Auckland Baptist Tramping Club 2001 A rather wet drizzly morning did not deter twelve trampers and one dog from exploring the Whites Beach area north of Piha. We left The Bracken as usual soon after 8am and met some people in the carpark at the north end of North Piha Rd. The rain had eased off and there was the occasional patch of blue sky as we set out back along the road to the start of Marawharo Walk which led through a glade and onto White Track. No, the White Track is not white in colour, just the same colours (brown and green) as all the other tracks in the Waitakere Ranges. A steady but not too steep uphill brought us to a clifftop lookout where we could look down onto the carpark where we had left the cars, then we carried on to come out along a public-access private driveway to Anawhata Rd. Another private driveway open to public access went straight down to the start of Rose Track, and we followed that to Whites Beach, a sheltered surf beach that had a large cave at the northern end. Some of us went into the cave to have a look before we grunted up to Fishermans Rock Point. We thought of having lunch at this spot overlooking Anawhata Beach and a spectacular cave-ridden headland but decided it was far too windy and exposed, so we returned to Whites Beach for our lunch stop. It was just a short hike back over the hill back to North Piha along Rose Track then Laird Thomson Track, with some of us walking out to Te Waha Point for a last view of Whites Beach. We were all out before 2pm, unusually early for a Saturday day trip, and we had our mandatory ice cream stop at Piha before heading back to Auckland. COST: $5-50