I left home in Whanganui yesterday to catch a Bluebridge Cook Strait ferry in Wellington. The crossing was nice and smoooth, and during it I watched the All Whites World Cup football game against Egypt (the All Whites won the first half but lost the second, and the game). On this trip, I will be visiting favourite South Island beaches but have two other important tasks. Firstly, I will be working with Chrissy on an advanced draft of our book on the stones of Gemstone Beach. Secondly, I will be taking part in the Open Day of the Southland Geological and Lapidary Club in Invercargill on 11 July.
My first stop, as always, is Ward in Marlborough, checking into Ian and Ronnie’s Flaxbourne Motels for two nights. Unfortunately I just missed Lee and Shona, who I had previously met in March 2023 and again in March 2025 – they are going south to do some house-sitting in Canterbury. Today I visited Ward Beach for an hour at high tide, during a cool sunny afternoon with a stiff wind blowing. I walked south to the mouth of the Flaxbourne River and back, collecting 21 stones. I worked hard at not picking up too many as I am on my way south and they will be travelling all of the way with me.
I visited at high tide because the larger stones, most suitable for tumble polishing, tend to be found (wet) at the high tide mark. Today there were lots of such stones there, more than usual it seemed, though the strong waves sweeping up the gravel meant I had to take care during the fossick. I didn’t want to get caught by a wave half way down the bank – and I didn’t.
Six of today’s finds are featured below. The first is the largest trace fossil (in limestone) I have seen on Ward Beach:
The second is a small white stone (again limestone?) with dendrites, thin, branching lines of crystals, often of some variety of manganese oxide (or iron), that grow over a surface in a rock or mineral:
Four other examples of Ward Beach dendritic stones can be found here.
My third featured find is one I find fascinating, having collected a couple on previous fossicks (e.g., in February 2025) – the tiny white crystals in it are hardly discernable to the naked eye:
I also found the following type of brecciated stone to be fascinating – it may be limestone. Brecciation refers to the fragmentation and re-cementing of a stone, often with something like quartz or chalcedony in the gaps:
There’s an explanation of breccia at the start of this Post (in the discussion of Stone #6).
I collected the fifth featured stone because of the two different textures in it, arising from the different sizes of its black crystals – I find such a contrast to be interesting:
I suspect the final stone is quartz with iron oxide colouring it. However it caught my eye because the colour seems muted:
I continue south tomorrow morning. My next fossick will be at Kakanui in North Otago. An Index to this Series of Posts can be found here.
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