The Walkers Go Kiwi

So, I promised you that you would hear about Muriwai Beach, and so here it is. We were invited by some Kiwi friends this weekend (one of Matt's coworkers and his fiance) to go to Muriwai Beach to do some surfing. We asked him if it would be okay if we came along but didn't surf, because neither of us really know how to do that, and we just wanted to get out of the city and see some beautiful scenery. He told us that was absolutely okay, but he didn't want us to be disappointed, because this is not the most beautiful beach that you can see around here. We didn't mind whether it was pretty or not, we just wanted to go. However, when we got there, we were not at a beach that was ugly. We were at a BEAUTIFUL beach! We had to let our friend know that where we are from, we have Lake Lahonton, which on the way out there, all you see if brown, and when you get there, all you see is dirt and brown water! So, anything in New Zealand is prettier than that!

So this picture here, is just what you see when you are in the parking lot (or car park-what they call it)! We told him that we could turn around before even seeing the beach and we would be okay, that this was already prettier than what we have at home. He said that he actually felt bad for us for where we live haha!!! He also told us that if we think that Auckland and this beach is pretty, he thinks we are going to have an aneurysm when/if we go to the South Island, because it is 10x prettier there than this. I cannot even picture how it can get prettier... wow!

This here is one view at the beach. It is a little hard to see, but it was a little bit foggy here, although it was really warm, and Matty and I LOVE fog, so we are already in heaven with just this view!

This is what you see if you just turn around from that other view! Now isn't that just gorgeous?!? If you climb up that hill there, you have another great view and they have a colony of birds at this beach called Gannets, and Ill show you some pictures of those too. This is also a black sand beach, and again, we are at the Tasman Sea, not the Pacific Ocean, which is just cool to think of.

This is a close up of what the sand looks like; I know that looks like there is water, but there is no water there. That is what the water creates though. It looks so marble-like, and pretty.

One cool, and scary thing, was that there were jellyfish all over the beach! They were all dead of course, and washed up on the shore, but I guess this is not a very common thing, so we are wondering why they were all here, and if it was safe to go in the water. But there were lifeguards everywhere, and a ton of people in the water, so we figured it couldn't be that bad if they were letting people in the water. We even went in and did some body-boarding, and that was a lot of fun, and we were not worried about the jellies. But look at the size of that thing! It is huge and the red spots are crazy. Don't worry, I wanted to touch them, but my amazing husband wouldn't let me lol :)

Here is Matty testing out the water for the first time. It was really cold at first, but after getting in once, it wasn't so bad. We had a lot of fun body-boarding. I liked it more than I thought I would, so who knows... maybe I will take up surfing after all... only if there are NO sharks!

Remember the hill that I said you could climb up? Well when you walk closer, there are stairs to get up, so you don't have to be a mountain climber to do it, but also just to the right of the stairs, there is this beautiful cave! And those flat rocks just to the right of the cave are easy to get to, and people are allowed to fish there, or just hang out. Really pretty.

So, we climbed up the stairs to the left of that cave, and walked all the way up (not really as far as I just made it sound) to the Gannet colony, and here is a picture of them hanging out on the rocks there. Isn't that another amazing view too?

Here is a picture of Matty and me. We are still up on the hill by the bird colony, but taking a picture of us overlooking the beach from where we walked from.

And last but not least, we had to claim our beach as we always do, and we just thought of how cool it is that Christmas is less than two weeks away, and we are enjoying a day at the beach, so this is how we enjoy our Christmas!

Ok, and a quick story about the way back. We were driving home and our Kiwi friend asked if we wanted to stop at a gas station close to the beach, because he wanted to get something, and he asked us if we wanted an ice block. In my head, I am literally thinking of a block of ice, and because it is so hot, maybe we stick it under our butts; I don't know, but okay, if you want to stop, that is fine with me!!! Well it turns out that ice blocks are Popsicles!! Haha who would have thought!?! We are really having a fun time learning all the different phrases here too!

Love you all, talk again soon!

Carla and Matty