March 2025 – TumbleStone

March 2025 Stone Collecting Trip – Part 23, “Here is bigger than you can imagine”: A Tectonically Stressed Find from Gemstone Beach and an Afternoon Earthquake, Tuesday 25 March

A large patch of stones in front of the carpark today.

Today’s finds from Gemstone Beach.

I spent three hours on Gemstone Beach today, starting just after high tide late in the morning. There were a few more stones on the beach in front of the carpark than recently, though west of the Taunoa Stream there is still a lot of sand. I walked past the local gold miner and his quad-bike-trailer-mounted sluice box, pausing to chat with him and pat his dog. After that, I also spent some time with Chris, a German tourist who was enthusiastically picking up stones. The Waimeamea River is again blocked from the sea by stones, allowing easy fossicking beyond.

A large patch of stones in front of the carpark today.

The Taunoa Stream is shallow and not very wide.

The Waimeamea River now peters out and seeps through the stones.

Lots of sand, west of the Taunoa Stream.

Today’s finds from Gemstone Beach.

We had an earthquake here at the bottom of the South Island mid- afternoon. The epicentre would have been less than a hundred kilometres south-west of Gemstone Beach. It had a magnitude of 6.8 at a depth of 12 kilometres. I was on the deck of the crib (holiday home) at the time, taking photos of today’s finds in the sun. At 2.45pm I felt the rolling motion and looked up to see my nearby parked car moving up and down. I estimated the quake lasted at least five or six seconds. No damage was done. A Civil Defence tsunami warning was initially issued but then retracted. Later there were warnings about increased swell around parts of the west and south coast but these did not apply to Gemstone Beach. (We had two noticeable aftershocks later in the day, at 4pm and 10pm.)

One of the interesting things about an earthquake is the stark reminder of the tremendous forces at work in the ground beneath our feet, forces over which we have no control at all. We are helpless as the earth moves. It reminds me of a line from Bruce Cockburn’s song “Messenger Wind” – “Here is bigger than you can imagine”. Song and lyrics at the end of this Post.

Below are photos of 14 of my finds today, one of them (the fourth) given to me by Chris. The first one, appropriately, shows the effects of tectonic stresses similar to those giving rise to earthquakes – the stone comprised of quartz has been fragmented then flooded with green epidote:

I have not found many pink thulite stones on this trip. This nice specimen was on the beach in front of the carpark, at the end of my fossick:

The third find featured here is the only poppy jasper I found today – very small but very gorgeous:

Equally small, an intensely green stone with tiny features:

Another green stone, with interesting white elements, a small quartzite that Chris gave to me:

A dark stone with islands of light colour and subtle veins:

I like the tiny crystals lying every-which-way in this stone:

An amygdaloidal stone – I have found a number of these at Gemstone Beach:

The term “amygdaloidal” is explained near the beginning of this Post.

A nice hematite jasper found in the shallows along the edge of the Waimeamea River lagoon:

One of the trace fossil stones I picked up today – it has an especially long trace in it:

And a final four:

Interesting mix of colour.

A type of spotted argillite?

Breccia.

Now to end with Cockburn’s song, the source of the quote, “Here is bigger than you can imagine” (full lyrics below)

“Messenger Wind” by Bruce Cockburn, 2003

In a horse-powered sleigh at the top of the town
Sun coming up paints the snow all around with rose light
In front of the house where I’m supposed to be born
I don’t think I’m ready to walk through that door just yet
To be one more voice in the human choir
Rising like smoke from the mystical fire of the heart

The wind that blows through everything
Sweeps out the halls of my heart when I sing to you
It carries the moon and the stars and the rain
Carries the seagulls and carries my shame away
Spins me around, stops me running away
From all the things I’ve been waiting to say, but don’t

Here
Is bigger than you can imagine
Now
Is forever

Sun coming up paints the snow all around
Rose on the roofs and the trees and the ground
And the stream, in my dream
Messenger wind swooping out of the sky
Lights each tiny speck in my human kaleidoscope
With hope

*******

The next Part in this Series features my second last visit to Gemstone Beach this trip. An Index to this Series is here.

