Qualla: Curio Bay https://qualla.com/curio-bay en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:26 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/p/z/8/n/curio-bay-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Curio Bay https://qualla.com/curio-bay Curio Bay: Introduction https://qualla.com/curio-bay/ Photo credit Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Wait for low tide. As the water retreats across the rock platform at Curio Bay, shapes emerge from the stone that do not belong in this century, or any century within human memory. Fossilised tree stumps, some still showing growth rings, stand in the positions where they grew 180 million years ago, during the middle Jurassic period. This was a forest of conifers, cycads, and ferns that predated both grass and flowers, rooted in a landscape so ancient that the continents had not yet separated into their current positions. New Zealand was still part of Gondwana, and these trees grew near the South Pole. Today, their stone remains share the shoreline with yellow-eyed penguins and Hector's dolphins, a collision of deep time and living rarity that makes Curio Bay one of the most remarkable coastlines on Earth.

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Image: Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/p/z/8/n/curio-bay-wp/pz8n-curio-bay-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Curio Bay: Stone Memories of a Jurassic World https://qualla.com/curio-bay/ Photo credit Anagoria, CC BY 3.0. The petrified forest at Curio Bay is one of the most extensive and least disturbed examples of Jurassic fossilisation anywhere in the world. The original trees were relatives of modern kauri and Norfolk pine, growing in a semi-tropical climate at latitudes that would seem impossi...

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Image: Anagoria | CC BY 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/p/z/8/n/curio-bay-wp/pz8n-curio-bay-stone-memories-of-a-jurassic-world.mp3 0:06 2 full Curio Bay: Penguins at Dusk https://qualla.com/curio-bay/ Photo credit Anagoria, CC BY 3.0. As the light fades over Curio Bay, a different kind of ancient creature makes its appearance. Yellow-eyed penguins, known in Maori as hoiho, waddle up the beach from the surf to their nesting sites in the coastal scrub. They are among the rarest penguins on Earth, with fewer than...

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Image: Anagoria | CC BY 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/p/z/8/n/curio-bay-wp/pz8n-curio-bay-penguins-at-dusk.mp3 0:06 3 full Curio Bay: Between Tides https://qualla.com/curio-bay/ Photo credit Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Timing matters at Curio Bay. The petrified forest is only fully visible at low tide, when the receding sea uncovers the rock platform and the stumps and logs emerge glistening with saltwater. At high tide, the same platform disappears beneath waves, and the fossils become invisib...

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Image: Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/p/z/8/n/curio-bay-wp/pz8n-curio-bay-between-tides.mp3 0:06 4 full