I very nearly didn’t go to Gemstone Beach this morning. There was wind and rain overnight, and morning temperatures were cool. But I decided I would make use of my wet weather gear and headed out. I arrived at the carpark at 9.15 am, the temperature having risen slightly to nine degrees, with still some rain around. There was only one campervan parked up at the beach, and I passed the couple as I walked onto the beach. “It’s a cold morning!” was their greeting to me.
I left my camera and backpack in the car, thinking I might do a quick 30 minute fossick. The Taunoa Stream was higher than previously due to the overnight rain and I just made it to the other side, my waterproof leggings helping to keep water out of the top of my gumboots. There were plenty of stones in front of the carpark but the first 150 metres past the stream was predominantly sand, right to the foot of the cliffs. But then the stones appeared, most of them wet from the rain, the sun came out, and quite a few interesting finds appeared. The overnight storm had produced energetic waves that had given the stones a good tossing about, turning up a good range of types. I kept fossicking until I reached the mouth of the Waimeamea River at which point I turned back. I half-filled each of the two pockets in my raincoat. In the end, I was three hours on the beach.
It was amongst the best Gemstone Beach fossicks of the trip so far. One of the most gorgeous finds was this small stone with bright green mineral in it:
It has been suggested that the green might be a form of “chrome diopside” – I have explored this in another Post (yet to be published). The next find is a small but bright red jasper – the tiny swirling threads of red and orange against the dark hematite background is amazing:
My eye always seems to be drawn by the tiny scattering of orange in the following kind of stone:
Two brown hydrogrossular garnets I found today:
One of the two poppy jaspers I found:
I gave the other poppy jasper away. On the way back to the carpark at the end of my fossick, once I had forded the Taunoa Stream again, I walked past three people looking at stones. I saw a nice small hydrogrossular garnet so I picked it up and approached one of the group, explaining to her that it was a good example of a type of stone associated with this beach. It turned out that she was from the Czech Republic and had been in New Zealand for a few years. Her parents were visiting her and that morning they had come to Gemstone Beach. They were very interested in the stones so I also discussed with them specimens of poppy jasper and trace fossils that I had found, the daughter translating for her parents. I left them with a nice poppy jasper and a couple of larger hydrogrossular garnets. It was a good end to a good fossick.
I found a number of variations of trace fossil stones today, with large or small traces, of different colours and shapes:
And seven more of my finds:
I left my camera in the car, to avoid getting it wet in the rain. However, the rain stopped after about ten minutes and the sun came out. I took some photos on my phone:
The TumbleStoneTwo home page for Gemstone Beach is here.
The next Part of this Series highlights more spectacular finds from a Gemstone Beach fossick. The Series Index is here.
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