Timing

The track is closed for lambing between 1st September and 15th October.

Access

From Portobello Follow Highcliff Road 4.6 km to Sandymount Road. This winding unsealed road dips and mounts the dunes before rising to an elevated parking area and the start of the tracks. The road is slippery when wet an not suited to large campervans.

Track

From the parking area the track is signposted. This description does and anticlockwise loop of Sandymount.

Head immediately to the left and climb to a triangulation marker on the summit. There are 360 degree views over Sandfly Bay, the harbour, ocean and peninsula.

Back on the main track the wide track undulates through the gorse and scrub. Signposts at the junction keep you heading left.

After dipping into a coastal ngaio forest with convoluted trunks, you exit onto farmland. The lookout platform over Lovers Leap is visible.

Keep winding round the hill. Pass through the farm gate just after the expansive views of Hoopers Inlet come to view. This lookout over The Chasm completes the duo of vertiginous coastal drops.

The avenue of macrocarpa trees past the farm shed, lead back to the parking area.

Geology

Rock arches such as Lovers Leap are formed by the continuous erosion of waves exploiting a weakness in the rock. This process enlarges a cave which eventually pierces a hole and continues to erode the weaker vein of rock. Eventually this form an arch. In time, this arch will collapse and form and entry for the sea, like at The Chasm.

Flora

Macrocarpa is a North American cypress which has adapted well to the windy conditions of Otago Peninsula.