Category: Music

When I arrived at Gemstone Beach for a solo fossick at 10am, there was a lot of fog along the coast, and the temperature was 12 degrees. That eventually lifted after about 45 minutes. I spent two and three-quarter hours on the beach, by which time the sun had raised the temperature to 17 degrees.

Fog on Gemstone Beach, looking towards Fiordland.

Looking towards Monkey Island.

The large patch of stones just over the Taunoa Stream.

After I had made my way down the beach, the fog started to lift.

I chatted with a number of people picking up stones – some were from overseas and some were locals. They included a young couple who live in Wellington though they come from Scotland, an older couple from Cromwell, and two women from the United States, friends of Chrissy’s. Sometimes they showed me their stones and I talked about their identification, and sometimes they asked what I had found. I probably talked to eight of the 12 people there. The tide was low this morning and there was still a lot of sand on the beach. Just over the Taunoa Stream was a large patch of stones that people tended to spend time at. I walked down to the Waimeamea River which has been blocked from running to the sea – the waves had piled up stones there. Some seepages had formed as the water made it way in places through the stones.

The stones (and sand) just before reaching the Waimeamea River.

Seepages of water emerging from the stones in front of the Waimeamea River lagoon.

Seepages.

The bank of stones down near the Waimeamea River lagoon.

This is where the Waimeamea River was flowing, when I was here six days ago.

The Stream with no Name, near the carpark, was flowing very low and disappearing into the sand before reaching the sea.

Fourteen of my finds are featured below. The first is the largest hydrogrossular garnet I have found so far on this trip – these have not been showing up at all except for the very occasional quite small one. I found this large bashed-about garnet down near the Waimeamea River:

Hydrogrossular garnet.

Other side of hydrogrossular garnet.

It’s almost as if the garnet is wrapped around some black rock.

My most spectacular find this morning is another of those small jaspers that come to life with close-up photography. It proved difficult to get very clear images but the following give some idea of the amazing world in there:

Small jasper with amazing details.

Another side of the small jasper.

Slightly different view of small jasper.

The “bottom” of the small jasper.

It almost looks as if a tiny pen has made a tracery of lines and filled in patches – and the small white areas are attention-grabbing.

Next is another small red jasper (I found a couple more as well). In this one, the tiny white circular patch just above centre caught my eye on the beach – but the photos reveal a lot more:

Another interesting small jasper.

Here are three argillite stones with trace fossils in them, illustrating the diversity that can be found on this beach:

Three different sizes and characters.

A busy group of trace fossils.

It was the small trace in the lower right that caught my eye.

Well-defined traces in a small argillite stone.

An amygdaloidal stone with some bright red amygdales:

Amygdaloidal stone.

Amygdaloidal stones are also known locally as volcanic bubble-infilled stones. They originate in molten magma which may contain dissolved gas that forms bubbles in the rock. These tiny bubble holes then fill with mineral-rich fluids which leave behind deposits of minerals such as quartz, chalcedony, calcite and zeolites. The resultant “spots” are called “amygdales” (also “amygdules”), coming from the Latin and Greek words for almond, reflecting the almond-shape of many such in-filled holes. However, amygdales can also be round and some can be irregular shapes. Further Gemstone Beach amygdaloidal stones can be seen in this Post, Section 4, Stones W30 to W42.

A small stone with a very busy composition – it looks like a polymictic breccia, a stone full of tiny angular fragments from a variety of sources, some of which look to be mudstone/argillite:

A small breccia?

Other side of stone.

Next are five of this afternoon’s finds where the predominant colour is green, most often due to the presence of epidote – the first two and fourth are probably quartzite, some have quartz veins or patches, and some brecciation can be seen at times:

Quartzite.

Another quartzite.

Not sure what this is.

A very light green stone.

Some brecciation in this stone.

Finally a grey stone with tiny black and white crystals and/or fragments:

A severe storm is heading our way, bringing heavy rain and strong winds over the next few days. Some parts of New Zealand are under a Red Warning – significant impacts and disruption are expected. The stormy waves will stir the beach stones up (and move sand around) but may make fossicking uncomfortable.

