The Kaikoura Orogeny is a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 orogeny

Orogeny

Orogeny refers to forces and events leading to a severe structural deformation of the Earth's crust due to the engagement of tectonic plates. Response to such engagement results in the formation of long tracts of highly deformed rock called orogens or orogenic belts...

 that has given birth to the Southern Alps

Southern Alps

The Southern Alps is a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the island's western side...

. It began 25 million years ago along the Alpine Fault

Alpine Fault

The Alpine Fault is a geological fault, more specifically known as a right-lateral strike-slip fault, that runs almost the entire length of New Zealand's South Island. It forms a transform boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. Earthquakes along the fault, and the...

.

In this orogeny the Southern alps are being formed because the Pacific Plate

Pacific Plate

The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million square kilometres, it is the largest tectonic plate....

 is being pushed up over the Australian Plate. As the Pacific Plate rises over the Australian Plate it gains altitude, having the effect of giving birth to the Southern Alps.

Uplift

From 25 to 15 million years ago most of New Zealand was still covered by ocean. Almost all the land that broke the surface of the sea was Torlesse Greywacke

Torlesse Greywacke

Torlesse Greywacke is a type of sedimentary rock. It is a hard and rather drab grey sandstone that is found in New Zealand. Torlesse Greywacke is found east of the Alpine Fault in the Southern Alps of New Zealand...

. Then the plates started to collide, the crust of New Zealand came under pressure and the Alpine Fault was formed.

Then from 15 million to 5 million years ago the Pacific Plate was rammed up over the Australian Plate along the newly created Alpine Fault. The pressure applied from 25 to 15 million years ago had simply been too much and the crust thickened. This gave birth to the first of the Southern Alps. Also during this period of time, chlorite-grade schist

Schist

The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...

 was brought to the surface.

From 5 million years ago to the present day the rate of uplift has accelerated. Oligoclase

Oligoclase

Oligoclase is a rock-forming mineral belonging to the plagioclase feldspars. In chemical composition and in its crystallographic and physical characters it is intermediate between albite and anorthite . The albite:anorthite molar ratio ranges from 90:10 to 70:30.Oligoclase is a high sodium...

 and biotite

Biotite

Biotite is a common phyllosilicate mineral within the mica group, with the approximate chemical formula . More generally, it refers to the dark mica series, primarily a solid-solution series between the iron-endmember annite, and the magnesium-endmember phlogopite; more aluminous endmembers...

schist have also been pushed to the surface of the Earth.

In total about 20 kilometres of uplift has taken place during the Kaikoura Orogeny but most of this has been eroded away.