Cape Reinga / Te Rerenga Wairua (; sometimes spelled Rēinga, ) is the northwestern most tip of the

Aupōuri Peninsula The Aupōuri Peninsula is a tombolo at the northern tip of the North Island of New Zealand. It projects between the Tasman Sea to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east. It constitutes the northern part of the Far North District, incorpora ...

, at the northern end of the

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

of New Zealand. Cape Reinga is more than 100 km north of the nearest small town of Kaitaia. In Māori, means the ''leaping-off place of spirits''. is the Māori word for ''underworld''. Both refer to the Māori belief that the cape is the point where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld. Cape Reinga is a popular tourist site, with annual visitor numbers estimated at over 500,000 people. Visitor numbers are growing by about five percent a year, and the increase is likely to become even more now that the road to the cape is fully sealed.

Geography

Cape Reinga is generally considered the separation marker between the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 wa ...

to the west and the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

to the east. From the lighthouse it is possible to watch the tidal race, as the two seas clash to create unsettled waters just off the coast. Māori refer to this as the meeting of ''Te Moana-a-Rehua'', 'the sea of Rehua' with ''Te Tai-o-Whitirea'', 'the sea of Whitirea', Rehua and Whitirea being a male and a female respectively. The cape is often mistakenly thought of as being the northernmost point of the North Island, and thus, of mainland New Zealand. However, North Cape's Surville Cliffs, 30 km east of Cape Reinga are 3 km further north. Another headland just to the west of Cape Reinga is Cape Maria van Diemen, which was named by the Dutch explorer

Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch sea explorer, seafarer and exploration, explorer, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first European to reach New ...

during his journey in 1642 and thought of by him to be the northernmost point of the newly discovered country he named 'Staten Landt'.

Access

Cape Reinga is more than 100 km north of the nearest small town of Kaitaia. State Highway 1 extends all the way to the cape, but until 2010 was unsealed

gravel road A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. Gravel roads are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and ...

for the last 19 km. Suitable vehicles can also travel much of the way via Ninety Mile Beach and Kauaeparāoa Stream / Te Paki Stream stream bed. The cape is also the northern terminus of the Te Araroa hiking trail.

Māori mythology

According to

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

, the spirits of the dead travel to Cape Reinga on their journey to the afterlife to leap off the headland and climb the roots of the 800-year-old

pōhutukawa Pōhutukawa (''Metrosideros excelsa''), also known as the New Zealand Christmas tree, or iron tree, is a coastal evergreen tree in the Myrtus, myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that produces a brilliant display of red (or occasionally orange, yellow o ...

tree and descend to the underworld to return to their traditional homeland of

Hawaiki (also rendered as in the Cook Islands, Hawaiki in Māori, in Samoan, in Tahitian, in Hawaiian) is, in Polynesian folklore, the original home of the Polynesians, before dispersal across Polynesia. It also features as the underworld in man ...

, using the ''Te Ara Wairua'', the 'Spirits' pathway'. At Cape Reinga they depart the mainland. They turn briefly at the

Three Kings Islands 3 (three) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cul ...

for one last look back towards the land, then continue on their journey. A spring in the hillside, ''Te Waiora-a-Tāne'' (the 'Living waters of Tāne'), also played an important role in Māori ceremonial burials, representing a spiritual cleansing of the spirits, with water of the same name used in burial rites all over New Zealand. This significance lasted until the local population mostly converted to Christianity, and the spring was capped with a reservoir, with little protest from the mostly converted population of the area. However, the spring soon disappeared and only reappeared at the bottom of the cliff, making the reservoir useless.

Restoration

In 2007 protests by Māori and increased tourist numbers led the Department of Conservation to announce that the public carpark and toilet facilities, which intrude on traditionally sacred ground, would be moved further away from the cape and extended, at a cost of NZ$6.5 million (for details, see external links below). The road to the cape, one of the last stretches of State Highway 1, was sealed following three years of work and include extensive roadside revegetation with over 150,000 plants to prevent erosion. In March 2009, the works on the visitor facilities were completed.

Climate

Cape Reinga has a very mild

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

( Cfb) with high precipitation and little temperature difference between the seasons.

Lighthouse

The

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

at Cape Reinga was built in 1941 and first lit during May of that year, replacing a lighthouse located on nearby Motuopao Island, which had been built 1879. In 1987, the lighthouse was fully automated and the lighthouse keepers were withdrawn. The previous 1000 watt light and its revolving

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens (optics), lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. The simpler Dioptrics, d ...

have since been replaced with a tiny 50 watt flashing beacon, lodged in their place in the huge lantern.

References

External links

Cape Reinga
(from the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) website)
Cape Reinga
(from Eske Family Trust website, see the Maori Mythology explanation) {{Authority control Far North District Reinga State Highway 1 (New Zealand)