Leaving Oamaru, and heading for Dunedin, we drove about 40kms. south to look at the famed Moeraki Boulders.
Large, grey and almost perfectly spherical, some reaching 2m. in diameter, the boulders lie partially submerged in the sandy beach. Their smooth skins hide honeycomb centres, which are revealed in some of the broken specimens.
The boulders once lay deep in the mudstone cliffs behind the beach. As these cliffs were eroded, out fell the smooth boulders, and their distinctive surface pattern was formed as further erosion exposed a network of veins.
The creation of the boulders began 40 million years ago when muddy sediment containing shell and plant fragments accumulated on the sea floor.
The lady who kindly took this picture of us was from Gore and staying in the area for the first time. She told us that the previous day she had taken a walk from the local lighthouse and had seen yellow-eyed penguins, so we decided to take the same route.
As we made our way from the boulders who should we bump into but Clive and Miriam!! (See Oamaru blog.) We decided to go together to the lighthouse, after a cup of coffee.
'Fleur's Place':
Back at Kaikoura, we'd been advised to visit 'Fleur's Place' at Moeraki village. It's a converted fishing shack, and if it was good enough for Gwyneth Paltrow (when she was filming nearby) it was good enough for us.
The coffee was awesome, and the setting idyllic.
While were enjoying our Flat Whites, Miriam saw a large seal clamber onto the rocks right beside us.
Moeraki Lighthouse:
About 5kms. down an unsealed road we reached the white wooden lighthouse......
....
......and followed the path to the hide overlooking Katiki Point.
On the path, before we reached the hide, we saw 2 yellow-eyed penguins resting in the undergrowth.
There were no more penguins to be seen on the beach...
...but we did see some more seals.
No comments:
Post a Comment