Sometimes I lie awake at night and ask why me? Then a voice answers nothing personal, your name just happened to come up.

I've mentioned Fossil Bluff in Wynyard once or twice before, and I realised that I'd posted a lot of the beach, but not many of the Bluff itself. Thus, I thought I'd best post the remaining shots in a bunch and be done with 'em!


For the uninitiated, a bluff is a "steep headland, promontory, riverbank, or cliff". The interesting thing about Fossil Bluff was formed as glaciers flowed as they were melting and reached areas of depression they slowed down, and dropped the rocks they were carrying. Over time, mud covered the rocks, which became a mudstone conglomerate. You can find granites, cherts, quartz, jaspers and agates in the tillite.


Thus we have a sandstone Bluff - with layers of fossils encased in the stone - laying on top of the tillite. As you walk around the Bluff (at low tide) you are able to see where the sandstone and tillite meet.


You will be glad to hear that the Bluff plays host every year to hundreds of drunken and randy teenagers. I remember it well.