Bay of Islands - Cape Reinga, 90 Mile Beach & Sand Tobogganing

OK, I caught the sun today. This autumn weather is very deceptive and it was another scorcher of a day. The sun is so strong here and my skin on my face feels really tight, what I would imagine it would be like to have a session of Botox, although quite the opposite effect where the wrinkles are concerned!

Here I sit back at our apartment stretched over the sofa, glass of vino in one hand, slightly burnt tongue from downing a quick sample test of our spag bog on the go and totally knackered. 

Full on day today. A promising weather forecast so we woke up early, 6 am start watching the sun rise over a bowl of Weetabix and then we headed off to embark on our pilgrimage along the 90 Mile Beach to the top of Cape Reinga, the second most northern point in New Zealand.

I refer to our trip to Cape Reinga as a pilgrimage as the Maori believe that when their loved ones pass on, their spirit travels north up through New Zealand towards the cape where their spirit then floats across the ocean back to their Polynesian home. Eerily as we made our early morning drive to the coach long stretches of low lying mist draped across the landscape, quite surreal.

Our coach driver was quite a character who kept us entertained with his little jokes along the way. Honestly the first part of the drive was OK, nothing to really harp on about, lots of little photo and toilet pit stops.

But once we arrived at Cape Reinaga, well that was something else – picture postcard! 

A short 10 minute walk leads you down to a light house overlooking the meeting of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean, and you could actually see a line where the two seas come crashing together.

Lunch was the next stop followed by the long awaited sand dune surfing. All I can say is if you want a full on work out... climbing up a sand dune is the way to go -  it’s blinking hard work scrambling up to the top ridge of sand, and a teeny bit scary looking back down at the drop to slide down. But oh so much fun!

Note to self  go down with mouth firmly shut, all the boys got mouthfuls of sand when they crashed and burned at the end.

One point to note however, I’ve been blowing sand out my nose ever since… the golden stuff get’s everywhere, and I mean everywhere!

Adrenalin rush over, we then started our journey back to the base whizzing 100km/ hour along the waters edge along 90 Mile Beach. Simply beautiful and we even caught a fleeting glimpse of wild horses along the edge of the dune. Probably should note however that 90 Mile Beach is only 55 miles long (someone got their measurements wrong) – although still pretty darn spectacular.

Now is has to be noted... here is a little snippet of our delightful coach trip trying to capture the scenery, unfortunately we were trapped with someone who thought it acceptable to hack and snort their way through the trip, delightful. So if you don't want to gag I suggest turning your volume to mute for this one!