Southland Region

Abyss Creek Triassic fauna. Map: D45; Classification: B3. Significance: Together with Coal Creek, only richly fossiliferous early Triassic in New Zealand.

Ackers stone house, Harrold Bay, Stewart Island. Map: E48; Classification: C1. Significance: Early example of building made of local granite. Only stone building on Stewart Island.

Alpine Fault, Hokuri Creek. Map: D39; Classification: C3. Significance: Excellent exposures and traces of Alpine Fault, with good stratigraphuic and topographic control.

Alpine Fault, Kaipo River. Map: D39; Classification: C3. Significance: Excellent exposures and traces of the Alpine Fault with good stratigraphic and topographic controls.

Anchorage Cove Springs. Map: C41; Classification: C2. Significance:

Anita Bay bowenite and dunite mylonite. Map: D40; Classification: B2. Significance: Excellent examples of gem-quality serpentine (bowenite) and of mylonitised dunite in-situ.

Arthur River delta. Map: D40; Classification: C3. Significance: A good example of a lacustrine birdsfoot delta.

Aurora Cave (= Te Ana au), Lake Te Anau. Map: D42; Classification: A3. Significance: Large, internationally important cave system with its development related to Pleistocene glaciations. Contains significant sedimentary deposits. The resurgence cave is a tourist attraction.

Awarua River catchment capture, northern Fiordland. Map: D39; Classification: C3. Significance: An excellent example of catchment capture, in this case due to uplift along the Alpine Fault.

Bald Cone exfoliation dome, Stewart Island. Map: D50; Classification: C3. Significance: An excellent example of an exfoliation dome.

Balloon Loop river meander, Te Anau. Map: D43; Classification: C3. Significance: Excellent example of a cut-off river meander.

Bare Hill zeolitised tuff zone, Hokonui Hills. Map: E45; Classification: A3. Significance: Section through heulandite and analcime-bearing Late Triassic tuffs in the Southland Syncline; a world class example of zeolite facies burial metamorphism.

Barracouta Point gabbro. Map: E47; Classification: C3. Significance: Spectacular exposures of layered gabbroic rocks.

Beaumont Stream and quarry Triassic fossils. Map: D45; Classification: B3. Significance: Endemic, in-situ Etalian fauna with ammonites used in international correlation (quarry). Also holostratotype of Etalian Stage in stream section.

Ben Bolt Jurassic fossils. Map: E45; Classification: B3. Significance: Richest and most diverse Aratauran (Jurassic) fossil fauna in New Zealand.

Big Bay dune sequence and Waiuna Lagoon, northern Fiordland. Map: D39; Classification: C3. Significance: The most comprehensive dune sequence in northern Fiordland, similar to those in South Westland and slightly more extensive than the dune ridges 14 km SW in Martins Bay. Waiuna Lagoon is the largest dune-dammed lake in Fiordland and southern Westland.

Big Hellfire Beach sand pass, Stewart Island. Map: D48; Classification: C3. Significance: A well defined example of an extensive dune system rising to 220 m asl.

Birch's Mill Pliocene shellbed. Map: C46; Classification: B3. Significance: Very diverse macrofauna. Only good Pliocene fauna in southern South Island.

Blue Cliff Miocene fossils, Te Waewae Bay. Map: C46; Classification: C3. Significance: Moderately diverse Kapitean fauna.

Bluff and Tiwai Point hornfels. Map: E47; Classification: B3. Significance: Well-exposed hornfelses associated with norite intrusion.

Bluff double estuary coastal features. Map: E47; Classification: B2. Significance: Largest estuaries and spit on the South Island’s south coast, with excellent examples of coastal features including flood-tidal deltas, tombolo, wetlands and one of the most extensive series of beach ridges in the country.

Bowen Falls and Darran Complex. Map: D40; Classification: B3. Significance: Very well-exposed meta-igneous rocks with amphibolite facies overprint (example of passage from Darran Igneous Complex to Harrison Formation layered gneisses). Highest waterfall in New Zealand that plunges directly into the sea (162 m).

