January 29, 2013
There are essentially three entrances to Ninety Mile Beach. The north entrance is only accessible via the Te Paki Stream. The south entrance is near the town of Kaitaia. The Hukatere entrance lies in the middle, at the end of a long, unpaved road that meanders through the eucalyptus and pine-filled Aupouri Forest.
The nice thing about the Hukatere entrance is the remoteness of it. In spite of a lovely forest drive and the possibility of seeing wild horses in the evening, not many people come here. The lure of the giant dunes to the north and Kaitaia and clam digging to the south overshadows what the middle entrance has to offer. It’s not as stunning as the Te Paki area, but the small dunes here are quite pretty, with grass-covered tops that look like camel humps. The beach is very wide and covered with shells at the shoreline, the sea a beautiful blue-green.
Aside from being a nice place to see, it’s by far the easiest entrance to manage by car. Basically you come the end of the road and if you like, you can drive right onto the beach. The sand is packed hard and the beach is amazingly wide. At this point, we decided to do the beach on foot.
There was one car parked on the beach using a very long line and a kite to fish from the beach, and we saw him reel in a couple of fish. I will mention here that while Ninety Mile Beach is considered a “highway,” it’s not organized in any way. Cars park here and there along the shore to fish or picnic, and I’m not sure you need to worry about what side of the “road” you’re on. All you need to do is not hit anyone, but that’s not a challenge because there’s so much room. You do need to watch out for fishing lines!
Satisfied that the sand was packed hard enough, we decided to drive on the beach, mostly just to say we’d done it. We made two huge circles, getting a big kick out of driving on a beach, this one in particular. After conquering Ninety Mile Beach, we headed south to our next stop. –Cyndi
