Day 5: North to Cape Reinga (or in my case, Cape "Rain"ga)

The weather this morning started off “unsettled”: sometimes sunny, sometimes threatening rain. But one of my top destinations for this trip was to visit the northernmost tip of New Zealand accessible by road: Cape Reinga, which would be my next logical destination.

The rental agreement on the motorcycle prevents it from being driven on gravel roads. As the last 21 km of the road to Cape Reinga were shown in the Lonely Planet guide as unsealed (usually well packed gravel), riding round trip was out. So I planned to make the day a short one, riding from Kerikeri to Kaitaia (about 120 km), and riding a tour bus to and from the Cape from there tomorrow. Due to the questionable skies, I wore my electric jacket liner, leather jacket and pants, and rainsuit – just in case.

The weather was staying dry, so I stopped for some photos in Cable Bay.

As soon as I snapped these photos, the skies opened up, and I rode in light to heavy rain toward Kaitaia. Since I was arriving so early (it was about 12:20 noon), I decided to stop at the iSite and get information on how to book the bus trip to the Cape. The agent at the iSite informed me that, as of last year, the road is now paved all the way to the Cape – so I would be able to ride to the Cape. We also booked a room at the Mainstreet Lodge (a BBH facility), so I rode there to drop the side cases and camp rolls for security and to make the bike a little less top heavy for the ride.

The ride to the Cape is about 110 km of roads ranging from decent straigtaways where you could make decent time to S-L-O-W twisties where 2^nd and 3^rd gear were appropriate, The initial stages of the raod were pretty boring, but the closer one got to the Cape, the scenery improved markedly.

But nothing could match the absolute breadth of the views from the Cape. You park about 200 m above the light house, on one of the windiest locations I’ve ever been at.

As you walk out to the light house, the views of the beach to the south and the hills to the north are also remarkable.

And the light house wasn’t bad either; it confirmed that even at the northernmost point of New Zealand, I’m a lot closer to the South Pole than home.

The ride back to Kaitaia was dry for the first 70 km, but then the skies opened up again right AFTER I stopped to don my rain suit. The rest of the ride was slow, in the dark, in heavy rain – something I usually try to avoid. I stopped to buy fixings for dinner, and was back at the lodge by 7:30 p.m.

Tomorrow, I start heading back south along the western coast. My goal is to get near Auckland for the night.

Motorcycle mileage: 363 km for the day.