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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[kiwi jw]

Hi there Nuggy, Welcome to the forum. What detector are you getting??
I went back to my thrashed sluiced workings a few weeks ago as the weather here has warmed up & the snow & permafrost gone from them. I headed up there on friday after work for a few hours before dark. I put on my little 6" round mono & decided I would clean off some of the rocks that the old timers had stacked on top of the bedrock that they had exposed & cleaned up with their ground sluicing. I had found a few nuggets in what bed rock they had left exposed & hadnt covered with tailing rocks. I was gambling that there may be more gold buried in the schist crevices that their water hadnt washed down into or broken away & was still trapped in there.
I was rewarded with 3 little nuggets for my effort.

I picked in to the solid schist just above a little crevice. I got a signal there & at first thought it was in the little crevice but it was up above the crevice. I thought the crevice might be going in on an angle but the the signal was above the crevice. The schist was very hard & sparks were flying. I started to think it was probably just a layer of iron stone or iron sand in the schist itself. I was down about 3" & it was hard going. I thought about coming back to it at a later day with a cold chisel, it was that hard. But I kept at it & was finally rewarded with a piece of gold. I was really supprised that it was gold in that part of the schist & not in a crevice.

Close up of the hole.

I then got two more pieces in the bigger crevice to the left in the pic below. They were in the bottom of the crevice itself.

This photo was taken on sunday when I went back & pulled more rocks down. I had the joey coil on this day as I planned to go to what I thought were some more old workings further along the mountain side. Well I thought they looked like old workings from a google earth view. There was only one way to find out.....right.
Well the joey coil found me another piece on sunday in the crevice to the right.

On the friday after finding the 3 little pieces I headed to some soft rotten schist that I had got 5 pieces from at an earlier time. I hadnt got a signal but had just dug into the scgist because it was easy digging & got the 5 bits. Well because of my success with pulling down the rock pile I though I would just hack into this soft schist further & expose more of the crevice. I was rewarded with 3 more little bits for my effort.

This is the crevice in the soft schist

The gold was in the bottom of this crevice.

It was getting dark so I needed to get out of there as I didnt have my head lamp.

On sunday after finding that piece back at the spot with the joey coil where I pulled down the rocks I then headed off to check out what I thought was more old workings. Turned out they were but there wasnt very much exposed bed rock. But what bed rock there was I managed to find 8 pieces. The biggest was .98 of a gram & the smallest .05 of a gram. That is the smallest piece I have found with my detector to date.

The 4 small pieces were all found in the same hole. I only got the one signal to start with but when I got that piece out I checked the hole & there were no other signals. But going by my exprience of the last days detecting I just decided to keep on digging into the soft schist & bingo ended up getting 3 more bits out of the same hole by just keeping on hacking into it. So lesson learnt........Dont stop digging in a spot that you get a piece of gold from just because you are getting no further signals . They may be only just out of range until you dig a bit more.

Happy hunting

JW

 

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[Wildcat]

JW your superb photos tell it all. What an excellent gold trap that rock is. There is no stopping you mate. Congratulations

The Cat

 

[nuggy]

Hi JW, great photos, some dogged persistence showing there and paying off too! Nice looking pieces.
I have a Bounty Hunter tracker 4 detector (because it was real cheap) and got (3 days ago) a 4 inch coil from ebay for it. The budget won't run to a Minelab or even an MXT at the moment unfortunately .
I don't consider it a serious detector, but it will find an under one gram piece at 2 inches with the new coil in an air test. only the back half of the coil reads the tiny bits, so I will have to overlap sweeps and walk real slow.
I am pretty busy with work, and projects I'm constructing, but get the detecting bug every now and then. I plan to take the detector out crevice hunting to work areas of exposed bedrock in creek beds.
I had a gold bug 2 a few years back that was good at this, but bottom here can vary a lot, three total changes in one meter is not unusual, and the constant ground balancing to get good sensitivity drove me nuts. I used it in Aussie as well, I think it might have caused my tinnitus from it's reaction to them brown hot rocks! LOL
My 4 inch dredge is almost ready to go just need to cut some spaghetti matting and expanded mesh for the box.
Keep it coming guys, I'm having some connection problems lately so I don't get on net every day. Nuggy

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi there Wildcat & Nuggy. Thanks for the comments.
I dont know if I have the Mida's touch or what but I just dont seem to be able to miss out on finding gold. I usually go to areas where gold has been found before which is usually a save bet to finding something. Even if it is only a bit of colour. But lately I have gone to areas that arent that well known or not a lot of gold has been found at them. During the last week I went for a bit of a walk to just check out a hunch. It was quite a long walk but I was rewarded. Not a lot but 3 grams. The buzz was that it wasnt a known area for gold so that made it all the sweeter.

