As well as my usual Christmas gift of the TumbleStone 2023 Calendar for family this year, I am giving some polished stones. The calendar itself features stones from Slope Point and Kakanui – see here for information on the calendar and on the two beaches. This year, I am also sending stones from the same beaches through the mail, or giving in person, alongside the calendar. It’s not always easy to give away stones I have personally collected and polished, but I have accumulated quite a few by now, and find that as long as I have photos of them, it is ok. Note that the photos posted in this two-Post Series include “close-up” zooms that are sometimes brightened to bring out aspects of the details. The original photos were taken in bright sunshine, and viewing the stones themselves in bright sunshine best brings out their colours and patterns.
This Post features the Slope Point stones I have given away (the next Post features the Kakanui stones). Slope Point is right at the bottom of the South Island. There are three or four small beaches there that fossickers visit. The main attractions are the stones of rhyolite and petrified wood, and some breccia as well (stones consisting of small fragments of other stones). The following are the 15 Slope Point stones given away by me this Christmas. The first two are petrified wood:
The varieties of rhyolite among the next 13 stones (below) are reflected in the diversity of photos on Mindat.org, the world’s largest open database of minerals and rocks and the localities they come from. Some have orbs or “flowers”, including the chrysanthemum variety), others are flow banded. Some of the stones appear to be volcanic breccia, consisting of sharp edged fragments bound together in a fine matrix, though sometimes this can be hard to distinguish from stones with crystals within them that have formed as the volcanic rock has slowly cooled.
The second Post in this Series features the Kakanui stones given by me as Christmas gifts this year.
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