Pink thulite stones can be found on the shores of Te Waewae Bay. I found this small one on Gemstone Beach on 20 June 2021.
Thulite is the pink to reddish variety of the mineral zoisite. As Minerals.net reports, “The color of thulite is caused by the element manganese in its composition. Thulite often occurs associated with quartz, and is sometimes mottled with streaks or spots of white quartz.” This stone is the smallest so far of the Stones of the Day for January, being 3 cm long by 2.5 cm wide by 2 cm deep, and it is flat on one side. In my experience, many thulites do not polish well and seem to crumble then don’t take a good shine. This one is an exception as it has polished well. That may have something to do with the large quartz pieces in it.
At the end of February 2021 I found a few thulite stones not far from McCracken’s Rest, on a beach a few kilometres northwest of Gemstone Beach. On the day I found this one on Gemstone Beach itself in June 2021, it was amidst a thick fog. On a visit to Gemstone Beach late in 2021, a friend found a couple of very similar stones and sent me a photo of them (see below).
A stone display at the Te Hikoi Museum in Riverton/Aparima is one of the sources of my identification of thulite (see last photo above).
Stone of the Day #6 is here. The Index to the January 2022 Stone of the Day Series is here.
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