Fossick #3 at Gemstone Beach with JP
On Easter Saturday morning I went fossicking again with JP at Gemstone Beach. The weather was stunning and ideal for fossicking for poppy jaspers. This time we walked down to the Waimeamea River mouth, along the carpark side of the river until we hit a place shallow enough to cross. Once across the river we scrambled up the bank of stones and down the other side to fossick for a little way before heading back the way we came.
On the way back across the Waimeamea River (at the shallow part) something red caught my eye. The river water was cold but it wasn’t rushing. It was a jasper and even better, it was a poppy jasper. JP took a really great closeup photo of it here. It was the best find of the day for me!
I had to leave the beach by lunchtime unfortunately so the trip back from the river mouth to the carpark was a little more hurried than I would have liked. I left JP to fossick some more and headed home.
I decided I would record a photo of the collected stones dry and then wet for comparison. In the above two pics there are trace fossils – bottom left, Hydrogrossulars – top left. (I didn’t find any hydrogrossulars – JP found them all and kindly gave me those ones)
Interesting Finds
I’m really looking forward to seeing how these turn out after tumbling and polishing! Stay tuned!
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