Wairere Boulders is a privately-owned nature reserve and tourist attraction at Horeke in the south

Hokianga The Hokianga is an area surrounding the Hokianga Harbour, also known as the Hokianga River, a long estuarine drowned valley on the west coast in the north of the North Island of New Zealand. The original name, still used by local Māori, is ...

region of Northland, New Zealand. The property contains geologically rare rock formations. Visitors to the property can walk around the various trails, kayak down the boulder river and stay at the campsite.

Ownership

Wairere Boulders was initially developed as a tourist attraction by Felix and Rita Schaad, a couple originally from Switzerland who owned the property from the 1980s. They opened the site for visitors in 2003, after 4 years work developing tracks, bridges and lookouts. The property was put up for sale in 2017. The property was purchased by Graham and Paula Grant, who are originally from Scotland. They have subsequently cut a new track, and added a camping site, a coffee caravan, and a bed and breakfast accommodation. The property includes farmland, and the owners raise miniature highland cattle.

Visitor attractions

The main attraction at the property are the large and unusual

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

rock formations.

Walks

There are several walks ranging from 40 minutes to 3 hours, taking visitors under, over and around the boulders. The gigantic rocks are surrounded by subtropical rainforest, where much of the flora is labelled. Added interest for families is provided with rock animals, fairy houses and a swimming hole.

Kayaking

Kayaking is available on the boulder river. The route takes visitors down through mangroves and out to the Hokianga Harbour. Due to the tidal nature of the boulder river, kayaking is tide dependent.

Geology

The Wairere boulders have slid down the hillsides from an eroding

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Horeke basalts The Horeke basalts is a disused formation that contained Miocene-Pliocene basalt lava flows that covered a large area in central Northland Region of New Zealand, and in places forms a high plateau around Okaihau. Wairere Boulders is a nature ...

. Erosion of the clay underlay of the basalt plateau (cap) started to create a v-valley. The edges of the cap broke off. These blocks travelled downwards along the hill sides towards the bottom of the valley, where they accumulated. They fill now a portion of the valley which is about 1.4 km long and up to 350 m wide. Many of the boulders have deep solution basins and fluting formed on their surfaces as they very slowly slid down the valley sides - a particularly good example of the relatively rare phenomenon of

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

formation on basalt (sometimes known as proto-karst). This phenomenon was documented by geologists as early as the 1920s-1940s in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

and New Zealand. Usually karst landforms are formed by solution of

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an adje ...

rocks (e.g. limestone and marble) by mildly acidic percolating water. At Wairere, and elsewhere, basalt has been dissolved, probably over a much longer interval of time, by the production of weakly acidic

humic Humic substances (HS) are organic compounds that are important components of humus, the major organic fraction of soil, peat, and coal (and also a constituent of many upland streams, dystrophic lakes, and ocean water). For a long era in the 19th an ...

acid in the leaf litter that collects around the roots of plants that grow on the top of the boulders, usually beneath a forest canopy. On the top of the boulders this humic acid has etched out solution basins 20–50 cm across and of similar depth. Humic acid seeping down the sides of the boulders has, over thousands of years, dissolved deep, near-vertical flutes out of the hard basalt. In some places the fluting is no longer vertical as the boulders have rolled over or tilted since it was formed. Basalt karst occurs in a number of places in northern New Zealand with some of the best examples at Wairere Boulders, but also at Stoney Batter,

Waiheke Island Waiheke Island (; Māori: ) is the second-largest island (after Great Barrier Island) in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand. Its ferry terminal in Matiatia Bay at the western end is from the central-city terminal in Auckland. It is the most pop ...

; Ti Point,

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staf ...

;Hayward, B.W. 2012. Ti Point basalt karst. Geocene 8: 19-20. Lake Manuwai,

Kerikeri Kerikeri () is the largest town in Northland, New Zealand. It is a tourist destination north of Auckland and north of the northern region's largest city, Whangarei. It is sometimes called the Cradle of the Nation, as it was the site of th ...

; and Stoney Knowe, Helena Bay. Excellent examples of karst features developed on basalt boulders can be seen on

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together with ...

, in the Tasman Sea.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Wairere Boulders
Wairere Boulders
Official website

at GeoTrips Hokianga Rock formations of the Northland Region Tourist attractions in the Northland Region New Zealand companies established in 2012