Photo walk - Whatipu, Auckland, NZ

Whatipu has long been one of my favourite places - it's remote, it's rugged and it's beautiful. Be it in either pristine weather or a moody storm, high tide or low, there is this feeling, this atmosphere around it that I cannot quite explain. 

Located around an hour's drive from central Auckland, the route winds it's way out of the western suburbs into the bush and the Waitakere Ranges. There are a plethora of other beaches enroute and little side trips and walking tracks, but keep on going to the end of the road at Little Huia. The road then turns inland onto gravel, traversing the hills before dropping down into a valley which almost feels like you have reached another world. 

See here for google maps location.

Lemmings Bench overlooking the beach, An old photo as the summit was too crowded upon my recent visit.

Whatipu what-to-do

Years have passed since I'd been out here last. With my Wife and Baby overseas and finally some free time on my hands, I grabbed my camera gear and headed out mid-morning, arriving around noon on a sunny day. I began with a steep 20 minute climb up to Lemmings Bench, now with stairs all the way up thanks for recent upgrades, and it's part of the Omanawanui Track. I honestly remember it taking far longer last time, and to my surprise the summit was crowded with a dozen walkers. Slightly disappointing as I was hoping to recreate the photo of the lonely bench overlooking the ocean such as the one above, which is a 1MP picture taken on an old point and shoot camera many years ago. I guess not all great secrets can stay that way for long!

I spent long enough at the summit taking photos with much lenses swapping that the burning in my legs had gone. In highsight I could have carried on to the rest of the track, it follows the ridgeline with stunning views across the Manukau Harbour. The day was still young and I wanted to head to the beach, so I made a brisk descent and headed that way, trudging through the black sand path. After a good 5 minutes walk you emerge from the grasslands and the beach opens up before you. I recommend wearing footwear, as the black sand under the sun can get painfully hot, speaking from past experience.

It's a huge beach and a dangerous one at that. Situated at the mouth of the Manakau Harbour, the rip tides are deadly, so certainly not one for casual swimming, or swimming at all. Whatipu is more of a picturesque beach, though its popular with fishermen too as it was today.

The beach is dominated by a huge rock headland on the left, an old lighthouse type structure on an island in the middle, and to the right the beach seems to just go on endlessly into the distance as it sweeps around the corner and heads north. In the middle of all that are a vast grass and wet lands makes up the Whatipu Scientific reserve.

I happened to arrive at high tide so I missed out the rock pools that are situated around the lighthouse island and the rocky coastline, I was hoping for nice nice closeup photos of crabs and other critters, so note to self - check the tides before going out and aim for low tide, as the rock pools are great for the kids as they tend to have more life visible than most.

Photography notes

Please enjoy my images below. I was playing around with 3 different lenses on my Panasonic G100D (Leica 15mm f/1.7, Panasonic 14-42PZ and the Panasonic 100-300) I found the telephoto a lot of fun, particularly in such a wide open space and being able to get the effects of compression and depth of field. I struggled with the wide angles, I found them great for simply capturing the scene but limited when it comes to being creative.

Images can all be viewed larger by right clicking and opening in a new tab, however they have been downsized to around 60% of their original size.