I've been up close and personal with quite a few limestone rocks of late at Struan Farm, de- and re-constructing a number of our rock gardens. And I've noticed lots of fossils, mostly shells, embedded in the rocks. Many are quite large. While we tend to take them for granted, they are interesting and pretty special:
During the 1960's SH3 was re-routed through part of the farm, with a resulting land swap. (This is how the "Old Road" became part of Struan Farm.) Most of these rocks came from that construction project. John remembers that his father sent samples off to Canterbury University, who advised they were at least 70 million years old. While this could be family legend, the volume of fossils in our midst do seem to indicate that this land was under the sea a long, long time ago!
As I'm reconstructing rock gardens I'm trying to keep the fossils on display, so curious visitors can enjoy them too.
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