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Toxic cocktail of speed, too many vehicles on beach threatening lives Mon, 21 Dec 2020, 4:55PM
Kaipara District Councillor David Wills at Mahuta Gap where constant four wheel driving has damaged sand dune vegetation. Photo / Susan Botting
Toxic cocktail of speed, too many vehicles on beach threatening lives
text by Susan Botting, Local Democracy Reporter
A toxic cocktail of speed and too many vehicles is threatening lives – and the environment – on New Zealand s longest driveable beach.
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 December 31 2007 - one of several deaths on the beach.
Toxic cocktail of speed and too many vehicles on Northland beach threatening lives
20 Dec, 2020 05:00 PM
6 minutes to read
Kaipara District Councillor David Wills at Mahuta Gap where constant four wheel driving has damaged sand dune vegetation. Photo / Susan Botting
Susan Botting is the Local Democracy Reporter for Northlandsusan.botting@northernadvocate.co.nz
A toxic cocktail of speed and too many vehicles is threatening lives – and the environment – on New Zealand s longest driveable beach.
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 December 31 2007 - one of several deaths on the beach.
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.