 |
| Mural in Dunedin |
Dunedin is Gaelic for Edinburgh; it is named after Scotland's capital
city and is the second largest city in the South Island. Captain Cook saw seals off the coast here in
1770 and this led to the arrival of sealers during the nineteenth century. The first European to settle in the area was
William Tucker in 1815; permanent European settlement dates from 1831 when a
whaling station was established. Dunedin
was officially founded in 1848 as the special settlement of the Free Church of
Scotland. Dunedin's surveyor attempted
to design a 'Romantic' city, and as the city grew in prosperity during gold
rush days, many imposing buildings were built.
There is a fine Anglican Cathedral, St Pauls; a Catholic Cathedral, St
Josephs; and several gothic Presbyterian churches. Businesses, institutions and buildings such
as the railway station, remain as a testament to the Victorian architects.
We
managed to tuck Tangaroa into a space
in the small NZMCA park in the city and set out to explore on foot. The Octagon is Dunedin's eight-sided plaza—it
is mainly pedestrianised, with grass, paved areas and a statue of Robert Burns
in pride of place. Many attractive
buildings line it and the nearby streets, as well as plenty of cafes and bars. We visited the art gallery, then set off to
discover some more art—on the walls of the city's streets. Over the last few years street artists from
New Zealand and the rest of the world have been encouraged to paint murals
large and small in the alleyways and blank walls around the city centre. Armed with a map, we spent over an hour
finding and photographing most of them.
Somehow the modern—and often the surreal—artworks seemed to enhance the
striking old buildings.
The
Otago Peninsula is a twenty kilometre stretch of land that runs along the south
shores of the Otago Harbour. Freedom
camping is not encouraged on the peninsula and there are prohibited zones
scattered around. We wanted to have a
look around though and it seemed easier to leave Tangaroa parked, and take a few day trips in the car. Tunnel Beach was a great place to
start. Although not strictly on the
Peninsula, it was on the route between where we had parked our bus and the next
stop on our itinerary, Sandfly Bay. At
its narrowest point the Otago Peninsula is a mere one and a half kilometres
wide, this is where Dunedin's seaside suburbs are found. We turned up onto a ridge, with wide views
along the 20 kilometres of the peninsula and of the Otago Harbour.
 |
| Tunnel Beach |
Tunnel
Beach had it all. Not only golden sand
and clear water—but we got to it through a tunnel, hand carved through the rock
of the cliffs. The walk down to Tunnel
Beach from the car park was beautiful in itself; there were views down to
coastal stacks and a huge natural arch.
Then there was the difficult choice: should we go down the tunnel first,
or go up onto the arch? We chose the
arch and were rewarded by views of pristine, golden sandy beaches and clear
blue water, with long views down the coast.
Then for the tunnel—through a small arch and down 72 steps—then finally
out from the dark, into dazzling daylight, our own private beach!
We
were lucky that we had arrived early and for a while were the only people here,
experiencing what its first owners had desired—their own exclusive piece of paradise. The tunnel was built by the Cargill family in
the 1870s. Captain William Cargill was a
Presbyterian Scotsman, instrumental in setting up the Free Church settlement of
Otago. His son, the politician John
Cargill, gave Tunnel Beach to his daughter as a birthday present. The family enjoyed the privacy its seclusion
afforded them, unlike the nearby public beach at St Clair.
The
village of Portobello was our next stop, a picturesque place for a coffee, with
a funky cafe and some little shops to peruse.
Named after Portobello in Edinburgh, Scotland, it did not look remotely
Scottish! It was here that we turned
back towards the coast and Sandfly Bay.
Knowing how prevalent the biting blackflies are in the South Island I
was expecting the worst! However, I
discovered that the bay is named for the sand, brought in by the prevailing
currents and mounded by the wind into huge dunes. There was a viewpoint five minutes into the three-kilometre-return
track, and from there the trail wound downwards until we reached the
dunes. These dunes, which rise 100
metres above the beach are among New Zealand's tallest and were great fun to
run down.
 |
| Sandfly bay |
The
beach curved for about a kilometre and at the far end was a rocky promontory,
home to fur seals and sea lions. Hookers
Sea Lions were once hunted almost to extinction. A small population survived on the sub-Antarctic
islands, and from there have begun to re-colonise the Otago coast. As we observed the sleeping and basking seals
there was suddenly excitement as first one, and then two sea lions came surfing
up to the beach. After playing
boisterously together one hauled himself up on his flippers—they are
surprisingly big!—and made his way up the beach, disdainfully ignoring the awed
watchers. Yellow-eyed penguins also
visit the beach and there was a wooden hide set above the rocks where the
public could view the penguins without disturbing them. Unlike the seals and sea lions, they are
shy. The return walk was fine until we
had to stagger up those steep dunes.
