Timaru – Page 2 – TumbleStone

February-March 2022 Fossicking Trip: Stone of the Day #26, Quartz-Veined Quartzite(?) from Timaru

Today, Tuesday 8 March, was again a travel day as I make my way north towards home (Whanganui). I drove from Banks Peninsula to Ward, just south of Blenheim. When I started out this morning, just over 3,500 kilometres had been covered by car in my trip. Today I decided to feature six stones from my time on a beach near Timaru two days ago (see the last part of this Post for an account of the beach visit). The one chosen as Stone of the Day is perhaps a quartz-veined quartzite.

Stone of the Day #26

I’m not entirely sure it is a quartzite as there appears to be a mix of different things going on within it. This is not unusual in beach stones – they are all unique and can be a blend of minerals and crystals and veins and colours.

Other side of Stone #26.

Today’s five other stones exhibit some of the variety that can be found on this Timaru beach.

Small spherical quartzite?

Small light red jasper.

$Stone with a stress fracture.$

Stone with a stress fracture.

All going to plan, tomorrow may include a visit to Ward Beach, and I will be able to board a ferry to Wellington on Thursday morning to enable me to reach home on Thursday afternoon.

The first Post in this Series is here. The Index to all the Posts in the Series is here.

February-March 2022 Fossicking Trip: Stone of the Day #24, Kakanui Multi-Coloured Quartzite

This morning I spent three hours on Kakanui’s Seadown Beach before driving to Timaru where I spent an hour at the Scarborough Road beach. It was very warm, temperatures reaching 29 degrees while I was on the road. Today’s Stone of the Day was found at Kakanui – I turned it over again and again as I tried to make sense of it:

Stone of the Day #24.

It appears to be a quartzite. Another side had quite different colours:

And then another turn of the stone revealed another view, this one predominantly yellow:

I also found a small predominantly red quartzite:

Two of the fossil sea floor stones I found, plus what may be a third of that type:

And one of those stones that could be either a jasper or a quartzite but collected because of its veins and light colour:

I met Barb and Derek this morning. They regularly walk the beach, picking up rubbish as well as stones. We discussed issues of identifying different types of stones, especially trying to distinguish quartz from agate. Derek found a small agate during this discussion, which he kindly gave to me – I have found only three or four here this trip.

Derek’s small beach agate.

Barb had picked up a small smooth gray quartz stone on her walk, and we entertained the notion that it was feldspar within it. I offered to tumble-polish it for her:

Barb’s small quartz.

A torch held behind the small quartz.

And so it was farewell to my Kakanui beach…

…and two and a half hours later, it was hello to the beach just south of Timaru.

Timaru beach at the end of Scarborough Road.

Looking towards Timaru city.

I arrived two hours after low tide. I realised that the waves of this beach required much more alertness on the part of the fossicker as they break closer to shore than at the other beaches I have recently visited. There is little time between the sound of the breaking wave and its swift movement up the beach. Fossickers focus visually on stones, keeping an ear out for waves, and they often walk along the waves’ edge, making them vulnerable to wet legs from late breaking waves.

It’s possible to find interesting jaspers and quartzites on this beach, though they are often in rougher condition than at Gemstone Beach and Kakanui – this means that they require more tumbling. My favourite yellow quartzites (see Stone #4) can be found here but there are also quartzites of different colours than further south.

Among the other interesting stones I found here this afternoon were these:

Finally, just as I was about to turn away from the waves to walk back to my car, I found this large hematite jasper:

Normally I would marvel at it then leave it on the beach, as it is a bit too big for my tumblers. But I’m going to take it to show to my host Tracey tomorrow who I think has a tumbler that is large enough for it, should she want it.

The first Post in this Series is here. The Index to all the Posts in the Series is here.

February-March 2022 Fossicking Trip: Stone of the Day #3, Timaru Beach Stone

On Sunday 13 February, I spent about three hours on the beach just south of Timaru, accessed via Scarborough Road. I was joined for the first hour or so by Sascha and Pauline, two local stone fossickers. Stone of the Day #3 caught my eye for two reasons – its fine black veins and the patch of light colour on one side.

Stone #3

The other side of the stone also has the fine black veins:

Other side of Stone #3.

The three of us initially walked southwards, finding the odd interesting stone. When Sascha and Pauline left, I continued south but soon encountered a large seal on the beach. I decided not to disturb it further, turning back and heading towards an old wrecked wharf – I had not gone that far northwards before,

Looking southwards along the beach near Timaru.

Sascha and Pauline were great company. – the beach is a good place for social distancing.