Browne Falls, Doubtful Sound. Map: D43; Classification: B3. Significance: Highest cascading waterfall in New Zealand falling into the sea. Their drop of 836 m would make them ninth highest waterfall in the world except that they are a cascade rather than a true waterfall.

Braida Crags limestone bluffs, Feldwick. Map: D45; Classification: C2. Significance: Best example of limestone bluff (occasionally fluted) in western Southland, easily visible from Ohai-Clifden Highway (SH 96).

Brydone Oligocene molluscan fossils. Map: F46; Classification: B3. Significance: Very diverse Oligocene (Waitakian) molluscan fossils.

Cape Providence graptolite-rich Ordovician black shales. Map: A45; Classification: B2. Significance: Exceptionally well exposed black shale - turbidite associaton, important biostratigraphic section through lower Ordovician graptolite-rich rocks, important for understanding Ordovician paleoenvironments.

Caroline cutting Triassic fossils. Map: E44; Classification: B3. Significance: Rich and diverse Triassic (Kaihikuan) brachiopods and bivalves. Historically important type locality for brachiopod species described by Trechman.

Castle Rock karst, Dipton. Map: E44; Classification: B2. Significance: Best karstic limestone bluff in Southland. Spectacular limestone ridgeline with most impressive development of castle-like ramparts in Tertiary limestone in New Zealand. Easily viewed from main road. One of the most significant fossil avifaunal sites in Southland. Important in dating development of regional Southland Syncline.

Chalky Island shore platform. Map: A45; Classification: B3. Significance: Most extensive shore platform of jagged strata on the west coast of New Zealand south of Kawhia Harbour.

Chalky Island submarine canyon and fan deposits. Map: A45; Classification: B3. Significance: Excellent exposures of canyon and rise sediments related to Oligocene shelf-edge environments. Some of best submarine canyon deposits in New Zealand.

Chimney Peaks ridge pillow lava. Map: D44; Classification: C3. Significance: Well exposed pillow lava and pillow breccia sequence.

Cleddau Chasm. Map: D40; Classification: B3. Significance: A well defined and easily accessible gorge.

Clifden limestone bluffs. Map: D45; Classification: C2. Significance: Best, easily accessible karst features in Southland and one of the most diverse karstic landscapes in southern half of the South Island.

Clifden Miocene sediments. Map: D45; Classification: A3. Significance: The 'classic' highly fossiliferous reference section for middle Miocene sedimentary sequence in the South Island. Very diverse macrofaunas and holostratotypes of Altonian, Clifdenian, Lillburnian and Waiauan Stages.

Coal Creek Triassic fossils. Map: D45; Classification: B3. Significance: One of only two, richly fossiliferous early Triassic sites in New Zealand. Holostratotype of Malakovian Stage.

Coal River mouth sandspit, southern Fiordland. Map: B43; Classification: C3. Significance: Only significant barrier spit and dunes in southern Fiordland.

Conical Hill Jurassic brachiopod fossils. Map: E45; Classification: B3. Significance: Diverse lower Ururoan (Jurassic) brachiopod fauna. Type locality of several taxa.

Cow and Calf Point gabbro intrusion, Stewart Island. Map: E48; Classification: C3. Significance: Readily accessible good coastal exposures of horblende gabbro grading into hornblendite.

Croydon clinker. Map: F45; Classification: C2. Significance: Representative example of thermally metamorphosed sediments associated with naturally burnt coal in Southland.

Curio Bay Jurassic fossil forest. Map: G47; Classification: B1. Significance: Best example in New Zealand of a fossilised Jurassic forest.

Donne Glacier roche moutonnee and glacierised surfaces. Map: D40; Classification: C3. Significance: Examples of roche moutonnee and glacierised surfaces which are undisturbed by NZ standards.

Doubtful Sound fiord. Map: B43; Classification: B3. Significance: Deepest and second longest fiord in New Zealand.

Doubtful Sound gneisses. Map: B43; Classification: B3. Significance: Well-exposed high grade gneisses of both sedimentary and igneous origin.

