From Wanaka at the end of the Haast Pass we head up to Omarama for another geological wonder, the Clay Cliffs.

We miss timed it a bit and got there pretty much at noon which meant the contrasting light made photography difficult but hopefully the epicness of the landscape still came through.

The Omarama Clay Cliffs are on private land and there’s a honesty system donation to enter.

Formed from millions of years of sediment deposit at the bottom of a lake then uplifted and tilted, the Clay Cliffs are a classic example of what is termed “Badlands erosion”

They really are spectacular.

Kylie has a much better and more scientific explanation of these formations.

Here’s what she said

“I still remember the first time our lecturer brought us here and told us to “run wild and free” as he explained to us this magnificent example of tectonics in action. The Clay Cliffs are sedimentary deposits that were once the base of river bed. Due to the position of the Ostler Fault line under the South Island of New Zealand the river bed has been uplifted overtime and then eroded to form these strikingly alien planet like features.

New Zealand is an amazing country to see Earth in motion, similar to Iceland where tectonic forces are still very much at play building the landscape as we speak. Unlike Australia that is so ancient it only erodes now.

Anyway the Clay Cliffs are totally cool, I’m still finding new parts of it to explore every time I come back.”

Click to make the photo go biggish

After spending most of the afternoon here we jump in the van and make tracks up to Aoraki aka Mount Cook.