If Tane Mahuta was on James bucket list then Cape Reinga was on my bucket list and it was definitely worth the 40 year wait to now be able to say that I have been to northern most and southern most points of the North Island (South Island I’m coming for you)!
I wasn’t sure what to expect at Cape Reinga but it wasn’t this. Well manicured paths wind around the rugged hillside leading to the iconic lighthouse and sign.
There is loads of information on the way so you can take it as just a walk or take the opportunity to learn a bit more on the way down.
One thing that really surprised me was the lack of people. At any one time there were never more than 20 people at the light house and I had expected a lot more in school holiday. We did have one set of photo bombers who drove me crazy (and it takes a bit to do that!) who consistently posed in the background of peoples photos. I need to let it go but a bit of etiquette people – let everyone get that perfect cliche holiday photo without needing to photoshop it!
We left Cape Reinga to the last thing in the day after sand dune surfing and visiting other beaches and by this stage the kids were a little over it so in hindsight we probably should have done it first.
I had visions of staying until sunset and capturing an epic photo but not only was there a lot of cloud but it was also pretty windy which made long exposure pretty tough on a tripod.
It’s a well paved walk down to the light house which gets a little steep on the way up but easy access for buggies if you’ve got the calves to push it back up.