Cape Reinga is the northernmost tip of New Zealand’s north island. It sits at the end of a long, narrow peninsula called Aupouri. Along the west edge of this peninsula is 90 Mile Beach, a wide hard-packed sand beach with large sand dunes behind it. Actually, it is only 55 miles long. The story goes that the early European settlers named it because they knew their horses could travel up to 30 miles in a day. So if the trip along the beach took them three days, it must be 90 miles long, right? Unfortunately, they didn’t account for the slower pace of travelling on sand.
We camped at the bottom end of 90 Mile Beach on the Ahipara Bay. We had a fantastic site on top of a hill at the edge of the campground. We had views of the sea, horse pastures and small mountains in the distance. Sophie was delighted to see so many flowers and different looking plants.
We walked along the beach on a very windy day. It was mesmerizing to see the sand shifting, forming interesting patterns on the shore. Bikes and four wheel drive vehicles could cross the soft sand dunes in a few spots to access the beach, which is actually listed as an official highway. A lot of people were surf fishing with very long poles they transported on the tops of their trucks.
I really wanted to experience what it was like to drive on the beach, so we booked a special bus tour up to the tip of Cape Reinga that was supposed to drive on the beach most of the day there. Unfortunately, the northern crossing from the beach was closed due to some environmental reasons, so the bus only drove on the beach a mile before turning around and taking the longer inland highway. Riding on the beach – even for that brief time – was really cool. It was perfectly smooth and so much fun to see the surf on one side and sand dunes on the other. We stopped for a little while on the beach. Some of the passengers tried sand surfing on the nearby dune, but it was very small and didn’t interest us. Our bus driver showed us how to dig for clams, and filled a small bucket with small clams called PiPi, which we tried later that day.
The drive up to Cape Reinga was pretty, but it was hard to get good pictures and views from within the bus. Had we known about the beach closure, we would have driven ourselves. But, the destination was worth the journey.
There is a pretty lighthouse on Cape Reinga, and it marks the point where the Tasman Sea (between New Zealand and Australia) meets the Pacific Ocean. We could surprisingly see exactly where they met. The Tasman Sea seemed more animated with very vivid colors whereas the Pacific Ocean seemed calmer and grayer. Last year we went to the southernmost point of the South Island. And this year, we made it to the northernmost point of the North Island. Pretty cool!
Cape Reinga is a sacred place for the Māori people. Kupe, the earliest known voyager from Hawaiki (the original home of Māori in the eastern Pacific) gave this place the name Te Rerenga Wairua. He saw it as the point from which his people would return to their distant homeland after death. We could definitely feel something special there, witnessing where two oceans collide. This felt like a magical place and the wild beauty of it was quite touching.
We stopped for lunch along the way in an interesting inland harbor called Te Hiku. There was an island in the harbor and a mountain behind it. We sat outside admiring it while eating Hake fish (fresh from the harbor) and chips, which was delicious!
We were picked up and dropped off at a Kauri woodworking shop and gallery called Kā Uri. They produced fine wood turnings, carvings, furniture and even boats from swamp-salvaged Kauri logs that were over 30,000 years old. They turned one particularly large log into a spiral stairway in one part of the gallery. We purchased some keepsakes there – including a wooden carved egg from one of the 30,000 year-old logs.
After our tour, we got back on the road to cross over the peninsula where we camped at Hihi Beach on Doubtless Bay. We got there just in time to enjoy a sunset walk on the beach. Another amazing day in Aotearoa!
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