“K” is for “Kai Iwi Beach Stone” and “L” is for “Leithfield Beach Petrified Wood”

F is for Fossil Worm Cast

G is for Green Hydrogrossular

H is for Hematite Jasper

I is for Ichnogenus Protovirgularia

J is for (Picture) Jasper

The following are my Posts for “K” and “L” in the alphabetical series of a Facebook Group I belong to, “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The first Posts in this Series can be found here.

“K” is for “Kai Iwi Beach Stone” – This beach, about two kilometres from my home, is probably named after the Kai Iwi Stream that emerges here at the coast, a few kilometres north of Whanganui. Kai Iwi Beach is at the small town of Mowhanau, site of the Kai Iwi Beach Holiday Park run by Bruce Taylor (another Group member) and his wife. There are usually not a lot of stones on this beach but I have occasionally been collecting mainly iron-stained quartz to tumble-polish, discovering some nice-looking pebbles, like this one.

K is for Kai Iwi Beach Stone

https://www.google.co.nz/…/@-39.8853384…/data=!3m1!1e3

Kai Iwi Beach, looking north/north-west from near the stream mouth.

Kai Iwi Stream mouth, with pedestrian bridge. Often quite a few stones can be found downstream of the bridge.

Looking back at the pedestrian bridge.

Along the cliffs to the south.

Typical scattering of stones on the beach.

The cliffs to the south.

For more on the Kai Iwi Beach stones I have tumble-polished and more about the beach, see the previous TumbleStone Post here.

“L” is for “Leithfield Beach petrified wood”. I wrote in a post on this Facebook Group on 26 August 2020: “Yesterday I visited Leithfield Beach, just north of Christchurch, for the first time, mainly because at least one person had posted in this Group recently that he had found petrified wood there. I have found very few specimens of petrified wood in my fossicking career and have never been sure of its identification. So I walked Leithfield Beach for a couple of hours while rain showers came across. I was delighted to find five pieces of petrified wood that were obviously petrified wood because they actually looked like wood!”

L is for Leithfield Beach petrified wood

Photo of the piece on the beach when found, taken with my phone.

As Jocelyn Thornton wrote in “Gemstones”, wood can be turned to stone when it is buried in waterlogged sediments carrying dissolved minerals which soak into the wood and replace the organic material. The wood’s cell walls usually act as a “template” for the mineralisation, retaining the wood-like look.

Leithfield Beach, google maps. I park at the north end of the town when making a fossicking visit.

Looking south from the car park I use.

This old storm-water pipe was recently being dismantled. I like to walk down to that area.

Looking north from the car park.

The stones of Leithfield Beach.

Jocelyn Thornton’s introductory piece on petrified wood. The numbers refer to photos – see next pic.

The photo of specimens for Jocelyn Thornton’s introductory piece on petrified wood.

I have yet to repeat my fossicking success of that day in relation to petrified wood.

See here for the next Post in this Series, and here for the Series Index.

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