Giant Dunes- Te Paki

Catch-up

From our base at the Tapotupotu Bay DOC camp ,we drove 15kms back down the main highway to visit one of the top tourist attractions in the Far North; the giant Te Paki Sand Dunes. A small inconspicuous sign post points the way down a short gravel side road to the dunes. Ahead of us, multiple clouds of dust indicate we're not the only ones visiting the dunes today and it doesn't take long for mounds of gleaming white sand to appear through the trees in front of us.

The dune carpark is busy and we're lucky to find a space, I've heard that on some days cars are parked haphazardly back along the road edge for a couple kilometres. 

The dunes are huge and from the carpark we can see a several groups of people, looking like tiny ants slowly making their way up the sides of the nearby dunes.

The Te Paki Sand Dunes are a coastal strip of ever changing sand 10km long, 1km wide and 150 metres high. The Te Paki Stream flows past in front of the carpark and heads for the coast through the middle of the dunes.

This entrepreneurial young guy from the local iwi (tribe) has the best job in the world he tells me, he says he travels the world from the back of his truck, meeting many different nationalities as he hires out sand boards to tourists that arrive to surf the dunes. He also has the gift of the gab and is well suited to his job.

I decide that it looks too much of an effort to climb to the top of the dunes and I also don't want to end up with sand in every nook & cranny so today I'll just sit and watch everyone else enjoy themselves. It's also very hot and the white sand is blinding, you definitely need sunglasses to cut out the glare.

Once people have crossed the stream (some leaving their shoes behind, they'll struggle walking over the hot sand), the climb begins easy enough but as they start climbing the steeper ridges it becomes a tough slog through the deep loose sand and I watch as feet and sometimes legs up to the knees are swallowed up by the sand with each laboured step. 

Some people decide it's just as much fun sliding down the slopes on the other side of the stream.

We have lunch at one of the picnic tables and watch as the keen ones make it to the top of the tallest dune. 

Once again I'm pleased I have my zoom lens (click on the photos to enlarge)-

Many wipe out soon after leaving the top, then it's a slow haul back up to the top.

It's recommended to take a scarf to wrap around you head; covering your ears, nose & mouth to stop the fine sand from getting in if you have a major wipe out. 

The Te Paki Stream cuts around the base of the nearby dunes as it heads to the sea. This wide braided stream bed is actually the 3km access track to the famous Ninety Mile Beach. If you've driven or taken a tour up the beach from Ahipara or any of the earlier access points, Te Paki Stream is also the last exit from the beach before Cape Reinga.

I'm disappointed when I see signs saying the track is temporarily closed due to a washout, I really want to drive through to the beach but David's not keen to take the ute anywhere there is salt water. While we're having a little discussion a Subaru shoots past us and off down the track.

I walk over and have a chat with my friendly entrepreneurial guy and he looks around furtively and then just to be sure he's not heard, he whispers from behind his hand that the track is fine for 4WDs. They (that's the royal they) have left the signs up to deter inexperienced overseas drivers in rental vehicles from driving through. He also mentions that he's been charging people a couple of hundred dollars to tow their vehicles out of the sand when they've ignored the signs & his warnings. 

I manage to convince David to at least see what's around the corner...

We follow other vehicles tracks, the sand is mostly firm and smooth although we can see where vehicles have taken a different track and become a little bogged. We meet a small tour van coming towards us, one of the occupants is standing atop a sand bank taking photos as they come through the water. The people from the Subaru that we'd seen heading down the track earlier, were now attacking the tallest dune from a different angle, clambering up the spine to the very top.

Rather than a washout, there's been a large sand slide over one section of the track at some stage. It's been packed down by passing vehicles but we still slip and slide through it before lurching out onto a very wide section of the stream bed. It's easy to follow the wrong tracks but we try to keep to the firmer wet sand until finally...

...we pop out onto Ninety Mile Beach.

Ninety Mile Beach is actually only 55 miles (88 kms) long. It is thought that European settlers named it because they knew their horses could travel up to 30 miles a day. Unfortunately they didn't account for the slower pace of travelling on sand.

Looking north to Scott Point and the top of 90 Mile Beach...

... and south along miles and miles of deserted coastline. Travel on the beach is recommended 3 hours after high tide. Most rental companies do not allow or insure their vehicles on the beach. There have been many instances of vehicles coming to grief along the beach in soft sand or being caught out by the tide which comes in a quite a pace.

David stops the ute where the fresh stream water dissipates into the sand, he's won't be going any closer to the salt water, so we walk down to the water's edge and check out a flock of seabirds resting along the wave line. You never know when you might spot an odd man out in amongst a regular flock of seabirds but today it's just a group of gulls and terns.

Another vehicle has come out from the stream bed and is quick to head south along the beach. I zoom in on it and in the background I can see clearly the tunnel in Matapia Island, a tiny island just offshore and the only one along the beach's length.

