Cape Reinga, New Zealand

It seemed only natural that since we’d made the journey to the southernmost point on the South Island, that we should make the effort to get to the Northern most point on the North Island.  So off to Cape Reinga we went.

We had a squally and mostly overcast day, so our photo ops were not looking to promising.  

Upon arrival at the carpark, the clouds seemed to be socked in.  We sat in the RV and had our meat pies for lunch, and “voila!”, the clouds were clearing.  Away we went.

The DOC (Dept of Conservation) along with the Maori groups who have rights in this area, have done a wonderful job of creating a trail system down to the lighthouse. 

 The signage along the way is good, and creates an informative, if somewhat somber, explanation of the significance northernmost point to the Maori culture.  They believe that this spot is where all spirits leave this earth to enter the afterlife.

The waters off of the point is called the meeting place – where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. If the tides and currents are right, huge whirlpools form just off of the shore.  The water and wind didn’t cooperate while we visited, but it was interesting to see the two opposing wave sets meet each other.

We did get a traveling hat photo taken before we hiked back up the hill!  We had sunshine the whole hike – back at the car park and the drive back it clouded up.  Maybe some spirit was looking out for us today!