Yesterday’s weather was too stormy for me to venture out onto the beach. But I was keen to see what stones might have been turned up today by the rough weather, so I went to Gemstone Beach at high tide. I was joined there by Chrissy Hellyer who writes the “Tumble and Polish” blog. However, after observing how the waves were coming a long way up the beach, we decided to spend an hour firstly fossicking safely in front of the car park.
While waiting for the tide to recede, we met a French man and his wife. He is a recently retired architect who spends time in Queenstown. We explained we were collecting stones for tumble-polishing. He was very interested, mentioning he had done some sculpture with stone. He was also interested in driftwood, of which there was a lot on Gemstone Beach just then. I gave him four tumble-polished Gemstone Beach stones as a souvenir. I then chatted briefly to a fossicker called Andrew who asked about what the tide was doing. He showed me a lovely jasper he had just found. He later found a few more and posted them on the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”.
After an hour, Chrissy and I crossed the Taunoa Stream and headed up to the Waimeamea River lagoon. Initially there were still waves coming high up the beach but they soon dropped back. They remained energetic, and the odd one caused us to scamper up the beach as we fossicked along their edge. We found a diversity of interesting stones. Chrissy found a couple of poppy jaspers, I found a few trace fossil stones, and while we collected a few nice small hydrogrossular garnets, we did not find any larger ones.
Many of my finds again had intriguing colours and patterns. The first one below has a lighter-coloured section revealing the stone’s composition – the dark and light contrast is part of its appeal:
I’m not sure if the next stone is a jasper, as I first thought, or a quartzite, as I thought a possibility after seeing the close-ups:
The next stone has an intriguing set of crystals – Chrissy described them as like many tiny bird tracks. I have seen a couple of similar stones here before, but they are rare in my experience.
The fourth stone is another small one but packed with lots of different tiny features:
And one of those very small jaspers that turns out to have fascinating colours and patterns:
Eight more of today’s interesting finds:
And a final four:
Three photos of Chrissy fossicking up near the Waimeamea River lagoon. Two are taken from a distance, using a zoom, making her appear closer to the waves than she really was. In places, some of the stones are bigger here too.
The next Part in this Series features two poppy jaspers found at the same beach. The Series Index is here.
It’s so good to have a record of fossicking with the waves in the background! Thank you for asking me to join you so often – I love fossicking with you because I learn so much! You find the most amazing stones every time – and this means I am learning to be more deliberate about the stones that go in my bag!