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Cape Reinga, official name Cape Reinga/Te Rerenga Wairua,〔() Deed Of Settlement, Ngati Kuri and the Crown. Retrieved 10 February 2014〕 is the northwesternmost tip of the Aupouri Peninsula, at the northern end of the North Island of New Zealand. Cape Reinga is more than 100 km north of the nearest small town of Kaitaia. State Highway 1 extends all the way to the Cape, but until 2010 was unsealed gravel road for the last 19 km.〔''(Cape Reinga improvements to restore mana of spirits' highway )'' - ''New Zealand Herald'', Thursday 23 August 2007〕 Suitable vehicles can also travel much of the way via Ninety Mile Beach and Te Paki stream bed. The 'Te Rerenga Wairua' component of the name in Māori language means the ''leaping-off place of spirits''.〔''(Te Rerenga Wairua - Leaping Place of the Spirits )'' - ''Te Ao Hou'', No. 35, June 1961)〕 The 'Reinga' part of the name is the Māori language word meaning ''the underworld''.〔(History of Cape Reinga ) (from the DOC website)〕 Both refer to the Māori belief that the cape is the point where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld. Cape Reinga is on the tentative list of UNESCO waiting to receive World Heritage Site status.〔(All Tentative Sites ) (from the World Heritage Site website)〕 The cape is already a favourite tourist attraction, with over 120,000 visitors a year and around 1,300 cars arriving per day during peak season. Visitor numbers are growing by about five percent a year, and the increase is likely to become even more now that the road to the cape is fully sealed.〔 ==Meeting of the seas== Cape Reinga is generally considered the separation marker between the Tasman Sea to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east. From the lighthouse it is possible to watch the tidal race, as the two seas clash to create unsettled waters just off the coast. The Māori refer to this as the meeting of ''Te Moana-a-Rehua'', 'the sea of Rehua' with ''Te Tai-o-Whitirea'', 'the sea of Whitirea', Rehua and Whitirea being a male and a female respectively.〔 The cape is often mistakenly thought of as being the northernmost point of the North Island, and thus, of mainland New Zealand. However, North Cape's Surville Cliffs, 30 km east of Cape Reinga, are slightly further north. Another headland just to the west of Cape Reinga is Cape Maria van Diemen, which was named by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman during his journey in 1642 and thought of by him to be the northernmost point of the newly discovered country he named 'Staten Landt'. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cape Reinga」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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