After brekky we went for a day out to the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park which was an hours drive east of Auckland. Even with our friendly but robotic GPS on we still went the wrong way. The signage above Auckland's motorways is the least straightforward and most confusing I have come across anywhere in the world. Also all Kiwis drive like complete *****. It's not so much driving as hurling hunks of metal at each other and hoping for the best! Anyhow eventually we got out of the city and were soon in the suburbs, some of which looked pretty scary. After a while the suburbs gave way to vibrant green sub tropical rainforest as the road began twisting and turning and climbing through the Waitakere Ranges. Our first stop was a coastal town called Piha. Suddenly the road turned a corner and we had a spectacular view of Piha below us. The town was reached via a series of hair pin bends with a ******** up our ****. ******** seemed to want to get there quicker than us but hell knows what the hurry was. We have observed that with very few exception all drivers here are arrogant and impatient *******s. Once at the town we parked up and had some lunch. We then went for a walk along the dark and in some places black sanded beach. It was a beautifully rugged place with wild surf crashing ashore and with the wind blowing it was quite chilly. From here it was back up and around the hair pin bends with the usual arrogant *******s in tow and further along the coast through more sub tropical forest to Bethells Beach. This was another rugged beach with black sand and windswept dunes. It was bleak but very beautiful. From here we headed back towards Auckland and managed to successfully navigate the motorway to Takapuna Beach. We had our tea and chilled out for the rest of the day.