March 2025 Stone Collecting Trip – Part 22, More from My Slope Point Visit, Monday 24 March, Post 2 of 2

The 50 “extra” finds.

The waves moving back down the beach.

I discovered on Tuesday that I had missed a bag of stones I had collected from Slope Point when doing the previous Post. So I had another 50 Slope Point stones to add to the original 85. Below are photos of 12 of them.

The first one is a light-coloured rhyolite with interesting spherical-like features in it:

This much darker rhyolite has interesting lines/bands:

The shapes of the tiny crystals in the next stone are fascinating:

More tiny fascinating crystals, this time in a small dark stone:

There’s a lot packed into this stone, lots of detail:

I’ve collected three or four stones like the next one from Slope Point before. I love the tiny bits in it, a diversity of types of crystals:

The crystals in this stone remind me of bursting fireworks in the sky:

The patterns in this stone are quite unusual:

Other side of stone.

The final four finds featured here:

Part 23 is entitled “Here is bigger than you can imagine: A Tectonically Stressed Find from Gemstone Beach and an Afternoon Earthquake”. An Index to this Series is here.

March 2025 Stone Collecting Trip – Part 21, Visiting Slope Point Again, Monday 24 March, Post 1 of 2

85 of my Slope Point finds.

Small petrified wood pebble, Slope Point.

Slope Point beauty.

Agate, Slope Point.

I drove the 90 minutes over to Slope Point this morning, the southernmost part of the South Island. I had also visited there two weeks ago. I took the chance to check out the new public toilets and information shelter at the tourist carpark. These photos were taken on my phone, often quickly because of the number of people around:

A busy tourist carpark at Slope Point.

The new Information Shelter.

People walking across the paddocks to Slope Point itself.

Part of the timeline in the Information Shelter.

Seven people are acknowledged here.

The new public toilets at the Slope Point tourist carpark – two cubicles.

The view from the tourist carpark to the beach I visited – it lies behind the headland indicated by the arrow.

There are always unusual stones to be found at Slope Point, very different from Gemstone Beach. I spent just over two hours on a beach there, arriving at high tide. Despite the beach being only about 250 metres long, there’s a lot of stones there. Again, the photos below were taken on my phone.

The beach I visited – the waves moving onto the beach…

The waves moving back down the beach.

Powerful waves crashing against the rocks at Slope Point.

Slope Point itself can be seen ahead in the distance.

Slope Point beach stones.

85 of my Slope Point finds.

The waves were powerful, the weather coolish but sunny. I had a productive fossick, and collected just over 130 stones. This Post features 22 stones taken from a group of 85, the first bags I emptied when I go back to my accommodation.

The first is a bright colourful stone that easily caught my eye on the beach:

Slope Point beauty.

I was pleased to find this small petrified wood pebble. A lot of Slope Point petrified wood is black but there are some really nice non-black pieces to be found there too. This stone has enough light brown in it to make it really interesting:

Small petrified wood pebble, Slope Point.

Another side of the pebble.

A third side of the pebble.

The next stone was a totally unexpected find. It appears to be a type of agate (chalcedony). I’ve not seen anything like it at Slope Point before (or anywhere else, for that matter):

Agate, Slope Point.

Another light-coloured stone, appearing to have a lot of quartz in it? On the beach, I could see lots of tiny features in it:

Another unusual stone, with intriguing shapes in it:

I picked up the next stone because of the interesting different-coloured patch in the middle of it:

Two stones with green in them – the first with a little white in it, the second with a lot of black:

When I picked up the next stone, I thought it was simply a quartz stone, with bits and pieces of quartz in it. More careful examination reveals that it is a breccia, made up of tiny fragments of different rocks:

There are a range of types of breccia stones that can be found at Slope Point. Here are other breccias I picked up:

Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish between clasts (tiny fragments of rock) in breccia and crystals in volcanic stones, but I think the above five are all breccia.

Next are four of my finds that looked fairly regular in their composition, though the close-up photos often reveal unexpected details. Usually the tiny features are crystals:

Four stones that I think are likely to be rhyolite:

The next Post features more stones from this trip to Slope Point. An Index to this Series is here.

