90 Mile Beach is in fact only 55 miles/85km long. While there are several places near the southern end to access the beach, doing so from Ahipara will allow you to cover as much of the beach as possible in a vehicle. Access at the northern end is via Te Paki Stream which as the name implies requires riding down a stream to get to the beach.
As this is a tidal beach it is important to check the tide times and ensure you have enough time to complete the length of the beach with at least 2 hours to spare before full tide. If the tide comes in completely it is highly likely you could either be stranded at the high tide mark for at least 4 hours, and your vehicle could get sucked out into the tide or bogged in the sand and require external assistance for recovery, or it could be water damaged beyond repair or permanently lost.
90 mile beach is considered part of State Highway 1 so all usual road rules apply. As long as you are between water and the high tide mark the sand is generally firm packed, though there can be hidden sections of soft sand and any spots that are slightly raised above the average sand level are usually soft.
Contributed by: @eddieb
Track type: Beach
Track composition: Smooth, Firm, Flat
Slippery when wet?: No
Suitable for bikes <650cc? Intermediate
Suitable for bikes >650cc? Intermediate
River crossings? Yes
Cape Maria Van Dieman tide times
This video contains footage of Te Paki stream at the northern end of 90 Mile Beach from about 20 seconds to 1 minute 48 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GuzZwIYWTg
I rode this the other way round (north to south) on Feb 7th, was a great day.
I was following two pieces of advice – ride down the middle of the stream and follow the bus tracks – they know where to go.
SO all was well until I got to the part of the stream at 3.11 in the above video. You can see one rider stays in the stream while the other peels off and rides across a dry piece, with a few puddles in it. I was coming the other way and I can tell you that the third puddle was quite deep……nearly drowned by drz250, filled my boots with water and soaked the rest of me. So I say, stay in the middle of the stream!!
The other part of the 90 mile beach experience is trying to get the sand out of your bike afterwards. Even though I stopped at Kaitaia Motors and used their coin op water blaster, I’m still washing sand out of it and having to dismantle bits of it to get it all. Every time i look I see some i missed.
Good ride though on the right day. I was doing 85 too! Who needs and Africa Twin? 🙂 🙂
Wow Aaron, looks fantastic. Thanks for sharing. I am looking at this as an option for my next weekend trip. I noticed you are on an Africa Twin. The sound of your bike in the Video clip was so similar to a Triumph triple. Uncanny.
From stuff.co.nz
Good evening,
I’m heading up north in September to attend the Cold Kiwi Rally then spending approx. two weeks touring around with my brother.
Have down loaded the north island routes from this site and one of the rides on our bucket list is 90 mile beach.
My brother has been told that 90 mile Beach is now closed to motor vehicles driving on it.
Is this correct?
I can’t find anything to support that, though there is currently a public consultation underway by the Far North District Council about vehicle use on all beaches in the Far North region.
https://www.fndc.govt.nz/Whats-new/Have-your-say/Vehicles-on-beaches
Thanks Eddieb.
Interesting reading the submissions submitted.
Looks like we should be OK to ride on the beach in September.
There have been ongoing issues with locals “closing” Te Paki Stream.
NZ Herald
Sometimes there are a line of cones or a piece of rope etc or hand written signs giving you the impression the stream is really closed….but it isn’t. If you stop they will lecture you about eels dieing, oil contamination etc then ask you if you really wish to procede. So…don’t stop, but also don’t blast into the water cause the last time l was there, the water was almost axle deep directly at the wheel tracks into the water. However there is always somewhere there where it’s shallow (or the hole isnt there now). Because it’s winter the stream will be easy to ride, however about 1 km down it narrows and there is a deeper water/soft sand bit close to the dunes that catches out bikes and vehicles alike, just ride where water is flowing, not still. After heavy rain the stream changes…and sometimes it really is closed temporarily but DOC always put proper signs up. If you are coming off the beach you may see a sign saying stream closed…again ignore it, unless it’s a DOC sign.
If you are worried about the stream then access/depart 90 Mile at Hukatere. (turn off at Pukenui)
There are 2 main access points at Ahipara, the southern one is always easy, but needs to be done below half tide out because of rocks, the other at the end of Kaka Street can sometimes be a bit soft (or non existent after heavy rain).
Have finally ticked this ride (30 April 2022) off my bucket list.
The sand was soft going onto the beach at Ahipara and the bike had a little rest on the soft/loose sand.
A local came over and offered to give me a hand to pick her up and I accepted.
I was on the beach at 1030hrs so the tidy wasn’t very far out (low tidy at 1330hrs).
Enjoyed my ride and was very interested to see the size of the snapper being caught (big ones).
I missed the turn off to Te Paki Stream, so I ended up riding to Scott Point.
Once off the beach I rode back to Kaitaia to wash the bike at the car wash.
Hope to do the ride again in September with my brother after the Cold Kiwi Rally.
New Speed limits have been introduce for 90 Mile Beach.
The new limits are 30km/h for 200 metres either side of any beach access point and 60km/h for the rest of 90 Mile Beach.