Oceans Reunited

Our next stop was the northern-most tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, where we spent 6 days at two amazing beaches and hiked over 20 miles along the coast. So much could be said about this area of the island. The lighthouse at the tip of Cape Reinga is a good reference point. (Only 10,479 km to Los Angeles!)

Directly to the west, in the middle of the ocean, you see huge waves crashing into each other and whirlpools forming on the outer edges of these collisions. This is THE point where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. The Maori believe that this point is where the male sea, Te Moana ta Pukapuka o Tawhaki meets the female sea Te Tai o Whitireia and the waves represent the Creation of life between the two. Besides being awesome to witness, it was a real learning experience for us as we never imagined that there was a physical place where oceans met. The boundaries between oceans and seas always seemed imaginary, like political borders, not something you could actually see.

It was an incredible place to just sit and observe, it's too bad the picture doesn't even begin to capture the ferocity and beauty of that point of contact between the bodies of water.

To the east lies a series of springs and an ancient coastal Pohutakawa tree where Maori believe the souls of the deceased pass on their way to their ancestral homelands. The Maori know the exact trail that the soul travels as it makes its way up the the north island and arrives at this point. The site can only be seen from a distance and out of respect, no food or water can be consumed in the area.

The Pohutakawa tree clings to the cliff on the far side of that outcropping you see in the bottom right of the photo. Souls are believed to slide down its roots to leave this world.

For several nights we stayed at a beach about 5 kilometers to the east. We camped in a grassy area looking out over an inlet of crystal clear water at the base of forested hills, over which the sun would rise every morning. We could lay in bed, open the van door and watch the morning sky over the range change from pearly gray to seashell pink.

Our campsite was just around the bend of the sandy inlet you see at the base of the far hills

From this beautiful beach we made the 10 km round trip hike to the lighthouse over bush clad ranges and an isolated beach. The climb was a challenge, climbing from beach to 300+ meter cliffs several times, but it gave us a deeper appreciation of the area.

The light colored path along the ridge was the second leg of the hike to the Cape (it was a bit of a killer at the end!)

For the remainder of our stay we journeyed further east to Spirits Bay.The campsite was about 20 km down a narrow rocky road but when we arrived we were immediately struck by the beauty and energy of the bay. Again we were camping in a grassy park-like area, but you had to walk a few minutes through scrub brush to reach the beach, bordered on one end by a fantastically steep grassy hill with interesting rock formations. There was also a large lava flow at that end connecting the sand to a miniature island, just past the surf in a series of volcanic tidepools of clear turquoise water.

The view to the east of our campsite

The “sand” on the beach was particularly striking in that it was mostly not sand at all, but rather small, smooth, worn down shells of practically every color and type. The colors ranged from butter yellow to mauve and maroon, from creamy white to pea green. Large intact shells, including abalone, were scattered on the surface and after hiking nearly 12 miles across the entire length of the bay, we discovered much of the beach was this way. In certain areas we dug with our hands over a foot down and never reached actual sand.


As we hiked on the track behind the beach we encountered sand dunes, wetlands and even the beginnings of mangroves.

Note: The agave looking plants are Flax

For some reason, this particular landscape is always what I imagined East Africa to look like, not so much what I expected from New Zealand...

Our lunch, like nearly all of our coastal hikes, was on an empty beach with not a single other person in sight. This beach was unique, with a huge cave worn into the cliff and murky pools where the water from the wetlands met the ocean.



We should add that the pictures may be deceiving. What looks like a warm tropical beach was actually quite chilly and windy and very prone to New Zealand's famous sudden downpours. After lunch, as we were strolling along the beach barefoot to get back to the trail, we got the usual fifteen seconds notice of wild winds and a few raindrops before the deluge arrived. We dropped to the ground and soon found ourselves in balls like rolly-pollies with our backpacks and shoes tucked under our jackets as a heavy downpour hammered the beach. Of course, five minutes later it had passed, the sun was shining and the storm was almost out of sight.


If you’re from the desert you might say, why would you go on a hike if you thought it was going to rain? Well, as it turns out, it pretty much rains, or threatens to rain everyday we've seen. Holly’s father summed it up quite well back in Auckland. When we told him we’d been in New Zealand a week, he said “oh good, well then you’ve already seen all four seasons.” Sun, into clouds, into wind, into rain and always somewhere in between, we are finally coming to terms with the fact that you should never say “I don't think we'll need those rain jackets, it looks nice to me.”

Despite the weather, we haven’t been hindered in the least, well at least we hadn’t until a couple of days ago… don't worry, all is well. It's a long story for next time but let's just say that just because you get directions and there’s a sign pointing you down a hill, it doesn’t mean you won’t have to temporarily abandon your vehicle on the side of the road ☺

We definitely enjoyed our downtime on the road, and filled the daylight hours with lots of reading, journal writing, and drawing. And, of course, eating. Yes, they have instant ramen noodles here too!

We've managed to make the van into a pretty cozy little home.

Sunset at Spirit's Bay