Month: December 2021

TumbleStone Calendar 2022 – The Stones

2022 Calendar Cover
March’s photos and dates
Kakanui Moss Jasper – January
Riverton Breccia – March
Gemstone Beach Unknown – October

Ten of the months of my 2022 Calendar each feature three stones alongside a scene of the beach on which they were collected. The other two months, June and December, feature close-ups of stones from the previous five months. For January to May and July to November, the Calendar provides the name of the beach but does not provide any information on the stones. Identifying beach stones is not always easy – my knowledge is limited – and some of the most interesting stones can be a puzzle to me. Here are my best identification efforts:

JANUARY, Kakanui – Top = Moss Jasper; Middle = Unknown, partly brecciated; Bottom = Brecciated Jasper.

FEBRUARY, Slope Point – All three stones are Rhyolites, with different colouring and flow patterns.

MARCH, Riverton – Top = Unknown – black with white inclusions which could be fragments or crystalline; Middle = Unknown, seems to have some quartz elements; Bottom = Breccia in light grey matrix.

APRIL, Gemstone Beach – Top = Amygdaloidal volcanic stone; Middle = Green Quartzite; Bottom = Jasper.

MAY, Ward Beach – Top = Unknown; Middle = Could be Quartzite; Bottom = Zoophycos (Limestone? with trace fossils).

Leithfield Beach Jasper – August
Kai Iwi Beach Iron-Stained Quartz – September
Timaru Quartzite – July
Timaru Unknown – July
Leithfield Beach Jasper – August

JULY, Timaru – Top = Quartzite; Middle = Unknown, may containing epidote; Bottom = Quartzite.

AUGUST = Leithfield Beach – Top = Unknown; Middle = Jasper; Bottom = Jasper.

SEPTEMBER, Kai Iwi Beach – Top = Iron-stained Quartz; Middle = Quartzite?; Bottom = Iron-stained Quartz.

OCTOBER, Gemstone Beach – Top = Unknown; Middle = Unknown; Bottom = Unknown breccia?

NOVEMBER, Slope Point – Top = Orbicular Rhyolite; Middle = Conglomerate?; Bottom = Rhyolite.

For some information about the beaches featured each month in the Calendar, see here.

TumbleStone Calendar 2022 – The Beaches, Part Two

2022 Calendar Cover
November’s photos and dates
Leithfield Beach, August
Kai Iwi Beach, September
Gemstone Beach, October

The 2022 TumbleStone Calendar is titled “Fossicking Beaches”, featuring mainly South Island beaches on which I have spent time fossicking for stones in 2021. Photos of three stones I found on each beach are also included for each month. Part One examined the beaches of January to May and this Post examines the beaches of July to November (June and December feature close-ups of stones).

JULY, Timaru, 27 June 2021 – The Jack’s Point/Tuhawaiki Point Walkway runs along the cliffs above the central section of this South Canterbury beach. The northern part of the fossicking beach can be accessed from where Scarborough Road meets The Parade, just south of Timaru. Its southern part is accessible from the end of Ellis Road. There is a stretch of more than five kilometres of stones in between. See here for the beach on Google Maps. The photo in the Calendar was taken just south of the lighthouse on a day I accessed the beach from the Ellis Road carpark. The Post about my visit to that beach on 27 June 2021 can be found here.

AUGUST, Leithfield Beach, 11 March 2021 – There is a long stretch of beach that runs north and south of the Canterbury seaside settlement of Leithfield Beach, about 40 kilometres north of Christchurch. Interesting jaspers and petrified wood can be found here, slong with other kinds of stones. See here for the beach on Google Maps. I usually drive to the northern carpark, at the end of Elizabeth Square. The photo in the Calendar was taken from near the carpark, looking south towards an old storm water drain (which has recently started to be demolished). For an account of my visit to the beach on 11 March 2021, see here.

SEPTEMBER, Kai Iwi Beach, 2020 – This beach, at Mowhanau village, is only two kilometres away from where I live, near Whanganui in the North Island. It is not known for stones that can be tumble polished, indeed there are not a lot of stones along its sandy stretches, though various fossils have been found there. However, I am unable to resist a scanning of the beach when I walk it, and I have found a few interesting iron-stained pieces of quartz that I have tumble polished. Around the mouth of the Kai Iwi Stream is a particularly good place to search. See here for the beach on Google Maps. The photo in the Calendar is taken north of Kai Iwi Stream. An informative Post on the area is here.

OCTOBER, Gemstone Beach, 28 February 2021 – This beach is located about one kilometre west of Orepuki in Southland, on the coast of Te Waewae Bay. There is an amazing diversity of stones on the Te Waewae Bay beach, and the photo in the Calendar provides a good sense of this. See here for the beach on Google Maps. I ususally spend at least three hours on a visit, walking from the carpark at Mullens Road West along to the mouth of the Waimeamea River, near Waihoaka, and returning. For an account of my visit to the beach on 28 February 2021, see here.

NOVEMBER, Slope Point, 3 March 2021 – One of the small number of fossicking beaches just to the west of Slope Point in the Catlins is called Thunder Beach by some locals. It is a sweep of golden sand backed by a lagoon containing petrified logs. Access is across private land so permission should be sought. Here at the bottom of the South Island, the sea is often rough and waves are powerful. See here for the beach on Google Maps. Click this link for an account of my visit to the beach on 3 March 2021.

TumbleStone Calendar 2022 – The Beaches, Part One

2022 Calendar Cover
October
Kakanui, January
Slope Point, February
Riverton, March

The 2022 TumbleStone Calendar features ten photos of beaches that I have visited recently in order to collect stones to tumble polish. With one exception, these are South Island beaches visited on the date that the photo was taken (photos of three stones I found on that beach on that day are also included for each month). For the months of June and December, I feature close-ups of stones from the previous five months. In this Post, I provide the specific locations for January to May of each beach and link to any previous Post about the day I visited there. Part Two deals with the months of July to November.

