Many of you will have seen the Oscar-winning movie "The Piano" which opens on a beach in New Zealand with a piano being unloaded from a ship onto the beach. The beach in the movie is Karekare beach on Auckland's west coast. Auckland is surrounded east and west by ocean. To the east is the blue island-filled Hauraki Gulf, and to the west is the Manukau Harbour. After the Manukau spills into the Tasman Sea to the north you encounter the Waitakere Range which hugs the coast. Karekare beach is one of the beaches that the Waitakere Range plunges to on its western edge.The sand on the beach is black iron sand, testament to New Zealand's volcanic activity past and present. And with prevailing westerly winds blowing across the Tasman Sea that separates New Zealand from Australia this coast is frequently buffeted by strong winds and storms.
A Kiwi friend of mine has a very nice beach house nestled in the bush above the beach which is available for rental. (Send me an email if you are interested in renting the house and I'll forward it to Gregory.)
Anyhow, I thought I'd share some photos I took of the beach on my visit there back in 2005.
Karekare Beach slideshow
Karekare Beach static photo gallery
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