I was bored earlier today (now yesterday) and decided to go to the beach. It was about 3:30, and the sun has been setting at around 5-5:30pm lately, so I didn't have much time to get there.
Piha is arguably New Zealands most famous beach, and even has a TV series/documentary due to the amount of people that drown or get owned there.
I borrowed a shitty camera, so nearly all of the pictures facing the sun turned out crap. I also didn't bother checking the battery, so it died shortly into taking pictures..
It was a rather shitty day for surf, with huge swells and an onshore wind.
I'm too lazy to put the pictures in chronological order, so I'll post them alphabetically with the exception of the first one.
The Ocean.
This is a picture of the beach. New Zealands west coast has loads of iron in the sand, so it's mostly black. Which really sucks during summer.
There's a cove you can get to via 2 ways: A short bush walk/climbing down a cliff-face or walking around the rocks beneath the cliff-face and through some water depending on the tide. I chose the former for better pics and because it was nearly high tide. The pics really don't emphasize the height of those waves relative to you.
During low tide you can climb the cliff on the right hand side, and have a really cool view of the ocean. Plus see how insanely powerful the waves are when they hit those rocks.
3 bodyboarders decided to try their luck by walking around the cliff-base and paddling in from the cove. During low tide it's the most common way to get behind the breaks. But the waves were at least 6-7ft today, so they were breaking a lot further out than normal for 2hrs before high tide.
Some fat guy was taking pictures of some chick. I got the feeling he didn't like it when I started talking to her and mimicking his poses, so I continued on my way.
The rocks on the right are where you can usually climb to get a good view of the "washing machine" in the middle of the pic. But the tide was too far in, to try.
Tourists frequently get trapped there if they ignore the tides.
A picture of the very top of the rock, with some pretty cool clouds. It was much brighter than the image portrays.
There is actually a guy in the middle of that wave.
See if you can find Waldo.
Another guy was at the top/mid left of this picture. You can barely see him. During low tide you can walk through the Keyhole (see 2 pics below) to end up here. But you've got to be a total moron (or pro) to do it with swells as big as they were. The guy seemed to be spending a lot of energy trying not to get pulled into the rocks.
An example of huge amounts of whitewash that surprise tourists and fishermen stupid enough to climb there any time but low tide. It's great when behind that whitewash fills up with water for about 10 minutes, and then unleashes a 1.5m standing wave onto people who walk towards it for a better look.
The aptly named Keyhole. Only the brave or incredibly naive dare enter.
Lion Rock. If you squint really hard, it does look like a lion. No really.
You can only climb to about halfway up now, as the old handrails were blown away some years ago.
That didn't stop a drunken maori from trying one night several months ago.
They didn't find his body.
This is looking north towards one of the many beaches they filmed Xena on.
People..
More people..
This guy caught a really nice wave. Fortunately the battery died just in time to miss it.
You really don't want to be on those rocks at a time like this.
Really.
Yeah.
Piha is arguably New Zealands most famous beach, and even has a TV series/documentary due to the amount of people that drown or get owned there.
I borrowed a shitty camera, so nearly all of the pictures facing the sun turned out crap. I also didn't bother checking the battery, so it died shortly into taking pictures..
It was a rather shitty day for surf, with huge swells and an onshore wind.
I'm too lazy to put the pictures in chronological order, so I'll post them alphabetically with the exception of the first one.
The Ocean.
This is a picture of the beach. New Zealands west coast has loads of iron in the sand, so it's mostly black. Which really sucks during summer.
There's a cove you can get to via 2 ways: A short bush walk/climbing down a cliff-face or walking around the rocks beneath the cliff-face and through some water depending on the tide. I chose the former for better pics and because it was nearly high tide. The pics really don't emphasize the height of those waves relative to you.
During low tide you can climb the cliff on the right hand side, and have a really cool view of the ocean. Plus see how insanely powerful the waves are when they hit those rocks.
3 bodyboarders decided to try their luck by walking around the cliff-base and paddling in from the cove. During low tide it's the most common way to get behind the breaks. But the waves were at least 6-7ft today, so they were breaking a lot further out than normal for 2hrs before high tide.
Some fat guy was taking pictures of some chick. I got the feeling he didn't like it when I started talking to her and mimicking his poses, so I continued on my way.
The rocks on the right are where you can usually climb to get a good view of the "washing machine" in the middle of the pic. But the tide was too far in, to try.
Tourists frequently get trapped there if they ignore the tides.
A picture of the very top of the rock, with some pretty cool clouds. It was much brighter than the image portrays.
There is actually a guy in the middle of that wave.
See if you can find Waldo.
Another guy was at the top/mid left of this picture. You can barely see him. During low tide you can walk through the Keyhole (see 2 pics below) to end up here. But you've got to be a total moron (or pro) to do it with swells as big as they were. The guy seemed to be spending a lot of energy trying not to get pulled into the rocks.
An example of huge amounts of whitewash that surprise tourists and fishermen stupid enough to climb there any time but low tide. It's great when behind that whitewash fills up with water for about 10 minutes, and then unleashes a 1.5m standing wave onto people who walk towards it for a better look.
The aptly named Keyhole. Only the brave or incredibly naive dare enter.
Lion Rock. If you squint really hard, it does look like a lion. No really.
You can only climb to about halfway up now, as the old handrails were blown away some years ago.
That didn't stop a drunken maori from trying one night several months ago.
They didn't find his body.
This is looking north towards one of the many beaches they filmed Xena on.
People..
More people..
This guy caught a really nice wave. Fortunately the battery died just in time to miss it.
You really don't want to be on those rocks at a time like this.
Really.
Yeah.
