Wairau Bar, Marlborough
The Wairau Bar is named after a bar or gravel bank that has formed where the Wairau River meets the sea. Early Polynesians who utilized the site as a moa hunting camp left behind butchered bones of various huge birds, as well as human skeletons, according to archaeologists. Because the moa went extinct relatively quickly, maybe within 100–200 years of human settlement, its hunters must have been among the first Polynesian settlers.
It is New Zealand's oldest and one of the most important archaeological sites established by explorers from Eastern Polynesia to New Zealand around 1280. Furthermore, the cultural objects (artifacts) recovered at Wairau Bar are of a separate original form, resembling artifacts from the Cook Islands, the Society, and the Marquesas of East Polynesia.
The Wairau Bar is a 19-hectare (47-acre) cobblestone bar in Cloudy Bay, Marlborough, New Zealand, formed when the Wairau River meets the sea. It is 1.1 km (0.68 mi) long and 0.4 km (0.25 mi) broad, and contains low bushes that are 2 to 3 meters tall (7 to 10 ft). Wairau Bar is the eighth most beautiful historical site in New Zealand, according to the list of the most attractive historical sites in the country.
Location: Wairau Bar Road, Spring Creek 7273, New Zealand
