This morning I spent two hours fossicking along the Te Waewae Bay coast starting at Gemstone Beach.
The weather was warmer than its has been lately, though the tide was coming in so I had to take care with the waves. It turned out not to be a very productive time today, and I ended up bringing only 32 stones back with me. Just before I reached the Waimeamea River, I met up with Owen from Riverton fossicking with his wife – he showed me some of the hydrogrossular garnets he was finding. I found only three small nice ones this morning. However, I did find a large “roughie” – a stone that is not at all smooth – that may a hydrogrossular garnet, a variety that sometimes is called the “mother rock”. It’s quite glassy yet rough, and I initially thought it may be quartz. However closer inspection leads me to believe it is an example of a Type 7 stone in my classification of types of hydrogrossular garnet in my TumbleStone Two Post.
The second “roughie” I picked up looks like it may be a kind of yellow quartzite, not something I often find on this beach.
Despite not finding much, I did find another small poppy jasper and a nice pink thulite.
The four most interesting of my remaining finds this morning:
I got a surprise when I reached the lagoon of the Waimeamea River – it was dry! Maybe the river had breached the stone banks through to the sea further up the beach. I fossicked along the dry lagoon bed but didn’t find anything worthwhile mainly because dry stones don’t show any colour or patterns.
The next Part describes a Gemstone Beach fossick with a friend. The Series Index is here.
2 or 3 posts a day is a bit much for me ❗️