Joys of business travel: 90 Mile Beach

(a post from a previous trip back in March that I forgot to put up)

I had a rare free weekend in New Zealand and made the most of it. With meetings in Auckland only on Monday morning I took advantage of the 1.5 days free and took a driving tour of the north island – north of Auckland. After navigating my way through the city which took far longer than I wanted due to poor choices at turning points, I had to adjust my plans due to wrong turns.

The first stop was the west coast of the island, with its long open beaches and with temperatures in the mid 20’s and the sun shining, I had a nice run on the beach for 45 min (with some walking) before heading inland. The north island consists of small rolling hills, so driving takes time. There are also a lot of small towns with little infrastructure (no restaurants, or gas stations). So it took me a while to find a hotel for the night. I stayed in Kerikeri, which is on the east coast and has some very scenic bays.

On Sunday I got going early and drove most of the day. I headed again to the west coast and visited 90 mile beach for another run. The beaches are great for running because they are so flat and hard packed. The sand is hard so you can drive on the beach with normal cars. I thought about trying it with the rental car, but decided that could turn out not good and require some explanation back at work.

After some nice touring I made it back to the airport hotel at 7pm and met up with a colleague for dinner. The rest of the week was full of business meetings in Christchurch.