KEY POINTS:
The father of the teenage girl killed by a speeding motorbike at Ripiro Beach last New Year's Eve says the death of another young woman on the same beach has highlighted inaction of authorities.
Craig Fernandez, whose 13-year-old daughter Daisy was knocked down by a motorbike ridden by
a 15-year-old boy near Glinks Gully, said somebody needed "to take the bull by the horns" and tackle the issue.
Seventeen-year-old Marie Mihi Patricia Nelson died after falling from a ute on Ripiro Beach last Saturday.
"It highlights things again," said Fernandez. "It brings it back, and it hurts the local community.
"Obviously the local authorities, the Government, they are the people who have to get together and talk the issue out and find a solution of some sort. They are slowly heading that way.
"But they forget about it, and another year goes by. It was a setback when that girl died."
Fernandez welcomed the stationing of a police officer at the 100km-long beach over the holidays and the posting of warning signs.
Senior Constable Ian Anderson is stationed at Baylys Beach fulltime for six weeks from December 20. He said he had been speaking to vehicle users to spread the safety message.
"No one wants people hooning around. They just want to go down to the beach and relax."
He said last Saturday's "freak accident" is being investigated by police.
"She was on the back of a ute travelling between 20 and 40 km/h, and her sunglasses, we think, fell off. She's either jumped off, or fallen off to get them and hit her head."
While beach communities praise the police presence, there has been confusion over who is responsible for setting speed restrictions.
The delay means any restrictions will not be imposed at Ripiro until next year, whereas speed restrictions have been introduced on Muriwai and Te Oneone Rangatira beaches after safety concerns there.
Kaipara District Councillor Julie Geange said the question of who was responsible for speed restrictions on the beach was "a very grey area".
"It's brought up time and time again. The council has written to the Minister of Conservation.
"It has the support of everybody involved, the issue is whose jurisdiction it is. It's a bureaucratic thing and a jurisdiction thing."
Geange hoped the issue would be sorted out "early in the new year".
Fernandez did not favour a ban on vehicles, saying most locals had been responsibly using the beach route on Ripiro and Muriwai for years.
"Tourist operators use the beach, picnickers, fishermen - people use it responsibly. Why should they be penalised?"
Local people are planning to hold a memorial for Daisy at the beach on New Year's Day, but the Fernandez family will not be going.
"We can't do that at the moment. Obviously it's too raw. In a few years it might be easier."
He said the family's first Christmas without Daisy was hard, and he expected New Year's Eve would be even harder. "My wife and I and our son will have to get through it. We've got to carry on. We haven't stopped speaking about Daisy, she hasn't stopped participating in our family life."
Daisy's friend Claudia Billinge, who was seriously injured in the crash, had vowed to return this year to mark the final day she spent with Daisy.
