Cape Reinga Tour – Sandboarding in New Zealand’s Bay of Islands

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Amateur Traveler | November 4, 2021

https://amateurtraveler.com/cape-reinga-tour/

Is Sand Boarding on your bucket list? It should be.

Whilst visiting the North Island of New Zealand, the Bay of Islands, we took the Road to Cape Reinga day tour which included sandboarding.  We started at the Bus Depot in Opia. Be there at 6:50 am! If you’re super lucky, you’ll get our Maori guide, Huey.

We asked because we are those tourists, which side had the best view. For this trip, you want to be sitting on the left since we’d start with the ocean beach and come back on the road. Do the reverse if your driver takes the standard road route in the morning.

You’ll spend the next 45 minutes picking up other tourists. It’s OK to sleep through it. No one will even bat an eye if you take a pillow, blanket, or neck pillow (like on airplanes).

Puketi Forest

The first stop was the Puketi Forest. Follow the circular boardwalks around enormous Kauri trees. For every meter they rise, it’s 300 years of growth. If you arrive in the evening, you have a chance to see glow worms outside a cave. Huey says the best chance to see them is on the first section of the boardwalk.

It’s a great place for your first snack and drink (so take plenty). Ask the bus driver to show you where the USB port on the bus if you haven’t spotted it yet. It’s a very long day, and you don’t want your phone to be dead before you even get to the beach.

Back on the bus, we drove another hour to a beach stop and a snack and bathroom break at a Ramada Hotel. Think $11 for a bagel with avocado when you’re considering what to take from your AirBnB or hotel. Local grocery stores have several healthy options. Walking on the beach with a granola bar and a bottle of water is pretty perfect. We spotted the first rainbow of the day, away from the water, the Tasman Sea, over trees whose top branches form the shape of the cross.

90 Mile Beach

Back on the bus, Huey shared more history with us as he pulled on to the 90-mile beach. Guess how long it is? It depends on the tides, but it’s about 64 miles long at low tide. We drove a while and stopped for a break. We re-boarded but didn’t drive far when we spotted a huge, but apparently young, albatross.

Sandboarding

We were late getting out of the bus at the sand dunes. Do yourself a favor. Figure out how you’re going to manage the camera before you arrive. When the driver is pressed for time, he may not be as patient.

It is a really long way up the sand dunes. Similar to walking up ten flights of stairs, in sinking sand. Almost everyone started at a brisk pace, slipping a little, but making progress. Not even one-third of the way up, your calves start burning, you start calculating the distance up versus the distance down. You’re carrying a boogie board (the tour company supplies them), which you can use as a cane to help you maintain your balance. The sand loosens and it’s harder to get your footing. At about the 6^th to 7th-floor level, the sand is so steep it feels like you could be a human snowball falling backward. At that point, you know there’s no way to go but up. It would take too long to climb down from there. By that time someone has already made it to the top and has started the fast slide down, so you can’t get in their way.

Huey was at the top, helping the few that went up to get settled. You have to put down the boogie board and lay head first, not feet, and then reposition yourself to move further back on the board. It’s important to drag your feet in the sand to slow you down, then lift your feet to make it easier to cross the little river at the base of the sand dunes. Otherwise, you get wet.

One thing no one else will tell you… everyone loses their board at some point during the slide. All you can do is grab it and hold on even harder. It’s tempting to close your eyes. It’s scary hurdling face-first down a sand dune, much harder than snowboarding when you have some (perhaps false) sense of security. Definitely wear sunglasses. You need protection for your eyes. The super well prepared will bring swim goggles.

I did too good a job slowing myself down right at the water’s edge. I got super soaked.