The city’s white sandy beaches finish at one end with Smaills Beach. Up country from that is a wild coast of vertical, rocky cliffs, strictly for the seabirds, writes Clare Fraser.
Us two-legged types can sample the airiness and light from the three walkable ridgetops just inland. This refreshing half-day holiday is so close to the city it can be reached on the Ocean Grove bus.
41 Peg Track starts at Tomahawk Lagoon. Hugging the edge, it spies through native trees at the most peaceful water scenes, complete with black swans.
Soon enough there’s an uphill climb with advancing views over the city. It’s quite fun to keep your head down as you get higher, stopping for an occasional backward glance to see how much coast and hinterland keeps revealing itself.
On a still day coconut-lemon gorse smells keep you company.
At the top is the Soldier’s Monument, looking over the harbour for about 100 years. At its base, decades of visitors’ feet have left a groove in the rock, something the monument’s creators would surely have been touched to know.
From this point there are two loop options.
There’s Highcliff Rd followed by Centre Rd but both have hairy bits with little room for pedestrians. If you keep your ears on and your feet nimble, the views are striking.
Another route is down Karetai Rd, quite a bit longer but heaps more relaxing. It’s a winding, single-lane country road. There were only two cars during my visit, going slowly enough that the drivers waved and smiled. Dunedin: the friendly city. Where we can greet strangers without being received as a stalker.
The actual road’s a dead end but continues as a track leading walkers and bikers down to Smaill’s Beach. Near the bottom a small side track accesses some pretty special clifftop remnant native vegetation.
At Tomahawk Rd two gun emplacements from World War 2 remind us how recently violent physical attack was a very real threat. Our current peace and security can feel like a given but a quick review of history tells us that very little is.
Just before returning to the starting point there’s a final coastal peek over the white sand of Tomahawk Beach.
