This afternoon, Monday 27 June, I spent just under three hours on Gemstone Beach, Orepuki. When I arrived at 1 pm, the temperature was nine degrees and this was maintained while I was fossicking. It had been raining overnight but none fell this afternoon, though there were grey clouds overhead and some wind. I was well dressed for cold windy weather. My hands felt cold for the first 15 minutes but then warmed up for the rest of the time. The sea was rough and the waves powerful – every so often, a particularly long-lasting one chased me up the beach. I saw only a couple of other people wile I was there – individuals who wandered out briefly from the carpark. The local gold miner and his dog also took a trip along the beach on his four-wheeler.
I walked a few hundred metres northwestwards from the carpark, taking my time while scanning the stones and keeping an eye on the waves. I eventually encountered the Waimeamea River crossing the beach, too deep to cross in my gumboots and too swift and cold to risk a barefoot crossing. The river was also quite a bit more southeastwards than usual (see map at top of Post, far left).
As usual, there were lots of stones on the beach, and I managed to find a number of very interesting ones. Lack of sunlight meant my photos of the stones I found were not as clear as they could be – they often show reflections from the photographer and surrounds across part of the surface.
I found a handful of small hydrogrossular garnets and a similar number of good trace fossil stones.
Some background on Gemstone Beach can be found here.
A version of this Post first appeared in the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The next Post in this Series features a fossick at Riverton Aparima. The first Post in this Series is here. A Series Index is here.
Great looking finds John. I found quite a few agates at Ward beach and trace fossil. Still need to go through my finds. If interested I shall email you some photos. I wish I’d studied geology so I know what Im looking at 😀 Also got some crystallised fossils on a walk from Oaro. How come one of your stones is called garnet but it’s not red in colour? Are not all garnets red? Interesting. Sounds like you have had a great trip. Enjoy your blogs, Jo
Thanks for the update, Jo. Would be pleased to see some photos. About hydrogrossular garnets not being red, most “ordinary” garnets are red, but hydrogrossular garnets are different (“grossular” means “green like a gooseberry” though even then a lot of hydrogrossulars are not green) – see https://tumblestoneblog.wordpress.com/2019/05/26/why-are-hydrogrossular-stones-called-garnets and https://tumblestoneblog.wordpress.com/2022/06/02/ts2-hydrogrossular-garnet.