Doubtful Xanadu Cave, Doubtful Sound, Fiordland. Map: B43; Classification: C2. Significance: Best example of a marble cave in Fiordland. Notable speleothems.

Dusky Sound fiord. Map: B44; Classification: B3. Significance: Longest and one of the most complex fiords in New Zealand.

Dusky Sound zincian staurolite. Map: B44; Classification: B3. Significance: Occurrence of the mineral staurolite, here having the highest zinc content in a zincian staurolite recorded anywhere in the world. Here it is associated with other rare minerals.

Earl Mountains Cenozoic sequence. Map: D41; Classification: C3. Significance: Complete sequence through lower half of Te Anau Basin Cenozoic succession. Type section for Earl Mountains Sandstone. Spectacular scarp exposures along crest of range.

Ernest Islands tombolo. Map: D49; Classification: B3. Significance: A particularly good example of a tombolo.

Eglinton River delta, Lake Te Anau. Map: D42; Classification: B3. Significance: An actively prograding river delta in a lake, a good example with easy access.

Fiordland fiords. Map: A44, A45, B41-B46, C40-C43, D40; Classification: A3. Significance: Fiordland’s steep and crenulated coastline, with fiords running from U-shaped glaciated valleys carved out of the Southern Alps, is unique in New Zealand and rare globally. The sheltered, steep-walled fiords, have a total shoreline length of nearly 1000 km, depths up to 420 m, and a globally unique inversion of usual patterns of coastal marine life. This long Fiordland coastline is unusual in New Zealand also because the landscape has not been greatly modified by agriculture, fire, or other such human impacts. The spectacular fiord-dominated landscape of western Fiordland was one of the decisive factors recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in granting World Heritage status to the whole of the southwestern region of the South Island as the South West New Zealand (Te Wahipounamu) World Heritage Area. Recognised by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as one of the world’s great areas of wilderness. Ten marine reserves are located within the fiords.

Forest Hill karst, Winton. Map: E46; Classification: C2. Significance: Isolated limestone outcrops with spectacular solution weathering. Small pitfalls which contain common avifaunal fossils.

Freestone Hill limestone bluff, Manapouri. Map: D43; Classification: C2. Significance: Only karstic limestone in the Manapouri area. One of the most impressive limestone bluffs in Southland.

Freshwater River estuary, Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island. Map: D48; Classification: C3. Significance: Pristine, tidal river mouth estuary and intertidal delta at the sheltered western end of Paterson Inlet.

Gair Loch debris dam. Map: C44; Classification: B3. Significance: A good example of many such features in the district.

George Sound orthogneiss. Map: C41; Classification: B3. Significance: Excellent representative section of exposures of large and variable granulite basement of igneous origin.

Gog and Magog exfoliation domes, Stewart Island. Map: D49; Classification: B3. Significance: Best example of exfoliation domes in the country.

Goose-Woodhen Isthmus, Resolution Island. Map: A44; Classification: B3. Significance: One of the smallest, most low-lying isthmuses in New Zealand, separating two U-shaped coves that were once glaciated valleys. Now almost cuts Resolution Island in two.

Greenhills ventifacts, Bluff. Map: E47; Classification: B1. Significance: Some of largest and best developed ventifacts in New Zealand.

Green Islets wave-cut notches. Map: B46; Classification: B3. Significance: A spectacular set of wave-cut notches, caves and arches.

Green Lake rock avalanche deposit. Map: C44; Classification: A3. Significance: One of the world's largest rock avalanches.

Haldane Bay dunes and dune-dammed lake. Map: F47; Classification: C3. Significance: An easily accessible example of a remnant area of sand dunes and wetlands that is being remobilised and eroded. A small valley has been dammed by dune sand, creating a 2 km-long lake (“The Reservoir”).

Haldane estuary. Map: F47; Classification: C3. Significance: A good example representative of a Southland estuary.

Harrold Bay spheroidal weathering, Stewart Island. Map: E48; Classification: C3. Significance: An excellent example of spheroidal weathering in granite.

