Cape Reinga & 90 Mile Beach

---

On the West coast of New Zealand, North of Auckland you will find a state highway like no other…miles and miles of golden sand surrounded by waves of the Abel Tasman crashing over bluffs sticking out from the shoreline and gigantic sand dunes, not another human in sight apart from the odd car, as much as in awe as you.

This unusual ‘highway’ follows all NZ road rules and was created by farmers who drove their cattle up and down Northland before State Hwy 1 was built in the centre of the reigion. What a way to travel to work everyday hey?!

Many locals fish on the beach as it serves as their daily trip to the supermarket. Therefore NZ governement has decreed that only those living in the area may fish…no fish, no dinner!

The beach ends at Scott’s Point - 5km south of Cape Maria Van Diemen - named by the Dutch voyager Abel Tasman after the governor’s wife in the Dutch East Indies in 1643. It is at the top of the island, just off the cape, that the first Cape Reinga light was was signalled from1878-1940.

In 1941 the light was moved to its current position - on the most northernly point of NZ and remained manned for a further 46years. It is now positoned close the the meeting point of the Abel Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

For Maori these turbulent waters are where the male sea ‘Te Moana Tapokopoko a Tawhaki’ meets the female sea ‘Te Tai o Whitirela’. The whirlpools created when the seas join are like those that dance in the wake of a waka (canoe). They represent the coming together of male and female - the creation of life

---