Cape Kidnappers, NZ

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Cape Kidnappers, NZ
author: 
Tony Oyo

Cape Kidnappers is a headland on the tip of Hawkes Bay in New Zealand. It’s an incredible place, accessible only at low tide for just a few hours. The walk along a narrow stretch of sand takes you past huge striated cliffs formed from sandstone, silt and volcanic ash that visually express the region’s lively tectonic past. Towering above you at around 150m, these cliffs display impressively visible fault lines, telling the story of many previous earthquakes with uplifts of up to 11m.

 
But the beauty of this place is that, after a couple of hours walking, a short energetic up-hill trek takes you to one of the world’s largest mainland gannet colonies and an extraordinary opportunity to get up really close and personal to these fascinating birds.

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