Description
One of my favourite places in the world, Cape Reinga, officially named Cape Reinga / Te Rerenga Wairua, is the northwesternmost tip of the Aupõuri Peninsula, at the northern end of the North Island of New Zealand. Serene and beautiful, you can spend hours here staring at the tidal waves collide.
In Māori, Te Rerenga Wairua means the leaping-off place of spirits. Reinga is the Māori word for the 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 generally considered the separation marker between the Tasman Sea to the west and the Pacific Ocean 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 mean male and female, respectively.
