Hunting in New Zealand ( Lots of NZ Photos in this thread)

[Wildcat]

Here are some little babys I picked up last time I went to New Zealand for a holiday.
They were found between and to the left of the 2 rocks in 2nd image

 

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[Lanny in AB]

One hundred and twenty nuggets!?! Where's the story of that hunt? I'd love to read that one. Send me a copy or post it, please.

All the best,

Lanny

 

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[Wildcat]

Hi Lanny and all. I gave up counting , but this was over a period of several years. Every time I went out I would find anything from 3 to 8 nuggets. 8 was my best day. Most were small but many around 5 - 6 or more grams. There was a mineshaft right on top of this small hill. The largest nugget found was around 7.5 oz but not by me sadly. This was at a depth claimed to be nearly 1 meter.
Other pics show some of my daily nugget finds and the “nugget hill” behind the car. This post relates to Australia.
Cheers
The Cat

 

[Lanny in AB]

Cat--what a haul! That is a most impressive haul--well done. Those are some gorgeous pieces. Thanks so much for posting the pictures--you've got me drooling just looking at all of that incredible nugget gold.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[kiwi jw]

G'day Wildcat. Very nice gold. Well done
The Triangle paddock. That makes sense as it is surrounded by three roads. Thanks also for your comments on the MXT & the other detectors. So you reckon the MXT is just as good as the GMT at finding gold?? If there was only small gold & nothing else I guess small gold is better than no gold. It does all add up. I went over that area of the slope amongst the chinamen stones with 4 different coils & very slowly. All mono's, 8" mine lab commander, 10x5 coiltek elliptical, 11" minelab dedicated mono not the 11" DD that you can use as a pesudo mono & the coiltek 24"X12" UFO coil. I got gold with each coil except the 8".
I went out today up behind Thames with the 3000. Exspecting to get heaps of rubbish which is the norm. Used the 10"x5" joey mono & also took along a coiltek mini ufo mono. No DD which I probably should have taken as I got heaps of signals off a black rock that was all over the place. Big & small.....pain in the butt & I couldnt tune it out. It wasnt iron stone either. So I gave up on that as the little creek was very rock & bouldery & heavy bush either side & not a lot of beachs........none really & very little gravel. There was a bit of bed rock but nothing in the crevices except those pasty black rocks. GGGGGrrrrrrr. So I did some test pans on some cracks n crevices just to see what the creek had in it. Used my crevicing tools & my little hand sucker pump & bugger me......got a beautiful wirey fish net matted little nugget amongst some fines. Very hokey pokey with a little bit of clear quartz still embedded in some of it. Measures 10mm x 15mm X 5mm . I'll get a photo of it up tomorrow. Looks beautiful under a magnifying glass.

Lanny......Love your stories mate. Keep them coming. You must have a lot of idle time on your hands. Are you house bound by snow & cant get out amongst it??

I'm nacked so I'm off to bed. Nighty night.

JW

 

[Wildcat]

Well done JW. I look forward to the piccy. I may be off line for a day or two as I am changing Internet service providers. Already well over my allocation for the month and at 25c a Mb it all adds up to too much.
Will be back.....
The Cat

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi guys, This probably doesnt belong on this thread under "metal detecting for gold" as it wasnt found with a detector but I had started out detecting until those pesty "hot rocks" drove me nuts. Nuttier that I all ready are.
This is typical of the gold I find on the Coromandel. As I have said before, very rough & hokey pokey. Hasnt had the erosive forces & pounding of glaciers & streams & hasnt travelled very far to get water worn either. The Coromandel Peninsula was a very active volcanic zone in it geolocical make up & said to be very young geographically. Hence I suppose the lack of destruction & freeing up of the gold from the reefs to produce the alluvial. Usualy has a fairly high silver content as well.
The Coromandel was famous for its hard rock mines not alluvial & in Coromandel township area itself & Thames for there very rich bonanza loads. For example one of the mines in Thames, The Caladonian, in one year alone, 1871, produced 10 ton of bullion worth at 2008 values, $200 million. It is said there was more gold than quartz & the stampers were getting cloged up with gold. What a bugger aye Dont you hate that when you stampers get cloged up with gold.
Here are my pics of the wee piece I found. I arent the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to computers & loading pics so I have put up one of each side of the piece in the palm of my hand & between my fingers & a couple zoomed up on to see the wirey pattens.

