Adventures of the Brown Kiwi's: Natural Me

Today was the perfect winter day. Cool, crisp and super sunny. Thank God the people at my job realized that days like this shouldn't be wasted! My wonderful colleague suggested that I go out and enjoy the sunshine and that's exactly what I did! I rushed home, changed into my hiking gear, grabbed water and some granola bars and headed out to do one the the legendary Otago Peninsula tracks. One thing that I appreciate about Kiwi's is their love of nature and the outdoors. There are tracks ranging from a short 5-10 minutes to 1.5 hours all over the peninsula. I wanted to see if I could sqeeze in two long walks into the afternoon.

Going on a walk in New Zealand is not like walking other places. First and most importantly, New Zealand does not have anything that could kill you in the woods (I'm not counting people :). No indigenous large animals, no snakes and most importantly, no big bugs!!! So naturally, I'm going to be hanging out in the woods a lot!!!
Secondly, these walks are not for the faint of heart. On my last walk today, I really could have used an escalator. Both walks had some very steep portions and believe me, I felt the burn!!!! I stopped several times to "take pictures" but really I had to catch my breath and hope that the burning in my legs would subside!
My mother can attest that being outside used to be one of my favorite pastimes as a child. My sister and I loved going into the woods, hiding and camping (or pretending to camp). There was nothing better than being outside. And now, 30+ years later, I am getting back to the outside!

After doing some research on the walks around the peninsula, I decided on the Buskin Track on the Otago Peninsula. It was about a 45 minute one way walk and it goes through native forest, farmland and then down to the beach. This is why I love New Zealand! How is it humanly possible to walk just 45 minutes through three different habitats? I was intrigued. I started the drive to the Otago Peninsula from my hotel, passing by the Dunedin Harbor:

View of the Harbor

Leaving the city

The Otago Peninsula

View of the bay

View of the city of Dunedin from the Otago Peninsula

My planned route...down farmland through some woods and down to the beach!

Entry to the Buskin Track

Down the track, through farm land. Thanks to the sheep, the path was nicely fertilized :)

View of the beach

On the track

On the track, headed into the woods. At first, it looked pretty scary and dark in there but the forest itself had lots of beautiful view points where you could see panoramic views of the pastureland and the ocean:

View of the beach from the forest

The road on the Otago Peninsula

My next track was to head to Sandfly beach. This is a famous beach in that it is natural habitat for the yellow-eyed penguins and sea lions. It is also home of the largest sand dunes in New Zealand. The biggest rise 100m above the beach!

View of Sandfly beach on the Pacific Ocean

Beautifully deserted!!!

Sandfly beach

The cliffs above Sandfly beach...i had to walk down from waay up there down to the beach....

low tide at the beach

Its amazing to see the contrast in the land...Up in the distance, you can see lush pasture lands with animals grazing. Then it transitions into sand dunes and coastal land. This creek started way up in the hills and is running towards the Ocean...I was trying so hard to figure a way across without getting my feet too wet when I almost ran into:

Sea Lions!

Walking back, I heard something make an awful noise, I noticed up on a dune, several LARGE sea lions, including this big male bull. By this point, I'm worried because I didn't realize that sea lions could get that high up on a beach and that was VERY near my way off the beach and to my car!

I made it back safely and headed back to the city. It was a perfect afternoon in New Zealand! I'm planning on doing more exploring on tomorrow! Supposed to be a beatiful weekend! Will keep you posted!