on the way, Maungaroa. Now compared to my recent adventures, this doesn’t look so bad now, but at the time – this was so impressive for me. The track was a nice little walk until steps and steps and steps and more steps. There was a lookout about 400ft up which I was struggling to catch my breath from so sat on a beautiful bench and read a chapter of my book which was about women walking and convinced me to continue. The next look out wasn’t much further but did involve me climbing up some dodgy rocks and after that I was sure I would call it a day and even started walking back down. Then for some unknown reason I turned back and carried on up the hill! It was no more than 650ft in total apparently, but it was steep and 70 good floors according to my app which was a new record at the time. I was so impressed with my self for doing it, and the view was totally worth it looking out onto Piha beach and the ocean. I would have skipped back down with happiness if my knees let me. I finished my water and went to see the waterfalls. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy to get to them as I hoped. I had to cross a river which I did quite well but after helping another girl cross, I managed to slip over which was quite embarrassing. Then as if I hadn’t already done enough steps, there were even more to climb to get to the waterfalls as well as a terrifying narrow mud path. Alas, I made it. The most difficult bit was trying to walk down the wet rocks, I get a bit nervous about falling and I seemed to have frozen stiff for a while, but the waterfalls was beautiful and if I was a bit braver I might have even had gone for a swim! I was very impressed with my self after that walk, despite the chord shorts I was wearing and the lack of water – I felt like my walking adventures had finally kicked off.

Back in lockdown 2, walking saved me from many things, and I got so used to being active daily until I went back to work and lost my fitness bug. Walking is the only type of fitness I like and I’m so glad I’ve gotten back into it. As silly as it might sound – walking is quite an easy thing I guess but it’s also the only healthy thing I actually challenge my self at and push my self further. Since Piha, I’ve managed to break a lot more personal bests and I can’t wait to tell you all about them.