Moeraki boulders/ Yellow-eyed penguin

Moeraki boulders/ Yellow-eyed penguins

The ewes have little lambs, the birds are singing the songs of their people, the trees have green buds and Mike and I have officially survived our first South Island winter. To celebrate the seasonal shift, we took a quick day trip down to Moeraki in the Otago region of the South Island. We spent the better part of the day viewing yellow-eyed penguins at Katiki Point and watched the stars come out over the remarkable Moeraki boulders.





Yellow-eyed penguins

One very charismatic yellow-eyed penguin - posted with permission from www.mikeashbeephotography.com

I have been waiting for quite some time to see a yellow-eyed penguin, which is on my most wanted list of New Zealand birds. Considered the rarest penguin in the world, the yellow-eyed penguin is very much endangered with a total population size of 4000. Now that spring has officially sprung, the yellow-eyed penguins are returning to their cliff-side nests to mate. During our time at Katiki Point we saw seven yellow-eyed penguins, easily viewable from the walking track that runs along the top of the cliffs. 

We stayed for some time to watch one very charismatic penguin make their way out of the water, cross the sandy shore and then climb up onto a grassy ledge to dry off in the sun. Following a prolonged sun-bathing session, this individual began to call out for its mate, whilst waddling along the grassy ledge looking for the perfect clump of grass or stick to offer. After some time the penguin finally selected the perfect stick - not too short, not too long, just right! As fast as a penguin can, it waddled back down towards the beach excitedly calling out to its mate. You could sense the anticipation as the penguin hustled along the orange-sand to present its mate with the perfect stick. Following the offering the two penguins started turning their heads in a mating dance. Too cool!

Yellow-eyed penguin footprints in the sand at Oamaru

View at Katiki Point

Moeraki boulders

The Moeraki boulders are atypically large (> 2 m), almost perfectly spherical, septarian concretions. A concretion is a hard compact mass of mineral matter that forms around some kind of nucleus. I am familiar with smaller concretions that can be found near Ammonite Falls in Nanaimo, BC, some of which have fossils inside. Septarian concretions, on the other hand, are characterized by having angular cavities or cracks called 'septaria'.

Septarian concretions have cracks and crevices

Concretions become noticeable when the soft substrate surrounding them erodes away. In Moeraki the cliffs are made of a very soft mudstone that is being slowly eroded due to the relentless ocean waves. As the mudstone erodes, these giant spherical boulders are left behind, dotting the shoreline. 

Moeraki boulders are found lined up along the waters edge.

Some Moeraki boulders are larger than 2 m in diameter

Absolutely massive concretion

Some of these concretions have broken open, revealing an orange-red calcite crystalline core.

We had a fun time on our little adventure in Moeraki, with amazing views of the very rare yellow-eyed penguin and feeling humbled by some gigantic ~55-60 million year old boulders. 

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