First Kiwi run (Piha 20k)
I arrived in New Zealand early Monday morning. Ann & John picked me up, we returned to the hotel, I freshened up, and then it was time for a run! Piha beach panorama Ann picked one about an hour west of Auckland, on the coast, that sounded good. It started in Piha, a cute seaside town. There's a trail up that seastack-y hill, but we didn't take it We ran up the beach until it ended in cliffs and steep hillsides. We ran through rocky tidepools trying to find the start of the track (trail) in the route description. Piha tidepool resident We couldn't find the start of the track and the hills looked too steep to even have a trail, so we started back along the far perimeter of the beach. Ann at the dead end of Piha beach Suddenly, behind a dune and under low-hanging trees, we found the signs. Then it was up and up and up, the air thick with the screech of cicadas and warm summer air that felt alien to me, fresh off the plane from winter in the Pac...