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]

Lanny, I ment to mention about those quartz rocks/boulders. Take a good close look at them. Go back to my earlier pics & Wildcats & the one with the gold I found sitting on one of those rocks. They are smooth. There isnt a sharp edge on any of them. They have all been rounded off. Look at the one that I show that has been turned over. The one where the hole from it is where I got the 4.5 grammer. Take a look at the rocks that you can see sitting deep in the ground with just their tops flush with the ground surface. They are smooth & as rounded off as can be. That is from ice grinding over them. Look at the scenery pics of the mountains. They are all very smooth from glaciation & not rugged & jagged from faulting & folding of which they would have been before the glaciation. Here is a pic of the Remarkables Range in Queenstown in the back ground. The tops were above the ice during glaciation but notice how smooth & ground off the tops of the other hill are in the foreground. This was totaly ridden over by ice. You will see the left hand side of the hill where the bed rock has been ground smooth & groves ground into it. Probably by big boulders caught up in the glacial ice like giant sand paper grinding over it & scouring it out.

Yes--thanks--I now see what you're talking about. The edges are rounded, and from glacial action--much like the rocks I see very close to the mountains--chunks of bedrock that is, that have been tumbled by glacial/glacial stream action. I guess I've been referring to two different things. What I generally refer to as glaciated rocks are the ones that have been tumbled to such an extent that they are "round" or oblong and rounded--you can't find an angle on them anywhere. But, now that I understand that we're talking about the same action that rounds off sharp corners on pieces of bedrock and stone, I understand what you're saying.

I'll see if I can dig up some pictures of glaciated rock from this area. Beautiful pictures of your mountains and the glaciated areas--and the live glacier!

Thanks again, and all the best,

Lanny

 

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[Wildcat]

JW Thought you might be interested in this semi technical explanation of exactly what the MXT is and how it was developed

The Cat

http://whiteselectronics.com/info/field-reports/73.html

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi there Wildcat, Thanks for that. Very interesting.

Happy hunting

JW

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi all, Well I have been down in Central Otago now for just over a month. Work was real bad up home & a phone call had me work down here. So I packed up & headed on down. I am now based in Queenstown but on my way down from my sunny, warm costal place from the base of the Coromandel Peninsula in the north island I called in for a weekend back at this spot to do a bit more detecting.
On my first day I fot 4 little bits all up. The first was a little .44 gram piece. All was found with the 24" X 12" coiltek elliptical UFO coil. I am amazed at the small gold this big coil finds.

Close up of the .44 gram

My 4 bits for the first day

I woke up at 2.30 in the morning feeling rather cold. Felling there was a frost coming on, I knew I had no anti freeze in the radiator of my wagon, I got up & went out to start it to warm it up. On getting outside I saw how light it was & that there was a full moon. I could detect in this with out needing to use a head lamp to get around. So with the wagon idling away I cooked a breaky of sausages, eggs & bacon washed down with a couple of cups of coffee. At 3.30am I rigged up & went out & turned the wagon off & got in to it.
With in an hour I had my first nice mellow signal. I scraped away the shallow surface material & the signal was still there. Down about 4" I was hitting the schist bed rock. The signal was still there, that was a good sign. Usualy a bullet shell or bullet head would have been scraped away at this stage, but not always. Especialy the lead bullet heads & they have that nice mellow signal just like gold. I was feeling pretty confident that this was the goods. I had to start hacking into the schist after pinpointing the targets location. Using the pointed end of the pick to smash into the schist & break it up & using the flat blade to pull the broken up schist & material out. The signal was getting stronger but still that nice soft, mellow sound.
I have a strong rear earth magnet glued in to a hole in the base of my pick handle. This is great for waving over the hole as you go on down so it will pick up any ferrous metal junk.

Suddenly the target was gone. I backed up & scanned my pile of material & there the signal was. I scoped up a handful of broken up schist & waved it over the coil. The target was in my hand. by halfing the pile in my hand to my other hand I wittled the target down & then it just droped out on to the coil. A nice 4.5 gram piece.
That target lead to a nice little patch.

I have since that weekend discovered some old sluiced workings only 15 minutes drive from where I am living that has given up to me just over 12 grams. We have had the first big dump of snow for our winter last weekend. Coronet Peak ski field is opening tomorrow. My gold sluicing spot is on the fringe of the snow line.

The sluiced workings

Not a bad view isnt it??

Gold on the left of the pen is from the old sluiced workings & the gold on the right is from the spot that Wild Cat has shared with us.

I am going back to the old sluiced workings tomorrow to see what else they will give up to me.

Happy golding

JW

 

[strickman]

great pics ,as always kiwi. good luck .

