Category: Rock collecting sites

Another Visit to Birdlings Flat, Late June 2016 – Part Three: Seven Types of Stones Collected

During the six to seven hours spent at Birdlings Flat and nearby beaches during two and a half days at the end of June, I collected just over eight kilograms of stones. These consisted of a number of different types of stones. After my two previous visits, I had a good idea of what I was looking for, based on the results of some tumble polishing as well as my own preferences. There are many greywacke stones on the beach, the common grey beach stones of New Zealand, as well as a wide range of other types.

Following are listed the seven types of stones I collected during this visit:

Yellow-patterned Quartzite; Red Jasper; Agates; Green (Quartzite?); Patterned; White Quartz and Other Light-Coloured; Others.

Yellow-patterned Quartzite – This can easily be found at Birdlings Flat and is perhaps my favourite stone from there. I discovered a small boulder of it, that filled both my hands – which I had to leave at the beach. I have brought home at least two hand-sized specimens. There are a number of subtle colour variations of this stone, the best seeming to be a clear to light coloured quartzite with curtains or swirls of “gold foil” throughout it. The intensity of the gold/yellow can vary from stone to stone as can the patterns inside it. During this trip, I sought to collect stones exhibiting these variations. 

Dry stones, as collected in late June
The same stones, wet
An idea of size
Collected earlier, smaller and with brighter yellow through it
Collected earlier
Collected previously from Birdlings Flat – swirls of gold through the clear silica
Collected earlier
Collected earlier

 Red Jasper – Red jasper stones can often be found on South Island beaches. They are reasonably easy to find at Birdlings Flat, where they can be of good size and quality. Many jasper stones have silica veins, sometimes bright red veins as well, and some other mineral staining can be present. They can be brittle, with chips and pits, making them difficult to smooth and polish.

Dry stones, probably jasper, collected from Birdlings Flat in late June
The same stones, wet
Collected at Birdlings Flat at an earlier date
Collected earlier

 Agates – Birdlings Flat is well-known for its agates. A wide range of sizes, shapes and types can be found. It took me a while before I learned to spot them. The best way is to look towards the sun and your eye will be drawn to the light shining through them, even amidst a whole mass of other types of stones. On this trip, I found my largest agate so far, and a very small one with a green staining.

The agates collected at Birdlings Flat, late June, in their dry state
The same agates, wet
A sense of their size
Anagate collected at Birdlings Flat at an earlier date
Moss agate, from Birdlings Flat, collected earlier
Coloured agate, Birdlings Flat, collected earlier

Green (Quartzite?) – One of the interesting types of stones to be found at Birdlings Flat is green and I suspect is a type of quartzite. Again, there is a great diversity of them, from pale green through to lime green through to darker greens. I find them quite attractive and relatively easy to spot.

Dry green stones
The same green stones, wet

Patterned – I find myself drawn to even greywacke stones and other grey (or common coloured) stones if they have veins of white quartz through them or if they display layer patterns.  

Dry
Wet

White Quartz and Other Light-Coloured – Going through the stones I collected, I find there are a number of white quartz stones and other white or light-coloured stones. These tend to catch my eye on any beach, standing out from the sand or the predominant grey of the most common stones on South Island beaches. I have learned to be more restrained in my collection of white quartz as it is easy to spot it and can soon mount up in the collection bag.

Dry
Wet

  Others – What’s left in my collection bag after the rest have been taken away: 

Pink stones are rare but present at Birdlings Flat. Some of these stones include ones of volcanic origin, characterised by small white pits
The same stones, wet
Dry, and…
…wet

Another Visit to Birdlings Flat, Late June 2016 – Part One: Taumutu

I introduced my wife Petra to Birdlings Flat. We started with a visit to Taumutu, at the southwest end of Kaitorete Spit (although Kaitorete Barrier Beach is a more accurate term for this enormous 25 kilometres long gravel bank).  Taumutu is a rural district on the coast, the other end of Lake Ellesmere from the Birdlings Flat village.

The late winter’s afternoon was cold and windy so we had to wrap up warmly when we ventured onto the beach. We spent maybe only 30 to 40 minutes there before needing to retreat to the car to escape the chilling of the onshore wind. We managed to walk up and down the beach in both directions and collect a few stones. These were similar to those found anywhere along this stretch of coastline, including quartzites and agates.

