A Wonderful Day at Cape Reinga

 

 

Our primary reason for returning to New Zealand was to do some touring around to see something of the scenery for which it’s famous.  Last year, some very major boat projects prevented us from doing anything but we had high hopes for this year.  However, Murphy entered the picture and Paul has been stuck again, with some fairly major repairs, primarily the replacement of all our ugly, leaking port lights, causing damage and eating up our meagre funds in the process.

But, for once, it was not all work and no play.  Otto & Lil, our good friends aboard Vagabond actually persuaded Paul to take a day off so that we could all take a trip up to the northern most point of New Zealand - well done, you achieved the almost impossible!  Sadly, they are moving permanently down to Taranga this week, so it was a golden opportunity for one last excursion together and what a lovely day it proved to be.  The diversity of this trip was quite amazing.  One minute we were in the rainforests of Brazil and the next, climbing the sand dunes of the Kalahari.  

 

When we’d left our boats in the early morning, the low-lying clouds had made it very foggy and now the clouds lay low in the valleys creating some astounding scenery.

 

Our first stop was to see the magnificent kauri trees in the Puketi Forest; enormous, tall examples of a tree that once covered New Zealand but are now under severe threat of extinction.   

These superb giants can grow to 50 metres tall and can live for over 2000 years. They were cut down by the thousands as they grow very straight making them ideal for the construction of buildings, ships, furniture and carvings. 

Only in very recent times were procedures put in place to protect the remaining numbers.

As we headed northwards, the terrain became drier and drier until we reached 90-mile beach, a remarkably long straight stretch of flat sand that one can drive along at low tide, even without 4WD.  Absolutely glorious!

 

 

From there we stopped at the headland for a picnic lunch but were absolutely bewildered by the rule that does not allow you to eat anywhere there.  Oddly, we were informed that if we wandered off into the bushes (in our case flowers) and sit looking out at the most amazing view, that would be perfectly acceptable.  Can’t quite work that one out.  It was then about a half hour hike to the lighthouse which, interesting enough, if you were to stand at the lighthouse at the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of South Africa, and compare it to standing at this one at the northern tip of New Zealand, you would pretty well be standing at the same latitude.

 

Next the sand dunes.  Wow, this was really quite an awesome sight – the photos can’t do them justice, but we managed to hike up the highest one egged on by Paul who can’t let something like that go unchallenged.  It’s possible to hire body boards to surf down the dunes but we just stuck to our feet.

By this stage, time was marching on and we still had several hundred kilometres to go to get back home but that didn’t stop us from stopping off in Mangonui where we had heard of a place serving fabulous fish & chips.  They were, indeed, extremely good and we enjoyed a glass of wine as the sun was setting in the background.  A truly great day!  Thanks to Vagabond for dragging Paul away, he thoroughly enjoyed it as well and never complained once about taking time off and having too much work to do.

PHOTO GALLERY:

Tree Huggers

This is a mighty big tree!

90-Mile Beach

 Scenes around Cape Reinga:

 

Looking out on the Tasman Sea

It was so calm, even the clouds were reflecting on the sea

  

The Cape Reinga Lighthouse

 

A Long way from anywhere!

 

It didn't look too bad from down below

The tiny dot is Paul climbing up

And up.....

We made it!

 

Sandboarding

A welcome sundowner toast

Great  place to stop

On the Cultural Trail

The Signing of  the Treaty of  Waitangi

Since arriving back in New Zealand, most of our time (or rather Paul's) has been spent, yes you guessed it, working on the boat, what else?  We desperately needed to replace our rather tatty and torn spray dodger (the cover in front of the cockpit which offers shade from the sun and protection from foul weather) as well as sort out the on-going hassle we’ve had with the port lights.  These have been a problem since we purchased Calypso, rusting badly on the corners (despite the fact that they are supposedly stainless steel) and, as time went by, leaking more and more to the point of causing internal damage, not to mention the discomfort.  Due to the Christmas/New Year holidays, it seemed to take forever before we could actually start on these projects, however bit by bit, we’re getting there.  

We’ve been dying to get out sailing in the Bay of Islands surrounding Opua but with only plastic sheeting covering the holes where we’ve removed the port lights, it wouldn’t be too smart to get caught out in unprotected waters, so here we’ve sat muttering while our friends are out there cruising.

In all honesty, apart from the last couple of weeks, the weather has been shocking.  It’s been really cold, rainy or overcast.  If I were to be really cruel, I could say that New Zealand’s best-kept secret has got to be their weather – a secret kept ‘cause if it were known how bad it is, they wouldn’t get many tourists.  But, in all fairness, even the locals are apologising and complaining how this summer still hasn’t got off the ground but we live in hopes that things will improve before winter comes around again.

 

To get away from the constant boat work for a day, we decided to soak up a bit of New Zealand’s culture and join in the Waitangi Day celebrations.  This is an annual holiday to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the British Crown and the Māori Iwi (tribes) back in 1840.  It’s the founding document of New Zealand, an agreement entered into by representatives from both sides.  It wasn’t drafted as a constitution or as a statute but is a broad statement of principles upon which the British officials and Māori chiefs made a political pact or covenant to found a nation state and build a government to deal with pressing circumstances: an exchange of promises.

 

In the English version, the Māori ceded the sovereignty of New Zealand to Britain; and gave the Crown exclusive rights to buy lands they wished to sell.  In return, they were guaranteed full rights of ownership of their lands, forests, fisheries and other possessions; and given the rights and privileges of British subjects. 

In the Māori translation, there were differences in the meaning of certain words that have led to many grievances over the years.  Recent governments have recognised such unjust transactions so a tribunal was established to consider claims against the Crown thereby providing the Māori with the means to have these complaints investigated.  New Zealand isn’t without it’s issues in this regard so this holiday is also a popular occasion to vent.

 

 

The celebrations take the form of traditionally dressed men and women paddling the Māori canoe (waka) as well as traditional songs, dances and the haka that has become famous due to the NZ rugby team’s performances prior to all games.   The navy and band were there in full regalia along with typical NZ food tents serving sausage sizzles and all things mussel and paua (abalone) i.e. chowder and fritters.  Yum.  Speaking of mussels, NZ is famous for it’s green-lipped mussels which are incredibly reasonable to purchase but even easier to take off the rocks oneself if only we could get out there into the bay.  We’ve indulged in mussels done in white wine and garlic on quite a few occasions and will definitely miss them when we leave here.

All in all, it proved to be a great day, both entertaining and educational and I will never cease to be amazed at the incredible array of tattoos on both the men and the women, something we’ve found to be very prevalent amongst the South Pacific islanders.

PHOTO GALLERY:

Notice any similarity between this.......

and this?

 

& I mean everywhere!

Tatoos everywhere

Doing the Maori thing

 

Not quite the real thing but cute anyway

In front of an old Maori fishing hut

 

Carvings down the gunwales of a waka

 

The prow

The paddles

NZ's naval finest

A scene out  of  Dickens

Traditional dancing (they're not  anorexic)

Doing the Haka

Carvings on the pillars