Curio Bay

Curio Bay is a coastal embayment in the Southland District of New Zealand, best known as the site of a petrified forest some 180 million years old.

[1] Southern right whales are occasionally observed offshore, as on numerous parts of the country's coast.

The fossilised forest grew at a time of semi-tropical climate and before grasses and flowering plants had come into existence.

Distinct bands of fossilised vegetation exposed in the cliff face indicate that in between such floods, the forest grew back at least four times over a period of some 20,000 years.

A short walkway leads from the car park at the end of the sealed road to a viewing platform over this internationally important area.