August 2025 Stone Collecting Trip – Part 15, With Ohla on Gemstone Beach, Thursday 21 August

Chrissy and Ohla and I arrived at Gemstone Beach at 3pm today, two hours before low tide. There were four other cars there when we arrived, relatively busy for a Thursday afternoon in winter. We forded the Taunoa Stream and made it down to the Waimeamea River, reaching there about 5pm before turning around. Ohla enjoyed the outing, and we enjoyed her company.

The stones seemed to have been stirred up by the waves recently so that a good mix were on the surface. In places, the sand at the back of the beach had been piled higher. We found a few more trace fossil stones than in previous fossicks. I picked up a large banded argillite. Chrissy found quite a few small hydrogrossular garnets and one poppy jasper, the only one we saw during the afternoon. The sun was quite low by the time we got back to the carpark.

I found a large but smooth stone that I thought Nicola from Hawkes Bay might like as she cuts stones – she will be coming down here in a few weeks’ time.

I picked up a small veined mudstone beacuse of the tiny fragment in the thickest vein on one side:

I really like the light blue hue of this type of stone often seen on Gemstone Beach:

A small find with some intense green in it:

Four others with green in them:

Chrissy’s very small poppy jasper…

…and my large banded argillite:

Four other finds:

When I first saw this next stone, I wasn’t sure if maybe there were trace fossils in it. It seems to be an argillite that has been “baked” a little. The close-up photos confirm that traces are there:

Four other stones with trace fossils showing the great variety that can be found:

This was my second-last fossick on Gemstone Beach this trip. It will soon be time to say good-bye to Chrissy and Mike and Ohla who have put up with me for three weeks.

The next Post in this Series is on a fossick on Papatotara Beach, featuring a large thulite found by Chrissy. The Index to the Series is here.