As promised, this is a collection of some of the offbeat, weird, and downright mysterious oddities in New Zealand. There is something in here for everyone, but let’s start with the capital of weird, but ever so glorious in its Victorian beauty, Oamaru.
Oamaru
Oamaru struck it rich in a gold rush in the 1850’s. A sudden influx of people and money caused the little western port city to grow quickly, and the local white stone buildings where designed in the best Victorian style. But as soon as the gold rush started, it ended, people left the town, the Victorian buildings stood empty. It was a testament to the era and the craftsmanship that the block of historic buildings stood the test of time, not until the early 1900’s did the city begin to come back to life. Soon artisans replaced the dock workers and gold miners to bring a whole new element to the sleepy little city.
These artisans brought a unique flare to the city. Anchoring one end of the Victorian block is Steampunk Headquarters. It is as you would expect it to be, a fabulous building filled with fantastical monstrosities imagining a completely different technology timetable. The outside of the building is festooned with a full size functioning steampunk train engine, a dirigible, and a curious fellow fishing off the top of the building with a gigantic hook. Inside, if you take the tour, is some of the most imaginative works of art, many moving sculptures and a bizarre light room that will leave you floating in space.
Oamaru is also where the Alps 2 Ocean bike trail ends. One can ride a 190 mile path from Mt. Cook all the way to Oamaru, literally alps to ocean. Downtown besides the Victorian block of artisans, there is a brewery with great ciders and some fantastic parks with amazing sculptures. Finally, this is where you can see the blue penguins (see Fauna of New Zealand) come out to roost at night on the beach, definitely a sight to see. Oamaru should be on your list of places to visit when in New Zealand.
Moeraki Boulders
Just up the road from Oamaru are some of the most bizarre spherical rocks you may ever see. Reminiscent of the rock spheres of Costa Rica, the Moeraki Boulders do not appear to be carved, but instead are completely naturally. Seemingly birthed from the ocean side cliff face, these five to six foot round boulders sit along the beach in various groupings, some broken open to reveal the geode-like crystals inside. They are concretions, the process of crystallizing mudstone, but I like to think of them as Cocoon rocks (remember the movie)?
Pancake Rocks
Near Punakaiki are the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes, like thousands of stacked grey pancakes, these ocean side rock spires look alien, but even more fun is the crashing ocean waves coming ashore that have blown holes in the fissures in the rock allowing for blowholes at high tide to delight the visitor.
Finally below we have some one-off oddities, described in the captions for each of the pictures.
As usual, leave your comments and feedback below. Kia ora!
2 replies on “Weird New Zealand”
My goodness, you saw a lot of sites. Are you able to outline the process that formed the Moeraki Boulders? What forces caused a spherical shape?
From Wikipedia: Detailed analysis of the fine-grained rock using optical mineralogy, X-ray crystallography, and electron microprobe has determined that the boulders consist of mud, fine silt and clay, cemented by calcite. The rock comprising the bulk of a boulder is riddled with large cracks called septaria that radiate outward from a hollow core lined with scalenohedral calcite crystals. The process or processes that created septaria within Moeraki Boulders, and in other septarian concretions, remain an unresolved matter for which a number of possible explanations have been proposed. The erosion by wave action of mudstone, comprising local bedrock and landslides, frequently exposes embedded isolated boulders. These boulders are grey-colored septarian concretions, which have been exhumed from the mudstone enclosing them and concentrated on the beach by coastal erosion.
Or are the Maori right: Local Māori legends explained the boulders as the remains of eel baskets, calabashes, and kumara washed ashore from the wreck of Arai-te-uru, a large sailing canoe. This legend tells of the rocky shoals that extend seaward from Shag Point as being the petrified hull of this wreck and a nearby rocky promontory as being the body of the canoe’s captain. Their reticulated patterning on the boulders, according to this legend, are the remains of the canoe’s fishing nets.