On a stormy and windy winter day we said good bye to Mel and Shannon and Wellington and flew up north again, back to Auckland for our last few days in beautiful Aotearoa. We quickly picked up our rental car and headed straight west, out of town, to make the most of the last few remaining hours of daylight. The rush paid off in a big way! Piha Beach was AMAZING! Surrounded by massive volcanic cliffs covered in dense green rain forest, Piha Beach looks like a phantasy location straight out of a movie. The outgoing tide creates a huge reflective mirror, flanked on both sides by black rock and above by amazing could formations and the place was entirely deserted. We were basically the only people there! We stayed until the sun had completely disappeared below the horizon and the incoming rain drove us away.