The weekend before Lee's birthday we went a bit further past Huia. You drive through Huia-proper, cross a stream which runs off of the Waitakeres and across the road (need Jeep). After the stream the road turns into gravel all the way out to the Whatipu scientific reserve (NEED JEEP!). It's a somewhat treacherous ride that takes about 20 minutes on the gravel.....but once you get there the reserve is not to be missed. The beach is a neat little "Crescent". Take a left and have a look at the fishing dudes tossing line into the Manukau Harbour side of the pass which goes to the Tasman Sea. You can climb up a hill and get a brilliant view of the Tasman and Manukau all at once....Ella and Lee took a breather here...
Like with all the west coast beaches, we are always amazed at how private the beaches are - it really feels like you are on the other side of the world.
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| left end of crescent beach |
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| and the right side.. |
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| view of entire crescent beach from the hill |
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| ....turn around and BAM, there is manukau harbour... |
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| ...as promised...fishing dudes... |
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| some sort of science-fiction happening out in the reserve |
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| li'l ella needed a break |
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| panorama of the whatipu crescent beach |
The day after Whatipu we went to check out Karekare. A lot of the westies we met have family out here. It's a very small community that sounds the alarm when the surf is up. We were told that you can tell when the surf is good from all the trousers in front yards! The boys drop them off and head to the beach in the middle of whatever they are doing leaving the women drinking NZ wine on the patios!
The beach is again impressive with high cliffs and an interesting walk through some muck and streams to get out there. The stream is more like a river as you get back to the parking lot and you nearly have to swim across it after a nice rain.
A pleasant surprise was a waterfall just 10 mins from the parking lot. Stunning.
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| waterfall near karekare |
karekare beach
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