Sandfly Beach

  • Sandfly Beach - New Zealand
    © Andrea Schaffer / CC BY Pinterest
  • Sandfly Beach - New Zealand
    © Pavel Å pindler / CC BY Pinterest

Sandfly Bay lies on the Otago Peninsula on New Zealand’s South Island, not far from the city of Dunedin. This beautiful, wild beach is backed by high dunes.

At the northern end of the beach is a bird watching hide constructed to watch the yellow-eyed penguins that are found in this area. The beach is also a good spot to see sea lions and fur seals.

Curiously, the name of the beach does not in fact come from the small biting insects known as sandfly. The beach’s name is actually from the sand which, given the exposed nature of this coast is often whipped up and has the effect of sand-blasting visitors.

Nearest town/city

Hokitika

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Current weather (Fri Mar 29th 15:00)

Partly cloudy

(Partly cloudy)
16.1°C / 61°F

Sea temperature

15°C
59.0°F

Sandfly BeachFull weather & tide times info »