Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 9, Fossicking with Sascha, Gemstone Beach, Saturday 24 February

This morning I spent two and a half hours on Gemstone Beach with Sascha Stoddart, a fellow fossicker from Timaru. In February 2022, I had joined Sascha and her friend Pauline on the Timaru South beach. Sascha sometimes turns her stone finds into pendants and other jewelry using wire wrapping. When we started, it was warm – 21 degrees – but windy, and rain was threatening. The rain eventually came for a while, and the wind got stronger especially on our way back to the carpark. The temperature had fallen to about 17 degrees at that stage. About one-third of the way through our fossick, I took some photos of a pair of paradise shelducks standing on the cliff at the back of the beach.

A couple of paradise shelducks on the cliff called out as we walked by.

Gemstone Beach at 10 am this morning. Rain is just visible in the far distance.

The rain gets closer.

The same scene as previously, the rain arrives.

Despite the wind and rain, we managed to find quite a few interesting stones. Sascha found a couple of small poppy jaspers.

One of Sascha’s small poppy jasper – photo taken on a rain-darkened beach.

Hematite is apparent in the stone.

Below are two small jaspers I collected:

Small bright dark-red jasper.

One side of a small jasper.

Other side of the same small red jasper.

Other stones I found this morning:

Epidote green, plus other material.

A variety of quartz/quartzite.

Small trace fossils in light coloured argillite.

Part 10, a Gemstone Beach fossick when the waves were bigger, can be found here. The Series Index is here.

Author: tumblestoneblog

Retired Academic, male, living in the New Zealand countryside near Whanganui with his wife as well as Jasper the dog, Fluffy the cat, Dancer and Penny, the horses, and a shed half-full of stones. Email john.tumblestone@gmail.com. View all posts by tumblestoneblog