Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 24, Second Slope Point Fossick, Wednesday 13 March

I made the trip over to Slope Point again today (see here for my earlier visit this trip) and spent just over two hours on the small beach near an isolated holiday home – the beach and its location is described here.

The stony beach here is only about 200 metres long.

I found the fossil tree fern stone while sitting on a rock on the beach below this holiday house.

I have been advised on three different occasions now that this beach is the only one that local landowners are allowing access to. The weather was cool, staying at around 12 degrees during my time there, and there was some wind and the occasional light shower of rain. In her booklet, “Gemstones” (1985), Jocelyn Thornton has an entry on Slope Point. She writes: “On the Southland coast between Waipapa Point and Haldane there are a few pebbly beaches visited by fishermen and rock collectors. The cliffs contain layers of conglomerates with pebbles which weather out and collect on the beaches. At first glance they appear dark, but closer examination reveals a multitude of subtle colours and patterns.” She goes on to note that, for stone fossickers, “the prize is petrified punga, found as black nodules barely showing the eyed grain of the fern”. Her photos show three specimens of petrified punga or tree fern (what’s a punga?), and I once found one with faint markings. Today, as I was sitting on a rock, resting before leaving the beach to tackle the steep climb back to my car, the edge of a dry stone with squiggles in it caught my eye – it turned out to be a spectacular piece of fossilised tree fern. This side is the “busiest”:

This is the other side:

Note that “punga” is often used as a collective term for all tree ferns and “ponga” is the specific Maori name for the silver fern, Cyathea dealbata.

When I arrived down at the beach, a couple from Whakatane were also there. The man was searching for fossilised wood in the large rocks along the north of the cove. I chatted to the woman about some of the stones to be found on the beach, especially igneous ones such as rhyolite. The man joined us after his hunt, with three large black fossil wood specimens, and he also showed me photos of a couple of large pieces in situ, one dark-coloured and one light-coloured. In my fossicking I found only a couple of small pieces of black petrified wood but collected quite a few rhyolite stones. Some of them had intriguing orb-like material within them, some of the orbs being tiny but some larger.

Jasper.

Ten more of my finds which are likely to be rhyolites:

Four stones of other types or unknown:

Tiny but bright breccia stone.

Iron oxide stained quartz?

Black igneous stone with interesting white crystals and thin red veins.

I managed to find enough stones to justify the 90 minutes drive each way and the walk back up the steep hill to the car, carrying them all.

Part 25 describes a three hour cold weather fossick at Gemstone Beach. 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