Curio Bay

About this place

Curio Bay is a coastal bay in Southland, New Zealand, near the southernmost point of the South Island, about 49 km southwest of Owaka in a straight line. It is one of the Catlins' major attractions, drawing around 100,000 visitors a year, and is best known for a petrified forest some 180 million years old. The petrified trees were ancient conifers closely related to modern kauri and Norfolk pine, growing in a semi-tropical climate before grasses and flowering plants existed. Floods of volcanic ash and mud buried them, and silica gradually replaced the wood, turning it to stone. Bands in the cliff show that the forest grew back at least four times over some 20,000 years. It is one of the most extensive and least disturbed fossil forests of its age in the world. At low tide the rock platform reveals stumps and fallen logs turned to stone, with growth rings and grain clearly visible, between pools of seawater. A colony of rare yellow-eyed penguins lives at the bay, and the endemic Hector's dolphin swims in neighbouring Porpoise Bay. A short walkway leads down from the car park to the fossil forest, and low tide is the best time to visit. The penguins usually come ashore in the evening, so keep well back and never block their path. Leave the petrified wood as you find it, as the site is protected.