Yesterday was quite stormy, with a lot of wind and rain, so I didn’t go out fossicking. Instead, I spent some time catching up with blog Posts. Today I ventured out again, driving the 30 kilometres to Orepuki, and I spent three hours on Gemstone Beach and westwards. In some ways, this was the most productive of my fossicks here so far. It seemed like the stones had been given a good toss around by the storm-energised waves as I found more interesting ones than usual – more spots and bands and dashes of colours.
Some of my finds today were spectacular, this one in particular. I found it down near the Waimeamea River lagoon. The colour is unique amongst the stones I have found on this beach so far. I suspect it is a jasper, partly because it contains hematite. It is very smooth, almost perfectly so.
At the Waimeamea River lagoon, I climbed a small hill to take my usual photo and to check how full the lagoon was. A small outlet had formed, with the flow being about the same currently as the Taunoa Stream, back near the carpark.
I went over to the outlet and slowly walked down one side and up the other, looking for stones. This little red one caught my attention, a bright hematite orbicular jasper, also known as a poppy jasper:
Other dark red jaspers I found today, including two other poppies:
Other finds that are predominantly red or purple or pink, some of them with tiny white crystals:
Among the things that catch my attention on the beach are bands or veins or shapes that are lighter or darker than the rest of a stone:
And sometimes spots, inclusions and quite tiny details make a stone worthy of collection:
The next Part in this Series includes a nice small mossy jasper found on Gemstone Beach. The Series Index is here.
TumbleStone 