Moeraki Boulders, Otago, New Zealand
Located a short distance from the main road (State Highway 1) via the public carpark or restaurant. Aprox 2 km beyond Hamden between Palmerston and Oamaru.
The Moereki Boulders are remarkable for their size, Up to 2m in diameter, their spherical nature, and their concentration in the locality.
The Boulders did not form with the bedrock containing them, they are described as concretions formed in a similar way to the way a pearl forms a particle in an oyster.
They can be formed around a piece of wood, bone or fossilised shell, the large ones taking about 4 million years to form.
With the weathering effect of the sea the outer layers are lost leaving the hard veins of crystallised calcite exposed to view, these control the eventual breakup of the boulder into small pieces through the continued action of the sea