We crossed this bridge to get to the beach – it had been undermined by a recent flood
Looking southwest upon arriving at the beach
Looking eastwards out to sea
Taking a photo of Petra taking a photo – looking northeast back towards Banks Peninsula and Birdlings Flat
A beach full of stones, the largest above the high tide mark, the smallest closer to the surfline
Taumutu Beach stones
A digger working on a trench to the sea to lower the level of Lake Ellesmere
Just across the road from where we parked the car

 

White Quartz Stone-Collecting at Hokitika

Yesterday I visited a beach just south of the Hokitika River mouth on the West Coast of the South Island. It was raining and cold, a south-west wind blowing in over the sea. This is a beach where the sea is advancing, where the land is being eaten away when the tides are high and the weather stormy. Access is by a road that heads towards the local golf course – a vehicle-track then turns off just past the bridge over the Mahinapua Creek. The track ends abruptly at the coast – the stretch that runs parallel to the sea is being washed away. 

I walked along the beach, finding plenty of stones scattered across the sand, amongst the driftwood and remnants of flax roots. There are places where drifts of stones stretch down into the surf. The owner of the Annabelle Motel, where I was staying in Hokitika, told me this is one of the beaches where the people who make stone mats collect their raw materials.

The outstanding stone on this beach is white quartz. This type of stone is common in many places in the South Island and I found many varieties of it here. Some seem banded, some have inclusions of colour, some are pure white.

Looking northwards to Hokitika
Looking up the Mahinapua Creek
The Mahinapua Creek joining the Hokitika River right at its mouth
Drifts of stones being left by the receding waves

 

My Visit to Birdlings Flat, Day 2: Stone Collecting

I bought some stones from Vince Burke at the Gemstones and Fossil Museum. I normally only like to collect what I find but there are special exceptions – and the Museum is a special place. Vince threw in some extras as well, so I came away with two rock agates from the Woolshed Creek area near Mt Somers, three large agate stones from Birdlings Flat, and some petrified and agatised wood from the Hororata River area. 

But my main purpose that day was to find stones of my own that I could polish. So after I had visited the Gemstone and Fossil Museum, I spent about 2 1/2 hours on the beach, concentrating my time on the northern end, walking all the way to the cliffs. The wind was much stronger, but down near the waves was the lowest part of the beach and somewhat sheltered from the north-wester. There were slightly more people around this day than the previous one – mainly fishing and, like me, hunting for stones.

I chatted with three people. Charles came from Christchurch and had been interested in stone collecting for just a couple of months – he had a friend who polished stones but did not himself have a tumbler. Charles was nearing retirement age, like myself. He explained to me that he was mainly looking for agate stones – he gave me some he had found. I had not developed the eye to find them as they are rather plain looking and I tend to seek out colour. As we talked, Charles said, “Oh look, there’s one!” and he stepped a metre away to pick up a small agate. And a minute later, he spotted another one not far away.

Walking eastwards along the beach at Birdlings Flat
A fisherman ahead, and then Charles, who gave me some of the agates he had just found
I reached the cliffs at the end of the beach but did not linger long under them.
That night, I washed and inspected the stones I had collected.
Some of Day Two’s stones.
The agate stones I took away with me, most of them given to me by people I met on the beach.
The Museum stones. At the top is a rock agate from the Woolshed Creek area of Mt Somers; there is another one of these at right centre. At left centre are three large agate stones from Birdlings Flat. At the bottom, closest to the camera, is some petrified wood (left) and some dark agatised wood (right), from the Hororata River area.

Later I ran into a woman who I found out was the daughter of Vince Burke, the Museum man. She was also out looking for agates and generously gave me a handful. Later still, I encountered a local on his afternoon walk who told me a bit about the beach and its dangers. “It’s a killer beach”, he said. The waves can be treacherous, coming in further and more quickly than one anticipates – turn your back on them to your peril. And it gets deep quickly off shore – people who go in after their dog can get into trouble. He also gave me a few agates he had collected that afternoon. 

I reached the cliffs at the north end of the beach but did not linger there. Charles had explained that one of the Christchurch area earthquakes had brought down part of the cliff-face. I had experienced a small but distinctly-felt earth tremor the night before in Christchurch and I was uneasy to focus too long on the stones at my feet when a mass of over-hanging cliff loomed above. 

