The problem is that private vehicles and rental cars aren't insured to drive there, as vehicles frequently get bogged in the sand and have to be abandoned! If we'd run into trouble we knew there would be no rescue facilities near enough to get us out before the tide comes in, and mobile phone coverage is almost nil.
So, the only answer was to take an organised coach trip from Paihia. But the thought of an 11 hour trip, starting at 7.15a.m. was pretty daunting. In the event, it turned out to be the best organised trip we had ever been on!
From Paihia we made our way up the west coast of the Aupori Peninsula to the wide band of sand that is 90 Mile Beach. ( In fact the real length of the beach is 64 miles, but it was originally calculated as being 90 miles by the 19th century drivers of horse-drawn coaches who normally averaged 30 miles per day and took 3 days to travel along the beach.)
The coach sped along the hard-packed sand - which is officially part of the state highway system.
We stopped and, after being warned by the coach driver about the possible danger, had a chance to walk around and go for a paddle.....
......though Steve thought it would be more fun to run into the waves.
This photo (below) gives you a good idea of the scale of the beach.
Then we all piled back into the coach and headed for the Te Paki Stream, negotiating the quicksands. The driver pointed out the rusty remains of a Toyota that had got bogged down and had to be abandoned 3 years ago.
We were making for the huge sand dunes that flank the stream.
The sandboards were in the boot of the coach. We all grabbed one and battled our way through the wind, up the dune. After a brief lesson by the driver on how to use the boards some of us, not least Sue, chickened out, but the brave ones like Steve got going.
This is Steve with the green t-shirt.
No comments:
Post a Comment