Cape Reinga

We were warned of rain, so we took off extra early to get as much done as we could before the rain came.  Today's goal is to get to the very tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. 

We were beginnin to wonder if there were any straight roads in this country.  This is the flattest, straightest roads we've seen so far.

Big Flat Road:  I thought the name was fitting.  (Not sure how one would pronounce "srohoj!")

We drove straight up without stopping, and arrived at the tip while the sun was still shining.

This is the view north from the tip... where two seas meet.  The Tasman and the Pacific.

Looking down at Tapotupota Beach.  (We'll go there next.)

I guess it wasn't high enough for Chris... he had to climb to the peak of this hill.

It was VERY windy.  (That's the Cape Reinga Lighthouse in the distance.)

I thought I might be blown off the edge!

Chris decided to walk along the ridge to get a better view of the beach in the distance.  It's the end of "90 Mile Beach", which stretches along the west coast of the northern tip of the country.

Gotta do the standard couple shot.

Me driving again.  I think I'm getting the hang of it now.  But I still do silly things like reach to my left for the seatbelt, or turn on the wipers when I mean to signal.

Here we are at Tapotupota Beach.

Dip!

Big flat sand duney thing.  (My captioning skills aren't great right now.)

Our little rental.  Nice thing about visiting in the off-season: no crowds!

Now we're heading south again, to the giant Te Paki sand dunes.

Giant is right!  And luckily the rain is still holding off, so we have a chance to explore.

It's like a desert.  I thought I could climb over a dune and see the sea, but nope.  When we got back to the car and looked at the map we saw it was over 3km of dunes before the beach!

People rent boards and go sand surfing here.

I wanted some local wood to carve.  Hopefully I don't cause an infestation if I bring something wooden home to Canada.

Avocado's on the side of the road.  Yum!

4 for $2.  Not bad.  Strange that here, buying fresh organic produce is cheaper than the grocery store.

The road to 90 Mile Beach.  The rain has begun.

Chris lovin' it, even though we can only see 1 of the 90 miles.

Cold and wet.  I am not impressed.

But then I got a Hawaiian burger from a shop in Manganoui, and I was much happier.  Might have been thne best burger I've ever had.

The rain put a damper on our sightseeing for the rest of the drive back, but we had to take a photo of the red sand beaches.  Might even be redder than PEI!