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.