Cape Reinga
Sacred Māori departure point for spirits and popular tourist destination.
Last updated
Phillip Capper from Wellington, New Zealand · via Wikipedia: Cape Reinga · CC BY 2.0
Over 500,000 people visit Cape Reinga annually, making it a well-frequented tourist destination.[1] The boundary where the Tasman Sea on the west meets the Pacific Ocean on the east is commonly identified as Cape Reinga.[2]
Last updated 2026-09-28 from the source article.
Biology and range
Māori refer to this as the meeting of Te Moana-a-Rehua with Te Tai-o-Whitirea.[2] The Cape Reinga lighthouse stands on the edge of a steep rocky cape, lashed by the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean.[3] The Cape Reinga light today is electric, with the last lighthouse keeper being withdrawn in 1987.[3] Everywhere you look in the surrounding landscape of Te Rerenga Wairua, you can find evidence of human settlement, hundreds of years in the making.[3]
From the lighthouse, observers can see the tidal race created where the two seas collide, producing turbulent water near the shore.[2]
What the specialist sources record
The Department of Conservation states that for Māori, Cape Reinga is the most spiritually significant place in New Zealand.[3] A 2007 article in The New Zealand Herald reports that work on a new carpark at Cape Reinga was due to start next month, coinciding with sealing of the last unsealed northern section of State Highway 1.[4] The same article notes that the Department of Conservation said current visitor parking and toilet facilities were inappropriately located on an area sacred to Maori, Te Ara Wairua.[4] The new carpark and toilets were part of a $6.5 million government-funded upgrade announced in 2007.[4]
A temporary walkway was to be built to allow pedestrian access to the cape.[4] The road sealing project was expected to take at least three years, depending on weather.[4] Spirits enter the underworld by sliding down a root into the sea.[3]
References
- Wikipedia, "Cape Reinga" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Respect and protect: Ngāti Kuri's plea to summer travellers", The New Zealand Herald, 19 December 2024; Gee, Tony, "Three-year Cape Reinga road upgrade under way", The New Zealand Herald, 3 September 2007 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Cape Reinga" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Mitcalfe, "Te Rerenga Wairua - Leaping Places of the Spirits", Jun 1961, p. 38-42 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Cape Reinga/Te Rerenga Wairua heritage", Department of Conservation. facts only, no text reused. doc.govt.nz
- Gee, "Cape Reinga improvements to restore mana of spirits' highway", The New Zealand Herald, 23 August 2007. facts only, no text reused. nzherald.co.nz
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Cape Reinga (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Cape Reinga (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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