Category: Leithfield Beach

L is for Leithfield Beach “Looker”

This is a slight expansion of my letter “L” contribution to the current Alphabetical Series in the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. In the 2021 version of this Series I posted “L is for Leithfield Beach petrified wood” (same beach but different stone found in a different year).

L is for Leithfield Beach “Looker”

Leithfield Beach find, 2021.
Leithfield Beach carpark, on a rainy day in 2021.
Looking north at Leithfield Beach, 2021.
Just south of the carpark, this wastewater pipe, not operational in 2021, has now been dismantled.
Leithfield Beach stones on a sunny day.
Another sunny day scene at Leithfield Beach.
From Google Maps. The carpark in the 3rd photo is at top right of settlement, east of Kowai Street.
Leithfield Beach from the air – https://nz.geoview.info/zip/7446_leithfield#google_vignette

Leithfield Beach is a small seaside town about 40 kms north of Christchurch. I stop in there occasionally for a break from driving and to look for jaspers and petrified wood. Back in March 2021, I saw this stone looking up at me from the beach. There has been some erosion in front of the carpark since then. The large wastewater discharge pipe has been dismantled – it was a good place to look for stones and was a nice solid platform for yoga for some people.

The next Post in this Series is “M is for Mudstone from McCracken’s Rest”. An Index for this Alphabetical Series is here.

Southern Sojourn 2023(1): The Trip South – Wednesday 18 January, Ward Beach and Leithfield Beach

Post 1
Post 2
Post 3 https://tumblestoneblog.wordpress.com/2023/02/04/southern-sojourn-the-trip-south-friday-20-january-kakanui/
Post 4 https://tumblestoneblog.wordpress.com/2023/02/05/southern-sojourn-first-fossick-at-gemstone-beach-sunday-22-january/
Post 5 https://tumblestoneblog.wordpress.com/2023/02/05/southern-sojourn-slope-point-two-visits-monday-tuesday-23-24-january/

I have been able to arrange an accommodation base in Riverton Aparima in Southland for a few weeks, possibly a few months. This means my tumblers have become silent and my focus has turned to fossicking once again, after six months spent at home. I crossed Cook Strait by ferry on Tuesday 17 January, spending the night at Ward. The next morning, I drove out to Ward Beach, spending just under two hours there. As it is the height of the summer holiday season, quite a few campers were located at the ground at the back of the beach. A few large vehicles for launching boats were also at the back of the beach. The day was cloudy, with low clouds hiding the tops of the hills. I decided to cross the Flaxbourne River and walk southwards as I had not been down that way previously. This will give me an opportunity to collect information about this area to add to the TumbleStoneTwo page on Ward Beach.

At this time of the year, the Flaxbourne River has only a very light flow. Last time I was here, in July 2022, the river had been in flood, and the beach was piled high with forestry slash and the water was heavy with silt.

The Ward Beach boulders, to the north of the carpark.
Forestry slash on Ward Beach, July 2022.
Forestry slash on Ward Beach, July 2022.

Easily wading the river’s trickle today, with the beach being clear of the slash, I passed a seal sunbathing on nearby rocks. The beach to the south initially contains a lot of rocks on the seaward side of the pebbly beach, with pockets of stones sometimes lying in-between the rocks. Jagged outcrops of limestone thrust up through the sand and pebbles. Then there is a long sweeping beach, at the end of which is Needles Point. The Needles are a spectacular coastal limestone outcrop about three kilometres south of Ward Beach (another is Chancet Rocks to the north).

Ward Beach, from the River Mouth to the Chancet Rocks. Google Maps https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@-41.8401934,174.1784636,2019m/data=!3m1!1e3
Topo map of Ward Beach, from The Needles to Chancet Rocks. http://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap?v=2&ll=-41.852834,174.136606&z=14
From the Flaxbourne River Mouth to The Needles. Google Maps https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@-41.8500971,174.1750486,1010m/data=!3m1!1e3
The area I visited on 18 January 2023. Google Maps
Ward Beach, 18 January 2023, in front of the carpark, looking a little south.
Looking from the carpark to the river mouth
The Flaxbourne River as it is about to flow into the sea.
Looking back to the carpark and camping area from the river mouth.
Seal on rocks near the river mouth.
One of the jagged limestone outcrops. The Needles in the far background.
The first part of the beach south of the river mouth is dominated by rocks.
Stones can be found amidst the rocks.
Some boulder-like rocks here too.
After the rock stretch, there is a sweeping pebble beach all the way to The Needles.
The Needles.
A photo of The Needles. Marlborough Museum website https://virtualexhibit.marlboroughmuseum.org.nz/mhs/vewebsite32/exhibit5/e50342b.htmlfrom

Among the stones found during my fossick were a few with agate in them. In this stone, the agate has filled holes in what I think likely is limestone.

