Another three hour fossick on Gemstone Beach this morning. Tomorrow is going to be stormy so I wanted to go out there today. I have just five more days down here before I drive north again. The tide was low and I walked over a kilometre to the mouth of the Waimeamea River. Usually I turn around at that point but today I decided to go just a little further – and after about 100 metres I found today’s one and only poppy jasper!
I picked up more hydrogrossular garnets than usual (some of them are featured at the end of this Post), and found some interesting bright stones. The Waimeamea River was still not flowing across the beach, being held back by a mass of stones dumped by the sea. There were four or five large seepages as water flowed under the stones from the lagoon, and there was good fossicking in and near those.
Maybe the brightest of my finds is this green stone with light squiggles:
The brightest of this morning’s red stones, with bright oranges swirls:
An amygdaloidal stone (infilled volcanic bubbles), with bright and colourful amygdales and a fine deep purple vein:
A small rhyolite with some bright red in it:
I also found some stones with interesting patterns. My eye was initially drawn to the tiny black lines in this stone:
Another patterned stone, with different coloured minerals in white quartz:
A type of “cloudy” quartz stone:
One of my larger finds, six centimetres long, packed full of interestingly shaped crystals (probably plagioclase feldspar):
Two of the trace fossil stones I found today, one green, the other gray:
Finally, six of my hydrogrossular garnets from this morning. The first has some intense green mineral inclusions:
The second has a pink blush that in reality is greater than captured by the camera:
An intense yellow:
A lighter yellow garnet with some patterning inside it:
A white specimen with an interesting vein:
Finally, a hydrogrossular garnet that has a smooth end and a very rough non-shiny end, confirming the wide range of of its expression:
Part 18 records the rare discovery of petrified wood on Gemstone Beach. The Index to the Posts in this Series can be found here.
It was such a beautiful Southland day today, perfect for rock hunting (gutted I was busy!) and it looks as though you got some great finds to add to the weight in the car for your trip home!
I just found your blog – incredible! A wealth of information, wonderful photos, and of course, stunning pebbles. I look forward to looking through your old posts. And you taught me a new word: “fossick”. We don’t use this word in the US, but I might have to adopt it. I am an avid beachcomber in Massachusetts, USA.
Hi! Many thanks for your comment. Glad you find the blog interesting. Best wishes, John