I had decided not to go fossicking today, to rest up and complete a couple of household chores in a leisurely manner. But then the sun came out and I got itchy feet. I ended up spending just over four hours at Gemstone Beach in glorious weather.
The Taunoa Stream continues to move around. Today, it had formed two branches, entering the sea more than 50 metres apart. This made it much easier to find shallow stretched to ford the stream. I hunted stones in one of the back washes quite successfully – the sun highlighted stones in the shallow water very effectively (see photos below). I then fossicked slowly all the way to the Waimeamea River. I crossed the lagoon to spend some time west of the river. On the way back, getting close to the Taunoa Stream, I met Maggie Thompson who has often responded to my posts in the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. I had unknowingly walked past her husband Vern a couple of hundred metres before that. It was good to make face-to-face contact with Maggie and chat a bit about how much we both enjoy this beach. The section in front of the carpark was crowded again today. When I eventually left the carpark, there were more than 25 vehicles there – it is school holiday time and the fine weather has encouraged people to come out.
I’ve chosen to feature 11 of my finds from today. The first two are a small pink thulite and a small poppy hematite jasper where the “orbs” are more like spots:
Three different kinds of breccia, where small or tiny fragments are cemented together in a fine grained matrix:
An interesting small rhyolite and a small dark jasper:
The last four:
Post 45 features a visit to Slope Point with Oliver. The first Post in the “Southern Sojourn 2023” Series is here. The Index to the Series is here.
Fabulous. I got a few wee fossil finds & a pretty cool large stone which I lugged up the steep hill back to the house