On Monday and Tuesday this week, Chrissy and I worked on our book “What’s This Stone: A Photographic Collection of Finds From Gemstone Beach”. I then got sick on Wednesday with a bad cold initially combined with a migraine. On Thursday, despite my condition, we managed to finish a complete draft of the book. We then did some checking, editing and layout tweaks on Friday and Saturday. Chrissy has worked long and hard to wrestle the pages into shape. The book draft is now being checked and proof-read by others. On Sunday Chrissy and I went for a fossick on Gemstone Beach, reported below, and the next day I packed up to head back north after watching the World Cup football final, the last half-hour with Mike.
The other happening this week occurred on Thursday night, when an earthquake produced a long period of rocking. It was one of the biggest quakes felt in the south for a while. The magnitude 5.9 event was located about 40 kilometres north of Te Anau, which is about 140 kilometres north of us. A tsunami warning was issued but later withdrawn, This was another reason to stay away from the beach for at least a couple of days.
Chrissy and I arrived at Gemstone Beach at 11.30 am, the temperature being nine degrees. There were five cars and one campervan in the carpark. The earthquake-agitated sea had wrought some changes. The sand in front of the carpark along to the Taunoa Stream was very smooth and rose subtly but consistently to the back of the beach in a way I had not noticed before. Across the Taunoa Stream, sand had been removed so that the previously noted three patches of stones (described here) had expanded by maybe five or six times. And the mix of stones was greater, with quite a few interesting ones among them. We spent two hours on the beach, mainly in this area, deciding not to walk all the way down to the Waimeamea River. We found a handful of good hydrogrossular garnets. I came away with 66 finds in all.
Chrissy found the best hydrogrossular garnet, just as I was chatting with people who wanted to touch one to feel its waxiness. It’s a large brown one with flashes of white, and I photographed it on the beach:
The best three that I found included a green partly transparent one:
and a white one with a clear band:
and this light tan partly transparent one:
I came across a large argillite stone with trace fossils in it. It’s such a good speciment that I decided to put it in my bag – it’s can be used to show what these stones look like in the rough:
A small banded argillite with a kind of “glazed” surface:
A different type of banded argillite which seems not to have been as “baked” as the previous one:
A small green stone with lots of interesting detail:
A small brecciated quartzite – I really like the kind of pattern to be seen in its top left quadrant:
The next small stone looks to be brecciated but I’m not sure if it’s a quartzite or jasper – it certainly has bits of quartz in it but it could be part of the matrix. Its light and dark colours make it really attractive:
Three more red ones with interesting bits, the second with an especially fascinating vein:
I thought I had found a small piece of petrified wood, a rare event on Gemstone Beach, but after closer examination I think it is more likely some kind of sedimentary stone, probably a mudstone:
This was a good fossick to end my time here. Many thanks to Chrissy and Mike for looking after me so well during my stay at their place in the south.
The next Post in this Series describes some finds from Kakanui’s Seadown Beach. An Index to the Series is available here.
One of our wonderful proofreaders has spotted a spelling mistake – Amygdaloidal title is spelt wrong! I’ve looked at that title so many times but missed it!
Look forward to the book John