#matakaea

[drhoz]

The Great ACT-NSW-NZ Trip, 2023-2024 - Shag Point

Late Cretaceous mudstones and sandstones, and bituminous coal, now eroded into headlands, a convinient natural boat harbour, and multiple unmarked mineshafts which are not convinient at all.

Māori extensively settled the area in the 15th Century, and one important tradition holds that a double-hulled trading canoe ran into a storm off the coast here, with the cargo washed ashore and petrified into the famous Matakaea boulders, and less symmetrical boulders around the point and beachs here. They're mudstone concretions, many of them formed around fossils, and in one case around a eight-meter long elasmosaur.

The point is also noteworthy for plant species more normally found in alpine and subalpine grasslands.

Shag Point, Aotearoa New Zealand

[lasenbyphoenix]

Moeraki, New Zealand

Currently road tripping with my best friend @chocyofsparta, and we spend part of yesterday on the beach at Moeraki. (My photos)

According to Maori legend, the origin of the boulders dates from the loss of the Arai-te-uru, one of the large sailing canoes that came from distant Hawaiki. On her quest south for the precious greenstone, the canoe was wrecked near Shag Point (Matakaea). The reef which today extends seawards is the canoe's petrified hull, while close by, in the shape of a prominent rock, stands the petrified body of her commander. Strewn along the beach are the boulders which represent the eel baskets, calabashes, and kumaras washed ashore from the wreck.

Scientifically - The spherical boulders formed in a pearl-like process that took as long as four million years (due to crystallization of calcium and carbonates), and the soft mud that contained the boulders surfaced due to wind and rain.

[movendencoms]

i want to really emphasise the colours of the landscape, i see alot of purples, blues and greys.

mountains to merge into each other

threads to just be all over the show, like cracks in the mountains

starting uni and working was already stressing me out pre lock down so i had been thinking about going home anyway so it was almost a relief

lock down gave me time to just catch up on my life and feelings

Located in the McKenzie country, fed by two rivers and flowing through the Ohau river, it lies on the boundary line of Canterbury and Otago. Ohau is one of the country's best-kept secret, I never managed to appreciate it when I was young but being here throughout isolation I get to reflect on what a fantastic place I grew up in and was eager to learn more about the history of this place. I've lived in Ohau since I was five and haven't ever learnt one thing about it, while in lockdown I would go for a bike ride most days around the lake to the weir and back, biking past every informative sign and also a 2.5-metre Pouwhenua.

I guess one day I finally got curious about the history of Lake Ohau and started researching and went down to the Pouwhenua to teach myself. I learnt all about Cheif Rakaihatu, captain of the Waka Uruao that bough the iwi Waitaha to New Zealand. He travelled down the middle of the island, digging up each principal lake with his famous Ko.

I'd lived in 8 house in the Ohau village until my parents finally built their own in 2015. While in isolation, to have some time to myself, I would stay at the first house we ever lived in, big glass windows that look like they'll get obliterated in the wind that Ohau has been after, but give you the sense that you're looking at a painting. The house stands on the edge of a small cliff overlooking the lake and staring directly at Ben Ōhau/ Te Ruitaniwha who in tradition was the passenger of a waka that was bringing Kumara to New Zealand; the waka capsized near Matakaea on the Otago coast. Te Ruitaniwha was among the survivors that ventured inland and like many others he turned into one of Te Pounamus geographical features.  

[thefarray]

Rock pools at Matakaea/Shag Point, East Otago, NZ.