Top Gear nowhere to be seen on 90 Mile

Trinda and Chayne Steen waited on 90 Mile Beach all day on Tuesday, hanging out for a glimpse of the Top Gear stars roaring past at 150km/h.

The Kaitaia couple had waited the day before as well and planned to be there yesterday, in the hope of seeing the popular BBC TV show being filmed in their back yard.

Waiting with them at Hukatere, 16 kilometres north of Waipapakauri Ramp, on Tuesday were a dozen more fans of the popular motoring show, the odd protester and a few bemused tourists.

Even after two days of scanning the beach in vain Mrs Steen hadn't given up hope of seeing presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.

"We're big fans of the show.

"We want to meet them and hopefully get a picture," she said.

Mr Steen explained the show's appeal.

"It's the antics they get up to, they're amazing. And the cars are a bonus."

Others travelled from much further afield to wait hopefully at Hukatere, including Jovica Mrkela, who drove up from Auckland with his 9-year-old son Filip.

Sporting a Ferrari cap, Filip said he was not yet a petrolhead, but that was only because he was still too young to drive.

While the BBC was keeping mum on its plans, the word among New Zealand fans was that the car to be raced was a 1960s streamliner dubbed the Pumpkin Seed, holder of many a world speed record set at the Bonneville Salt Flats at the same time New Zealand's own Burt Munro was smashing records there with the world's fastest Indian.

Nor was the Beeb giving away any clues about when or where filming would take place.

The Far North District Council's permit applies only between noon and 5pm each day this week, from West Coast Road Ahipara (presumably Waipapakauri Ramp) to Te Paki Stream.

Rumours of the stars' imminent arrival swept up and down the beach, especially after two hire vans checked out the sand at Hukatere.

Shortly afterwards two empty buses pulled up, the drivers claiming they were undergoing testing.

If that was the case it must have been the buses' ability to remain parked for extended periods of time that was being tested.

Increasingly anxious television reporters scanned the horizon as their deadlines for the 6pm news drew nearer.

TVNZ even hired a chopper to swoop up the beach but found no trace of the mystery film crew.

By 5pm a light drizzle set in and even the keenest fans began to drift away.

Some of them, including the Steens, vowed they'd be back.

While fans were waiting on the beach, the Top Gear presenters were reportedly racing an America's Cup yacht from the Coromandel to Northland.

They were expected to take the Pumpkin Seed for a spin on 90 Mile Beach yesterday.

There was no guarantee that fans would be rewarded for their patience even if they did find their heroes though.

Jeremy Clarkson was reportedly furious when media photographed him in Sydney on his way to New Zealand and the programme's crew have a reputation for being less than friendly.