Qualla: Cape Reinga

Cape Reinga: Introduction

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bgabel, CC BY-SA 3.0. The pohutukawa tree is 800 years old, and it clings to the headland as if it knows what it guards. Below its roots, according to Maori belief, is the entrance to the underworld. Te Rerenga Wairua -- the leaping-off place of spirits -- is the full name of Cape Reinga, and in te reo Maori, "reinga" means underworld. The spirits of the dead travel here along Te Ara Wairua, the spirits' pathway, climb down through the ancient tree's root system, and descend to begin their journey back to Hawaiki, the ancestral homeland. At the Three Kings Islands, visible on clear days to the northwest, they pause for one last look at the land of the living. Then they continue on.

Read more: Cape Reinga on Qualla

Image: Bgabel | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cape Reinga: Where Two Oceans Meet

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit QFSE Media, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cape Reinga occupies the northwestern tip of the Aupouri Peninsula, a long finger of land at the top of New Zealand's North Island. The nearest town, Kaitaia, is more than 100 kilometers to the south. Here the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean converge, and on rough days you can s...

Read more: Cape Reinga on Qualla

Image: QFSE Media | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cape Reinga: The Spirits' Highway

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michal Klajban, CC BY-SA 4.0. For Maori, Cape Reinga is not a tourist destination. It is a sacred site where the physical world meets the spiritual one. According to Maori mythology, when a person dies their spirit travels northward along the length of the North Island to this headland. The journey ends at th...

Read more: Cape Reinga on Qualla

Image: Michal Klajban | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cape Reinga: The Light on the Headland

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0. A lighthouse has guided ships around this treacherous cape since 1879, when the first light was built on nearby Motuopao Island. The current lighthouse, constructed on the headland itself in 1941, was automated in 1987 and its keepers withdrawn. The original 1,000-watt light with...

Read more: Cape Reinga on Qualla

Image: AlasdairW | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cape Reinga: The Long Walk North

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Phillip Capper from Wellington, New Zealand, CC BY 2.0. Cape Reinga serves as the northern terminus of Te Araroa, the 3,000-kilometer hiking trail that runs the length of New Zealand from Bluff in the far south to this headland in the far north. For through-hikers who have spent months walking the trail, arriving at the cape carries a...

Read more: Cape Reinga on Qualla

Image: Phillip Capper from Wellington, New Zealand | CC BY 2.0