48 
A Stirring Beach Ride—60 Miles in 
an Hour and achalf. 
Fully alive to the risk involved, our 
capable chauffeur, hat and coat discarded, 
a warm cardigan jacket his outer garment, 
settled down to his work. I feel that I 
shall be at a loss for words to describe that 
memorable and exhilarating spin. It was 
to be done at high speed, and as our trusty 
Dodge raced along the shore, edged by the 
white breakers with their curling tops, speed 
was accelerated to 35 miles per hour, then 
we settled down to 40 miles, with an occas- 
ional increase to 42 for a few moments. 
The average speed maintained for the whole 
distance was not under 40 miles per hour. 
As we raced along vivid interest was 
centred in the numerous gatherings of sea- 
birds settled on the beach. Seagulls, terns, 
toreas (the oyster-catcher—a handsome, 
black-backed bird with a red bill andi red 
legs)—rose in whirling bands and scattered 
to left and right as we approached them. 
Many times they narrowly missed hitting our 
wind-sereen, which had heen kept open on 
the advice of those who had known, of wind- 
screens being smashed through the gulls 
failing to realise the speed at» which an 
approaching’ car was travelling. But there 
was also on occasions a tragedy in bird life, 
for the death of the gull or the tern had fol- 
lowed on the impact. Mr West Hill, the 
manager of Te Paki Station, informed us 
that this occurs when the car is facing a 
strong wind, and he has himself witnessed 
in the same trip the deaths of a number of 
birds through their inability to get into 
rapid flight before the car is on them as 
they rise from the beach. As minute after 
minute sped, and minutes merged into 
quarter-hours, and quarter-hours into hait- 
hours, the interest and pleasurable excite- 
ment deepened, We had entered the beach 
at 8 a.m., and at 8.30 we had run 20 miles, 
at 9 o’clock 40 miles; but the run was so 
smooth that we hardly realised, any more 
than did the birds we sent scattering to 
right and left as we sped onward, the speed 
at which we were travelling. We kept the 
sandhills on the shore line from a chain to 
a chain and a-half distant, had an occasional 