Ward Beach stone.

The following type of agate-veined limestone pebble can also be found on Ward Beach. Below it is a veined limestone pebble where agate is not apparent.

At one point on the beach, there was a white rock about 35 cm long with some agate veins. This contrasts in size to a small white and black pebble I found, about 2 cm long.

Rock in the sand/pebbles on Ward Beach.
Small Ward Beach stone.

There is a great range of limestone pebbles here of different colours and textures. Many of them contain zoophycos trace fossils (see here).

Zoophycos trace fossil in limestone.

Two other stones I found today – the first is maybe brecciated limestone, 4 cm long, and the second a granite or basalt porphyry, containing feldspar crystals, that is about 6 cm long (for more information on the second type of stone, see Stone #2 in this Post).

Brecciated limestone?
Volcanic porphyry stone.

A drive of just over three hours then took me 230 kms south to Leithfield Beach in Canterbury, just north of Christchurch. I know fossickers have found petrified wood and interesting jaspers here. I often drop in on this beach on my way past, though it has not proved very productive for me (except the day I found five pieces of petrified wood – see “L” is for “Leithfield Beach Petrified Wood” in the second part of this Post). Today, I decided to visit the section of beach just a little south of where I normally go, spending an hour there. I parked near the community hall and public toilets.

The short trail between the carpark and the beach.
Looking north towards old stormwater drain pipes.
Looking south, dog walker in far distance.
The stones on Leithfield Beach.

I find it difficult to find a stone on Leithfield Beach that is not pitted or has chunks taken out of it. However the jaspers can be irresistible. Here are four of the jaspers I found.

Some agate in this gorgeous small jasper (3 cm long)
6 cm long jasper.
Other side of stone.

Next stops, next day, will be Timaru South and Kakanui’s Seadown Beach. See this Post for my fossick at Timaru South. The Index to the whole Series is here.

June-July 2022 Fossicking Trip: 19) Ward Beach Bonus

Driving the 260 kilometres from Kakanui to Christchurch yesterday (Tuesday 12 July) was quite a challenge, with persistent heavy rain. There was some flooding across parts of the road, especially north of Ashburton, and at times the temperature got down to three degrees before going back up to seven. The weather was good today (Wednesday 13 July) and the road from Christchurch to Ward (a 300 kms trip) was relatively clear, with few disruptions. I stopped off briefly at Leithfield Beach, about 40 kilometres north of Christchurch. The effects of a recent high swell were very apparent here, with scattered pieces of driftwood across the carpark and retaining-wall-tyres moved out onto the beach. A quick fossick yielded very little, mainly a piece of brown sea glass.

The front of the carpark.
Some of the tyres used to protect the carpark have been moved by the sea.
Looking south towards old wastewater pipes.
A couple of stones from Leithfield Beach today, quartz and andesite(?), both left there.
Piece of brown sea glass.

I was able to reach Ward in time to make a trip out to Ward Beach for just over an hour. The waves were massive there, powerful and threatening. The sea at the beach in front of the carpark was dark and muddy from the flooding Flaxbourne River. Both the tide and the wind were high, spray whipping from the breaking waves. Drift wood, most of it the results of forestry activity upstream, I would guess, was piled up at the high tide mark. The sea had swept stones onto the seaward face of the wood, and the most powerful of the waves were starting to come over the top of that. It was interesting to compare the landscape with what it looked like when I visited on my way south, four weeks ago.

Flaxbourne River at Ward Beach, four weeks ago.
Flaxbourne River in flood, probably at least a metre lower than the day before.
Ward Beach four weeks ago.
Ward Beach today.
Mouth of Flaxbourne River four weeks ago, a couple of metres wide.
Flaxbourne River mouth today.
Ward Beach four weeks ago.

I made the sensible decision to stay well away from the wet stones and fossicked among the dry stones further up the beach.

Logs near the mouth of the Falxbourne River.
A muddy sea.
My fossicking area.
Dry Ward Beach stones.

