Cold southern gales blasting across Slope Point - located on the southernmost tip of New Zealand’s South Island - has given rise to this unique natural phenomenon: the trees here, being persistently battered by powerful winds coming in from the open ocean, have a permanently wind-swept appearance to them.
TheMoeraki boulders present a curious spectacle for inhabitants and tourists alike. Stretched across the sands of Koekohe Beach on the New Zealand coast, they stand isolated and sometimes scattered in clusters. It is believed that they are formed by wave erosion on local mudstone, honing them into a spherical shape.
Local Māori legend posits that stones are the remnants of eel baskets, water gourds, and kumara that washed ashore when Āraiteuru - the canoe that originally bore the Māori ancestors to New Zealand - was overturned.
