At the beach

I didn't grow up here. Where I come from, the beaches have black iron sand and crashing waves from the constant onshore winds. I remember visiting here when I was a kid and being amazed by the pale "sand"-coloured sand. That colour had never made much sense till then! Sadly I don't have any photos of us riding on the beach in the 'Naki - it was before the days of digital cameras.


The beaches north and south of the cities here are brilliant riding beaches. The closer ones unfortunately are not horse friendly and frankly dangerous with waves that take small children, and pebbles instead of sand. So you need to load up the float and drive about an hour, but then you get this...

Waimarama Beach, in winter (you can tell by the Hairy Horse)

Sometimes there are obstacles - this is actually a log that has been made into a seat. Apologies to the locals, but we just saw a jump!




The long, flat beaches are fabulous for going for a gallop on. This is locally known as "hooning" or "going for a blat". As long as you don't run over the other beach occupants, no-one minds. It pays to watch out for the fishing lines but you are usually pretty safe. If you get out of control you guide your horse into the deep, soft sand or the sea. My little Possum tends to run out of puff before we run out of beach!

I'd love to be there now...