Road Tripping Across New Zealand Chapter 27: Gorgeous Tunnel Beach
8 December 2015
The great thing about Dunedin is that all these great places are only a few minutes drive away. When le bestie mentioned that we should pay Tunnel Beach a visit when we were in Dunedin, I agreed. Even Corrine who has studied here in university has never been to Tunnel Beach so we thought we might as well go check the place out.
We were greeted by this lovely quaint mailboxes as soon as we stepped out of the car. These kind of mailboxes probably do not exist in Singapore anymore but I still love simple sights like these.
So we are at the right place. The signboard says 1 hour hike to Tunnel Beach and back so that means 3 hours for me.
Of course we have done some googling and sneaking around the internet but we also know that there is only so much the cameras can capture. Nothing beats being here to see it ourselves. Loving the view already.
So we started walking in high spirits, excited to see what kind of view awaits us.
I stopped for a while to tie my shoelaces and the girls started to become smaller and smaller right before my eyes. After a few minutes, they started to vanish from my sight slowly like this.
The walk seemed endless and having no one around me to talk to was making me tired. Nevertheless, I did not give up. When I finally saw this sight, I started to quicken my steps.
Corrine was the first to arrive and look how small she is in the surroundings!
We started exploring the area separately but the places was huge so I managed to capture how small everyone looked from where I was standing. Spot the bestie in red.
Effa looking like a tiny ant.
Corrine is a small dot in the majestic surroundings.
I love how there was no one there and we were free to roam around and take as many photos as possible without any disruptions.
I captured the entire place with a 360 degrees video but even so I think I failed to capture how drop dead gorgeous this place is.
It was good that it was pretty rocky. It helps us to be careful while moving around. I mean, I would not want to slip into the ocean because there would be no way of anyone finding me.
A shadow of me with the other side of the beach because the sun was shining into the direction of the camera.
Looking down at the beach.
The girls decided that since we are here, we should go down to the beach! I mean, I thought they were kidding! Look at the waves! It looked like it could sweep us all away in a second! Lol. The tide looked like is not high yet so they thought it would be safe.
I was still sceptical but since I did not want to be left behind…………I started to make my way down. Still can’t believe the scenery in front of my eyes.
Here it is, a secret passageway that leads to the beach. It is a tunnel of stairs and I guess that is where the name ‘Tunnel Beach’ came from.
Finally here at the beach after what it felt like a thousand steps down.
We were all in awe. Look at the formation of the rocks and check out the height.
Soft sand below our feet and strong winds to cool us down. We had to hurry because the beach is pretty small so when it is high tide, the beach may be conquered and completely hidden by the waves.
I think we must have captured like a 1000 photos of this gorgeous place. Making our way back up was tougher and hiking back up to our car also took forever. I need to be fitter.
Tunnel beach is at the bottom of a short, but steep, walk across private land (closed 1st August to end of October, for lambing). In the 1870’s it was farmed by John Cargill, he had a tunnel dug to allow his children to access the beach. The beach itself has stunning sandstone formations, some resident pigeons, Sea caves and some very old graffiti. Source here.
The long and tiring hike is definitely worth it. The view is simply magnificent. If you are in Dunedin, make time to go here! Just a tip, wear good shoes and bring a bottle of water with you. Of course, don’t forget to take lots of photos, you can never go wrong with majestic views such as these.
Tunnel Beach is a locality 7.5 kilometres southwest of the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is located just south of. St Clair Beach.