I spent a few days based in Riverton early in May, on a stone collection trip. Two of my aims were to spend more time on Gemstone Beach and to explore the beach further to the west, near a place called McCracken’s Rest. I took an extra suitcase down with me so that I could carry more stones home with me than I usually do on the plane. I ended up bringing back 26.5 kgs of carefully selected beach pebbles.
Day One at Riverton saw me drive out to McCracken’s Rest, 36 kilometres from Riverton. This is a roadside lay-by and viewpoint eight kilometres west of Orepuki and Gemstone Beach.
McCracken’s Rest on the coast of Te Waewae Bay, northwest of Orepuki. The Waiau River mouth is further northwest, where the Te Waewae Lagoon is created by a stone bar. Source: Google Maps
Just northwest of McCracken’s Rest is the start of Te Waewae Lagoon.Source: Google Maps
McCracken’s Rest in relation to Riverton, 36 kms away. Source: Google Maps
On YouTube is this clip which gives a good sense of the roadside lay-by (although at 1:24 Stewart Island is misidentified – it is in fact well hidden in the mist – the piece of land referred to as Stewart Island is really the headland between Monkey Island and Cosy Nook, the headland just south of Orepuki – see the third last photo, bottom left, in the group below).
The information panel and viewpoint at McCracken’s Rest, looking out on Te Waewae Bay
The viewpoint lies between Orepuki and Tuatapere
On one side of the information panel is a map of the area
The photographer and the photograph
The Waiau River is the source of many of the stones on the beaches here
Te Waewae Bay
McCracken’s Rest and Gemstone Beach in relation to Monkey Island and Cosy Nook
The other side of the information panel features a historical time spiral for Tuatapere
The spiral of history
The beach between Orepuki and McCracken’s lies below cliffs all the way along so access is very difficult. At the viewpoint at McCracken’s Rest, I hopped over the fence and carefully made my way down the steep slope to the beach below.
The viewpoint at McCracken’s Rest – the best entry point to the beach, though unofficial
On the way down to the beach, layers of stones are exposed, their roundness suggesting they were probably laid down by the Waiau River or some other river long ago
Detail of exposed stones
The scene at the bottom of the slope, beneath McCracken’s Rest viewpoint, looking north-west
The beach at McCracken’s Rest is similar to the beach further south-east, back towards Gemstone Bach and the Waimeamea Lagoon. There is a low bank of stones above the high tide mark, along with a wide scattering of drift wood. Closer to the waves, there are sandy patches and drifts of smaller stones.
Looking north-west, towards Fiordland
Looking south-east, towards Gemstone Beach which is about 6 to 7 kilometres away
Sand and stones on the beach near McCracken’s Rest
There is no scarcity of stones
There are slightly more larger stones here than further south-east on the beach, back near Gemstone Beach
Stones on the beach near McCracken’s Rest
Looking back up to the McCracken’s Rest viewpoint
I spent two and a half hours there – the day was largely fine and with little wind, which allowed the sandflies to be active. I slowly walked (and fossicked) just over a kilometre north-westwards to the start of the Te Waewae Lagoon (created by the Waiau River trying to find a path to the sea). The actual mouth of the Waiau River can vary in position along this gravel bar, depending on the countervailing forces of the river’s flow and the stones thrown up by the sea.
This is as far as I walked, the start of the Te Waewae Lagoon. The actual mouth of the Waiau River is another 6 or 7 kilometres to the north-west.
Looking along the gravel bar that has created the Te Waewae Lagoon
Gravel cliff just at the soulth-eastern end of Te Waewae Lagoon
Detail of the gravel cliff. Very likely to one of the intermediate sources of stones for this beach and further south-east
There seemed to be more slightly larger and less rounded stones here than at Gemstone Beach, and I did not see as many colourful ones. I also found no hydrogrossular garnets although there were fossil worm cast stones.
Well-defined fossil worm casts in a large stone, left on the beach
A large dark red jasper
Probably a stone of volcanic origin
Gogeous black, grey and white stone, with fault lines, just a little too big to tumble polish
Large colourful stone
Maybe a kind of argillite
Another large stone with fossil worm casts, though they do not show the segmentation pattern as the previous one
Probably a stone of volcanic origin
I collected quite a few stones on the beach but later discarded many of them after careful re-examination. This was partly because I found much better stones later at Gemstone Beach and on the Riverton beaches. I still ended up bringing home 2.3 kilograms of stones from the beach between McCracken’s Rest and Te Waewae Lagoon.
Sorting through the stones picked up at the beach below McCracken’s Rest
A quartz, at first glance very similar to an agate
Breccia stone
Probably a quartzite stone
The fossil worm casts in this stone are raised, being made of harder material than the rest of the stone
Before returning to Riverton, I drove up to Fishing Camp Road, about two and a half kilometres north-west of McCracken’s Rest, and drove along it to the shores of the Te Waewae Lagoon. This brought me to the landward side of the lagoon, near a handful of fisher huts and a boat ramp. The stones there were dirty and slimy and uninteresting – but one could gaze across the lagoon at the gravel bar separating the lagoon from the sea and see the kind of interesting ones to be found between there and Gemstone Beach.
Just up the road from McCracken’s Rest, towards Tautapere
The beach from McCracken’s Rest to the Waiau River – Fishing Camp Road turns off the Orepuki-Tuatapere Highway (99) halfway between. Source: Google Maps.
Fishing Camp Road leads to fisher huts on the landward side of the Te Waewae Lagoon. Source: Google Maps.
Te Waewae Lagoon, fisher hut to right, boat ramp to left. Waiau River mouth out of sight in the distance
The stones on this side of the lagoon are muddy and slimy.
Looking back along the shores of the lagoon towards McCracken’s Rest (out of sight). I had earlier walked to the spot where the cliffs come down at the head of the lagoon.
Looking across the lagoon to the gravel bank, beyond which is Te Waewae Bay
Gravel bar, Te Waewae Lagoon
Gravel bar, Te Waewae Lagoon