Went for another walk on saturday & only got in 2 hours actual detecting. I was using my favourite little joey mono & got 5.99 grams. They were all pretty shallow & found way up on a mountain side.
Here is a view not far from where I went.

Well today sunday I went for a bit more of a walk & got in 4 hours detecting but I struck the jackpot. Total for sunday 26.11 grams. I was using the 24" X 12" UFO mono & it just proves it can find small gold as well & larger bits. Here are three I got all pretty close to each other. The big one is 13.85 grams.

I think I will have to call in sick for work & head back there & see what else I can get. Best money I have made for a couple of days (work).

Happy hunting

JW

 

[dave wiseman]

Great stuff JW.....

 

[Wildcat]

Watch your tail JW... lol, I had blokes that used to follow me around once. They eventually found me but I had pretty much cleaned out the area by then. That is real nice gold JW.

The Cat

 

[goldtimer]

Great stuff JW. I met a guy who was on strike from the freezing works, so decided to go do some dredging. He got 16 ounces for a week or so dredging. Then he went back to try get some more and it turned out that it was all cleaned up. You don't want to throw in that job too soon!
Very nice gold
Cheers
GT

 

[kiwi jw]

G'day Cat & GT, Yes it blew me away. All very shallow. The big sucker wasnt more than 1.5". Screamed like a .22 shell but I dug it any way. What a suprise I got when 2 scapes & it was out. I was expecting a .22 shell or a .303, but fell over when I cleaned the dirt off the piece of "crap" that was sitting in my hand & screaming at me.
Went to some old workings today that have been thrashed by every man & his dog. Met a guy there, first time ever I have come across some one else, who was detecting there with a GPX 4500. He was using a 14" nugget finder elliptical mono. Not sure how long he had been there. He probably told me but I cant remember. He took a guess who I was & got it right. MMMmmm guess he has seen my posts & also being in Queenstown....... He hadnt got anything. I wasnt holding much hope myself as I have thrashed the place myself but to date have got over one ounce there. That suprised him as the place has seen probably every gold machine out there over the years.
I decided to look in places that I hadnt given much thought to & went real slow with my little favourite joey mono. Places like the side walls & edges of the old tailing races. Well one as it turned out. I didnt get there until about 4pm. He was just leaving as the weather looked a bit dodgy & it started to rain a bit. I had a plastic bag over my control box so wasnt too worried. After we had a bit of a chat the rain stopped & it looked a bit brighter so he decided to stay a bit longer. I had just got my first signal when he walked up to me. When I got back in to it it just turned out to be a bit of crap. He went off a couple of tailing races away & I headed to the edge of one. My next 4 targets were all bits off gold. It was probably about 1.5 hours later & he decided to head off.
I asked how he did & he had nothing. He was suprised when I showed him my 4 as he had scanned that area when he first walked in. We said our goodbyes & then I got 3 more bits right where I was standing when he walked off.
I was right in the zone....I dont know what it is......Mentaly ground balanced or what But I was just getting piece after piece with no junk targets. Just on dark I got another one & didnt have my head lamp with me. I had left it on the bloody roof of my wagon It was right in the hard schist & not in a crevice & right on the top lip edge of a tailing race that was a good 10 foot drop into the bottom which was full of briar rose. SHYT BAGS....what do I do?? Keep at it & risk it going off the edge & down in to the briar rose bushs & lost for ever or wait until another day......NA go for it.......All went well be it dark by the time I got it out. All up I got 13 pieces for a total of just over 4 grams. Just when you think a place has given all its going to.....13 pieces for the GP 3000 & nothing for the GPX 4500

Happy hunting

JW

 

[nuggy]

The Midas touch or whatever is definitely working for you JW, great stuff. Your mention of the chap with the 4500 proves the saying "it's not the detector that matters it's the operator". Good on ya mate, keep at it while you're going good and staying in the zone, long may it last for you. Nuggy

 

[NZ]

Hi All, JW i had to come online to say your posts and piks are very good, Theres only on problem, some of the places you are going you havnt asked for permission from the landholder or claim holder, you have been warned already to stay off one area, but you keep going back, have respect please, as your actions have now started a campain by land/claim holders to deny permission for the rest of us, so please ask permission, and if you dont, then dont show the piks on the web, your only digging a very deep hole for yourself and ruining it for everyone else.

