This day is a big day! Why? Because we have many things to see and we want to see it all before it gets dark! It is important to know at what time the sun set is. You can either find it out on line or you can do a simple calculation using your fingers. How?? Well - it is really easy and we do it quite often. All you have to do is:
- Lift your hand straight in front of you and count, how many of your fingers fit between the sun and horizon you are looking at. Each finger counts as 15 minutes before sunset. Believe it or not but it works!
- Start from Dunedin
- Tunnel Beach Track
- Nugget Point Light House
- Cathedral Caves and McLean Falls
- Porpoise Bay
- Curio Bay
- Slope Point
- Waipapa Point Lighthouse
- And return to Dunedin
As you can see our route for today is quite big and even our hosts told us that its is a lot to see and drive for one day. We had to be quick! Calculated driving time is 4h 30 min one way, and about 7 hours of total driving tin one day. It would definitely be better to split this day in two days but we had to push our limits a little bit because of our total road trip plan.
1st. destination was Tunnel Beach Track. It was quite easy to navigate there but you have to drive slow when you are going there, because we missed the road where we had to turn in. There isn't big signs or something that would direct you there. When you are driving on Blackhead road pay attention to the road signs on your left and turn in to the Tunnel Beach road. At the end of the road is a parking place and the Tunnel Beach Track track starts right there. Keep in mind that track might be closed because of lambing season. It has regional variations, but mostly it starts late July, September and can be even till late August. We where lucky to get there when there where no sheep at all.
It is easy way down, but it might be a little harder for older people to come back. We are still young and it was no problem at all for us! We had a lot of fun while we where going down there and the view was amazing.
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| Tunnel Beach Track, Dunedin, New Zealand |
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| Tunnel Beach Track Coast Line |
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| High Cliffs Near Tunnel Beach Track |
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| Standing On The Edge of Tunnel Beach Track |
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Tunnel That is leading down to the Tunnel Beach Track Beach,
where you can find small rooms cut in to the cliff...
This is a must see place!
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As you can see in our pictures, the view there is amazing and you could spend there couple hours, just taking photos and enjoying the view! We didn't had too much time because of our schedule, but it didn't stop us from going down to the beach through this man made tunnel that was cut through the rock. That was great to see the view from bottom and to see how high are the cliffs and how much power does the waves have.
Down there we saw some small rooms that where cut in the rock but unfortunately we didn't had torch lights and we where not able to go inside and explore them. That could be interesting to see them from inside and to know the purpose of them. If some one knows it then please leave a comment down here.
After this track we went to the Nugget Point Light House where view was stunning!!! It was amazing to see blue water, Sea Lions and the cliffs rising up from sea like little islands. The light house it self is nothing special comparing to the view that is there! It is simply stunning! Amazing place what is definitely a must place to see in New Zealand. And guess what - it is free!!! :) Just take a look at our pictures and you will understand why!
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| The View To Nugget Point Light House |
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| Sea Lions Hanging around the Nugget Point |
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| View To The Cliffs While Walking The Trail |
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| Nugget Point - Amazing New Zealand |
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| Pyramid Cliff at Nugget Point and Eva |
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| Lost Gypsy Gallery |
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| Gypsy Whale |
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| The Button :) |
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| Valdis Playing Gypsy Piano |
Directions: The Place on the Right Side of the road if you are coming in to Papatowai village from Dunedin, but be really careful to not miss it. When you cross one line bridge go really slow. After you will pass by few hotels you will see a guy standing on the side of the road folding a sign up in the air saying "CURIOS". That is the place you have to go and see! Sometimes Gypsy is not at home or he might be working on his stuff, so you have to be lucky to get in there!
This is the point where I would say we had to stay over night. Maybe take a hotel near by and enjoy a glass of wine. We didn't stop here, we went farther and that's why we decided to split the post about this day in to parts. It would be good for every one to stay in Papatowai area.
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A marks a point where Gypsy Gallery is located
and where we would like to stay over night
if we would do this part of our road trip again.
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I -stands for Dunedin
B - for Tunnel Beach
C - for Nugget Piont
D - for Cathedral Caves and McLean Falls
E - for Porpoise Bay
F - for Curio Bay
G - for Slope Point
H - for Waipapa Point Lighthouse
Upper road - It could be a little bit faster but we took the tame road back what we came from.
Well! We hope that this map will help someone to plan his road trip around New Zealand. As we know then all of these places are must see places and we agree. It was great to visit them and see the nature on New Zealand! :)
Part Two of this day you can read in our next post! :)
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