Admittedly the day was idyllic, but the scene was so much better than any of the photos that had inspired us to venture here. Seated outside the lighthouse keeper's cottage about fifty metres above Otuwhanga Cove, we sipped hot coffee and took in everything around us. The slightest of breezes disturbed the water, making it easy to pick out the boil-ups of bait fish evading predators below. Occasionally small waves would sweep up the surrounding cliff faces, filling the air with a hiss and roar well beyond what you'd expect for such insignificant looking swells. Cascading back to sea, they left behind swirls of silver foam at the base of the cliffs which contrasted starkly against the blacks and greys of the argillite rock and the blue green of the ocean.
According to Strava we had just covered 17km from Hauai Bay, climbed and descended 1,100 metres in just
