February-March 2022 Fossicking Trip: Stone of the Day #27, Ward Beach Agate

Today was my final beach visit for this trip. I went to Ward Beach, five kilometres east of the small village of Ward (which is 45 kms south of Blenheim). I spent nearly four hours on the beach, arriving at high tide. I kept on getting distracted by the spectacular geographical setting, the fascinating rock formations, and the wildlife, especially the seals. However, I did manage to do some fossicking. I am vaguely aware that some kind of agates are found here but I have not found any in my visits to the beach so far. And then, three-quarters through my time here today, I came across this gorgeous one:

Stone of the Day #27, agate from Ward Beach.

I had been wondering if I just wasn’t recognising agates on the beach, but when I saw this stone it caught my eye immediately, the wet exposed agate sparkling in the sun. It is a small stone, between two and three centimetres long.

Other side of Stone #27.

I then found a very small agate, and recognised that two light-coloured stones I found had agate veins:

Very small agate.

One side of agate-veined stone.

Other side.

Another agate-veined stone.

I have an interest in Ward Beach’s zoophycos stones (see this Post for an introduction to these and this Post for a number of examples). I found some more nice specimens today:

Zoophycos stone.

Zoophycos stone.

Zoophycos stone.

I walked along about two kilometres of the coast (and back), from the mouth of the Flaxbourne River in the south (see A on the map below left) to the Chancet Rocks in the north (D on the map).

Ward Beach. Source: Google Maps.

Looking back towards the carpark from the area of the boulders.

Ward Beach stones.

Key to Map (above left): A = Flaxbourne River Mouth; B = Carpark; C = Ward Beach Boulders; D = Chancet Rocks; E = Seal Colony.

The Ward Beach Boulders are large concretions, about one metre high, and they are scattered along a 250 metre section of the beach. They are smaller than the Moeraki Boulders (see Stone of the Day #22).

Ward Beach boulders.

One of the boulders has this hollow.

Two people walking past the boulders.

The Chancet Rocks are the remains of tilted limestone strata. I estimate that they are maybe 20 metres at the highest point. Some of the lower strata in the sand next to the higher pieces are a soft pink colour.

Chancet Rocks.

Chancet Rocks.

Soft pink limestone near Chancet Rocks.

Just to the east of the Chancet Rocks is a seal colony. Many seals were active today, swimming in the bay as well as climbing onto rocks to sunbathe. Most of them were on a couple of large off-shore rocks but some were on the beach.

Chancet Rocks in far distance to left, seal colony territory to the right of them.

Large off-shore rock with seals.

Close-up of large off-shore rock with seals.

Seal swimming in foreground.

Two shags and two seals.

Tomorrow I catch the ferry to the North Island, drive home to Whanganui, off-load the stones, and think about starting up the tumblers again.

[I arrived home on schedule, having driven a total of 4,100 kms, bringing 97 kgs of stones with me.]

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