Category: Beach Stones

Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 29, Third and Last Fossick at a Slope Point Beach, Tuesday 19 March

Today’s weather turned out to be sunny and warm so I decided to undertake my third visit this trip to a Slope Point beach (described here in 2023). I drove east for 90 minutes from Riverton Aparima and arrived two hours after high tide. The sea was calm and I spent a good two hours on the small beach. I searched the dry stones much more than the wet ones – the spots and lines of interesting igneous stones can be spotted even in the dry.

On the way down to the beach.
The small stony beach.
A fine day, a calm sea, a receding tide.

My most interesting find was this small stone – on the beach, the white areas attracted my eye and then up-close inspection showed the dark green crystals. Once photographed, zooming in on the stone suggests some of the white areas may be agate. I took nine photos of the stone but because it is so small and much of it is dark, it was difficult to get good clear images up close – the third and fourth photos below are from different images than the first two as they best showed the upper and lower areas of the stone:

But my most surprising find today was a small spherical beach agate (chalcedony) – I’ve not seen a beach agate on this beach before but found them further north, at Kakanui for example. And it photographs well. One side, including when held up to the bright sky:

And the other side:

Some other unusual finds:

Eight of my other finds are below, most of them probably rhyolite:

The next Part of this Series reports on my second-last fossick, for this trip, at Gemstone Beach. The Series Index is here.

Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 28, Rain-Charged Channels on Te Waewae Bay, Monday 18 March

After two days not visiting the beach due to bad weather, I spent three and a half hours at Gemstone Beach and nearby Te Waewae Bay coast this morning. It was cold and windy with the odd rain shower. A couple of people with their dog were the only ones there when I arrived. It was just after high tide, but it was apparent that the sea had moved a lot of sand onto the beach in front of the carpark – I had to walk down to the Taunoa Stream to find any substantial patches of stones. Recent rain had made the Taunoa Stream almost unfordable, and I waited and fossicked around the stream until the tide had gone down a little, giving me more space to attempt a crossing. I was successful, though I got some water in my gumboots (as happened again later when I came back).

Gemstone Beach this morning, a bleak scene.
The Taunoa Stream. A lot of stones and sand have been moved around over the last couple of days.
The Taunoa Stream flowing high with recent rain.

I slowly made my way down to the Waimeamea River lagoon. Most of the stones across the beach were wet because of the occasional rain and lack of sunshine, so I could spot the colourful ones without having to risk the waves. However I couldn’t go as far as I usually do. The Waimeamea River had forced a channel through the stones to the sea at the eastern end of the lagoon. This is the first time this has happened this trip. And the water was far too deep and swift to ford.

The Waimeamea River lagoon today, a couple of hours after high tide.
The Waimeamea River flowing through a channel in the stone barrier.
The Waimeamea River rushing to the sea – not fordable.

I found three poppy jaspers today, two near the Waimeamea River and one halfway back to the carpark:

I also found a few pink stones, at least some of them classic thulites. Here are two pinkies:

Thulite.

I came across a glassy stone with a bright green mineral in it, maybe chrome in hydrogrossular garnet. A torch behind it highlights its degree of transparency. I have collected a handful of similar stones on previous trips, though this is the biggest one so far:

Chrome in hydrogrossular garnet?
With a torch shining behind the stone.

A small hydrogrossular garnet, also with a torch behind it:

Small hydrogrossular garnet.
With a torch shining behind it.

A small quartz stone with tiny black inclusions:

With a torch behind the stone.

Two colourful spotty stones – when my friend John who lives in Scotland saw a photo of the first one, he suggested it could be a “highly metamorphosed vesicular basalt”. The vesicles have likely been infilled by minerals left behind by superheated water. The second stone may be a very similar type:

Three different kinds of dark stones with tiny white crystals – the first has a horizontal linear pattern of interest, the second has some grey mixed in with the black and white, and the third has some elongated crystals:

Two stones made green by epidote – one with transparent quartz “windows”, the other a large trace fossil stone:

Finally, four other finds I made today:

The first Part of this Series can be found here. The Series Index is here.

Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 27, “Watch the World Spin in Waves… I Threw Stones at the Stars” (Isakov’s “The Stable Song”), Sunday 17 March

Part 27

Two days without a fossick! The rain and wind and cold and maybe the need for rest and renewing of energy, all keeping me inside. So I did two things – reviewed my finds so far, picking out my favourite 24. And I listened to music more than usual.

