Police will be cracking down on hoons driving along beaches in the Horowhenua District this summer.
Coastlines like those around Kāpiti can be dangerous if cars sped down the sand flats, police say. Photo: 123rf
People are allowed to drive on beaches up the coast, including Ōtaki, Himatangi and Waitārere, but many do not know they are subject to rules like any other road.
The beaches from Kāpiti to Whanganui sweep up the arc of the coast like a broad brush stroke. Vast, wide and wild.
Dunes and baches cradle the shore, and on clear days you can see all the way up to Mount Taranaki and down to Kāpiti Island.
Foxton police Sergeant Paul Adrian said it was a magical place but that magic could turn tragic if cars hooned too fast down the sand flats.
"The concern is, if you've got a young kid on the beach playing in the water with his parents, and a person goes along quicker than they should do, and the kid runs in front of the car - I mean that's just a tragedy waiting to happen."
Cars could use the beach, like any other road, but road rules and by-laws applied, he said.
"They need to be warranted, registered, people need the right kind of license and they must be going under 30km/h down the beach."
There are many signs informing people of the rules, and community patrol groups monitoring behaviour but not everyone takes note.
"We'd like to educate people first, but some people should know, and especially locals should know what the rules are all about. So we might use enforcement with them," Adrian said.
He expected there would be more people using the beaches this summer, with people travelling locally.
This week, Auckland Council placed a temporary ban on driving along Muriwai Beach on the city's west coast over summer.
A significant increase in the number of cars using the beach was threatening fragile dunes and coast ecosystems.
Forest & Bird spokesperson Debs Martin said dune destruction was a problem on most coastlines.
"As soon as you get vehicles moving at speed along the beaches, you get damage.
"You get wheel damage, but they might drive over nests, or they may disturb birds when they are roosting or resting. Or they may drive over the dunes and destroy vegetation as well."
People using cars to launch a boat were not the problem - it was those driving at speed, or over dunes, she said.
Martin was not calling for a driving ban at this stage but thought it warranted a conversation.
"It really needs to start from the position of looking at a place and identifying really important areas that need protecting, whether it's from vehicles or horses."
Horowhenua Mayor Bernie Wanden said a consistent speed limit of 30km/h for all the region's beaches had curbed dangerous driving.
"Rather than it chopping and changing when you get to a built up area, everyone knows now that there is only one speed. So it is a lot safer and easier to patrol."
There would always be people who flouted the rules, but the community was doing everything it could to prevent destruction to dunes and bird life, he said.
"More of the problem in a lot of cases is bikes and quad bikes using the dunes, but generally the public behaves very responsibly, and we don't have too many problems thankfully."
Wanden said the council considered banning driving at the time they brought in the consistent speed limit.
He said that access to the beach was important for the community, and it did not have the same population issues as somewhere like Muriwai Beach in Auckland.
Police will be patrolling the beaches daily and urge beach-goers to report any sightings of dangerous driving.