I collected somewhere between five and six kilograms of stones that day, to add to the eight kilograms from Day One. That evening I packed them carefully into both my cabin baggage and checked baggage for my flight the next day back to Hamilton. Heavy bags!

My Visit to Birdlings Flat, Day 1 of 2

Last week I visited Birdlings Flat. The weather and tide were very good. Even though it is just about winter, the temperatures were in the mid-20s (centigrade) due to a strong warm north-westerly wind. And the tide was going out, meaning that wet stones were accessible at the tide-line. Some cars were parked partly on the beach but I didn’t want to risk getting stuck in the loose stones so stayed up near the road. The walk to the sea is across about 300-400 metres of stones, mostly greywacke it seems, and sometimes sorted into different sizes by natural processes – a patch of larger stones is followed by a band of smaller stones. There were a couple of people fishing from the beach, a couple sitting and watching the waves, and a photographer tramped the stones near the eastern end. A motor-cyclist went up and down the beach a bit further west, but otherwise it was a very quiet scene.

The parking area at Birdlings Flat
This is the area, near the eastern end of the beach, where most of the stone-hunters spend their time
Looking downwards while crossing towards the tide-line
Looking westwards upon arrival
Getting closer to the east end, where the beach gets steeper towards the surf
The beach is wide and stony
Looking eastwards upon arrival

When I reached the tide-line, I spent about 3 1/2 hours walking initially westwards along the beach before turning back and walking eastwards. I had intended to reach the cliffs at the east end but gave up before I got there as I had collected quite a few stones already, my backpack was getting heavy, and I knew I would be coming back the next day. Late afternoon, before heading back to Christchurch for the evening, I drove down Bayleys Road which runs along Kaitorete Spit. After about 9-10 kilometres, there is a beach access track. I spent about 30-40 minutes on the beach there, scanning for more stones. Here there is more sand and less stones but still some excellent pickings are possible.

Driving down Bayleys Road, along Kaitorere Spit
At the beach access half-way along Kaitorete Spit, looking eastwards towards Banks Peninsula and the Birdlings Flat beach I had just left
Looking westwards – many fewer stones but still well worth a fossicking walk

I ended up with about 8 kilograms of stones.

Some of the stones I collected.
More of the stones I collected.
The most beautiful stone I found, probably quartzite.
I didn’t realise it at the time but this is one of the famous agate stones that can be found at Birdlings Flat. This one is cubic and banded.

See also My Visit to Birdlings Flat, Day 2: Gemstone and Fossil Museum and My Visit to Birdlings Flat, Day 2: Stone Collecting.

Birdlings Flat III: Selection of Online Sources

BEACH FROM THE AIR – YouTube clip, Birdlings Flat and Halswell Quarry – the first 60 seconds of this short clip contains some aerial drone footage of Birdlings Flat, October 2017

LANDSCAPE DESCRIPTION – “Banks Peninsula Landscape Study”, for Christchurch City Council 2007, pages 194 to 197 are on Kaitorete Spit/Birdlings Flat

HISTORY – Wikipedia entry on “Birdling’s Flat”

TV PROGRAMME – Canterbury Television programme “Love Thy Neighbours” (August 1999) about some trouble between neighbours at Birdlings Fat, containing some good footage of the beach and village as well as some interesting historical material about the village (16 minutes 30 seconds long YouTube clip)

RADIO PROGRAMME – Country Life, “Down at the Beach”, 14 August 2014 Radio NZ Programme, interviews with 5 Birdlings Flat residents 

A BEACH RICH IN GEMSTONES – Te Ara, The Online Encyclopedia of New Zealand, brief entry “Looking for Gemstones, Birdlings Flat”

GEOMORPHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT – “Significant Coastal Lagoon Systems in the South Island New Zealand” by R.M. Kirk and G.A. Lauder, 2000, Department of Conservation, see pages 18-24 on “Waihora Lake Ellesmere” which also refers to Kaitorete Spit and Birdlings Flat

AGATES – Craig McGregor’s page on “Birdlings Flat Agates” from his website “Craigs Gems”