“There’s A Storm A-Coming”
by Richard Hawley

There’s a storm a-coming, you’d better run
There’s a storm coming, goodbye to the sun
There’s a storm a-coming, you’d better run boy run
You’d better run

There’s a ship that’s sailing out in the night
There’s a heart that’s breaking, I think it’s mine
There’s a storm a-coming, you’d better run boy run
You’d better run

Every little part of you is a miracle of molecules
Every little thing you do so sad, in the end
Oh, in the end

There’s a ship that’s sailing out in the night
There’s a heart that’s breaking – I think it’s mine
There’s a storm a-coming, you’d better run boy run
You’d better run

The next Post in this Series is my fourth and final visit to Gemstone Beach on this trip. An Index to the Series is here.

Gemstone Beach today.

More Gemstone Beach stones.

Environment Southland map of current resource consents. https://southmaps.es.govt.nz/localmaps/viewer/?webmap=ccfba329e7bb4ea4a400519908599f38

https://aotearoabooks.co.nz/high-hopes-and-big-dreams-165-nz-small-towns-in-their-twilight

Old building, Orepuki.

NOTE 2: This evening (3 September), the Southland Times published an article “Severe backlash follows mining permit application at Gemstone Beach”. There, the Applicant, Michael Reedy, states that he “would only be hand-picking stones off [of?] one cubic metre of the beach a year if the permit was granted.” The stones are “to add to a polished concrete floor and to make jewellery”. It boggles the mind as to why he needs a permit that covers 47.5 hectares from Monkey Island to McCracken’s Rest if that is all he wants to do! [Although I have seen a suggestion that hobby mining permits are usually for just under 50 hectares, though a rationale was not given for that.]

NOTE 1: The day after I published this Post, it became clear that an Application had been made in June to New Zealand Petroleum and Mining for a permit to mine 47.5 hectares along the coast near Orepuki, including Gemstone Beach. If approved, this Appication might then go to Environment Southland. The public notification of the Application is below:

Part 1 (of 3) of public Application notification.

Part 2 (of 3) of public Application notification.

Part 3 (of 3) of public Application notification.

I have written to New Zealand Petroleum and Mining asking if I can view the full Application so I can understand better what is intended and what its implications may be for fossickers like me.

More on the Application can be found in a Series of Posts starting with “What is Known About a Mining Application to Remove Gemstones from Gemstone Beach? Part One: The Application”.

While I’ve been down here on the south coast, I have heard from a couple of local people that someone was applying to “mine gemstones” from Gemstone Beach. The implication is that someone wants somehow to collect large amounts of semi-precious gemstones such as hydrogrossular garnet. I waited until I had heard this rumour from more than one source until I sent a message to Environment Southland, the local government body responsible for granting resource consents for environmental activities: I have heard that an Application has been made recently to mine Gemstone Beach, near Orepuki, for gemstones. I regularly walk this beach and pick up stones to tumble polish and am wondering how this might affect me, if granted. Am I able to view the Application? How much will it affect the beach? Is the public able to make submissions? I received the following reply: “We don’t have an application in our system for mining at Gemstone Beach.” Of course, such an application may yet be submitted in the future. If one is, I would like the opportunity to make a submission on it.

Environment Southland has a web page “Notified Consents” that lists advertised resource consents that are being processed, on which submissions may be made (see photo below, top left). At present, that includes only two applications for 2025. I must make sure I check on this page from time to time in case a Gemstone Beach application is made. There is also a map that shows current resource consents for Southland (see photo below, top right). You can zoom in on Orepuki and click on a symbol to get information on any resource consent there, such as one for recreational gold mining on Gemstone Beach. I often see a gold miner there on a quad bike with a small water pump and sluice box. His impact on the beach is not noticeable. I often chat to him about beach conditions and pat his dog.

Notified Consents page of Environment Southland. https://www.es.govt.nz/environment/consents/notified-consents

Environment Southland map of current resource consents. https://southmaps.es.govt.nz/localmaps/viewer/?webmap=ccfba329e7bb4ea4a400519908599f38

Zooming in on Orepuki area, current resource consents.

Clicking on a symbol provides information of the consent – in this case, for recreational mining on Gemstone Beach.

