For the last three years, I have taken a four-week fossicking trip to the South Island during the February-March period to find beach stones for tumble polishing. At this time, the beaches are no longer busy with people enjoying their summer holidays yet the weather is still likely to be mainly fine. I take about a week to make my way by car from Whanganui to Riverton, visiting some South Island east coast beaches on the way, such as Ward Beach, Timaru and Kakanui. I base myself for a couple of weeks at Riverton, visiting places like Gemstone Beach and Slope Point, before taking another week to visit east coast beaches on my return north.
This year, I left Whanganui on Thursday 10 February, crossing Cook Strait by ferry that afternoon. My first serious fossick was at Birdlings Flat the following day, Friday 11 February. I have not visited Birdlings Flat much lately, maybe only twice during the past two years. I arrived at 2 pm and spent a couple of hours walking from the car park to the sea and then northwards towards Banks Peninsula (and back). The most interesting stone I found was a small banded agate, Stone of the Day #1:
This stone has more white in it than previous banded agates I have found at Birdlings Flat (see for example the stone featured in the Monday 17 May 2021 entry in this Post) but its bands are well defined and it is a nicely smooth stone.
The day was cloudy and dull, not good conditions for spotting agates. I saw only two others, non-banded. I picked up a small number of other stones, mainly jaspers and quartzites. There were very few people on the beach while I was there:
Some background about Birdlings Flat can be found here.
The next Post in the Series, on Stone #2 from Kaitorete Spit, is here. The Index to all the Posts in the Series is here.
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