I turned back after meeting this seal.

Looking northwards, towards the old wharf I walked to.

Four other stones I found today:

Brecciated jasper.

Interesting pattern!

Quartzite?

The next Post in the Series, on Stone #4, a yellow quartzite from a Kakanui beach, is here. The Index to all the Posts in the Series is here.

January 2022, Stone of the Day #22 – A Timaru Quartzite with Windows

My first batch of polished stones from Timaru was completed on 19 January 2022. The beach that they came from is described in the Post on Stone #21, except that I accessed it at the end of Ellis Road, a little south of Scarborough Road. The actual day I found Stone #22 was Sunday 27 June 2021, on a foggy morning, and two photos of it appear in a Post on that visit. This is the polished stone, with a small number of blemishes apparent:

It is a stone with two different coloured faces, one red and the other yellow:

The other side of Stone #22, the yellow side.

One of the most interesting aspects of this stone is the “windows” into it, small clear inclusions. There are hundreds of them, many very tiny. These I have elsewhere called “entrances”. Sometimes, though not often, these can come loose in the tumbling process, and one end of Stone #22 has a hole in it from a missing window.

One end of Stone #22 has a missing “window”.

Small hole in the end of Stone #22 (on left).

Lots of “windows”, some very tiny.

Comparing the polished stone with the stone the day it was found on the beach gives an idea of the extent to which the “windows” have been reduced during the tumbling:

Stone #22 when found on beach.

Stone #22 after tumble polishing.

Stone #22 when found on beach.

Stone #22 after tumble polishing.

Stone #22 is 4.5 cms long, 2.5 cms wide and around 1 cm thick. It was put in a 400 grit tumble for 10 days followed by another 10 days in a 600 grit tumble. After 11 days in tin oxide tumble polish, it underwent a borax burnishing tumble for three days.

The carpark at the end of Ellis Road, south of Timaru.

Stones on the beach, Timaru.

The stretch of beach where I found Stone #22.

The Index to the January 2022 Stone of the Day Series is here.

January 2022, Stone of the Day #21 – A Dark Quartzite(?) from a Timaru Beach

It is the lighter-coloured stones that normally attract my eye on the beach. This stone is a particularly dark one, but the veins that criss-cross it caught my eye and a closer look suggested it might be a quartzite. I find the dark veins attractive along with the complexity of the stone.

The flashes of dark red in it add further interest:

The other side of Stone #21.

I first visited this beach near Timaru in June 2021, following up a mention of it in a Post in the “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils” Facebook Group made by Sascha Stoddart. Sascha crafts with copper wire and oiled stones, as beautifully presented on her Facebook Page “Wire on the Rocks”.

Sascha Stoddart’s “Wire on the Rocks” Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/Wireontherocks

Copper wire and oiled stones.

One of the interesting green quartzites from the Timaru area.

A petrified wood piece from the Timaru area.

As Sascha states: “Wire on the Rocks originated from the discovery of a piece of pink Rhodonite, which I found in May 2020, when walking along the beach in Timaru. Within two weeks I had found a second piece, and had developed a beach stone obsession which rapidly escalated and resulted in a growing collection of treasure. I decided to try my hand at wire wrapping some of the stones, and was soon creating jewellery and sculptures, and experimenting and exploring different ideas. In February 2021, and more than 130 creations later, I named my creative pursuit Wire on the Rocks.”

Source: https://www.facebook.com/Wireontherocks

Some of Sascha’s stones are found on the beach that can be accessed at the end of Scarborough Road, just south of Timaru. I made my first visit there in the late afternoon of 5 June 2021. Once I found the access point, after trying a couple of dead-ends, I did a quick reconnaissance of the beach and returned the next day when I found Stone #21 (see the entry for Sunday 6 June 2021 in this Post). At that time, I also found a larger quartzite of similar hue.

The beach at the end of Scarborough Road. There is a walkway along the top of the cliff.

This is the only place along the beach where a safe crossing of the railway exists.

The track between the railway crossing and the beach access.

Further along the beach, the lighthouse can be seen.

Looking north from the railway crossing towards nearby Timaru. This part of the beach is also great for fossicking.

Another, though larger, dark quartzite found on 6 June.

Stone #21 originally had a small chunk out of it (see photo below) which I smoothed away using at least a couple of tumbles with 220 grit. Using 80/100 grit would also have done the job, and more quickly, but the 220 grit tumbles gave me more control over the shaping process as I wanted to minimise the reduction in size of the stone.

Stone #21 when found on the beach.

A chunk was missing from the stone.

