Omanawanui Hike in Whatipu aka the most insane hike ever.

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Hello everyone!

Welp, as you can see, I've decided to start a travel blog for my friends and family who want to follow my adventures, and also for myself of course! To sum it up, I moved to Auckland, New Zealand about 6 weeks ago and it's been a busy crazy time. I'm moved into a house with my best friend from highschool and another roomate, currently searching for a different job, and just settling in still! Obviously, it's becoming winter here so it's a little chilly and coming here drained my bank account so not many trips will be taken in the next few months but I wanted to tell you all about the one I took over the weekend!

Now, I like to hike, i like the outdoors, and i like views. So what better adventure than to find a hiking trail! My former boss reccomended the Omanawanui hike up in the Waitakeres, which is only about an hour from Auckland so it seemed pretty perfect. So off me, Sydney, and her aunt went. We headed up there saturday because we had booked a house at Airbnb. Now for those who have not heard of Airbnb, its pretty much a site for locals to host you at their house for a reasonable price. We stayed with a couple who welcomed us with hot chocolate, cake, and crepes the next morning. I love using Airbnb and staying in hostels because its such a great way to meet different people and the misconceptions about hostels being dirty and horrible just aren't true.

Alright back to the story, unfortunately Saturday was filled with rain so we decided to wait until better weather on Sunday for the hike. Oh, the hike. So, all we knew about this hike was that it was 2 miles long and had amazing views. At the end of the hike, all we knew is that we just accomplished something incredibly difficult and amazing. This hike consisted of about 3 large, and I mean LARGE mountains to trek up and down, also the hiking trail was filled with the steepest, rockiest, mudiest, terrain. Just to give you guys a picture, at a couple points there were metal chains to aid you in climbing up the rocks. Needless to say the day was filled with falling, cursing, achy feet, massive gusts of winds, and i mean massive wind. At one point we were on top of the second mountain and we had to climb rocks on our butts to get down because the wind was SO intense it knocked us over. Now you may ask, wow it sounds terrible. Well, it was at some points, but the views...I have no words to desribe the incredible views of the Tasman sea and of New Zealand. When your standing on top of a huge mountain looking as far as the eye can see, it makes it all worth it. It was absolutely breathtaking and worth the treacherous hike. I'll attach some photos on here so you can see what I'm talking about, although the photos do not do it justice. Needless to say that hike was enough for me to not hike for a long time! But it was such an incredible first adventure here in New Zealand!

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Photos

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Stunning view of the Tasman Sea

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The winds were so intense at the top it knocked us over multiple times

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Chains to help us climb

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Incredible view

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see that giant mountain behind us? 1 of 3 we had to climb.