I am an active member of the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. That’s where I first encountered a significant number of people I have met on my fossicking trips, people like Oliver Simpson (my Slope Point buddy, first met personally in March 2021), Kat Kemp (Riverton Aparima – see this Post), Tracey Kidd from Banks Peninsula (met February 2022, see here for recent fossicks with Tracey), John Taylor (who lives in Scotland but visits New Zealand occasionally), and Nicola and Angie from Hawkes Bay (last week). Others have included Colleen Johnson, Vernon Head, Sascha Stoddart, Malcolm Luxton, Mary from Slope Point, Bruce Taylor (Kai Iwi Beach), and Lee Gibbs (apologies to all those others I have missed). Today, at Gemstone Beach, I met up with two other Group members, Glenys and Lisa.
I had recently been in contact with Glenys Stace and arranged to look out for her and her husband Kelvin. We spent over an hour, sitting in their motorhome, and doing show-and-tell. It was especially interesting to discuss trace fossils with Glenys who has a strong background in marine biology.
After a great chat with Glenys and Kelvin, I made my way out onto Gemstone Beach for a fossick. It being a holiday, there were quite a lot of people around. I walked along the wave line, heading west to leave the crowd behind. Then I heard someone say “John?” I stopped and turned around. “Yes?” “John Paterson?” “Yes!” A woman with a bagful of stones introduced herself, Lisa Watkins from Christchurch. I recognised her name immediately as she often responds to my posts in the Facebook Group. We lingered and talked on the beach about her trip south with a friend and my time in Southland. She had just finished her fossick so headed off. I continued walking west but didn’t venture far, the tide was getting high, and there were plenty of stones within about 300 metres of the carpark. After crossing the Taunoa Stream, I fossicked a couple of drifts of stones. Then I spotted a young couple dodging the waves and collecting handfuls of stones. In fact, their hands were full and I wondered how they were going to carry more. But they seemed intent on doing so. So I approached them and offered one of my black cloth fossicking bags. That solved their problem and they were happy to accept.
Heading back to the carpark, I met up again on the beach with Glenys and Kelvin who had resumed some fossicking. I was lucky enough to find a little poppy jasper I could hand on to Glenys, along with a couple of nice trace fossil stones. Just over three hours after I had arrived, I left the beach and drove back to Riverton. Below are photos of five of my small stone finds.
The first stone is the most intriguing. One side has a circular vein. The “bottom” of it has a white speckled pattern, with some hard-to-see clear veins at either end.
The next two stones have fascinating detail, though quite different:
Two more of my finds:
The next Post in the “Southern Sojourn 2023” Series describes a fossick after some overnight rain, which raised the levels of the Taunoa Stream and Waimeamea River. The first Post in the Series is here. The Index to the Series is here.
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