A toxic cocktail of speed and too many vehicles is increasingly threatening lives - and the environment - on New Zealand s longest driveable beach.
Kaipara District Councillor David Wills at Mahuta Gap where constant four wheel driving has damaged sand dune vegetation.
Photo: LDR / Susan Botting
That s the grim warning from a Kaipara leader who says the problem is worsening.
Tauranga 13-year-old Daisy Fernandez died after being struck by an unregistered motorbike on Ripiro s Glinks Gully on 31 December 2007. It s only a matter of time until someone else is killed on Ripiro Beach, Kaipara District Councillor David Wills said.
The west coast s Ripiro Beach runs for 107km from Maunganui Bluff northwest of Dargaville in the north to Pouto Point settlement at the tip of Pouto Peninsula on Kaipara Harbour s northern entrance south of Dargaville. It s the longest driveable beach in New Zealand (Ninety Mile Beach is 88km long).
It’s the longest driveable beach in New Zealand. Hundreds of off-roaders, other four wheel drives, cars and quad bikes and motorbikes are increasingly flocking to the beach – along with ever-growing numbers of people. The beach is classified as a road. It has a 100 kmh speed limit outside small pockets of 30k/h zones around small settlements along its beach’s length. Ripiro Beach’s settlements include Manganui Bluff, Omamari, Baylys Beach, Glinks Gully and Pouto Point. “We have been discovered as a destination for off-roading,” Graeme Ramsey, 25-year Baylys Bach resident and former Kaipara Mayor and Northland Regional Council deputy chairman said.
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