Heale Ridge Jurassic fossils. Map: E45; Classification: B3. Significance: Very rich, shallow marine bivalve and brachiopod fauna. Unique New Zealand locality for several bivalve genera.

Helmet Hill to Goldie Hill karst. Map: C46; Classification: B2. Significance: Pristine active and fossil karstic landscape in virgin forest, with potential for future discovery of major cave systems and significant fossil avifauna.

Hidden Lake, Milford Track. Map: D41; Classification: A3. Significance: A well defined avalanche formed tarn.

Hokonui Hills strike ridges. Map: F45; Classification: B3. Significance: Some of New Zealand's most distinctive strike ridges and trellised drainage pattern.

Hollyford Valley dikes. Map: D41; Classification: C3. Significance: Unusual and accessible dikes.

Homer Saddle glacial features. Map: D40; Classification: B3. Significance: A collection of well defined glacial features, the Homer Saddle being of particular historic importance as the only direct inland crossing to Milford Sound.

Horseshoe Bay hornblende hornfels, Stewart Island. Map: E48; Classification: C3. Significance: A good representative example of hornblende hornfels.

Howells Point pillow lavas. Map: D46; Classification: B3. Significance: Pillow lavas and pumpellyite mineral location.

Humboldt Falls. Map: D40; Classification: B3. Significance: Highest falls in New Zealand.

Iris Burn Slip, Kepler Track. Map: C43; Classification: C3. Significance: Excellent example of a huge recent rockfall from the steep side of a glacial valley.

Jacobs River double estuary, Riverton. Map: D46; Classification: C2. Significance: Westernmost and most unusual of Southland’s large tidal estuaries and lagoons; it is a double estuary, pinched off between the Pourakino Arm and the main Jacobs River Estuary at ‘The Narrows’.

Kaherekoau aegirine. Map: C45; Classification: C3. Significance: A good example of a mineral rare in New Zealand.

Kellard Point marble. Map: B43; Classification: B3. Significance: Well-exposed marble in central Fiordland high-grade gneisses.

Kershaw to Coal Creeks ridge intrusion. Map: D44; Classification: C3. Significance: Well exposed shallow gabbro intrusion.

Key Summit Permian lower Maitai Group meta-sediments and syncline. Map: D41; Classification: B2. Significance: Best, easily accessible outcrops of lower Maitai Group lawsonite-bearing, low temperaturepressure slate. Includes an unusual occurrence of sodic-amphibole, an indicator of high pressure, low temperature metamorphic condition. A good exposure of a syncline of unique regional continuity.

Kisbee Bay Ordovician biostratigraphic section. Map: B46; Classification: B2. Significance: Important biostratigraphic section through lower Ordovician graptolite-bearing rocks.

Knobs Flat kames. Map: D41; Classification: C2. Significance:

Kowhai Creek Triassic fossils. Map: D44; Classification: C3. Significance: Well-preserved Triassic (Kaihikuan) macrofossil fauna.

Lake Adelaide rockfall. Map: D40; Classification: B3. Significance: New Zealand's best example of a rockfall. Covers a large area with a depression in behind.

Lake Erskine, Earl Mountains. Map: D41; Classification: B3. Significance: A text book example of a large tarn.

Lake George, Kawakaputa Bay, Riverton. Map: D46; Classification: C3. Significance: Shallow lake impounded by Pleistocene (last interglacial) terrace deposits and parabolic dunes. An unusual feature along this western Southland coastline.

Lake Hakapoua debris dam and relict fiord. Map: B46; Classification: B3. Significance: Only fiord along the south coast of Fiordland. Debris dam from earthquake-generated rockfall, in 1915 partly blocks the outlet, creating an unusual partly saline lake.

Lake Hauroko fault scarp. Map: C45; Classification: C3. Significance: Fault scarp that displaces Holocene (and older) surfaces in the Wairaurahiri valley (N side up). Example of late Quaternary faulting in eastern Fiordland.

Lake Marian, Darran Mountains. Map: D40; Classification: C3. Significance: Excellent example of a tarn in a classic U-shaped hanging valley visible from Milford Rd.

