Smaills Beach is east along Tomahawk Road on the southeast end of Otago Peninsula. Drive through Ocean Grove and Tomahawk Beach and stop at the viewpoints high above the cliffs. There, you will find some old WW2 gun emplacements, now repurposed as public art, with less formal graffiti and more superb views.
Continue to the beach access and car park, and then it’s a few minutes walk through the dunes and scrub to Smaills Beach. This is another beautiful white-sand Pacific Coast surf beach, although the natural ocean rips make it dangerous for unpatrolled swimming.
Watch out for sea lions and penguins at dawn and dusk. You may also see the odd nudist.
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