Sandboarding the Cape Reinga sand dunes at Te Paki

Nothing on the drive north prepares you for the Te Paki dunes. One moment you are on a farm road, the next you are looking up at a wall of pale gold sand that the Department of Conservation puts at around 150 m high.¹ Northland Inc calls them the most impressive dunes in Taitokerau Northland, with some rising up to 150m.² Up close they feel taller still, because there is nothing to give them scale except the people climbing them.

DOC describes the giant dunes as a popular stop for people visiting Cape Reinga and Ninety Mile Beach, and you do not have to slide down them to enjoy them.⁶ Walking up for the view is reason enough: on one side the stream winds toward the sea, on the other the sand ripples away in every direction. Early morning and late afternoon light picks out every ridge and footprint, and the colors change by the minute.

The dunes also matter to the people of this land. Ngāti Kuri describe them as one of the most striking landscapes in their rohe, with cultural and environmental significance for the iwi.⁷ Treat them as you would any special place: stay off the fragile edges, take your rubbish home and leave the sand as you found it. The Cape Reinga sand dunes are a playground for visitors, but they were somebody's landscape long before the first board arrived.

The Department of Conservation is direct about the risk. People have been seriously injured sandboarding at Te Paki, and someone has died.³ The dunes are long and steep, and boards go very fast.¹⁵ DOC also points out that emergency services are a long way from Te Paki, so if something goes wrong it takes a long time for help to arrive.¹⁶ That last point is the one to remember on the slope.

DOC's advice is practical. Start on a small slope or a short distance to test yourself before you try the full height.⁹ Walk your chosen line first and look for hidden bumps or debris.⁸ Keep the board under control and your speed low: it is easy to go fast quickly, lose control and tumble.¹¹ Dragging your feet slows you down, so practice that on the first short run. Falling is part of learning, so wear clothes you do not mind scraping.

Other rules protect the people around you. Check that your line is clear of anyone else before you start sliding.¹⁰ And never board down a dune that runs into the stream where vehicles drive, because you could end up in front of a car or bus.⁴ Pick a face that runs out onto flat sand away from the stream bed, and keep an eye on where your friends are standing at the bottom. A quick word with your group before the first run saves trouble later.

The giant sand dunes near Cape Reinga have a long history. DOC explains that extensive coastal dune fields formed across Northland in the last few million years.²¹ Sand from eroded undersea volcanoes offshore, and from volcanic material worn down in the central North Island, was carried north along the coast by longshore drift.²² Some of the grains under your board may have started their journey far to the south.

The dunes are still moving. DOC notes that in dry seasons they tend to advance, and in wet seasons they pull back.²³ That push and pull shapes the land around them, where farmland, remnant forest and wetlands meet the sand. The dunes also hold a record of the past: bones of moa, kōkako and tuatara have turned up in the sand.²⁴ What looks like an empty desert is in fact a living archive. Come back in a few years and the shapes will have changed.

Life on the sand is tough but real. Pīngao, a native sedge, can live in moving sand and grows on the windy, seaward side of dunes.²⁵ The katipo, New Zealand's poisonous native spider, is a dune specialist; the female can bite but is a retiring animal that only attacks when frightened.^26,27 Leave driftwood and plants alone, and you are very unlikely to meet one. Watch where you put your hands when you sit down to rest.