September 2024 Stone Collecting Trip –Part 6, Riverton Aparima, Monday 9 September: Back to the Back Beach

A couple of hours walking Riverton Aparima’s Back Beach (Southland), with my wife and brother-in-law, yielded a number of interesting finds. The weather was cool and cloudy but the wind was not too strong and the rain stayed away during the walk. I have been visiting this beach since I was a young boy as my family used to have a crib (bach) nearby. A brief introduction to Riverton Aparima is provided in this Post – see the second entry (“R is for Riverton Rocks Red Rock”). Here are some polished stones from the Back Beach. There are many similarities in the stones to be found here with the stones on Gemstone Beach, about 30 kilometres to the west. For example, banded ignimbrite and trace fossil argillite stones are found on both beaches, though hydrogrossular garnets tend not to make it to the Back Beach.

A brief period of sunshine in the late afternoon allowed me to photograph some of the finds – stones photograph best when wet and in bright sunshine. However, I didn’t have enough time to take good photos – some of the images of the 11 stones below have reflections or bright patches on them which obscure some details.

Today I (or, rather, we) found three poppy jaspers (orbicular jaspers) at the Back Beach. I have not seen them here before – I have found them on Gemstone Beach, and indeed I collected a handful there yesterday. Today’s best specimen was found by Ray, my brother-in-law.

And I found this one:

I also found a handful of other very interesting dark red jaspers. Here are three of them (note that light reflections distort some small parts of these images):

I found a small brown rhyolite stone, a type that can also be found further east at Slope Point:

Some of this morning’s finds have interesting patterns within them, like these three:

Finally, two green stones, the first an argillite (indurated mudstone) with a dark intrusion of coarser material, and what is most likely a veined quartzite:

Part 7 features a return to Gemstone Beach. The first Post in this Series can be found here.