This is Part B (or part 2) of an epic, awesome month for fossicking at Gemstone Beach in March in which coincidentally both JP and rock buddies Shona & Lee (lovely ladies I met on Gemstone Beach last year) were here and we all fossicked A LOT together! It was fabulous! Part 6a can be found here!
Fossick #4 – Saturday 15 March, 2025
High tide was at 2:10pm so we all ventured down to Gemstone Beach arriving at 3:03pm. It was a lovely, sunny 21 degrees (I know – unreal for Southland!) as Shona, Lee, Bryan, JP and myself headed across the Taunoa Stream. There were so many people on the other side of the Taunoa – the most I have ever seen in my whole time fossicking at Gemstone Beach! It did not however take long to fossick past the crowds.
I did not fossick all the way down to the Waimeamea River today as dinner plans meant I needed to be back home before 5:30pm. I left the beach at 4:23pm with a small bag of stones having spent nearly an hour and a half fossicking.
Favourite Finds of the Day – Fossick #4
Fossick #5 – Thursday 27 March, 2025
I’ve been away in Hawkes Bay visiting family for a couple of weeks and by the time I returned Shona, Lee & Bryan had continued on their South journey. They managed to do more days of fossicking down at Gemstone Beach with JP while I was gone and have found some stunners to add to their own stone collections.
JP has a few days left before he starts his journey home to the North Island so I didn’t waste any time getting back on the beach for another fossick. There were a few cars already in the carpark when I arrived at 12:40pm with ten or so people on the beach. It was a cool 12 degrees and overcast. High tide was at 11:35am so we were going to be fossicking on the tide going out which is a favourite time as you’re not worrying about getting down to the Waimeamea River and back again before high tide!
Before we crossed the Taunoa Stream JP and I chatted with a lovely young couple from California one of whom was a geologist. It was interesting to hear her talk about similar kinds of stones/rocks they find on their beach.
The Waimeamea River was not open and flowing out to the beach although there were a few seepages to fossick around the sides of. I stopped to take a photo of one of the seepages only to capture JP photographing the beach! The edge of that seepage is not that far from the Waimeamea River so we had a short conversation about how long it might take for the river to break through the remaining stones and flow out to sea again. We both didn’t think it was going to take very long at all.
The sun came out but it had only warmed up one more degree by the time we got back to the carpark at 3:50pm. There were about 8-12 people on the beach with two people already searching for stones just across the Taunoa Stream.
We had a good three and bit hours fossick with a nice number of favourite finds.
Favourite Finds of the Day – Fossick #5
Fossick #6 – Friday 28 March, 2025
With high tide at 12:22pm my final fossick with JP and my last fossick for March started at 1:33pm. Fossicking on the tide going on is our preferred time to fossick because as I mentioned previously in this post you’re not worried about getting down to the Waimeamea River and back while racing the incoming tide.
There were only 2 cars in the carpark when I arrived – one of them being JP’s! It was a very pleasant 15 degrees and overcast.
The bank of stones before the Taunoa Stream is rising (see middle image, top row below) and shows just how many stones the sea is removing as it washes in and out with tides. We haven’t had a decent storm for over a month and most of the beach in front of the carpark and over the other side of the Taunoa Stream have been very sandy with few stones.
The Waimeamea River was narrowly open and flowing shallow out to sea. It was very easy to cross, so we did, and were able to fossick quite a way past it – more so than we normally would. After almost three and a half hours on the beach it was 4:50pm by the time we got back to the carpark. Believe it or not there were more cars in it than what was there when we first arrived! Stopping at Gemstone Beach on the Southern Scenic Route appears to be even more popular this year. It has been such a busy place!
Favourite Finds of the Day – Fossick #6
If I’m naming the stones in the captions, please note that I am by no means an expert and they are my “best guess” with some being more confident guesses than others. That being said, I am really keen for any thoughts, corrections, suggestions on the stones of interest (to me) that have come out of my tumblers so please leave a comment – it’s greatly appreciated!
Next in the Series:
Stones, Waves & Whispers: Part 7 (not published yet) – May fossicks.
Just stumbled across this post and want to read the series from the beginning? Click here.
Fossick #5 Stone Q – I think the stone is likely to be basalt and the crystals are likely to be feldspar, not quartz. If you google “chinese writing stone”, this will tell you more.
I googled “chinese writing stone” and will update that caption now – I had no idea that they were characterised by their distintive white, feldspar-like markings. I also should have mentioned that it’s porphyry.