Lake McKerrow dune-dammed fiord. Map: D39; Classification: C3. Significance: An unusual landform in Fiordland. Lake McKerrow is a former fiord no longer open directly to the sea and partly blocked by a sand dune barrier; but still connected by a tidal river.

Lake Quill cirque and Sutherland Falls. Map: D41; Classification: B3. Significance: An extremely scenic cirque lake (approximately 1 sq km) at high elevation, with an outlet direct to a magnificent high waterfall.

Letham Ridge thrust zone and melange. Map: D44; Classification: B3. Significance: The best regional exposure of a terrane boundary and one of the best examples of a mudstone melange in New Zealand.

Luxmore Cave, Te Anau. Map: C43; Classification: C3. Significance: Largest of Mt Luxmore caves, and best representative example of these alpine caves.

MacLean Peak basalt and andesite type section. Map: D44; Classification: C3. Significance: Type section of the MacLean Peak Formation, basalt to andesite flows.

MacLean Peak pillow lava. Map: D44; Classification: C3. Significance: Interesting features within a pillow lava flow.

Mararoa River Permo-Triassic Maitai Group sediments. Map: D43; Classification: C3. Significance: Excellent exposure of Upukerora Breccia and Waiau and Stephens Formations, Maitai Group.

Martins Bay spit, dune sequence and wetlands, northern Fiordland. Map: D39; Classification: C3. Significance: At 3 km in length, by far the longest sandspit along the Fiordland and southern Westland coastline. Associated with a contemporary dune complex merging landward into relict foredune ridges and intervening swamps, including McKenzie Lagoon.

Mason Bay dunes and sand passes, Stewart Island. Map: D48; Classification: B3. Significance: An extensive area of dunes and sand passes.

Mataura Falls and plant beds. Map: F46; Classification: B3. Significance: Spectacular falls and narrow gorge together with historic site of description of rich Jurassic plant fossils. Type locality of one species.

Mataura River barrier-enclosed estuary (Toetoes Harbour). Map: F46; Classification: C2. Significance: One of the few remaining natural dune systems along an estuary-enclosing spit on the southern Southland coast. Rare deltaic deposits within an estuary.

Mavora Lakes glacial swamp and lake. Map: E42; Classification: B3. Significance: Excellent example of a moraine dammed lake and swamp.

Mavora Lakes vuagnatite. Map: D42; Classification: B3. Significance: Only in situ occurrence of vuagnatite in New Zealand.

Milford Sound fiord. Map: D40; Classification: B3. Significance: Best known and most accessible of the breathtaking fiords in Fiordland.

Mitre Peak. Map: D40; Classification: B3. Significance: Spectacular glacially-carved mountain peak with high tourist value.

Mokomoko Inlet Permian sedimentary rocks. Map: E47; Classification: B3. Significance: Exceptionally well preserved Early Permian sea floor sedimentology and trace fossils.

Monkey Creek hanging valley. Map: D41; Classification: C3. Significance: A well defined hanging valley.

Monowai Suspension Bridge Oligocene flysch. Map: D44; Classification: C4. Significance: A good exposure of mass flow breccia and flysch for educational purposes.

Moonlight Fault backtilted terrace. Map: D43; Classification: C3. Significance: Excellent example of post-glacial backtilting of late Quaternary terrace surface.

Morley Bridge quarry Triassic macrofossils. Map: D45; Classification: B3. Significance: Good Etalian macrofauna.

Mossburn Permo-Triassic fossiliferous volcaniclastic sequence. Map: E44; Classification: B2. Significance: Only example of Maitai Group rocks in the region. Diverse late Permian fauna. Allochthonous material in the exposure.

Mossburn serpentinite quarry. Map: E44; Classification: C2. Significance: Excellent exposure of serpentinite melange.

Mt Anglem cirque and tarns, Stewart Island. Map: D48; Classification: C3. Significance: Best and most easily accessible, representative example of an old glacial cirque and tarn on Stewart Island.

