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Otago

Long Beach Caves

Dunedin City District

Long Beach Caves

Amazing (now dry) sea caves at the end of a very beautiful beach. These caves are big enough to hold raves or an entire class for a school camping trip. What you should know before you go. Plan quite a few hours out here (or stay the night) as there is lots of exploring to do. There is also wild life that nests inside some caves, so be careful not to disturb them. This is also a huge rock climbing area and great for a family day out.


Directions

From Dunedin, head over to Port Chalmers and take Blueskin Road up the hill. Take the right turn onto Purakanui Rd and then another right onto Mihiwaka Road. Once you get to the bottom on the hill, Park at one of the many parking lots along Beach Road. Walk out to the beach and walk all the way to the left where the big cliffs are. Happy exploring.


Other adventures in close proximity


Helpful links

Midnight Fright!

The middle of winter was upon us. The sun had set hours ago. Why was I not sipping tea and watching Netflix? I'll tell you why, I had an idea, A photographic idea. I wanted to capture the milky way sinking into the ocean from inside a cave, and why the hell not.

It was about 9 pm and I jumped in the trusty old van. Headed over the hill to port and then up the next one. As I pulled up to the parking lot, no other cars were there. Only frozen puddles and frost on the grass, this was going to be a cold one. I headed out through the dark forest, no moon tonight. Once I was out on the beach, I was the only person around. Complete silence. I could see Taiaroa Head lighthouse off in the distance over the black ocean. Somewhat of a chilling feeling, hearing the ocean, but not being able to see how far it was from me.

As I got closer to the caves, the darker everything became, I had brought so many lights with me to fight off those ghostly thoughts, but what about the sea lions? Lucky I didn't end of seeing any sea lions, or ghosts. But I can tell you, every time I turned around in the cave to take a picture, I had that eerie feeling something was creeping up on me. I stayed in the cave for quite some time, playing with lasers and all sorts of colored LEDs. But the time had come, and my nerves were shot.

It's never when I'm getting to a place, it's always as I'm leaving, that I feel like someone or something is following me. But no matter how bright my flashlights are, I can never light up enough of my surroundings to be 100% sure. So I walked where I thought the middle of the beach was, halfway to water, halfway to dark dense bush.

I gotta stop doing this solo night missions - Stu