Piha Beach

Piha is a wide sweep of iron-black sand on the Tasman coast an hour west of Auckland, split by Lion Rock, a weathered volcanic stack that sits in the middle of the beach and can be climbed part way. The sand is black because it is largely titanomagnetite eroded from Taranaki volcanic rock and carried up the coast - and it gets genuinely too hot to walk on barefoot in summer. Piha is the surf beach the city grew up on, and it is also the beach the television series about lifeguards was filmed on, which is not a coincidence: the rips here are strong, persistent and have killed people, and the safe water is the narrow strip between the flags when the club is patrolling. Behind the beach the Waitakere Ranges rise straight up in rainforest, with tracks to Kitekite Falls and along the cliffs.

What you actually see

• Lion Rock - the volcanic stack dividing the beach.
• The black sand - iron-rich, and scaldingly hot in summer.
• The surf - consistent Tasman swell, and the rips that come with it.
• Kitekite Falls - a short walk inland through rainforest.

When to go

December to March, when the surf club patrols. Outside the patrolled season and outside the flags, swimming here is genuinely dangerous - this is not a cautious formality.

Honest expectations

Swim only between the flags. The rips are strong and the beach has a real drowning history. The sand burns bare feet. Parking fills at summer weekends and the road in is narrow and winding.

Nearby

Karekare, Bethells and Whatipu are along the same coast; the Waitakere Ranges are behind.