The following are Facebook Posts on my trip made for family and friends, as well as for the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The first five days of my trip can be found here.
Day Sixteen, Ninth Visit to Gemstone Beach – Since I don’t leave Riverton until tomorrow, I decided to make one more visit to Gemstone Beach this morning, 30 kilometres away. The day was so nice and I had such a productive fossick yesterday that I couldn’t resist the temptation. Ended up spending nearly four hours in the sunshine.
Gemstone Beach on a sunny winter morning.
Same view as previous photo but standing on top of the bank of stones.
Nice quartz. Graduated colour and interesting shape.
While there was little wind on the beach, further out, the wind whipped the breakers.
I’m always interested in stones that look vaguely like fossil worm casts but are not. This brecciated stone was too big to take home so I took a photo of it.
Detail of large brecciated stone.
A dry stone. When wet….
…the colours become apparent.
Not as many great finds today compared to yesterday but I picked up some nice stones for tumble polishing.
Small light green quartzite.
Close-up of small light green quartzite.
Close-up of black and white stone.
I am always interested in black and white stones.
A few holes and scratches but interesting composition, as shown in next photo.
Probably an argillite.
I call this a “one-sider”, because….
…the other side is bashed about. I usually return such stones to the beach as they will not tumble polish smoothly. But I like the colours in this one too much and so will polish it for the quality of “one side”.
Met a couple of people on the beach, one from Montana and another from Riverton (who said she had learned tumble polishing from my Blog!), and had interesting chats about stones.
White hydrogrossular garnet.
Close-up of white hydrogrossular garnet.
Climbing up the bank of stones, I spotted this….
…a green hydrogrossular garnet.
The green hydrogrossular garnet is partly translucent. I gave it to the fellow tumble polisher I met on the beach near the Taunoa Stream on my way back to the carpark.
A minute later, I found this nice white hydrogrossular garnet.
A stone with a fault-line in it.
Day Seventeen, Henderson Bay, Riverton – Had a quick visit to the bay in Riverton where I had summer holidays when growing up. It’s the last little bay before the Back Beach.
Bluff Hill in the far distance, across the water. The Back Beach, on Foveaux Strait, is around the corner to the right.
The steps down to Henderson Bay. Stones are scattered along the sandy beach, with a few drifts here and there.
Looking towards Riverton town from Henderson Bay on a gloomy winter’s morning
There are lots of interesting rock masses along the beach, including argillite and pillow lava.
This partially-hidden rock pool was my favourite place on the beach when I was small.
The rock pool.
Our former crib (holiday house) is at the top of the hill behind Henderson Bay, now owned by a different family.
Cold wind this morning so I needed all my warm weather gear. The stones at Henderson Bay are similar to those at the Back Beach and, to a lesser degree, Gemstone Beach. Generally speaking, there are fewer of them and of less quality here.
Small quartzite found this morning.
Detail of small quartzite.
Another small quartzite.
Close-up of quartzite.
This stone has a softish feel, waxy but dry. I have found a couple more like this in the area in the past. I suspect it may be a kind of petrified wood.
I can always find a handful of fossil worm cast stones at Henderson Bay.
Small fossil worm cast stone.
Iron stained quartz.
Day Eighteen, Gore to Oamaru – I drove from Gore to Oamaru and stopped off at Hampden and the beaches between the Waianakarua River mouth and Kakanui. I decided that the stones on the beach just north of Kakanui were so great that I’ll be going back there again on Sunday and Monday. Cold but sunny weather, the lack of wind and rain is appreciated.
Stream across the beach at Hampden, North Otago.
There was a lot of white quartz with interesting shapes at Hampden.
The beach just north of the Waianakarua River mouth.
Small beach agate found just north of the Waianakarua River mouth.
A green-stained quartz found just north of the Waianakarua River mouth.
This stone, found just north of the Waianakarua River mouth, could be petrified wood.
Found on the beach just north of Kakanui – small smooth grey quartzite pebble.
Kakanui yellow quartzite.
Detail of yellow quartzite.
See here for the next Post in this Series.
Author: tumblestoneblog
Retired Academic, male, living in the New Zealand countryside near Whanganui with his wife as well as Jasper the dog, Fluffy the cat, Dancer and Penny, the horses, and a shed half-full of stones. Email john.tumblestone@gmail.com.
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Thanks for sharing all the posts and pics on your trip John. Frustrating to not be able to come over from Australia this year but next best thing is seeing how you’ve gone particularly with some of the new places you visted this time. Fascinating finds!
Thanks, Brett. Hope it won’t be too long before you can get back over here.