Milestone #1
Kakanui beach stones.
Milestone #2
Milestone #9
When I was working at the University of Waikato, supervising student research, I sometimes provided polished stones as “milestones” to recognise progress and provide encouragement – see “Hard Won and Well Deserved! The Final Thesis Milestone” and “Nine Milestones at Journey’s End”. I supervised Lynley Uerata’s Master’s thesis before I retired from the University of Waikato. It was entitled “Unpredictable, Incurable, Unemployable? A Collection of Constructed Narratives Exploring the Experiences of People with Chronic Conditions in Relation to Finding and Keeping Work” and was completed in 2011 – see here.
Lynley’s Masters Thesis, first part of Abstract.
The thesis summary notes: “People with chronic health conditions contend with a complex reality. These complexities stem from the fact that their health conditions are permanent, incurable and their symptoms unpredictable. And, because there is a lack of policies and political mechanisms that acknowledge the complex realities they face, they contend with these by themselves and with the people who are willing to assist them. In some circumstances, they are eminently employable.”
After finishing her Master’s thesis, which gained an excellent grade, Lynley went on to undertake research for her doctoral thesis. This is an even more ambitious and demanding piece of work, and Lynley has faced a number of challenges while working on it. I have provided her with informal advice and support over the years. She is studying the experiences of a small group of Māori families coping with lives shaped by poverty, stress, insecurity and uncertainty. Over the last few months, I have been involved in reading and commenting on drafts of many of the thesis chapters. Lynley is now only a few weeks away from submitting the final thesis. I had sent her some milestones in December last year and, to recognise how close she is to the end of the writing, I sent her 20 polished beach stones from Kakanui.
Kakanui is a small town 14 kilometres south of Oamaru in North Otago (see photos below). The Kakanui River and its estuary divide the township in two. There are a number of holiday homes there, especially south of the river, so the population increases particularly in summer. Lynley’s chief supervisor has a holiday home in South Kakanui. The Kakanui area contains a number of limestone formations which include many fossils. Its beaches sometimes have a scattering of interesting stones, like agates and jaspers, amongst the multitude of dull grey stone sthat otherwise dominate. But there’s a stretch of beach, which I call Seadown Beach, starting a couple of kilometres north of the town. Many smooth colourful stones are located there, and it is there that I found the stones that I tumble polished and sent to Lynley.
Looking inland from Kakanui.
The 20 Kakanui stones I sent to Lynley were chosen on the basis of their beauty and interest as well as what I thought Lynley would appreciate, given her past choices of stones. For example, she had earlier chosen the following stone when I had “dispersed” the Stones of the Lockdown in 2020:
Stone of the Lockdown #4, before tumbling.
Stone of the Lockdown #4, after tumble polishing.
The 33 Stones of the Lockdown.
Close-up of Stone of the Lockdown #4.
The 20 Kakanui milestones are of various sizes, colours and types, all found sometime over the past year on the surface of this beach:
The 20 milestones for Lynley.
The 20 milestones for Lynley.
The beach two kilometres north of Kakanui, looking south.
Kakanui beach stones.
Kakanui beach stones in a small bay in some rocks at the south end of the beach.
Stones 1 and 2:
Stone 1.
Stone 2.
Stone 1 is one of a number of quartzites amongst the 20 milestones (see also Stones 4, 8, 10, 14 and 20). It is a small stone, the size of a NZ$2 coin but it has a range of red hues through it as well as a couple of distinct clear quartz crystals. Quartzite is a metamorphic rock formed when quartz-rich sandstone has been subjected to high temperatures and pressures. It nearly always smooths easily when tumbled and takes a very good polish. Stone 1 is a type of quartzite that can be found along the north Otago and south to mid-Canterbury coast, ranging in colour from a light brownish-gray through hues of yellow to red (see the entry for Wednesday 26 May 2021 in this Post). Clouds of colour can often be seen in depth in these stones, with small to tiny inclusions of clear quartz. The reds are perhaps the most striking with some of the yellows also being very interesting (Stones 4 and 8).
Stone 2 (photos above – type unknown) is a similar size to Stone 1 but its colours and patterns are very different. Strong white patches are framed by darker colours, with tiny black and grey veins across it, offset at one point by a small fault-line.
Stones 3 and 4:
Stone 3.
Stone 4.
Stone 3 is a gorgeous dark red brecciated japser. It is five times the size and weight of Stone 1, partly because it is much thicker. Jasper is a form of cryptocrystalline quartz (silicon dioxide) (other forms include chalcedony, agate, and carnelian). “Cryptocrystalline” means that the crystals in the stone are too tiny to see even using a hand magnifying lens, a result of the metamorphic forces of heat and pressure. Jasper is distinguished from other form of cryptocrystalline quartz by the incorporation of minerals that give it opacity (blocking the light). A brecciated jasper has been torn by pressure into small angular pieces, with quartz (or other minerals) filling in the often tiny gaps between. A diversity of different types of jasper can be found at Kakanui (see Stones 7 and 13; also see the entry for Saturday 22 May 2021 in this Post and Friday 25 June 2021 in this Post).
Stone 4 (photos above) is another small quartzite, like Stone 1, but of quite a different colour. It’s as if the neutral grey is the base material of the stone, with the creamy yellow clouds moving through it.
Stones 5 and 6:
Stone 5.
Stone 6.
With Stone 5, the dark red jasper-type colour of Stone 3 has been reduced to very fine veins running through a light coloured base material that looks like quartz. Stone 6 is much larger – it contains many tiny fossils, especially shells. This type of stone, probably ancient fossil sea floor, is one that I keep a look out for at Kakanui (I found a number of them when visiting the beach in June this year – see the entry for Friday 25 June in this Post). This is an unusual type from a tumble polishing point of view – it needs to be tumbled only in a fine grit to become smooth and shiny, not requiring tumbling in polish powder.
Stones 7 and 8 are distinct contrasts in size, with Stone 7 being one of the seven smallest stones of the 20 and Stone 8 being the largest:
Stone 7.
Stone 8.
Stone 7 is a jasper, as is Stone 3, but a different kind. It is not brecciated, and has a variety of red and yellow hues in it. There is a vein running through it with which the colour variation is associated. Stone 8 is a quartzite, 6 cms long and 4.5 cms wide, a thin flat stone (a “skimmer”). It shares characteristics with the previous two quartzites – like Stone 4, it has yellow clouds within a neutral grey base, though the yellow is brighter and more intense, and it has flecks of the red that dominates Stone 1.
Part Two of this Post looks at the rest of the milestones, Stones 9 to 20.
