The Mauri inhabited the New Zealand South Island since about 1350. I had to go and check out an area called Castle Rocks. It is a sacred Mauri site complete with rock art and very protected and sacred site. No points found but it was great just seeing it. Eack year the Mauri hold a ceromony here and they come dressed in seal clothing. A bit hot for Texas attire but very suitable for New Zealand.



This cave has been occupied for thousands of years as a seasonal stop-over to the west coast for seal hunts. The walls bear the smudging from many fires roasting seal meat.



The cave walls are carved with efigys and imakes of critters. One looks a lot like Hal. Hard to say..



A view from inside the cave.



The area is comprised of soft limestone. Not unlike what we see in Texas.



The tree and bench below the site says it all ! Happy Easter !

Looks like some recent grafitti in that second picture. How far from the coast was the cave?

The cave is about 80 miles inland. It does have some light grafitti but NZ people, generally, do not mess things up. Likely some backpacking tourists from other countries. At least it's not spray painted like so many places in the US. I deplore defacing sites as it leaves nothing for the next generation to enjoy.

The view out that cave window looks pretty bleak. Roaming hunters must have used that rather than the
open country ( bad area for fire wood though ! )

Looking at a world map...That NZ is really isolated, it's a wonder they even have grass there

I can only see a slight Cahokia nose resemblance in the pictograph

I think the view from the cave is very pretty.

Yeah, it would be very bleak if the mountains were not in the background....

Hey. I threw in a nice tree at the end. It is a bleak part of the island, especially living in a cave..

Most of the pic's show a shortage of trees around the cave. Was there other vegetation like brush that they used for the firewood or was there, at one time more trees and they were used up for cooking?

This is the valley below Castle Rocks. Its like a high desert with an aluvial glacier plain. Many of the native plants can be found only here and nowhere else in the world. There are lots of trees just not in this area. It gets lots of snow melt. The water is also very cold. Great Brown Trout fishin!

Very pretty country, thanks for the show of what the other side of the world looks like

Just as well you get saturated with scenery shots before returning to TX ,,,with just those close ups of
pointy rocks