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi Guys, Well the old sluiced workings were kind to me today although the ground was hard digging with the permafrost making it like concrete.

Ended up finding 5 little bits in this rotten schist rock. Thought I was doing ok with 3 but after I took this photo I found 2 more in the same hole.

Got 12 pieces all up for the day for a total of 6 grams. the biggest was 2.2 grams & the smallest .08 of a gram. Found with the little 10" X 5" mono coil & a Minelab 8" mono.

Guess I will have to go back again tomorrow.

Happy hunting

JW

 

[dave wiseman]

Nice stuff JW...any rough gold with quartz around there?

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi there Dave. No this gold has been transported by glaciation & is on a very high plataue. Way above any river today. The nearest hard rock mines from the old days are 20 kilometers away. I think one of those is the highest in alttitude in NZ at around 6000 feet asl. Having said that there are a few bits that have quartz attached when viewed with a magnefying glass but they are all pretty rounded & smooth from their journey. I am going back up today but we are in for a crap day this arvo with snow forecast to 300 meters. That will bury these workings for the rest of our winter I would say so I best make the most of this morning.
Hope all is well with you

Regards

JW

JW

 

[Wildcat]

Hey JW I see your GPS is the same as mine. You will have to send me that coordinate in case I get over there one day

The Cat

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi there Wildcat. Hey no problem. It isnt hard to get to at all. Can drive right to it , jump a fence & your there. It is a bit of an antiquated GPS by todays standards. Not like the ones today that you can plug in to your computer, down load the coordinates on google earth & have your waypoints & path come up on the map. Bloody amazing.
Didnt do so well today. Weather forecast wasnt good but I got up there to make the most of the morning before it really turned to custard. They forecast snow to 200 meters for the arvo.
There was a very light drizzle so I put the old plastic shopping bag over the detector control box. I tried in a different spot as I had gone over the same ground a few times with different coils & the bigger mono's were getting a bit noisy with the wet ground so I put on a DD to get a quieter threshold & used it in the pesudo mono mode. Only found a 1 gram bit & the rain was getting worse & the briar rose bushes had torn the plastic bag so I bailed. The snow hasnt materialised but they are now forecasting it for tomorrow.
We have a public holiday for monday so if the wether isnt too bad I will give it another shot but I think it may have given me all I can find. I will have to find another spot

Happy hunting

JW

 

[goldtimer]

G'day Wildcat, JW, all
I managed to get permission from the owner and had a detect around that spot. I thought It'd be pretty well cleaned up seeing as JW had been over it with his 3000, and aloysius with a 4500, but decided that it'd be worth a look anyway. I managed to pick up a few nice pieces, just around that middle area between those two rocks where the schist isn't too deep. It just goes to show from the 4.5 grammer JW picked up that nobody ever gets it all
I was going to bury an easter egg for you to dig up JW, but hunger got the better of me...
I had a great time, Thank-you Wildcat.
Cheers
G.T.

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi there GT, Well done. When were you there. What size were the pieces did you found & how many? It always amazes me how I can go over the same ground on different days & still pick up pieces. Ophir being no different. Yesterday & today were to be no different as well. I went back up to the old sluiced workings this afternoon as it was raining this morning but it stopped so I went for it. I used the little 10" X 5" mono. Had a bit of fun getting up to the workings as the snow was down lower & that made it pretty slippery. As I negotiated my way down to where I found the 1 gram bit yesterday I detected at a spot that was now covered in snow but I knew there was shallow schist. After a few bum targets I got a small bit of gold. I had been over this ground before & with the same coil. I got nothing more at the 1 gram spot but the snow was worse there & kept sticking to the bottom of the coil. I elected to go back to where I had been getting most of the gold from earlier days & found 3 more bits. All in the same ground I had been over with a number of different coils. The last bit I found it had been snowing for about half an hour. I wish I had taken my camera but I didnt in my rush out the door. All 4 pieces were small at .23, .16,.17 & .14 grams but gold all the same.
Where abouts are you based? Dunedin?

Happy hunting

JW

 

[Wildcat]

Good stuff JW You won't want to go home now?

The Cat

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi there Wildcat, No you are right. Trouble is the snow is going to drive me out of the hills. Not sure where to go from here. May have to try some old workings down by the Kawarau river. Trouble there is they would have been thrashed by every man & his dog due to there easy access. I will need to put my thinking cap on.
Interesting that goldtimer snaged a few at ophir as well. I did notice quite a few "fresh" looking diggings that werent mine & just assumed they were from aloysius. Sure wish I had dug up an easter egg though, that would have had me scratching my head Not sure I will head back there again unless I try else where. Maybe lower down to get out of the snow line. Must go on google earth & see what the altitude is compared to the old sluiced workings I have been working in. I know Naseby has been having its share of snow. My mate from there has bailed to Australia for the winter & is looking at picking up a GP 3500.
Coronet Peak ski field must be having night skiing tonight as the mountain is lit up like a christmas tree.

Happy hunting

JW

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi Guys, I forgot to mention that on the sunday after finding the 1 gram piece I found a 1924 English six pence. It must have been lost by a 1930's depression miner. Here is a pic of the weekends total finds.

Happy hunting

JW

 

[Wildcat]

Allow me to be first to say great hunting JW. Just got home from town so won't get on here till a bit later.

The Cat

 

[goldtimer]

G'day JW,
I live in a cool spot, and do a bit of detecting and prospecting on weekends when I can.
There are a few spots here and there that the oldtimers worked, but Sunny places are much more enjoyable with the good climate. And chunkier gold
I stopped in there over the easter break. I ended up with 11 pieces for two days detecting. Just over 10 grams all up.

The biggest bit is 4.3 grams, top left is 1.1, and the top right is 1.8 . The rest are all half a gram or less. The 4.5 I found just off to the side of the shallow area between the rocks, It was not too bad a signal, but it was hard up against one of those rocks, and there was a bit of tussock beside the rock that I flattened with my boot to get the coil in there. The 1.1 and 1.8 were about 2 metres apart, up the hill a little further. Those two were just a bit of a waver on the threshhold, but took an inch or two off the top and they turn into that nice "gold sound". All of the wee bits I found were not far from the shallow area either, except for two that were out to the side a bit further down the hill. You're right about the going over the same ground and getting more pieces. I went back over an area where I'd got a few wee nuggets before with the 8" mono, and using the same coil was amazed to pick up another two. This was only in a tiny bit of wash that I thought I had cleaned up. I think that having your detector tuned right makes a huge difference. Sometimes when it's running a wee bit ratty and you retune it, it quietens it down heaps, and it makes it easy to hear those quiet targets that you'd otherwise walk straight over.
Anyway I'd better stop rambling
Cheers
G.T.

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi there GT, Well done. Beautiful gold. I had a feeling it must have been easter with your mention of leaving an easter egg for me to dig up. LOL. That would have been a laugh. When you went back over the ground you thought you had cleaned up, was it the same day or the next day? It amazes me how I can go back over the same ground with different coils & also the same coils & still pick up pieces. It is usually on a different day & I have said this before but I believe that atmosphere conditions influence sensitivity in coils on any given day & if the ground is wet & getting wetter it increases sensitivity & depth. The wet making things more conductive.
The last few times up in these old sluiced workings was very wet from the snow & addmitidly the pieces I was getting were quite small with them being less that .3 of a gram. The bigger pieces I got when the ground was dry & I was able to use the bigger mono's but as the ground got wet & in creased in sensitivity the bigger mono's were getting too noisey to hear those faint threshold sounds of the tiny gold. When I put on the smaller mono's, the 10" X 5" & the 8" round, they were very quiet & I could easily hear those very faint murmers & every time the target was buried inside the folds of schist. Even once the target was out it was still very elusive to finaly have in my gold bottle. A couple of times I just thought that it must have been a bit of ground noise & as I dug in to it I was breaking it up until the signal had gone. But the signal really was too positive in the first place & perserverance paid off in the end.

Happy hunting

JW

 

[goldtimer]

JW, yes you're right - it was on a different day that I was able to pick up the two wee pieces. They were both real shallow, and were so quiet that you had to get the target in your hand, put the dirt onto the coil, then move it round using your fingers until you get a bit of noise. It's pretty small stuff when you have to do that using the 8" mono, but it's all gold and it's all good fun.
That damp gorund is a real pain when you're trying to use the larger monos, also the nig one really doesn't like the powerlines, even when you try and quieten it right down, tune it etc. it still doesn't run nearly as good as the 8" when around powerlines.
That's nice gold that you've been getting around the sluicings. It's quite good fun working some of the sluiced areas with the wee coil- that is as long as you don't walk over a bulletshell on the surface with the 8" mono Painful on the ears....
I would've thought that all the sluicings around QT would be pretty hammered. Its funny how sometimes the most obvious spots are the ones that haven't been hit very hard at all, -everyone walks straight past it and thinks that there's no way there'll be anything there it's too obvious.
Good luck
GT

 

[Wildcat]

Say Goldtimer, I would be interested to know what part of Southland you live in. I know the place pretty well
I reckon it would have to be invercargill area the way you use the word 'wee' lol
The Cat