Arrival in Piha
I landed in Auckland on Sunday the 25th. Customs was pretty smooth. They really only cared if I had a return flight, if I had any foreign food, and if I had any used camping equipment with me. They were curious about my hiking boots but I told them I bought them the week before..which was true. They were barely worn. I think I would have just had to declare them…not sure what would have happened if I brought in my old raggedy ones.
Taxi to the town center to have lunch. I get the low down from a waiter on how tipping is going to work around here…it is not expected. I gave him 3 NZD in coins and he was thrilled. They have a very small surcharge added on each bill. 1 NZD= 0.62 USD by the way.
I call an uber to Piha. Piha has no public train or bus that will take you there. Taxis will run you a million bucks to get there so my options are either hitchhiking or taking an uber. I decided to save the hitchhiking for later.
The uber is about 60-70 NZD and he picks me up in the middle of traffic..starts to move a little bit and goes…”oh Piha..no sorry man I can’t take you that far. I won’t be able to get a ride back and I’ll lose money on this trip” I understood. Piha is about an hour away and it’s pretty remote..the chance of someone requesting an uber back into town would be slim to none out there. So my Maori uber driver wearing an Emmitt Smith Cowboys jersey asked if we could cancel..I said sure but you gotta cancel…he acted like he was cancelling but it wasn’t…at this point we are holding up traffic and I’ve seen this trick before where they end up having the rider cancel and then you are stuck with the cancellation fees and not them. So I waited to see him physically do it and finally gave in and did. Fair enough. No hard feelings.
I call the next uber…guy pulls up..I get in..he takes off…(apparently they cannot see the length of the trip until it starts)…he goes..”oh no..not Piha” “Too far”…I said sir you’re about my last hope to get to where I’m going…I handed him 15 more NZD. He kinda sighed and said ok ok. Off we go. Piha is over this little mountain range I guess you would call it…Piha is an hour away in West Auckland. Overcast….misty day.
This guy knew a little bit of English and he would talk to me little bit..he said his wife is a surgeon who wanted to move from china to somewhere prettier…NZ it was.They have been here 15 years..he loves it..he just hates driving to the one place I chose to visit lol. He had his phone in the vent holder with really large text….He was messaging his wife and said “Piha” with 3 crying emojis. She responded, “Comfort?(would have meant more $ for him). He sent back a large and simple…”X”. They finished the rest of the convo in mandarin.
So we are making our way through this rainforest, windy, misty, mountain road extremely fast…. But he had us. I wasn’t worried. He even started giving me a few recs on fishing and surfing. He pulled over at this scenic lookout without me even asking but it was too foggy to see. I knew which lookout it was from the internet. I would catch it on the way back I assumed. He dropped me off on my street. I felt bad so I got out well before my airbnb. He said, “you know the beach is really far down there..goodluck”…I nodded and thanked him too. He prob cussed the whole way home.
So I’m here…my feet are on the ground..on this misty road in what feels like a jungle on the side of a big hill with houses and bungalows tucked in everywhere. Its setting in..im excited..the adventure is here…I know where the beach is.. I hear what seems to be a live event with an announcer..his voice is filling up this bowl that Piha sits in. I put the pieces together quickly and realize that it’s a surfing competition…”In third place…Johnny Tsunami with a 6.7” Im pumped…I gotta get down there. I make it to my little studio bungalow airbnb and spend about 5 minutes in there situating and getting my day pack ready…read where the tracks(trails) are and then I’m off. The track was 100 feet down the road and then it was pretty wet, steep, winding, and beautiful trail/staircase down to the beach…I could hear the announcer getting louder the closer I got. I saw my first glimpse of the massive rock they call lion rock…I paused and took it in for a second. I was much bigger than I expected. I hustle down to the beach and get on the black sand…Its a youth surfing competition. It was windy and a little nasty and they were having a blast.
The beach was wide..it was deep..the waves were rough…the beach was surrounded by huge rock structures. Black sand. I didn’t approach anybody as I was taking it all in…I was a little overstimulated…I felt the freedom that I have been looking for..I had made it…and I was about to live. It felt like a surfers haven as well…idk I’m not a surfer… but it felt like a dang movie set. There were a group of teenage surfer dudes bragging about what place they got…one of their friends didn’t score or place and they were messing with him…he laughed too. There were parents with umbrellas and fold up chairs. It was just like travel ball parents in the south spending the weekend watching their kids play ball. It was a really cool scene. I made it to Piha Beach. A world famous surfing spot. Piha 2 next.
