{"id":10902,"date":"2024-04-23T21:38:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T09:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myblogary.com\/?p=10902"},"modified":"2024-04-28T21:59:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T09:59:04","slug":"the-top-of-the-bottom-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myblogary.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/23\/the-top-of-the-bottom-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Top Of The Bottom Of The World (RV Day 10)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

April 23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We booked a tour out to Cape Reinga<\/a> at the top of NZ to avoid the six hour return drive in the RV. We thought it would be a safer bet and more enjoyable for both of us to experience the scenic drive up to the Cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, that didn\u2019t work out as planned. Victoria wasn\u2019t feeling well and couldn\u2019t fathom being on a bus all day. She told me I should still go, so I canceled her tour and met the bus a few minutes walk from where we were freedom camping in Mangonui. I got on the packed bus and away we went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonya was our friendly bus driver and full of stories and information. She grew up in a large M\u0101ori family in the Bay of Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We drove out of Mangonui, past the gorgeous beaches of Coopers Beach and Cable Bay and through the town where Kupe is believed to have made his first landfall in NZ: Taipa. The famous Polynesian explorer Kupe landed at various places in the north during his voyages of discovery before 1200 CE. This bridge built in the shape of a waka and the memorial at Taip\u0101, on the southern shore of Doubtless Bay, commemorates his first landing in NZ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coopers Beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cable Bay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Waka Bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Kupe Memorial<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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From there, we continued our drive through the town of Kareponia. It adopted the name of \u201cCalifornia\u201d after the great fire of 1906 because so many Californians moved there to make the city their new home in NZ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We turned on to the State Highway 1 that heads north to the top of NZ. The logging of the massive Kauri trees (pronounced \u201ccody\u201d in M\u0101ori) was the major industry up in this area until there were no trees left to log. That\u2019s when the land was sold to dairy farmers. In the 1940s there were 37 farms around the area. Over the years the number shrunk to just one, but that finally closed its doors too. Today, avocado farmers use the land and climate to grow their crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Houhora Harbor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Back in the day, the harbor town halfway up the peninsula, Houhora<\/a>, was a destination for gum diggers, whalers and missionaries. It must have been interesting to wonder how they all got along. Gum diggers would \u201cmine\u201d the sap from the Kauri trees. It had lots of uses. It was chewed like gum, used as a fire starter, mixed with oil or fat for facial tattoos, bound in flax to act as a torch, used to make varnishes and also crafted into jewelry, keepsakes, and decorative items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ratana Church at Te Kao near Houhora<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Along the journey, we passed many homes with a \u201chot box.\u201d That\u2019s a NZ mailbox made from an old microwave. People put these old burnt out microwaves on a stick and place them at the roadside as their mailboxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As we drove further towards the top, Tea Trees (or kanuka and manuka trees) lined the hills and mountains as far as the eye could see until we finally reached the tippy top of the country, Cape Reinga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For M\u0101ori, Cape Reinga is the most spiritually significant place in New Zealand. An ancient 800-year-old pohutukawa tree and a lonely lighthouse mark this special place. It is here that after death, the M\u0101ori believe that all M\u0101ori spirits travel up the coast and over the wind-swept vista to the pohutukawa tree on the headland of Te Rerenga Wairua, or \u201cleaping off place of the spirits,\u201d to make their return to the land of Hawaiki\u2014 a mythical place that some believe is where Tahiti is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spiritual 800-year-old pohutukawa tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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The Cape is the lookout point to the rest of the world. There were breath-taking vistas and sweeping seas. It\u2019s where the Tasman Sea and South Pacific clash into each other creating massive whirlpools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I walked down to the lighthouse and then climbed a nearby mountain to get a better panoramic view overlooking 90-mile beach and the meeting of the seas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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