This morning I made my last fossick at Gemstone Beach/Te Waewae Bay for this trip. It was another gorgeous Southland day, warm and sunny. I walked my usual patch of beach, from the Gemstone Beach carpark to the cliffs where the Waimeamea River comes out at the coast. I was able to ford the river today, only just. After turning around, I met Christine Thompson, a member of the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”, who was visiting the beach from Otago. It was great to have a good chat with her and gather my strength for the final leg of the fossick.
The most interesting find of the fossick happened about 50 metres before I met Christine. Up until then, there had hardly been any hydrogrossular garnets to be found, with only one small translucent one in my bag. Then pretty much on the last leg of the fossick, I saw this stone sticking out of the sand and small pebbles, a rough-surfaced hydrogrossular garnet:
This type of garnet is among the rarest on Gemstone Beach/Te Waewae Bay (see the” seventh type” in this Post) and this size (5 cm by 3.5 cm by 1.25 cm) is also uncommon these days.
The next stone is stunning – for the colours within what were once tiny gas bubble holes:
Sought-after stones on this beach include the intense greens and the hematite jaspers. Today I found very good specimens of both, as shown by these two:
I nearly didn’t keep this next stone. It looked largely featureless except for some tiny “dots” that I couldn’t make out on the beach. I decided to put it in the bag and photograph it back at my accommodation so I could get a closer-up view:
It looks like there are tiny structures there, similar to the orbs I found in a stone on this beach on Thursday – see this Post.
The final three stones include a small white breccia, a blue-hued pebble, and a small banded stone:
So it’s “Good-bye for now” to Gemstone Beach. I drive to Kakanui tomorrow.
The first Post in the “Southern Sojourn 2023” Series is here. The Index to the Series is here.
TumbleStone 
Farewell from the South! Safe travels and spectacular finds for your trip home. See you when you get back here again!
LikeLike
Thank you! Keep up with your own fossicking, tumbling and blog writing. Hope it’s not too long before I get down again.
LikeLike
Hi John, I’ve loved following your Gemstone beach adventures and getting daily updates on TeWaewae bay conditions. We were there on Easter Sunday – and so wre HEAPS of others! I didn’t fossick as was there with extended family, so I felt too distracted. A lot of our whaanau love to gather stones and shells and such, so it was like heaven for some of them. Good luck on your travels back north. Take care, Kay PS How like the beach to offer a rare treasure on your last day – like some sort of reward.
LikeLike
Hi Kay! Good to hear from you! Thanks for your message. Glad you liked the fossicking reports. Yes, it’s been a productive three months for me. When I get home, I have to work out which stones to tumble first…
LikeLiked by 1 person