Fairy Falls and Karekare Beach (Jan. 16)

On our full day in Torbay we took off to the Waitakere Ranges, a regional park area west of Auckland on the Tasman Sea that was about an hour from Torbay. While driving through, we did a quick hour-long hike down to Fairy Falls. At some point, I expect that we might get jaded from all the terrific scenery in NZ, but as of yet, we’re still quite amazed by everything.

Fairy Falls, one of New Zealand's many waterfalls

After Fairy Falls, we continued to our destination, Karekare Beach. Karekare is a black-sand volcanic beach on the Tasman Sea, meaning that there’s quite a bit of surf there. It’s also rather remote, requiring a pretty steep and windy descent from the main road down to the beach itself. Our guide book tells us that parts of the film The Piano were filmed at Karekare, so I guess we’re somewhat obligated to see the film now that we’ve gotten to the location.

Karekare Surf Club

Rock formations at Karekare

As we are quickly learning, there are so many beaches in New Zealand and relatively few people, so that even in summertime, beaches that are vast and empty are the rule rather than the exception. Not exactly a terrible problem to have, I suppose.