A day at Piha

I am so loving how things keep unfolding, even the little things are a lot.  Today I woke up feeling a little lonely and wondering what I should do.  So, I got online and found a shuttle bus to Piha, roughly a 45 minute drive from Auckland to the west coast.  An awesome place to make yourself feel really happy!!

 what was really fabulous, my shuttle bus driver had only just launched his business last week.   He was great, teaching me a little about rip tides and went out of his way to show me an awesome waterfall

I also told him I would tell everyone I know how great he was so his business grows.  So, the link to his site is...gohitch-shuttles.rezdy.com He will be expanding to include other beaches too.  Hopefully this promo will help this entrepreneur on his way.

So Piha beach is a big surfing beach with big waves and strong rip tides.  It is really well patrolled so it is safe to enjoy. They also film a TV program here called Piha Rescue where they give live footage of rescue stories, where someone is pulled out of a rip tide.

Luckily for me when we stopped at the lookout to the beach, Jono pointed out the rip - it was the calm water where there isn't a wave breaking. Although it looks really inviting to swim there as there are no waves, its the dangerous bit.  That is where the tide is rushing back to the ocean and where you can get sucked out to sea.

The safest is to swim only between the flags

 So after a wonderful time on the beach and exploring the rocks to both sides, I headed off to see the Kitekite waterfalls.  It was a short 20 minute walk through a lush forest to get up to the falls.

The walk into the falls.

KITEKITE FALLS 

So, a pretty awesome day!!