Son of a Beach

Since our last update, we’ve headed out to the west coast of the north island. We spent a few nights in Ahipara, a cute coastal town of about 1000 people at the south tip of Ninety Mile Beach. Ninety Mile Beach is a long beach (obviously) that runs along the west coast of the northern peninsula of New Zealand. It’s also a legal highway. (speed limit 100 km/h), but many a driver has gotten caught by high tides and loose sand, and lost their vehicle to the sea. We did NOT drive our van along this highway.

Since heading west, we’ve had nothing but warm sunny days (highs of about 16 degrees), with occasional showers overnight. While in Ahipara we rented a quad bike and explored Shipwreck Bay and Tauroa Point, a strip of beach that is both rocky and sandy at low tide. There are also giant, steep sand dunes that people go sand tobogganing and sand surfing down. Included in our quad bike hire was a sand board for sand tobogganing, and we both got a few mouthfuls of sand. We didn’t expect much speed or excitement at the thought of sledding down sand, but we were surprised at the speed we obtained due to both the height and steepness of the giant dunes. Who knew we’d be tobogganing in New Zealand?

Next we headed north, to the very tip of Cape Reinga, and the last bit of road was unsealed and through a Department of Conservation reserve. We saw the famous lighthouse that looks out where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. Maori consider Cape Reinga the jumping off point for souls as the depart on the journey to their spiritual homeland. It did kind of feel like the end of the world, since you look out on endless water as far as the eye can see. Pretty cool.

We spent that night camped on the beach at Tapotupotu Bay, a basic campground with no power (aka no heater), pit toilets and cold showers. The next morning we did the 10 km round trip hike up and down headlands along the coast from our camp site to the lighthouse and back. Besides the Yamnuska hike we did in Calgary, this has been the most beautiful hike we’ve ever done. None of the lovely pictures we took even compare to the real-life beauty of this piece of New Zealand.

On our way down the peninsula we spent two nights at a campsite right on Ninety Mile Beach at Waipapakauri Beach, where we relaxed and enjoyed the nice stretch of weather we’ve been having.

Now we are back in Ahipara for a night, with our next destination still unknown.