K is for Kai Iwi Beach Stone

This is my eleventh contribution to the current Alphabetical Series in the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. In the 2021 version of this Series I also posted “K is for Kai Iwi Beach Stone”, though it was a different stone.

K is for Kai Iwi Beach Stone

Iron stained quartz.

Jasper the dog on Kai Iwi Beach.

Jasper looking up at the pigeons sitting on the stack.

Kai Iwi Beach as sun sets.

I sometimes take Jasper the dog for a walk on nearby Kai Iwi Beach, about 12 kilometres north of Whanganui. The beach is much better known for fossils than stones, the fossils coming from the crumbling cliffs. In fact, there aren’t many stones there, mainly a light scattering on patches of the beach. But somehow whenever I’m on a beach, my eyes look for stones that can fit into a tumbling barrel. I usually come away with up to a dozen. The vast majority of them seem to be iron stained quartz, like this one, which I recently tumble polished. See “The Iron-Stained Stones of Kai-Iwi Beach”. The dog loves the beach – it provides him with lots of things to explore and plenty of running opportunities, as well as a chance to meet up and play briefly with other dogs. Photos of the beach above were taken on my phone.

The next Post in this Series is “L is for Leithfield Beach ‘Looker’”. An Index for this Alphabetical Series is here.

Author: tumblestoneblog

Retired Academic, male, living in the New Zealand countryside near Whanganui with his wife as well as Jasper the dog, Fluffy the cat, Dancer and Penny, the horses, and a shed half-full of stones. Email john.tumblestone@gmail.com. View all posts by tumblestoneblog