FB Group Posts: 18, 19 & 20 June 2021 – Slope Point Again, Mokomoko Inlet, and Foggy Fossicking on Gemstone Beach

This is the fifth Post on my June 2021 stone collecting trip to the South Island, and is also the 15th Post in the Series of my daily Posts in the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The first Post on my June trip is the Sunday 6 June entry in this Post, and the first in the Facebook Group Series is here.

Friday 18 June 2021: My second visit this trip to a beach near Slope Point (a 230 kilometres round trip from where I am based). Despite the cold day, Oliver Simpson agreed to accompany me. We went to a shaded beach again:

The stones on a shaded Slope Point beach.

The stones on a shaded Slope Point beach.

So I took the photos of today’s 10 selected stones afterwards, in the sun. Found a few interesting rhyolites and other stones. The first four:

Colourful rhyolite.

Chrysanthemum rhyolite.

Not really seen this kind of red before.

The third stone (above) looks like a “chrysanthemum rhyolite”.

The last six of today’s stones:

I have now driven 2200 kms since leaving home (Whanganui) 15 days ago.

Saturday 19 June 2021: Today I did some reading and research about trace fossils, following up a link with “mokomoko”, went to try to see some on the other side of Invercargill, was unsuccessful, and did 30 minutes of fossicking at Riverton/Aparima. The photos start with five beach stones:

The Beach Past the Back Beach at Riverton/Aparima.

Banded argillite.

Trace fossils.

Now to move to some research literature. Geoff Chapple states in his book “Terrain: Travels Through a Deep Landscape” that Maori called the trace fossils of the south coast “mokomoko” (see the Post for Thursday 6 May) and I’ve been looking for more information on this. I bought a book online recently from Dead Souls Bookshop, Dunedin, on fossils in New Zealand (mainly to see if it had anything about fossil coral – it has some). At the end of the book is a map which includes a reference to Mokomoko Inlet and trace fossils. This may be a key link. But were the traces named after the Inlet or the Inlet after the traces? (I suspect the latter.) I decided to go and visit Mokomoko Inlet to see if I could find the trace fossils. Doing a quick internet search, I found an old geology journal article with more information: David Mossman & Lucy Force, “Permian fossils from the Greenhills group, Bluff, Southland, New Zealand” in the “New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics” (1969). I drove to find the Inlet, but the side road to it was barred with a farmer’s fence so I turned around, nervous about intruding without discussing it first with the farmer.

The book bought from Dead Souls Bookshop. Published in 1990.

At the back of Hayward’s book.

The fossil localities in the 1969 article are located at the eastern end of the entrance to Mokomoko Inlet, where it connects to New River Estuary (Oreti River).

Trace fossils of Mokomoko Inlet. Page 669 in article.

More trace fossils of Mokomoko Inlet. Page 671 in article.

And the article refers to fossil coral – but that requires more research, maybe another tale for another day.

I will continue to do research and thinking about the trace fossils.

Sunday 20 June 2021: Foggy morning at Gemstone Beach today, but good fossicking.

Noon on a foggy winter Sunday at Gemstone Beach.

At the wave’s edge.

On the edge of Taunoa Stream.

Gemstone Beach stones.

Ten of the stones I found today, destined for tumble polishing:

Quite a small stone, but some bright reds.

Another small stone.

The only pink one found today.

The next Post in this Series is here.

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