Quake uncovers ‘mini Moerakis’
Has the November earthquake uncovered Kaikoura’s own version of the Moeraki Boulders?
Spherical rocks ‘‘as big as beach balls’’ have been found on the east coast shoreline nine months after the 7.8-magnitude disaster.
Bare Kiwi owner Kyle Mulinder said the rocks, which resembled ’’dinosaur eggs’’, were part of the uplifted seabed at Gooch’s Beach.
‘‘I was walking around enjoying the sunset, and saw these perfectly round rocks,’’ he said.
‘‘The locals are saying that they didn’t know they were there, so it’s kind of crazy.
‘‘To find perfect, perfect circles like that is very crazy. This place keeps on giving gifts.’’
Mulinder, who created online tourism and adventure content, said the rocks varied in size and some of them were severed in half.
The result did remind him of the famed Moeraki Boulders on the Otago coast, Mulinder said.
The famous rock formation, located between Oamaru and Dunedin, attracted about 300,000 people a year.
‘‘This is another part of the newest coastline in New Zealand showing itself,’’ Mulinder said.
‘‘I feel like instead of a natural disaster taking everything away, it keeps on giving little gifts.’’
Another natural phenomenon revealed by the earthquake was still present at Whaler’s Bay, off the Kaikoura Peninsula.
Bubbles coming up from the seabed was attracting tourists into the area, which had been renamed Hope Springs.
Kaikoura resident Valerie Graham lived 200 metres from Gooch’s Beach. She said the coastline was lifted about a metre in the earthquake.
She had not seen the distinctive rounded rocks on the beach before November and said it was interesting to see what the disaster had left behind.
‘‘It’s amazing what has happened with the land and the sea,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s incredible what it has done to our coastline.’’
Another resident, who did not want to be named, had lived in Kaikoura for more than 50 years.
The earthquake uplift had brought many interesting formations from beneath the water, she said.
‘‘It’s amazing what is turning up,’’ she said.
Mulinder uploaded a video of the boulders to his Facebook page, and he said some commenters believed the rocks were concretions.
A concretion was a compact mass of mineral matter that had embedded in a host rock.
Bare Kiwi created content for Kaikoura NZ Tourism and would be based in the town until Christmas.