Amazingly, in seemingly no time it was the start of our last week in Dunedin. We had decided early on in our stay to host a “thank you” party at a local pizza bar called Filadelphios for Liz, her family, and the students in her lab, who had all contributed to the success of our visit. When this party came to pass, on the Monday of our last week, we were 19 in all. Filadelphios was a good choice because they serve a large variety of standard and highly unusual pizzas — including vegan and vegetarian as well as a gluten free one for Nina. Also, the four of us had our first encounter with wedges: essentially huge, heavily seasoned French fries that could easily be addictive. All in all, the evening seemed to be a success.
You may recall that an earlier post described Liz and Mike taking the two of us to Tunnel Beach. Haywood had been particularly interested in getting to see it in person. With many things to do and not the best of weather, there was not a chance to get there until the afternoon of Wednesday, our last day in Dunedin. That morning, Ted had given a lecture about a research project of his to a group of about 30 students and faculty. After lunch, following 3 days of steady rain, the skies began to clear, so we decided to give the beach a go. This was a wonderful decision as our second time there was very different from the first. On our first visit, it had been bright and sunny but the sea and been calm. On this afternoon, the skies were just clearing and, as you can see below, the surf was pounding.
Another difference was that on our previous visit we did not venture onto the headland that protects the south end of the hidden beach, because Liz and Mike did not want their three-year old son Matai running loose on this area with steep, unfenced cliffs on all sides. Of course, it’s not clear that we wanted Taylor running loose near these same cliffs.
In our first blog post about Tunnel Beach we mentioned that it got its name from the tunnel with stairs cut through the rock to give the daughter of the gentleman who had built a castle above the beach access to a private beach where she could swim. This visit, I got a picture showing that tunnel. Here you can also see how high the cliffs of the headland are above the beach.
However, the biggest difference was simply being there with the girls. Below, on the right are Taylor and Haywood walking on the beach as seen from up on the headland. On the right, Haywood is doing one of her favorite things.
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