Cape Reinga (ree-ayn-guh) is not (as I previously thought) the northern most point in New Zealand.
However, because it’s the most visited north point of New Zealand, most people, at the outset of their bus tours up to the cape believe that Cape Reinga is the northern most point.
Cape Reinga was (and is) of great spiritual significance to the Maori, who believe that their ancestors spirits return to the ocean and make the long journey back to Hawaiki after their death.
From Wikipedia:
Cape Reinga (Te Reinga or Te Rerenga Wairua in Māori) is the northwesternmost tip of the Aupouri Peninsula, at the northern end of the North Island of New Zealand. Cape Reinga is located over 100 km north of the nearest small town of Kaitaia. State Highway 1 extends all the way to the Cape, but until 2010 was unsealed gravel road for the last 19km. Suitable vehicles can also travel much of the way via Ninety Mile Beach and Te Paki stream bed.
(Yes, this means that the bus tour we took drove up a stream from 90 mile beach back to the road so that we could get to Cape Reinga).
We had an incredible guide for our bus tour, who did a great job explaining the history, current status, and plans for the future of both 90 mile beach and Cape Reinga.
The name of the cape comes from the Māori word ‘Reinga’, meaning the ‘Underworld’. Another Māori name is ‘Te Rerenga Wairua’, meaning the leaping-off place of spirits. Both refer to the Māori belief that the cape is the point where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld.
As of January 2007, Cape Reinga is on the tentative list of UNESCO waiting to receive World Heritage Site status. The cape is already a favorite tourist attraction, with over 120,000 visitors a year and around 1,300 cars arriving per day during peak season. Visitor numbers are growing by about 5% a year, and the increase is likely to become even more pronounced [now that] the road to the cape is fully sealed.
We were able to watch the two bodies of water as they crashed into one another.
I never realized that these two bodies of water were so different, or that the Pacific was named that because it really is the calm ocean. I also didn’t know (prior to Keith telling me when we left Auckland) that we’d be able to see the difference between the bodies of water so clearly.
The Māori refer to this as the meeting of the oceans as Te Moana-a-Rehua. This is the place of meeting of ‘the sea of Rehua’ with Te Tai-o-Whitirea, ‘the sea of Whitirea’. Rehua and Whitirea are a male and a female respectively.
It was an incredibly windy day, but the sun was out which made our visit to Cape Reinga quite enjoyable.