Another
walk nearby went from the aptly named Sandymount to coastal cliffs, where we
gazed into a huge indentation called 'the Chasm' and watched waves crashing 250
metres below. A little way beyond this
was 'Lovers Leap', where the sea had gouged out a narrow passage between sheer
cliffs. Who the lovers were, and why
they leapt across a gap they could have walked around, is unknown—but the name
adds a romantic note to the map of the coastline.
Probably
the most famous visitor attraction on the Otago Peninsula is Larnach Castle,
New Zealand's only castle. It was built
over a period of three years in the 1880s by James Larnach, a businessman and
banker from Australia, with the interior taking an additional 12 years to
complete. The castle has had a chequered
history. After James Larnach's death it
was sold and was later used as a lunatic asylum, a nun's retreat and a hospital
for shell-shocked soldiers. The ballroom
was relegated to a sheep pen. Luckily
for visitors Larnach Castle was purchased in the 1960s by the Barker family who
have returned the derelict and ramshackle building to its former glory. Magnificent gardens have been created by
Margaret Barker and are regarded by the New Zealand Gardens Trust as gardens of international significance.
At
the end of the Otago Peninsula, where the harbour meets the ocean, we came to
the blustery Taiaroa Head. The head is
famous for having the only breeding colony of albatross on an inhabited
mainland. The viewing centre offers
tours throughout the day, where visitors can watch the birds in their natural
environment. At dusk there are viewing
tours of Little Blue Penguins. The
headland was not always such a haven for wildlife. In the early 1830s, nearby Pilot's Beach was
known as Hobart Town Beach because men from Tasmania were employed at the
whaling works there. Luckily, there are
now an increasing number of Dusky Dolphins, Orca, Humpback and Southern Right
Whales to be sighted where once they were slaughtered. An area that began its European settlement by
killing wildlife now draws tourists to join in celebrating them.
 |
| View of the Catlins coast |
Heading south from Dunedin and the
Otago Peninsula we came to another picturesque region, the Catlins. We found an NZMCA park at Niagara Falls,
named by a surveyor with a sense of humour—it is just a very small cascade in
the river. You can buy the 'been there,
done that' tee-shirt at the local cafe.
A really stunning waterfall nearby is the 22-metre-high McLean Falls, accessed
through forest on a 40-minute-return track.
Purakaunui Falls, a 20-minute-return walk, is one of the most
photographed waterfalls in New Zealand—the water cascades down three distinct
tiers to the viewing platform.
There
were plenty of waterfalls to discover in the Catlins—it seemed to rain almost
as much as the west coast—but this made the waterfalls dramatic and the bush so
verdant. There were also many bush walks
to experience in the darkly-green, podocarp rainforests of the Catlins. The bush was home to a variety of bird-life;
we saw lots of fantails, tomtits, tui and native pigeon. Some walks we did combined bush and beach,
such as the Picnic Point walk at Papatowai beach and estuary, where there were
several walks, varying in length from 20 minutes to three hours.
 |
| Purakaunui Falls, Catlins |
There
were countless beaches and bays along the Catlins coast. At Pounawea, where the Catlins River runs
into the estuary, we found the timeless atmosphere of a quintessential Kiwi
beach: sand, sea, wharf and boat ramp.
The viewpoint at Florence Hill showed another stunning beach, Tautuku
Bay. Further west were the Cathedral
Caves—at 199 meters in passage length, one of the longest sea caves in the
world. There used to be another sea cave
near Jack's Bay. Sometime in the past
the roof section of the cavern collapsed, leaving a blowhole 55 metres
deep. We walked to this blowhole, just
inland from the beach, along a well marked track, taking around one hour
(return). The area is named after the
Māori chief Tūhawaiki, known to early settlers as 'Bloody Jack'.
