September 2024 Stone Collecting Trip –Part 19, Hendersons Bay, Riverton Aparima, Thursday 26 September

I decided not to go out to Gemstone Beach today due to the cold wet weather. However, in the afternoon I got itchy feet and started to feel the need for a fossick. So I took the opportunity to drive two kilometres to a nearby beach in Riverton Rocks called Hendersons Bay – see “R is for Riverton Rocks Red Rock” in this Post for its location. As a child, I spent many happy summer holidays at this beach, so I know it well. When my mother supervised us there, sitting in the Southland sun, she often looked through the stones and told us of the interesting ones she found.

There are small scatterings of stones in a number of different places at Henderson Bay. Sometimes trace fossil stones can be found here but generally the best local fossicking area is the Back Beach, a little further round the Rocks. However, I thought I would see what I could find. I walked across the beach three or four times, spending nearly an hour there. I found a few interesting stones as a result. Due to continuing cloudy conditions, I was not able to take photos successfully of them until four days later, after I had reached Kakanui. Here are 12 of my finds.

The first has a really interesting texture:

A small dark stone that turns out to be amygdaloidal:

A veined quartzite with two different sides – and an interesting fragment in a vein on the first side:

A very different veined quartzite:

Maybe a small though colourful rhyolite:

The smallest find, the size of a fingernail – could be a jasper:

A stone that reminds me of caramel:

The light green patch in this stone caught my eye:

Two stones that contain crystals that contribute to their character:

Lastly, two small green-hued stones:

Part 20 features 14 finds from a very cold fossick on Gemstone Beach. The Index to the Posts in this Series can be found here.