New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Hi Guys, On my way back from Otago I called in to Moonlight Gully on my way up the West Coast. It took me 4 times over the years to finally get in there. The first two times I was foiled by rain. The 3rd time I was almost in there & there was a bloody tree across the track & I had no chainsaw or way of moving the big sucker. But this time I got in there.
Did it rough & slept in my wagon for a night. Had two days of perfect weather. Spent the first day sussing the place out as I had never been there before. Did the usual walking off the beaten track & following old water races, crashing down to the river away from defined tracks to try & find a spot that hadnt had any recent activity. Found some areas of exposed bed rock up & down the river & I got 6.5 grams for my effort.



This nice 6.5 gram speci was also found.



Even the sand flys werent bad. LOL :)

Happy hunting

JW :)

Edited by user Thursday, 18 November 2010 2:52:21 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi JW
When you say Moonlight Gully do you mean driving through Skippers and Branches ?

Hi Guys, Moonlight Gully/Creek, Paparoa ranges West coast. Yes Gav in the recreational panning area. Where that bridge is being looked over. Rumour has it that DOC want to pull that bridge out & deny all access in there. Hope that isnt what is happening now with what you are saying. All Doc is looking for is an excuse to rip it out & not replace it due to the cost factor of doing so.....or so they will say. The army has already ripped one bridge out of there. What a shame that would be.

JW :)

Hi Susan, The bridge is only about half way in. It is still a bit of a trip to get right in. I think it is about 10 k's from the main road to the road end.

You will recognise these sluice guns at the main road turn off up to the Moonlight track road. DOC or some body has removed the Moonlight track road sign from the turn off.



I heard a story that I now believe true due to Exterra Steve telling of the army going in there doing exercises.
There seems to be two rules, one for us the public & one for the government & its departments. Namely DOC & the army. To you & I when we enter crown land one of the rules for us is: Leave nothing but footprints & take nothing but photos.
I was told by a couple of regular fossickers up there that the army came in one day when they were in there minding (mining) there own business & just fossicking in the creek. They were told in a very rude & abrupt manner to get the f..k out of there as this land belongs to us now & dont come back for a week we are doing exercises & manouvers in here. After a week they went back & were gobsmacked at the mess left behind by the army. Namely in the hundereds of empty spent bullet casings just lying all over the ground & on the roadway in & empty & live smoke bombs.
They picked up hundereds of them off the road but still managed to get two flat tyres from shell casings piercing the side wall of the tyres.
That happnend this year.
Another story or two actualy involve DOC. There were a few old huts up there from the gold miners of old. Some may have been from the depression miners. Anyway, people use to go in there fossicking & stay in these huts. To stop them doing this DOC in there wisdom BURNT them down. I saw 2 burnt down remains.
Secondly: DOC did a capture of the blue ducks that lived on the moonlight creek area. There were about 200 of them. To do this they spread nets across the river from bank to bank to capture them & tag & release them. Some they relocated to other areas & some they mounted transmitters on the females to track their movements. Ok. Many got broken wings from getting intangled in the nets, so they were stuffed. The females that had the transmitters placed on their backs couldnt dive down freely in the river looking for food, as you can imagine if you think about it, & died of starvation. Not only that but the male ducks couldnt do the wild thing with them due to the transmitter being in the way so they werent producing fertile eggs. So no new ducklings. The few week before I got there these guys told me that there were only 3 ducks left & they were all males. The week before I got there they said they were down to one solitry male duck. You could here it calling & calling. Good one DOC.
Blue ducks are very territorial & also mate with a partner for life, so the ones they relocated & probably seperated from there partners wouldnt have been accepted in another locality any way & with out there partner would probably have perished as well.
Makes you shake your head doesnt it....& we fund these idiots.
Oh.....did I mention 1080 posion.....& dead ducks, trout & eels......& possums of coarse!!!!!

Note the bullet casings on top of the left post. These I found on the road. & notice the scull & cross bone sign above the track sign.....1080 & the notice on the left post.....cyanide.



Sadly

JW :(

Edited by user Thursday, 18 November 2010 2:54:50 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hey kiwijw nice bit of gold you've got there, would be a shame if doc shut the place down wouldnt put it past them tho. me and another member of the forum are heading there this weekend i was just wondering how much bedrock there is exposed in the river. I do mostly sniping so need the shallow bedrock. I read your dredging story from last weekend bit of a bugger about your hole getting filled in. u still got more than the one gram i got! mind you cant get 5 or so grams each time. u headingback down to central soon? I start back at uni at end of feb, will have to try find a handy spot this year.

Cheers..
Mathias

Cheers for that gavin, would be a bit of a shame if they have take n that bridge down i'll have a look into it and let you know. Looks like its aroumd 4km walk from bridge would cut down the amount of gear we could take a bit tho. Did you find any gold under the bridge when you looked

Hi Guys, From what I have been told the bridge timbers have been pulled up.
Mathias, I am off down Central on saturday for 12 days detecting. Will report on how I do. Yer the dredge hole getting filled in was a bummer but that is all part of the game.

Happy hunting

JW

Cheers for that guys according to doc the bridge is out of operation for the time being. The fossicking area is apparently 3.5 km past that so its not too far to walk. nzgold thanks for the hint may have to take a sluice with me now do you know if there is any mdecent bedrock up that way? t

Thanks

@kiwijw ,,, wow ,yeah thats a shocking of DOC. am heading over to moonlight tomorrow as well as matakitaki and mangles river later next week.have'nt been up to moonlight since last summer so will be very interesting to see whats been hapnin and going by what everyone has been talking about RE that bridge being down , oh bugger will have to burn a few calories and walk a bit ,but its weird what one doz for a wee bit of pay dirt and at moonlight theres plenty to be had.

Hi pogobull

Hope you have a good trip would you be able to let us know whats happening with the bridge at moonlight when you get back from your trip. I was talking to a mate on the coast he had heard that a few people were going to do some fund raising for a new bridge as alot of people on the coast use moonlight for the gold and the walking tracks and werent to happy with what doc were doing. It would be a shame to lose the access as its an awsome spot .

Rock on Cavey.

Edited by user Saturday, 19 February 2011 1:18:02 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified