June-July 2022 Fossicking Trip: 3) Timaru South

I drove down Scarborough Road to the coast. Source of map: http://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap?v=2&ll=-44.427804,171.247799&z=14

About 100 metres after walking across the railway line from Scarborough Road, you can drop down onto the beach.

TumbleStoneTwo webpage on Timaru South https://tumblestoneblog.wordpress.com/2022/06/19/ts2-timaru-south/

Third beach visit on my current South Island fossicking trip was a short stop just south of Timaru as I was driving from Birdlings Flat to Kakanui. I arrived at the Scarborough Road entrance to the Jack’s Point/Tuhawaiki Point Walkway at 1pm (Thursday 23 June) and spent an hour on the beach. It was seven degrees and sunny. The tide was very high and cut off the possibility of walking north very far.

Looking from the carparking area to Mutu Mutu Point. High tide.

Looking northwards towards Timaru city, the waves lapping the cliff.

Down on the beach, risky to walk northwards.

Down on the beach, looking south to Mutu Mutu Point. At the far end is the large seal making its way up the beach.

As I was walking south towards Mutu Mutu Point, a large seal arose from the sea at the Point and I decided it was wise not to get too close. I moved towards it a bit to take some photos and it made its way south and disappeared around behind the cliff. I did some fossicking, walking slowly back north, then looked up behind me to see the seal moving towards me. I continued to retreat. The seal then trundled another 30 metres or so, climbed up the foot of the cliff and rested there, soaking in the sun. A man and his dog appeared up above it, on the walkway. He sat and ate his lunch, the dog being a little restless, aware of the seal below.

The seal at Mutu Mutu Point.

Photo taken with zoom lens.

After disappearing briefly, the seal reappeared and started moving towards me, following the foot of the cliff. Looking up at the man and dog above.

The seal has arrived at its destination, the sunniest most sheltered place on the beach. Man and dog above.

I returned to my fossicking on the strip of beach available to me. I collected just a handful of stones, mainly quartzites.

A description of this beach, and further north and south, can be found here on TumbleStoneTwo. Next stop, Kakanui.

A shortened version of this Post first appeared in the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The next Post in this Series features my first day’s fossick at Kakanui’s Seadown Beach. The first Post in this Series is here. A Series Index is here.

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