March 2025 Stone Collecting Trip – Part 20, With the Southland Geological and Lapidary Club on Gemstone Beach, Sunday 23 March

Me (left) with Lois and George, Club members. Photo by Andrew Thompson-Davies from his phone. Gemstone Beach.

My 50 finds today, Gemstone Beach.

The Southland Geological and Lapidary Club had a field trip to Gemstone Beach this morning. I became a member when the Club was revived recently, despite the fact that I live in the North Island. The first Club meeting I attended six months ago is reported here. So I was pleased to be able to be take part in their field trip. About ten members were there, most of us not straying too far from the Taunoa Stream. I had some great chats with fellow stone enthusiasts from the Club. It was a warm and sunny morning, and the tide was retreating. When we finished up around 12 noon, there were lots of people in front of the carpark – it’s a popular beach.

A nice patch of stones on the beach in front of the carpark.

Me (right) with George, a Club member. Photo by Andrew Thompson-Davies from his phone.

Me (left) with Lois and George, Club members. Photo by Andrew Thompson-Davies from his phone. Gemstone Beach.

When leaving the beach, the view towards the Taunoa Stream – southeastern Fiordland in the far distance. There w

Looking across The Stream With No Name when leaving the beach. Pahia Hill in the background.

My 50 finds today, Gemstone Beach.

In between chats, I picked up 50 stones to take away. Seven of them are featured below.

The first is an unusual stone. It is more glassy than it looks in the photos below. I initially thought it might be a glassy form of hydrogrossular garnet. A Club member, who is a geologist and works for a Museum, suggested it is chromite (chromium?) in quartz, a type of stone I have seen mentioned before.

A small thulite, with some tiny intense pink areas:

A kind of brecciated jasper:

A small black volcanic stone, maybe basalt, with interesting white crystals:

A very bright dark jasper that I found in the Taunoa Stream – one side has a chunk out it, a spoiler for a tumble polisher, but I couldn’t resist picking it up:

A much more subdued-hued pebble:

Finally, a busy trace fossil stone, both sides showing numerous traces:

A visit to Slope Point is the subject of the next Post. An Index to this Series is here.

March 2025 Stone Collecting Trip – Part 18, Fossick Twelve on Gemstone Beach, Thursday 20 March

Wendy and Rudy, Gemstone Beach.

My Gemstone Beach finds today.

A mudstone that was crushed then flooded with green epidote.

My time on Gemstone Beach today was three and a half hours, arriving on a sunny morning at 9am, a couple of hours before low tide. The temperature started off at nine degrees but reached about 18 degrees by noon. There is still a lot of sand on the beach, and I initially searched among the stones closest to the cliffs to the west of the Taunoa Stream. These stones were all wet from overnight dew and I found some good ones there, including a very nice hydrogrossular garnet and one of the larger poppy jaspers I have yet collected. NOTE: I later worked out this was my 11th fossick this trip to Gemstone Beach, not my 12th!

The Taunoa Stream – highish but fordable for me.

Lots of sand on the other side of the stream.

The stones near the cliffs – when wet, as they were today, they can provide interesting specimens.

Gemstone Beach stones, in the shade near the cliffs.

An area where I found some interesting stones.

Hunting stones can sometimes be a solitary activity – just you, the stones, the waves and the weather. Other times, it can be a social event, going with a companion or meeting up with other people. Today it was more of a social event for me. Down near the Waimeamea River, I encountered a couple of fossickers who turned out to live in Taranaki. Rudy was originally from Germany and Wendy, a Kiwi, is a keen reader of this TumbleStone blog, so she was interested to meet me. I spent some time with them and we managed to cross the Waimeamea River, which is still flowing across the beach. I carried on to the end of the lagoon before turning around. On my way back to the carpark, I ran into Shona, Lee and Brian, on their last day at Gemstone Beach (they have been based down here for seven days). Closer to the Taunoa Stream, I stopped to chat with a man from Westport who had stopped off at Gemstone Beach to find a stone to take back to his granddaughter.

The local gold miner on his way over the Taunoa Stream, his fox terrier trotting along behind.

Wendy and Rudy, Gemstone Beach.

In front of the carpark at the end of the fossick.

