beach

New Zealand South island Road Trip 2025 – Moeraki Boulders

| flynny101

From Elephant rocks we make our way to the East Coast.

There’s one more geological marvel we want to see.

But before we get there we stop at a PDS to empty the grey water out of van and top up fresh water.

While there and another van pulls up and out jumps Debby Downer wanting a chat.

Moeraki Boulders? Says him after asking where we are heading. That’s a big lot of disappointment. nothing there, just rocks on a beach…

And he proceeds to launch into a general whinge about the world, life, and modern times intermingled with a racist rant or two. I curse at how slow the grey water tank drains and opt to just pretend it’s finished so I can move on quicker…

So what are the Moeraki Boulders?

Well old racist Karen was sort of right, they are rocks on a beach.

But not just any rocks, they are concretions, Septarian Concretions to be exact. Similar to the ones we saw in the cave tour only bigger. Much bigger.

What the hell are Septarian Concretions?

I’m glad you ask.

They are nodules of rock, typically spherical, usually formed in cabanate rich mudstone. They often “grow” around something, a crab claw or dinosaur bone for example, so often contain fossils in their centre.

So basically as dumbed down as I needed it explained to me, a bit of organic matter is engulfed in mud and a rock “crystal” grows around it before the mud/sand is rockyfied itself.

Time move son and the softer mudstone or sandstone is eroded from around the harder nodule leaving behind big marbles.

And if that’s not impressive enough to make you want to check them out. Well they are on a spectacular stretch of beach.

And, well

Just look at them!

There are other, similar concretions 20km south at Shag Point (Teheheh, Shag!) that contain plesiosaur fossils but we are heading north…

And that end’s our New Zealand adventure, for this time. The following day is spent making our way back up to Christchurch, we’ve a plane to catch.

All in all we had a great trip. To recap here’s a list of links to all the awesome stuff we got to see and do.

Rafting through the most amazing Glowworm cave

Checking out Pancake Rocks

The beautiful Hokitika Gorge

Dinner and more glowworms at Sunset Point

A mind blowing walk on the Franz Josef Glacier

West coast sunset at Bruce Bay

The Waterfalls of Haast Pass

The Omarama Clay Cliffs

The proglacial Lakes of Aoraki

Stunning Lakes

the Elephant rocks

And finally the Moeraki boulders.

Along the way we took advantage of clear dark skies to do a bit of Milkyway photography

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Munmorah Sea Caves

| flynny101

9-01-2020

Laurence, Chris, Tal, Della, Gabby, Ev, Matt, Adrian and meee

The bushfires that raged across much of Australia threw a spanner in the work of a family holiday to the south coast so some last minute phone calls were made to me old mate Della who generously offered us a couple of beds on the central coast, I threw the ropes in just in case

Laurence had been promoting some abseil trips to sea caves that looked quite alright and while under normal circumstances I probably wouldn’t have driven up just to visit them while I was in the area I thought why not drag Tal out of a mini adventure.

A quick message to Laurence to get some info and tips and he offered to meet us there and show us around.

Hey Dell, can you get Thursday off work?

It’d been about 20years since he’d done any abseiling but he was keen. A few other invites were sent out and before we knew it we had met up with the above mentioned folk and were setting up ropes above our first cave. The Nudie cave

We set ropes, and exit ladder and Matt even jumps in at the exit to test the water, then after a few quick tips and reminders me and Dell get on rope and drop on in

Looking up my snoz…
Me and Della dropping in, or “dangling for great whites.” as it was later described ©Laurence
©Gabby

.

Dropping off the end of the rope we swim into the cave and wait for the others

Inside was surprisingly large and the pebbly beach gave an awesome underfoot massage
Gabby and Ev dropping in to join us

As he was finding his feet on the beach the only wave we saw all week swept up to smash Adrian face first into the pebbles. We shouldn’t have laughed… but we did

What foul creatures lurk in the Nudie cave? Oh, those idiots…. ©Gabby

And then we swim out and make use of Laurences cave ladder to climb out of the water

Exiting without placing a ladder first would be difficult at best

Be a cool jump. Say I. Looking back up to the arch

Oh Coop jumps from that platform there, Says Laurence

I don’t take much convincing. Nor does Della

And then we make our way around to the next one, Pinney Cave. This is just a dunk in the ocean with a bit of a scramble out. By all reports the scramble out is much harder in normal conditions and out right dangerous if the swell is much over a foot. We must have got very lucky with not much swell at all as I found it much easier

But with Laurence’s warning only myself, Matt and Della decided to give it a crack, with Gabby and Ev opting for a dry landing on the exit route and the rest waiting for us up top.

Matt descending Pinney ©Gabby
Me scrambling out on favourable seas while Laurence descends the exit ©Gabby
Ev opting for the dry landing

And then we make our way a bit further along the coast to the Shark Hole. An ominous name for us country bunkins.

Actually this is the snake hole, explains Chris. The Shark hole is where u swim out.

Oh, well then. In we go.

So almost like a canyon I got a tear in my eye… or sumfink
What a top mob of fellow adventurers to spend a relaxing day with
Making our way our of the Snake Hole

And to finish things off we head to the Catho Bay hotel for a cooling beverage or two

Did I mention what a awesome mob this lot are? ©Gabby via Adrain

Group Size: 9

Time: I have no idea

Caution: You need low tide and a swell of under 2 feet to run this trip the way we did it. Also the rock is sharp as a finely honed cutty thing so rope protectors and good start technique are a must.

Adventure pushes your limits and lifts your soul or sumfink

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