I decided to not focus on zoophycos trace fossil stones, as I often do at Ward Beach. Instead I searched mainly for limestone stones with veins or flint in them.

Flint at the top of this stone.
Mainly flint.

I also came across some nice patterned stones. I’m not sure how all these finds will tumble, some of them may be too soft.

A little out of focus.

A ferry trip across Cook Strait tomorrow is scheduled, an early morning start ahead of me to get to the Picton wharf on time to catch it. [The crossing was a smooth one and I reached home in Whanganui safely, 3,600 kilometres after leaving.]

A shorter version of this Post first appeared in the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The first Post in the Series is here. An Index to the whole Series is here.

TumbleStone Calendar 2022 – The Beaches, Part Two

2022 Calendar Cover
November’s photos and dates
Leithfield Beach, August
Kai Iwi Beach, September
Gemstone Beach, October

The 2022 TumbleStone Calendar is titled “Fossicking Beaches”, featuring mainly South Island beaches on which I have spent time fossicking for stones in 2021. Photos of three stones I found on each beach are also included for each month. Part One examined the beaches of January to May and this Post examines the beaches of July to November (June and December feature close-ups of stones).

JULY, Timaru, 27 June 2021 – The Jack’s Point/Tuhawaiki Point Walkway runs along the cliffs above the central section of this South Canterbury beach. The northern part of the fossicking beach can be accessed from where Scarborough Road meets The Parade, just south of Timaru. Its southern part is accessible from the end of Ellis Road. There is a stretch of more than five kilometres of stones in between. See here for the beach on Google Maps. The photo in the Calendar was taken just south of the lighthouse on a day I accessed the beach from the Ellis Road carpark. The Post about my visit to that beach on 27 June 2021 can be found here.

AUGUST, Leithfield Beach, 11 March 2021 – There is a long stretch of beach that runs north and south of the Canterbury seaside settlement of Leithfield Beach, about 40 kilometres north of Christchurch. Interesting jaspers and petrified wood can be found here, slong with other kinds of stones. See here for the beach on Google Maps. I usually drive to the northern carpark, at the end of Elizabeth Square. The photo in the Calendar was taken from near the carpark, looking south towards an old storm water drain (which has recently started to be demolished). For an account of my visit to the beach on 11 March 2021, see here.

SEPTEMBER, Kai Iwi Beach, 2020 – This beach, at Mowhanau village, is only two kilometres away from where I live, near Whanganui in the North Island. It is not known for stones that can be tumble polished, indeed there are not a lot of stones along its sandy stretches, though various fossils have been found there. However, I am unable to resist a scanning of the beach when I walk it, and I have found a few interesting iron-stained pieces of quartz that I have tumble polished. Around the mouth of the Kai Iwi Stream is a particularly good place to search. See here for the beach on Google Maps. The photo in the Calendar is taken north of Kai Iwi Stream. An informative Post on the area is here.

OCTOBER, Gemstone Beach, 28 February 2021 – This beach is located about one kilometre west of Orepuki in Southland, on the coast of Te Waewae Bay. There is an amazing diversity of stones on the Te Waewae Bay beach, and the photo in the Calendar provides a good sense of this. See here for the beach on Google Maps. I ususally spend at least three hours on a visit, walking from the carpark at Mullens Road West along to the mouth of the Waimeamea River, near Waihoaka, and returning. For an account of my visit to the beach on 28 February 2021, see here.

NOVEMBER, Slope Point, 3 March 2021 – One of the small number of fossicking beaches just to the west of Slope Point in the Catlins is called Thunder Beach by some locals. It is a sweep of golden sand backed by a lagoon containing petrified logs. Access is across private land so permission should be sought. Here at the bottom of the South Island, the sea is often rough and waves are powerful. See here for the beach on Google Maps. Click this link for an account of my visit to the beach on 3 March 2021.

“M” is for “Muscovite Mica from Joyce Bay” and “N” is for “November in the Calendar”

H is for Hematite Jasper
I is for Ichnogenus Protovirgularia
J is for (Picture) Jasper
K is for Kai Iwi Beach Stone
L is for Leithfield Beach petrified wood

The following are my Posts for “M” and “N” in the alphabetical series of a Facebook Group I belong to, “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The first Posts in this Series can be found here.

