This place is on the way to Christchurch. A very picturesque drive from Dunedin. We stopped at a little fishing village where I had seen a newspaper showing a geological wonder in this little town. They Are called the Moeraki boulders. They are huge spherical shapes scattered over the sandy beaches. They have been shaped by rivers and seas . They are classified as septarian concretions and were formed in ancient sea floor sediments. They were created the same way a pearl is made in an oyster. Instead of a irritating piece of sand, it would have been, a fossil shell, bone fragment or piece of wood. Lime minerals in the sea accumulated on the core over time and the concretion grew over time into perfectly spherical shapes, some as big as 3 meters.
The original mudstone seabed has since been uplifted to form cliffs and the erosion of the cliffs exposed these boulders. Some of them has since cracked open and have revealed to the scientists perfectly preserved skeletons of turtles, sea snails, extinct reptiles such as plesiosaurs. My daughter, Tracy, who is a geologist, probably learned about all of this in university.
There are so many incredible sights here on our coastal treasure hunt. We then went up to a lighthouse where there is a colony of seals and yellow-eyed penguins. We never saw the penguins because you have to be there at dusk when they return from sea and our timing has always been off. You have to hide in a wooden blind to see them. They don't like people watching them. But we did see lots of different kinds of seals swimming and sunbathing. Sometimes it is hard to see them as they are the same colour as the rocks they lie on. Looks at pic about five down, it looks like it has been plastered with cement.
It must be cold out as Larry is wearing pants and is not happy. This must be near the end of our journey.
Our room at this lodge is incredible for the price. Last. Night our room was tiny. Tonite it's huge for about the same price. There are enough beds for at least 6. Two major bedrooms with a full kitchen, breakfast nook, and porch. There are 2 king-size beds, one for lounging and one for sleeping and other stuff, and 2 twins. I wonder which one Larry will sleep in. I am cooking a rack of lamb tonite because we have an oven.
Cheers
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