Chrissy Hellyer (Tumble and Polish blog) joined me today for a fossick starting at Gemstone Beach then moving west to the Waimeamea River mouth. It was cold and chilly. The temperature was only eight degrees when we arrived at the carpark at 10.30am. Some wind was blowing and rain showers were threatening. At one point, not far from the Waimeamea River lagoon, we endured a short sharp hail shower.
Surprisingly, we felt warm enough to undertake a four and a half hour fossick – we were well dressed for both the cold and the wet. We both collected quite a few stones for tumble-polishing. I found an intriguing jasper, the first in the photos below, and Chrissy found a very nice poppy jasper, the second set of photos below.
Among the interesting coloured and patterned stones I found today were these eight:
Two poppy jaspers I found today plus a hematite jasper and a stone with an interesting vein through it:
The next stone, a small dark one with flashes of white, was found by Chrissy and given to me. We think it might be a hydrogrossular garnet, though we’re not certain. Two larger trace fossil stones follow, with the fourth stone maybe containing trace fossils but the shapes are have an unusual border. Then comes a mudstone, probably argillite, with unusual inclusions. Finally, Chrissy spotted this large argillite with intriguing patterns – we left it on the beach as it is far too big to tumble-polish.
The first Part of this Series can be found here. The Series Index is here.
Twas another great fossick with cool finds and great company!