“M” is for “Muscovite Mica” from Joyce Bay, Charleston. Thirty kilometres south of Westport is the town of Charleston and its small twin bays, Constant Bay and Joyce Bay. Constant Bay was named after the ketch “Constant” whose Captain, Charles Bonner, in the mid-1860s managed to squeeze the boat into the tiny bay, bringing supplies for the town that had sprung up due to the discovery of gold.

The small West Coast town of Charleston, with nearby Joyce Bay (Constant Bay is right next to Joyce Bay). Source: https://mapcarta.com/24776122
Postcard showing Charleston with Joyce Bay to left and Constant Bay to right.

The rocks that line the shore of these bays contain pegmatites, large veins of quartz with masses of mica in them. A pegmatite is a crystalline igneous rock containing a variety of crystals formed by slow crystallization at high temperature and pressure at depth, exhibiting large interlocking crystals.

Part of a pegmatite in the two small bays.
Close-up of pegmatite – lots of mica among the quartz!

When I visited the area in 2018, at the northern end of Joyce Bay I came across some stones from a vein that must have been almost pure mica. I chose this small boulder-sized rock to bring home, and it has sat in the lounge since, one of the very few non-tumbling stones I have kept.

Found at Joyce Bay, this stone consists of at least 90% muscovite mica.

There is so much mica in the rocks around Constant and Joyce Bays that the sea sparkles with it.

The two most common forms of mica are the silvery muscovite and the darker biotite. Mica minerals form large, flat sheets due to their atomic structure. Strong silicon-oxygen bonds extend outwards in two directions while the third direction only has weak bonds with large, low charge atoms in the space. One thin sheet is transparent and almost colourless, feeling like flexible plastic. Sheets of muscovite five metres by three metres have been found in Nellore, India. Technically, muscovite mica is composed of potassium aluminum silicate hydroxide fluoride. The name “muscovite” comes from Muscovy-glass, a name given to the mineral in Elizabethan England due to its use in medieval Russia (Muscovy region) as a cheaper alternative to glass in windows.

From page on “Pegmatite” – page 36 of R. L. Bonewitz, “Rocks and Minerals: The Definitive Visual Guide”.
Page 261 of R. L. Bonewitz, “Rocks and Minerals: The Definitive Visual Guide”.
17th century Russian windows made from sheets of mica – https://the-earth-story.com/post/142287548341/mica-window-these-russian-windows-are-over-200?fbclid=IwAR3bcSViP_uosW8QONuvt9e6yYNW9-50tHwHyjHHTiib0q94JQKoY-B7Zh0

Sheets of muscovite have high heat and electrical insulating properties and are used in the manufacture of many electrical components. Muscovite sheets were used for kitchen oven windows before synthetic materials replaced them. Muscovite can form during the metamorphism of argillaceous rocks. The heat and pressure of metamorphism transforms clay minerals into tiny grains of mica which enlarge as metamorphism progresses. Small flakes of mica are often a component of a wide range of part of different rocks. For example, muscovite occurs as isolated grains in schist and gneiss, and it can be abundant enough that the rocks are called “mica schist” or “micaceous gneiss”. Jocelyn Thornton in her “Field Guide to New Zealand Geology” (2003) writes on page 103: “Hidden in the gorse-covered stretch between Charleston and Constant Bay is a pegmatite that was once mined for mica; the outcrop still contains large crystals of muscovite mica.” In “Geology of the Greymouth Area” (2002) by GNI, page 43, it is noted that “a small amount of mica was mined in 1911-12 from a pegmatite near Constant Bay, but the grade is low.”

Charleston mica mine https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22415334?search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject_authority_id%5D=-3477&search%5Bpath%5D=items&fbclid=IwAR3hQzJ9Pr6-Aw-UHtczoN8hVmrCPeV7-0mC5bIK9jrG32nRgYBsPo0WTS0#content
https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/1667

For more on muscovite mica and its uses, see here.

“N” is for “November” in the Calendar – Each year I produce a customised wall calendar, using an online site, with stones or beaches or tumble-polishing as the theme. This is the month of November in my 2021 calendar. The month’s theme is “Stones from Leithfield Beach, Canterbury” with close-ups of four un-polished stones. One of the four stones shown here is a red and yellow jasper, collected in August 2020.

November’s photos.
One of November’s stones from Leithfield Beach.

November is also usually the month in which I prepare the calendar for the following year.

For the next Post in this Series, see here. For the Series Index, see here.

