A trip to Cape Reigna: Where the Spirits Depart

---

Haere Mai ki Te Rerenga Wairua: Welcome to Cape Reigna, the Gateway to the Spirit World

Kia Ora friends,

Thank you for keeping up with my blogs! I really appreciate this chance to share my experience in NZ with all of you. Feel free to leave a comment (or more!) and your words will remain a part of my journey.
---------------------------------------------------
Cape Reigna is at the very northern tip of the North Island of NZ. I never got a chance to get down to the southern tip of the south Island, so I was not going to miss Cape Reigna. The drive from Ahipara was about 2 1/2 hours, even though it is the closest town to the Cape. We took hot tamale up drove the narrow windy gravel road to the tip of the country. It was a dusty drive but it was worth it once we reached the tip.

Luckily we arrive just before the rush of tourists and tour guide buses did. There were only a few cars in the car park when we pulled in. I was welcomed by a sign in Maori, alerting me that the cape is a sacred place, where, according to Maori belief, the spirits of the dead come to depart the physical world, and enter into the spirit world, and hopefully return back to the mythical homeland of the ancestors, Hawaiki.

To honor the sacredness of the cape, no food or drink is permitted beyond the sign.

I gulped down the last of my water before entering on the walk.

The cape is gorgeous. I don’t know how else to explain it!! One can see forever it seems, in a near 360 degree view. The water is so deep blue on the pacific side, and so deep green on the Tasman side. The cape is unique, because it is the place where the Pacific and the Tasman waters collide into one body of water. I wanted to get to the complete tip of the country, which feels like the tip of the world since you can not see anything for miles and miles. I took of my shoes and hopped over the stone wall. I crawled down this little rocky and sandy hill (which was steeper than it looked!!) and reached the very tip of the cape. I felt on top of the world! I had reached the very last bit of NZ. I'm sure the Maori people feel so overwhelmed with emotions when they reach the tip, where the spirits depart, and one day they will depart there too.

Standing at Cape Reigna, Aotearoa

I stepped to the edge of the world today
Shades of blue all around me
the sphere of the Earth
cradling me
holding me
up
up from the world
at the gateway where their spirits depart
floating off to sea
away from me
and life below
watching as I spread my wings
catching a breeze
island hopping to Hawaki
a dream
shattered into reality
by photo-snapping tourists
is this not a sacred place?

Walking away, I choose
to live this dream
living my life
on the edge
powerfully
most definitely
where the Tasman and the Pacific mesh
into one

---

Photos

Lighthouse at Cape Reigna
the weather was a bit cloudy when we arrived.