I arrived at what I call Timaru South in South Canterbury at 12.40pm on a cool but sunny day. There was no-one else on the beach during the hour and three-quarters I was there, though a couple of walkers made their way along the track atop the cliffs. I walked for about a kilometre, starting in front of the carparking area and moving past Mutu Mutu Point towards Jack’s Point lighthouse.
Many of the stones on this beach tend to be a bit rougher than Kakanui and Gemstone Beach, for instance. In the past, I have especially found some nice green quartzites (see “T is for Timaru Today” in this Post) as well as a few hematite jaspers, one of which is the third entry in the TumbleStone Hall of Fame. Today, I found a few gorgeous jaspers and a wide range of quartzites, along with a couple of other nice stones. Seventeen of my finds are featured below.
The first is an excellent example of brecciated jasper with quartz:
A less stunning brecciated jasper but with a very intriguing vein along the lower part:
This next jasper has a lot of fine detail in it:
And a small very dark stone which could be a type of hematite jasper – though I debated with myself for a while whether it might be a quartzite instead:
Many of the quartzites I found were brecciated, often with intricate detail, and they displayed a wide range of different colours. Some were quite pale, like these three:
A pale quartzite with thin green and red threads:
Some were mainly green or had green threads or patches:
Others were variations of yellow, orange or red:
Finally, neither a jasper nor a quartzite, this stone is of a type I have found a couple of times before. However, what it is remains a bit of a mystery to me. This one is a soft light green in colour but I have seen it darker. It is very attractive:
A list of my previous fossicks on this beach can be found here.
The next Post in this Series covers the first of two Ward Beach fossicks I made on my way home. An Index to the Series is available here.
