September 2024 Stone Collecting Trip –Part 20, Coldest Yet on Gemstone Beach, Friday 27 September

This morning I packed up everything into my car at Riverton Aparima and drove west to Chrissy’s place at Papatotara. I am going to be staying with Chrissy and Mike for the next two nights, before leaving Southland to drive home. This is a good opportunity to check out Chrissy’s Rock Shed again and to talk at length about fossicks, tumble polishing, stones and other stuff. I decided I would check out Gemstone Beach on the way, at 11 am, and Chrissy agreed to join me. It was five degrees when I arrived, wet and windy, probably closer to zero degrees with the wind chill. I was sceptical about being able to cross the Taunoa Stream, given the large amount of recent rain. But I ventured down onto the beach, thinking maybe a ten minute fossick might be possible. Chrissy arrived – we were both dressed for cold wet weather, so we walked over to the Taunoa Stream, managing to our surprise to cross it successfully. And so we continued the fossick, admittedly in extreme conditions, and returned to the carpark three and a half hours later. The Waimeamea River was flowing swiftly, and menacingly, across the beach so we couldn’t have gone any further west, but we would have turned back at that point anyway.

Due to the bitter weather, I got my camera out only once, right at the start – hence my three photos taken from the carpark:

The following photos of the 14 finds of the day were taken 0utside my motel near Kakanui on Monday 30 September, when finally there was enough sun. The first is a hematite jasper that I thought might have some orbicular (“poppy”) characteristics. And it turns out to have some such features:

This stone caught my eye, despite the wind and rain, because of its white “spots”. I’ve not seen one like it before. It turns out to be quite complicated, and there’s green epidote in the middle of some of the white spots/patches:

A jasper with many interesting features:

This month, I have found quite a few good trace fossil stones with well-defined protovirgularia shapes (lines of chevrons). Different colours have been noticeable as well. Here are four I found today:

A small brecciated stone whose fragmentation could be seen on the beach even today:

A bigger stone made up of a number of sections, each with different characteristics. The mix of red and green caught my eye initially:

I like the intense green near the middle of this find:

A more pastel-hued stone with interesting veins and patches:

On the beach, I could see “furry” intrusions in the veins of this small stone. Closer examination reveals the “fur” to be small crystals:

A banded argillite that has been subject to tectonic pressure:

The final featured find from today is a bit more porous than I normally collect – it will need to be treated with care during tumble polishing – but I couldn’t resist its dark flowing bands:

Part 21 reports on my final fossick at Gemstone Beach, another cold one! The Index to the Posts in this Series can be found here.