June-July 2026 South Island Trip – Part 5, An Outstanding Poppy Jasper Find, Papatotara Beach, Friday 3 July

Papatotara Beach is located a few kilometres west of Gemstone Beach. It lies just a few hundred metres from Mike and Chrissy’s place where I am staying. The stones here are similar in a number of ways to those on Gemstone Beach but they are generally not as sea-worn smooth and there is less diversity. Usually I manage to find four or five nice specimens each fossick (see the bottom of this Post for a list of my other fossicks at Papatotara Beach).

The tide was relatively high when I arrived at 3pm. It was cloudy with a medium wind throughout my one and a half hours there, the temperature being a comfortable 15 degrees. I walked westwards, in the direction of the mouth of the Waiau River and Gemstone Beach.

The Fiordland moutains to the west.

The track down to the beach.

Looking west.

Looking east, the direction I walked.

The stones on the beach.

Later in the fossick, the clouds got darker.

I took away only 13 finds but the time was well-spent because of the unusual poppy jasper I found. I glimpsed it out of the corner of my eye, half buried, about 30 minutes after starting.

Papatotara Beach stones.

Papatotara Beach stones.

My 13 finds this afternoon.

It’s been very cold in Southland, with a lot of rain and wind. It didn’t calm down until Monday, three days later, and the sun came out at noon for 15 minutes, enabling me to take photos of these finds.

The orbs in the poppy jasper are slightly higher than the rest of the stone:

One side of the poppy jasper.

A view of the stone from a different side – there’s other interesting bits in there:

Another side of the poppy jasper.

Part of the stone is other material, light green in colour:

Poppy jasper from a third perspective.

There’s an explanation of poppy (orbicular) jasper in this Post, along with specimens illustrating some of the variations I have come across.

Two other finds today: the first is a white quartz stone:

Papatotara Beach quartz stone.

And an igneous stone – I love the variety of crystals that can be seen in these:

This could be a plutonic stone, given the size of the crystals, but I don’t know enough to guess at what specific type it is likely to be.

My five past Fossicks on Papatotara Beach (in chronological order):
18 March 2023
15 & 16 August 2025 (including directions to the beach and featuring a green hydrogrossular garnet, five poppy jaspers and a thulite stone)
23 August 2025
20 March 2026

The next Post is on another Gemstone Beach fossick. An Index to this Series is available 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