Gemstone Beach as a casual fossicking beach is important to Orepuki because of the fossickers and tourists attracted to it. When dropping in on a bookshop on my way south about three weeks ago, I saw an interesting book called “High Hopes and Big Dreams: 165 NZ Small Towns in Their Twilight” written by Peter Janssen and Elizabeth Anderson, published in 2023. It highlights New Zealand towns that had once flourished but have now faded. Some have vanished completely, while others have discovered a new purpose and are hanging in there. One of the 165 towns is Orepuki. The European origins of Orepuki township begin with the discovery of gold in the beach’s black sand in 1865 (see photos below). With the discovery of coal and oil shale in 1879, the town grew even bigger to about 3,000 people (see Orepuki, Our History). Flax and timber were also important. On 25 May 1885 a branch line railway was opened, providing efficient transport to Invercargill. However, as with many of the towns in “High Hopes and Big Dreams”, early resources and industries faded, the railway closed in July 1976, the primary school closed in 2003, and farming became the main economic base for the area. There was very little to support much of a population. Then, as Wikipedia notes, “By 2014, Orepuki started undergoing a transformation with new houses being built and renovated and the opening of the Orepuki Beach Cafe”. The town lies on the Southern Scenic Route between Invercargill and Te Anau, bringing tourists through it (see “Orepuki – Much more than just a place to just pass through”). Gemstone Beach, just a couple of hundred metres outside of town, is one of the main attractions that cause tourists to stop there. And a local horse trekking business also thrives – see YouTube and Discover Orepuki. But there are still less than 100 residents in Orepuki, and the old town centre looks as if is part of a ghost town. Spoiling Gemstone Beach for tourists and casual fossickers will be to the detriment of the town.

Orepuki in 1905. Source: https://orepuki.co.nz/photo-gallery

From Information Board, Orepuki.

https://aotearoabooks.co.nz/high-hopes-and-big-dreams-165-nz-small-towns-in-their-twilight

Old buildings, Orepuki town centre.

Old building, Orepuki.

Orepuki Beach Cafe. https://southlandnz.com/listing/orepuki-beach-cafe/1051/

Orepuki Horse Treks. https://southlandnz.com/listing/orepuki-horse-treks/935/

Part of the south west corner of present day Orepuki. Source: http://www.realestate.co.nz/42862764/residential/sale/9-denbigh-street-orepuki

One of the songs I have recently added to my Spotify “Likes” list is “Olalla” by Blanco White, and there is kind of a connection to Orepuki. “Blanco White” is London-based musician Josh Edwards, having adopted the name professionally as a tribute to the Spanish poet José María Blanco White. He spent time in Spain and Bolivia where he studied the flamenco guitar and the charango, influences apparent in “Olalla”. My research shows that Olalla could come from a Spanish surname derived from the Basque word for “little olive tree” and/or from a Spanish female name meaning “light” or “brightness”. Blanco White wrote this about the song in American Songwriter: “‘Olalla’ is a song about the disappearing towns and villages of Southern Europe. Often these places are staggeringly beautiful, but are slowly being abandoned as jobs and communities migrate elsewhere. I think I just felt moved by that idea of loss and inevitable change. Although the narrative laments that change, I hoped the song would still be uplifting in some way and capture some of the excitement that I’ve felt when stumbling across a beautiful place.”

“Olalla” by Blanco White (2018)

Olalla, more than a name
Rest your eyes and stay in the shade
You are hiding over the hill
In a quiet never so still

From Olalla to the city lights
Somebody told me to believe in better times
From Olalla to the city lights
Somebody told me to believe
To believe

Oh Olalla, where will you go
If the line ends out on the road
There’s a story meant to be told
When the door is shut in the cold

From Olalla to the city lights
Somebody told me to believe in better times
From Olalla to the city lights
Somebody told me to believe
To believe…

Oh Olalla on the border line
There is a world down on its knees
For better times
Oh Olalla don’t you fear the night
There’s only time to believe
To believe

On 23 August, Chrissy and I made two fossicking visits – one to Papatoara Beach (the subject of the previous Post) and one to Gemstone Beach, available here. An Index to the Series is here. More on the Mining Application can be found in a Series of Posts starting with “What is Known About a Mining Application to Remove Gemstones from Gemstone Beach? Part One: The Application”.

Down near the Waimeamea River Lagoon, lots of stones.

