Stunning return to Castlepoint

Cracker conditions enticed thousands of eager punters to Castlepoint to witness the return of the annual beach horse races after a four-year hiatus on Saturday.
Though organisers were reluctant to predict the numbers, it was estimated a crowd of up to 4000 lined the sunny seawall with their picnic baskets and chilly-bins in tow.
"It's probably the biggest crowd I've ever seen since I've been involved," Castlepoint Racing Club president Ian Balfour said.
"It's definitely exceeded our expectations. The weather is great, the beach is great and the crowd has been magnificent, we've been really lucky."
In the day's feature race, the Castlepoint Cup, former Tauherenikau trainer Danny Walker kept the family tradition alive in ending Kevin Myer's bid for a hat-trick of titles.
Myer trained the previous two winning horses in the famous mile-long event in 2001 and 2002 and was aiming for a three- peat with favourite on the day Shenko Dancer.
However, his chances were dashed as the Walker-coached Cambridge mare Gold Memba stormed into the lead down the final stretch to take the cup by a head.
"My mum, dad and brothers have all won it, so I'm pretty happy to keep it going," Walker said.
"It's a real good day to be involved in and when you get a crowd on board like this it makes it that much better."
The win was also particularly sweet for Taranaki jockey Logan Ropiha, who was making his debut appearance in the saddle on Castlepoint Beach.
"She just travelled a beauty on the inside and at the 600m it was time to close it out.
"So yeah, I'm pretty stoked."
In between races the crowd, at least those who weren't queued across the road to collect winnings or splurging on another punt, was kept entertained by the kid's competitions, of which the three-legged race provoked one of the bigger cheers of the day.
Castlepoint Store, meanwhile, was run ragged trying to keep up with the demand for drinks, pies and ice blocks.
"We've been very busy but then we were well stocked up in preparation for it," Anne, who declined to offer her last name, said.
"It's probably our biggest day of the year along with New Year's Day."
And it could have been a lot busier for Anne and co but for the vast array of picnic buffets on offer, some of which filled entire car boots.
The relaxed family atmosphere meant the crowd posed few problems for the seemingly lone policeman present, proving sensible alcohol consumption is still possible in New Zealand.
Though the larger than expected attendance did bring with it a few minor hiccups.
With every car park in the vicinity snapped up moments after midday many people were forced to squeeze in a spot on the roadside, leaving a line of vehicles stretched well outside the township into the 100km speed zone.
The public toilet also decided to play silly buggers and spent a large portion of the day blocked up, much to the amusement of many.
Meanwhile the 600 racing booklets, which have never sold out before, were snapped up a half hour before the first race even kicked off.
And to top it all off, a power-outage left the announcers speechless and forced the momentary stalling of the production of hot chips.
Not that anyone seemed to mind; in fact the majority were entirely oblivious.
Balfour, who headed a team of 25 stewards and numerous more volunteers, said the day's success was entirely attributable to the support of sponsors and more importantly the public's desire to be a part of the event.
"We survive mostly on sponsorship and there have been so many local businesses come to the party this year, it's been fantastic," he said.
"And when you get the type of crowd turn up like the one that has today it just makes it all worth while."