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| Malcolm at Earthquakes |
Not far from
Duntroon in North Otago there are earthquakes—marked on the map! 'Earthquakes geological formations' it
says. I thought the formations must have
been caused by earthquakes, hence the name, and the original settlers thought
that too. But visitors to the site can
read an information board which explains that thousands of years ago a
landslide caused some land to slump, leaving cracked limestone cliffs. Huge blocks have fallen from the cliffs
giving the impression they have been shaken loose. The reason we were visiting the Earthquakes
site was not to see the impressive formations though. We went
to marvel at the fossils, for who would guess that there would be a
fossilised whale skeleton in this pastoral valley, kilometres from the sea?
We
had visited the Vanished World Centre at Duntroon where, apart from being
amazed by the sight of the cast of a shark-toothed dolphin, we learned that
twenty five million years ago the land around Duntroon was the ocean
floor. Extinct marine life including
whales and dolphins left their bones there, and over time they formed the
fossils that are found in the rocks today.
Picking up the Vanished World trail guide, that lists the sites of
interest in the Waitaki Valley and North Otago Coast, we set off to explore.
At
Earthquakes we discovered the fossil remains of a baleen whale. Of course it had been exposed and excavated
some time before, but hadn't been removed to a museum. It was there where it had been found, protected
by a steel cage. We could make out the
ribs and vertebrae (ignoring the small white sheep bones some joker had
squeezed through the bars) and read that it was found when the broken ends of
its lower jaw were seen protruding from the rock. Its head was facing out, as if it was
swimming from the rock, and would have been around six metres long.
Our
next stop was close by at Anatini where, in rocky outcrop in a small valley, we
found another baleen whale fossil—this one protected by a perspex cover. These ancient whales are distantly related to
present day whales such as minke whales.
Between eight and ten metres in length, the Anatini whale was larger
than the Earthquakes whale, and it retained part of its skull and lower jaw,
its scapula and several ribs. The reason
the skeletons are so complete is because they were buried by sand in gently
moving, relatively shallow waters. The
sediments gradually formed into limestone and the seabed was uplifted in the
last few million years. Over time
erosion began to expose the bones.
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| Elephant Rocks |
Elephant
Rocks were next. No animals here—instead
a rolling paddock inhabited by massive outcrops of yellowish limestone. The weird and wonderful shapes are mysterious
in their hugeness. Rock climbers like to
practice their 'bouldering' techniques on them and movie-makers love the quirky
sculptured rocks —they were the setting of scenes in the film The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
There
are 20 sites on the Vanished World route.
We looked at a cluster near Duntroon before moving Tangaroa to the coast, south of Oamaru. All Day Bay was a beautiful spot to spend all day visiting. It also had mudstone with fossil
molluscs. Not as exciting as whales
maybe but a great excuse to fossick around the shore. Just north of All Day Bay was Campbells Bay,
popular with surfers and revealing 30 million-year-old shrimp burrows. Just north again was Kakanui North Head,
where low tide revealed dark, mineral-containing rocks. The trail guide listed Coast Restaurant as
the next site, where views from the old quarry should show spectacular
cliffs. We couldn't find the old quarry,
but can recommend the coffee and cake at the Coast Restaurant.
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| All Day Bay |
Oamaru and the
surrounding area is steeped in history as well as geology. White Oamaru limestone was used to build many
of the grand old buildings in the town and nearby countryside. Just south of Oamaru on SH 1 we came across
the limestone buildings of Totara Estate.
Restored by Heritage New Zealand, these historic farm buildings are
important not only because of their age, but more importantly because it was here
that New Zealand's frozen meat industry was pioneered. We were surprised to find out that before
lamb was frozen for export, wool was the only sheep product that could be
used—the sheep's carcasses were dumped as waste.
And it was a waste, one that appalled
William Davidson, manager of the local runs of the New Zealand and Australian
Land Company. In the early 1880s a
slaughterhouse was added to the twenty-year old farm buildings on the Totara
Estate, where 300-400 sheep could be dispatched each day. This was done because the sailing ship Dunedin had been fitted with a freezing
plant and these early entrepreneurs saw the potential of frozen meat as an
export. The first ship-load left for
London in 1882, arriving in perfect condition and thus starting one of the
country's major export industries.
We
learned all this and more as we explored the farm buildings which include
stables, granary, workshop and the men's accommodation block. On certain days visitors to Totara Estate can
enjoy 'billy tea' with a group of swaggers from the past including the
interestingly-named 'Shiner' Slattery and 'Whiterats' Winters, though
unfortunately we didn't get chance to yarn with these characters on our
visit. Back in Oamaru itself we wandered
along the old wharf. Once a scene of
bustling activity as meat, dairy products and other exports were loaded onto
ships, now it is a quiet place for an evening stroll, home to a few fishing
boats.
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| Oamaru Wharf |
Oamaru’s
Thames Street is a gem of Victorian architecture, full of listed
buildings. The town flourished from the
1880s, after the frozen meat trade took off, and the magnificent buildings gave
us an idea of what the Victorian town would have looked like. The Waitaki District Council building was
formerly the post office, built in 1883.
The bank of New South Wales, second of the two iconic bank buildings
(sometimes called the temples from Athens) was built in the same year. Its neighbour, now the National Bank, was
built in 1871. Across the road is the
magnificent Opera House built in 1907 and restored in 2010. On the corner is the Criterion Hotel, built
in 1877 when it was the known to be the best hotel in town—it had baths! The Criterion became the 'pub with no beer'
in 1906 when the sale of alcohol was banned in Oamaru. Luckily alcohol is flowing at the Criterion
again and it has had been returned to its former glory by the Oamaru Whitestone
Civic Trust.
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| The Criterion |
We
celebrated New Year's Eve at the Criterion Hotel and, as we left, were startled
by a little blue penguin standing beside our car looking as if he'd like a lift
home. Oamaru is famous for its penguins,
they pop up all over town as their burrows are a little inland from the
beach. Earlier we had driven to a
cliff-top lookout where we saw some yellow-eyed penguins emerge from the water
and waddle up the beach for the night.
We saw many more penguins at the Blue Penguin Colony show, where at dusk
around one hundred adults returned from the sea and made their way to burrows
where they were ambushed by impatient chicks.
Sodium lights make all this visible to human watchers while the penguins
think they have the privacy of darkness.
It is a spectacle not to be missed.
The
Criterion is at the edge of the Historic Precinct, an area of town where you
could be forgiven for thinking you had slipped through a time warp. Here the streets are lined with shops,
bakeries, a wine bar, cafes, a wool-store complex and much more. These elegant Victorian buildings are brought
to life by the people who own and staff them and who often dress up in period
costume. Expect to see penny-farthing
bicycles propped outside the bike shop.
In
front of the former Meeks Grain Elevator Building a steam engine with strange
sculptural additions reared skywards.
This is where history meets the past as it never was—steampunk. Some of the people who enjoy acting the part
in the Historic Precinct are also involved with the steampunk scene, sometimes
called 'the future as it might have been'.
Oamaru is New Zealand's 'Steampunk Headquarters' and visitors from the rest of New Zealand
come to discover what it is all about, or to attend the annual Steampunk NZ
Festival. This event showcases steampunk
fashions, jewellery, literature, art and music.
Malcolm and I have been involved with some of the steampunk events in
Whangarei, which were a lot of fun, so we were fascinated to explore further.
On
the side of the HQ building we spotted sculptural structures made from metallic
industrial components, which have been transformed into such things as giant
flies. Inside is a strange otherworld of
darkened rooms containing weird contraptions, with accompanying sounds and
periodic emissions of steam. History as
it never was.
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| Steampunk fun |
Leaving
Oamaru we moved further south.
Continuing in the geological vein we visited the Moeraki Boulders and
found some other, less well-known formations nearby. We walked along Moeraki beach looking at the
giant spheres and feeling that the ones we visited 'up north' in the Hokianga
were more dramatic.
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| Moeraki Boulders |
Just
past the Moeraki Boulders there was a turn for the township of Moeraki, once
the location of a whaling station but now a sleepy fishing village. Apt that its name translates to sleepy sky in
Māori. Moeraki is also well known for
the restaurant Fleur's Place, run by chef Fleur Sullivan. She was happy to chat to people (like us)
beach-combing and taking photographs around the area outside the
restaurant.
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| Near Fleur's Place |
The
area around Moeraki township was well worth investigating. There were no through roads; most of these
'no exit' roads lead to clusters of old cribs, huddled beside ruggedly
picturesque beaches. We followed
Lighthouse Road to Katiki Point Historic Reserve. Of course there was a lighthouse here, built
in 1878.
A
walk went from the lighthouse to the old pā site at Katiki point. The pā was occupied in the eighteenth century—it
had terraces and houses with stone fireplaces.
Now the land is home only to wildlife.
We set off to walk to the headland but the first attraction was the
penguin hide. This was a short walk
downhill, following a formed track. The
area is known to be the most significant breeding site for yellow-eyed penguins
in the South Island, and the wooden structure allowed the penguins to be
observed in their natural habitat. The
best times for viewing are before 9.00 am and after 3.00 pm, as the adults
leave their chicks for the ocean each morning, returning in the evening.