My Gemstone Beach finds today.

Below are photos of seven finds. The first is another small jasper with spectacular patterns:

The poppy jasper I found near the cliffs – the poppies (orbs) are not the most impressive but still a good find. And, found not far away, a nice white hydrogrossular garnet:

Poppy jasper.

Hydrogrossular garnet.

I picked up the next stone because of the white lightning on a dark background. While taking its photo, I decided it could very well be a hydrogrossular garnet:

Two different types of brecciated stone with green epidote in them. The first one may not tumble polish well as there is quite a hollow in it, but it is so vibrant that I think it’s worth trying:

A mudstone that was crushed then flooded with green epidote.

Maybe a brecciated quartzite.

Finally, a largish trace fossil stone with dark traces:

Part 19 is entitled “A Quad Bike, Seven Dogs and Two Horses on Gemstone Beach”. An Index to this Series is here.

March 2025 Stone Collecting Trip – Part 19, A Quad Bike, Seven Dogs and Two Horses on Gemstone Beach, Saturday 22 March

Rich and son at the Waimeamea River mouth.

Today’s finds.

Thulite or rhodonite?

On Gemstone Beach this morning, I found a few more interesting stones than on previous days. Many of them were small, which is fine for a tumble polisher like me. Maybe the sea had been turning the stones over more than usual. As a result I came back with a few more finds today. The Waimeamea River has gone right down and was easy to cross at a narrow point. When I got there, a quad bike came along. I spoke with Rich and his son, local people who were checking out the state of the beach. Rich told me that a younger son had recently been doing some tumble polishing, so we discussed some of the technical aspects of tumbling for a while.

The Taunoa Stream, wide and shallow. There was good fossicking here.

Rich and son at the Waimeamea River mouth.

Today’s finds.

I turned around at the far end of the Waimeamea Lagoon. When I arrived back at the carpark, there were quite a few people on the beach as well as seven dogs, and two horses nervously came through carrying their riders.

Eleven of my finds from today are featured below. The first two have some pink in them. I think the first is thulite but the darker material at the top might mean it is rhodonite. The second is a small jasper with some quartz in it.

Thulite or rhodonite?

Small jasper with some quartz.

Three more small red jaspers: the first has a lot of tiny detail, the second has a kind of fuzzy character, and the third is a type of poppy jasper:

Two trace fossil stones, one red, the other green, the latter having maybe the tiniest traces I have seen:

Red trace fossil in red argillite.

Tiny trace fossils in green argillite.

Two green brecciated stones:

The first of the two final stones is likely to be a rhyolite – the cross-cutting strands caught my eye. The last one has tiny intriguing white squiggles.

Rhyolite.

Part 20 reports on a field trip to Gemstone Beach with the Southland Geological and Lapidary Club. An Index to this Series is here.

March 2025 Stone Collecting Trip – Part 17, A Tiny Gorgeous Patterned Jasper, Gemstone Beach, Wednesday 19 March

The fossickers down near the Waimeamea River this morning.

My 50 finds today.

Tiny jasper.

At Gemstone Beach this morning, it was possible to ford the Taunoa Stream again. I ran into Shona, Lee and Brian further down the beach – they’ve been down here from Pahiatua for nearly a week. They seem to be finding some very good stones now. At one stage there were seven of us fossickers down near the Waimeamea River – six of them I know live in the North Island (don’t know about the seventh).

The Taunoa Stream this morning.

The Waimeamea River today, still too swift and deep for me to cross in my gumboots.

The Waimeamea River meeting the sea.

The fossickers down near the Waimeamea River this morning.

People on Gemstone Beach in front of the carpark.

My 50 finds today.

Shona found a really interesting glassy variation of hydrogrossular garnet (photos below) which I have called the seventh type – see my June 2022 Post “Hydrogrossular Garnet”. [Later I wondered whether it could be chromite in quartz…] Lee kindly gave me a very good trace fossil stone she found.

One side of Shona’s “glassy” hydrogrossular garnet.

Other side of Shona’s “glassy” hydrogrossular garnet.

The gorgeous trace fossil stone that Lee kindly gave me.

