One of the only places we had previously heard about was the northern tip of the North Island called Cape Reinga. As you can see the scenery was well worth the 90 minute drive from out base north of Auckland.
While at the very northern tip of New Zealand we braved the wind and took a walk out the spit of land to the end and found this neat multiple signpost. Still a bit closer to the Equator than the South Pole but just about as close to the South Pole as Los Angeles where we flew in from. A group of German 20 somethings approached us and asked us where we were from. When we said NY they decided that was cool and spent some time chatting with us. They were miffed about the signpost having no distances labelled for any cities in Germany. We had no explanation but they didn’t seem to care that much anyway. Bluff is the southernmost tip of the South Island. We plan on visiting next month.
The color differences in the water are turquoise and slate grey, not really captured here but you get the idea. The water on the left of those breakers is called the Tasman Sea and on the right is the Pacific Ocean. Check out the video of the waters coming together below by DOUBLE clicking on it.
Nice looking lighthouse built in 1941 and retrofitted with LED lights way back in 2021. The light flashes every 12 seconds and can be seen 19 kilometers out at see. That is about 12 miles. They say “kill” “oh” “meters here in NZ.
Another beautiful view of the Cape.
Above is the start of the famous 90 Mile Beach. In NZ they are very literal with how they name things. It is quite the hoot actually. There is a hiking path, or track that spans from the tip up here almost 2000 kilometers to Bluff on the South Island. We have met two hikers so far that are attempting it. One is trying to do the entire hike and has previously hiked the Appalachian Trail back home and the other was from Switzerland and only had 3 weeks to hike from here back to Auckland. They were both single women between 30 and 40.
On our drive home we stopped into the Te Pake Sand Dunes as there was a little sign on the side of the road saying the place existed 3 km away. Had no idea what to expect but we ended up spending a few hours there.
We took off the boots and put them in my pack as we had to cross a stream to start walking on the dunes. Feels much better to walk sand in bare feet anyway.
Double click on the youtube link above to see how hard it is to trudge up these dunes.
We did not have surf boards but got this cool video of someone who did. Check out the video below by double clicking. When entering our car to leave a younger couple approached us and asked “Do you have any cash?” Normally we would figure they were out to rob us but, with non-English speaking folk they did not mean that but wanted $15 to rent a surf board and had no cash. They offered to “Venmo” or Ping Pong us the money electronically. We told them that we did not use these apps and they apologized and walked back to their car. After thinking about it, realizing that $15 NZ was only about $9 US we decided to make their day and just give it to them. They were very excited but worried that they were not going to be able to pay us back. We consider it “paying it forward” as many folks have helped us out in the past as we travelled by foot or on a bike. Never asked for money but some kindnesses afforded to us were worth a lot more than money.
Double click the video above to watch a daring soul go screaming down the sand dune on her surf board.
The next stop was at one of only 3 access points to the 90 Mile Beach. Evidently you can drive on the beach all you want. We read that driving very far is not recommended as the firmness of the sand is occasionally suspect. We settled for doing a few “donuts” while no one was watching. We were actually the only people here!
Found this really cool jellyfish waiting for the tide to come in and rescue it from us.
As there was no one around we figured a walk up this path to the high spot in the area might give us a few nice views. Back home we would be a bit more cautious about private property but have found that here in New Zealand very few places like this have any No Trespassing signs and there are no people or buildings around for miles (or should I say, kilometers?
Looked up the meaning of Hukatere. It is not the name of a town but means “Tears of the Avalanche Maiden”. A Maori story of their creator making a glacier here. A love story describing How Hine Hukatere took her lover Wawa into the mountains that somehow ended in tragedy causing her tears to form the glacier. No tragedy here as the views were very nice.
We found some cool wild horses roaming around near the beach (We hoped they would not “drag us away” ala The Rolling Stones). Why did the horse cross the road anyway? This particular horse starting the road crossing was a teenager so we understand. Check out the perfectly shaped Christmas trees in the area.
On our way home we found a few things of interest to us:
In the absolute middle of nowhere on a 3 mile road to the beach that we did not see a single car on we found this avocado stand. Had to buy some. At 6 for $4 NZ or $2.5 US we could not resist. The farmer drove by on his ATV and waived with a thumbs up. One week later they are still not ripe but getting there.
Next we saw this poor little guy on the side of the road with no herd or houses in sight. As the sheep population of New Zealand has a ratio of 5:1 with the human population we figured it was bound to happen that one of them goes rogue at some point.
We feel this may be our coolest video to date. Check out the fabulously large herd of sheep being shepherded across the road by dogs and a guy on an ATV. I sound like I have a nephew who is a sheep (goat actually) herder with my response to Laurie’s question. Unfortunately we shut the video off right as the baby lamb to the left ran over and collapsed onto the grass in protest. The farmer zoomed up on the ATV, got out, grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and plopped it into the back of the ATV before zooming off. We wonder if this was a daily occurrence?
As we entered our little town the school had these signs posted. An elder person with a cane helping a youngster to school. Says something about the culture here. The Māori phrase kōhanga reo means “language nest”. In a language nest, older speakers of the language take part in the education of children through intergenerational language transference.
I did not know that you could surf on sand! Very cool!
Have you heard or seen their creation story or origin myth yet?
Any extremely large stone structures around?