To the consternation and dismay of locals, on the weekend of 14 and 15 April 2018 a ute and 4 quad bikes tore up the two walking tracks to the beach off Reay Mackay Grove (vehicles are forbidden on those tracks). They also hooned around in the dunes and churned up part of a private property.
At the north track off Reay Mackay Grove they’d pulled up several posts at the beach end that hold tape to discourage people from entering the dunes and driven on sand banks, breaking them down.
At the south track they entered through private property to avoid the bollards designed to keep vehicles out, churned up the track and went off-track into the dunes where they drove around. At the beach end of the track they moved a large piece of driftwood that was in their way.
Note: the white car in the photo belongs to a visitor to the beach at the time the photo was taken.
At some point along the track they also got stuck, as a photo provided by a neighbour shows.
The beach end of the track shows how they drove vehicles on and off the walking path, leaving deep trenches in the beach.
Ultimately the ute and quad bikes departed the beach through the river.
Locals were disturbed by the fact that these vehicles had entered the dune area and driven round there, crossed (and damaged) private property to get into the dunes and shown reckless disregard for the environment and for other people using the tracks. One neighbour was also concerned that they had entered a different private property, at night, causing alarm.
It’s one thing to drive along the beach, with due caution around people, dogs, horses, seals and birds. It’s another to hoon around en masse in the dunes and tear up walking tracks.
If you know those responsible please have a chat to them and ask them not to return.
These are the kind of people who will ruin it for the rest of us,it would also be good if the respective councils would hurry up and do something about fixing the drive on access to the beach and fixing the erosion caused by recent and past storms and not trying to alter the course of Waikawa Stream.
Thanks for your work here Miraz – it was upsetting to see reckless behaviour damaging the dunes and plants and they have also caused concern by entering private property at night and maybe they were also responsible for the fireworks being let off near the 60 Reay MacKay Gr entrance and leaving their rubbish on the beach!!
The Community Constable, via the Horowhenua Neighbourhood Support group has advised us: