Moeraki Boulders: Are These Alien Eggs?

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The Moeraki Boulders are one of the strangest geological stone formations I ever saw. It looks almost like some aliens landed on a beach and left behind some of their eggs to prepare for a future invasion of the earth. Is this the “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”???

Following our New Zealand trip and leaving Lake Tekapo (see previous location) we went down to the east coast of the south island driving towards Dunedin and discovered one of the strangest places I ever saw: the Moeraki Boulders.

Moeraki Boulders – Diana F+ Gallery

Moeraki Beach is a huge and wide sand beach that in itself deserves a stop. But there’s more to see than a sand beach: in a specific part of the beach are some very strange round rocks, that look like giant eggs making it seem that aliens could have left these there. In fact, these boulders are the result of a complex geological concretion and eroded by sand and sea, but their huge size and almost perfect round shape is something unique. Their size range goes from 0.5 m to 2.2 m diameter, in a perfect round form for some, while others are a bit less round but still impressive. There’s also one of them which seem to have “exploded” like an open egg that has given birth to a strange creature.

Moeraki Boulders – Horizon Gallery

It’s a must-see and a true opportunity to take great pictures of it. The best is to go there early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The light will be at it’s best for photography and you’ll also avoid the biggest crowd of tourists coming to visit these boulders.

Moeraki Bay and Katiki Point

But once you leave these boulders and the beach, there are still other points to see, like the little Moeraki Village which is just a few kilometers away and it’s beautiful romantic bay. From this bay, you can have a walk to the Katiki Point and enjoy a beautiful view, and if you’re lucky, you can also see some seals and penguins coming back after their daily chase for food in the sea. But you’ll see them only around an hour before sunset, although there’s really no guarantee that you’ll get to see them. There’s a little “hidden point” where you can have a look at the penguins and seals without them seeing you. We went there and I tried to catch some pictures with my Diana F+ and the telephoto lens, but as it already became dark, and even if I used 400 ISO film, I had to put the aperture on cloudy and the shots all came out very blurry…but by looking well on the shots, you can perhaps see some of the penguins.

Penguins and seals at the Katiki Point – Diana F+ and Telephoto lens. Unfortunately all the shots came out blurry…

written by vicuna on 2011-01-06 #places #village #sea #strange #rocks #ocean #bay #location #penguins #geology #beach #boulders #seals #travel-destination #travel-tips #katiki-point

6 Comments

  1. blueskyandhardrock
    blueskyandhardrock ·

    Woah! That's pretty awesome! I love those egg-like rocks (especially the "opened" ones) and the bay. Simple great!

  2. vicuna
    vicuna ·

    Thanks Michelle! :)) Awesome place indeed.... and a lot of more amazing NZ locations are coming... ;))

  3. superlighter
    superlighter ·

    fantastic place! I've translate this article in Italian!

  4. nicx
    nicx ·

    Awesome!

  5. chuo104
    chuo104 ·

    I like those telephoto shots!

  6. stouf
    stouf ·

    Pffffui ! Trop de la bombe ! : )

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