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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Lovers Leap and The Chasm, Otago Peninsula, New Zealand

John and I sneaked away mid week to check out The Chasm and Lovers Leap out on the Otago Peninsula. These jems are only 30mins from our home in Dunedin.

It was a super windy day, so you will notice wild hair! The tracks are located on Sandymount, which I found remarkable because I have never been on a mountian made of sand.



Map view

View of Allens Beach from Sandymount
  The hike begins along a spooky avenue of Macrocarpa pines to a gate by an old farm building. We followed the trail over farmland with a breath taking view of Allens Beach. This track leads directly to the Lovers Leap viewpoint, while a poled track to the left leads to the Chasm



John crossing farm land to Lovers Leap look out. 

John on Sandymount above Hoopers Inlet, NZ
These locations are very impressive, being sheer drops of 200m.
People should use extreme caution with children in these areas as cliff edges are unfenced.
John above The Chasm



The Chasm - Notice how windy the grass is. This geological area is remarkable!


































The Chasm is similar although the sea no longer enters into the floor of the notch. It is amazing to me how easy someone could fall down the cliff edge. It looked like there was once a protective fence has been trampled to ground level. It seems now to serve as a potentially lethal cliff-edge trip wire.

Dont fall! Jen above the Chasm!
Other side view of Lovers Leap


The Lovers Leap track leads to a small viewing platform perched on the edge of the cliff.

The sea has carved a notch into the cliff here and tunneled out an arch.

I loved the Basalt columns are visible in the face of the cliff here. These are simular to the columnar basalt at the Organ Pipes on Mount Cargil near our home in the North east valley of Dunedin
View from Lovers Leap - Yikes!

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