Hiking the Peninsula

Living in Dunedin, we are blessed with the nearby peninsula home of the elusive penguins and soaring albatross. The peninsula also offers magnificent views of the harbor, Dunedin, and from the other side, the Pacific Ocean. There are only two main roads on the peninsula - the low road along the harbor where most of the houses are located and the high road (Highcliff Road) which winds along the top of the peninsula and offers all the best views. Most of the peninsula seems to be populated by sheep; except for the communities right next to the water, the rest is sheep pastures. This Saturday afternoon we borrowed a car and drove the narrow, winding Highcliff road to see the views. We took a hike on the Highcliff Road to Hooper's Inlet trail (top of peninsula to the ocean) through sheep pastures. In the picture, you can see the harbor in the background.

Here's Dan next to one of the dry stone fences we came across; behind him is the harbor. Thistles were everywhere. As was evidence of sheep, but they didn't come too close to us preferring to stay on a further hill. We even saw some sheep bones - I'm not sure what sort of predators they have here; maybe it was just old age.

This fence was amazing. Imagine the work involved in making it.

Here I am trying to negotiate the trail. The sign at the beginning said it was a steep trail - I didn't know that meant "suitable for mountain goats." If it wasn't so well marked by signposts, I wouldn't have believed this was the right way to go. We actually turned back soon after this point once we realized the trail kept going down like this for another few miles until it reached the ocean. We didn't want to walk all the way back up the hill considering it was getting late.

We took the car around instead. This is the far side of the trail - we started on those hills in the background. Behind us is Hooper's Inlet and the ocean. This side of the peninsula (the ocean side) is sparsely populated and very far-away looking. Lots of sheep, some farmhouses, and some small beach houses along the shoreline. The roads here were mostly gravel or dirt and only one lane (but two-way traffic) which made for some white-knuckle moments when passing campervans. I can't wait to come back and hike some more on the peninsula. We didn't pass anyone on the trails and the views were amazing.