Almost Unique in the world, the Moeraki Boulders are situated about 25 mins south from Oamaru along Sh1.Tthey can be seen emerging from the cliffs and slowly disappearing into the sand and the sea.

Scattered along the beach at Moeraki which is some 40 kilometers south of Oamaru, the boulders are a popular visitor attraction.

Visitors can walk along the beach to visit the boulders. The boulders can be seen at high or low tide

According to Maori tradition, the boulders are gourds and calabashes, which is traditional maori food, washed from the great voyaging canoe Araiteuru when it was wrecked upon landfall in New Zealand some 1000 years ago.

The soft mudstone containing the boulders was raised from the sea bed around 15 million years ago and sea erosion of the
cliff is exposing the erosion-resistant boulders.

Once on the beach, the boulders are slowly destroyed by the sea

Emerging from the cliff, as if being born from the earth, the World famous Moeraki Boulders are septerian concretions formed some 65 million years ago. Crystallization of calcium and carbonates around charged particles in muddy undersea sediments gradually formed the boulders in a process taking as long as four million years.