Timing

At high tides with large swells, some sections at the base of the dunes will become impassable.

Dawn and dusk are best for penguin viewing.

Sandymount Track is closed from 1st September to 1st November for lambing.

Access

Sandfly Bay is 15 km from Dunedin city centre. Take Wharf Street, Portsmouth Drive to Portobello Road. This twisty sealed road follows the shore of Otago Harbour, but you want to head right by the lagoon up Marne Street and left onto Sommerville street then left after 1.5 km on to Highcliff Road. This follows the spine of the Otago Peninsula. Sandfly Bay is signposted after 7.7 km on the right along Seal Point Road. Continue to the end. Large vehicle may have trouble turning here.

Track

Never turn your back on beaches with exposed outlooks like Sandfly Beach. Rogue waves can pluck you to the sea instantly and the steep shelf will drag you out. No swimming unless your wish is to be shark fodder.

From the carpark the track crosses gorse and flax encrusted farmland and descends to a viewpoint overlooking the golden sand, flying in the wind. Moon walking down the soft dunes arrives at the southern end of the beach, and the domain of the pinnipeds.

Near the northern end is a series of orange posts, which lead up a gully towards Sandymount Track, Lovers Leap and The Chasm. This loop will add a further 1 hour and 2.5 km to your journey. This track is closed from 1st September to 1st November for lambing.

Flora

Macrocarpa are a notable imported tree on the Otago Peninsula. Their native habitat on the north-western USA also shares constant winds and salty air.

Fauna

Fur seals Arctocephalus forsteri were almost driven to extinction at the beginning of the 1800s, but numbers now seem to be recovering. Sealing was a disgusting job. Like a battle charge, gangs would disembark and attempt to intercept the wave of frightened seals before they reached the sea, directing one swift blow to the tip of the nose. A good sealer had to be quick, agile and strong. Brandishing wooden cudgels they would terrorise an area, heaping the skins under a suitably conspicuous tarpaulin before moving to the next colony.

Different markets called for variations on how the skin was treated. The Chinese market preferred carefully prepared skins, where the subcutaneous fat was scraped away by a ‘beamer’, the flipper holes sewn up and the skin dried. This was carried out in ritualistic fashion by 10 one foot long pegs secured in regular positions about the skin.

The rocky shores would have been stained with the blood of many merciless killings. Rotting carcasses would be strewn like war victims. Indeed the whole picture must have resembled a battle scene. Men who found employment as sealers were often rough and carried hidden baggage.

Seals are known as pinnipeds (wing footed) because of the webbed flippers instead of paws or feet. Streamlined bodies and blubber keep them warm (hence their hunting for fur). Their ears, nose flaps close when diving. They feed on squid, octopus and hoki.

Bull sea lions are absolute monsters, tipping the scales at 400kg. You don’t want to get in the way of one, so be especially vigilant if passing between them and the sea – their escape route. They prefer to slumber on the sand, unlike fur seals who use the rocks as their mattresses. The sea lions are often observed flipping sand onto their backs in an effort to keep cool.

Yellow-eyed penguins weigh around 5 kg and stand around 70 centimetres tall. They breed in southern parts of New Zealand and Sub-Antarctic Islands in spring. Chicks are reared during the summer in nests constructed of flax. During the February moult, birds are vulnerable. Be Aware. Observe their behaviour and don’t hassle them for a photo. You have another home to go to. This is their home, so use your manners. Numbers are in serious decline.

European History

The name ‘Sandfly Bay’ comes not from the prevalence of those nasty little biting insects, but from the fact that sand flies on the constant wind.