[Rockhounds] New Zealand's 180-million-year-old forest

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Take a globe and spin it to the meridian of longitude 170° East. Run your
finger down to the parallels of latitude named by seafarers during the Age
of Sail <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/age-of-sail> as
the "Roaring Forties" because of their wild, westerly winds. There you will
find the islands of New Zealand, set adrift like giant jigsaw pieces in the
South Pacific Ocean.

There is something deeply seductive about the remote, ragged possibilities
of land's edge. I was journeying deep in New Zealand's South Island, along
its brink of raw wilderness called the Catlins
<https://southlandnz.com/the-catlins>, where the blustery winds and waters
of Antarctica's Southern Ocean perform alchemy on this curve of Kiwi
coastline. This 100km stretch is cosseted by rugged landscapes of concert
hall-sized sea caves, rock stacks, blowholes, arches and coves. Its dense
temperate forests are laced with walks to fairy-tale waterfalls where
bellbirds, wood pigeons, fantails and grey warblers make their presence
known.

Within this curve of coast lies the clue to the birthplace of New Zealand.
This magical landscape is home to the ancient geological phenomenon of Curio
Bay
<https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/catlins-coastal-area/curio-bay-porpoise-bay/>,
the site of one of the world's finest, most accessible and rarest petrified
forests.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20211111-new-zealands-180-million-year-old-forest