Moeraki, is a very small fishing village, about 70km north of Dunedin. It's famous for the beach with perfectly rounded boulders, millions of years old.
The Moeraki Boulders are huge spherical stones that are scattered over the beaches. 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, this 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 meters in diameter. After the concretions formed, large cracks, septaria, formed in them. Brown calcite, yellow calcite, and, in rare cases, dolomite and quartz progressively filled these cracks when a drop in sea level allowed fresh groundwater to flow through the mudstone enclosing them.
These were pretty interesting; well as interesting as big round rocks can be.
The guidebook said to watch for dolphins just off shore -- we watched but never saw any. Check out Dan's new backpack from Sierra Trading Post-- we placed an order with them & got things in less than 2 weeks & shipping wasn't bad. amazing.
Afterwards we went into the town of Moeraki & ate a late lunch at Fleurs Place, a restaurant right on the waterfront at the old jetty. Their specialty is fresh fish straight from Moeraki Bay fishing boats; they claim the fish is only ever washed in sea water. It was delicious – probably our best meal here so far. Dan had the seafood chowder while I had the gurnard fillet. I can see taking that route again just to catch lunch there.
It was a nice way to spend Sunday afternoon. The weather was cool and rained intermittantly which seems to be the way things are going here. It's definately Fall now; the afghans will soon be done and just in time.
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