Takapuna Beach

This guide to Takapuna Beach in Auckland opens with journalist David Lomas's kayak shuddering under him one October morning in 2017, and the shape he spotted gliding beneath the hull. It traces the beach's older history as tauranga mango, a Maori shark-fishing ground chiefs travelled to work each summer, and points out the twin rocks called Nga Mahanga and the volcanic cone of Rangitoto across the water. Look south along the sand for the rocks tied to how nearby Lake Pupuke was formed.