Chrissy and I arrived at Gemstone Beach at 11.30am, at low tide. Quite a few other people were there, despite the cold – it was only four degrees when we started and seven degrees when we left, two hours later. But it was sunny and there was no wind.
We walked down to the Waimeamea River, finding about six other people already down there. We chatted to one who is a long-time rockhound who also crafts stone pendants. I collected 28 stones, seven being featured below.
I initially thought this first stone was what is known as pink granite, its pink/orange hue (sometimes referred to as salmon) due to the presence of potassium (orthoclase) feldspar. But there appeared to be some unusual spots in it, along with some small patches of green epidote. The close-up photos revealed more:
My suspicion is that this might be pink granite that has been subject to some metamorphic processes, introducing epidote along with some re-formed minerals clustering into spots and other shapes.
Next is a very small chromite in quartz stone, a glassy stone with green through it. There are some interesting “clouds” in it:
Third is a small grey translucent hydrogrossular garnet – this was the first stone I picked up today, at the water’s edge right in front of the carpark:
Another small stone, a dark one, that has some brecciation of light-coloured material on one edge:
Another interesting small jasper from this beach, seemingly made up of tiny wriggles:
A recent Post featured other interesting small Gemstone Beach jaspers.
Sixth is one of my favourite stones, a trace fossil in argillite, this one with nice strong traces in it:
The final featured find is another jasper, which has a little green epidote patch showing through on one side:
My next fossick will be on Papatotara Beach. An Index to the Posts in this Series is available here.
