After leaving Matai Bay, I swung north to hit the very top of New Zealand, Cape Reinga.  On the west coast the entire way up the cape is a stretch of beach known as 90 Mile Beach (although it isn’t 90 miles long…not even 90km long..so I don’t know where the name comes from).  According to my guidebook, and few other people I’ve spoken to, a common way to reach the tip of Cape Reinga is by actually driving on the beach.

Now, in general I know my limits and I know my vehicles limits, but I was assured by many people that my little front-wheel-drive Honda could handle 90 Mile Beach because the sand is packed hard as cement.  So I had to give it a try…if you’ve read my previous mini-posts, you know that it didn’t work out very well for me.

When I got to the beach, I thought it looked pretty rough..not the tide, that was rough too, but the beach itself.  There seemed to be no way that my car could handle the sand.  But there were other vehicles (4x4s, yes) and tire tracks in the sand, so I figured I’d give it a go.

I made it about 3km or so up the coast, the entire time feeling generally unsure about the whole situation, and then abruptly started to slow down until I was stuck.  Irreversibly stuck.  Well, shit.

I spent a few minutes trying to dig myself out and trying to push it, but these were futile efforts, the car was really stuck.  I looked out at the crashing waves, at least it seemed the tide was going out, but I wasn’t all that far away from the surf line…maybe 20 feet.

The beach was beautiful…white sand as far as I could see in either direction, nice dunes, a powerful ocean, and plenty of sun, but I was starting to get seriously worried.  Then I got seriously pissed off at myself for making such a stupid mistake, and I had images of the surf coming in and taking my new (used) car out to sea and all I’d have left was a story of regret. 

Luckily, I had cell service, so I called a towing company and spoke to a nice lady who assured me that this type of thing happens a lot with ignorant tourists like me, and that I should really not venture onto the beach at all without a 4WD vehicle.  And CERTAINLY not while the tide is up as it is now…she then told me the little morsel of information that everyone else, including my guidebook, failed to mention.  It may be obvious in retrospect, but the sand is only rock hard below the high tide line.  Above the tide line, it is soft sand just like any other beach in the world.  I would have had no problems driving the beach if I had gotten there six hours later.

Anyhow, I can’t blame it on anyone else, it was my fault.  And now, on the phone with the towing company, prepared to shell out half of the car’s value (and all of my savings) just to get it unstuck, the kind lady told me that they wouldn’t come help me.  She informed me that it would take $200 and that they really don’t like taking tow trucks down onto the beach.  She advised me to sit and wait and that “someone will come and help you out”.  Then she said goodbye and hung up.

Shit again.  Now I’d have to just sit here and wait in the hopes that someone would come by and feel pity on the ignorant tourist and pull me out of my trap to safety.  But lucky for me, this is New Zealand.  It is full of people ready to help me out.

First was a German backpacker who was walking the entirety of 90 Mile Beach and camping in the dunes along the way (kinda jealous of that).  Lucas and I spent an hour or so digging out the car and trying to move it.  We had nominal success, I drove it about 10 feet further before it got stuck again.  And then for some reason two bigger waves came up and began to submerge the front left tire.  Shit shit shit.  All I could think about was how I’d have to explain this story to everyone for the rest of my life…and I couldn’t really say “The sea was angry that day” because that would be a lie, I’d have to say “The Tim was idiot that day” or something.

Anyhow, eventually a nice kiwi bloke in a 4x4 who was going fishing on the beach stopped and asked to help.  Unfortunately, neither of us had rope.  I did however, have my traveler’s hammock (an item I looked at the day before as an unnecessary accessory) and fortunately my new (used) car has a trailer hitch.  We tied the hammock between the two cars and with ease, he pulled me right out of the ditch and onto hard sand.

I thanked both Lucas and the fisherman profusely, and prayed that I wouldn’t get stuck in any sand in the 3km back to the access road.  I didn’t.  Although once back on the road, I did notice that my alignment had been adjusted and that my car shook violently whenever I went above 85kmph.  But at least it wasn’t underwater.

I continued on to Cape Reinga on the paved road and heeded my newly learned lesson.

After flip-flopping for a bit about whether I need and can afford a car, I decided to get one.  I started looking on TradeMe, a NZ website similar to Craigslist or eBay, and a few days ago, I saw a Honda Accord at around $900 NZD ($650 USD).  I set up an autobid for up to $1200 NZD ($880 USD), and was surprised when I looked the next day to see that I was winning at $1180.  Turns out, I won the bid…

The next day, I woke up at 4:30am to go to Auckland with Bert (he goes every Monday and Thursday to drop off eggs), helped him pick up some pig food and then got dropped off in North Shore City to check out the car.

My New (used) Car

After a test drive and a final lookover, I decided to buy it.  This car is almost identical to the one I drove for six years (until it was brutally murdered in a hit-and-run…RIP) except that it is automatic.  It is a 1994 and it has a fair amount of kilometers on it (275,000) but it is a Honda and it runs great.

I put my left-side driving to the test on the two-hour drive back to the farm, but the car is wonderful.  It will get me everywhere I need to go, and with a 2.2litre engine it has a bit of a kick up some of NZ’s hilly highways.

Now I just need a job…