The Land Down Under: Fifteen Locations in Five Days

Our friend (Riyadh) and his other half (Rupa) recently flew down to Auckland from Sydney giving hubby and me an opportunity to show them around. Riyadh & Rupa could only stay for five days; our focus was to cover as much ground as possible.  Auckland weather is famous for its instability, so we ended up traveling in all sorts of weather - rain, shine, hail & gale. Our initial plan of visiting fifteen locations in five days was closely followed except for a few places narrowly missed due to extremely bad weather.  Five days, almost fifteen locations, thirteen hundred photographs (thank God for digital cameras) and around two hours worth of video clips later, our friends are safely back home in Sydney. I am in front of the computer reminiscing our time together.  Over the next few months I will share my experiences about each of these locations. The articles will be posted fortnightly on Fridays. All welcome aboard and Bon Voyage!

Day One: Piha & The Lion of Waitakere>>

The most amazing site to behold happened right in front of me at the airport, as soon as we landed eyes on Riyadh & Rupa waiting for us at the arrivals lounge.  My red eyed, smoke exuding, abuse shouting dragon of a husband transformed into a rather amiable fellow in less than a few seconds. I wondered whether I was watching a sci-fi version of The Prisoner of Zenda.   However, rather than screaming out "What have you done to my husband?" and shaking him vigorously, I decided to enjoy my time with the imposter.

After initial pleasantries, we apologized profusely for the delay in getting there. Truth be told, we are almost always late to the airport.  This time Adeeb blamed it on the traffic (like most of the other times). In reality he is too vain to show his unwashed car to his friends, so we took a small detour at the carwash.  It would probably be unfair to not confess my little mishap just before we got out of the house. I was going to put some rice on the rice cooker, so that we could have a nice hot meal back from the airport. I got the five kilo container out of the pantry with this noble intention but my hands slipped. In moments my recently mopped and shining wood plank floor was scattered with rice. I stood bamboozled.  To Adeeb's credit, he vacuumed the whole floor in less than three minutes.  The fact that he chased me around the house with the vacuum cleaner broom is another matter entirely.  

It was already mid afternoon by the time we got out of the airport and too late to venture too far.  Our friends were served a really nice breakfast on air and were not particularly hungry or tired (it is only a three and a half hours flight from Sydney to Auckland).  We decided to visit Piha on our way home.

Piha is a black iron sand beach famous for surfing.  As Australia does not have any black sand beaches, we thought this would be a unique place to start. Piha is situated 40 kilometers west of Auckland city central within the Waitakere District. Our house is under the same city council and on a nice day we can see the Waitakere ranges from our backyard.  Piha is nestled within the ranges containing over 16000 hectares of native temperate rainforests and coastlines. There are also a lot of tramping and walking tracks that lead to various beaches, vistas, streams and waterfalls.

As we drove down the scenic route, the road uncoiled like a snake in front of us and we went deeper into the forest. Wednesday afternoon.  People were at work, so the road was almost empty with only a handful of cars passing us. The sun was shining; the shadows of the tall trees mingled with the sunlight to create pretty patterns on the road. Adeeb was driving and Riyadh sat next to him.  Rupa and I looked through our respective windows at the acres of bush land, glimpses of the beach through the gaps in the tree heads.  We stopped at a lookout point and took pictures. 

Adeeb was being his usual self video recording all of us and making quirky comments.  He also made up his versions of history about Xena the warrior princess jumping off the Lion of Waitakere rock to save the sinking piano while Hercules helped out by drinking all the water and had us in fits of laughter. For those who are wondering what this was about, Xena and Hercules are New Zealand made TV serials and The Piano is an award winning New Zealand movie.  Parts of these were filmed at the Waitakere Ranges.

 We parked our car on the grass.  Both Rupa and Riyadh were awestruck by the Lion of Waitakere sitting so tall right in front of us.  From a distance it does not look so intimidating.  It is a huge rock in the middle of the beach that people often climb up.  From one side it looks like a sitting lion. My boss at work used to come to Piha quite frequently.  He told me about a time when he was walking the dog on the beach with a friend of his.  The sand was really hot and the poor dog was having a really tough time walking on it, so they decided to carry the dog and climb up the Lion.  They actually made it to the top and waved down to a dumbfounded lifeguard who is probably still scratching his head wondering about how the dog got there!

As we walked on the black sand I took pictures of a tree that stood still for more than a hundred years and the waves that never stop. I took pictures of footsteps to and fro. Some brand new and some fading away. All intermingled and connected. So vivid yet so temporary.  I stood with my eyes closed as the wave circled around my feet, pulling me towards the ocean. It is amazing how even in our togetherness we can be alone.  On parting we stood in a circle, all four of us and left our footprints on the sand (the grubbiest one is Adeeb's by the way). Who cares if they are washed away almost immediately?  We were there, breathed the air, walked on the sand, left our essence and carried the memory of the swirling waves with us at the end of it all that is what that matters.