The Most Northerly, Northern Tip of the North

The Most Northerly, Northern Tip of the North
Cape Reigna, New Zealand

Cape Reigna, New Zealand

We based ourself in Pahia in the Bay of Islands and in order to give Tim a day off from driving we decided to take a coach trip to the most northern tip of the northland on the North Island to Cape Reinga.

Our bus Dune Rider, was quite a beast pretty much a truck converted into a bus to handle the off road conditions of the Cape. One problem with bus tours is that you are inevitably dragged to every shop, museum or tourist trap along the route in the hope that you will spend your hard earned dollars. Thenkfully the stops along this route were all pretty awesome.

First up a coffee shop selling kauri tree products, the main attraction being an amazing staircase carved into a huge trunk of a kauri, it really looked like it belonged in a hobbit house, or potentially back in the forest where it belonged, but it was so beautiful.

Next up the Gumdiggers park. In the 1800’s it was discovered within the kauri forests which had fallen and been fossilised into the surrounding swamps large chunks of kauri gum (a type of amber) was produced. The Maori had been using this gum for many uses from chewing gum, to use as a firestarter to pigment in tattoos and more commonly for decorative jewellery.

It is claimed that an experimental shipments of kauri gum was sent to London in the 1830’s and it was declared that the shipment of 20 tons was worthless and was thrown overboard into the Thames. Shortly after that the kauri gum’s value in the manufacture of varnish was discovered and its true value was established.

The Gumdiggers park was a pretty rustic attraction with examples of the gumdiggers holes, tools and even a kauri as old and as big a Tane Mahuta is lying in the remaining swamps.

After a quick lunch of chicken and chips for Tim which absolutely made his day and cheese toastie and chips for me were headed to the sand dunes.

Tim along with most of the other on the bus grabbed a boogie board and set off up the sand dune to slide down. I initially grabbed a boogie board and started the ascent and then remembered that I hate doing stuff like this and so ran back down and grabbed my camera. It was pretty funny watching everyone clamber up the soft sand, huffing and puffing and looking back trying to decide if they were high enough to slide down. Finally Tim made it to the top, slid down at a pretty good speed and made a spectacularly terrible dismount with limbs and body board all going in different directions and almost definitely left him with sand in every available orifice. Surprisingly he didn’t head back up the dune for a second go!

Finally it was time to head to Cape Reinga. State highway 1 extends all the way to the cape and it was only in 2010 that it was actually sealed, not that this surprises me having now travelled many of NZ’s roads! It is 100km’s from the nearest town and is a very important Maori site. Cape Reinga translates as ‘leaping off place of spirits to the underworld’. According to mythology, the spirits of the dead travel to Cape Reinga on their journey to the afterlife to leap off the headland and climb the roots of the 800 year old pohutukawa tree and descend to the underworld to return to their traditional homeland of Hawaiki.

Cape Reinga is also where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet, usually causing a dramatic clashing of oceans. Unbelievably after all the wind and wild weather we had had on our journey so far the weather at the cape was calm, warm and sunny and it was more or less impossible to see where the oceans clashed, typical!

It was however a pretty cool place to be and we managed to get our much needed selfie with the signpost at the most Northern tip of the Northland in the north Island, now this can only mean that we have to get all the way down to Bluff to get the opposite picture!

Our journey home was to be along 90 mile beach, another reason that we took the bus here and not Blondini. Backpackers are forever having to get rescued as you really need a 4wd to get along the beach and you definitely need one to get on and off the beach as even in our dune rider bus we struggled to get through the soft sand. 90 mile beach is interesting in that it is actually only 88 miles long and is officially a highway. In 1932 it was used as a runway to receive the first mail planes from Australia and is now the first leg of the Te Aroa Trail. It was quite sad to see the poor walkers struggling along the beach, this leg usually takes 3 days and given that the average walker takes 3 months to complete the trail these poor souls looked defeated and ready to quit and flag down the bus.

Our finaly stop before home was definitely another highlight. The Mangonui Fish Shop, quite possibly one of the best fish and chip dinners I have ever eaten.

Cream crackered we made it back to Blondini just as the sun was setting, Cape Reinga, Done!