Five favourite dark red jaspers that I picked out:

Five lighter coloured reddish and pink stones that I find very appealing:

Four stunning stones with significant white or light-coloured elements:

Seven of my valued finds that are yellow-orange in colour:

And the final three are gorgeous greens:

Listening to music over these two days, I got the chance to deepen my appreciation for Gregory Alan Isakov’s “The Stable Song”, chanced upon sometime during the past year. Commentators all hold a great respect for the song, praising its intelligence, tenderness and beauty (e.g., jamesdennard.com and folkalley.com). Though they differ on what the song is about, the meaning of the lyrics (which can be found after the YouTube clip below) proving elusive. The lyricist himself says it’s just a poem about everything. It’s maybe about songwriting and inspiration and success, and, yes, about things in life that mean a lot, like music and stones and diamonds and coal…

“The Stable Song”
by Gregory Alan Isakov

Remember when our songs were just like prayers
Like gospel hymns that you caught in the air
Come down, come down, sweet reverence
Unto my simple house and ring
And ring

Ring like silver, ring like gold
Ring out those ghosts on the Ohio
Ring like clear day wedding bells
Were we the belly of the beast or the sword that fell?
We’ll never tell

Come to me cold and clean
On that sea
Watch the world spin in waves
On that machine

Now I’ve been crazy, couldn’t you tell?
I threw stones at the stars, but the whole sky fell
Now I’m covered up in straw, belly up on a table
Well, I laughed and drank, and passed in the stable

That tall grass grows high and brown
Well, I dragged you straight in the muddy ground
And you sent me back to where I roam
Well, I cursed and I cried, but now I know
Oh, and now I know

Yeah, and I ran back to that hollow again
The moon was just a sliver back then
Yeah, and I ached for my heart like some tin man
When it came, oh, it beat and it boiled and it rang
It’s ringing

Ring like crazy, ring like hell
Turn me back toward that wild-haired gale
Ring like silver, ring like gold
Turn these diamonds straight back into coal…

*******

Part 28 features a Gemstone Beach fossick after some rain which raised the flow of the Taunoa Stream and pushed the Waimeamea River to breach its lagoon barrier. The Series Index is here.

Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 26, Cold Temperatures and Hail, Fossicking with Chrissy on Te Waewae Bay Coast, Friday 15 March

Chrissy Hellyer (Tumble and Polish blog) joined me today for a fossick starting at Gemstone Beach then moving west to the Waimeamea River mouth. It was cold and chilly. The temperature was only eight degrees when we arrived at the carpark at 10.30am. Some wind was blowing and rain showers were threatening. At one point, not far from the Waimeamea River lagoon, we endured a short sharp hail shower.

A cold day on Te Waewae Bay.
Gemstone Beach and the Waimeamea River. Source: Mapcarta.com.
Gemstone Beach. Source: Google Maps.
Waimeamea River lagoon. Source: Mapcarta.com.

Surprisingly, we felt warm enough to undertake a four and a half hour fossick – we were well dressed for both the cold and the wet. We both collected quite a few stones for tumble-polishing. I found an intriguing jasper, the first in the photos below, and Chrissy found a very nice poppy jasper, the second set of photos below.

Red jasper with maybe chalcedony/agate.
Chrissy’s gorgeous little poppy jasper. Photo taken in low light on the beach.

Among the interesting coloured and patterned stones I found today were these eight:

Lots going on in this dark stone.
Close-ups reveal interesting crystals.
A stone similar to the one featured in Part 25.
Mudstone breccia,
Pink thulite.
Probably a rhyolite, with an interesting texture.
The brown spots caught my eye.

Two poppy jaspers I found today plus a hematite jasper and a stone with an interesting vein through it:

First of my poppy jasper finds.
The second of my poppy jasper finds.
Small hematite jasper.
The vein in this stone caught my eye.

 

The next stone, a small dark one with flashes of white, was found by Chrissy and given to me. We think it might be a hydrogrossular garnet, though we’re not certain. Two larger trace fossil stones follow, with the fourth stone maybe containing trace fossils but the shapes are have an unusual border. Then comes a mudstone, probably argillite, with unusual inclusions. Finally, Chrissy spotted this large argillite with intriguing patterns – we left it on the beach as it is far too big to tumble-polish.

We think this might be a hydrogrossular garnet.
Trace fossil stone.
Trace fossil stone.
Might or might not be trace fossils.
Interesting mudstone.
Large argillite spotted by Chrissy, left on beach (too big to tumble-polish).

The first Part of this Series can be found here. The Series Index is here.

Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 25, It’s a Small World! Gemstone Beach, Thursday 14 March

Part 25
Part 26
Gemstone Beach
Gemstone Beach
Te Waewae Bay coast

This morning I decided to catch up on writing some blog posts but come mid-morning I thought I would go for a quick fossick at Gemstone Beach. The forecast for tomorrow was not good so a fossick today might be preferable. When I arrived at the carpark, I walked past a couple getting out of a campervan and we got talking. It turned out that Gary and Margaret were from my home town, Whanganui. They had just been to the Riverton Aparima Museum and Information Centre who had mentioned that a man from Whanganui had once sold some Gemstone Beach polished stones at their shop. And, lo and behold, there I was when they arrived at Gemstone Beach! As Gary said, “It’s a small world!” The tide was very low so I walked with Margaret and Gary to the Taunoa Stream where they could search the wet stones there (see this Post for a description of the beach showing the location of the Taunoa Stream). We chatted for a while about different stones we found, then I made my way to the Waimeamea River (see this Post, the description of Section Three, for the position of this river in relation to Gemstone Beach).

I left Gary and Margaret fossicking in the Taunoa Stream (centre) and made my way to the Waimeamea River.
Looking to where I went.
Looking back once I got to where I went.

On the beach in front of the Waimeamea River lagoon, I got swamped by a wave. I took my boots and socks off to dry them a little, then I put them back on and made my way back to the carpark.

Seepages run from under the stones, emptying half of the Waimeamea lagoon at low tide.
The dry part of the Waimeamea lagoon today.
The potential swamping waves…

Before leaving the beach, three hours after I had arrived, I saw Claire and Brett who I had met on Tuesday (see Part 23), who were just in the process themselves of being swamped by a wave, and we briefly showed each other some of our finds.

Generally today, I collected a few more hydrogrossular garnets than during recent fossicks, I spotted the usual trace fossil stone temptations, and I picked up a few of the beach’s colourful specimens. I didn’t find any poppy jaspers today, though Claire showed me a jasper that had some orbs on part of its surface. Featured below are 14 of the stones I collected today.

The first of the two finds immediately below is what I think of as probably amygdaloidal, an igneous stone which originally had tiny gas bubbles which were subsequently infilled by minerals deposited by hot water (for more detail on this process, see this Post). The second stone is also igneous, maybe a rhyolite, though the textbooks say that rhyolite tends to be light-coloured – this stone has a deep dark rich colour.

Maybe an amygdaloidal stone?
Maybe a rhyolite??

Four stones I found intriguing:

Small brecciated jasper – not sure what the matrix is.
Maybe a light-coloured brecciated quartzite.
Green and orange.
The yellowish tinge caught my eye.

Some variations of types of stones I often collect:

A “greenie” – quartzite with epidote?
A red one – brecciated jasper – has holes in it but may be big enough to be tumbled smooth.
Very small stone.
Banded argillite.
Large hydrogrossular garnet.
Red trace fossil.
Stress fractured trace fossil.
Many traces in this larger stone.

The next day, I undertook a four and a half hour fossick on the Te Waewae Bay coast in chilly weather with Chrissy – see here. The Series Index is here.

Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 24, Second Slope Point Fossick, Wednesday 13 March

I made the trip over to Slope Point again today (see here for my earlier visit this trip) and spent just over two hours on the small beach near an isolated holiday home – the beach and its location is described here.

The stony beach here is only about 200 metres long.
I found the fossil tree fern stone while sitting on a rock on the beach below this holiday house.

I have been advised on three different occasions now that this beach is the only one that local landowners are allowing access to. The weather was cool, staying at around 12 degrees during my time there, and there was some wind and the occasional light shower of rain. In her booklet, “Gemstones” (1985), Jocelyn Thornton has an entry on Slope Point. She writes: “On the Southland coast between Waipapa Point and Haldane there are a few pebbly beaches visited by fishermen and rock collectors. The cliffs contain layers of conglomerates with pebbles which weather out and collect on the beaches. At first glance they appear dark, but closer examination reveals a multitude of subtle colours and patterns.” She goes on to note that, for stone fossickers, “the prize is petrified punga, found as black nodules barely showing the eyed grain of the fern”. Her photos show three specimens of petrified punga or tree fern (what’s a punga?), and I once found one with faint markings. Today, as I was sitting on a rock, resting before leaving the beach to tackle the steep climb back to my car, the edge of a dry stone with squiggles in it caught my eye – it turned out to be a spectacular piece of fossilised tree fern. This side is the “busiest”:

This is the other side:

Note that “punga” is often used as a collective term for all tree ferns and “ponga” is the specific Maori name for the silver fern, Cyathea dealbata.

