Sandymount is the name of a prominent hill on
Otago Peninsula
The Otago Peninsula ( mi, Muaūpoko) is a long, hilly indented finger of land that forms the easternmost part of Dunedin, New Zealand. Volcanic in origin, it forms one wall of the eroded valley that now forms Otago Harbour. The peninsula lies sou ...
, in the southeastern
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. It is 13 kilometres east of the city centre of
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
, close to the northeastern end of
Sandfly Bay
Sandfly Bay is a sandy bay with large dunes east of central Dunedin, New Zealand. Located on the southern side of Otago Peninsula, between Seal Point and the Gull Rocks on the western side of Sandymount, Sandfly Bay is a Department of Conserva ...
, and rises to a height of 312 metres. The eastern side of the hill meets the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
in a series of high cliffs and chasms, some of which are among the largest in New Zealand. Prominent among these are Lover's Leap and The Chasm, the former of which is 224 metres high.
The hill is named for the large dunes which rise up the southern flanks of the hill to a height of over 100 metres.
References
*Dann, C. and
Peat, N. (1989) ''Dunedin, North and South Otago.'' Wellington: GP Books.
Mountains of Otago
Otago Peninsula
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