Nearly all my stone collecting trips reported on TumbleStone Blog have Indexes – see “An Annotated Index of Indexes on TumbleStone Blog”. These enable me to quickly locate Posts about different beaches I have visited. I have recently been trying to work out when I first visited Ward Beach in Southern Marlborough and noticed there is no Index for one of my early trips, in 2021. So I decided to compile it now. The photos above each link give an idea of the beaches and the stones that feature in that Post.
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Okiwi Bay, looking north
Amberley Beach, looking south.
Lovely veins.
Stormwater outfall.
Kakanui Beach stones
Other side of the find of the week.
1) Days 1 to 4, 17 to 20 February – Kaikoura Coast, Amberley Beach, Leithfield Beach, Kakanui
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Gemstone Beach, area at the car park.
Gemstone Beach looking west.
Gemstone Beach, near the car park.
Interesting clear inclusions.
Pastel-coloured stone with interesting veins. Looks like rhodonite but unsure of this.
Stone 3, small trace fossil stone, with the trace raised above the surrounding argillite.
Stone 18, small but stunning.
Stone 17. Probably volcanic in origin.
The pink is a mineral called thulite.
Another “Wow!”
2) Days 5 to 6, 21 and 22 February – Gemstone Beach
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The Back Beach is at the end of the road at Howell’s Point, Riverton.
The Back Beach.
About 20 to 30 people stopped to watch.
This one will polish well.
Iron-stained quartz.
The rain made every stone on the surface wet across all of the beach.
Small but noticeable due to the colourful bands.
Trace fossils in argillite. Good sized chevron traces.
The delicate dark veins caught my attention.
A type of quartz.
3) Days 7 and 8, 23 and 24 February – Riverton’s Back Beach, Gemstone Beach
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Iron-stained stone, side a.
Tihaka Beach is on Te Araroa.
A Tihaka Beach stone, one of the few I pocketed.
Eastern side of Garden Bay.
Garden Bay stone.
A large hydrogrossular garnet, found about 500 metres from the car park.
A white stone with an interesting middle and outer swirls.
4) Days 9 and 10, 25 and 26 February – Gemstone Beach, Tihaka Beach, Garden Bay
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Looking back up at the McCracken’s Rest lookout from the beach.
Looking west, towards the Fiordland mountains.
A large pink stone – it’s about 15 cms in length. I left it on the beach, far too big for me to tumble polish and too heavy to add to my backpack.
The previous stone, but wet. Very pink. Thulite, with the pink caused by the presence of manganese.
Nicely shaped trace fossil stone, unusual colour.
High tide. Standing a couple of hundred metres west of the carpark, looking at where the Taunoa Stream crosses the beach.
Small complex-patterned stone.
Another fascinating small stone.
5) Days 11 and 12, 27 and 28 February – McCracken’s Rest, Gemstone Beach
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Later, Gemstone Beach with high powerful waves sprinting up the banks of stones. The beach near the car park is more benign though care is always required.
Other side of previous stone.
Another of those purple stones, with interesting inclusions.
I think this is a quartzite. A small stone.
Probably iron-stained quartz of some sort.
The western half of the Beach Past the Back Beach. Tihaka Beach and Colac Bay are a few kilometres further on. Most of this morning’s fossicking was behind me, to the east, amongst the rocks there.
Looking back over the hill I had just come over to get to this beach. The Back Beach is on the other side of the hill.
Interesting hue of blue.
6) Days 13 and 14, 1 and 2 March – Gemstone Beach, The Beach Past the Back Beach at Riverton
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Looking at the northeast end of the small beach near Slope Point.
A photo taken when I visited Slope Point in 2018.
Not sure what kind of stone this is – it could contain small fossils.
Some kind of fossilised forest floor or??
Gemstone Beach stones.
Very unusual construction.
Also just a big too big.
After my visit to Slope Point yesterday, I became more aware of rhyolite on Gemstone Beach.
Gorgeous jasper.
7) Days 15 and 16, 3 and 4 March – Slope Point, Gemstone Beach
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Stones in the Taunoa Stream.
One of the bigger stones I collected today.
Other side of previous stone.
Today’s trace fossil stone, a small one with nicely defined traces.
Unusual light colour, interesting inclusions.
Gemstone Beach at the car park.
Stone with hydrogrossular garnet in it.
Stunning small stone.
8) Days 17 and 18, 5 and 6 March – Gemstone Beach, Tsunami Alert
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I went as far as these rocks, which are about 800 metres along the beach.
This reasonably plain whitish quartz stone has this on its side.
Plain beach agate, not a bad size.
Fossil hash stone.
One end of the small beach near Moeraki Village.
There were seals at both ends of the beach so I did not venture further.
“Top” of seam chalcedony, dry.
The beach-tumbled chalcedony I found, dry.
9) Days 19 and 20, 7 and 8 March – Kakanui, Moeraki Village, Katiki
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Like caramel.
Quartzite?
Treasure
One side of a small beach agate.
Another fossil hash stone.
Dark red jasper?
Small banded jasper.
A grit-tumbled jasper stone given to me by Penny Farmer.
Another of Penny Farmer’s cut slices that she kindly gave to me.. Again, probably jasper.
10) Days 21 and 22, 9 and 10 March – Kakanui, Temuka
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I always walk southwards from where I park the car at Leithfield Beach to fossick around these old stormwater pipes. The person near them provides scale.
Small stone. likely to have a lot of chaceldony (agate) in it.
The Ward Beach boulders – photo taken during an earlier visit.
White-faced heron on Ward Beach.
Dendrites in a stone.
Other side of previous stone.
11) Last Two Days, 11 and 12 March – Leithfield Beach, Kaikoura Coast, Ward Beach
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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.
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