2006/05 NZ trip - Cape Reinga |
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Later, we drove up to and around Hokianga Harbour, which almost cuts the 
island in two. We still couldn’t get over the amazing green of the grassy hillsides. We stopped in Kaikohe to do some shopping for milk and bread and water. The quality of the water in the campgrounds seemed to be dubious, so we were buying water for drinking and cooking, and using the water in our tank for washing only.
We were heading north to Kaitaia and needed to find a campsite. Sandie thought she saw a kiwi and then realized it was a hedgehog, another invader from Europe. We drove up the Mangamuka gorge and across the Maungataniwha Range, with lots of arm twirling, and sounds of crashing from the back as loose stuff slid around. By Kaitaia it was almost dark, and we had just enough time to drive down to the coast at Ahipara and check in at the motor campground.
Tuesday May 16th
The campground has an Internet terminal, but an overnight power failure had put paid to that so we’d have to find another access point. We drove down onto 90 Mile Beach. This is a sandy beach area that extends from Ahipara all the way to the northern tip of New Zealand, about 60 miles, so it’s more like 90K than 90 miles. In theory it’s possible to drive the whole length of the beach, but the rental companies aren’t too keen to have their campers soaked in salt water, so it was off-limits to us. There’s a bus company that runs trips up and back but that didn’t sound too appealing, so we drove the road instead.
We took a side trip to Houhora Heads to take a look at New Zealand’s east 
coast. The road took us to the water’s edge, where there is a campground and a café, good for sausage rolls and chips. The scenery was just as beautiful but the sea was a lot quieter than the west coast’s. We were surprised to see so many plants still flowering in their winter.
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Houhoura Heads (3.00) |
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The road turns to gravel for the last few miles to Cape Reinga. The Cape is at the joining of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean, the northernmost part of 
New Zealand that you can drive to. Sandie wasn’t keen on walking the cliff tops in a howling gale so I walked them alone. It wasn’t really dangerous, as there was plenty of 
gorse to hang on to. The scenery was worth it: sheer cliffs, pounding surf, and an active lighthouse. Cape Reinga is at 34 degrees south, about the same as Sydney. In the northern hemisphere, this would be the latitude of Los Angeles, Morocco, Baghdad, and Tokyo, so it’s not surprising that the winters are warm.
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Cape Reinga (2.40) |
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We drove a short way to Tapotupotu Bay another spot just to the east of the cape, where the river flows out into a sandy bay. It is just a gorgeous spot, with one of the cleanest sand beaches I’ve ever seen, not even any seaweed at the high water line. We thought we’d have it all to ourselves, but some other campervans rolled in just before dark. We were camped just off the beach on the side of a river. The river basin filled up at high tide and obviously the geese and gulls work nights, as we were serenaded with honks and screams in the middle of the night. We thought we had seals too, but the sounds were coming from a pair of shelducks, ducks almost the size of geese.
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Tapotupotu Bay (1.23) |
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