Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 23, With Claire and Brett on Gemstone Beach, Tuesday 12 March

Today at Gemstone Beach I met up with fossicker Claire Thompson and her husband Brett from Lower Hutt. We spent quite a bit of time chatting, sharing our finds, and talking stones – great company! The weather was cool, around 12 degrees, the sky was cloudy with the odd drop of rain. A group from the Southern Institute of Technology arrived while we were there and we spoke with several of them about local stones and geology. I left after a couple of hours, having been swamped three times by the waves of the incoming tide – talking about stones can be distracting!

The Taunoa Stream had dug down into the stones a bit.

A photo taken as I left the beach, just after noon. There were only two people here when I arrived.

I ventured only a couple of hundred metres past the Taunoa Stream today, and collected fewer stones than usual, maybe about 35. Here are eight of my finds:

Lovely small dark stone with light-coloured swirls.

Pink in a dark stone.

Interesting texture. And colour.

Intense orange.

The yellow in this breccia caught my eye.

Interesting jasper, with some brecciation in bottom left.

The “spots” caught my eye.

The next day I made my second visit this trip to a Slope Point beach – see 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