Cape Reinga

After a night at Awanui NZMCA park, on Tuesday 5 December, we went out for brunch as a late birthday celebration. Very nice food at the Big River Cafe (translation of Awanui: Awa = river, nui = big)

Definitely a big river - it has houseboats and big fishing launches

David's eggs bene with salmon

My more prosaic beans and hash browns with eggs

The sports grounds across the road from the NZMCA park have these pou

 

After breakfast we headed for Cape Reinga. It was raining with low cloud on our way, and as we got closer the cloud came down even more.

There's no designated motorhome parking up there: plenty for cars and some for buses. So I pretended the CROW was a bus - another motorhomer had the same idea. And where were they going to get a tow truck from?

As we left the motorhome and started the walk down the long path, the clouds lifted and exposed the views - just so absolutely mind-blowing. 

The cloud is still down but lifting

Where the two oceans meet

The cloud is lifting but the beach to the southwest is visible

The lack of height and the angle of growth were distinctive up here.

Moody, lowering and beautiful

 

As I stood and looked at the point where Māori believe spirits depart from back to Hawaiiki, I cried for Caitlin. And I thought about Mum and Dad and Muzza (my brother in law). Dee and Muzza's son, Kurt had made a pilgrimage of sorts up here earlier this year, so being here was very evocative for me.

The spirits jump off from the furthest point

And further to the west was the lighthouse - I had not realised there were two different points at the tip of the island - my bad for knowing so little of this area.

This was hard to decipher while I was looking at it. So you will have to try really hard...

The clouds were continuing to lift. By the way, the wall showing in the foreground is a very British design - stone walls withstand all sorts of weather there on the moors, so it is a good choice for this spot, although it did seem out of place to me.

A better shot of the meeting point of the oceans

That stone wall was necessary - it was a pretty steep drop off on the western side. The windswept and foreshortened trees protected people from their worst impulses...

This looked lovely. Is it white manuka?

 

The lighthouse is now solar-powered LED lights. The base buttresses had been repainted and the painter had to wait until the paint dried enough to remove the cones and bars - the weather wasn't shortening that timeframe ... He gave us some valuable information that we were missing for heading south - that SH1 is closed at Mangamuku Gorge and will be so until November 2024. No wonder SH10 was so busy on our way up!

A clearer view of Te Reerenga Wairua, the jumping off point for spirits. On the eastern side you can just see a lone 800 year old pohutukawa tree clinging doggedly to the cliff. The Māori believe your spirit slides down the roots into the sea and enters the mythical Māori underworld (Reinga). From there the spirit travels underwater to a group of offshore islands (known as Three Kings Islands), looks back one last time and bids a final farewell to the land, before once again entering the sea and making the long journey back to Hawaiiki-A-Nui where Māori had migrated from hundreds of years before.

 

And as we were about to leave the lighthouse, the clouds descended again.

On our way back up the path, we reassured an Australian couple that the lighthouse was there, and I showed them photos. They asked if I could send them to them. Of course I could - but not right then because there was no internet. Did it later that evening.

Cloud descending

And it's down. That's David on the bottom left of the photo, aiming for the atmospheric shot. I bet it's a good one but he hasn't given it to me...

Get your specs on...

Easier to read on rusty metal than wood, eh?

How presumptuous to name a piece of land after the name of the wife of a coloniser in another country ... And it's not it being the wife's name that I object to, okay?

The cloud was very low as we got back to the motorhome and the first few kms of the drive were at 25mph with the fog lights on and navigating by the solid white line on the side of the road and the dashed centre-line. And once the clouds lifted, the bloody rain came down in sheets - some of the hardest rain I've driven in. Frankly, I preferred driving in the cloud! No photos for obvious reasons - usually David would oblige if I asked. I didn't ask and he was concentrating with me...

We had intended to park at Awanui again, but given the rain all the way back, we worried whether the campsite would be solid enough underfoot and under wheels. And it's right next to Awanui River and with this kind of rain, flooding can be a risk. So we headed in to Kaitaia to the RSA. 

The best way to get a level park was to straddle (front to back) the drain gully. Good plan, except I parked right next to the drain grill so the sound of running water was a constant addition to the rain on the roof and windows. Good thing neither of us are suggestible re needing to pee when in the presence of running water...