West Coast Wilderness...

I'm at  this tiniest blip in New Zealand called Huketere. 
It's on the West coast marked with a square on the map.
It wasn't far from Houhora on the East coast but the difference
in terrain  is unbelievable...
From gentle lushness to vast, barren, windswept wilderness.
To get here (look on the map) it's 35km north of Awanui then 10km west along a shingle road through the pine forest which took me to 90 Mile Beach and this little camping place called Utea Park, so called because it's the name of the 'mountain', really a small hill, nearby.
Parking is in a lumpy paddock on a property owned by a young Maori couple who live here with their daughter who have made this place available for a Koha (donation) to stay.
They have built a community/ablutions room with a kitchen, hot showers and toilets and tiny chalets so that groups can come here.
It's tucked into the sandhills in the most isolated deserted place.
I'm the only person here apart from the owners house on a nearby hill.
A short walk to the beach that is vast and empty and stretches endlessly...
And the pounding west coast surf.
In the evening I climbed a small hill and sat on a flat rock
on the top and watched the sunset.
Amazing as this big ball of fire sank into the sea...
Then it was SO dark and apart from the roar of the sea
muffled by the sandhills,
and the sound of distant wild horses...
Totally silent.
The clear night sky of millions of stars was spectacular,
It's probably the most isolated wilderness place I have been to.
Being there by myself with all the vast expanses around me was both
awesome and a very strange feeling of insignificant smallness.
I was told the fishing was good, surf casting off the beach.
I wanted to try but on Saturday it rained and the waves were wild...
So next time.
I did go for a walk up Utea Mountain though,
from the top it was endless stretches, as far as I could see,
of stunted scrub and flaxes and a long, long beach.
Pictures:
1. Map
2. Me, parked by mysef, Utea in the background in the setting sun
3. Utea Mountain, the walking track and the shingle road
4 & 5. From the top of Utea
6. Wild horses, there are more than 700 of them in the forest and along this wild coastal strip
7. 90 Mile Beach looking south
8. 90 Mile Beach looking north
Ninety Mile Beach is actually 103km (60 miles) long, but it must have seemed 90 miles when the only way up it was on horseback. It's now the 'alternative' road north for 4WD vehices - when the tide is out.
In January 1932 Australian Norman 'Wizard' Smith set the world 10 mile land speed record on 90 Mile Beach travelling at
164 miles (264km) per hour.
This same beach was also the take-off strip for early aviator Charles Kingsford-Smith on his Trans-Tasman flight to Sydney in 1933.
Nowadays the most exciting event is the annual five day fishing competition every February which has been running since 1988 and offers NZ's biggest prize money of $250,000 NZ. Hundreds take part and catchng a 7kg Snapper could win you $50,000