Stonehenge Aotearoa

When I think of the name Stonehenge, I think of the circle of huge stones that has stood in the English countryside for thousands of years. Earlier this year, driving between Wellington and Napier I spotted a sign for Stonehenge Aotearoa (Aotearoa being the Maori name for New Zealand). Seeing this sign by chance I couldn’t ignore it. Obviously I wasn’t expecting something thousands of years old. Initially it was visually a little disappointing. Photographed above is the entrance to this modern, concreate stone circle. However, after looking around and reading more about it I was very impressed. It was built by The Phoenix Astronomy Society as a modern henge designed to demonstrate how ancient people used such constructions to understand astronomy.