I managed to escape Auckland on the weekend; and ended up at Piha, one the West Coast beaches. In between the showers I got sunburnt – not quite lobster shade, but a nice shade of pink!
Piha is New Zealand’s top surfing Beach and only 40 Kms out of Auckland. All of the published pictures that you see are of long white breakers and Lion Rock. Lion Rock is a 100m high outcrop that splits North and South Piha. You can take a climb up to about two-thirds of the way up, the rest of the path to the summit was closed due to erosion. But even from here the view is good:
There are some good photos on the Foto New Zealand website