or stones from the moon.
I’m in love with New Zealand. These are the Moeraki Boulders, mysterious rock spheres on an east Otago beach. The spheres are 60 million years old. Similar round rocks can be found in a few other places: Kimmeridge Clay and Oxford Clay in England, and North Dakota, USA.
Maori explain these boulders on New Zealand’s South Island as what remained when calabash squashes, sweet potatoes, and eel baskets washed ashore after Āraiteuru, a large sailing canoe, capsized. According to the legend, “the rocky shoals that extend seaward from Shag Point [are] the petrified hull of this wreck and a nearby rocky promontory [is] 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. [[1]
It was early morning when we visited. The beach was mostly deserted and deeply mysterious. Sixty million years of existence lend objects the gift of magic, and the Moeraki Boulders were unlike any rock I’ve ever touched.
As I say: Rocks like aliens, or stones from the moon.
NOTES: [1] wiki/Moeraki_Boulders © Jadi Campbell 2025. To see Uwe’s pics from our trips go to viewpics.de.
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they are so cool
It felt like being in an aliens’ hatching ground