Despite wind and rain, I spent two hours at Gemstone Beach again this morning. I needed to wear my big waterproof coat and over-trousers, plus scarf and hat. When I arrived, it was 15 degrees but about to rain, and there was only maybe 10 minutes during my fossick that the rain relented. I managed to ford the rainfall-charged Taunoa Stream, which is near the carpark, but the Waimeamea River further west was too high to negotiate. Initially, at a time when the high had been an hour earlier, the very occasional wave managed to travel well up the beach due to the wind. But I faced no real threat of being pushed into the cliffs by waves. Most of the time I was the only one on the beach, though a couple of passing tourists called in a couple of times. The onshore wind was pushing the waves higher than usual, but the rain was wetting the stones all across the beach so I could avoid fossicking too close to the sea. I ended up not collecting a lot, partly because my glasses kept getting wet and blurry, obscuring my ability to see clearly.
This Post features 11 of my hard-won finds. I managed to work out how to take better photos of stones back at my accommodation when it’s cloudy – I stand next to a wall and can usually find an orientation that limits reflections to one side of the stone. However, while the reflections are limited a bit more, they are not eliminated and still prevent the provision of good images. xx
The first stone is a large banded argillite, 8.5 cm by 6 cm, with an interesting stress fracture.
For some reason, the trace fossil stones stood out best on the beach today. My eye seemed to be drawn to their wet shiny lines, despite my blurred glasses. This is the largest one I put in my bag (see below). I also find a stone with interesting white crystals and an argillite of complex composition:
The most intriguing find today was this stone – it’s like the stone was dipped in green all over, and the green ran down, exposing the white crystals, but then it was partly dipped in red with the green turning to grey underneath:
The remaining six stones are smaller ones: a light green quartzite, two of the half dozen hydrogrossular garnets I found today (the second one having a light pink thulite blush), a black and white layered stone, aother green quartzite, and lastly a tiny banded argillite (2.5 cm long).
The 25th Post in the “Southern Sojourn 2023” Series features a fossick with Chrissy and Ohla at The Cliffs beach on Te Waewae Bay. The first Post in the Series is here and the Index to the Series is here.
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