Today travelled up the Aupori Peninsula (that is the long skinny bit at the top of North Island that looks like a rays tail) ti Cape Reinga. We were very lucky with the weather, warm and sunny with beautiful clear blue skies - perfect for seeing the views. Reinga is where the Spirits of the dead depart from. They arrive via 90 mile beach and at the cape slide down the roots of a pohutukawa tree into the ocean, climbing out on Ohaua (which you can just see in the photos) the highest of the Three Kings Islands. There they make a final farewell before returning to the Ancestors in Hawaiiki.
Spirits Bay a few mile back was also spectacular but was also where our luck ran out. The engine started getting a bit hot (water temp) we stopped gave car a bit of a rest, checked oil and water levels which were OK so continued slowly but oil warning came on so had to stop again. Middle of nowhere but several people stopped to offer help, even a tow if we had a rope (which we didn’t). We had taken out road rescue so were able to get to nearest town and car in lockup for night but had to hire a car to get back to tent which was miles away.