A ghost city with old buildings that nobody uses anymore and lots of shipwrecks in the old harbour, amazing. This little bay is a ship graveyard. Retired veterans of Bluff’s oyster and fishing fleet were driven onto the mud banks at high tide and left to rot. Once proud vessels that weathered Southern Ocean storms could fill an adventure book with their stories. The wrecks are deteriorating rapidly but a few are still clearly visible, especially at low tide.
Must see when in town: The Bluff Hill – the worn down stump of an igneous intrusion which forced its way towards the surface more than 235 million years ago. The Longwood Range and northern Stewart Island were created in the same way during a period of intense volcanic activity, when much of NZ lay beneath the sea on the edge of an ancient supercontinent known as Gondwana. This magma is called the Bluff granite, it’s ver hard and durable. The construction of Bluff’s island harbour in the 1950’s was the largest single project to use this stone.
And … Stirling Point, the beginning of the SH1 highway with its iconic signpost pointing to major cities arond the world.