 |
| Cathedral Caves |
Another
unique Catlins phenomena is Curio Bay, where there are the petrified remains of
a forest. At low tide the fossilised
forest is revealed, showing the imprints of trees and ferns from 180 million
years ago. There is also a small colony
of yellow-eyed penguins that can be viewed from the beach. We were disappointed on our visit to find part
of the beach roped off and inaccessible, so we couldn't examine much of the
fossils. This was probably for the
protection of the penguins though, and we were delighted to see them. Nugget Point lighthouse was another spot
where we enjoyed viewing wildlife. On
the rocky 'nuggets' below the headland, seals and sea lions basked on rocks and
cavorted amongst the kelp. There were
yellow-eyed penguins there too, and spoonbills sheltering on the cliff sides.
 |
| Nugget Point Lighthouse |
Although
the main attraction of the Catlins area was its unspoiled, picturesque beauty,
there were small towns and villages along the way that we enjoyed
visiting. Owaka was the largest and had
a recently completed museum as well as shops, cafes and a quirky garden called
Teapotland! The Catlins must attract
artistic and inventive characters because Papatowai had the most interesting
and amusing assortment of 'organic mechanics' I have ever seen. Visitors could easily while away an hour
looking at the ingenious inventions in the Lost Gypsy Caravan Gallery and
Gardens here: there were games and gizmos galore.
After
taking a look at Slope Point, the most southerly point of the South Island, we
hitched the car to the rear of Tangaroa
and went to take a look at some more of New Zealand's southern tip.
· Places mentioned in this post - correct at the time of writing
Walks
- Dunedin's Mural Walk
www.newzealand.com/in/plan/business/dunedin-street-art-trail
1 hr 30 min, easy
Information and map from
Dunedin i-SITE, 50 The Octagon, Dunedin
- ·
Tunnel Beach
www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/dunedin-area/things-to-do/tunnel-beach-track
2 km return, 1 hr, easy:
walking track
Access: 25, Tunnel Beach
Rd, Blackhead, Dunedin
- ·
Sandfly Bay Track
www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/otago-peninsula-area/things-to-do/sandfly-bay-track
3 km return, 1 hr 30 min,
easy: walking track
Access: Seal Point Rd,
Pukehiki
- ·
Sandymount Track
www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/otago-peninsula-area/things-to-do/sandymount-track
2.5 km loop, 1 hr, easy:
walking track
Access: Sandymount Rd,
Sandymount
- ·
McLean Falls Walk
www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/catlins-conservation-park/things-to-do/mclean-falls-walk
40 min return, easiest:
short walk
Access: Catlins Forest
Park, Rewcastle Rd
- ·
Purakaunui Falls Walk
www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/catlins-coastal-area/things-to-do/purakaunui-falls-walk
20 min return, easiest
short walk
Access: Purakaunui Falls
Rd, Owaka
- ·
Cathedral Caves
www.cathedralcaves.co.nz
www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/catlins-coastal-area/things-to-do/cathedral-caves-walk
Access: Chaslands
Highway, Chaslands
There is a small charge
to access the beach and caves
- ·
Picnic Point Walk
www.catlins.org.nz/index.php?/site/twb_trails
40 min return, easy
walking track
Access: Papatowai
- ·
Jacks Bay Blowhole Track
www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/catlins-coastal-area/things-to-do/jacks-blowhole-track
1 hr, easy: walking track
Access: 278, Jacks Bay
Rd, Hinahina
Places to visit
·
Larnach Castle
145, Camp Rd, Dunedin
www.larnachcastle.co.nz
Hours: 9.00 am-5.00 pm
castle, 9.00 am-7.00 pm gardens
Entry price: adult $31,
child $10
- ·
Taiaroa Head Royal Albatross
Centre
Harrington Point Rd,
Taiaroa Head
www.albatross.org.nz
Hours: 10.15 am to dusk
Entry price: various
tours, e.g. Albatross Classic, adult
$50, child $15
- ·
Curio Bay
Waikawa-Curio Bay Rd
www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/catlins-coastal-area/curio-bay-porpoise-bay
- ·
Nugget Point Lighthouse
The Nuggets Rd, Ahuriri
Flat
www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/catlins-coastal-area/curio-bay-porpoise-bay
- ·
Lost Gypsy Caravan
Gallery and Gardens
Chaslands Highway,
Papatowai
www.thelostgypsy.com
Hours: Labour weekend
(October) to Anzac Weekend (April)
No comments:
Post a Comment