Murchison Mountains granodiorite tors. Map: D43; Classification: C3. Significance: An area of many spectacular granodiorite tors.

Narrow Neck Isthmus, Fiordland. Map: D43; Classification: C3. Significance: One of the narrowest and lowest altitude isthmuses in Fiordland separating a region as large as Resolution Island from its hinterland.

New River Estuary, Invercargill. Map: E47; Classification: C2. Significance: An example of the rescue of a tidal estuary by a local body-initiated restoration scheme.

Newton River fossil sea arch, West Cape. Map: A45; Classification: B1. Significance: The best example of a number of fossil coastal stacks and arches preserved on a 120 000-year-old marine bench between West Cape and Cape Provenence, Fiordland. One of the only examples of a fossil sea arch in New Zealand.

North Mataura Jurassic plant beds. Map: F45; Classification: B2. Significance: Rich Jurassic plant fossil beds of historical importance because they were first described by Arber, 1917. Type locality for two species.

North Range metasomatites. Map: E44; Classification: B3. Significance: An excellent example of low-temperature metasomatites.

Omaui Island polished cliffs, Bluff. Map: E47; Classification: C3. Significance: Spectacular polished coastal cliff faces.

Oraka Point intrusions. Map: D46; Classification: C3. Significance: Type location of Oraka Hybrids containing basic xenoliths. Good coastal exposures. Remarkable example of the assimilation of basic rocks by a high-level granitic magma.

Orepuki oil shale pit. Map: D46; Classification: C3. Significance: Only oil shale in New Zealand worked specifically for oil.

Oreti River (east) Triassic fossils. Map: E44; Classification: B4. Significance: Rich fossil fauna and lower part of the holostratotype of New Zealand Oretian Stage (Triassic).

Otamita Stream Triassic fossils and stratotype. Map: F45; Classification: B3. Significance: Stratotype of New Zealand Otamitan Stage (Triassic). Very well-preserved fossil material.

Otamita Valley Rd sequence. Map: F45; Classification: B4. Significance: Stratigraphic section through Taringatura Group, with well exposed sedimentological features at various horizons.

Otapiri Stream Triassic stratotype. Map: E45; Classification: B3. Significance: Holostratotype of Otapirian Stage. Diverse fossil faunal assemblage. Type locality of endemic Otapirian fauna. Nationally important exposure of Triassic-Jurassic boundary.

Pahia Point layered mafic rocks and shore platform potholes. Map: D46; Classification: C3. Significance: Type location of Pahia Intrusives. Well defined shore platforms with excellent examples of potholes.

Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island. Map: E48; Classification: B3. Significance: One of the only accessible, rock-walled inlets in New Zealand that has remained largely surrounded by natural vegetation. Excellent example of a drowned river valley system.

Pears Track Triassic fossils. Map: D44; Classification: C3. Significance: Good Triassic (early Oretian) macrofauna.

Pembroke granulite. Map: D40; Classification: A3. Significance: First described and probably best developed planar alteration zones in granulite, world-wide.

Pikopiko fossil forest. Map: D45; Classification: A2. Significance: Best example of an Eocene fossil forest in New Zealand. One of few fossil plant loacalities in the world having ferns with fertile sporangia and more than 3 kinds of fern leaf.

Port Craig Tertiary sequence. Map: C46; Classification: C3. Significance: Magnificent example of submarine turbidites (Oligocene) overlain unconformably by a nearshore bioclastic limestonebreccia sequence (Pliocene). Regionally significant unconformity of Late Miocene age, reflecting progressive uplift of Hump Ridge horst during Middle Micoene. Includes the only diverse Kapitean (Late Miocene) fauna in the southern South Island.

Port Pegasus, Stewart Island. Map: D49; Classification: B3. Significance: One of New Zealand’s largest and most intricate rock-walled inlets with virgin podocarp forest down to sea level.

Port William dikes, Stewart Island. Map: E48; Classification: C3. Significance: Well exposed, good example of basic and intermediate dikes cutting dioritic rocks.

