Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Sanddune sledding


On our vacation to the Bay of Islands we went to the Himatangi sand dunes to go "sand dune sledding". The Himatangi sand dunes were once an important meeting place for Maori who regularly visited the area to collect fish and shellfish. The Himatangi beach is slowly moving westward due to sand movement caused by rivers, strong currents and westerly winds that characterize the region. After a long drive we finally got there. We were anxious to go to the top, with the dunes towering so high above us. My parents gave each of us a boogie board as an early Christmas gift. Taking the boogie boards we raced up at our top speed. After about 30 seconds at our top speed, we decided to take a much slower approach in trying to conquer the massive dune. At last we reached the top and laid down for some rest before attempting to ride the boogie boards down the steep slope. Running, jumping and diving in all the same motion we began to slide down the dune. This would have been great if the board had continued to slide with us, instead we got a mouth full of sand! Elena was the only one whose boogie board had slid with her because she had not taken the plastic covering of hers which made the bottom slippery. We all watched with envy as Elena flew down the dune. But then to Elena's unfortunate luck, the plastic covering began to rip. She kept moving but the board thought otherwise and stopped in its tracks, resulting in Elena going flying. After this unfortunate event we decided not to use the boogie boards anymore and to rent one with a plastic bottom instead. This board worked great! We first tried it on a smaller dune to get used to it, then moved on to the big dune. We all laughed (and cried) as we watched the others soar down the dune, but three turns tires you out pretty quickly (mainly the way up that tires you out), so we each took one last ride then packed up and headed out.

~Damon

1 comment:

  1. I had to see the pictures to believe it. Your writing skills are improving, though. Good description!

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