Sandfly Bay & The Albatross Centre : New Zealand Episode 8

If you haven’t read the previous episode yet, click here first.

1. Starting the Day Early at Sandfly Bay

Looking back at our Dunedin schedule now…
we were seriously active 😂

We woke up early in the morning
and quickly put together a simple breakfast.

Avocado toast with cherries on the side 🍒🥑

Of course, we also grabbed another cup of coffee
before loading everything into the car and heading out.

📍 Sandfly Bay

For how many cars were there,
the parking area was way too small.

After struggling to find a parking spot,
we finally made it down toward the beach.

At first, seeing the wide grass fields with the ocean in the distance,
I thought:

“Oh, this will just be a light little walk 😄”

…Yeah, absolutely not.

The moment the sand started appearing,
I immediately realized something.

People say you gain weight on your honeymoon,
but honestly… I don’t think that applies in New Zealand 😂

This country forces you to become healthy.

As you keep walking down,
you’ll suddenly spot sea lions lying around everywhere.

Up until this exact day,
we genuinely believed every sea lion we saw was a seal.

Turns out… nope 😂

(Actual seals were surprisingly rare in New Zealand.)

And somehow, even though we definitely ate breakfast,
we got insanely hungry again.

(Sandfly Bay is no joke… seriously exhausting.)

2. The Restaurant We Stopped By After Sandfly Bay

Instead of heading straight to the Albatross Centre,
we decided food was the priority.

📍 The Duck
494 Portobello Road, Macandrew Bay, Dunedin 9014, New Zealand
(Open 08:00–16:00 / Closed Mondays)

I had originally been saving my “burger meal” for Queenstown…

But I was way too hungry to keep pretending 😂

So we ordered burgers anyway.

And honestly?
They were so good 🥹🤤

We also got a chocolate cake
and had it with coffee afterward.

Perfect recovery meal.

3. Arriving at the Dunedin Albatross Centre

After properly refueling ourselves,
we headed to the Albatross Centre.

The parking lot itself is pretty large,

but if possible, avoid parking near the edges
or anywhere birds seem to gather.

Seriously.
Everything becomes a bird-poop battlefield 💩

We parked somewhere near the middle,
and still got hit twice 🤮

Once you leave the parking lot and walk toward the viewing area,
the scenery is honestly incredible.

There are birds everywhere.

And surprisingly,
they don’t really run away even when people get close.

It’s unbelievably loud too,
and the whole place smells strongly like the ocean… and crabs 😂

(I still don’t know exactly what they eat,
but the entire area was covered in white and orange bird poop.)

Apparently, seeing an albatross is considered lucky.

But honestly?
The albatrosses seemed to just live there permanently 😂

There were around 3–4 of them constantly flying near the lighthouse.

Without binoculars,
it’s pretty hard to see them up close though.

The photos didn’t capture them perfectly because they were so far away,
but that bird in the picture is an albatross.

One of them suddenly flew surprisingly close to us,
so of course — instant photo time 📸

We also took photos together as a couple.

Their wings are seriously massive.

The ocean wind was way stronger than expected too,
so it actually felt pretty cold there.

At one point,
I was filming the path while walking,

and suddenly my wife asked:

“Did you film the rabbit?”

I was like… “What rabbit?”

And then I looked over —
and there actually was a rabbit there 😂🐇

4. Allans Beach — Full of Sea Lions

📍 Allans Beach

After finishing at the Albatross Centre,
we stopped by Allans Beach on the way back toward the city.

Just like Sandfly Bay,
it starts off looking like peaceful grassland…

and then suddenly becomes another giant sand battlefield 😭

But after surviving Sandfly Bay earlier,
this place honestly felt easy mode.

Compared to Sandfly Bay,
there were even more sea lions here.

And the colors and sizes were all different too,
which somehow made it even more fascinating.

Around 6 PM weather.

The surrounding scenery, the rocks, the coastline —
everything looked amazing,

so naturally we spent forever taking photos again.

Afterward, we stopped by the supermarket for groceries.

And even though the photos look like daytime,
it was actually around 6 PM at that point.

We rushed back, bought food, made dinner…

and before we knew it,
it was already 9 PM.

Another full day successfully completed ✨