Cape Reinga & Ninety Mile Beach

Today, the guided bus tour took us to the northernmost point of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. The only place further north on this trip is on my flight back home...

Reinga means 'underworld' as the Maori believe that the souls of the deceased go to the underworld from this point and return to their old home 'Hawaiki' from there. However, no one can say where Hawaiki is. It is always said that the Maori came from Hawaiki...

Geographically, Cape Reinga is the point where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet.

Normally, this cape is supposed to be very windy. Well, it wasn't so windy for me, but very foggy instead 🙄. It was cloudy all day, but right before reaching the cape, the fog came in. I could only see the path in front of me and a meter to the left and right... Great. Excursions always work out so well for me ...

But just before I reached the famous lighthouse and the signs with distances of well-known cities, the fog cleared a bit. At least enough for me to take some photos. Shortly after, the fog rolled back in. Nothing to see anymore. Well, at least it wasn't so windy...

After Cape Reinga, we took the bus to Ninety Mile Beach. That was a real bonus for me. Because I wouldn't have been allowed to drive here with the camper van. But it was not a problem at all with the bus, just driving onto the beach...

Shortly after entering the beach, we made the first stop here: There were sandboards on the bus and everyone was allowed to slide down the sand dunes with them. I had already said beforehand that I would just watch. I'm already scared when sledding... But the speed didn't look that crazy and the dune didn't look that high either. So I thought to myself: Now or never! After I had struggled up the dune, I remembered that I could have given my phone to someone to take photos / videos... But now there was no turning back, put the board in the sand, lean on the tree, and off we went... and it was over very quickly. But it was sooo beautiful. Sand exfoliation included. The sand was really everywhere 😀. My seat neighbor on the bus even made a video of it with her phone 🙏. After that, the others looked for shells to eat directly and the journey continued along the beach...

This excursion lasted almost 12 hours and I was really really glad that I didn't have to drive this route as well...

Vacation is really nice 😉...