NORTH TO SOUTH IN NEW ZEALAND

THE UNIQUENESS OF THE ISLAND COUNTRY STEMS FROM THE FACT THAT IT WAS THE LAND MOST RECENTLYINHABITED BY HUMANS. AND THOUGH WE HAVE CAUSED DAMAGE, IT STILL REMAINS UNLIKE MOST OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

- Suresh Joseph

New Zealand is one of the most recently inhabited lands in the world with Eastern Polynesians reaching there in AD 1350. White settlers followed 450 years later. Ever since reading Yuval Noah Harari’s masterpiece Sapiens I had been wanting to tour this pristine land. The opportunity presented itself in June 2018 after I had completed a solo drive along Australia Highway1, the longest highway in the world. I flew into Auckland from Sydney and hired a car at the airport. After a few days of acclimatization, I drove to Cape Reinga to start a north-south road trip in New Zealand

CAPE REINGAWELLINGTON (1,700km, 6 days)

CAPE REINGA is the northernmost tip of the North Island that one could drive to. The Maoris believe that Cape Reinga is the place from where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld. A clear separation of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean can be seen from here. The Maoris believe it was a symbolic union of the male and female. The Cape Reinga headland, the Three Kings Islands and a spring in the hillside are closely interwoven into the Maori mythological belief of return of dead spirits to their traditional homeland, Hawaiki. The fully automated lighthouse with solar-powered beacon at the Cape was built in 1941, replacing the old one.

A few kilometres from the Tapotupotu Bay was a signboard that pointed to sand dunes about 5km away. How could there be sand dunes in such a vast area of verdant hills and grazing pastures? The Te Paki sand dunes constantly move and create new designs with the assistance of the strong winds that sweep the landscape. Blue skies, green forests, flowing rivulets and a moist sand dune! Later I learnt that the sand dunes are part of the Ninety Mile Beach which runs north from the town of Kaitaia. That explained that the moist sand was seashells found atop the desertlike dunes.