cape reinga and the far north
Cape Reinga is a place of great spiritual signicance to Maori. They believe it is
the place of the leaping, where the souls of the dead gather before they enter the
next world. According to Maori traditions the spirits of the departed leap from
an 800-year-old pohutukawa tree on the windswept cape to begin the voyage back to
their final resting place in the ancestral homeland of Hawaiki.
day one: cape reinga and the far north
Key
- Destinations
- Apex Locations
The site of the legendary money tree, where early settlers travelling north left
an offering to ward off evil spirits, is reached via a route further south.
A trip to the cape is not complete without travelling one-way via Ninety Mile Beach’s
sand highway, entering or exiting on Te Paki Stream. This magnicent beach arches
in an unbroken stretch of white sand for some 103 km (64 miles). The European name
is something of a misnomer, its length possibly having been originally recorded
in kilometres from Ahipara. Shells from the rare toheroa, a type of clam that grows
to 150 mm in length, are often found by beachcombers, while its smaller (and more
plentiful) cousin the tuatua is gathered by locals and minced to make delicious
tuatua fritters and nourishing soup. The beach is flanked by the Aupouri Forest,
and here wild horses roam. Some folks believe these fine-looking horses are the
progeny of thoroughbreds that escaped a ship wrecked off nearby Cape Maria Van Diemen.
On the east coast a white sand dune containing some of the world’s purest silica
marks the entrance to Parengarenga Harbour. Godwits gather here in early March and,
when the dune is almost black with their sheer numbers, they take off on their annual
migration to Siberia and Alaska.
The old gumdigging town of Houhora hosts a legendary annual hunt: locals compete
to catch one pig, one duck, one pheasant, one trevally and one snapper -all on the
same day! The Houhora Tavern housed inside an old woolshed is a good venue to meet
hardy northlanders, while the Subritsky Homestead, built in 1860 from local materials
and plastered with a powdered seashell paste, provides a fascinating glimpse into
the past...
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Cape Reinga scenic drive, courtesy of apex car rentals new zealand...
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