New Zealand Gold Fossicking Forums

Hi Gavin, I have read there is fine beach gold on the sea beaches at the mouth of the Rakaia River. The source was traced to gold reefs at the head of the Wilberforce River, a large branch of the Rakaia. These reefs are at the foot of Browning Pass & belong to the reef system of the Taipo River in Westland. Mining was carried out here from 1890 to 1906. Specimen stone has been picked up at the junction of the Wiberforce River & Grave Creek, & gold panned from the Hurunui River in the upper gorge near its junction with the south branch, above the junction with Mandamus River, & also at the head of the upper gorge before reaching Lake Taylor.
Also on the sea beaches between the Rangitata & the Rakiaia rivers, small patches of red garnet sands which contain gold.
So there you go.....go check it out. Hope you are a good mountain goat. LOL :) :)

Happy hunting

JW :)

Hi Gavin, Take a pan with you. May be a better bet for a bit of colour. You talk of forgetting your shovel....last weekend I went to a little creek with my GP 3000 & a couple of coil choices.......& you wont believe what I FORGOT....I am almost too shamed to tell you.....Got up the creek, up the waterfalls, dropped my pack, rigged up the shafts, the coil......& then the penny dropped........ %*@#@.....Whats the next thing to go on......You waiting for it......NO BLOODY CONTROL BOX AAAAARRRRRR. So back down to the wagon. Chuck the detector into the back & luckily I put the sluice box & crevicing gear in the back. Grabbed that & headed on back up. Got a bit of colour but the best part was, I stummbled upon my gear that was stolen a year ago to the weekend. Pretty sure I have posted that story so wont go into it. I post on so many sites I forget what I have said on which forum.

Happy hunting

JW :)

Hi Gav, Yep looks that way. They took it quite a bit further up. Up a few more water falls. There must have been a couple of guys as there was quite a bit of stuff. Either that or one bloke made a couple of trips. I noticed out of the corner of my eye what I tought was a white bucket lying on its side pretty covered by bush leaf litter. It was quite a way up the bank right behind where I had been sluice boxing & crevice sucking all day. On investigating I was blown away that it was my gear. Yeha.....It didnt even look like it had been used. But they probably covered up with bush little & ferns any way to hide it. I was rapt. I am glad that nothing had been purposly smashed. The glass in the viewfinder was cracked from some crevicing tools I had sat in there & they must have dropped the bucket heavily & the impact broken the glass. Other wise all there & all good. It is a great little sluice box & good to have it back. It is wider & longer than the ones I am making & made of stainless steel.

JW

Hi kiwikeith,

Thanks for that - much appreciated. Mulling over where we might want to live at the moment as we're living in a red zone in Chch. Love Chch, but not sure we want to buy another house here at the mo until things have been quiet for a good long time. Timaru has now been put on my map as it's quite close to all these gold spots and is probably big enough that there's the IT work for me ;)

Cheers,
Gavin

Bad news about house but Timaru is a good spot and my son says IT work refers to computers. I guess it depends on how good you are at pushing your own barrow - I dont know a thing about computers but I know that my neighbours son just up and left NZ to go be with a girl in London and set himself up in business there in computers technology and is doing amazingly well - Ok so Londons just a tiny bit bigger than Timaru but when it comes down to the crunch it depends on motivation and reputation for work well done.

Hmm - I need someone who can set up an internet site to do a job for me one day!!!

gavin - My only pommie ancestor was one of those convicts who was sent to the penal colonies sometime in the late 1820s or very early 1830s - first case I ever heard of DIC - He and his brother drove a wagon through a congregation of church goers while under the affluence of incohol - when he died he died his money was never found and he was known to have had ten thousand pound in gold coin - all buried!

Dont know where the house was but know the area or settlement - ten thousand pound in gold coins all predating 1862 have to be very bulky and take up a larger area as well as worth a fortune - possibly the greatest buried treasure in NZ - and on this East Coast

I could always put you in cotact with my dad in Oamaru.

He goes out quite often to Danseys Pass (approx 30 mins drive) from his home.

Let me know.

Great country up there and yes I have found gold there but it was fine. There are many advantages of going there though because there are other things to find - not far from the camp you can find 'rattle stones' which are hollow limonite stones which rattle and they are really quite a novelty and another chap I know once gave me a really beautiful geode full of crystals which he told me came form up that way somewhere but where exactly I dont know.

@Juggie - thanks for the offer mate. Already had a little explore of Danseys Pass before to see what the area was like. Briefly swung the detector around a bit, but was only a quick go so no joy. I'll give you a shout next time I head down that way to see if you're dad doesn't mind passing on a bit of local knowledge ;)

@kiwikeith - found a few sweet little spots next to the river myself excellent for camping - such a beautiful area! Was chuffed to see a few quails in the morning with their chicks foraging around - very cute wee things!

@Lammerlaw - I'm aware of these stones but never knew how to identify them. Used to be a keen rock collector as a kid. I'm going to start picking up stones now and giving them a shake to see if they rattle ;)

@dettol - Would love to catch up one evening when you're down. Send me a PM nearer the time and we'll sort something out.