On a cloudy blustery afternoon, I spent 3 ½ hours on the Te Waewae Bay beach, starting off at the Gemstone Beach carpark at noon. Despite the unattractive weather, there were quite a few people there, many of them probably passing tourists driving the Southern Scenic Route, Highway 99. It was a dramatic afternoon. One of the first things I witnessed was a family on the edge of the Taunoa Stream getting swamped to their knees as a wave surged into it. It quickly became clear that there was a lot of energy in those waves today – they were surging further up the beach than usual and at greater speed.
The waves had given the stones a good stirring-up and had gouged out scallop-shaped dips along the stony beach. There seemed to be more interesting stones showing than normal, and there was enough sunlight around to help illuminate them quite well. So I had probably my most productive fossick so far this year – these are the “delightful discoveries”. The “de-pants-ing” happened when I reached a swollen Waimeamea River and desperately wanted to get across to continue my fossicking. I needed to take off my gumboots, socks and jeans as the water in the centre of the channel came above my knees. So far, so good. When I eventually decided to turn around, I was feeling pleased that I had avoided being swamped by any wave. That quickly changed as first one then, a few minutes later, another wave caught me at the end of their surge up the beach, my “dramatic drenchings”. It wasn’t the depth but the speed of the dying waves that brought the water up over the top of my gumboots. Then it happened again as I was about to re-cross the river! I left my gumboots wet, and and my pants on, for this crossing.
When I eventually got back to the carpark, with a heavy backpack, I had an interesting chat with John, a fellow North Islander who is early in his fossicking career and thinking about tumble polishing. He had been in the Slope Point area and had seen petrified wood from there. I happened to have some of my polished Gemstone Beach and Slope Point stones in my car (I had taken them to show Chrissy the day before) so we had spent some time discussing those. I left him with a couple of hydrogrossular garnets I had found today, along with my TumbleStone Blog card.
This Post feature 16 of my finds, in the order of my personal preferences. My most favourite today is the smallest of the 16 stones, a tiny orbicular (“poppy”) hematite jasper, just 2 cm long. Its orbs are the most interesting I have seen so far among the small poppy jaspers I have found on this beach.
Next is the second smallest stone whose intense purple hues caught my eye on the beach. Close inspection showed some brecciation of white material in it.
Third on the list is a stone that has a good deal of visual interest but what struck me most when I picked it up is how smooth it feels. The photos later revealed a lot of different details in the stone.
The largest stone, 6 cm long, is one of my favourite types. There is a lacelike pattern of coloured threads in it that I find fascinating.
The following stone amazed me because of the density and diversity of fragments of which it is composed. It looks like masses of tiny bits of different argillites have been squashed together. It stood out on the beach because of the multiple shades of green, the photos revealing fragments of white and dark grey as well.
Sixth and seventh are stones that the close-up photos revealed to be much more interesting and complex than expected. The sixth is a dark stone that raised my curiosity when I spotted it because of the vague light markings on it. It was only as I worked with the close-up photos that I could see something interesting was going on to produce those markings. The subtle and varied colours of the seventh also appealed to me and the close-up unexpectedly revealed lots of tiny white specks.
The following four stones all claimed my attention for different reasons. I love the subtle colours and patterns in the quartzite, I love the dramatic colours of the dark red and white, I love the seeming brittleness of the smooth green-hued quartz, and I love the quirkiness of the intrusive differently coloured and patterned inclusion.
The last five stones all can in some way be found along this part of the Te Waewae Bay coast. The first is a stone with orbs – a range of orbed and spotted stones appear here (see this Post for examples). Secondly, breccia can also be found here (as this Post shows). The beach is know for hydrogrossular garnets (the third stone below – see this Post for more) though they can at times be elusive, and some types are particularly hard to find. I usually spot a couple of banded argillites when I fossick here (the fourth stone below), some of them quite shiny and smooth but others more coarse. Finally, the beach is also known for its trace fossil stones, of different shapes and colours (see here).
After the exertions and trials of today, I’m taking tomorrow off to recuperate!
The next Post in the “Southern Sojourn 2023” Series features 12 stones from a low tide fossick at Gemstone Beach and also comments on aspects of photography of stones. The first Post in this Series is here and the Index to the Series is here.
