Ten months ago, in September 2021, I delivered 24 polished stones to Oliver Simpson who lives near Slope Point, Southland (see this Post). At that time, he gave me a few more that he had collected since we last met, some for me to keep and some for me to return polished to the finder (fair trade!). I have now finished tumble-polishing most of these, and I returned 25 to him yesterday. This Post, and the other two in this Series, feature these 25 stones.
As I mentioned in my September 2021 Post, Slope Point beaches are known for petrified wood, much of it black in colour, and rhyolites that are colourful and swirly, sometimes brecciated. Oliver has a particular interest in petrified wood, especially large pieces (see this recent Post for a couple of examples), whereas I fossick for smaller stones for a tumble polisher. I first visited Slope Point in March 2021, with Oliver as host. We have since conducted maybe half a dozen fossicks together. Oliver now knows the kind of stones I like so he picks up a few to give me to tumble.
This Post features eight of the polished stones I gave back to Oliver yesterday. They represent the range of types of stones in the 25, and most are quite spectacular in character. I don’t know the identification of all of them. In fact, the first one in particular is a mystery to me. I have not seen anything like it before.
The second is a volcanic stone, the vesicles of which have been infilled, making it an amygdaloidal stone. Oliver had found this at Gemstone Beach.
I have found similar amygdaloidal stones at Gemstone Beach (140 kilometres west of Slope Point) (see here and here), though these are not as colourful as the one Oliver found. The next stone is also a colourful one, a mix of white and red. It has a complex composition, with brecciation visible (small sharp fragments in a fine matrix) as well as white orbicular structures.
The next stone also exhibits a kind of orbicular structure but the boundary of the “orbs” are less clearly defined. Close inspection shows a crystal of some kind in the centre of a lot of the “orbs”. This could be a “chrysanthemum rhyolite” stone.
The next stone is also orbicular. It is the one that Oliver liked the most, and it was the most difficult to tumble-polish due to its shape. Again, a complex composition.
The sixth stone is petrified wood, a rich brown colour in parts.
The next stone appears to have some orbs and is also brecciated – its four main colours, black, gray, white and dark red make it particularly attractive.
Finally in this Post, a type of stone that is reasonably common at Slope Point, probably of volcanic origin but I am unsure.
Part 2 in this Series features seven petrified wood stones polished for Oliver.
TumbleStone 
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