This last Friday, Kiara and I took the city bus out of Dunedin to a small suburb called Concord. From there, we took a hike towards the ocean, following the directions our very helpful bus driver had given us. After a nice hike up a rather steep road through farm land (full of sheep), we were treated to a great view of the ocean. Eventually, we made it to Tunnel Beach Road and the Tunnel Beach Walk through (you guessed it) more farmland full of sheep.
Tunnel Beach was made accessible in the mid-1800's by one of the Cargill sons (The senior Cargill was one of the founders of Dunedin) as a birthday present for his daughter. In order to do this, a tunnel had to be hand hewn out of the sandstone cliffs that surrounded the beach on their property. I'm sure that his daughter was thrilled...until she tragically drowned at the beach some time later.
Despite the slightly morbid history surrounding the location, Tunnel Beach made for a great day trip. The scenery was fantastic (check out the pictures) the day was perfect (again, the pictures) and we had the beach to ourselves for nearly the entire time we were there! Because we were there before the tide was completely out, parts of the beach were inaccessible which was somewhat disappointing...until we realized, as we passed six people on their way down to the beach as we were leaving, that if we had been there for low tide we would not have had the place to ourselves. We had only seen three other people the entire day, who, coincidentally, were from Minneapolis!
Caleb and Kiara
We did a bit more site seeing, walking along back roads while trying to find Cargill Castle (which we weren't able to get a good look at because of a fancy new residential district that has sprung up around it. We made a total of over six miles for the day and hopped on a bus home to relax.
I'd just like to add that neither of us got sunburnt (despite the hole in the ozone and the gorgeous, cloudless day), due to repeated sunscreen application!
Kiara
Dunedin Forecast
Caleb and Kiara
Lovin' at the cabin
2 comments:
Hello you faithful posters! We even got separate comments from Kiara, a rare delicacy.
Tunnel Beach looked awesome, in the un-slang-like sense; but we here agreed that Caleb might want to work on his "victory" stance atop the bluff (see Kiara). It's hard to beat going to the beach when it's 13 degrees in Moorhead; and we didn't even have to walk 6 miles!
And thanks for the skype-tour of your room; we live in an amazing age!
Take care-- love,
Auntie Barbi
Good morning from freshly whitened Duluth! Yes,we received a new dusting of four plus inches last night. No worries....it will likely melt by the time you return. We are supposed to say "We need the moisture" or "It sure brightens up the landscape" or something like that. In Levar vernacular, "Lewis' will be really hot this spring." Caleb, you can translate that for Kiara.
I really appreciate your photo-journaling guys. The natural beauty of NZ is so awe-inspiring and diverse. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.
Take good care of one another.
Love to you both,
Dad/Tom
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