Potters Graben. Map: F43; Classification: C2. Significance: One of the best examples of quartzose 'cover' sediments preserved on the uplifted peneplain of Central Otago.

Preservation Inlet hornfels. Map: B45; Classification: C3. Significance: Well-exposed example of horfelses and contact schists.

Productus Creek laumontite. Map: D44; Classification: B3. Significance: An unusually well developed example of replacement of fossils by laumontite - one of the best examples in New Zealand.

Productus Creek Permian fossils, Letham Burn. Map: D44; Classification: B3. Significance: Holostratotype of Braxtonian Stage.

Productus Creek Permian fossils, Mangarewa locality. Map: D44; Classification: A2. Significance: Rich, well-preserved brachiopod and molluscan fauna. Only New Zealand occurrence of Glossopteris leaf fossils.

Productus Creek Permian Wairaki Breccia localities (Letham Trig). Map: D44; Classification: A3. Significance: Youngest Permian fauna from New Zealand. Holostratotype of Makarewan Stage, Wairaki Breccia.

Redcliff Creek section, Takitimu Mountains. Map: D44; Classification: C3. Significance: Type section of the Brunel Formation, volcaniclastic sediments and basaltic lava flows.

Ringaringa intrusives, Stewart Island. Map: E48; Classification: B3. Significance: Excellent, well exposed outcrops of hybrid and composite rocks developed between hornfels and acid intrusive rocks.

Routeburn Falls glacial stairway. Map: D40; Classification: B3. Significance: One of the two best examples of a glacial stairway in New Zealand. It exhibits a range of glacial features including cirques and terminal moraine.

Rugged Point coastal features, Stewart Island. Map: D48; Classification: C3. Significance: Excellent examples of active parabolic dunes, sand passes and climbing dunes transgressing steep topography behind 2 beaches separated by a spectacular steep-cliffed headland and islands.

Ruggedy Flats freshwater valley, Stewart Island. Map: D48; Classification: C3. Significance: Good examples of peat swamps and lakes developed within them.

Shell Gully Oligocene fossils. Map: F45; Classification: B2. Significance: Diverse, well-preserved Oligocene (Duntroonian) fossil molluscs.

Smoky Beach climbing dunes. Map: D48; Classification: C3. Significance: The most northern of Stewart Island’s spectacular climbing dune systems.

Southern Fiordland uplifted marine terraces. Map: B46; Classification: B3. Significance: The best preserved sequence of uplifted marine terraces in New Zealand, documenting the Quaternary uplift history of southern Fiordland.

St Anne Point gneiss. Map: D40; Classification: C3. Significance: Excellent example of well exposed quartzo-feldspathic, garnetiferous gneiss, locally with marble or calc-gneiss.

Staircase Falls, Milford Track. Map: D41; Classification: C3. Significance: Excellent and easily accessible example of a staircase waterfall.

Stirling Falls, Milford Sound. Map: D40; Classification: B3. Significance: One of the highest and most spectacular waterfalls in New Zealand plunging directly into the sea (151 m). Major tourist attraction.

Sutherland Sound fiord. Map: C40; Classification: C3. Significance: Unusual fiord landform because it does not open directly to the sea; it is only connected to the sea by a tidal river.

Takitimu epistilbite. Map: D44; Classification: B3. Significance: Good exposure of the mineral epistilbite, which is regionally developed in the eastern Takitimu Mountains, but rare elsewhere in New Zealand.

Takitimu yugawaralite. Map: D43; Classification: B3. Significance: The only New Zealand occurrence of yugawaralite.

Taringatura Hills Triassic locality. Map: E44; Classification: B3. Significance: Only fossiliferous Otapirian in southern South Island, with distinctive large Lima.

Taylors Stream Otapiri Valley junction Jurassic fossils. Map: E45; Classification: B3. Significance: Historically important Aratauran (Jurassic) locality with significant ammonoid, bivalve and brachiopod fossil fauna.

Teahimate Bay creviced headland, Catlins coast. Map: G47; Classification: C3. Significance: One of the best sections of the ragged, creviced Catlins coast, formed by the truncation of steeply-dipping strata of the Southland Syncline as it is eroded by the sea.

