Author: tumblestoneblog

This Series was published on 31 August 2024. It features tumbled Ward Beach stones that I gave to Ian and Ronnie, owner-operators of  the Flaxbourne Motels in Ward. I regularly stay there overnight on my way south or north during my stone collecting trips, and Ian and Ronnie have showed a keen interest in my rockhounding, especially at nearby Ward beach.   

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1 – Trace Fossils in Limestone

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2 – Other Limestone Pebbles

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3 – Stones With Veins; Stones With Dendrites

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4 – Stones Containing Both Soft and Hard Material

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5 – Hard Stones

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The final fossick for this trip took place today on a sunny nine degrees afternoon, between 12.50pm and 1.50pm. This was an hour earlier than yesterday’s fossick which turned out to be significant. The sun was a bit higher in the sky and cast fewer shadows on the stones, making them a lot easier to see. These are today’s finds, 13 of which are featured in the Post below:

As a result of the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, Ward Beach experienced significant uplift of about two and a half metres. The change in ground level forced the Flaxbourne River to abandon its estuary and cut through the former estuary bed and gravel beach deposits, exposing the bedrock beneath (Geotrips). Today I walked along to the river mouth and wandering up the river for a couple of hundred metres. There were patches of stones to search there, and some bird wildlife to observe.

Shags roosting on limestone outcrops near the mouth of the Falxbourne River.

Two shags braved the turbulent water at the river mouth.

Heron on uplifted limestone.

Uplifted bedrock a couple of hundred metres upstream from the river mouth. Weld Cone in background.

I also spent some time taking photos of the waves – they are very strong at Ward Beach and much caution needs to be exercised when hunting for stones at the waves’ edge.

Now to the 13 featured finds from today. This stone has some very interesting  veins, maybe chalcedony?   

This second find is likely to have at least some flint in it:        

A white brecciated limestone:

Another limestone pebble, this time with a little more colour:    

A third limestone find, with subtle but intriguing patterns: 

There’s an interesting brown in this next stone – it appears to have quartz in it:     

A dark red jasper(?) with a small grey circular feature that draws the eye:     

The dark veins in this next stone tend to stand out:     

Next are four trace fossil limestone finds, all with a different character. This grey one has an unusual trace fossil pattern  – two traces that meet to form a pointer, or a flight of geese:  

In a darker grey, these two trace fossils cross over each other:    

An assemblage of different kinds of trace fossils:    

A set of parallel trace fossils that have been “smeared”along one side:   

Finally, a limestone pebble that on one side has holes probably from some small burrowing animal:

Both sides have interesting markings.

The next day I caught a Cook Strait ferry from Picton and arrived home in Whanganui just after dark.

An Index to this Series of Posts is available here. 

Apologies to those following this Series for the late publication of this Post. When I got home from my trip, I had a bad cold which took a few days to ease. Then I spent over a week working through a reviewer’s detailed comments on a draft of the book on Gemstone Beach stones that Chrissy and I are preparing.

I arrived at Ward Beach in Southern Marlborough at 2.40pm. It was only eight degrees, with a cold breeze, though it was sunny. A few people were around. I passed a couple of cyclists on the road out there, and two or three camper vans were parked in the camping area behind the beach. Later a man arrived to gather kelp that had washed up. I walked south to the Flaxbourne River mouth, a distance of 400 metres – the river was too wide and deep to cross. The waves were powerful and ferocious and swept swiftly up the beach (see the fourth and fifth photos below). I made sure I kept well clear of them.

Just prior to a wave sweeping up the beach. Compare next photo.

A wave sweeping up the beach.

Ward Beach from in front of the carpark, looking south.

Ward Beach, looking north.

Powerful and ferocious waves, Ward Beach.

At the Flalbourne River mouth.

The sun was harsh and low, making it difficult to spot details in the stones when walking over them. The following are ten of my finds from today. 

My favourite find today is this small stone with tiny sparkling spots in it which turn out to be very small square crystals of some kind:

I have found at least three of these before, one on my way south a month ago,  another in February 2025, the first in February 2024. I wonder if the crystals might be pyrite, given their cuboid character. 

Two other black stones with white crystals:

There’s a good chance these could be dolerite with feldpar crystals in them.

A stone that reverses the proportion of black and white – a white stone with small black spots in it:

A jasper find:

Other side of jasper stone.

I recently learned that jasper can sometimes be silicified rhyolite. Hot, silica-rich groundwater can move through rhyolitic rock, turning parts of it into microcrystalline quartz. Silicified rhyolite can even give rise to poppy jasper, and is the origin of ocean jasper.

A veined limestone of a type that I always find attractive, though the soft rock needs very careful tumbling:

A limestone with dendrites:

Dendrites are thin lines, often branching, of tiny dark crystals, usually of some variety of manganese oxide, that grow over a rock’s surface – see Mindat.org. Other dendritic specimens I have found on Ward Beach can be seen towards the end of “Selection of Tumbled Ward Beach Stones: Part 3 – Stones With Veins; Stones With Dendrites”.

As usual, I kept a look out for trace fossils in limestime. One I found was in a rough-feeling stone – they are usually very smooth – and the definition of its trace seemed sharper than normal:

Two other trace fossil stones, the first one showing a displacement across it (sometimes called an “earthquake stone”), the second containing some criss-crossing of traces (usually the traces run parallel to each other):

For more on these trace fossils, see “Selection of Tumbled Ward Beach Stones: Part 1 – Trace Fossils in Limestone”.

Ian and Ronnie of the Flaxbourne Motels always show an interest in the stones I find at nearby Ward Beach. I have given them some that I have tumble polished. Ian is very good at making and crafting stuff. Two years ago he set a handful of my polished stones in a couple of wooden table tops:

Today, they showed me how Ian had mounted seven of the stones I had given them in a glass-fronted frame, using identifications I had given to Ronnie the last time I visited:

A really interesting idea, effectively done.

The next Post in this Series covers a second Ward Beach fossick undertaken the next day. An Index to the Series is available here.