I took home 50 finds today, seven of them featured below. The best stone I found was a tiny, one centimetre long, hematite poppy jasper, the size of my small fingernail. The patterns within it are amazing:

Tiny jasper.

Another side of tiny jasper.

When I picked it up on the beach, I thought there was something going on inside it but couldn’t really tell with the naked eye. The photos revealed a special composition.

This stone caught my eye because of the tiny quartz pieces in it. I think the light green is likely to be epidote:

A similar stone, but with more black in it this time:

There’s a lot more epidote in the next find, and the green vein caught my eye on the beach:

Another way that epidote can be present in a stone:

Many trace fossils on Gemstone Beach are to be found in greenish argillite, again with epidote providing the green hue:

This argillite, with interesting patterns, could have epidote in it but there’s a blue tinge in there:

A small light-brown trace fossil stone, with nice traces on both sides:

What is likely to be a thulite:

Finally, the best of today’s hydrogrossular finds for me:

For those interested, this Post contains a brief discussion of the colour green and the minerals that cause green in stones, including epidote.

Part 18 features seven stones from my 12th fossick on Gemstone Beach this month. An Index to this Series is here.

March 2025 Stone Collecting Trip – Part 16, Fossicking East of the Taunoa Stream, Gemstone Beach, Tuesday 18 March

The Taunoa Stream flowing too deep and swift for me to cross this morning.

This morning’s 47 finds from Gemstone Beach.

Thulite.

Yesterday I travelled to a dentist in Gore who treated a sore tooth for me. It also rained a lot in Southland yesterday, so when I visited Gemstone Beach this morning I anticipated it might be difficult to cross the Taunoa Stream. This turned out to be the case, even though it was low tide and the stream is at its most shallow as it then enters the sea. It was a cold morning, nine degrees when I arrived, but some light rain had just died out. I fossicked between the carpark and the Taunoa Stream, where there were a couple of new large patches of stones. I also crossed The Stream With No Name and walked for about 350 metres eastwards, towards Monkey Island – there were scatterings of stones in this area. The “unnamed stream” on the aerial photo near the start of this Post is The Stream With No Name. A few other people were on the beach despite the cold weather. One vehicle actually drove over soft sand to park on the bank of the Taunoa Stream. One couple I talked to came from Munich in Germany. When I left at 11am, with 47 finds for tumble polishing, the temperature had risen to only 11 degrees. Among the seven finds featured below is a small pink thulite found in The Stream With No Name.

The vehicle parked on Gemstone Beach near the Taunoa Stream, about 200 metres from the carpark.

The Taunoa Stream flowing too deep and swift for me to cross this morning.

The Stream With No Name is a much smaller stream the flows across the beach just to the left of the carpark. A couple of newly deposited patches of stones could be found on either side of the stream.

One of the new patches of stones.

Four of the people on Gemstone Beach this morning, checking out the stones. They are just over the other side of the small Stream With No Name.

Scatterings of stones along the beach, east of the carpark.

This morning’s 47 finds from Gemstone Beach.

The pink thulite I found is very similar to January 2022, Stone of the Day #5 – there’s also some information in that Post on thulite. Thulite is the national gemstone of Norway where it was first discovered in 1820.

Thulite.

Other side of thulite stone.

Next is a larger stone which has an intriguing texture – the green in it will be epidote:

Other side of stone.

Geology.com has a good introduction to epidote, though a bit technical in places.

It was the bright white in this stone that initially caught my eye:

Other side of stone.

I like the interesting veins in this white stone:

The small white crystals give significant added interest to this brown stone, which has a slightly different brown dominating each side:

The last two stones are a green brecciated one and another white one, probably a quartzite, with interesting veins:

Part 17 features a tiny gorgeous patterned jasper found on Gemstone Beach. An Index to this Series is here.

March 2025 Stone Collecting Trip – Part 15, Colours and Shapes from Gemstone Beach, Saturday 15 March

At Gemstone Beach yesterday, a few people had crossed the Taunoa Stream, walking westwards.

Today’s 75 finds from Gemstone Beach.

Brecciation in vein.

Interesting colours and swirls.

Banded argillite.

