In a 2013 feature for the British television motoring programme Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson drove the length of the beach in a Toyota Corolla[7] as part of a race against an AC45 racing yacht crewed by British Olympic sailor Sir Ben Ainslie and the winning crew of the 2010 America's Cup, with James May also on board.

[8] Te-Oneroa-a-Tōhē / Ninety Mile Beach is one of many places in New Zealand to have a dual name, consisting of both its former English name and its Māori name.

This dual name was adopted in 2014 as a result of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement between the New Zealand government and Ngāti Kurī, an iwi based in the area around the beach.

[9] 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.

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.