We are now entering the Deep South. This is Otago land. From Oamaru it takes another half hour on State Highway 1 to get to Moeraki, famous for the eponymous boulders down on Koekohe Beach.
Now, there are boulders and there are boulders. The Moeraki Boulders definitely fall into the latter category. Large and spherical, they lie ominously on the beach, scattered everywhere as though flung there by some mythical giant in some mysterious past.
Each grey-coloured boulder can weigh up to several tonnes and reach almost two metres high. The official account for their existence is erosion by ocean waves of mudstone formed about 65 million years ago. According to Maori legend though, hundreds of years ago there was a great capsizing of the canoe Araiteuru. From it, massive gourds were washed ashore and transformed into the wonders we see today.
We definitely prefer the second, more romantic explanation.