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Then on Sunday I took the Dune Rider trip up to Cape Reinga. We were totally lucky with our guide Paul. He was really excellent, knew all the local knowledge, and was happy to make extra stops along the way. Admittedly I planted myself behind the drivers seat and didn’t stop asking questions for 9 hours. But I’m sure he appreciated it ;)

So we stopped at a Kauri grove on the way up. These are massive massive trees – now protected. The can grow to be about oh – 13m in diameter – or something mental like that. Unfortunately the most impressive groves are about 2 hours out of the way – so I’ll HAVE to come back up and visit. They grow incredibly straight, and thus were highly prized for building, ship masts, waka’s etc. So while they were once very extensive, there aren’t so many left now. On the way back (but I’ll put it in now) we visited a kauri woodturning shop. There’s a staircase through the middle of a trunk.. and this is a small one!

Anyway – we visited and old Pa on the way up (wouldn’t usually..) Kinda Celtic in a way – classic fort with ditches + palisade + important buildings inside. Course it all had to change once foreigners came along with their guns..

It was a pretty drive up to cape Reinga.

Now Cape Reinga is the place where spirits travel to before they leave New Zealand and head off to Hawaiki.. (the afterworld). There’s a pahutakawa (spelling?) tree, which is the last place they visit before diving off into the ocean – and here it is.

Just off Cape Reinga is where the Tasman and Pacific Oceans meet – you can see a line (ish) where the two bodies (moving in opposite directions?! / speeds?) meet.

Then it was off to go sandboarding on the giant sand dunes. Paul didn’t initially want to take us to the steepest one, but he changed his mind (we were all pretty keen really). There’s a 3 meg video of sandboarding here

Then we drove down 90 mile beach (officially a road). It’s actually just 64 miles long, but farmers used to bring their cattle to market walking down the beach, and they reckoned they walked 30 miles a day.. hence 90 mile beach..

WE stopped (just like my hero Billy ;) on 90 mile beach and searched in the sand for Tuatua a shellfish. You can (and we did) eat them raw, though I took a few and cooked them up in the evening too.

So yes, all in all an excellent excellent day.. really informative and fun – thanks Paul.