Ward Beach – Page 4 – TumbleStone

“W” is for “Ward Beach Zoophycos” and “X” is for “X-Figures When Veins Cross in a Stone”

R is for Riverton Rocks Red Rock

S is for Slope Point Stone

T is for Timaru Today

U is for Unusual Variations of Trace Fossil Stones

V is for >>>>>>

The following are my Posts for “W” and “X” in the weekly 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. The Series Index is here.

“W” is for “Ward Beach Zoophycos” – This stone contains a trace fossil, called zoophycos, and similar stones can be found especially along the Kaikoura coast. As noted in “A Photographic Guide to Fossils of New Zealand”, Ward Beach is famous for this type of trace fossil stone, of which there many variations.

Zoophycos stone from Ward Beach.

Page 64 in “A Photographic Guide to Fossils of New Zealand”

Ward Beach is about six kilometres off the main road east from the small village of Ward in the Flaxbourne District, 82 kilometres north of Kaikoura and 45 kilometres south of Blenheim. The Flaxbourne River reaches the coast at Ward Beach, which is 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). The beach was uplifted by the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, unveiling the boulders.

The car park is near the centre of this stretch of beach. The boulders are a bit further north along the beach.

My little red car can be seen in the car park here. Looking from the south.

Looking from the north.

The beach in front of the car park, at low tide.

Some of the Ward Beach boulders.

Ward Beach stones.

Another Ward Beach zoophycos stone.

The best part of the beach for stones is immediately in front of the car park, though it can be steep as it gets closer to the water and the incoming waves can be dangerous.

“X” is for “X-Figures When Veins Cross in a Stone” – This tumble-polished Birdlings Flat quartzite contains many veins, some very fine, others less so. When veins cross, “X”s are discernable. I have highlighted two of the many in this stone.

Polished Birdlings Flat quartzite.

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.]

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.

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.

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: