Sightseers graffiti beach boulders

Sightseers leaving their mark on Marlborough’s new beach boulders have been branded ‘‘disrespectful’’.

The boulders at Ward Beach, south of Blenheim, were thrust from the ocean by seabed lift during the 2016 Kaiko¯ura earthquake and were tipped to become Marlborough’s very own ‘‘Moeraki boulders’’, a popular tourist attraction north of Dunedin.

But some quake-curious visitors have taken to the new spheres with what looks like a permanent marker to scribble names and dates.

Department of Conservation ranger Chris Wootton said he was disappointed to find the boulders had been damaged so quickly after they appeared.

‘‘It’s a pity to see this type of graffiti in a special area such as Ward Beach,’’ Wootton said.

‘‘But difficult to control in a remote environment such as this.’’

He suspected media interest in the new boulders had prompted more people to visit, ‘‘and people are now in the habit of adding their own graffiti, which needs to be discouraged’’, he said.

‘‘In this case it’s difficult to consider a practical solution other than to encourage people to treat the area with respect.’’

Wootton was unsure who would end up trying to remove the graffiti, he said.

‘‘The uplift area along the coastline is a fuzzy area. It is Crown land ... but until new areas are surveyed by Land Information New Zealand these areas don’t come under DOC’s jurisdiction.’’

Spherical boulders were also discovered at Gooch’s Beach in Kaiko¯ura after the earthquake.

‘‘The coastal uplift caused by the Kaiko¯ura earthquake has resulted in significant changes to a very wide part of the coastline,’’ Wootton said.

Te Ru¯nanga o Moeraki upoko (leader) David Higgins said people scratched their initials into the Moeraki boulders a few decades ago, but he was not aware of any damage in recent years.

‘‘Ruining something from the natural world is pretty disrespectful ... I think people have more respect for that these days. We’ve grown up a bit, I guess. Or I thought we had, until I heard about this ... It’s pretty sad when people do this sort of thing, and even sadder that it still continues today. I don’t know why they do it - maybe it’s an identity thing, to leave your mark somewhere?’’

Higgins was interested to learn of the boulders appearing from the water in Kaiko¯ura and south Marlborough because they were linked to a Ma¯ori legend about the ancestral waka atua (canoe of the gods), he said. ‘‘It does fit the story of our traditions about a particular sailing waka that came across the oceans and delivered the kumara.’’

Legend said the boulders were kumara and food baskets preserved in stone after they were washed overboardA¯ from rai te uru, the canoe that brought the ancestors of Nga¯i Tahu to the South Island.