Oct 17- Cape Reinga - northern tip or New Zealand

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On Saturday October 17th, I had finally gone on my rescheduled trip up north to Cape Reinga- the most northern point in NZ. (There’s actually a cape that’s slightly more north, however there’s virtually no way to get there). Cape Reinga is quite amazing. The walk up to it is a winding road and all you see if the ocean to the east and the Tasman Sea to the west and a lighthouse straight ahead. Once you get to the peak, you actually see the waves of the Tasman Sea crashing into the waves of the Pacific Ocean forming an arrow type symbol. Cape Reinga is of spiritual significance to the Maori. It is believed that when a Maori dies, his soul leaves this world through Cape Reinga and ends up in Hawaiki - the Maori homeland.
On the way back to Paihia, we made quite a few stops. We drove down the 90 mile beach - the bus was on the sand itself! One we got to the sand dunes we disembarked the bus and climbed up the sand dunes with a boogie board in hand. I watched a couple of people dune surf before I got the courage to do so myself, but once I did it I found it to be a great load of fun and did it a couple more times. There were even a couple of older people in their mid to late 70s who dune surfed as well. After everyone had their share of dune surfing, we hopped back on the bus for few more minute until we disembarked again to go pipi picking. Pipis are these clam type shellfish. They were quite easy to find once you dug in to the wet sand with your hands. Once we collected about a bucketful of pipis it was back on the bus for us. We also visited this kauri tree shop which is basically this very touristy shop however it’s also a free museum where they have on display various items carved from a kauri tree. There was a pretty awesome giant carved wizard, a dinner table with a palm tree shape to it which I was almost tempted to buy for $18,000, and stair case leading to the 2nd floor of the shop/museum made out of 1 entire kauri tree. For dinner we stopped at the really good fish and chip shop in a small fishing village. The fish was so fresh and juicy and was just all around tasty - and this is coming from a person who generally dislikes fish. The chips, however, we not so great. The next day I headed back to Auckland for a few nights before my adventure continued.

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