Mini adventure will be day’s oasis

This mini walk has maximum drama.

Second Beach is a complete contrast to next door’s sandy St Clair. For even some long-term Dunedinities, its very existence might be a surprise.

Walk up the wee road above St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool. This is the only hilly bit. Instantly you oversee a large cove, secluded and private enough for a pirate delivery, but dauntingly rocky and rough.

Street art has made it to the side of a stormwater outlet near the start, decorated by UK artist Phlegm, of Vogel St fame. Further along are colourful scribblings on remnant hunks of concrete at the old quarry site. Whatever your taste, it’s pretty clever to doctor up this stuff using spray paint.

A wide, gravelled track goes above the beach to the end of the cove, past some healthy native scrub. The track follows the bottom of steep cliffs so is shady in the later day. A stroll takes anything between 10 and 30 minutes, your call.

At the headland there’s a seat and open area close enough to the surf for the intensity to be just a little bit sobering. Standing at the edge gives a side-on, seagull’s view of skimming along the tops of waves just before they roll on to shore. Right below your feet waves smash against rocks. Seaweed swirls like human hair, begging for morbid contemplation.