Karekare Beach

This guide to Karekare Beach in Auckland centers on the 1993 film The Piano, shot on this black volcanic sand, and the mute Ada, her daughter, and the piano left behind by the crew who rowed them ashore. It follows her husband's refusal to move the instrument, a neighbor named George who drags it back down for her, and the black sand's volcanic origins and notoriously shifting rips. Listen at the tideline for how the same water anchors the film's climax.