Today I spent two and a half hours on Gemstone Beach on a sunny though windy afternoon, just after high tide. I was accompanied by Chrissy, Shona, Lee and Brian, the same group as yesterday, minus Ohla the dog. As it was the weekend, a lot of other people were there too. Many of them had crossed the Taunoa Stream and were wandering further westwards along the beach. The tide was high but going out. Chrissy left early and when I turned back, Shona, Lee and Brian pushed on towards the Waimeamea River. On the way back to the car, I chatted with a young German couple who are at university in Dunedin, leaving them with a polished stone as a souvenir. I came away with 75 finds, nine of which are shown below.

At Gemstone Beach yesterday, a few people had crossed the Taunoa Stream, walking westwards.

Later in the fossick, looking back towards the carpark. Chrissy is on far left, with the orange backpack, having to leave early.

Today’s 75 finds from Gemstone Beach.

A stone I particularly like is this small light-green one with some tiny brecciation in one of its veins. It is interesting when stones reveal more and more as you look closer at them:

Brecciation in vein.

Other side of stone.

Another of my favourites, this stone (below) has colours and shapes that caught my eye. Nicola, in a comment made on the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”, observed that it looks like a Persian rug (I met Nicola and her rock buddy Angie when they visited the South two years ago):

Interesting colours and swirls.

Other side of stone.

The colours and shapes in the next stone are smaller:

The fourth featured find is a very small orbicular hematite jasper, also known as a poppy jasper. However, I didn’t confirm its identification until I looked at its photos as much of it is dark and it is very small:

Very small orbicular jasper.

A view of the orbs.

One of the types of stones that stand out on the beach is banded argillite, especially the variety that has a glazed (semi-melted) look:

Banded argillite.

I suspected this next small stone had something interesting in it but I knew I needed to look at a close-up photo to see. It turns out to have some brecciation (fragmentation):

Three final finds, a green stone with tiny white specks, a black and white spotted stone, and some more irregular shapes:

Tiny white specks in this stone.

Black and white spots.

Shapes.

Part 16 features a fossick at Gemstone Beach after a significant rainfall. An Index to this Series is here.

March 2025 Stone Collecting Trip – Part 14, Five Fossickers, a Dog and Petrified Wood on Gemstone Beach, Friday 14 March

Chrissy and Ohla at the Waimeamea River mouth today.

My Gemstone Beach finds today.

Petrified wood, wet, Gemstone Beach.

Trace fossils in argillite.

Other side of mudstone breccia.

I spent three hours on Gemstone Beach this morning with Chrissy, Shona, Lee and Brian, and Chrissy’s dog Ohla. Shona, Lee and Brian live in or near Pahiatua in the North Island. Shona and Lee are fellow members of the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils” and I met them before while down South, two years ago.

Chrissy and I are members of the Southland Geological and Lapidary Club and attended their monthly meeting in Invercargill last night. I had spoken to the Club six months ago. Last night, a healthy turnout of nearly 20 members brought along recent finds and polished stones. There were stones from Stewart Island Rakiura, Ashburton and Gemstone Beach, as well as from a recent fieldtrip the Club had made to Hedgehope. One member, Lois, had the best trace fossil I have seen, found on Riverton’s Back Beach. Another member had been busy making gorgeous pendants. There was a sales table there, which included a nice slice of spherulitic rhyolite. Some of the Club’s library books were also set out on a table. The Club’s website is here and its Facebook Page is here.

This morning, on Gemstone Beach, it started out cool but was sunny and we were quite warm at the end. A school party was on the beach in front of the carpark at noon – counting us, there were 30 people (and three dogs) there. My 50 finds included a piece of petrified wood, rare for Gemstone Beach. It is the first of the ten of my finds featured below.

The other four of today’s stone hunting party.

Chrissy and Ohla at the Waimeamea River mouth today.

Ohla the dog. Gemstone Beach.

On the way back to the carpark. Five fossickers on Gemstone Beach.

At the end of the fossick, about 25 people on the beach, including a school group.

My Gemstone Beach finds today.

I picked this stone up when dry, and I’m not sure why. When wet, it started to look like it might be petrified wood, a rare find on Gemstone Beach these days. One side has a gash in it: