New Zealand Part Two - Cape Reinga

For our second day there we headed up to Cape Reinga, which is the northernmost tip of the mainland and where two oceans meet!  The Tasman Sea to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east crash together and its really cool!  It was ridiculously windy though, it felt like we were going to blow right off the cliff and into the ocean.

The Cape!  We made it!

Where two oceans meet!  It was really neat to see them crashing together and swirling all around!  I was surprised there wasn't a constant giant whirlpool or something!

So far from home!

I hate it when you ask someone to take a picture for you and then they mess it up!  For example, the top of the lighthouse being cut off!

Amy and the dunes!  The water is such a pretty colour!

It was SO WINDY 

Charlie is just the cutest little world traveller!

There is a constantly flowing freshwater spring down there!  There is a maori legend that all spirits leave the mainland here and return to the land of their ancestors 

Te Paki sand dunes!  Wind+sand=no fun!

These dunes were massive and hard to climb!

Charlie didn't like getting sand blown in his eyes so we walked back and took a little break!

We did manage a few little rides :)

Amy tried chasing some sheep and she was not impressed when they ran away!

All the way up to the Cape we saw little roadside stalls with fruit! They just have little honesty boxes where you put in your money and take the goods!

We stopped at Coopers Beach for some seafood to eat on the beach!  This was my first squid ring in almost 10 years (Shan and I got them all the time when we were in NZ before and LOVED them)  I'm sad to report that it wasn't nearly as delicious as I was expecting :(  I guess that's what happens when you build something up in your mind for 10 years!  you get let down...

It was actually quite chilly!  And no good shells... Amy was disappointed!

It was a LONG day with lots of driving on really windy roads.  Luckily the scenery was beautiful and Charlie did really well!  It was also really exciting because Cape Reinga was one of the places I didn't make it to last time I was in New Zealand!