The Mysterious Moeraki Boulders

Total Nights and Distance Travelled on Tour to Date = 21 Nights & 1779 Kms

Just what are they, these mysterious round things which fall out of the sandy cliffs and lie about quietly all along Koekohe Beach?

This way to the boulders

Picking our way along the beach we walked up to the crowds who were looking, photographing, and the younger, more supple visitors were climbing all over the boulders.  Some are perfectly smooth, some are marked with creamy coloured segments and some are smashed to pieces.  It’s easy to see why some people liken them to dinosaur eggs, or something that rained down from outer space.

A dinosaur egg perhaps, cracked and broken

Moeraki boulders in the surf

These ones have veins of quartz. 

 

The Moeraki boulders are actually “septarian concretions” formed on the stony sea floor 60 million years ago.  Cementing minerals bind to a piece of organic material and gradually build into a sphere, similar to the way pearls grow.  The cracked spheres have been invaded by other minerals, a type of quartz.  The concretions were embedded in mudstone, and slowly emerging as the mudstone erodes.  Even though scientists can explain how the boulders came to be, they certainly seem quite mysterious to me. 

A couple of beach babes with a boulder

Boulder leaving the cliff face

In 1836 Moeraki (meaning long sleep) was  the site of a former whaling station, supposedly the only alcohol free whaling station in the country.  These days the small village contains a cafe, a restaurant, motel and campground.  By now the residents must be well used to all the visitors  who trek along the beach to gawp at Moeraki’s famous boulders. 

Romany Rambler: Travelled 21,376Km; 369 Total Nights