One of Otago Peninsula’s least visited true beaches, Boulders is the final destination on a track called Paradise. Whether it lives up to that – well, that’s up to you; it’s a wild dark place crouching beneath scooped out cliffs on the Peninsula’s East Coast and one of the first to lose the sun.
If you’re a keen bird nerd however, then you’ll be as excited as I was to find that it’s a penguin’s paradise – yep, Boulder Beach remains one of the best and most private settings in which to see Yellow-eyed Penguins. You might have to hide in the tussock long enough to convince one it’s safe to come ashore though – these birds are like cats on hot tin roofs, convinced that every dark shape is a potential threat.
So it can’t be easy to get to your burrow when the beach is full of these…
To get to boulders, park your car in Highcliff Road near the sign to Paradise Track (the upper part of the track is an unsealed 101 called Paradise Road). Follow the track on down to the beach, looking out for some of the most ancient stone wall remnants on the Peninsula, and some seriously twisted Macrocarpas which have been battered by the fierce SW winds. Beware, the trip down is an easy 40 minutes, but coming back up the hill is quite a steep climb.
