Karekare Beach

At the end of our first week we took advantage of a clear Saturday afternoon to explore the Karekare beach that we had been watching from afar all week. Like the rest of New Zealand's landscapes, the beach here is...amazing. The sand is made black from a high iron content, which lends it an incredible metallic sparkle when the sun hits just right. It is also remarkably fine-grained and feels almost spongy to walk on. There was weather brewing at the time we went down and the waves seemed to have no discernible pattern, or at least it seemed that way to us desert dwellers. There were at least two major breaks out in the ocean and the waves themselves seemed to move in all directions.

Waves crashing on Karekare's little island just off the coast

We made what amounted to cannon balls from the iron-based sand and marvelled at how heavy a handful of the stuff felt. As we strolled along just above the waterline, we admired the enormity of the beach, the unpredictable intensity of the waves and the huge cliffs that lay behind us. Not a bad place to spend your afternoons when the weather's right (which, despite the gloomy look to the photos, it was fairly pleasant).

Sean in the classic Karekare vista you may recognize from The Piano


Mood lighting : )


Looking up to the hills


The house is somewhere up there : )









The dunes looked so cool with the bright plants against the black sand














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At the end of week two we got a surprise extra day off and spent most of Saturday on a hike down to the beach from the house. It isn't too far and we got the chance to get a feel for the bush in this region. It is dense, but well managed, with great big trees (including our friends the Kauri) and lots of tree ferns.

The beach from above

The sand dunes

After a short picnic on the sunny beach, we made our way to the nearby waterfall, which also served as the trailhead for our return route. As you can see from the photos, the waterfall was gorgeous, and though it was less powerful than the last one we saw, it was far more beautiful.




Tomorrow we leave this lovely place and head off to the Northland on our next wwoofing adventure.