Yesterday I drove to Oamaru in North Otago. I arranged to meet Lee and Shona on Seadown Beach at 11am this morning just after high tide – they are spending a few weeks house-sitting in South Canterbury. It was a cold morning, only 9 degrees, but fortunately there was no wind on the beach. I was able to give Lee and Shona the last two of my 2026 TumbleStone Calendars. We spent just under two hours looking among the scattered stones above the high tide mark. Later at mid-afternoon I returned by myself at low tide for 45 minutes to check out the stones among the rocks at the south end. When I left, I passed one brave person who had ventured onto the beach in front of the parking area to do some finshing.
I first met Lee and Shona, from the Wairarapa, on Gemstone Beach in March 2023 and again in March 2025. When I arrived at Seadown Beach, a large seal was emerging from the water and hauling itself up the beach. So we made sure we gave it a wide berth.
When I came back at 3.45pm, the seal remained lounging at the back of the beach, so I carefully walked past it along at the water’s edge, a good 50 metres away. I found some nice patches of stones in the first three bays amidst the rocks.
The following features ten finds from my two fossicks today. The first is an excellent specimen of petrified wood that was sitting quite prominently on top of some and in one of the rock bays. It looks more interesting when wet than dry. On the second side is a couple of small orange patches:
The light purple colour in the next stone caught my eye, though it is mainly on one side:
An interesting quartz:
The lines in this small stone caught my eye:
Whenever I visit Seadown Beach, I look for stones of fossiliferous limestone with tiny fossil shells in them. This one is the best of the half-dozen I collected today:
I also found a few of the attractive yellow quartzites that are common here. This one has less colour but on one side has a large clear piece of quartz:
The other side of the same stone, with a tiny orange patch:
Another quartzite with quartz fragments in it:
Initially I wasn’t sure if this stone was a quartzite or not but the close-up images reveal tiny quartz fragments in it:
A stone that turns out to be similar under close-up:
Finally, a denser variation with mixed yellow and orange hues:
I took the photos of these finds on the side of the road on my way to Timaru the next day. The sun came out then and there were few clouds to interrupt it so I grabbed the opportunity.
The next Post in this Series reports on a fossick on a beach just south of Timaru. An Index to the Series is available here.
Good enjoyable read with an early morning cup of tea.