“K” is for “Kai Iwi Beach Stone” and “L” is for “Leithfield Beach Petrified Wood”

F is for Fossil Worm Cast
G is for Green Hydrogrossular
H is for Hematite Jasper
I is for Ichnogenus Protovirgularia
J is for (Picture) Jasper

The following are my Posts for “K” and “L” in the alphabetical series of a Facebook Group I belong to, “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The first Posts in this Series can be found here.

“K” is for “Kai Iwi Beach Stone” – This beach, about two kilometres from my home, is probably named after the Kai Iwi Stream that emerges here at the coast, a few kilometres north of Whanganui. Kai Iwi Beach is at the small town of Mowhanau, site of the Kai Iwi Beach Holiday Park run by Bruce Taylor (another Group member) and his wife. There are usually not a lot of stones on this beach but I have occasionally been collecting mainly iron-stained quartz to tumble-polish, discovering some nice-looking pebbles, like this one.

K is for Kai Iwi Beach Stone
https://www.google.co.nz/…/@-39.8853384…/data=!3m1!1e3
Kai Iwi Beach, looking north/north-west from near the stream mouth.
Kai Iwi Stream mouth, with pedestrian bridge. Often quite a few stones can be found downstream of the bridge.
Looking back at the pedestrian bridge.
Along the cliffs to the south.
Typical scattering of stones on the beach.
The cliffs to the south.

For more on the Kai Iwi Beach stones I have tumble-polished and more about the beach, see the previous TumbleStone Post here.

“L” is for “Leithfield Beach petrified wood”. I wrote in a post on this Facebook Group on 26 August 2020: “Yesterday I visited Leithfield Beach, just north of Christchurch, for the first time, mainly because at least one person had posted in this Group recently that he had found petrified wood there. I have found very few specimens of petrified wood in my fossicking career and have never been sure of its identification. So I walked Leithfield Beach for a couple of hours while rain showers came across. I was delighted to find five pieces of petrified wood that were obviously petrified wood because they actually looked like wood!”

L is for Leithfield Beach petrified wood
Photo of the piece on the beach when found, taken with my phone.

As Jocelyn Thornton wrote in “Gemstones”, wood can be turned to stone when it is buried in waterlogged sediments carrying dissolved minerals which soak into the wood and replace the organic material. The wood’s cell walls usually act as a “template” for the mineralisation, retaining the wood-like look.

Leithfield Beach, google maps. I park at the north end of the town when making a fossicking visit.
Looking south from the car park I use.
This old storm-water pipe was recently being dismantled. I like to walk down to that area.
Looking north from the car park.
The stones of Leithfield Beach.
Jocelyn Thornton’s introductory piece on petrified wood. The numbers refer to photos – see next pic.
The photo of specimens for Jocelyn Thornton’s introductory piece on petrified wood.

I have yet to repeat my fossicking success of that day in relation to petrified wood.

See here for the next Post in this Series, and here for the Series Index.

Another South Island Fossicking Trip, February/ March 2021 – Last Two Days (Leithfield Beach, Kaikoura Coast, Ward Beach)

The first Post in this Series is here.

Day 23, Thursday 11 March – Leithfield Beach and Kaikoura Coast. I spent nearly three hours on Leithfield Beach this morning on a cloudy day threatening rain, but the rain moved across to the north of me.

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.
Looking out to sea over the old stormwater pipes.
Leithfield Beach stones this morning, looking north. There is rain in the distance which fortunately did not come my way.
Leithfield Beach stones.
Probably a spotted shag.

Here are seven jaspers found on Leithfield Beach – I especially like the yellow in them. The seven go from the most to the least yellow, the least red to the most red. These stones are often less smooth than the ones I collect at Gemstone Beach and Kakanui, reflecting the state of most stones on the beach.

And another four stones from this morning:

Small stone. likely to have a lot of chaceldony (agate) in it.
It has been suggested that this is rhyolite.
Very unusual circular pattern on this stone.

I also found an unusual sea-weed like stuff on the beach and posted photos of it on the “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils” Facebook Group (see first two photos below).

Found on Leithfield Beach.
Among the stones on Leithfield Beach.
Found on Leithfield Beach.
Found on Leithfield Beach.

