Amateur fossil hunter finds more than 100 moa bones on Whanganui beach

Zane Hair holding a moa femur (thigh bone) he found on Kai Iwi Beach. Photo / Bevan Conley

At 8, Zane Hair unearthed his first significant bone find - a human skull.

The skull was from the Tangiwai railway disaster and he uncovered it in Whangaehu near Whanganui before handing it to the museum for preservation.

Since then, he’s become obsessed.

He combs beaches and rivers around Whanganui for fossil treasure hidden within the papa rock - hard blue clay - that makes up the Kai Iwi cliffs.

The collection Hair has gathered over the past 10 years includes more than 100 moa bones, whale bones and the skull of a 1-million-year-old dolphin.

Te Papa national museum in Wellington holds a selection of Hair’s fossils in its collection.

Over time, Hair, who is also a whalebone carver, has developed an eye for spotting fossils in what most people would see as useless rocks.

“Plus I was a freezing worker for 14 years - I know what sheep and cow bones look like.”

His latest find is a yellow-eyed or crested penguin skeleton that he saw poking through sand submerged in the water at low tide.

The fossilised penguin skeleton Hair discovered buried in the sand at Kai Iwi beach.

Due to the crumbling cliffs and tidal nature of Whanganui beaches, fossils can suddenly emerge then be re-buried by sand and lost again.

At times, Hair has been running against the clock to extract bones from a find: “It’s cut-throat out there.”

He has found individual penguin bones before but to uncover a whole skeleton was staggering.

“I was elated; I couldn’t wait to get it out.”

Te Papa curator of vertebrates Alan Tennyson said the coastal area around Kai Iwi and up to Hāwera was one of the richest areas in the country for finding moa remains.

He said the fossils Hair had discovered were very valuable to academics.

“Fossils of this age are about 1 million years old and that’s an unusual time period, not only for New Zealand fossils but for fossils worldwide.”

Collectors in South Taranaki were uncovering 3-million-year-old fossils, and the 2 million year time difference between their fossils and Hair’s allowed scientists to look for evolutionary changes.

Academics relied on amateur hunters to discover fossils because of the time it took to regularly hunt for them, he said.

“Finding bones is quite something, and these guys like Zane have been making some pretty amazing finds.”

Kai Iwi Beach Holiday Park owner Bruce Taylor said they had built a strong community of fossil hunters in Whanganui.

“You spend a lot more time looking than you do finding, especially when it comes to the big ticket items like moa bones.”

Taylor found a fossilised seal skull on Kai Iwi Beach that was now housed in Te Papa.

He said he wanted to do more educational school camps to inspire the next generation of fossil hunters.

Hair said it was important for amateur fossil collectors to be aware of the dangers of the cliffs around Kai Iwi Beach.

“I’ve been walking down there and cliffs have fallen, it sounds like claps of thunder. You can’t outrun it, you’re dead.”

Tennyson said ownership of fossils came down to land ownership, so on private farmland and Department of Conservation land they were not publicly available.

On coastal beaches, there was no clear ownership.

“Iwi interests cover the entire country so it’s always good to be in consultation.”

Taylor and Hair are part of the Whanganui Rock and Mineral Club, a group for amateur fossil hunters that can be contacted through its Facebook page.

Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.