Originally shared on Instagram on November 18, 2025. Photography and story by Mark Middleton.
I’ve photographed Honeymoon Island more times than I can count. It’s the place I go when I need quiet or when I just want to feel grounded again. I walk this beach almost every week — sometimes in the stillness of early morning, but more often in the late afternoon, when the sun drops low and the sky turns into something worth remembering.
This photograph was taken in July 2018, right at sunset, from high above the causeway. Back then, the island was still whole — no breaks, no gaps, just one long stretch of sand, mangroves, trails, and the wild shoreline so many of us in Dunedin have grown to love. From this perspective, you can see the full shape of the island the way it existed for decades.
In February 2024, everything changed. A storm carved a shallow break through the northern end of the island — a small cut at first, one you could still walk across if you were willing to get your feet wet. But after the storms last summer, that break widened into a full gap. Today it’s deep, dangerous to cross on foot, and the only way to reach North Honeymoon is by boat. Nature reminding us, as it always does, that nothing stays the same forever.
Looking at this photo now, knowing how the island has evolved, gives it a different weight. It’s a reminder of how lucky I’ve been to spend so many years walking this shoreline — to watch pelicans glide the shoreline at dusk, to feel the wind shift before a storm, to see the colors of the Gulf change by the minute. Honeymoon Island is more than a park; it’s part of my weekly rhythm, part of my history, part of the story of living in Dunedin.
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