Victory Beach

Sorry for the delay in posting. We have been pretty busy here with work and school. Also the constant rain was making me just want to curl up under a blanket...it rained for 14 days straight. Anyway, these pictures are from Sunday, July 27th. We continued exploring the Peninsula and found Victory Beach.



We walked along a dirt access road between two flooded, marshy sheep pastures to get to the Okia Reserve and the beach.

The sheep didn't seem to mind the rain; of course, it's not like they have a barn to go to. The pastures looked like they were under water most of the time - there were reeds all over. As you can see, some sheep kept to the higher ground of the hills.

And some native trees growing among the more exotic species. Exotic plants here just mean non-native; so the trees that look like home to us (oaks, etc).

These are the pyramids of Okia Reserve. The rocks are shaped like two pyramids; we walked up the smaller one to have a look around. These awe-inspiring features were formed during the first eruptive stage of the volcano on which Dunedin is built. They are made of a dark rock called basalt which is extremely hard and resistant to erosion.

This is from the top of the smaller pyramid looking over Okia Reserve towards the Pacific Ocean and Victory Beach. The Reserve is now a protected area; the dept of conservation has projects there to reintroduce native species of grass and protect the wildlife.