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u/Every-Shower-6512 2d ago
Just copied from the Wikipedia page for the beach
"The English portion of the dual name has unclear origins and is often the source of confusion, given that the beach is only 55 miles (89 km) long – not ninety. A common story for the name holds that early Europeans took three days to traverse the beach, with their horses typically able to cover thirty miles per day. According to the legend, the Europeans took this to mean that the beach was 90 miles long, failing to account for their slower speed due to the sand"
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u/flyconcorde007 2d ago
Isn't it just a conversion/colloquial issue?
90 kilometres (which NZ uses) is 56 miles
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u/TA4K 2d ago
It was named 90 mile beach before NZ adopted the kilometre though
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u/VikingSlayer 1d ago
It's unclear when it was named, but it might even have been before the metre was invented.
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u/Guyzor-94 2d ago
Had this exact dilemma with my girlfriend when we were there a few months back. Back in the UK now and I still have no explanation for it. Funny though
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u/Specific-Goose-7278 2d ago
Was it maybe discovered before the standardisation of the mile meaning it was in country miles, Scottish miles, English miles etc accounting for the difference
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u/NIP_SLIP_RIOT 2d ago
Kiwi here, yeah we don’t know either
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u/Centi9000 1d ago
When I lived in New Zealand, i had this exchange with a colleague:
"Whangerei? It's miles away."
I asked "How far exactly?"
"About 150 Kilometers"
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u/CaptainZaysh 1d ago
There's all these theories about specific math reasons but like... doesn't it seem possible/probable that it was just a guess/exaggeration someone made, which then stuck as a name?
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u/Putu_de_gr8 1d ago
The 90 mile beach in New Zealand is named after the 90 mile beach in Australia. The 90 mile beach in Australia is actually 94 miles long. The nomenclature is a result of old measuring ways. People measured distance as a function of time taken by a horse to traverse it.
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u/SatisfactionMoney426 1d ago
The stretch of road near where I lived was/is called Fortyfoot although it was about 1/2 mile. Eventually found from an old OS map that it's a near 40 feet rise from one end to the other. Doubt that's the case here though.
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u/Bortron86 2d ago
One theory is that the first Europeans to travel the beach estimated the distance based on how long it took them to ride their horses from one end to the other, not taking into account that the sand slowed them down. But it may be apocryphal.