|
|
| The trip begins by turning right from the sealed road onto the beach; speed limit 100kph. | |
|
|
|
| The beach is officially considered a public roadway by Transit New Zealand, and is mapped as such. The above 'intersection' is arrowed in this map. | |
|
|
|
| We drove in the bus for a good 45 minutes or so. I suspect NZ's nation-wide speed restriction of 100kph was disregarded, and not by a small margin. It's just kilometre after kilometre of wide open beach. Just an occasional gull. Certainly nothing to hit, until we arrived at this treasure: | |
|
|
| At some point in time, somebody looooved this car. They would get in it and drive off and think, "I hope everybody notices me driving a mercedes. They'll think I'm important." A very un-kiwi attitude, but likely at some point in the ownership history of this vehicle. A fitting fate for somebody's bauble. | |
|
|
|
| So, how does this happen? | |
| The tide on 90-mile beach comes in very quickly. When the tide is out, the beach is very broad, and the waves are low. | |
|
|
|
| When the tide comes in, it comes in very fast, right up to the dunes, and is very turbulent. | |
|
|
|
| The turbulent water makes the firm-packed sand more liquid and less solid. Think of the sensation when you are standing still whilst wading on the beach as the water comes in and out. No water, you stand firm; water, you sink in the sand. With no water around your feet, terra firma is grains of sand locked against each other. It can support your weight. When the water comes in, the grains of sand are now surrounded by water; this enables the grains to move. The individual grains can now shift out from underneath the weight of your feet. Terra liquida. You sink. Consider the weight of a car relative to your own weight. Consider the surface area of the ground that supports the tires of a car. A car covers a lot of ground, but the area where the tires touch the ground is pretty small. "Contact patches" The contact patch for each tire is about the size of an outstretched hand. The entire weight of the car is distributed among these four small patches. | |
| Now consider the sequence of events. A car is standing still on the firm-packed sand. The first waves of the incoming tide wash up against the tires. This water liquefies the sand under the tires, and the sand no longer supports the weight of the car. The car sinks, but not far, perhaps a centimetre or two - not enough of a drop for the operator to notice anything is happening. And this is if the guy is sitting in his car to notice that it is sinking. And who goes to the beach to sit inside the car? Usually the people with a car are out on the beach. They look over at the car, but don't notice that the tires have sunk a centimetre into the sand. After a few washes of the waves, all four tires have sunk into the sand to the point where they are locked into the sand. The car is now immobilised. Its fate is sealed. More waves come in, the car sinks further into the sand, and it is less able to move. Compounding the issue is that the beach has perhaps four or five access points along its length, and the dunes are pretty steep. So, if you're out on the beach, and the tide starts coming in, you could very well be stuck with no escape route. By the time a tow truck arrives, the car would be fully inextractible. That's if the towie would go out on the beach to rescue you from your stupidity. He's a local, he knows what happens to cars on the beach. It's not as though you weren't forewarned. | |
|
|
|
| The car above? According to our tour guide, it had been out there but for a few weeks. Certainly a plausible assertion. Look at the condition of the paint, and the corrosion spots. That car has not been out in the sea water for very long. The dents on the roof are from tourists jumping on it. | |
| Some images of from a subsequent stop further north from the car. | |
|
|
| A freshwater stream running out to the ocean. There were several of these along the beach. | |
|
|
|