Moeraki Boulders

Given that several of the places we wanted to visit this week are on National Park land, we sadly decided that Diesel would have to holiday on his own at the local kennels. Once he was safely ensconsed, we headed south. For once, traffic was pretty heavy on State Hghway 1, and roadworks plentiful so it took us longer than expected to reach our first stop, the Moeraki Boulders (by which time the phrase "when's it lunchtime" had become banned due to overuse).

The Moeraki Boulders are huge spherical stones that are scattered over the sandy beaches, but they are not like ordinary round boulders that have been shaped by rivers and pounding seas. These boulders are classed as septarian concretions, and were formed in ancient sea floor sediments. They were created by a process similar to the formation of oyster pearls, where layers of material cover a central nucleus or core. For the oyster, this core is an irritating grain of sand. For the boulders, it was a fossil shell, bone fragment, or piece of wood. Lime minerals in the sea accumulated on the core over time, and the concretion grew into perfectly spherical shapes up to three metres in diameter.

Chris' commented that it looked like the cliffs were sh*****g the boulders - charming!!! See what you think..










And, for the first time ever, photos of the birth of rock monsters.....

and onewards to Dunedin...