I have just finished tumble-polishing some stones I collected from Gemstone Beach (Orepuki, Southland) in 2020 (and maybe even before that). This lot came out of a 6lb barrel. Such a barrel can take larger stones than can the 3lb and 4lb barrels, though a range of stone sizes go into each barrel to ensure lots of surface area to optimise the polishing process.
The first stone is about 4 cms long. Its complexity and the unusual light clay-like colour in it attracted my attention. It polished well with only a couple of tiny shallow holes to interrupt a smooth surface:
The next stone stood out on the beach because of it’s bright white half contrasting with the darker part. It polished smoothly except for a small elongated scar along its bottom:
Continuing the white theme, two other white stones:
Two stones in which red is predominant:
Two stones with splashes of other colours in them, the first a 5.5 cm long green and white one with small orange patches, the second a smaller 3.5 cm long grey-white stone with small brown spots:
Four green stones or which have significant green patches, all with significantly different characters:
The final two stones have a quirky character, the first having swirling lines at its base, the second having an embedded fault-line.
These 14 stones illustrate the great diversity in colour and pattern to be found in the stones of Gemstone Beach.