A gob-smackingly gorgeous day!

Mother Nature makes the most beautiful chandeliers!

Be Happy, be Wild

be silly, be loved, be free ... but most of all .... be YOU!

Laughing at the bizarre ...

Roof signage on a Real Estate Agent's building in one of the towns we drove through!

... and beautiful sure helps!

One of the gorgeous little churches we came across.

Now I know where Santa's Reindeer have gone!

Sunshine, sand and waves always make me feel happy and yesterday I had them in abundance! It was the most gob-smackingly gorgeous of days! I needed to pinch myself to make sure I was awake and that the world I was experiencing was REAL.

I want one of these .... the 3 wheeled bike, that is ....

After 4 and a bit days of rain, the sun decided to grace us with it’s presence

 ... and it was magnificent!

The Carriage Cafe where we had lunch ... food wasn't that great.

So much so that every Tom, Dick and Harry .... and their extended family and friends .... decided to hit State Highway 1 to Matakana. We’d had an early warning traffic update from Carol and Pete who were heading north to their farm. Traffic in and out of Matakana was moving at a snail’s pace ... avoid it at all costs!. No wonder Julia had a pleasurable shopping trip ... there was NOBODY left in Auckland!

Bully for them. 

We went to Muriwai and Piha instead. There was no traffic ... no delays ... no queues.

Muriwai Beach

While the boys and the hound swam, I hiked up to the Gannet Colony. Muriwai’s not only famous for its black sand beaches but also for having one of the few mainland Gannet Breeding Colonies. Over 1200 pairs of gannets call this home and boy .... is it noisy!!

It’s also SMELLY .... all that Gannet guano

.... could have done with a peg for my nose!

It IS gorgeous at the top though despite the noise and smell ... so much magic laid out before your eyes. Two extremes ... sun and sand and surf and people on the one side .... and sea and waves and cliffs and birds on the other. 

Sun, sand, surf and people

Sea, waves, cliffs and birds

Piha Beach is ALSO a black sand beach and the further north you walk along the beach, the more hound friendly the beach is. On Muriwai we had to keep her on leash but on North Piha beach, she could be off leash. She loved it! She was in and out of the waves chasing after her rugby ball, rolling in the sand .... the lemming got tired of it before she did!

The furthest north you can go along Piha Beach

He'd been on ‘babe’ watch though ... and that’s exhausting

... especially when there are ‘hot girls’ around!

We arrived home to a fur-ball that had been on it’s lonesome ALL day. She wanted to play and her playmate of choice, the hound, was FINALLY home. All the hound wanted to do though was sleep!

Every time she laid down on the carpet, the fur-ball would pounce on her tail. It has a life of it’s own, that tail of hers! The torment by the fur-ball is relentless ... even when the hound stands up, the tail is fair game! 

We get this imploring look .... “HELP .... please take it away!!”

After racing around the room at full tilt for well over an hour, the fur-ball finally collapsed and went to sleep.

It’s almost as if someone pressed her ‘OFF’ button.

Leaping off the rocks!

Close-up of the leap.

Gorgeous day at Muriwai

Final stairway to the Gannet Colony.

An isolated Piha Beach ... we're down the far northern end of the beach where there aren't life-guards
but where the hound can be off-leash.