The travel log of Vic and Steve

Photos on my iPhone just can't do this beautiful coastline justice. Only 3 hours drive north of Auckland and 30 minutes beyond Whangarei the Tutukaka Coast is warm, accessible and spectacular.  We have rented a gorgeous beachfront Bach which overlooks a sheltered wee bay used by moored yachts and weekend kayakers. The Tutukaka Coast is a mixture of stone and sand beaches, this one is stone with clear water. Imogen and I enjoyed a fab swim yesterday, was warm and remained shallow for about 50 metres or so.  It is just so much warmer and humid than home, loving it. Our vegan gluten free bbq's are awesome too although Steve did sneaks some chops into the mix.  Today we walked the Whananaki Coastal Walkway. A fascinatingly diverse track with spectacular vistas along the way.  The track itself crosses private farm lands, through forests and follows coastline both on rocks and beaches.  The track quality is excellent. There are gates and styles to navigate and as we m...

Missing our massive days of walking in Europe, and excited about the warmer weather in Auckland a day walk in Piha was a fabulous idea.  October is spring - so it rained, was sunny and windy all within minutes on a constant cycle.  First up we took the KiteKite track to a lovely wee waterfall. We were impressed with both the track itself and the number of people walking it. The Piha end of the Waitakari's is popular with a range of day walks and entry to tramping tracks.  Some of our walk was wide & flat like the pic above. Some was clambering down to the river or crossing on rocks so good variety.  The waterfall was pretty cool.  Next we walked along the beach. It's not as expansive as Muriwai Beach but similar characteristically with looming cliffs at one end, massive waves and many rocks for fishing off. The wind and waves definitely like on the rescue show so we could see how people might be swept away.  The rocks Imogen is standing on are very cool...