I reached Seadown Beach, just north of Kakanui, at 2pm this afternoon after a long drive from the south coast of Southland. It was raining during the first hour or two of the drive but scattered showers then dominated. At Seadown Beach, the tide was high but there were a lot of stones high up the beach, wet from the waves or from recent rain. This was especially the case among the rocks at the south end of the beach, where the stones have been piled higher than I have seen before.
The sea must have recently been turning the stones over and churning them up because I had a very productive hour-long fossick. I found an amazing range of quartzites but a number of other very colourful and patterned stones as well, plus a piece of petrified wood.
This is the petrified wood, a relatively rare find for me on Seadown Beach:
There are links to other specimens of petrified wood I have found on this beach here.
I think this next stone is what is known locally as limonite prase:
One side of this stone looks like plain quartz but the other side is far from plain:
A colourful orange stone with different patterns on different sides:
Another orange find, this one with some brecciation (tiny fragmentation):
These are seven of the quartzites I collected, quite a diverse lot:
I kept my eye open for the brown stones that sometimes contain tiny bryozoan fossils – this is the best candidate but I can’t clearly see such fossils in it:
And finally, an interesting mix of colours:
I return to Seadown Beach tomorrow. An Index to this Series is here.
Gosh you did pick up some absolute stunners! You’ve almost convinced me to go back again …