A floral tribute to 13-year-old Daisy Fernandez, who was killed when a youth riding a motocross bike crashed into her and a friend on the beach at Glinks Gully, south of Dargaville. Photo / NZME
A floral tribute to 13-year-old Daisy Fernandez, who was killed when a youth riding a motocross bike crashed into her and a friend on the beach at Glinks Gully, south of Dargaville. Photo / NZME
A family relation of Daisy Fernandez, who was killed by a motorbike in Northland’s Ripirō Beach dunes, is worried about what might happen when hordes of hooning bikers and offroaders pour onto the coastline over Labour weekend.
Thirteen-year-old Fernandez, from Tauranga, died after being struck by an unregistered motorbike on Ripirō's Glinks Gully on New Year’s Eve 2007. The Fernandez family are a long-time integral part of the Glinks Gully community.
Relation Matt Elliott, who hails from near Glinks Gully and now regularly holidays at the tiny coastal settlement south of Dargaville with his own family, says the community is anxious.
Tauranga's Daisy Fernandez,13, was killed by a motorbike rider on New Year's Eve 2007 in the Ripirō Beach sand dunes at Glinks Gully.
“It’ll be like a plague of locusts swarming in and taking over the beach,” Elliott said.
A recent incident saw a family pack up and hurriedly leave the beach in shock after a bike came over the dunes where their 2-year-old had been playing minutes before.
Four-wheel-drives and offroaders from as far away as Palmerston North were now turning up.
A four-wheel drive group gathers on Ripirō Beach.
New Zealand’s most recent long weekend, July’s Matariki, had seen herds of four-wheel-drives pouring onto Ripirō Beach at Glinks Gully, he said.
More than 500 had turned up on that weekend alone.
Residents and bach users report a dramatic increase in the number of these vehicles since Auckland Council started closing Muriwai Beach summer access in 2020, introduced fees-based annual permits for every vehicle driven on that beach and the prosecution risk for bad behaviour rose.
Locals say increased Ripirō Beach traffic is also coming from Kaipara and Northland, one indicating toughened controls on Whangārei’s east coast beaches are contributing.
Hundreds of four-wheel drives pouring onto Ripirō Beach at long weekends, and motorbikes still hooning in sand dunes, are a major concern for Matt Elliott.
More than 1000 beach users can be on Ripirō Beach over long weekends.
Ripirō Beach management working group member, Snow Tane (Te Roroa,) recently had to suddenly gather his grandchildren in at Baylys Beach as vehicles sped by, too close to them.
He said the number of vehicles had doubled since toughened Muriwai access controls.
“My message to people coming to Ripirō Beach at Labour weekend, is to be responsible. There are some individuals that are not driving appropriately on the beach,” Tane said.
The situation has become so bad at busy beach access pinch points that local residents have on occasion taken matters into their own hands.
In one situation, they respectfully asked a car driver to stop doing donuts amid dozens of people - including children - at the Baylys Beach entrance. The driver did not stop so they removed keys from the person’s car and called police.
At the same spot, another resident asked a motorbike rider to stop doing wheelstands among the crowds and was abused, the rider refusing to back down until other locals came to the resident’s side.
Motorbikes ridden up cliffs at Baylys Beach are damaging them. Photo / Susan Botting
Working group Baylys Beach representative Con Fowler said it was about everybody being safe and looking after the environment.
“We love our beach and we want to have all the beach users, local and otherwise, treat the beach with care and respect for wildlife and other beach users around issues of driving, littering and dune management,” Fowler said.
The actions of some were creating issues for many.
The danger posed to Kaipara’s community at Ripirō Beach is on the Police radar, the district’s top cop said.
Area Commander Whangārei and Kaipara Inspector Maria Nordstrom said the police were concerned about the situation.
“Police are aware of the recent issues caused by drivers of four-wheel-drive vehicles, dirt bikes and other similar vehicles at Ripirō Beach, and we are concerned about the danger these vehicles pose to the local Kaipara community,” Nordstrom said.
“We are working with our partner agencies on a [beach] management plan, led by the Kaipara District Council, to keep everyone who enjoys the beach and surrounding areas safe.
“The Department of Conservation, the New Zealand Fire Service, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Fisheries sector, local iwi and other community groups are also working closely with Police on this project to help protect those who use Ripirō Beach, and to safeguard its future use,” Nordstrom said.
Beach speed signs such as this one at Glinks Gully are constantly wrecked by those who dislike them.
The 107km-long beach is New Zealand’s longest driveable beach - classified as a road with a generally 100km/h speed limit, except for a kilometre on either side of main beach entrances where that reduces to 30km/h.
Locals are hoping new 30km/h signage at beach accesses will be in place in time for Labour weekend. But they worry these will again be torn down by those who do not want them there.
Large 30km/h signs are to be erected at Maunganui Bluff, Omamari, Baylys Beach, Glinks Gully and Pouto. Medium-sized signs will be placed at other entrances,while small signs will be placed in the dunes.
The signage is a first push from a Kaipara District Council-led Ripirō Beach management working group set up in October, initially as part of a drive to increase beach safety through education. The multi-agency group includes the district council, the Department of Conservation, Fire and Emergency NZ, Kauri Coast 4WD Club, Northland Regional Council, NZ Police, Te Roroa, Te Uri o Hau and community representatives - who are working on a beach management plan.
Longtime Pouto bach owner and former district councillor David Wills said groups of as many as 60 four-wheel-drive vehicles are arriving with increasing frequency to travel the length of the beach.
It was now a numbers game, with the larger number of arrivals continually amplifying usage pressures.
■ Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
