FB Group Posts: 5, 6 & 7 June 2021 – Birdlings Flat Stone, Timaru and Moeraki Village Fossicking

This is the eleventh Post in this Series of my daily Posts in the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The first Post in this Series is here.

Saturday 5 June 2021: Tumble-polished stone found on Birdlings Flat sometime over the last couple of years.

Other side of stone.

Sunday 6 June 2021: Three finds from my time on a beach just south of Timaru this morning. I am on my way south again to restock my beach stones for tumble polishing. My very first visit to this beach was yesterday, I just had to go back today, as there are some beautiful quartzites there. I also saw three seals. Right at the end, I came across a tiny fish (about 4 cms long) gasping for breath a couple of metres up the beach from the waveline – I carefully returned it to the sea.

I found a few green quartzites.

I’m hoping I can tumble this one in my 12lb barrel.

The beach just south of Timaru. I suspect recent stormy days have piled up more stones than usual – or at least given them a big stir.

The tiny fish I returned to the sea.

Monday 7 June 2021: Five small stones from my visit this morning to a beach near Moeraki Village, North Otago. Close inspection of each revealed fascinating details. Most are chalcedony (agate). The first three stones:

Stone 1 – small agate with “fortifications”.

Stone 1 held up to the light.

Stone 2 – orbicular chalcedony?

Stone 3 – another small agate.

It was difficult to see the details of these small stones before working with the photos. On the beach, I could often just see a hint of something interesting going on. Here is a photo of the beach, followed by photos of the other two stones:

The small beach near Moeraki Village.

Stone 4 – likely also to be chalcedony of some kind, maybe dendritic.

Stone 5 – conglomerate of some kind?

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. View all posts by tumblestoneblog