Day 11: Northland to Cape Reinga

Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Reinga), where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea, is the most spiritual place in New Zealand. This is the most northern point of the country, marked with only a lovely light house and a lonely kahika tree named Te Aroha. After the death of a Maori, it is believed that their spirits travel up the coast to Te Aroha. It is said that spirits descend into the underworld (reinga), by going down steps the are formed by the tree's roots. The spirits continue their journey on to Hawaiki, their spiritual home. This was a beautiful place, where I feel most people likely do not grasp just how sacred this part of the country is. 

Since I drove up to the Cape with a new found friend, we had the freedom at stopping at other beautiful bays along the ocean on our way back to Paihia. Our first stop was Tapotupotu, a nice little bay with a camping area. We stopped to have our lunch and just then three local kiwi's walked up, looking rather expectant, with large packs on their backs, two of the three were wearing flip flops, one walked with a stick and the other was wearing proper hiking gear. The guy wearing the proper hiking gear asked us in his words, a "strange request". "Could you please help us out by driving our friend here (who had the walking stick, was wearing flip flops and was looking worse for wear) up to Cape Reinga?" Following up with "we will pay you $50". It turned out that the three of them were old friends, had been talking about hiking along the Cape for years and finally decided to do it, with little preparation I might add. They had already walked 10km that day (it was only 1300hrs when they made their request) and still had another 9km to go. The one needing the ride had twisted his ankle and could not force himself to walk any further. (Who would think that twisting your ankle while hiking in flip flops up and down coastal rolling hills would be a likely possibility...certainly not many people....) Of course we declined the offer of the money and insisted that it would not be a problem to take him back up to Cape Reinga. While finishing our lunch, our new passenger had a nap in the sun and waited. We drove the 15 minutes back up to the Cape, bid a farewell to the poor injured gentleman and drove off, finding $50 tucked in the console of the car. 

Te Paki Sand Dunes was the next stop. Massive sand dunes, which are amazing, but really freaking sandy. Shocking eh? One could rent a sand board and slide down these massive dunes, which is supposedly an incredibly fun experience. I decided that having sand blown at me by gale force winds and then sliding down these steep sandy dunes only to have more sand come flying at my face, covering every part of my being, was a bad idea. So as I usually do these days, I just walked...and I still had sand absolutely everywhere...

I could have stayed forever at the next bay we stopped at. Spirits Bay was absolutely breathtaking. Seriously absolutely breathtaking. I can't capture just how incredible this bay was. Every single step I took it became more and more beautiful. Pictures seriously do it no justice. It was one of those places that you could sit for days, absorbing the beauty, not caring about anything in the world but the present moment. Driving down a winding, narrow road, the first thing you see is a picturesque hill with horse's grazing at the base. Once on foot, you catch your first glimpse of the gorgeous Spirits Bay. Which I might add had some of the most beautiful sand I have ever seen (rivaling Zanzibar's red coral coastal sand, which was incredible). I sat for far too long sifting my hands through the beautiful shells atop the warm golden sand. The textures and the absolutely stunning views of this bay had me mesmerized for quite some time...

Hard to top Spirits Bay, but good thing we had 90 Mile Beach, which was not actually better than Spirit's Bay but still fun. 90 Mile Beach is a legitimate registered highway with a speed limit of 100km. 90 Mile Beach, in fact, is only 55 miles long. It is a mystery to me why it is called 90 Mile Beach when it is not actually that long...who knows. 

A lovely way to end a near perfect day.