Day 2 - Piha & Whatipu

Before we could head to Northland in the morning, we had to make a quick stop at the workshop. Unfortunately, the alarm system of our car (by the way, a small, cute, white Toyota Corolla) often goes off on its own, so it had to be manually turned off. There was a lot of work at the workshop that day, so we had to wait for three hours. There wasn't much to see in the surrounding area, so we walked around for a while and looked for a park. The supposed park that we wanted to visit turned out to be a huge cemetery. It was a bit intimidating, almost like in a horror movie.

When our car was finally ready, we could drive to Piha. The drive there was my first drive in our car and also my first drive in New Zealand. Here, you drive on the left side of the road and sit on the right side of the car. At first, I had some concerns about how I would manage, but you really get used to it quickly (except for the fact that the turn signal is on the right - in the beginning, I often turned on the wipers instead of signaling). The roads in New Zealand are not comparable to ours (unless you are driving from Hermeskeil to Grimburg). Outside the city, you drive a lot of tight curves, uphill, downhill. The worst part were the so-called Gravel Roads. These paths feel even narrower and steeper, even though the surface is only made of dirt and gravel. Unfortunately, these gravel roads are very common, so you have to be prepared to be shaken up for 1.5 hours straight sometimes.

Finally arrived in Piha, we first visited the beach. There was a funny plant that spreads with the help of rolling diaspores with long tips. In a walkable rock crevice, we saw numerous starfish and crabs, which scurried around the walls. The small surfer town of Piha didn't have much else to offer, so we drove to Whatipu for the night.