Stan Wen, a Group member, did some research on it and eventually identified it as the strobila of a certain kind of jellyfish, part of its asexual reproductive process, as illustrated in this diagram from the Seattle Aquarium.

jellyfish33

The Aquarium information states: “When a [jellyfish] polyp strobilates—segmenting its body to reproduce—it releases tiny ephyra into the water. Within a few weeks, a bell appears and the ephyra are considered medusa [adults].”

I then drove to Kaikoura and, in the late afternoon, spent about 40 minutes on the beach near my motel. Here are six stones from that fossick, the first of which has dendrites in it. A dendrite forms when a mineral, starting from a point of origin in the stone, migrates and branches outward.

The beach near my motel, looking back towards the Kaikoura Peninsula.
Kaikoura beach stones, late afternoon.
Dendrites in a stone.
Limestone. Likely to be too soft to polish.
Limestone. Likely to be too soft to polish.

Day 24, Friday 12 March, Last Day – Kaikoura Coast and Ward Beach. I often stop at a little spot on the Kaikoura Coast between Kekerengu and the Waima/Ure River mouth. I am especially interested in the stones there with zoophycos trace fossils. As noted on page 64 of “A Photographic Guide to Fossils in NZ” by H. Campbell et al. (2013), these trace fossils can be found in Muzzle Group geological strata in Marlborough, in fine-grained limestone, marl, mudstone and siltstone, laid down in deep water (over 150 metres), the traces due to burrowing activity by something like an echinoderm (see first photo below for this extract). The stones in the photos below are examples of the range of types of traces I found today, both at my Kaikoura Coast spot and at Ward Beach just over 20 kilometres north. These stones are likely to be too soft to tumble polish well so I left many of them on the beach.

Page 64 of “A Photographic Guide to Fossils of New Zealand” by Hamish Campbell et al. (2013).
Zoophycos trace fossil. The nested curving chevron-shaped trace is one I find particularly attractive.
Another zoophycos trace fossil from the Kaikoura coast.
Stone from Ward Beach.
Parallel zoophycos.
Another Ward Beach zoophycos.
Intersecting trace fossils.
Less organised and less well-defined, but traces probably as well.
A Ward Beach stone with a variety of zoophycos trace fossils.
Ward Beach stone, where the zoophycos traces are harder than the surrounding stone material so are slightly raised.

Some more photos from my stop on the Kaikoura Coast between Kekerengu and the Waima/Ure River mouth:

The beach between Kekerengu and the Waima/Ure River mouth. Looking south.
The stones on the beach. The white limestone(?) stones stand out.
Gorgeous green stone, maybe quartzite?
This stone looks like one where the burrowing that produced the zoophycos traces ended up producing actual holes in the stone (or the burrows were petrified with softer material and eroded away). Or maybe the burrows were made by a different animal. The other side of this stone is equally interesting (see next photo).
The other side of the previous stone.

About 12 kilometres further north on State Highway 1 is the small village of Ward. Ward Beach is about six kilometres off the main road, to the east, set among spectacular scenery – high hills with steep slopes and a coastline with interesting rock formations. The Ward Beach boulders (concretions) are not far from the car park (maybe 10 minutes walk north), although I did not visit them today. The beach was uplifted by the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, unveiling the boulders.

The Ward Beach boulders – photo taken during an earlier visit.
Ward Beach boulder.
Ward Beach boulder.

When I arrived, there were about 6 to 8 people from the WSP company (formerly Opus), a Design, Engineering and Environmental Services Consultancy, picking up rubbish as a community service. One of them showed me a mannikin leg he had found, and I gave him a florescent light tube I had found. For a sense of the beach and its setting, see this web page.

Scenes from Ward Beach today:

Looking towards the Ward Beach car park.
Ward Beach stones.
Ward beach in front of the carpark, lowish tide.
White-faced heron on Ward Beach.
A surfer in high seas, just in front of the car park.

Five of the stones I found today on Ward Beach:

Gorgeous little stone I found at Ward Beach. Could be a quartzite.
Other side of previous stone.
Treasure

My trip back over Cook Strait the next day was uneventful in stark comparison to the sailing of nearly four weeks previously!

Another South Island Fossicking Trip, February/ March 2021 – Days 1 to 4 (Kaikoura Coast, Amberley Beach, Leithfield Beach, Kakanui)

This is the first in a Series of Posts about a car trip of nearly four weeks to the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand to collect beach stones for tumble polishing. During the trip, I regularly made daily reports to my personal Facebook page and also the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. These reports form the basis of this Series, although small additions of photos and information have also been made. [I made a similar trip in May/June 2020.]

