Exploring Hoodoos in New Zealand

If you know me, you may know that I absolutely love Hoodoos. It’s not just that it is an incredibly fun word to say (hooodooo), but they are one of my favorite landscapes. I fell in love with Hoodoos rather recently, after a trip to Bryce Canyon in October 2022. We actually ended up visiting Bryce two times during that trip. We were on our way to Zion for a wedding for one of Eric’s friends, and stopped through on our way there. The bright orange, typical in Utah’s National Parks, was striking against the blue of the sky. However, after the wedding, it actually snowed, making us take an impromptu trip right back to see that brilliant orange contrasted against the white of snow.

When we randomly stumbled upon a sign on the side of the road for Clay Cliffs Scenic Area here in New Zealand, we were both intrigued enough to take the small detour to check it out. Much to our surprise, and delight, this scenic area was chalk full of hoodoos. Unlike the brilliant orange hoodoos of Bryce, the hoodoos here are much lighter in color. They are made up of many layers of gravel and silt, and were originally formed by the flow from ancient glaciers over a million years ago.

There was a long winding gravel road up to the hoodoos. They were on private land, and there was a $5 vehicle fee donation box at the main gate. We were surprised at how many people were there when we finally made it down the road to the car park. It was a beautiful day, and the sun was shining, so it makes sense that so many people wanted to take a little day trip to see the cliffs.

The trails were not marked very well, which made it difficult to determine where exactly we should go. It felt very laisses-faire, with there being no signs telling you to stay out of the hoodoos. We wanted to take advantage of being able to get up close and personal to these incredible rockscapes, so we took the opportunity to thoroughly explore this little area.

We finally managed to find the main trail, which led us to a large opening looking up at a bunch of different formations. We did a small rock scramble to get up into the hoodoos, and were rewarded with some absolutely stunning views of the surrounding areas. We both decided that it was a really cool experience, but there should probably be more protective measures in place if they want to keep the hoodoos as they are for the years to come.