Cape Reinga

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Trip Start Mar 13, 2008 Previous
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  Cape Reinga, New Zealand
Thursday, April 3, 2008

Hello again from the Blessed Isles!  Sorry about not writing for a week, but Internet access where we've been camping has been largely non-existent.   But that's good news, 'cause it means we're staying in beautiful places.
 
We continued our travels northwards, leaving Ahipara and driving up the coast to Te Paki and Cape Reinga.  It took us a little while to get there; our beloved camper Pipo showed her tempermental side and decided she didn't want to wipe her windshield clear anymore.  The previous owners had warned us of this, but said that we could 'nudge' her wiper blades and they'd start working again.  This worked for a while, and then didn't anymore.  And when I went to try and buy a new wiper motor for the van I got laughed at - for some strange reason they aren't making parts for my 28 year old campervan anymore.  This was worrisome, because I know how much it rains here, especially in winter, so I started to fret a bit -  but the next day Pipo decided to wipe her windshield again (well, at least periodically), so we travelled on

Light House

.  But now we're on a mission to find a replacement wiper motor, and NZ junkyards are up on our list of places to visit...!
 
Cape Reinga is the northernmost spot in New Zealand, and is a spectacle to behold.  Not for the landscape, although that's beautiful in a wild, barren sort of way, but the seascape is the true joy.  Just off shore you can see the mighty Pacific crashing into the Tasman Sea in a constant state of conflict, like rams locked in an eternal battle for supremacy.  Like most such battles, there is no winner - unless you count the rapt spectators who make the pilgrimage up the coast to see the struggle firsthand.   Girija tried to throw herself off the cliffs a couple of times, and the wind certainly tried to help her, but we managed to hang onto her.  It did, however, limit the time we could stand and be awed by the beauty around us....
 
But no worries (as they say here); there's beauty almost everywhere you go.  (As well, as Lalitha puts it, "Everywhere you go baa-baa and moo-moo. And dead possum on the roads!"  This last is true, by the way, and the true Kiwis will speed up when they see one of those 'cute' possums staring at their headlights, because these animals are non-native and are decimating the native, flightless birds.  But I digress...)

Blown Away!

.  The next day we wandered our way down and around the northern coast to Cable Bay and then on to Kerikeri, where we stayed at a really nice, tiny campground called Gibby's Place.  The next day we wandered our way down and around the northern coast to Cable Bay and then on to Kerikeri, where we stayed at a really nice, tiny campground.  But the next night was amazing; we "free parked" (NZ terminology for camping overnight in a rest area or somebody's field which they've designated for it) in a rest area right on the beach. It's fun, free, and very Kiwi!)  We stayed in a pull-over off the road right on the beach; after Girija went to sleep we went walking along the beach under the stars and then made tea by candlelight in the campervan.  Absolutely magic. 
 
The beach was called Sandy Bay, a surf beach, and even first thing in the morning the dudes and dudettes were out catching their waves....  I'm gonna have to try surfing someday; anything that looks so silly has to be fun.

History of Cape Reinga:
Cape Reinga (or Te Rerenga Wairua in Mâori) is the northwesternmost tip of the Aupouri Peninsula, at the northern end of the North Island of New Zealand. Cape Reinga is located over 100 km north of the nearest small town of Kaitaia

Meeting of the Seas

. There is a road all the way but the final 19 km are 'metal' road (which is to be upgraded to a standard seal within the next years The name of the cape comes from the Mâori word 'Reinga', meaning the 'Underworld'. Another Mâori name is 'Te Rerenga Wairua', meaning the leaping-off place of spirits. Both refer to the Mâori belief that the cape is the point where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld.
Cape Reinga is generally considered the separation marker between the Tasman Sea to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east. From the lighthouse it is possible to watch the tidal race, as the two seas clash to create unsettled waters just off the coast. The Mâori refer to this as the meeting of Te Moana-a-Rehua, 'the sea of Rehua' with Te Tai-o-Whitirea, 'the sea of Whitirea', Rehua and Whitirea being a male and a female respectively.

According to mythology, the spirits of the dead travel to Cape Reinga on their journey to the afterlife in the spiritual homeland of Hawaiki, using the Te Ara Wairua, the 'Spirits' pathway'. At Cape Reinga they depart the mainland by leaping off an 800 year old Pôhutukawa tree on the cape. They turn briefly at the Three Kings Islands for one last look back towards the land, then continue on their journey.
A spring in the hillside, Te Waiora-a-Tâne (the 'Living waters of Tâne'), also played an important role in Mâori ceremonial burials, representing a spiritual cleansing of the spirits, with water of the same name used in burial rites all over New Zealand. This significance lasted until the local population mostly converted to Christianity, and the spring was capped with a reservoir, with little protest from the mostly converted population of the area. However, the spring soon disappeared and only reappeared at the bottom of the cliff, making the reservoir useless.

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Mythical Tree

Beach

Signs

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