Day Trip to Cape Reinga

Cape Reinga is the northern most point of New Zealand where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea clash. It is considered a very sacred place by the Maori people... more specifically the departure point for the spirits of those who have passed away into the afterlife.









The weather today was terrible. It rained hard all day with thick clouds and strong winds. Our trip was not delayed... we started at the Puketi Kauri Forest containing the most sacred trees to the Maori people. They are the second biggest trees in the world, just behind the North American Sequoia Trees.These trees can live up to 2000 years but there are only one or two left standing that are even near that age. When Captain Cook and the other early explorers found these huge trees, they cut them down and used them to build boats and masts.












Only about 2% of NZ's sub-tropical rainforest is still standing but there are efforts to fight that by planting primary forest which grows quickly and shelters the growth of the Kauri Trees and the protection of the native Kiwi bird. We saw one area that apparently a tourist crashed his vehicle and it caught on fire and burned the forest for 3 days... taking with it 1000 acres of newly planted primary forest. It was burned trees as far as the eye could see! How's that for a guilty conscience?

We drove up Ninety-mile beach (which is really only 64 miles) in the rain, up a quick-sand creek (famous for eating cars) and over to Cape Reinga. We walked through one of the strongest winds I've ever felt in my whole life!



One of the most recent cars consumed by the beach! It was apparently in good condition before the "accident."








On the way back, we stopped at a sand dune that was HUGE and slid down it on body boards. Needless to say it wasn't very fun due to the weather conditions... strong winds pummeling sand at you and pouring down rains in addition to the New Zealand cold temperatures!Yep, that tiny thing along the track on the right is me body boarding down the dune!

We did see a random seal laying on the beach on the way back home which was cool. Finally, we stopped at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom where they sell wood products made from Kauri forests preserved underground 20,000-50,000 years ago. Basically, they were preserved after volcanic eruptions and Tsunami's and then dug out for use as current day products.