April 7, 2024

Paihia to Taipa to Cape Reinga to Giant Te Paki Sand Dunes to 90 Miles Beach Campground

We are in the land of the kiwis. There are two things that are called kiwi. First and most important is the kiwi bird, New Zealand's national animal. It is a flightless bird which is threatened by extinction.

And there is the kiwi fruit. Have you ever seen a kiwi that has red inside?

They do not taste much different than the ones we get back home.

We are happy to see the sun is out again and we are up and ready to go bright and early.

Here is a view from our campground We follow the coastal road north towards Cape Reinga. We stop at the Rainbow Falls and hike to the upper and lower lookouts.

As Australia and New Zealand have awesome coffee, we have been making a coffee stop early in the afternoon almost every day.

Today is no different. We stop in Taipa and enjoy our daily caffeine.

Now we are ready to drive the remaining distance to the tippie top of the North Island.

Here two oceans meet, the South Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea. We can see the currents clashing with each other. We walk to the Lighthouse and enjoy the sunny but windy day.

On our way back we see a sign „sand dunes“. We follow the sign and find the most gigantic sand dunes I have ever seen.

The picture does not really show the size of the dunes. You can rent a buggy board and slide down the dunes. It was already late in the afternoon and we still had to drive over a hundred km on a windy road to our campsite but we stilled hiked half way up of the dune.

We spend the night on a campsite on the 90 mile beach