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| Katiki Point |
Since
we were there a little before 3.00 pm, we decided to look at the colony of fur
seals, basking on the rocky beach below.
Then, as we made our way back up the track, we were surprised to see two
yellow-eyed penguins standing behind the predator-proof fence looking out at
us. As we watched, they waddled off
deeper into their bush habitat.
The headland walk passed alongside
the top of the penguin reserve and below the lighthouse. The lighthouse keeper's house is run by the
Katiki Point Penguin Trust as a rehabilitation centre for injured or sick
penguins. Over a stile, the walk
continued across grassland and rocky shores to the headland, where there were
great views and a variety of birdlife.
Gulls were using the wind to soar around the cliffs, while a solitary
yellow-eyed penguin rested on the grass.
Fur
seals were playing in the water on the south side of the headland while others
lay sunning themselves on rocks or, oblivious to us walkers, on the grass
beside the track. We needed to keep our
eyes peeled, as it was quite a shock to come upon them—they are big creatures
who can give nasty bites if disturbed.
The area is the main breeding grounds for fur seals in the area— they
obviously consider it their home and enjoy just hanging out and relaxing. In the early 1800s there were sealers based
here, now the seals are protected and their numbers growing.
We
freedom camped at Back Creek, a little further along SH 1, in one of several
areas between the beach and the road south of Katiki Point. The day after our surprise encounters with
yellow-eyed penguins and fur seals, we walked along Katiki Beach, which can be
seen from Katiki Point but can only be accessed from SH 1. The attraction here was not wildlife, but
boulders. Like Moeraki Beach, Katiki
Beach is home to spherical boulders called concretions. Unlike the Moeraki Boulders, and most of the
Koutu Boulders in Hokianga, the ones on this beach were hollowed-out
spheres, They looked for all the world
like a series of rustic spa pools.
Māori
legends explain the boulders are the remains of kumara and calabashes washed
ashore from a wrecked sailing canoe, the Arai-te-uru,
whose remains form the reef extending seaward from Shag Point. Other theories have been formulated since the
boulders were first described by Europeans in the 1840s, one of which was that
the boulders were dragons eggs. This
was because many of the large boulders
are hollowed out by erosion and do look like giant egg shells. A surprising link with this myth, and unique
to the boulders here, is that a dinosaur has been found inside one!
The
seven metre-long fossil plesiosaur was discovered in 1983 by Gary Raper, an
amateur fossil collector. It was named
Kaiwhekea Katiki by Professor Ewan
Fordyce from the University of Otago’s Geology Department. Around 69-70 million years ago, the dinosaur
died and its body settled on the ocean floor, where a large concretion formed
around it. When its fossilised remains
were removed from the boulder it was found to be the most complete specimen
ever discovered in New Zealand. We later
saw Kaiwhekea Katiki in Otago Museum in Dunedin.
Information about places mentioned in this post - correct at the time of wriring
Walks
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Katiki Point Historic
Reserve
www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/moeraki-area/katiki-point/
2 km return, 1 hr, easy, (to
see the penguins 10 min one way, easy)
Access: Lighthouse Rd,
Moeraki
Places to visit
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Oamaru Steampunk HQ
1, Itchen St, Oamaru
http://steampunkoamaru.co.nz
Hours: 10.00 am-5.00 pm
daily
Entry price: adult $10,
child $2
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Blue Penguin Colony
Waterfront Rd, South
Hill, Oamaru
https://www.penguins.co.nz/
Evening viewing hours
vary, seasonal
Entry price: evening
viewing, adult $30, senior and student $27, child $15
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Vanished World Centre
7, Campbell St, Duntroon
www.vanishedworld.co.nz
Hours: 9.30 am-5.00 pm
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Earthquakes Geological
Area
Earthquakes Rd, Duntroon
www.waitakinz.com/products/what-to-do/earthquakes
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Elephant Rocks
Island Cliff-Duntroon Rd,
Duntroon
www.waitakinz.com/explore/elephant-rocks
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Anatini
Island Cliff-Duntroon Rd,
Island Cliff (about 1 km from Elephant Rocks)
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Totara Estate
SH 1, Oamaru
www.heritage.org.nz/places/places-to-visit/otago-region/totara-estate
Hours: September-May
10.00 am-4.00 pm, closed June-August
Entry price: adult $10,
student $5
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Moeraki Boulders
Koekohe Beach, Moeraki
Boulders Rd, Moeraki
www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/moeraki-area/things-to-do/moeraki-boulders-walk
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Otago Museum
419, Great King St, North
Dunedin
http://otagomuseum.nz
Hours: I0.00 am-5.00 pm
Admission: free
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