Periglacial tarn on the Rock and Pillar Range crest, south‐central South Island, New Zealand, and its surrounding snowbank community

A small 18 × 1–5 m, distinctive, teardrop-shaped alpine tarn about 55-cm deep with a variable schist plate rock-silty bed, a wetland rim and surrounding snowbank community is described from a shallow depression in the headwaters of a small primary stream at 1400 m on the crest of the Rock and Pillar Range (1450 m), south-central South Island, New Zealand. Its initiation some 2500–3000 years ago (based on radiocarbon dating of peaty material near the base of the dam front) may have been serendipitous, but the prevailing periglacial environment of the area, involving seasonal freezing of the pond surface, has probably been conducive to its maintenance and slow extension. Despite some floristic similarities, it differs from any known alpine tarns, and a request via a YouTube video has not revealed any similar features.