Hooper's Inlet

This weekend we took a drive and a hike on the Otago Peninsula. From the map you can see Dunedin is located at the end of the Otago Harbor (we are one block from the Octagon). Most of the communities on the peninsula are located along the harbor. The rest of the peninsula is steep hills mostly home to sheep pastures. We drove along the winding Highcliff road and stopped for a hike from Highcliff to Hooper's Inlet. Actually we only hiked part of the trail then drove the rest of the way around to Hooper's Inlet and the ocean side of the harbor.


From the map you can even see that the ocean side of the peninsula is sparsely populated. It is great for hiking though; just make sure you have enough gas in the car since there are no gas stations on the peninsula.



This is Hooper's Inlet on the Pacific Ocean side of the peninsula.

This is from Highcliff road looking down towards Hooper's Inlet. The trail would have taken us all the way down these hills to the ocean.

Another view of the Inlet. It was very shallow near this area and the birds were loving it. We saw cranes, shags, and cormorants as well as some hawks - no penguins or albatross though.