On the beach, many stones simply look plain and uninteresting, especially when they are dry. Seeing them when they are wet is a different experience – their colours come alive. Picking one up and viewing it at close quarters reveals even more. Veins appear, patches emerge, patterns become clearer. And when I see a close-up photo of a stone, its history and complexity and beauty are all revealed, and I can but marvel. A simple stone, that turns out to be not so simple.

Dry stones, Gemstone Beach.

A potentially interesting stone.

The stone wet. What at first sight appeared to be a simple green-hued stone.

Other side of stone.

I always feel privileged to be on the beach looking for such “simple stones”. There’s no better way to spend an hour or three. T0 quote, and slightly change, some lyrics from a “Simple Song”: “Here’s a simple stone, won’t stop the rain from coming down or your heart from breaking. Just a simple stone, it’s never gonna turn this day around, stop the earth from shaking. It’s just a simple stone…” And sometimes finding such a stone CAN turn your day around.

Passenger’s “Simple Song” (lyrics at end of Post):

Today I fossicked on Gemstone Beach again. I arrived after lunch, a couple of hours before low tide. The weather was sunny with only a light breeze, the temperature being around nine degrees. A handful of others were there, mainly in front of the carpark. After crossing the Taunoa Stream, I came upon the local gold miner and Tig, his small fox terrier. We had a chat, I patted the dog, then I continued along to the Waimeamea River Lagoon. I passed another bearded fossicker on his way back but otherwise no-one else was that far down the beach. I got back to the carpark two and a half hours after I arrived, the temperature at that stage being ten degrees.

Gemstone Beach today.

A few more stones on the beach today.

Still some patches of sand.

Down near the Waimeamea River Lagoon, lots of stones.

My finds today.

Another 18 of my finds today are featured below. This one is a great example of how close-up photos reveal what the naked eye can’t easily see. In this case, tiny white spots appear, along with details of the differently-coloured patches in the small stone:

Some stones are transparent and holding them up to the light can tell you more about what is in them or confirm your suspicions from what you initially see:

Small transparent hydrogrossular garnet.

Most stones look very similar no matter which side you view. The occasional one surprises you when you turn it over. This is an example of a stone that incorporates material from both sides of a contact boundary:

One side of stone.

Other side of stone.

I have come to recognise a few different types of stones on Gemstone Beach. One is thulite – this find is a good example, with its distinctive clouds of pink and i small fragments of white quartz:

Thulite.

However, are all pink stones thulite? No. Sometimes I have found pink rhodonite here. This next stone is not easy to identify with any certainty – thulite or rhodonite or something else? Its pink is less intense, there are no quartz fragments, and do the darker patches hint at the maganese oxide to be found in rhodonite?

Thulite or rhodonite or ?

Other side of stone.

My next two finds are quite different from each other but I wonder whether both have significant amounts of hydrogrossular garnet in them. They are not obvious specimens of garnet but both have elements suggestive of it. I found the first in a flow of water seeping through the bank of stones holding back the Waimeamea River Lagoon. It is the largest stone I have collected for some time. I thought it might be quartz, but the pattern of its colours can be found in hydrogrossular garnet. It has a very smooth surface that has maybe a hint of waxiness:

Quartz or hydrogrossular garnet?

Other side of stone.

The second candidate for hydrogrossular garnet looks like it could be a mudstone, and it is also quite large. At times I think I spot a garnet on the beach but it turns out to be a mudstone angled in such a way that the sun glints off it. Again, it doesn’t really feel waxy but it lcks the opaqueness I associate with mudstone and the vein material is very suggestive of hydrorossular garnet:

Mudstone or hydrogrossular garnet?

Other side of stone.

Unlike the previous three fossicks here, I found very few trace fossil stones today but quite a few hydrogrossular garnets. There was no doubt about them. Here are four, of various colours and textures:

Hydrogrossular garnet.

Hydrogrossular garnet.

Hydrogrossular garnet.

Hydrogrossular garnet.

And a hydrogrossular garnet with a lot of dark diopside in it:

Hydrogrossular garnet with diopside.

The next two finds are very glassy. When I first came across this type of stone, I was told it was likely a form of hydrogrossular garnet. More recently, I have been told it could be chromite in quartz. I’m not sure how to confirm one way or the other. The first find below is a typical green for this kind of stone (I found it about 10 metres past the gold man), the second is unusually white:

Chromite in quartz?

