New Zealand and the islands of the south pacific have broad appeal. Yet it is the geography, geology and climate of the chain of islands which have served to shape their rich cultural and social heritage. This blog is my attempt to explore how these elements have contributed to making the islands so appealing. The title 'back door' is simply my way of suggesting the entries are the musings of a resident, albeit short term, rather than that of a tourist.
Saturday, 29 August 2015
90 Mile Beach
Travelling on a bus rarely generates a whole lot of excitement at the best of times. Of course if there are sites to see the appeal improves dramatically. On this occasion not only were the sites appealing, but the bus itself was somewhat different. Most of all it was what we were travelling on that made this trip unique. For approximately 80 kilometers we drove on hard pack beach sand.
The novelty of the situation played upon my mind as the kilometers clicked by. It was low tide and the expansive beach spread like a featureless runway.The sand was so smooth, nary a bump jarred my reverie. On our left dunes of sand marked the beach head and the pounding surf of the ocean to the right was a constant reminder of where we were at.
This beach is called 90 Mile Beach named in the 19th century. Horses
would carry goods along the beach. Calculating how far a horse travels in a day it took three days to make the trip from one end to the other or 30 miles a day. However in sand the progress is impeded ever so slightly by softer under footing, hence the presumed miscalculation. It is actually about 85 kilometers.
We had to navigate streams of water, periodically. From what I gathered the ebb and flow of the tides flattened the stream beds out only proving to be a minor obstacle for the buses.
We stopped at our first creek bed which you can see to the right. Arendje was taking a picture of our travelling companions. The bus provides perspective as to the breadth of the beach. Probably several hundred meters separated the ocean from the high tide mark.
This beach is a designated highway in New Zealand, As it is in the extreme north of the island it is not used extensively. We only saw a hand full of vehicles, mostly fishermen.
Saturday, 22 August 2015
Te Paki Giant Sand Dunes
stabilized by plants,
We engaged in what appeared to be the rather reckless sport of sand surfing. Looking at the hill I thought one must be either addled or an adrenaline junky to consider this. I must be both, guess who went first. Right! Me! All of them were younger than me, but with obvious more common sense. It soon became apparent that sand surfing may look risky, yet was much tamer than first appearances, and still fun.
The dunes are 17 kms from Cape Reinga. A stream became our road with dunes towering above to the left and right. The bus ride through the stream bed another first for me.
Cape Reinga
The Pohuntukawa tree pictured to the right apparently never flowers. It stands along on this barren chunk of rock defying wind and waves for centuries. This is taken with a 60x zoom. It is a long distance from the light house. Part of the oral legend springs from this particular tree.
This northern extremity of New Zealand is best described as a 100 kilometre peninsula with a scant few kilometres separating the vast ocean bodies. Red sands carpet the hillsides. These are thought to be the legacy of eons of wind swept sands from the vast continent of Australia. Winds were indeed strong out of the west on the day we ventured to this remote and intriguing site.
I took pictures galore. The day was pleasant enough, sufficiently warm to allow us to linger at the more interesting sites. We took up conversations with the other passengers from Germany, England, Australia and elsewhere.
The next three entries are all part of this trip. Arendje is after me to arrange trips to the islands but I am finding enough here to captivate my interests for a long time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)