Cape Reinga – the Northern Most Tip of New Zealand

Finally the weather has broke and we’ve started to see blue skies.  We took full advantage of this by heading North – all the way to the very tip of New Zealand.  On the way we stopped at Ship Wreck Bay.  It was kind of fun because you can drive right down on the beach.

At low tide,  you can see part of a ship wreck that took place in 1841.  It made me wonder if you can see this much, is there more buried under the sand.

 

 

 

 

 

The part of the ship was covered in thousands of little mussels.  It was both kind of neat and gross at the same time.

 

This is the only other part of the ship showing.  We couldn’t figure out what part it was.  We thought it was interesting that it was made of metal. 

 

 

 

The water was absolutely FREEZING!!! Ian was the only one brave enough to go in. 

 

 

 

This statue was found in Kaitaia.  New Zealand is crazy for rugby, mostly because of the All Blacks (National Rugby Team).  They take up a big chunk of the news each day. 

 

 

 

These next pictures are just some of the stunning views we saw while in the area.  The last few were taken of basically the same area just different times at night.

Early in the morning it looked like snow on the beach.  I know it wasn’t cold enough for it to be snow.  Not sure what it was, dew maybe??? 

 

 

 

Notice the window of our car.  Someone thought they’d add their mark.

 

 

 

Another fun stop we made was at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom.  Here we saw things craftsman had made out of kauri trees that had fallen during an earthquake and covered by a bog.  Years later the trees were discovered, pulled out of the bog and made into some amazing things like this carving. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just before getting to the actual cape we pulled over to this spot where you could get a good view of the giant sand dunes in the back of this picture.  It was a gorgeous view of the area with wild flowers and green rolling hills. 

These pictures are from the actual cape, Spirit Bay to be precise.  It’s hard to describe how beautiful it was.  Pictures can’t communicate the smells and sounds.  It was literally breathtaking.  I couldn’t help but be taken back by the vastness of the ocean.  For some reason it seemed daunting to know this was the end, you can’t go any further north than right here. It’s here that the Maori believe the spirits of their dead go to jump off to go to the afterlife.

It was a gorgeous day.  It’s days like this that make me think it’s going to be hard to go back to the States with all it’s snow and cold temperatures.