Good Reasons to Get Lost on Awhitu Peninsula
Awhitu is where?
Western side of the Manukau harbour (if coming from Auckland turn right at Drury and head for Waiuku). You can see the Sky Tower from here, yet mostly you will hear only the gentle slap of waves, the occasional cow, car or motorboat. And birds. That's by day. At night live music often wafts across the bays. Laughter too. Bird sounds, naturally.
Why so unspoiled?
For a start Awhitu's a peninsula - sea on three sides. And for the past 150 years the land has been farmed or forested almost exclusively. No high rises or housing estates here. No buildings over two floors tall yet. As a result of our largely rural character much history is still in the raw. And it dates back to the arrival, nearly 1000 years ago, of ancestors of local mana whenua the Ngaati Te Ata.