Auckland Lantern Festival

Happy Chinese New Year, although it's late. It's the year of the horse and luckily for me Auckland does something really swell to celebrate! A really nice lantern festival in Albert Park in downtown Auckland. It's full of lanterns, fireworks, and GOOD FOOD. If you don't like really traditional Asian food though then I guess you wouldn't be too keen on the food bit. Luckily for me I am and I indulged in tepanyaki, lamb skewers, and a whole lot of dumplings.

The park is relatively small but it doesn't matter because the lanterns are huge (for lanterns). I hope you didn't think that I meant the other type of lantern festival with the floating ones, this is not that. Either way lanterns are pretty bad ass and these ones were no exception to that. I don't have much to say about this except enjoy the pictures and get inspired to come to New Zealand!

Te Henga (Bethells Beach)

This week I got the chance to go to the coast on the opposite side, since I still barely know which direction is North, I am afraid I am hopeless on which way it is from where I am. I am making an educated guess it was South West, regardless of where it is in terms from me, it is on the side where all the wonderful surfing beaches are. Te Henga, does not disappoint in this sense, with surfers littering the shore. It was king tide when I went so the tide was at it's highest and the wind was so intense that day that a large part of the beach was unused because the waves were far too choppy. To get to the beach you have to drive down a classic New Zealand road: an extremely tiny, windy, 2 lane road. Once you bust out of the jungle with houses with large signs saying, "Deep Sea Oil is the best! FOR NO ONE,"  you reach some rolling sand dune hills with a few rough and tough plants sitting atop them. To the right there is a river that teeters off into the ocean with breathtaking colors and views of the valley behind.

From there you step onto the beach where there are two directions that you can go. First I went to the left because even from down that far on the beach I could see a huge cave in the rock wall! I wanted to go in it! As I got closer however, it became apparent that I couldn't get into the cave this time because the tide was too high and the cave was filled with water. I did however find a smaller cave close to the large on and went in there. It was pitch black and there was this loud popping sound coming from everywhere. I used my camera flash and found a ton of man of war jellyfish lying on the ground just bursting, I am not sure why they were exploding, but they were. I was glad I had my shoes on!

After exploring what little I could explore over there, I ventured to the other side of the beach which is where all the surfers were headed to. After climbing a large sand dune I came to the top to find a whole other section of the beach that was not windy and had perfect surfing waves! Too bad I don't surf! I walked around there for a bit and retreated to the outdoor food stand just next to the parking lot for some $6 fries which tasted like heaven.

I apologize for the lack of posting this week, I got a little busy! I am going to an event this Sunday which isn't a hike, but it is blog worthy. Expect that on Wednesday! Thanks for reading! Have a radical day!

Long Bay Regional Park

Upon first entering the park which is buried in a sea of coastal neighborhoods which broke into stretches of grassy areas connecting to the beach filled with partying Kiwis, I was worried I wouldn't find a park to have a proper hike in. . It is the summer time so this is not unnatural to see all these party goers, however, I am going to a real hike, something you get a bit of a struggle on and a nice workout with some views. I was concerned because for a long time it looked as if I was just going to be on a stretch of beach filled with people on it and that would be the park. I drove to the end parking lots and was pleasantly surprised as I parked on the grass. A sign with arrows pointed me in a multitude of directions but there was one that I knew I wanted: the Coastal Walk Trail. I followed signs for it starting my journey directly from the parking lot.
The road led me directly into nature, and also up a slight hill. There was a stream that led to the ocean where I was greeted by two quails and three bicyclists.

At the top of the hill there's a classic New Zealand shot, rolling lush green hills, and the sea right next to it. There are farmlands to the side opposite the sea, and occasionally cows can be seen. Mostly for the day I saw Pukekos which are a native bird about as large as a chicken, with just about the same behavior.

The walk was nice and lengthy spanning over several rolling hills along the cliff side and leading down to specific beaches where you can set up and swim for the day. If you are looking for something exciting and a bit more reclusive, go down to just about the last beach on the walk. It is down another steep hill, and surprise! It's a nude beach! At first I saw people swimming and thought their swimsuits were incredibly tiny, I was a bit startled to find when they emerged from the water they had no swim suits at all. I have been to nude beaches, I just wasn't expecting one on the hike! I didn't stop to strip down and dip though, I was on a mission to find where Long Bay meets the Okura River. I walked through a stretch filled with pine trees, and a stretch filled with local, tropical native vegetation. It is almost every terrain in the book all mixed up into one small place.

 After a few more pretty gnarly hills I went down to find where they met. The views are spectacular and luckily for me the tide was low. It looked as if I could walk right across the river to the other side.

I would have had to swim a tiny bit though, some horse riders demonstrated. They tried to ride across the river and their horse sank down into the muddy sand. It took them 40 minutes to get out of the water, and it took me 40 minutes to walk slowly across without slipping. I decided not to turn around and go back up the way I came and just walk across the beach the whole way back to get both sides of the picture, on top of the cliffs I had all the landscape and down below I had the sea and the cliffs.

I made a U turn around the cliff to my right and observed the beautiful rocks the entire way.
 They have so many mineral deposits and colors it makes the walk very exciting, other worldly almost. I returned and was popped out right onto the nude beach where I quickly walked across and to another beach which had partially clothed beach goers.

The walk total took about 3 and a half hours which isn't too bad. There's a lot of birds you can see, and I am a huge bird nerd so I was very excited about that. The walk was brilliantly beautiful!. As well as that, the trail is user friendly to runners, hikers, or bicyclists. A big and epic fact is also that it's totally free and you can go to the park any time! It's open 24/7! Thanks for the first great hike Long Bay! And thanks to the reader for reading. :) Have a radical week.