 

[Retyred]

You have brought up a good point there NZ - 99% of land in Central Otago is privately owned and permission to detect must be sought from the landowner/leassee. I would never dream of going onto someone else's property without their OK.

I live in Cromwell and get on very well with the runholders (a couple are distant rellies). This year there seems to be a growing dislike to fossickers, one even took me and showed me some quite deep holes dug on his land by someone with a detector, his concerns are that the strong hot winds that are due in a couple of months will scour out the loose dirt and leave even larger holes, and that grass is very hard to grow here and digging it up is against their way. If we do dig we make sure that the turf is replaced and tramped down.

I think these deep holes are a downside of some detectors(I suggest Minelabs) being too good and locating far deeper than what we are used too. My Goldbug and GMT really only locate a few inches unless the nugget is quite sizable. i only carry a small grubber and trowel, some guys now are carting full size shovels and picks and digging holes of a size that are really upsetting the landowners.

One runholder has told me if this continues without permission on his property he will slash tires on vehicles involved!

For our hobbies sake we must continue to work with the landowners and leave their property exactly, if not better than we found it. I would hate to think that they would consider refusing us onto their properties.

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi there, MMMMmmmmm I had been on one property that I thought was crown land but the manager of the property informed me that it was private property. QT area. I have respected that & I havnt & wont be back. Is this the one you are refering to as you mention more than one?? It doesnt have a claim on it. The other 2 properties I have been on I do have both the owners permission & have been invited back when ever I like as long as I let them know I am going to be on there. I have even been given the use of a hut on site for over night stays.
I back fill ALL my holes, & others that I see left open. No matter how big or small & mine arent all that big in the first place. Deepest would be 12" & I dont use a shovel.
Thank you for your positive comment about my pics & posts. This is something I am very passionate about & I dont make a habbit of treading on peoples toes

JW

 

[Wildcat]

Hi all, What I know of JW is that he is very particular regarding permissions as we have discussed in emails between ourselves. If I did not think this I would not have suggested some areas to him. He is always very open about what he has done, and this certainly does not show him to be unethical. In fact, friends like JW are very hard to find nowadays, especially where gold is involved.
However there are others that read these threads and sneak around and do not participate in the forum at all, but use it for their own gains.
Maybe we (meaning myself included) should not be so open on these forums as this certainly seems to encourage 'others' to flock to these places.
Lesson learned.

Happy hunting to those who retain their ethics...

The Cat

 

[Lanny in AB]

To JW and The Cat--love this thread! Great pictures and stories. I only wish I didn't live a world away--I'd head for the hills with either of you in a heartbeat. I'll have to add some stuff to my thread as soon as I can this next month.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[nuggy]

Hi J W, how is all the wild weather treating you, is your roof holding ok? I bet you will have had more snow.
We have had ten days of bad weather, wild westerlies, hail and a ridiculous amount of rain up here.
Can't go whitebaiting or even creviceing, rivers are all way up and dirty. Trying to think on bright side about some of my old favourite crevices getting restocked, but patience is hard to come by. Got both the gold fever and cabin fever burnin away at me. Wasn't for this site I'd be in a bad way.
Don't let the nay sayers stop you posting. Tall poppy syndrome I reckon (jealousy). Or they worried your posts will attract other detectorists into the area.
May your earphones sing your favourite tones all summer long...... Nuggy

 

[Wildcat]

Hi Nuggy, One of our online buddies was going to go up there hunting this last weekend. Hope he didn't get snowed in as they copped 6" of snow down south. My Grand daughter has just gone to Invercargill for a holiday for 3 weeks and has never seen snow. She is 17. It will be a real experience for her. Apparently they were lucky to make it back from the airport.
Anyway, why would you bother with whitebaiting? Those little eyes scare me off.... Methinks it will be a good season for the dredges in NZ this summer. Meantime, there is plenty of time for ideas and reading Oh, and a good hot cuppa
Cheers

The Cat

 

[goldtimer]

The Roof of stadium Southland collapsed down this way with the snow on it. Yep, you guessed it, flat roof
When will those architects learn?
The snow will stuff things up for dredging for a while to come. Oh well, like nuggy said, at least some new gold might get washed out of the tailings in them thar hills.
Cheers

