Beat me to it KiwiJW. I'm reading the messages while I'm at work tonight and din't bring a copy of the newsletter in.
There were a few guys around Chch when I was living there a few years ago but never actually managed to catch up with any of them. I have been in touch quite a bit with Phil Salmon who is the pres of the Te Tahi Dectector Club. Him and his wife even manage to get down to the Mainland to go scratching for gold and does pretty good. He sent me a pic of a gold pump he made out of PVC pipe, a metal bar with a tennis ball on the end to act as a plunger. When I find the pics I'll put them on the forum . Very basic and works a treat supposedly.
The club does well in Auckland and they are generally held in high regard by the authorities as they have a code of ethics / bylaws that the members abide by. Where the Yanks were during WW2 in the grounds of Wesley College I think, the club has many invites back to continue their digs where they have found rubbish dumps of helmets and mess tins, badges, bayonets and all sorts of other stuff. There are some around that don't like detectorists, even at the beach but all you can do is fill up your holes, don't be a nuisance and keep walking.
When it comes to looking for relics, I have mentioned this before - anything over 100yrs old in NZ is protected and comes under the Historic Places Act. I can't even go pottering around the old gold mining camps in Marlborough with my detector, in case I disturb some archeology. Think back to the guy down south who got done like a done thing for moving tailings on his own property. We have to be careful.
A few years ago in Chch, an old shop on a street corner was demolished. Dated back to the late 1800's - early 1900's. I found a spoon. That's it. I don't even know how old that was. When is comes to detecting, it is always a surprise as to what you will find. On Sumner Beach, I had a big signal, dug down and came away with a six pack of CD beer. better than the rings I have found, the cannon ball, the hundreds of dollars in coins and a gold watch. You just never know what you will find. Will the Historic Places Trust treat the streets of Chch as an archeology site and keep everyone away then let the developers pour tons of concrete and pavement? Probably
Nulli Illigitimi Carborundum