PHOTOS OF A VISIT – Licorice Allsorts, a blog by New Zealander Angela Hill, excellent set of photos taken on a visit to Birdlings Flat in May 2014

HISTORICAL SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE – “The Lake Ellesmere Spit with Map, Sections and Photographs” by R. Speight, in Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 1930

MOVIE CLIP OF NORTH END WAVES – YouTube clip, “Birdlings Flat North End Cliffs”, October 2012

ANOTHER MOVIE CLIP OF STORMY WAVES – YouTube clip, “Agate fossicking at Birdlings Flat with Doug”, showing some wild waves, Feb 2014 

PHOTOS OF GEMSTONES – “Gemstones” by Jocelyn Thornton, 1985, see page 33, “Beach pebbles – Birdlings Flat”

STONES – Country Chic Crafts New Zealand, a blog by Janette Ritchie from Springston, Canterbury, post on “New Zealand Gemstones” with a number of photos of Birdlings Flat stones, including agates and petrified wood

PHOTOS AND DESCRIPTION – Adrienne Rewi Online, a blog, post “Back to Birdlings”, November 2009 

Birdlings Flat I: What the Books say

Birdlings Flat is a beach about an hour’s drive from Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand.

004
Display in Birdlings Flat Gemstone and Fossil Museum

Lyn and Ray Cooper (1966), New Zealand Gemstones, Chapter 2 “Where to Find the Stones”: Birdlings Flat in Canterbury was, at one time, an excellent source for agates, but supplies are now much harder to find there, mainly because of the area’s close proximity to a large city and the swarms of collectors who have combed it over the past year or so. Good agates can still be found there, but the best time is immediately after a storm, when the sea has turned the surface stones over. (page 28) 

Mrs A. Niethe, “Gemstone Localities: New Zealand” in Bill Myatt (ed.) (1972), Australian and New Zealand Gemstones: How and Where to Find Them: Birdling’s Flat (it is named after the late Mr Birdling, who had a farm there) is part of the shingle spit, some 15 miles long, enclosing Lake Ellesmere. Half-a-dozen rivers along the coast to the west carry these gemstones from the hills inland to the sea. For millions of years the set of the current has swept the gravels north to pile against the basalt cliffs of the Banks Peninsula…  This is the Mecca of New Zealand’s rockhounds, famed for a variety of gemstones that reads like a geological dictionary. Coloured quartz of many types is the most common – jasper; chalcedony, mostly clear or grey or white, sard, sardonyx. petrified wood of various colours – a lot are fractured, after a while you only keep the perfect ones… Stones reached this beach from many parts of the South Island, presumably through glacial action in the ice ages. Rhodonite has been found here, quartzite, jasper from the Livingstone Mountains to the south-west; prase and plasma from the Hinds River, 60 miles away to the west, and true jade as Maori artefacts. Beware, this beach is extremely dangerous. Turning one’s back on the sea to pick over the rising bank of pebbles is almost involuntary, but it is very risky at Birdling’s Flat where the big waves knock you off your feet. (page 436)

Natalie Fernandez (1981), The New Zealand Rockhound, Chapter 5 “Locations”: Hundreds of rockhounds have cut their teeth on Birdlings Beach – just a short run from Christchurch. Here great rollers break on the stony shore throwing forward stones with a roar as the waves thunder up the steeply shelving beach and sucking them back with a clatter as the waves recede. You can look for your agates and jaspers well back from the water-line but they do not show up clearly unless you dig down, for only the surface layer is dry. More exciting is to hunt along the water’s edge. As a wave slides back an agate is spotted. You leap for it but miss as the next wave roars in, driving you back. You never see that agate again. The beach is steep and the undertow strong. The breakers are especially powerful in a southerly and on the in-coming tide. Few can play this game and keep dry. (page 14)    

Fernandez Birdlings Flat
“Birdlings Beach” following page 16, Fernandez, The New Zealand Rockhound

Natalie Fernandez (1981), The New Zealand Rockhound, Chapter 5 “Locations”: Birdlings Flat is 26 miles from Christchurch on the Akaroa Road. Shingle beach for 15 miles. There are still some pickings especially with a N.W. wind and an incoming tide. During a Southerly with rough seas the stones are sucked away again. A slight easterly with calm weather builds up the beach again. There is a strong under-current. The great rivers flowing into the Canterbury Bight bring material from inland to the sea. The current brings them north to be deposited where Banks Peninsula forms a barrier. Petrified wood, jasper, grey clear chalcedony, sardonyx, agate. In 1965 the beach was gazetted as a reserve. It is dangerous. (page 114)