JANUARY, Kakanui, 19 February 2021 – The location of this beach is two kilometres north of Kakanui village, a few kilometres south of Oamaru in North Otago. The beach sweeps northwards from a small roadside car park near the intersection of Seadown Road and Thousand Acre Road. See here for the beach on Google Maps. The photo in the Calendar was taken looking south towards the southernmost start of the beach. For the Post about my visit to that beach on 19 February 2021, see Day Three of this Post.

FEBRUARY, Slope Point, 12 & 18 June 2021 – This is one of a small number of fossicking beaches just to the west of Slope Point in the Catlins, the southernmost point of the South Island. Access is across private land so permission should be sought. The sea is often rough and tides are strong. This particular beach is known to at least some locals as Bach Beach because of a solitary holiday home overlooking it. It has a high cliff to the north which often keeps the beach in shade. See here for the beach on Google Maps. Click these links for my 2021 visits to that beach on 12 June and on 18 June.

MARCH, Riverton, 2 March 2021 – The Back Beach at Riverton/Aparima, Southland, is located along the last stretch of the Rocks Highway. It lies directly across Foveaux Strait from Rakiura/Stewart Island, so the tides are strong and swimming is not recommended. The photo in the Calendar is taken in a small bay at the western end of the Back Beach, right in front of the turning area at the end of the Rocks Highway, and looking towards the Howell Point Lookout. The three stones for March were collected just on the other side of the Lookout, on what I call the Beach Past the Back Beach. See here for the area on Google Maps. For the Post about my fossicking visit there on 2 March 2021, see Day 14 in this Post.

APRIL, Gemstone Beach, 18 & 19 September 2021 – This beach is located about one kilometre west of Orepuki in Southland which is about 20 minutes drive from Riverton/Aparima. Gemstone Beach lies on the coast of Te Waewae Bay, towards its eastern end, and large banks of stones run from there northwestwards for a number of kilometres. The photo in the Calendar is of the beach immediately in front of the carpark (on Mullans Road West), looking southeast, and includes a few fossickers – this is the direction towards Monkey Island and this part of the beach usually has very few stones. See here for the beach on Google Maps. I did not Post about my visits to Gemstone Beach in September 2021. However, a good idea of the beach and the area northwestwards is provided in this 2019 Post.

MAY, Ward Beach, 12 March 2021 – Ward Beach, Marlborough, is about six kilometres off the main road east from the small village of Ward in the Flaxbourne District, 82 kilometres north of Kaikoura and 45 kilometres south of Blenheim. The Flaxbourne River reaches the coast at Ward Beach, which is set among spectacular scenery – high hills with steep slopes and a coastline with interesting rock formations. The Ward Beach boulders (concretions) are not far from the car park (maybe 10 minutes’ walk north). The beach was uplifted by the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, unveiling the boulders. The best part of the beach for stones is immediately in front of the car park, though it can be steep as it gets closer to the water and the incoming waves can be dangerous. The photo in the Calendar of the beach is looking north towards the carpark from near the Flaxbourne River mouth. The rocks in the foreground are visible only at low tide. See here for the beach on Google Maps. Regarding my visit to that beach on 12 March 2021, see Day 24 in this Post.

Continued in Part Two.

TumbleStone Calendar 2022

Each year, for a number of years now, I have produced a photo calendar, mainly to give family and friends for Christmas. I use Diamond Photo online for this (and for photo-books). For each month’s format, one page is a set of photos, just slightly smaller than a A4 size, with another A4 size page below it containing the month’s dates. The main internationally-recognised holidays are noted, along with some of the main New Zealand ones. The online construction of the calendar can be challenging, and I have learned to order an initial copy to check the colour and the text before ordering the final version.

My 2022 calendar is titled “Fossicking Beaches”. Ten of the months each features a photo of usually a South Island beach taken on a date in 2021 when I visited that beach to look for stones to tumble-polish. Photos of three stones I found on that beach on that day are also included for each month.

2022 Calendar Cover
March’s photos and dates
Gemstone Beach features twice – this is April
Slope Point features twice – this is November

Apart from June and December (looked at below), there are a couple of minor variations to the general theme of a visit to a South Island fossicking beach on a particular day. The February Slope Point month and April Gemstone Beach month feature photos taken during two visits, not just one, while September features 2020 photos from Kai Iwi Beach in the North Island, just a couple of kilometres from where I live.

The months of June and December each feature nine close-up photos of stones that have appeared in the previous five months (randomly selected from the 15 possibilities). “Which Beach does each one come from?” This provides a brief activity for yourself or a family member.

Top part of June
Top part of December

The beaches featured in the Calendar are as follows: January = Kakanui (two kilometres north of the village); February = Slope Point (the beach known to at least some locals as Bach Beach); March = Riverton (Back Beach); April = Gemstone Beach; May = Ward Beach (Kaikoura coast); July = Timaru (at the end of Ellis Road, near Jack’s Point lighthouse); August = Leithfield Beach; September = Kai Iwi Beach (near Whanganui, North Island); October = Gemstone Beach; November = Slope Point (the beach known to at least some locals as Thunder Beach).

January
February
July
October

Also see TumbleStone Calendar 2022 – The Beaches and TumbleStone Calendar 2022 – The Stones.

Keeping in mind that this is essentially an amateur production, if you want to buy one of these 2022 Calendars for yourself, email me at john.tumblestone@gmail.com. To cover expenses, it will cost you NZ$25 (postage included, in New Zealand).

About my 2021 Calendar, see here, and about my 2020 Calendar, see here.