Auckland

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We wanted to make the most of the short time we had left in NZ, so we left Parakai early and went out to Murawai Beach which was close by. Murawai is one of Auckland’s west coast surf beaches. It is such a beautiful place to visit. It has rough surf, a long stretch of black sand, sand dunes, and native bush. Luckily for us, it was not summertime so we didn’t have problems with burning our feet on the black sand (childhood memories!).

There is a gannet colony there which you can walk to from the beach if the tide is out. If the tide is in, you need to drive up to the lookout area. We timed it perfectly as the tide was out when we got there so we got to do the climb up to the viewing area. The view was spectacular and the gannets were fun to watch. There were lots of them, and we got to watch them courting, mating, and fighting. We also got to watch them gliding in the sky looking very graceful. The gannets kept us entertained the whole time we watched them.

We were reluctant to leave here but we had to get back to West Auckland to do some last minute shopping, and to give Mum enough time to get our farewell dinner in the oven (roast lamb and roast pork)!

It was a wonderful way to spend our last whole day in NZ; viewing the gannet colony, soaking up the spectacular scenery of Murawai, and eating delicious NZ food with family. Tomorrow we will return the campervan, make our way to the airport and fly back to Canada (via Fiji, LA, and Seattle). It is sad our holiday is over so quickly, but it was full of fun. NZ is a great country to visit!

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