We have a crap day weather wise today. I was going to rough it out in the bush last night but heard the forcast & decided against it.

Happy golding

JW

 

[Lanny in AB]

Wow--isn't it incredibly beautiful, the jewelry that nature creates all on her own? Magnificent specimen. And yes, I am snow and ice bound right now, but that gives me some time to get ideas and stories organized, because during gold hunting season, I'm out every chance I get--no time for writing and re-writing then. Thanks for the compliments. And, thanks for posting the photos of one of nature's perfect treasures.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[strickman]

kiwi,that's an awsome nuggett -the carachter is very impressive! just put on a bezel and you are good to go!

 

[russau]

thats a beautiful peice of specimend wire gold!

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi guys, Thanks. It is very similar to the specimen pieces I put up pics of earlier. Only those ones are a bit more worn & came from a creek about 10 k's further up the coast. You can still see the wirey nature of them all the same & they came from one of the very few areas that was ground sluiced for dendrital/alluvial gold in the Coromandel. I am guessing that they used the little creek as a natural sluice box due to its small & bed rocky nature. I did quite well with my little 2" suction nozzle dredge set up cleaning out the bed rock cracks & crevices in there. The piece I found in the weekend came from a creek that wasnt ground sluiced & to my knowledge & research wasnt turned over for alluvial. So I am keen to get a dredge in there. Maybe a gravity dredge as it has good fall to operate one & there are houses not far away, so dont really want the noise of a motor/pump giving me away.

Happy golding

JW

 

[Wildcat]

What a strange nugget, but a beauty at the same time.
I have attached a photo of some wire gold found at Poolburn. It is quite fragile and I have to be carefull handling it.

The Cat

 

[strickman]

wildcat,that is a very unusual nuggett thats a one of a kind there.kind of like a very expensive rat nest.but a lot more fragile.definant cool piece 8)

 

[Lanny in AB]

That's like an exotic, alien nugget--I've never seen the like. I've found wire gold a handful of times, but what you've got there is a rare gem, that's for certain.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[kiwi jw]

G'day Wildcat, That is amazing. Did you find it detecting?

JW

 

[unconformity]

Interesting thread Guys, but I must object to the term "Chinamen stones" Not P.C. any more, as this was a direct derogatory reference to the similarity of the stones colour to that of the Cantonese oriental skin, and we all know they were despised in those days by the majority.

The accepted public term these days is "Sarsen stones" after a similarly silica cemented stone common in the British Isles.

Cheers.

 

[Wildcat]

Yes JW, All your statement is correct. That piccy was taken just down the road from where you were. As for the name of the boulders, they have always been called that since I was a kid and I am not about to change due to what I call 'pc bs'. At the same time unconformity, it is not my intention to offend anyone, nor do I lecture anyone else. I have outstanding respect for the Chinese who were on the goldfields. I have seen the extent of their work first hand and I know how they were treated. I will not be making any further comment on this issue.

The Cat

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi All, I am with Wildcat on this one & for the same reasons as well. I too mean nothing derogatory or offensive & nobody does, but that termanology of this type of rock is known by all in this district & beyond for more than one hundred & forty years. If you called them by any other name no one would really know what you were talking about. Ok a geo might but no one else. I too have a great respect for the chinese miners of old & so to did a lot of the european miners, even in the old days as well. It just takes a small minority, like anything.

Try not to shed a tear as you read this poem, based on fact & in the Ida Valley area not too far from the centre of where this whole thread is based.

'ODE TO JOE SHUM 1888-1928'

High up in the Upper Kyeburn lived a gentalman named Shum, he was tall & straight & silent & loved by every one. He lived up in the mountains not far from the Buster Trail, in a small but tidy sod hut with a doorstep made from shale.