It's time for us to head back up the stream bed and once again it's difficult to follow the tracks and also remember which braiding we came through on the way down. One set of tracks cut through some soft sand and we're certain we didn't come this way earlier but we push on through and safely get to the other side. The Subaru has now gone from the base of the dunes and all they've left behind are dozens of footprints weaving their way up the dune. 

We stop alongside our mate at the truck to let him know he'll not be getting $200 from us today, wave cherrio and head on back to camp.

The Seal Pups of Ohau Stream

Winter has now well & truly arrived, there’s a good coating of snow on the mountains behind Kaikoura as we packed up and headed north along the Kaikoura coastline.

We stop at both the well known & iconic crayfish (rock lobster) caravans that sell the expensive delicacy on the side of the road just north of Kaikoura. Cays Crays might be more well known for being the main player & inspiration behind one of Fat Freddy Drops' song “Cay’s Crays” (a well known New Zealand band from Wellington)

Do I question my loyalties?
Do I try to work it out?
Well you're the part of my memories
That I never wanna live without
So long I've been gone
So many things have changed
But I know where I belong and
I know when I reach that place
Oh
I know when I reach that place
…..
Fire
Starts in my heart when I reach that place
Home again where I belong
Fire
Starts in my heart when I reach that place
Have I been away too long?

Unfortunately it would seem that not everybody appreciates the significance of this little piece of Kiwiana. The back window has been smashed and broken glass lay over the table & floor of the caravan. It looks like the caravan hasn’t been used for quite some time to sell crayfish. It’s a pity that the owners or locals haven’t cleaned up the vandalism as it will likely attract more.

Nins Bin was just a little further north and had it been open we would have treated ourselves to one of those expensive crays (I believe they are going for around $90 at the moment), there’s no hope of us ever catching a cray ourselves and it would have been a nice treat to finish off David’s birthday celebrations with. And afterall what better place to eat a cray than in Kaikoura-  'Kai' means eat and 'koura' means crayfish. But it wasn’t to be so we’ll just have to wait until we pass through another time.

And finally we get to Ohau Point & the reason we are travelling this stretch of SH1 again, the seal pups of Ohau Stream. It is here, for about five months every year, that dozens of seal pups gather and play while their mothers are away at sea, for 2-3 days at a time, feeding. We missed them on our way down back in November, they had already weaned and gone to sea.

A short walking track follows the rocky Ohau stream inland for about 500 metres to where a small pool has formed beneath the Ohau waterfall. The seal pups make their way up the stream clambering over rocks and swimming up the stream until they reach the pool where they hang out & play with their mates. A seal crèche without grownups.

You do have to look carefully as you walk up the stream as the pups are quite hard to spot against the rocks and they can swim very fast through the deeper sections. I followed four pups up the stream that I had spotted under the road bridge at the beginning of the walk, they moved very well over the rocks, sometimes giving each other a bit of encouragement over rocks by pushing & biting each other as they went. Once they got to the big pool they launched themselves into the melee; diving, jumping, swirling & floating about in the turbulent water under the falls. 

There were a number of resting spots for the pups in the area with the main one on a rocky ledge above the pool. There was a constant stream of pups arriving and leaving the ledge (and leaving and arriving in the pool from the coast) Some pups slept while other had little tussles with each other, others tried to avoid the bullies by climbing vertically up the steeper sections of the rocks.

There was also a constant stream of visitors arriving to see the pups in the pool. The children were fascinated with the pups & some of the pups were quite inquisitive too, climbing out on the rocks at our feet to check us out. There are times when this pool is packed with seal pups, and the rocks at the front are covered with them too.

Flying pig? See if you can make the head out from the tail…because I had trouble. Some of the pups were very funny swimming in the pool, quite a few did headstands leaving their tiny little back flippers sticking up in the air for ages like peace signs. I wonder what they were looking for on the pool floor.

This little guy was keen to model for quite awhile, he came right in close and settled on a rock watching us watching him.

There was a large rock at the end of the track & at the entrance to the pool. Another pup decided he would climb up on top and scare the living daylights out of anybody he decided he didn’t like. He let some people through with no problems but with others he’d launch a mock attack on them. Of course he made an ideal prop & at the right height for people doing “selfies”. I watched him for quite awhile then managed to grab David’s attention to get him to take a photo of me beside the pup. You can see one of the results after the pup decided he’d give me a scare!

I did take a few videos of the pups but I’m unable to upload them because of my data limitations but I found a good You Tube video of them that you might like to watch. It’s gives a much better indication of the noise and movement going on around the pool. Here is the link-

Once again I could have stayed all day watching the pups but we had a plan in mind to get to Ward before the late afternoon chill set in so we set off up the highway stopping not too far on at a rest area to have a late lunch.

There are some large seal colonies along this coast and in fact we saw some of the sleeping seals spilling out onto the grass verge beside the road. It’s the first time I’ve seen a road sign advising to watch out for seals on the road. Our neighbours the night before had told us that on their way through they saw a seal that had been hit by a vehicle lying dead on road with blood everywhere. Not a pretty sight and I bet the vehicle that hit it wasn’t either.

At least the seals at the rest area were safe and sound and oblivious to the dangers just down the road.