Chromite in quartz?

Two jasper stones I found today, the first an intense red almost mossy in character, the second a brecciated (fragmented) duller opaque variety but with a touch of green epidote:

Jasper.

Brecciated jasper.

Some stones have clearly defined bands or lines, like this banded argillite:

Banded argillite.

Other stones have less defined edges to the different colours in them, like this one (which could in fact be a hydrogrossular garnet):

Other side of stone.

Simple stones, but endlessly fascinating.

Lyrics for “Simple Song” by Passenger (Michael Rosenberg), released 2017

Here’s a simple song
Won’t stop the rain from coming down
Or your heart from breaking
Here’s a simple song
It’s never gonna turn this day around
Stop the earth from shaking
It’s just a simple song
Nothing right or wrong
You can sing along if you want to

Well, I know it’s not been easy
But easy ain’t worth singing about
Yeah, I know, I know
The time goes slow
But it’s always running out

Here’s a simple song
Won’t stop the rain from coming down
Or your heart from breaking
Here’s a simple song
It’s never gonna turn this day around
Or stop the earth from shaking
Yeah, it’s just a simple song
Nothing right or wrong
You can sing along if you want to

Well, I know it’s far from simple
But simple ain’t worth worrying about
Yeah, I know, I know
It’s time to go
I think I keep on finding
Everything seems to be about timing

Here’s a simple song
Won’t stop the rain from coming down
Or your heart from breaking
Just a simple song
Never gonna turn this day around
Stop the earth from shaking
It’s just a simple song
Nothing right or wrong
You can sing along if you want to

Whoah, it’s just a simple song
Nothing right or wrong
You can sing along if you want to

The next Post in this Series covers another Gemstone Beach fossick conducted the next day. An Index to the Series is here.

Chrissy, far left, and some of the other people on Gemstone Beach today.

Hunting for stones is often an activity located somewhere between the beauty and the pain. A fossick can be a painful search for beautiful stones, depending on the weather or other circumstances. I arrived at Gemstone Beach at 10 am this morning with Chrissy. It felt very cold, and I didn’t really warm up completely on the beach despite my hat and scarf and heavy coat. Given the cold temperatures (about nine degrees) and especially the bitter wind, we decided not to stray too far from the carpark. Luckily the rain stayed away, moving across to the west of us.

A cold bleak Gemstone Beach today.

Chrissy at the edge of the Taunoa Stream, as far as we went today.

Chrissy, far left, and some of the other people on Gemstone Beach today.

We fossicked only as far as the Taunoa Stream, along maybe 250 metres of the beach – there were good patches of stones on about one-third of this area. There were maybe eight to ten other people there at various times. We left after one and a quarter hours. I took 37 stones away with me. Ten of them are featured below.

This find was the most interesting to me due to the tiny shapes (probably crystals) in it:

A stone with some intense green in it, though its two sides are quite different:

Other side of stone.

Another two stones with significant green in them:

A mudstone that has come under tectonic pressures which have partially fragmented it:

Mudstone with brecciation.

The red streaks in the next stone caught my eye but there’s other stuff going on in there too:

And I keep finding good quality trace fossil argillite stones – here are four, with the last two having much fainter traces than the first two:

The phrase “Between the beauty and the pain” comes from the lyrics for “Strangest Thing” by The War on Drugs:

Summer ride on a beach
And howl at the day
I’ve been hiding out so long
I gotta find another way

Late at night I wanna see you
Well, my eyes, they begin to fade
Am I just living in the space between
The beauty and the pain
And the real thing

Now the sky is painted
In a wash of indigo
I’ve been holding on too long
In the howling of this cold

Recognise every face
But I ain’t got everything I need
If I’m just living in the space between
The beauty and the pain
It’s the strangest thing

Yeah, should-haves surrounding me
Surrounded by the whole
Surrounded by no other
I wanna ride home

Yeah, I can run slowly
Don’t run away again
Yeah, I can run the stones
Don’t run away again
I wanna run, I wanna run

The next Post in this Series is called “A Horse on Gemstone Beach, An Aircraft Overhead”. For the Series Index, see here.