90 Mile beach. A ridiculously long stretch of beach and a certified highway!
Right at the south point of 90 mile beach is a small town called Ahipara. It's a great home base for any beach activities or for visiting Cape Reinga. BF and I stayed at the holiday park in a little cabin. Being out of season, it was very quiet here for most of our one week stay. We helped the park owner Sandy clear out lots of bamboo from behind his house. One of the best things about staying at a place that welcomes backpackers is meeting other backpackers!
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| Teeny tiny cabin |
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| Nightly bonding over tv and beer |
Right near Ahipara is Shipwreck bay. Many ships met there end there but there is still a little bit of the ship "Favourite" still sticking out of the sand during low tide.
One sunny day we booked a spot on the Dune Rider Cape Reinga tour. If you are travelling alone and it's off-season, I highly recommend booking with Dune Rider or another tour group. It's cheaper than driving all the way to the cape and the tour will include other neat stops, food, and sandboarding as well! Another major plus is that you won't have to worry about your vehicle getting stuck in the sand if you don't have 4 wheel drive. If you do decide to drive on the sand, make sure to stay on the wet sand - dry sand is bad bad news. :P
The tour started out at Ancient Kauri Kingdom. It's essentially a kauri wood workshop with a showroom and cafe out front. Its main attraction is the giant kauri staircase in the middle of the building. The entire building was built around it.
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| A staircase inside a kauri stump |
I thought the coolest part was seeing all the unprocessed stumps behind the building. The stumps are HUGE! Some of the (much) smaller pieces were carved and placed by the car park.
Next up was the Gumdigger's park. Many years ago, kauri amber, or gum as the Kiwi's call it, was a highly prized resource. It was used for all sorts of things from jewellery to linoleum to varnish. Think of the gold rush, but kauri gum instead. This park is actually the former site of many gumdigger holes that have been preserved and left as is.
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| A giant kauri log that has yet to fossilize |
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| Gumdigger hole |
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| Sifting for gum |
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| Gumdigger home |
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| Really long gumboots! |
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| An incomplete sack house |
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| A machine used in gumdiggery |
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| Gumdigger store |
Afterwards, the bus headed onto the 90 mile beach.
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| Bus'n on a beach! |
We stopped at what the busdriver called "The Bluff - the point of no return".
Look how intensely blue the water is!
If you decide to drive on 90 mile beach, there are a few ramps here and there you can use to get onto the sand, but the only way to get on or off at the north end, is to drive in and along Te Paki stream. That's right, you have to drive in a pretty wide and deep stream!
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| We're essentially driving up a river. It was cool. |
At the start of that river are huge sand dunes. And what do you do with huge sand dunes? Sand boarding!!
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| It's a good workout |
Sandboarding was one of the best parts of the trip. Its quite the workout walking up that huge sand dune but the trip down is a major adrenaline rush. Be prepared to get a lot of sand in every orifice though. I had sand in my ears!
Now, for THE best part of the trip - Cape Reinga! The meeting place of the Tasman sea and the Pacific Ocean. This is a very sacred place for the Maori as it is the place where spirits can return to their eternal home, the spirit world (or the underworld).
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| Cape Maria |
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| The meeting of the Sea and Ocean |
Isn't that gorgeous!? And that blue is all real, no photoshop or tweaking whatsoever.
Can you see the little tree sticking up on the right side of the rocks? That is an ancient tree that is the leaping point for the spirits. That tree is said to be thousands of years old, but has never flowered.
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| About 2/3 to the right and 1/3 down |
Having reached the top, BF and I have now started our journey back south. We'll be stopping in Omaha for a week, followed by a week on Waiheke Island. Our plan is to quickly look around the southern part of the north island in time to get to the south island by the summer. A little factoid before you go: 90 mile beach is actually only 90 kilometers!
