First, a quiz: when is the most inconvenient time EVER to have your car battery unexpectedly die? a) in your driveway, b) within a few metres of a garage/friendly mechanic, c) on the open road after a pit stop or d) in the middle of a car ferry with vehicles behind you, and a very grumpy ferry driver (did I mention it was raining)?
After resolving that that small disaster with jumper leads, we were on our way up to the Cape. It took us over three hours to negotiate the tourist drivers and gravel road but we made it! Cape Reinga is a stunning headland and the sun and wind and the sound of the sea roaring below battered us, as we made our way down to the lighthouse. It is difficult not to be slightly overwhelmed by the sight of the Tasman Sea to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east merging together at the last jagged extremity of the island.
I have been researching online the significance of Te Reinga as the information at the site is ridiculously scant. The new car park and toilet block is lovely but come on DoC! Do we really want people visiting this place knowing close to nothing of its significance? Anyway, rant over: the Cape is where Te Moana-a-Rehua, the man-sea of the Maori, meets the woman-sea, Te Tai-o-Whitirea. It is a Tapu (sacred) sight. Cape Reinga is known as Te Rerenga Wairua; the leaping-place of the spirits. Here the spirits of the dead depart the island to return to Hawaiki. There is an 800 year old pohutukawa tree (Maurianuku) jutting out from the northern cliff face. Legend has it that spirits use woven flax ropes to climb down the tree and follow the roots. Maurianuku leads the spirits out to Manawatawhi, the largest of the Three Kings Islands. The Maori name for the island means, ‘last breath’ as at Manawatawhi the spirits came up for the last glimpse of their island home. Then the way is theirs alone, into the unknown.
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