Cape Reinga, Sand Boarding

The next day we drove the Northest of the North – Cape Reinga. This is where the Tasman Tea collides with the Pacific Ocean. There is a lighthouse here, and according to Maori legend, this is where the soul departs after death towards heaven (I believe heaven was actually called “Hawaii,” or something similar). We hiked out to the lighthouse to take photos. There is also a famous, old Pohutukawa tree that grows straight out the side of a rocky edifice. If we haven’t told you yet, Pohutukawas are called “New Zealand’s Christmas tree” because they have bright red blossoms and bloom around Christmas every year. We heard about the tree about 95 times when we first got here, and it sort of became a joke, but they are gorgeous. They are also used in a lot of NZ art and tourism guides.

It was pretty incredible to see the two bodies of water colliding – you could actually see it, and the landscape was just lovely.

Here we are looking from the cape on to Te Werahi Beach and Cape Maria van Diemen


Here is Marian impersonating the meeting of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean


Looking out at the cape lighthouse


Here is a lighthouse with Lighthouse


Here is the Pohutukawa tree at the end of the cape.


After spending some time at the Cape we drove back down, and dawned our bathing suits for a little sand boarding on the dunes. Marian was very excited for this, and John was too, but not as much because he does not like getting sand on his body. Marian smartly put on her super SPF shirt her mom had given her to try and keep some sand off. Riding the dunes was one of Marian’s favorite things she did while she was here – and she only crashed once! John did a really great job, but ended up dragging his feet a little too hard and got a little sand burn.

Here is a sequence of Marian coming down the sand hill...she is the moving white dot:




Here is John;


We then drove South, stopping off at Rawawa Beach. John used the opportunity to devoid himself of the evil sand and jumped in the Pacific! Marian was way too cold to do that and stayed nice and sandy. After this, we traveled over to 90 Mile beach. Its actually only about 67 kilometres, but the point is that it is a long sandy beachy area…with evidently a lot of dead sea creatures! Look at what we found!





And just a nice picture of the beach:


After our stroll along 90 mile beach, we decided we wanted to stay the night at Tauranga Bay. Along the way we stopped off and enjoyed the view of the Doubless Bay



Although it was dark by the time we reached the campsite, we could tell it was right on the water by the sound of the waves, and we arrived under a beautiful clear canopy of stars. We were happy to have a clear night! John was frustrated because the showers were token operated…but the office was closed and we couldn’t buy any. We did our best to shower in the bathroom sink until the lights went out. Since the temperature had dropped significantly at this time of the year at night, we hurried to cook dinner, set up camp and get to sleep in our warm sleeping bags.