Daily Photo – Kyeburn

Of all the things to come out of Kyeburn recently, by far the most remarkable happened in March of 2019, when a local discovered a series of moa footprints in the Kyeburn River. Experts from Tūhura Otago Museum were altered, the river diverted, and the footprints carefully removed to Dunedin. After study, the fossilised trackway was confirmed as the first of its kind known in the South Island and the second-oldest evidence of moa in New Zealand, dating back around 3.6 million years. 

Just think about that for a moment. Some 3.6 million years ago, a heavy-footed moa clumsily wandered across soft river mud, leaving footprints at just the right moment when the ground was firm enough to hold them. By sheer luck, nature quickly covered them with a fresh layer of sediment, shielding the prints from rain, wind, and any other wandering feet. Over millions of years the mud hardened to stone, only to be revealed by the river, just in time for a man named Michael to stumble upon them while walking his dog. Practically speaking, the chances of that happening are astronomically low. 

Of course, when I arrived in Kyeburn, the only thing I found was a hard frost.