Showing posts with label Maori. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maori. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Reflection
Lake Matheson, near the Fox Glacier in South Westland, New Zealand, is famous for its reflected views of Aoraki/Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. A traditional mahinga kai (food gathering place) for Māori people, the lake contains long finned eel as well as being home to many water birds.
Lake Matheson was formed by glaciation ca. 14,000 years ago. It is situated on the valley floor about 12 km from the current Fox Glacier and Aoraki/Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand, and Mount Tasman.
Lake Matheson was formed by glaciation ca. 14,000 years ago. It is situated on the valley floor about 12 km from the current Fox Glacier and Aoraki/Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand, and Mount Tasman.
Labels:
Aoraki,
Fox Glacier,
lake,
Maori,
Matheson,
Mount Cook,
New Zealand,
reflection,
Tasman
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Moeraki Boulders
The Moeraki Boulders are unusually large and spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach on the wave cut Otago coast of New Zealand between Moeraki and Hampden. They occur scattered either as isolated or clusters of boulders within a stretch of beach where they have been protected in a scientific reserve. The erosion by wave action of mudstone, comprising local bedrock and landslides, frequently exposes embedded isolated boulders. These boulders are grey-colored septarian concretions, which have been exhumed from the mudstone enclosing them and concentrated on the beach by coastal erosion.
Local Māori legends explained the boulders as the remains of eel baskets, calabashes, and kumara washed ashore from the wreck of an Arai-te-uru, a large sailing canoe. This legend tells of the rocky shoals that extend seaward from Shag Point as being the petrified hull of this wreck and a nearby rocky promontory as being the body of the canoe's captain. In 1848 W.B.D. Mantell sketched the beach and its boulders, more numerous than now. The picture is now in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.The boulders were described in 1850 colonial reports and numerous popular articles since that time. In more recent times they have become a popular tourist attraction, often described and pictured in numerous web pages and tourist guides.
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