This is the first in a Series of Posts about a car trip of nearly four weeks to the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand to collect beach stones for tumble polishing. During the trip, I regularly made daily reports to my personal Facebook page and also the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. These reports form the basis of this Series, although small additions of photos and information have also been made. [I made a similar trip in May/June 2020.]
On Tuesday 16 February, I was scheduled to take my car across Cook Strait by ferry, usually a 3 1/2 hour sail. However, high winds and seas initially delayed the departure of the “Straitsman” ferry from Wellington by 3 1/2 hours, and then the crossing itself took 9 hours, partly due to rough seas (the first hour was especially up and down). The other problem was damage to the dock in Picton that took a few hours to repair, meaning that two previous ferries had to unload and reload before we could. (See here for a newspaper report on a 12 hour ferry journey earlier on that day.) As a result I did not reach my motel in Ward until 3 am on Wednesday (originally scheduled to get there at 6 pm on Tuesday). Not an auspicious start to the trip!
!["Straitsman" ferry in rough seas. Source: http://wps.wps.org.nz/portfolio/projected-image-2018/#lightbox[group-21501]/21/](https://i0.wp.com/tumblestoneblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/001a-ride-_em-cowboy_ross_collins.jpg?w=416&h=416&crop=1&ssl=1 "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA")
Day One, Wednesday 17 February, driving from Ward to Amberley, with stops at Okiwi Bay and Amberley Beach – The weather was sunny and warm as I drove along the Kaikoura Coast. I stopped off at one of the many small bays (Okiwi Bay) to check out the stones there and at another (Ohau Bay) to view some of the hundreds of seals that make the coast home. I did not collect any stones at Okiwi Bay as most of them are too large, too battered or are too soft to polish. But many are a gorgeous pastel colour – cream, grey and yellow.
I spent 30 minutes walking the beach and taking photos.
Some of the stones included trace fossils, known as “zoophycos” (see the third and fourth stones below). See here for a good introduction to zoophycos by the Kentucky Geological Survey and here for a 1970 article on zoophycos in the “New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics”.
The road reconstruction after the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, magnitude 7.8, has included a number of parking areas allowing people to view the many fur seals that have returned to the area. I stopped at Ohau Point, just a few kilometres south of Okiwi Bay, and took these photos.
Next stop was Amberley, a drive of just over two hours. I was interested to visit Amberley Beach as it is just along the coast from Leithfield Beach where I had found some nice petrified wood and jasper during a previous trip. While stones were well scattered across the beach there, and I didn’t see any petrified wood, I managed to find more than 20 worth picking up to put in my car.
Day Two, Thursday 18 February – Visited Leithfield Beach this morning – warm sunny weather – and strolled up and down it in the company of my sister Helen and her husband Ray. Found a number of interesting jaspers (no petrified wood this time). I then drove down to Kakanui where I stay for two nights, a four hours drive. Took photos of a few of my Leithfield Beach finds late this afternoon in less than ideal light conditions.
Day Three, Friday 19 February – Visited a Kakanui Beach this morning and again this afternoon, the beach that is my favourite in the area. I have decided to call it Seadown Beach after the nearby Seadown Road. Lots of stones on the beach, perfect weather.
This morning, I found lots of interesting jaspers and quartzites along the first 300 metres of the beach, some of which are shown here:
Eight of the remaining finds from this morning:
This afternoon, it was low tide at the beach. Not so many stones wet by the breaking waves so less finds. However, they were still of high quality, as shown by this sample:
Day Four, Saturday 20 February – Visited Kakanui Seadown Beach again this morning, before hitting the road again, arriving in Riverton Aparima late this afternoon. Foggy in Kakanui this morning:
The fog actually helped to keep some of the stones wet, assisting me to find a few more very nice candidates for polishing. However, lack of direct sunlight maybe made the photos a little dark.
The next Post in this Series, on Days 5 and 6 on Gemstone Beach, is here.
That brecciated Jasper – wow! I love those Quaspers (a mixture of quartz + jasper), they are amazing! There was a stunning vivid red and stark black Jasper from Kakanui in a previous blog which just blew my mind. Is that an Agate? With the yellow and black stripes? It looks like it’s got that telltale scaley look on it’s skin. I’ve always just driven past Kakanui going south, but not anymore! My son and I very keen rockhounds from Christchurch and we love your blog. Please keep posting pictures of your amazing rock finds.
Thanks for your comment, Graeme. Yes, some gorgeous stones there. The beach is right where Thousand Acre Road meets Seadown Road, about 2 kms north of Kakanui village. Most of the other beaches in the area are nowhere near as good, though the odd good stone can be found anywhere along the coast here. I am not always sure whether stones are agates in this area, as most look like quartz to me – I am much more comfortable identifying Birdlings Flat agates.
Picture 009a. Does it have (I could be wrong) a small druzy pocket that I’m seeing? Perhaps slight agatization (those slight bluish colour lines) as well?
This is an amazing stone. I can see the elements you mention, and I think you’re right. It will be very interesting to polish this stone.