NEW TRAVEL SECRETS
@mikemaceacheran
Lion Rock dominates the bay and beach at the surfers’ paradise of Piha
PHOTOGRAPHS JUSTIN FOULKES @justinfoulkes
The Māori call them mākutu, or witchcraft, because in New Zealand the roads are magical. One minute they surface, unfolding along pastoral foothills; the next they vanish, furrowing deep into Triassic-period jungles laden with silver ferns. It is an untamed corner of the universe that rewards those travelling under their own steam. With the keys to a campervan, drivers can – on a whim – go in search of a lake glimpsed through the window, or stop to climb a hill spotted in the rear-view mirror – because their bed for the night is never somewhere distantly ahead, but always about two feet behind them.
The near-deserted beach at Piha. BELOW Kitekite Falls, a short hike from Piha
CATCH THE WILD WAVES AT PIHA
Setting out on the highway from Auckland to the west coast town of Piha, the Kiwi enchantment begins to take hold. Anyone driving to the surfer’s retreat must first negotiate the Waitakere Ranges, an abrupt vegetative Eden of subtropical kauri forest that acts as a barrier between the twinkling lights of civilisation and the untamed coast.
After a 30-minute drive west, the road corkscrews into hills carpeted with nīkau palms, some as giant as pantomime beanstalks, then careers down the other side to meet Piha’s sheer cliffs, pock-marked with nesting sites for gulls. It’s mid-afternoon when the campervan trundles into Piha, passing scattered weatherboard houses and parking in front of a beach being pounded by waves. This volcanic sand has Marvel-superhero strength, so rich in iron it will stick to a magnet.
EMOJI, E-MĀORI
Following the resurgence in recent decades of interest and pride in Māori culture, last year saw the launch of Emotiki. The brainchild of a manager at Te Puia geyser park in Rotorua, this set of Māori-themed emojis are free to download via an all-inclusive app. Now, instead of texting yellow smiley faces, phone users can send expressive green tiki masks (emotiki.com).
New Zealand’s surfers are also drawn here, and talk about it in poetic terms matched only by the place’s name itself – Piha is the Māori word for the onomatopoeic crack of surf sliced by the bow of a canoe. The town is so laid-back and low-key that if the surf club were to shut, it’d surely disappear off the map completely. Following a different clock to the rest of New Zealand, surfers rise with the tides and the streets empty at sunset.
Tree ferns and palms dominate the Waitakere Ranges, between Auckland and Piha
ILLUSTRATIONS: EMOTIKI® THE WORLD’S FIRST MAORI EMOJI APP WAS DEVELOPED BY TE PUIA MAORI CULTURAL CENTRE IN ROTORUA NEW ZEALAND
With his sun-bleached mop of tousled hair, national longboard champion Zen Wallis embodies Piha’s surfing ideal. He’s out on the water most days, catching break after break as they blow in off the Tasman Sea, before darkness finally sends him ashore. (He even admits to sleeping with his board before a competition, for luck.)
Also a surf coach, Zen has a deep knowledge of Piha and talks about its waves in reverential metaphors. The predominant onshore wind, he explains, creates a potent hit, attracting only hardened surf-addicts to the town. ‘Life existed in black and white before the sport arrived here,’ he says, the sky turning oily purple behind him. ‘Now we wake everyday to a kaleidoscopic, world-class wave, but without the crowds. It’s like a drug.’