TumbleStone Calendar 2026: May – Kakanui Quartzites I

The Introduction to this Calendar can be found here. 

The month of May in the 2026 TumbleStone Calendar features five quartzite stones from Seadown Beach, Kakanui, North Otago. Quartzite is a hard, metamorphic rock that forms when a quartz-rich sandstone is subjected to high heat and pressure over time. This process causes the quartz grains in the sandstone to fuse together, creating a dense, durable rock. According to most definitions, quartzite is composed of more than 90% quartz. One of the characteristics of most of these Kakanui quartzites is the tiny clear quartz crystals or fragments that become visible in close-up photos. There is such a diversity in the colours and patterns of the quartzites to be found on Seadown Beach that there are enough for the month of October as well – some of the diversity can be seen here and in this Post.

Stone One (top row, left, in the Calendar) lacks the colour that many Seadown Beach’s quartzites have, though it contains intriguing clouds and swirls:

Another variation of the grey neutral-hued quartzite can be found in this Post. I found Stone One in the morning of 30 September 2024.

A dash of yellow and red feature in Stone Two (top row, right, in the Calendar):

It was picked up on the afternoon of 1 March 2025, along with a number of other quartzites.

Many of Seadown Beach’s quartzites are yellow. Stone Three (bottom row, left, in the Calendar) is an interesting yellow variant with light and dark patches giving the appearance of layers of clouds:

This type of quartzite is the most attractive to my eye. I found Stone Three on 16 February 2024.

Stone Four (bottom row, centre, in the Calendar), found on 30 July 2025, has red dominating two-thirds of it – again, the colour appears in cloud-like formations:

And Stone Five (bottom row, right, in the Calendar) has significant red throughout:

It was 25 August 2025 that I came across Stone Five.

These 2026 Calendars are for sale, with postage within New Zealand included, for $35 non-rural, $40 rural. Two Calendars to the same address cost $60 non-rural, $65 rural. Three Calendars to the same address cost $85 non-rural, $90 rural. Email me at john.tumblestone@gmail.com.

For June’s black and white igneous stones, see this Post.