Wagener and Cape Reinga

We arrived yesterday at Wagener Holiday Park after a quick stop at Pack n Save to replenish our food supplies. We had asked for a harbour view site and this was our view this morning.

As we had noticed with other holiday parks, the walls of the kitchen, bathrooms and  laundry are beautifully painted.

We had arranged a tour to Cape Reinga through the Camp office. We were taken to the meeting point on Ninety Mile Beach by Kate from the office. She told us about the wild horses and wild pigs in the forest. In this area they had a problem with sand dunes creeping and decimating grazing land. They stabilised them by firstly planting marram grass which has runners and deep roots, then sowing lupins on top of the grass to enrich the nitrogen in the soil and then planting pine trees which can be used for gum poles. We met our transport on the beach.

First view of Ninety Mine Beach

Our vehicle was an all-terrain 4x4 truck/bus conversion.

 Just as well because we rode 70 of the 94 kms on the beach!

We passed Matapia Island where white herons rest (not nest). The white feathers were washed up on the beach and collected by the Mauri as treasures. The chief got to wear the feathers woven into his cloak. Nobody else could wear them.

Along the beach we were hailed by a ranger. He asked our driver to take a badly sun-burned hiker to Kaitai. This is normal practice. The 90 Mile Beach Hike is very popular, especially among young people ( Although we did hear about a 73 year old woman who managed it.). It takes a fit person 3 days and others 5 days to complete the hike, sleeping among the bushes at night.

At Te Paki Stream, we left the beach and rode along the stream to tall sand dunes.

 There the more adventurous of our party surfed down them on a surf board. Our team was at the top when another tour bus arrived and they were climbing up while our team were coming down.

Our driver, Selwyn, is a Mauri from the area, his father from the Te Aupuri tribe and his mother from the adjoining one. He told us anecdotes about his childhood, how he and his siblings (all 14 of them) used to gather muscles and other shellfish for food, how the brothers all played rugby, and all about his family homesteads. He kept our interest throughout the morning and afternoon. When Brian asked him if he followed sport and rugby in particular, he said "religiously". They had an interesting discussion.

Cape Reinga itself is a spiritual place and out of respect, people don’t eat there. So we veered off to Tapotupotu Bay where a picnic lunch was laid out for us. Lovely fresh rolls, sausage, cheese, chips, muesli bars, biscuits as much as we liked. We could also help ourselves to juice or tea or coffee with boiling water from thermos flasks.

Finally we made it to Cape Reinga, past the most northern inhabitants, where the power lines stop. We had forty five minutes to walk to the light house and back. Like Cape Point, it was a very steep walk, the return journey being worse than the trip down.

We saw the turbulence where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean…

The Maria van Diemen Cape,

The sacred Te Renrenga Wairua where there is a tree, the roots of which make a network of steps and the Mauri myth/tradition tells how the recently departed spirits throw themselves down into the ocean there to be re-united with their loved ones in the mythical land of Hawaiki.

In actual fact, Cape Reinga is not the most northerly point of New Zealand. North Cape is. It is closed however because some rare lizards and other rare species live there and the government wants to protect them.

We drove back southwards along state highway 1, stopping at Te Kao, the community area of Selwyn’s people. We stopped at a little shop owned by his family for very welcome ice cream.

Our next stop was Rarawa Beach where I took off my hiking boots and walked in the waves, after Selwyn had driven the truck/bus right to the water's edge. It is a place where school kids often have leadership camps at the end of their junior school years.

Finally we were dropped back at Houhora harbour, a two minute walk back to our camp. This was certainly one of the highlights of our Northland exploration.

After many sunny days, we had a downpour this evening. Hope the tent will get dry for packing up tomorrow, when we travel to Whangerei on our way back slowly to our family.