Dear editors,
Saturday 23 June was beautiful, really warm and sunny. Lots of people (families, children, dogs) came to the beach [Doctors' Point]. I was there around 4 p.m. when the tide was rising and the walking space was getting limited.
The end of the beach by the caves was taken up by two unmuffled trailbikes doing large circles and charging up and down the sand bank. They then came back to the inlet end of the beach and did further loops and wheelies.
Access to the carpark was by then cut off by the tide. They took the bikes over the sand-dunes and onto the path between the farm fence and the back of the dunes to the carpark. After that they drove along Doctors Point Rd, up and down White Rd, and then up and down Thornicroft Rd, zooming and revving loudly.
Another walker told me that they [the bikers] said they could go on the beach because legally it is a road. However, to get to it they had to leave the formed access road through the QE2-covenanted reserve. The sign on the reserve states no vehicles off roads.
Furthermore they were illegally on the road (and therefore on the beach) in the first place -- the bikes had no numberplates.
Clearly they were enjoying themselves. I wonder if they considered how many other people's enjoyment was sacrificed for that. Or the risks of harming someone, particularly on the narrow path behind the beach, and traveling at speed on Doctors Point Rd where a lot of people walk on fine days, and visibility is extremely poor around the bends. Or the legality of driving on the road (including the beach) without number plates.
What do other people think about this?
Yours,
Elizabeth Gutteridge, Waitati
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