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi Guys, Nuggy, Wildcat, Lanny, Thanks guys for your support & comments. Much appreciated.
We didnt get the snow in Queenstown like they did down in Southland. A few snow flurries & that is all. Nothing that settled on the ground. Bugger, as it is lambing time & 10's of thousands have perished.
As you would have noticed I have been making a pig of myself with my detecting. There is good reason for that. I live up in the Coromandal in the North Island of New Zealand where the gold is hard rock & not of the alluvial type, as it is down here in Central Otago. I am heading back up home at the end of this month & my detecting will be over so I have made the most of my time down here. This next weekend will be my last. My plan is to sell up home & move on down here to live. Goldtimer & I may be hooking up for a detect this weekend if it works out for both of us. Been nice to meet him & his son & I wish them well this dredging season with their new claim. I wont say where it is
Went out last night after work in to the old sluiced workings where I got those 13 bits the other week. Well bugger me I got 4 bits in the one crevice which was along a bit in the same run of crevice where I got 3 bits last time. I did scan that spot before but got no signal. Same joey coil although the ground was a bit damper this time & I think that was the difference. The ground being a bit more conductive. Got 5 bits all up for a total of 1.35 grams. Biggest was .75 of a gram.
Here are some pics of gold found last week using a combination of coils over the same patch of open ground. Coils used in order of photo's
This lot was found using the 24" X 12" UFO mono. Biggest was 2.17 grams & the smallest for this big coil was only .17 of a gram

Three of these next lot were found with the coiltek 18" round mono. They were found one after the other in the same line as I walked along. Biggest only .94 of a gram.

The other 5 where found with the joey mono including the one top right with the quartz still attached to it. I didnt use the joey over the same patch but amongst bed rock in the sluicings

I then put on the 11" mono coil & went over the same patch again & got 2 more bits. A 1.10 gram bit that was down about 8" & a .51 gram bit. I then got 4 other bits all less than .5 of a gram each out in open country that were just random. Funny thing was that two were close to each other. So I stuck sticks in the ground where they were & tried to see if there was a pattern. There wasnt. Then I got the other 2 in a very similar way & again put sticks in the ground but again there were no more & no pattern. I then pit back on the joey mono & got 6 pieces in the old workings.

Here I detected just below a dam that the old timers built to block up a gully & use the water for their sluicing. I saw a small patch of bed rock & thinking there wouldnt be any gold in it as it must have been gone over by every body who has detected here.

But I headed on down & checked it out any way. Detector sitting on the bed rock.

Well I got a faint signal.....& blow me down......it was a piece of gold sitting only half an inch down on the bed rock. One scrape & it was out. Thinking there was no way it was going to be gold. But it was.

Total of 13.79 grams. I gave the Land owner & couple of nuggets to thank him for allowing me to detect there. He wouldnt take them as he saw how hard I had worked for it. But I insisted & I think he was quite tickled & needless to say I am welcome back any time.

Happy hunting

JW

 

[nuggy]

Again great stuff J W, nice looking nuggets too. How did you go over the weekend?
Just got back from Christchurch, moving the sister in law from her earthquake damaged house. Got a couple of days of sunshine there, and when I got back here the wind had eased off and today we only have showers forecast.
Good luck with selling up north. Nuggy

 

[Retyred]

Don't let the nay sayers stop you posting. Tall poppy syndrome I reckon (jealousy). Or they worried your posts will attract other detectorists into the area.
May your earphones sing your favourite tones all summer long...... Nuggy

No, never call me a nay sayer Nuggy-I've done plenty of promoting my hobby in the last 15 or so years that I've been detecting, I don't know JW but he sounds a genuine guy I was just expressing a very important point to him. In Central Otago we support the Landowners who in return allow us use of their land - there's no six gun rules here mate. I have introduced many people to detecting, I've even, and quite often, taken people (even American visitors to NZ) in my company's chopper (I am a pilot) to some of my most favoured detecting back country spots for absolutely no reward so never accuse me of striking down a tall poppy.

However, I have NEVER EVER entered anyones property without their express permission and all I'm asking is for others to do the same and you accuse me of negativity. I think you should have a real good look at yourself.

However, for the next couple of months we give up detecting as most farms are lambing and calving and the last thing wanted is people disturbing the stock.

No use anyone replying to this as I'm signing out from this forum for good.

Good luck and I hope to meet you out in the blocks sometime JW.