Student Bloggers

We, ArcadiaNZ, are an adventurous bunch. Hours after returning from orientation, ten of us had organized a couple rental cars, bought enough food for five days on the road, acquired the largest camping tent we could find, and researched numerous sightseeing destinations throughout Northland. With just over a week until classes started, we hit the road to Cape Reinga – the tip of New Zealand’s north island. Perhaps our will to explore surpassed that of the average tourist or native New Zealander, for we discovered that our first campsite was closed for the winter season and that finding accommodation is difficult in the off-season. This was the prelude to what I can only describe as our most purely “New Zealand” experience to date – a farmer (and the summertime park ranger) offered us accommodation in his cow pasture! We pitched our massive ten-man tent just outside the animal barn and spent the evening gazing up at the lambent arc of the Milky Way’s innumerable stars and constellations.

We awoke to the rising sun and lept over fences through pastures to the beach for a quick walk before packing up to make the long drive to Cape Reinga. Once there, we set up camp at Tapotupotu Bay, a site that was actually open. The many vans, campers, and tents spread along the beach housed some of NZ’s hardier winter wanderers whose presence gave the site a lively atmosphere. What happened next, I can only relate to what psychologists call “group polarization” – the tendency of individuals in a group to make more extreme decisions than any single member would normally. Someone suggested that we go swimming. In the ocean. In the middle of Winter. When the ocean and air were both hovering around 7C and the sun dipped behind the rocky outcroppings at either end of the bay. Minutes later, we were splashing around in the clear water and body surfing waves to shore to the utter astonishment of the idle fishermen on the beach. This spate of insanity prompted a quick dry-off and an early night as we huddled together in the massive tent.

Day three began with a panic – we were out of water and there was no fresh drinking water on the entire northern peninsula. Our plan for that day: venturing into New Zealand’s desert – the Great Te Paki sand dunes. If we wanted water, we needed to buy it or boil it, and our camp stove was running low on gas. We ended up backtracking 40 kilometers to a small petrol station, buying supplies, and renting sand boards for our journey into the dunes. The Te Paki dunes came as a shock to all of us. Until then, we had experienced New Zealand as a landscape of meandering hills and pastures interspersed by formidable mountain peaks and volcanic landscape, ending abruptly at the ocean. The dunes were massive. At 140 meters above sea level, the dunes covered five kilometers from the road to the ocean, and stretched as far as we could see in either direction along the West coast of the peninsula. We climbed to the highest dune and spent the day flying down the dunes on sandboards until our legs couldn’t carry us back up for another go.

Toward the evening, we drove out to Cape Reinga and hiked to the lighthouse which overlooks New Zealand’s northernmost outcrop rocky coastline. In Māori, Cape Reinga is known as Te Rerenga Wairua or the leaping-off place of spirits. Māori believe that the cape is the point at which spirits enter the underworld. An ancient pohutukawa tree grows on the cape itself and the Māori believe this tree’s roots to be the portal to the underworld. Eating and drinking were not allowed on the site as it is sacred ground, so we made our visit a quick one and hurried back to camp for our last dinner together, complete with a beautiful sunset. Check back next week to hear about the rest of our adventures in Northland!