Ninety Mile Beach Horse Trek – Day 358

Today we’re gonna be horse trekking on 90 Mile Beach.

It’s Day 358 out of our 365 days doing 365 activities in New Zealand and today’s activity is horse trekking on Ninety Mile Beach.

Because we’re having a real long day ahead of us, we are meeting Sally-Anne from Ahipara Horse Treks a little early this morning just to make sure we have time to do the full activity and then make our way to our destination tonight.

Obviously seeing Robin with a broken arm does ring alarm bells but luckily Robin is pretty confident riding a horse and Sally-Anne gives him a few tips on how to ride a horse with just one hand. Ahipara Horse Treks does take safety really seriously so we do feel like we’re in good hands.

After practicing riding for a little bit in the paddock we follow Sally-Anne along the roadside toward 90 Mile beach which is only about 100m away.

We make our way over some stunning sand dunes topped with flowers and lush grass and then emerge onto this super huge beach which stretches on for miles and miles as far as the eye can see and this right here is the famous Ninety Mile Beach.

So you guys know by now by watching our videos that 90 Mile Beach is an official high way yes that’s right, cars, buses and trucks do have the right to drive there if they make their way up Far North. If you guys want to learn more about 90 Mile Beach make sure to check out the video in the cards above where we went all the way to Cape Reinga which is at the top of New Zealand, and we drove on 90 Mile Beach, it’s really awesome. The really good thing about 90 Mile Beach is that it’s an absolutely amazing beach. It looks gorgeous even despite the fact that it’s a bit of a grim weather today cos the beach is so long you basically never see the end of it. It makes for absolutely pristine views and amazing pictures.

But horse trekking is one of the best ways to experience Ninety Mile Beach. Honestly, horse trekking is making one with nature. It’s me and the horse and we are just literally having a blast I genuinely enjoy horse trekking – We’ve done it a lot in New Zealand from mountainous landscapes to river crossings and now on the beach. it’s amazing the amount of options New Zealand has to offer.

But speaking of wildlife 90 Mile beach has a bird sanctuary right here, you might not believe it but the black billed and the red billed are actually quite endangered and it’s really important to give them the space to rest and make babies.

And this seabird sanctuary marks the turning point of our tour where we are actually literally turning around and making our way back toward the paddock.

Our horses are super well behaved and a joy to ride we are actually riding two brothers of the same father, Robin is riding Star and I am riding Storm and apparently we suffer from separation anxiety so they always like to be really close together and when they are reunited they rub their heads together which is so cute.

Because our horses are easy to control, we can ride any style that we want and we are doing a lot of trotting to get a little bit of speed and we would love to do some galloping especially on this long-stretching wide open beach it’s really awesome the possibilities are endless.

But with Robin’s broken arm we are not quite sure if he can ride rodeo style just yet.

On the way back we get to appreciate some different scenery such as at the end of 90 Mile Beach we can Whangatoatia which is the mountain in Ahipara shaped like a volcanic cone and it looks really awesome for photo opportunities we also get to cross multiple streams along the way which is also super fun.

This one hour horse trek with Ahipara Horse Treks is a great way to experience 90 Mile Beach on horse back and get a really good taste for that. They do offer other longer tours though which we really wish we had more time to do but we do have to move onto our next destination in Northland for today which is gonna be Omapere the Hokianga Harbour we make our way back along the sand dunes toward the Ahipara stables on the last leg of our awesome horse trek.

We say goodbye to our new friends, Star and Storm, give them a pat on the neck before we go and hit the road toward the Hokianga Harbour.

Making our way down the Northland region on the west coast of it is quite rare most tourists actually stick to the main highway which is on the east coast so we are showing you guys a part of New Zealand which is very rarely explored by international travellers. The highlight of that trip is taking the ferry that’s the Kohukohu ferry. This ferry takes us from the town of Kohukohu which is a very small town in the Northland region, to Rawene which basically your gateway to the Hokianga Harbour – It’s an amazing place to visit and we’re going to be spending quite a few days showing you what there is over there. It’s bathed in Maori legend there are some amazing amazing places to visit. And to be quite honest it already blows our mind with the views are absolutely amazing. Look at that!

And with that, we are hitting the last week of New Zealand’s Biggest Gap Year. Yes, you heard that we have seven episodes left to go so don’t miss this is the last leg and we have a lot in store for you.