Position 45 21.061S  170 49.702E

On the way to Dunedin – we just found out it’s the All Blacks versus the All Orange (or nearly so) – passed the Moeraki boulders.  These are a collection of spherical boulders on a very stunning beach.

Some of them look a bit like turtles from a distance

Some of them reach 1m across.  Apparently they started to form 55 million years ago when mud, pebbles and sand was being deposited on – wait for it – yes another sea floor.  They were gradually buried.  Why did they form spherical balls?  Well in places lime was deposited slowly and evenly around a shell or pebble to form a hard concretion..  Mud and silt then settled around, and buried, the boulders

Whilst still buried, some of the concretions split, and became in filled with yellow crystals of lime.  The area was then uplifted and the cliffs of mudstone released the boulders.  Sounds a bit like manganese nodule formation to me.  You can see how the nodules gradually become covered with finer sediment in the deep ocean.  Anyway, some of the boulders have begun to crack open and others have totally split apart.

Lovely patterns, along with the person in the photos,

Who doesn’t realise her own strength

The exposed lime on the boulder above and a bit of rock pooling…,

So what I noticed was that green algae on the protected side of the boulders and barnacles on the exposed sides.  Small snails (littorinids) amongst the barnacles.

Some sriously small littorinids in crevices in the upper shore.

Looks ike calcarous algae in the rock pool.  Lovely gastropdo on one of the rocks lower down the shore.

Lots of seaweed on the boulders lower down the shore.

But then the boulder profile is much lower. 

and so it’s goodbye from me