Contributed by Johanna Otico

These are the Moeraki Boulders of New Zealand located on Koekohe Beach, about an hour north of the University of Otago. They are huge concretions that broke free of the cliffside and came to rest on the beach. When the Maori first saw them, they believed the boulders to be the remnants of the Arai-te-uru, a large canoe which had crashed along the shores of Moeraki. Maori legend says that the boulders are eel baskets and kumara which had been thrown overboard in order to keep the canoe from going under. I visited the boulders on a beautiful spring day while my family was visiting me in New Zealand. The boulders are easily large enough to have several people stand on them, and we even got my grandma up on top of one. Luckily for us, it was sunny all day long, a nice break from the week of rain we had been experiencing, and afterward, we were able to eat lunch in Oamaru, where a Victorian Days event was happening.