Te Anau erratic boulder. Map: D43; Classification: C1. Significance: An isolated 3 m erratic boulder sitting on the flat outwash surface beside the road providing evidence of a former extensive glacier about 100,000 years BP. Interpreted to be a lag deposit from a moraine related to an extensive glacier.

Te Anau South Fiord sedimentary sequence. Map: D43; Classification: C3. Significance: Well exposed Oligocene-Miocene sequence typical of the west margin of Te Anau Basin, with excellent cross-bedding and cyclic sedimentation.

Three Sisters steep dunes, Bluff. Map: D40; Classification: C2. Significance: An example of how wind-blown sand can transgress steep topography in southern New Zealand. Spectacular wind erosion of rock exposures and stonefields.

The Neck multiple tombolos, Stewart Island. Map: E48; Classification: B3. Significance: An unusual grouping together of islands by sand and gravel to form one peninsula.

Tin Range schist and tin workings, Stewart Island. Map: D49; Classification: B3. Significance: Well exposed mica-quartz schist of Western Province derivation. A source of cassiterite and New Zealand's most distinctive occurrence of wolframite in situ. Only locality in New Zealand where cassiterite has been worked.

Transit River garnet sand dunes. Map: D40; Classification: B2. Significance: Only known concentration of garnet in New Zealand and spectacular pink sand dunes.

Upukerora authigenic minerals. Map: D42; Classification: B3. Significance: A rare occurrence of authigenic low temperature minerals replacing the matrix of a Quaternary landslide deposit.

Waiau Cave, Clifden. Map: D45; Classification: C1. Significance: Isolated lowland cave.

Waiau River Miocene deep-water fossils. Map: D44; Classification: C3. Significance: Well-preserved, diverse, bathyal, middle Miocene (Waiauan) fossil macrofauna.

Waiau River Oligocene sandstone dikes. Map: D44; Classification: B2. Significance: One of the best examples of sand injection structures developed during large scale folding in New Zealand Tertiary rocks.

Wairaki Hills Triassic fossiliferous volcaniclastics. Map: D44; Classification: C3. Significance: The most fossiliferous and diverse early middle Triassic locality in New Zealand.

Wairaki Peaks rhyodacitic tuff. Map: D44; Classification: C3. Significance: Good example of a Permian rhyodacitic Plinian-style tuff.

Wairaki Peaks, Heartbreak Formation igneous section. Map: D44; Classification: C3. Significance: Type section of the Heartbreak Formation, microgabbro and basaltic lavas, pillow lava and breccia.

Wairaki River fault trace. Map: D44; Classification: C3. Significance: Excellent regional example of a Late Quaternary fault scarp.

Wairaki River Permain fossils. Map: D44; Classification: B4. Significance: Holostratotype of Telfordian and Mangapirian Stages.

Waituna coastal lake lagoon and wetlands. Map: F47; Classification: B2. Significance: The classic example in New Zealand of a largely unmodified coastal lake-type lagoon within an intact coastal wetland system trapped behind a barrier beach.

Waituna Miocene lignite pit. Map: F47; Classification: C3. Significance: Lignite pit, type locality for pollen species.

Wendon Valley Oligocene fossil molluscs. Map: F44; Classification: B3. Significance: Very diverse fossil Oligocene (Duntroonian) molluscs.

West Plains igneous basement. Map: E46; Classification: C1. Significance: Only exposure of ?BluffGreenhills Igneous Complex in extensive West Plains area. important for understanding geology of the region.

Wether Hill zeolite metamorphism. Map: E44; Classification: A3. Significance: Internationally classic example of zeolite facxies metamorphism.

White Hill zeolite metamorphism. Map: E44; Classification: A3. Significance: Internationally classic example of zeolite facies metamorphism.

Winton Hills tomo. Map: E46; Classification: C2. Significance: Best examples in an extensive area along a ridgeline of small dolines and pitfalls, otherwise rare in Southland. Contain common avifaunal fossils.