When I arrived down at the beach, a couple from Whakatane were also there. The man was searching for fossilised wood in the large rocks along the north of the cove. I chatted to the woman about some of the stones to be found on the beach, especially igneous ones such as rhyolite. The man joined us after his hunt, with three large black fossil wood specimens, and he also showed me photos of a couple of large pieces in situ, one dark-coloured and one light-coloured. In my fossicking I found only a couple of small pieces of black petrified wood but collected quite a few rhyolite stones. Some of them had intriguing orb-like material within them, some of the orbs being tiny but some larger.

Jasper.

Ten more of my finds which are likely to be rhyolites:

Four stones of other types or unknown:

Tiny but bright breccia stone.
Iron oxide stained quartz?
Black igneous stone with interesting white crystals and thin red veins.

I managed to find enough stones to justify the 90 minutes drive each way and the walk back up the steep hill to the car, carrying them all.

Part 25 describes a three hour cold weather fossick at Gemstone Beach. The Series Index is here.

Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 23, With Claire and Brett on Gemstone Beach, Tuesday 12 March

Today at Gemstone Beach I met up with fossicker Claire Thompson and her husband Brett from Lower Hutt. We spent quite a bit of time chatting, sharing our finds, and talking stones – great company! The weather was cool, around 12 degrees, the sky was cloudy with the odd drop of rain. A group from the Southern Institute of Technology arrived while we were there and we spoke with several of them about local stones and geology. I left after a couple of hours, having been swamped three times by the waves of the incoming tide – talking about stones can be distracting!

The Taunoa Stream had dug down into the stones a bit.
A photo taken as I left the beach, just after noon. There were only two people here when I arrived.

I ventured only a couple of hundred metres past the Taunoa Stream today, and collected fewer stones than usual, maybe about 35. Here are eight of my finds:

Lovely small dark stone with light-coloured swirls.
Pink in a dark stone.
Interesting texture. And colour.
Intense orange.
The yellow in this breccia caught my eye.
Interesting jasper, with some brecciation in bottom left.
The “spots” caught my eye.

The next day I made my second visit this trip to a Slope Point beach – see here. The Series Index is here.

Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 22, Sunday Afternoon Fossick, Gemstone Beach and Te Waewae Bay, Sunday 10 March

At Gemstone Beach today, I spent two and a half hours looking for stones to tumble polish. The weather was warmer than for usual, being 20 degrees when I left at 4.20pm, though the wind was starting to get up. I had to wait again for the high tide waves to recede a bit before crossing the Taunoa Stream. I chatted to a fossicker from Auckland for a while before I moved westwards.

When I arrived at Gemstone Beach, 2pm on a Sunday.
The powerful waves of Te Waewae Bay, just west of Gemstone Beach.
Driftwood on the down-wind edge of the Waimeamea River lagoon.
Stones on the Te Waewae Bay beach, west of Gemstone Beach.

I found some very interesting little stones, three small poppy jaspers, and a handful of nice hydrogrossular garnets. Below are two of the poppy jaspers:

Three other small stones that caught my eye:

Maybe chrome in diopside in hydrogrossular garnet – Side A of stone.
Side B of stone.
Unusual bright light-blue.
The first stone I found, in front of the carpark at Gemstone Beach.

Six “greenies” from my fossick – green-hued stones, or stone with green in them.

Banded argillite with inclusions of quartz-epidote.
Quite an intense lime green when face-to-face.
A dirty green mudstone, brecciated.
Trace fossils in dark green argillite. They have eroded at a slower rate than the host argillite.

Eight other finds, four of them being hydrogrossular garnets:

Hydrogrossular garnet.
Hydrogrossular garnet.
Hydrogrossular garnet.
Hydrogrossular garnet.

In Part 23, I meet up with a number of people at Gemstone Beach and end up collecting only a few stones this time. The Series Index is here.

Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 21, Another Windy Te Waewae Bay Fossick, Saturday 9 March

Yesterday’s weather was too stormy for me to venture out onto the beach. But I was keen to see what stones might have been turned up today by the rough weather, so I went to Gemstone Beach at high tide. I was joined there by Chrissy Hellyer who writes the “Tumble and Polish” blog. However, after observing how the waves were coming a long way up the beach, we decided to spend an hour firstly fossicking safely in front of the car park.

