Shag Point / Matakaea is a headland and township in

East Otago East Otago is the name given to that part of Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand that lies directly to the north of Dunedin. To the south, its limit is approximately the rough hill pass of the Kilmog, 25 kilometres north of Dunedin city ce ...

, New Zealand. Both the point and the nearby Shag River take their English name from a seabird, the pied shag. The township extends along a single road, which leaves

State Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbered S ...

nine kilometres to the northeast of Palmerston, at the southern end of a long open bay known as Katiki Beach. The road links the highway with the point itself, three kilometres southeast of the junction. The point is a hilly promontory between Katiki Beach and the mouth of the Shag River. The headland is within the Matakaea Scenic Reserve, which is known for its population of

New Zealand fur seal ''Arctocephalus forsteri'' (common names include the Australasian fur seal, South Australian fur seal, New Zealand fur seal, Antipodean fur seal, or long-nosed fur seal) is a species of fur seal found mainly around southern Australia and New Z ...

s. A historic

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

site, the Matakaea/Shag Point Occupation Site, is located close to the headland. It is listed as a Category II site by

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust; in ) is a Crown entity that advocates for the protection of Archaeology of New Zealand, ancest ...

. Geologically, the area is an exemplar of the

Katiki Formation The Katiki Formation is a Late Cretaceous (Campanian to Maastrichtian, or Haumurian in the regional stratigraphy) geologic formation of the South Island of New Zealand.Kaiwhekea katiki''. It is also the location of the oldest characterised

ignimbrite Ignimbrite is a type of volcanic rock, consisting of hardened tuff. Ignimbrites form from the deposits of pyroclastic flows, which are a hot suspension of particles and gases flowing rapidly from a volcano, driven by being denser than the surrou ...

deposit in the South Island at 112 million years ago. Shag Point

References

Headlands of Otago Populated places in Otago Heritage New Zealand Category 2 historic places in Otago {{Otago-geo-stub