Fruit baskets and water gourds........?

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Maori legend has it that the iconic rounded boulders found at Moeraki relate to the wreck of an canoe which foundered in a storm at Shag Point, the cargo of which (rounded food baskets and water gourds) was washed up on the shore.

To a geologist the Moeraki Boulders are 'septarian' concretions; hard cemented material which forms within the sediment. These formed when cementing minerals (calcite or silica) dissolved in sea water crystallise around a nucleus of shell, bone or plant fragments. This takes place slowly over millions of years. If crystallisation of minerals is equal in all directions around the nucleus the concretions grows in a spherical shape. The cherts and flint nodules of the Chalk are formed in a similar way. When the sediments are eroded by the sea the boulders are exposed and survive as they are more resistant to marine erosion.

Whilst this is true, perhaps the Maori explanation is a little more romantic!

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