New Zealand - Day 4 - Oamaru to Dunedin

The next morning we were up for an early start to Dunedin. We’d read in the LP that the drive was fairly scenic and there were a few things worth stopping for on the way, and luckily although it was still chilly the sun was shining.

Moeraki Boulders

Our first stop was the Moeraki Boulders  - a geological phenomenon on Koekohe beach on the Otago coast. The boulders are huge spherical rocks scattered up the coast which they say would’ve taken around five million years to grow to the size they are. It kind of looked like someone had thrown a load of giant marbles at the beach!

We took our time to frolic among the boulders before getting back on the road to Dunedin. The scenery was amazing, and we took a few opportunities to stop and take a few pictures from the mountains of the bays below. At one particularly stunning lookout we had to pull up right next to a field of cows – big ones. James leapt out with the camera oblivious while I gingerly edged out of my door trying to keep one eye on the view and one eye on the enemy. James still does not understand my morbid fear of cows but I at least managed to capture a shot of the ‘death stare’ he also thinks I keep fabricating…

Look how mean the one on the far right looks!

We arrived in Dunedin late afternoon, paid for our powered site for the evening and then headed out to Sandfly Bay about a 20-minute drive away. We read in the LP that this was one of the best places to see sea lions and penguins in the wild so we thought we’d give it a shot! We were running a bit later than we’d hoped, it was probably about 6pm by the time we got there but as sundown wasn’t until after 7pm we thought we’d be fine to make the walk to the beach and back again before it got dark.

We set off and the track was fairly easy-going and level, about 10 minutes in we reached a sign that said ‘track not maintained beyond this point’ and they weren’t kidding! From there is was a fairly hefty descent down a track, and then steps into the sand dunes. It was at this point we saw what we were up against. The sand dunes were enormous and pretty much dropped almost vertically from where we were standing about 20 feet down to the beach. Coming towards us were a family and a couple and they were BATTLING! One guy was literally having to drag his wife up the sand dune by her wrists while his daughter clung sobbing to his side… As the couple passed us the guy made a point to mention that it wasn’t very easy coming back, at least I think that’s what he said through the wheezing and crying.

All smiles before the sun set...

I would like to note for the record – it was at this point I said to James that I wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea to go down to the beach. It was already getting a bit dusky, and above all else, I’m not particularly well known for my climbing skills. As I’ve told James multiple times in the past, I was made for longer flat surfaces…much like a wombat, rather than a mountain goat.

However, somebody was a bit keen to see some sea lions and kept telling me we’d be fine on the way back and it wasn’t as bad as it looked…

It took a good ten minutes to get down to the beach, you had to tread carefully on the slopes otherwise you created a bit of an avalanche effect! By the time we reached the beach everyone else had disappeared – they’d either made it back to the carpark or died trying.

Sea lions!

It was getting a bit dark by this point but you could still see up the beach fairly well and we could see quite clearly that there were a group of sea lions frolicking around on the sand up ahead. The signs up top had put the fear of god into us with regards to not getting too close so we admired then from a safe distance for a little while, and then decided we really should try and get back before it turned pitch black…ah, the good intentions we had!

From out of nowhere on the walk back along the beach to the dunes, winds like I have never experienced seemed to whip up out of nowhere. We got to the first dune which was probably the mildest of them all, but the wind blowing directly in our faces made it near impossible to climb – firstly because we were being blown back down but secondly because we both had a face full of sand! It took us a good 15 minutes to climb the first one and by this point it was ‘can’t see your hand in front of your face’ dark and I was panicking in a big way, trying to recall whether I’d ever watched Bear Grylls fashion a shelter out of sand and sea lions.

We clambered around and finally reached the mother of all sand dunes, at this point I honestly didn’t think we would be able to climb it. The wind was insane and all we could see in front of us was a wall of sand. James went first, and using his beard as a windbreak he managed to drag me up halfway behind him. We tried to trudge on further but for every two steps forward we slid another six back. I decided there was nothing else for it but to tackle the rest on my hands and knees. Even through the howling wind and the sheer amount of sand in my ears I could still hear James crying with laughter behind me. I’m sure I must’ve been quite a vision, ass in the air as I clawed my way up the last 5 metres and collapsed face down in the sand at the top!

Typically we forgot to take a photo in the daylight, but you can just about make out the 'death slide' of sand...

I was feeling slightly more confident about our survival but we still had a steep dirt track and about 100 stairs to climb before we reached the carpark… I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy to see the camper as I was in that moment. I also don’t think I have ever had that much sand in my boots – I’m pretty sure we both managed to absorb at least a small dune between us.

Back on the road both utterly frozen and not convinced the tiny fan heater in our camper would do a sufficient job we decided to head into Dunedin town centre in search of a bar or pub with a fireplace where we could warm our bones and have a much needed beer to calm our nerves! Rather luckily for us, our favourite NZ beer – Monteith’s – had a pretty cool bar right in the centre, complete with rather fancy roaring fire! After warming up (and calming down) with a couple of beers and some chips we decided it was time for bed (after all it must’ve been about 9pm or something) so we left our new favourite bar and strolled back to the van. However, it turns out Dunedin has quite a few rather cool looking bars and pubs with fireplaces and we were instantly suckered in my another that not only had a proper roaring fireplace inside but also one outside as well! We opted for one last stop for a nightcap (Bailey’s please!) before dragging ourselves back to our campsite, discussing the technicalities of moving to Dunedin the whole way there…

Enjoying a much needed beer by the fire