In front of the carpark, the waves were coming fairly high up the beach. Looking west.
Looking east.
The waves washing right up to the cliffs past the Taunoa Stream.
Chrissy fossicking in front of the Gemstone Beach carpark while we waited for the tide to go out enough to make it safe to venture westwards.

While waiting for the tide to recede, we met a French man and his wife. He is a recently retired architect who spends time in Queenstown. We explained we were collecting stones for tumble-polishing. He was very interested, mentioning he had done some sculpture with stone. He was also interested in driftwood, of which there was a lot on Gemstone Beach just then. I gave him four tumble-polished Gemstone Beach stones as a souvenir. I then chatted briefly to a fossicker called Andrew who asked about what the tide was doing. He showed me a lovely jasper he had just found. He later found a few more and posted them on the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”.

After an hour, Chrissy and I crossed the Taunoa Stream and headed up to the Waimeamea River lagoon. Initially there were still waves coming high up the beach but they soon dropped back. They remained energetic, and the odd one caused us to scamper up the beach as we fossicked along their edge. We found a diversity of interesting stones. Chrissy found a couple of poppy jaspers, I found a few trace fossil stones, and while we collected a few nice small hydrogrossular garnets, we did not find any larger ones.

Many of my finds again had intriguing colours and patterns. The first one below has a lighter-coloured section revealing the stone’s composition – the dark and light contrast is part of its appeal:

Side A of stone.
Side B of stone.

I’m not sure if the next stone is a jasper, as I first thought, or a quartzite, as I thought a possibility after seeing the close-ups:

Side A.
Side B.

The next stone has an intriguing set of crystals – Chrissy described them as like many tiny bird tracks. I have seen a couple of similar stones here before, but they are rare in my experience.

Side A.
Side B.

The fourth stone is another small one but packed with lots of different tiny features:

Side A.
Side B.

And one of those very small jaspers that turns out to have fascinating colours and patterns:

Side A.
Side B.

Eight more of today’s interesting finds:

Some iron oxide veins?
Green quartzite.
Mudstone/argillite breccia?
A variety of banded argillite.
Also banded argillite.
Another type of banded argillite.
Green epidote?
Maybe orbicular?

And a final four:

Brecciated quartzite?
Type of hydrogrossular garnet – opaque with touch of blue.
Nice dark trace fossil.

Three photos of Chrissy fossicking up near the Waimeamea River lagoon. Two are taken from a distance, using a zoom, making her appear closer to the waves than she really was. In places, some of the stones are bigger here too.

The next Part in this Series features two poppy jaspers found at the same beach. The Series Index is here.

Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 20, Five Hours on a Windy Te Waewae Bay, Thursday 7 March

Today, starting at Gemstone Beach, I walked my usual fossicking trail along the Te Waewae Bay coast to the Waimeamea River mouth, a distance of 1.5 kilometres. Once there, I decided to venture about another 200 metres further before turning back. This route consists of Sections Two and Three in the TumbleStoneTwo Post, “Gemstone Beach: Location on Te Waewae Bay”.

Looking down on Gemstone Beach, and its in-cliff house, from a nearby hill.
Looking towards the area in front of the Gemstone Beach carpark. Taunoa Stream below.
The Taunoa Stream flowing across the beach.
The Taunoa Stream at stream level.

I had started out at 11 am with some sun and a lot of wind, and with rain visible in the far distance. After about an hour, when the rain came closer, I returned to my car to get my raincoat. And I needed it for the next four hours. The conditions were cold and often wet. But the rain also made all the stones wet so my fossicking scan could move beyond the waves’ edge. I met up with Chrissy Hellyer just before she got to the lagoon and I had her company for the last hour or so.

Waimeamea River lagoon. The outlet has been blocked by stones piled up by the waves.
What’s left of the former outflow. Lagoon to the left.
A number of significant seepage flows existed along the bank of stones in front of the lagoon.

An unusual stone or two always seems to crop up, such as today’s spectacular little mossy jasper.

One small dark red jasper I found turned out to have amazing detail in it when I zoomed in close:

A stone with unusual colours, maybe a quartzite:

This stones seems to have some tiny orbicular-type material in it, along with small patches of green epidote:

There are always black volcanic stones with white crystals to be found, and each one is unique:

More finds:

The “wave” shape caught my eye.
Nice banded argillite.
An unusual banded argillite with trace fossils.
Brecciation.
Small hematite jasper.

Part 21 reports on another windy fossick with part of it delayed on the beach at the carpark due to the high tide and energetic waves. The Series Index is here.