Saturday, July 28, 2018

The Far North

By Jen.

We finally reached the northern tip of New Zealand! This means, from here on out we have less time left on the North Island than we have been there; the downhill stretch from here.

Cape Reinga is the northernmost tip that you can drive to on public roads. So we started off our day there.

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This is an ancient Kahika tree (similar to the pohutukawa trees) is hanging off the edge of a small island there. It has never been known to flower.

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This point is where the Tasman sea (left) on the west meets the Pacific Ocean from the east (right).

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From there, we decided to check out the “Giant Sand Dunes” we saw advertised on the way up to Cape Reinga. It had been raining a lot recently and the river was overflowing. More rain was on the way, so we decided not to walk to the dunes.



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From here, we tried to head up to the Surville Cliffs, the actual northernmost point in NZ, but found out that the road that leads to it is private property and doesn’t allow visitors. With the poor weather, we didn’t want to walk or kayak, so we decided to detour to Te Hapua, a town in a nearby harbor, from which we could see the white-sand dunes of Great Exhibition Bay.

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A little Christian Church on the highway on our way back southwards.

From there, we traveled back down the peninsula, heading towards Shipwreck Bay before touring down the Kauri Coast.

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