February-March 2022 Fossicking Trip: Stone of the Day #24, Kakanui Multi-Coloured Quartzite

This morning I spent three hours on Kakanui’s Seadown Beach before driving to Timaru where I spent an hour at the Scarborough Road beach. It was very warm, temperatures reaching 29 degrees while I was on the road. Today’s Stone of the Day was found at Kakanui – I turned it over again and again as I tried to make sense of it:

It appears to be a quartzite. Another side had quite different colours:

And then another turn of the stone revealed another view, this one predominantly yellow:

I also found a small predominantly red quartzite:

Two of the fossil sea floor stones I found, plus what may be a third of that type:

And one of those stones that could be either a jasper or a quartzite but collected because of its veins and light colour:

I met Barb and Derek this morning. They regularly walk the beach, picking up rubbish as well as stones. We discussed issues of identifying different types of stones, especially trying to distinguish quartz from agate. Derek found a small agate during this discussion, which he kindly gave to me – I have found only three or four here this trip.

Barb had picked up a small smooth gray quartz stone on her walk, and we entertained the notion that it was feldspar within it. I offered to tumble-polish it for her:

And so it was farewell to my Kakanui beach…

…and two and a half hours later, it was hello to the beach just south of Timaru.

I arrived two hours after low tide. I realised that the waves of this beach required much more alertness on the part of the fossicker as they break closer to shore than at the other beaches I have recently visited. There is little time between the sound of the breaking wave and its swift movement up the beach. Fossickers focus visually on stones, keeping an ear out for waves, and they often walk along the waves’ edge, making them vulnerable to wet legs from late breaking waves.

It’s possible to find interesting jaspers and quartzites on this beach, though they are often in rougher condition than at Gemstone Beach and Kakanui – this means that they require more tumbling. My favourite yellow quartzites (see Stone #4) can be found here but there are also quartzites of different colours than further south.

Among the other interesting stones I found here this afternoon were these:

Finally, just as I was about to turn away from the waves to walk back to my car, I found this large hematite jasper:

Normally I would marvel at it then leave it on the beach, as it is a bit too big for my tumblers. But I’m going to take it to show to my host Tracey tomorrow who I think has a tumbler that is large enough for it, should she want it.

The first Post in this Series is here. The Index to all the Posts in the Series is here.