The lighthouse is at the very tip of the North Island. All you see is "sea".
On the small map of the world, we are the black speck just below Australia. Hopefully you can work out where you are.

Cape Reinga is the northernmost part of New Zealand. Its distinctive 10.5 metre tall lighthouse (165 metres above sea level) is a landmark - the light from its beacon can be seen 50 kilometres out to sea. It is said, that standing there looking out to sea is a amazing experience. Apart from the Three Kings Islands, faintly visible on the horizon, 64km northwest of Cape Reinga, there is nothing but ocean. (The vast Pacific Ocean stretches almost another 16,000 km north to the Bering Sea). It is here also that another great Ocean, Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, joining with it to create turbulent waters, with waves up to 10m high, during storms.

Cape Reinga has always been a place of great consequence to the Maori people,including myself. Tradition says that when a Maori person dies, the spirit after hovering for a time above the body, makes a final journey to Cape Reinga, where it turns and farewells the land, that will soon be lost to view.
The spirit then descends down to a wild & rocky promontory, known as "Te Rerengawairua" - the spirits that leap. A lone pohutukawa tree growing on the lower eastern side, of which the roots are exposed enable the spirit to climb down to the rocky promontory for its final moments on this, "its last place" on this land. In the sea, close to the promontory is a deep hole - as the waves flow in, long masses of seaweed, obscure the entrance, but as the water recedes, the hole is fully revealed. It is then that the spirit dives in, to begin the long journey home to Hawaiki - the mystical homeland and place of orgin, where the spirit will be reunited with its loved ancestors.