March 2026 Stone Collecting Trip – Part 13, Fossick on Riverton Aparima’s Beach Past the Back Beach, Saturday 28 March

In Riverton Aparima, the “Rocks Highway” ends at the Back Beach but there is a walking track over the dunes to another beach with stones. I call it The Beach Past the Back Beach. Some details about this beach can be found in the entry for Day 14, Tuesday 2 March 2021 in this Post. I arrived there about 1pm and spent an hour looking among the rocks at the eastern end of the beach.

At the top of the track over the dunes, looking down on The Beach Past the Back Beach.

Stones on The Beach Past the Back Beach.

At the eastern end of the beach are lots of rocks with lots of pockets of stones, some quite large.

A while after I arrived, a husband and wife and three young children with their grandfather also appeared on the beach. I chatted with them for a while, explaining what I was doing and showing them different stones. They were a Southland family enjoying an outing, and they mentioned they also visited Gemstone Beach. Liam, the husband, walked away and then came back with a small stone to give to me. It turned out to be a poppy jasper!

Liam’s small poppy jasper.

Other side of Liam’s small poppy jasper.

I told Liam I would send him some of my polished Gemstone Beach stones once I got home, including a poppy jasper.

Twelve other stones I found this afternoon… The first is an interesting partially-transparent orange one with tiny inclusions:

Small orange stone.

Held up to light.

And a small opaque black stone with orange crystals:

This next stone appears to be a colourful breccia:

Breccia.

These tiny elongated crystals caught my eye:

A green quartzite with some intriguing thin veins:

Quartzite.

The vein running across this stone also attracted my attention:

At one point I looked down and saw this stone grinning up at me – a grey banded argillite, with a drooped sediment layer and a small stress line:

Banded argillite.

There are usually a few trace fossils in argillite along this stretch of the coast – this stone was the best I found here this afternoon:

Trace fossils in argillite.

Two small hydrogrossular garnets, one mainly white, the other white and black:

Small hydrogrossular garnet.

Another small stone containing some hydrogrossular garnet.

These are very rare on Riverton Aparima beaches but the occasional one can be found – they are, of course, much more common on Gemstone Beach.

I also found another small poppy jasper to keep company with Liam’s find – though this one is not as well formed:

Poppy jasper.

Other side of poppy jasper.

And the, taking my last step off the beach, I saw this stone with a couple of red spots – it could be a third poppy jasper but again it is not well formed:

Poppy jasper?

Other side of stone.

My next fossick is at Kakanui on my way back north. An Index to this 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