Karekare Waterfall and Beachl

 Karekare waterfall, known by the Kawerau people as ‘Te Ahoaho' or ‘pendulous white thread'.  It is a short up hill walk to the trail head. The falls were actually a pleasant surprise.  The falls have almost a straight verticle drop with a few cascades from approxiately a 30 meter height.  From there we walked down the hill and headed to the alternate beach trail. This is preferred access to the beach as the

Jane Campion’s Oscar movie was shot in part at Karkare, with everyone talking about the beautiful 

 other route 
necessitates
navigating a shallow 
stream. 

black-sand beach.

Karekare beach is located on the west coast south of  Piha Beach.  It is about  50 minute drive from  Auckland.  It is the black sand  that first grabs your attention.  In the summer this sand would likely get pretty warm under foot.  Surfers were out taking advantage of the surf in spite of it being mid July.  It was a sunny day and we got there relatively early so there were very few on the beach.  This is designated as a wilderness area, and part of the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. The surf on this beach is impressive as are the walking trails.

This beach has its fair share of hazards with a strong rip tide during outgoing tide. Swimmers are advised to only swim between the flags and not at all when lifeguards are not present.

To quote other admirers of this site Karekare has attracted some of New Zealand’s finest painters: Albrecht, Binney, Blomfield, Buchanan and Siddell.

Writers like Curnow and Stead have written about it, filmmakers like Jane Campion (The Piano), Barry Barclay and Niki Caro (Memory and Desire) have set major films there. The landscape is both magical and powerful, a magnet for photographers.