On Tuesday 16 February, I was scheduled to take my car across Cook Strait by ferry, usually a 3 1/2 hour sail. However, high winds and seas initially delayed the departure of the “Straitsman” ferry from Wellington by 3 1/2 hours, and then the crossing itself took 9 hours, partly due to rough seas (the first hour was especially up and down). The other problem was damage to the dock in Picton that took a few hours to repair, meaning that two previous ferries had to unload and reload before we could. (See here for a newspaper report on a 12 hour ferry journey earlier on that day.) As a result I did not reach my motel in Ward until 3 am on Wednesday (originally scheduled to get there at 6 pm on Tuesday). Not an auspicious start to the trip!

“Straitsman” ferry in rough seas. Source: http://wps.wps.org.nz/portfolio/projected-image-2018/#lightbox%5Bgroup-21501%5D/21/
After the roughest of the seas, the captain allowed us to go outside on deck – photo taken on my phone.

Day One, Wednesday 17 February, driving from Ward to Amberley, with stops at Okiwi Bay and Amberley Beach – The weather was sunny and warm as I drove along the Kaikoura Coast. I stopped off at one of the many small bays (Okiwi Bay) to check out the stones there and at another (Ohau Bay) to view some of the hundreds of seals that make the coast home. I did not collect any stones at Okiwi Bay as most of them are too large, too battered or are too soft to polish. But many are a gorgeous pastel colour – cream, grey and yellow.

Okiwi Bay, about 30 kms north of Kaikoura
Part of the reconstruction of the road after November 2016’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake.
Okiwi Bay. looking south
Okiwi Bay, looking north

I spent 30 minutes walking the beach and taking photos.

Some of the stones included trace fossils, known as “zoophycos” (see the third and fourth stones below). See here for a good introduction to zoophycos by the Kentucky Geological Survey and here for a 1970 article on zoophycos in the “New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics”.

Trace fossils
Trace fossils

The road reconstruction after the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, magnitude 7.8, has included a number of parking areas allowing people to view the many fur seals that have returned to the area. I stopped at Ohau Point, just a few kilometres south of Okiwi Bay, and took these photos.

Next stop was Amberley, a drive of just over two hours. I was interested to visit Amberley Beach as it is just along the coast from Leithfield Beach where I had found some nice petrified wood and jasper during a previous trip. While stones were well scattered across the beach there, and I didn’t see any petrified wood, I managed to find more than 20 worth picking up to put in my car.

Amberley Beach, looking north.
Amberley Beach, looking south.
Quartzite stone.
Lovely veins.
Intriguing jasper?
My small group of finds from Amberley Beach.

Day Two, Thursday 18 February – Visited Leithfield Beach this morning – warm sunny weather – and strolled up and down it in the company of my sister Helen and her husband Ray. Found a number of interesting jaspers (no petrified wood this time). I then drove down to Kakanui where I stay for two nights, a four hours drive. Took photos of a few of my Leithfield Beach finds late this afternoon in less than ideal light conditions.

Leithfield Beach, looking south.
Stormwater outfall.
Leithfield Beach stones.

Day Three, Friday 19 February – Visited a Kakanui Beach this morning and again this afternoon, the beach that is my favourite in the area. I have decided to call it Seadown Beach after the nearby Seadown Road. Lots of stones on the beach, perfect weather.

My favourite Kakanui Beach
Kakanui Beach stones
Kakanui Beach stones
Kakanui Beach stones

This morning, I found lots of interesting jaspers and quartzites along the first 300 metres of the beach, some of which are shown here:

The find of the week!
Other side of the find of the week.

Eight of the remaining finds from this morning:

This afternoon, it was low tide at the beach. Not so many stones wet by the breaking waves so less finds. However, they were still of high quality, as shown by this sample:

Day Four, Saturday 20 February – Visited Kakanui Seadown Beach again this morning, before hitting the road again, arriving in Riverton Aparima late this afternoon. Foggy in Kakanui this morning:

Foggy beach at Kakanui
View from the south
Kakanui stones

The fog actually helped to keep some of the stones wet, assisting me to find a few more very nice candidates for polishing. However, lack of direct sunlight maybe made the photos a little dark.

The next Post in this Series, on Days 5 and 6 on Gemstone Beach, is here.