Last year I had heard that a fossicker had been told that they could not cross private land to get to one of the Slope Point beaches. But I have also become aware that fossickers and fishers are still visiting one or more of these beaches. In preparation for a reconnaissance trip to check things out, I did some research on “unformed legal roads” (also known as “paper roads”) in New Zealand (see www.herengaanuku.govt.nz/types-of-access/unformed-legal-roads/ and the link there “How to find unformed legal roads”). Such “roads” are legally defined but have not been built. Their legal status means that the public can follow them as routeways even though they pass through farmland. New Zealand does not have the same kind of traditional system of public rights of way as England has, for example. And unformed legal roads are not well known to most New Zealanders.
I discovered that the customary route to the beach I wanted to visit actually followed an unformed legal road for part of the way. And if needed, an extension of that road could be followed to the coast further along, though adding some distance to the customary route. So I decided to drive the 90 minutes to Slope Point late this morning, to arrive about an hour before low tide. I was accompanied by fellow fossicker Chrissy Hellyer, who had not looked for stones at Slope Point before. Her account of the fossick appears in her blog, under the heading “Rockhounding at Slope Point”.
Slope Point is the southernmost part of the South Island, located about 70 kilometres east of Invercargill. Tourists are directed to a carpark from where they can walk across a windswept paddock to the top of high rocky cliffs looking out over a wild sea. Fossickers for beach stones have to drive a couple of kilometres further along a narrow gravel road before crossing paddocks down awkward slopes to reach their goal.
When Chrissy and I arrived today, we saw the usual signposts warning about the need for four-wheel drive vehicles, but nothing else forbidding access. So we walked to the beach, following the customary routeway – this is described in this Post written in March 2023. I was later advised by a local that the beach we went to is still allowed to be accessed by rockhounds by walking down the track we had used. However, other beaches in the area cannot be accessed through private land, only by walking around the coastline.
The sea was very calm today – it is often quite rough, which is why the period before low tide is the best time for fossicking. The sun was out and it was a warm day. This beach contains a lot of granite stones, rhyolites, breccia and sometimes some petrified wood. Jocelyn Thornton’s booklet “Gemstones” has a page on Slope Point stones – see page 35 here. But there’s also lots of stones I don’t have the knowledge to identify. I thought that there were four of my finds worthy of close examination. The first below is one of the mystery ones to me, but it has some tiny areas of agate in it; the second is, I think, an orbicular rhyolite; the third is another mystery, its tiny colourful spots having caught my eye; and the fourth is a green coloured mystery stone with tiny white crystals and maybe some other stuff.
Eight more of my finds, all of which caught my eye because of their interesting colours, veins, spots or patterns.
We spent a good couple of hours collecting stones, then it must have taken us at least 20 minutes to climb back up the hill with a heavy load to the car. Then it was another 90 minutes in the car back to Riverton. Exhausting, but well worth it!
Part 17 features a brief (60 minutes) fossick back at Gemstone Beach. The Series Index is here.
it definitely was worth it! Thanks for letting me tag along – I loved every minute of the trip!
Appreciated your company, and it’s always safer on the coast when there are two people keeping an eye on each other for safety reasons. I am sure you will love seeing the Slope Point stones going through the tumbling process.