I had a three and a half hour fossick yesterday on the Te Waewae Bay coast west of Gemstone Beach. I was there between low and mid-tide, looking for stones to tumble-polish, accompanied by Chrissy (who had invited me to fossick at The Cliffs last Saturday). She had visited Gemstone Beach before but had not ventured beyond the section in front of the carpark.
We initially walked west to the Waimeamea River before beginning to fossick. We then spent quite a bit of time on a good patch of stones close to the river mouth before slowly working our way back to the carpark. There were very few hydrogrossular garnets around, and no poppy jaspers. But we found a few trace fossil stones and a variety of colourful and patterned stones. Eight of my finds are featured below.
The first is the one I find the most interesting, what could be referred to as a “canyoned quartzite” – when seen up close, the clear silica veins could be deep narrow canyons in a green landscape. The stone is 5 cm long and 3 cm high.
The two largest stones are both dark in colour but have very interesting hues and details up close.
Three of the remaining stones are shades of green, from the presence of epidote maybe. The first below has some stress fractures in it. the Other two contain brecciations, some of them very tiny.
The last two stones are small colourful ones. The smattering of pink caught my eye in the first one, the contrasting white quartz and dark other material in the second one.
The next Post in the “Southern Sojourn 2023” Series reports on a Te Waewae Bay fossick with my friend, Oliver Simpson. The first Post in the Series is here. The Index to the Series is here.
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