One of the last of the Chinese miners, Joe arrived here as a boy, & he learnt to love the gold fields that gave him spirit & brought him joy. He had a dog named Mungo who was a faithful friend & true, & he watched Joe work his gold claim from the dawn 'till the evening dew.

Some times the lonely miner his body needs a break, he needs to find an opening he needs to find that gate. So Shum set off to Naseby where he knew he'd meet his kind, some friendships to rekindle & some perhaps to bind.

Now the word soon reached the township that kindly "Shum come soon!", so the children fled to the post office for the race was on at noon. From the post office to the corner the race was up & down & Shum arranged it monthly when he bought his stores in town.

He lined up all the children - any cheating earned a frown, & the first one back to the starting point received a Half-a-Crown. Then up to busy Leven Street for there stood the Chinese Den & some Pakapoo & Fantan & the journey home again.

On a trip back to his homeland Joe married two lovely wives but times were tough in China & he found it hard to survive. So he returned to the Kyeburn Diggings for he loved the lifestyle there & he worked his lowly gold claim with an energy now so rear.

Now the reason I write this history is to take you back in time, for the murder of Joe the Chinaman was the century's greatest crime.


He hosted a man named Hardie in his warm & friendly shack, but as Joe fixed the evening meal Hardie shot him in the back. Taking Shum's own hunting rifle from the corner where it stood, for when the snow lay thick on the ground it was his only source of food.

They discovered Shum on the morrow, he lay there on the floor, they found him in a pool of blood where he'd crawled towards the door. They also found a footprint in the damp & clinging earth, & at the trial of William Hardie it became his final curse.

But the story of Joe the miner is a story without a cry, & regardless of brutes like Hardie, his good deeds will never die.

There's a bridge in the Upper Kyeburn it spans the German Creek, & if you lean there dead on midnight on July the 17th & listen to the willows you will hear the branches weep, you'll hear the Chinese singsong & the shuffling of their feet, you'll hear their shovels scraping & the stacking of the stones, you'll feel their bodies straighten & sense their woeful groans.

My story has to end here as there's no more I can tell - all I know is Hardie's down below & serving time in hell, while Joe the kindly miner is living like a dream, & he wears a shining heavenly smile as he works the illustrious seam.

by Des Style.

JW

 

[kuger]

Interesting thread Guys, but I must object to the term "Chinamen stones" Not P.C. any more, as this was a direct derogatory reference to the similarity of the stones colour to that of the Cantonese oriental skin, and we all know they were despised in those days by the majority.

The accepted public term these days is "Sarsen stones" after a similarly silica cemented stone common in the British Isles.

Cheers.

Lighten UP!!Thats the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!It had nothing to do with the color of the rocks,but with the fact that Chinese workings are easily disernable by the labourous way they stacked excess rocks to get the out of the way.It was smart too as other races just tossed the aside often covering up good ground!
We used to have a "name",for head",sized rocks too!!

 

[unconformity]

Lighten UP!!Thats the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!It had nothing to do with the color of the rocks,but with the fact that Chinese workings are easily disernable by the labourous way they stacked excess rocks to get the out of the way.It was smart too as other races just tossed the aside often covering up good ground!
We used to have a "name",for head",sized rocks too!!

Sorry kuger, but you're wrong, that's exactly why the racist label was used, many Europeans hated the fact that the industrious, curious chaps were getting any gold at all.

We have a sediment here called "Maori Bottom" called such because of it's brown colour, there are moves to have this reclassified as Pliocene conglomerate to remove the old bias and distasteful reference.

Like Wildcat I was going to leave it at that but because of your "Lighten UP!!" remark I couldn't help myself I would whiten up if I could, but it's only skin deep isn't it.

Now I will go away and make no further comment about this issue.
Unconformity.

 

[kuger]

WELL THAT FIGURES,I guess we will agree to disagree,however I am not wrong.There were more Chinese in my area than any other gold field in the world,and I am quite versed in there history,I think there are much more important things going on in our world right now than the name or color of a rock.How have you gotten through life being so wronged?