Other TumbleStone Posts on Birdlings Flat:

Birdlings Flat II: Location Map and Satellite View (May 2016)
Birdlings Flat III: Selection of Online Sources (May 2016; up-dated 2019)
My Visit to Birdlings Flat, Day 1 of 2 (May 2016)
My Visit to Birdlings Flat, Day 2: Gemstone and Fossil Museum (May 2016)
My Visit to Birdlings Flat, Day 2: Stone Collecting (May 2016)
Birdlings Flat Stones After First Stage of Polishing (May 2016)
Polishing Agates from Birdlings Flat: Stage One (May 2016)
Another Visit to Birdlings Flat, Late June 2016 – Part One: Taumutu
Another Visit to Birdlings Flat, Late June 2016 – Part Two: Birdlings Flat Gemstone Museum Again
Another Visit to Birdlings Flat, Late June 2016 – Part Three: Seven Types of Stones Collected
TumbleStone Calendar 2019 – February, March, April and May

Where Agates Can be Found in New Zealand

NOTE: 3 July 2019 – The mineralworld website referred below is no longer available currently on the internet. I have therefore included in square brackets below access to this material via the Internet Archive, as it existed in 2016-2017.

Mineralworld [see archive] is a website developed by Klaus Schäfer, [see archive], a German gemstone expert and jewellery-designer, who has done a lot of research and writing about gemstones, especially agates and jasper. He refers to his site as an “agate-almanac” – it is all about agates. An agate can be described technically as a translucent cryptocrystalline variety of quartz, a variegated chalcedony, characterised by colours in alternating stripes or bands, in irregular clouds, or in moss-like forms. Agates may have a wide variety of colour patterns and banding, with the many distinctive styles and patterns virtually making each agate unique. 

There are many pages on Klaus Schäfer’s website about agates worldwide, with a multitude of excellent and beautiful photos from a wide range of collections. Some of the information and articles are in German but there is much English material there as well.

Part of the website is called “Agates Worldwide” and has detailed descriptions of thousands of places where agates can be found. One page is the Index to the New Zealand material [see archive] where 28 locations are listed (such as Birdlings Flat, Hinds River, Nimmo’s Swamp, and Ward’s Beach). Click on a location and you are taken to a page with a description of the location and the agates that have been found there (usually written by NZ experts), illustrated with exquisite agate photos [NOTE: The Internet Archive very unfortunately did not archive these photos, but some agate photos can be found elsewhere on the archived site – click here for examples], four of which are below. The localities of origin of the agates in these photos are, from left to right: Nimmo’s Swamp, near Moeraki in Otago; Rangiatea Station near Mt Somers, Canterbury – this photo is by Malcolm Luxton who has recently published a book on “Agates of New Zealand” (see my comments on Luxton’s book in the section on Stone 11 in “Twelve Stones, Part Four“); Whitecliffs clay pit in Canterbury; and Gawler Downs Station near Mt Somers, Canterbury.

These agates were large enough to slice through so that their banding and internal patterns are shown to best effect. If agates are too small for this, they can be tumble polished like other small stones.

Regarding agates on TumbleStone, see also the following Posts: A) My Visit to Birdlings Flat, Day 2: Gemstone and Fossil Museum; B) Another Visit to Birdlings Flat, Late June 2016 – Part Three: Seven Types of Stones Collected; C) Polishing Agates from Birdlings Flat: Stage One; D) Stone #11 in Twelve Stones, Part Four; E) Milestone #6 in Nine Milestones at Journey’s End; F) The May page in TumbleStone Calendar 2019 – February, March, April and May; and G) Stay-at-Home Day Twenty-Six, Monday 20 April 2020: Stone Twenty-Six. 

“Rock-collecting sites in New Zealand” – An Online Map

In Te Ara, the online New Zealand Encyclopedia, is a map of beaches in New Zealand where you can find agates and other interesting stones.  This is a very selective map and does not include, for example, Riverton at the bottom of the South Island, one of the best places for semi-precious stones. 

sites