The final polished stone, indicating the area where the “blemish” had originally been.

I then used a 400 grit tumble followed by a 600 grit tumble to prepare the stone for polishing as best as I could. It spent 11 days in tin oxide tumble polish followed by a borax burnishing tumble for three days, completing the process on 19 January 2022. I could have burnished it longer but I was anxious to make the batch available for this series of Posts as it was my first batch of polished Timaru stones. Stone #21 has ended up completely smooth but definitely smaller in size than originally, being 4.5 cms long, 3 cms wide, and about 0.75 cms thick. I am very happy with the finished product.

The Index to the January 2022 Stone of the Day 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.

FB Group Posts: 26, 27 & 30 June 2021 – Kakanui, Timaru and Ward Beach, Then Home

Facebook Group Banner, close-up of one of Malcolm Luxton’s cut agates.

This is the seventh and last Post on my June 2021 stone collecting trip to the South Island, and is also the 17th and last Post in the Series of my daily Posts in the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The first Post on my June trip is the Sunday 6 June entry in this Post, and the first in the Facebook Group Series is here.

Saturday 26 June 2021: Featuring ten stones from my last visit to the beach near Kakanui this trip. I spent four hours there, and a bit of rain ensured wet stones for easier spotting of the colourful ones.

I collected a few colourful stones from about two metres around this spot and added them to the shot.

My last view of the beach near Kakanui.

The first five stones:

Small but interesting stone, side A.

Small but interesting stone, side B.

Bigger stone, with small circular features.

Quartzite, not a tumble-polishing candidate but I couldn’t walk past the bright colours.

The last five stones:

Small transparent stone with tiny inclusions.

Quartzite with unusual jasper-like inclusion.

Small quartzite.

Sunday 27 June 2021: My first visit to this particular section of a south Timaru Beach (at the end of Ellis Road, near Jack’s Point lighthouse). It was a cool foggy day, and I spent about three hours fossicking.

Looking north from the Ellis Road carpark.

A couple of hundred metres south of the carpark – the cliff has been eroded away and the succulents on top have been undermined.

At the base of the eroding cliffs at this point on the beach.

Looking up at the Jack’s Point lighthouse.

The scattering of stones across the lower part of the beach where I found the stones highlighted in this Post..

I looked mainly along the lower part of the beach near low tide, near the waves, where there was a scattering of stones, including quite a few interesting quartzites.

Here are seven green-coloured stones I found:

Side A of first stone.

Side B of first stone.

Ten more of the stones collected today, showing some of the diversity on this beach:

Large jasper, left on beach, just below the lighthouse. Pen and front of gumboot for scale.

Quartzite.

Monday 28 June 2021: Cold stormy day – travelled to Lincoln, had to cancel a planned visit to Birdlings Flat due to the hail and wind and freezing temperatures.

Tuesday 29 June 2021: This is the day I made a Post in the Group’s Alphabetical Series – “I” is for “Ichnogenus Protovirgularia” – not yet posted.

Wednesday 30 June 2021: Ward Beach visit today, the end of my current South Island trip (assuming I am able to catch a ferry tomorrow as planned). Ward Beach is 5 kms east of Ward which is 45 kms south of Blenheim. The geographical setting is spectacular, with steep hills behind the beach. Interesting birds often there, and seals. I managed a fossick today as the weather had improved, the temperature was around 10 to 12 degrees with little wind, and there were only a couple of rain showers. Very heavy swell at the beach so I stayed well back from the waves. Had a good look up the Flaxbourne River just to the south of the carpark.

Heavy swell today at Ward Beach.

There is often heavy swell here but today was especially so.

Ward Beach, Google Maps. P = Carpark. Most of my fossicking today was up the Flaxbourne River in the area circled in red.

Looking up the valley of the Flaxbourne River.

Wet stones.

The stones alongside the Flaxbourne River.

Seal on rocks at the mouth of the Flaxbourne River.

I was spotted by a shag.

Two herons on the river bank.

Eight of the stones collected today:

Colourful small pebble.

Red jasper with some yellow.

Zoophycos (trace fossil). Many of these at Ward Beach.

Some intense iron staining.

Here are another six stones found today:

Many of the stones here may not tumble-polish well (I will need to experiment to find out) but I enjoy the pastel colours and trace fossils. The occasional jasper can be interesting, and some of these stones are volcanic. I’d like to know more about the limestone and chert here.

[This was the end of this stone collecting trip. The ferry on Thursday was delayed a couple of hours but I made it home to Whanganui that night, having driven 3,800 kilometres, with 120 kilograms of finds with me.]