I made another visit to Gemstone Beach, Orepuki, today, this time managing to spend three hours there. I arrived at the carpark at 10.30 a.m. with the temperature at five degrees but with bright sun and no wind. The tide was low and I walked more quickly than usual down to the Waimeamea River, hoping to be able to cross as the channel usually gets wider and shallower when the tide is lower. I managed to ford the river, just, and move on to fossick for maybe 300 metres to the west. All in all, I managed to get just over one kilometre from the carpark. However, I did get a little water in the gumboots on the return crossing.
It was not the most productive fossick but the diversity of stones here is amazing. I found only a handful of small hydrogrossular garnets, and trace fossil stones were relatively scarce today. However, some of the other stones I picked up show amazing complexity upon close scrutiny.
I ran into Aaron again – he was using a chainsaw on some driftwood near the carpark as he has an interest in natural sculpture. He showed me some stones he had collected and gave me a couple, including a trace fossil stone.
On the way home, I had a nice chat with a Dunedin couple just before they drove out of the carpark in their campervan. They were gracious enough to want to see some of the stones I had found.
A shorter version of this Post first appeared in the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The next Post in this Series describes another visit to Gemstone Beach, what started out as a hydrogrossular day then turned into something more. The first Post in this Series is here.
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