Another early start as we were being picked up at 07.50 again for our trip to Cape Reinga. Showered, shaved, breakfasted and waiting at the end of the drive, the coach rolled in just a few minutes late. We were the second to last pick up and the coach was already pretty full, so seats right at the back were the only ones available. Funny isn’t it; when you’re one of the last to be picked up and most people have been on the coach for 45 minutes or so, they look at you as if you’ve been keeping them waiting for those same 45 minutes. In reality they kept us waiting, albeit for just a few minutes.
Our driver and guide for the day was a Maori guy called Huey, or leastways that is what he was politely known as. Fortunately Huey had not been taught by the same Italian driving instructor as most of our other drivers. Unfortunately, he did suffer from verbal diarrhoea, which is a terrible affliction for a tour guide. To make matters worse, he had a delightful Maori accent merged with a Southern United States drawl and the net result was dire. It was just after 08.15 when he sung us his first song of the day and then rattled on continuously for the next 30 minutes until we reached our first stop of the day at the Puketi Kauri Forest. His local knowledge was excellent and he was extremely informative about the Kauri trees, but his terrible jokes, stories and inane banter just spoiled his act. The Kauri trees in this particular forest were allegedly between 300 and 600 years old and were massive. Fifteen minutes later and we were heading for Ananui and our morning tea stop. The cafe at Ananui was also the local carving and wood turning workshop specialising in using wood from the Kauri trees. Many of the exhibits were absolutely beautiful and there was a magnificent dining table and 6 chairs for a meagre NZ$19,000 (£8500). Refreshed with tea and muffins, we were on the road again, this time heading for an attractive little inlet at Houhora for a very early lunch. Having said that, some of the early pickups on the coach had been going since 07.00, so they were probably quite hungry by now. Houhora was about an hours drive from Ananui, so the muffin had time to digest a little before we attacked our pre ordered BBQ lunch and Huey didn’t miss the opportunity to inflict another song on us. We sat outside to eat our BBQ and watched a bunch of guys fishing from the jetty. In the 45 minutes we were sat there, one chap landed two quite substantial fish from the inlet. He must have considered them good catches as he had his photograph done with them.
Wined and dined, we were off to Cape Reinga a further hour North, which was fine as we were not driving today, but regrettably Huey had not run out of stories or jokes. Having said that, he did continue with some excellent local facts about the area as we drove along. Eventually we arrived at Cape Reinga, which has huge significance to the Maoris as it is the place that the spirits of the departed leave the land and head for their origin in Hawaiki. Wherever they die, their spirits pass up the country and along 90 mile beach and then out through Cape Reinga, where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. At this point the two oceans meet in a turbulent cauldron of white foam, which is clearly visible.
The views from the top of the rocks overlooking the lighthouse and the adjacent Te Werahi Beach are just stunning and on a clear day it is apparently possible to see 57 kms into the distance.
The weather today had been pretty good on the way to the Cape, but a cloud layer had just moved in as we arrived. However, it made no difference to the visibility as there was a haze on the horizon blocking any long distance views.
One very unusual thing that we did whilst at the Cape was to plant a native bush, as part of the plan to reintroduce native species to the area in order to thicken the bush, which will firstly help to stabilise the ground and secondly enable indigenous wildlife to be reintroduced to the area. We got a certificate showing the co-ordinates of where we planted it, so we can Google the area and keep an eye on its progress. Anyone coming here in the future, please let us know and you can go and see if our shrub is thriving. If it dies, they allegedly will replace it with an identical shrub free of charge, not that we will ever know, unless Google get fantastic resolution on their images.
Having snapped everything in sight and planted our shrub, we boarded the coach for the sand dunes at Te Paki, which are accessed by driving down a stream in the 50 seater coach!! Once at the appropriate point the driver stopped the coach and got us to take off our shoes and socks. We then got off the coach and he opened the luggage compartment to reveal a shed load of Boogie Boards, which are short plastic surfboards, modified by having a veneer of shiny, hard plastic stuck to their bottoms in order to give them less friction on the sand dunes that we about to toboggan down. Huey led the way up the sand dune and we followed like a stream of ants. Boy was it hard work climbing the dune, even some of the younger members of the coach party were struggling and stopping half way up. Like any climb, once you stop behind someone, its jolly difficult to get going again, especially when the sand keeps giving way and you slide back, passing where you last stepped. I passed one old chap who was wheezing like an asthmatic dray horse. I was really hoping he wasn’t going to peg out as I didn’t fancy giving him the kiss of life; come to think of it I just didn’t fancy him full stop. It may have been a different story if it was Helga from Germany, just ahead in the queue.
Maureen was in charge of the camera as I entered second childhood and hurtled down the sand head first on the boogie board, still trying to catch my breath from climbing up.
It was over in a flash, top to bottom in just a few short seconds. That was my lot, I couldn’t face that climb again. Then I remembered what fun it was to come down, so I attacked the dune again. Surprisingly, I made it to the top without stopping, but still gasping. Back onto the board and down I came, but this time the person before me had decided to linger and admire the view, so evasive action had to be taken, namely dig your toes in the sand to steer out of the way. Comfortably missing him, it was time to dig both feet in to avoid going into the stream at the bottom of the dune.
Back onto the coach and off we went heading down 90 Mile beach for the next 52 miles. As we went down the beach there was evidence of cars belonging to drivers who had not heeded advice and become stranded then buried in the sand by the rising tides. The coach drivers have to be specially trained for quite a considerable time before being allowed to take passengers onto the beach. We now understand why we had such an early lunch; it was obviously to catch the tide at the right time in order to drive all the way along the beach.
Of course those of you who have been here will know that 90 mile beach isn’t 90 miles long! What I can’t understand is that there are all sorts of views as to how long the beach really is. With today’s technology, why can’t someone measure it very accurately and end the speculation as to how long the beach is? Some say 50 miles, some say 75 miles and Huey insists it’s 64 miles. After a thrilling experience driving along the beach, we turned off and returned to Awanui for afternoon tea and then it was time to head for home bringing to an end a super day to Cape Reinga.
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