As we were already pretty far north and had some time to spare, we decided to fill the tank and make a mad dash up the Aupouri Peninsula to Cape Reinga – where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, and where Maori souls go when they die...

The Peninsula is around 100km long and 10-20km wide – a long spit pointing out from the mainland to the north-east. Its eastern coast has a few spectacular bays, mostly named by Mr Cook on his tour, and beyond the forests the western coast is lined by the unbroken sands of Ninety Mile Beach.

Most of the supposedly gorgeous scenery was hidden from us by heavy mists that floated in from the sea. As we drove further north the farmlands thinned to sheep-tended heath, and we left the mists behind as the road wound upwards towards the cliffs of the cape.

At the end of the Earth, there was a car park. We parked up. In the last ten minutes of our drive the temperature had suddenly dropped and more mist streamed across the clifftops from west to east. A suitably spooky setting for the entrance to the afterlife.

The Cape itself is marked by a lighthouse that watches over the merging of the Tasman and the Pacific like a referee. They don't play nice. Looking out over the water you can see slow giant whirlpools forming, white clashing waves and jagged zig zag tears where Sea and the Ocean meet.

Just to the east of the lighthouse is the most sacred site in Maoridom – an 800 year old pohutukawa tree growing out of a rocky outcrop. It is down through this tree's roots that Maori souls enter the afterlife. There were plenty of signs in the area asking us to refrain from eating, drinking or smoking whilst on the Cape out of respect for this sacred site. On the way back to the car park we met a group of young Maori guys who seemed pretty determined to flout as many of these rules as possible. Fags in one hand, Smirnoff Ice and Speight's in the other, they swaggered down the path towards the lighthouse in jeans and wife-beaters. One pointed out the tree to another with his beer; 'Yeah, so this is where our souls go when we die bro.'

On the way back down the coast we took a detour to get to the Ninety Mile Beach. It nearly proved to be a one way trip as the road gave way to muddy gravel, then sand. We parked the van before we got stuck, and walked out over the grassy dunes onto the beach. The sun was making a valiant effort to shine through the encroaching clouds, and the sand shone in the incoming tide.

After leaving the beach, we drove past a roadside stall selling Hangi in a Pie for $3.50.