New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

looking at trying one of these two tomorrow, weather depending. Has any one found any colour in either of these 2 recently?

i see your mate the old guy with black car has been at the five mile lots lately gav. would be interested if he has found any specs. i've never gotten any, and neither have mates. odd as there used to be a good bit of gold there in the rush. hard to imagine they cleared out every last spec.

i spent some time up the 12 mile. prob did 10 hours in the wetsuit in that cold water in no sun and got 2 little bits and saw some dust. cleared a good stretch to bedrock too. been pretty hard hit there. good fun though. sandflys are quite extreme there tho.

Yer simon he's found a little bit of dust a bit further up, it's a strange place though no heavy stone no black sand, I heard there was a guy who lived up there a few years back from sunshine bay he was there for like 15 years and probably cleaned all through the place.

As for getting up to the top there's a road in from moke lake side of the 7 mile the gully at the back of alpine retreat is direct to 5 mile, but it's very bluffy and difficult to get down with gear, you need both hands free, the Queenstown side has a old miners path high above the terraces but it's slipped away in places and dangerous high up, you need to take a machete and wack through the gorse and stuff and try stay to the ridge line then drop down a creek, but it's a lot of energy for no return... If I was you I would follow the new cycle track from the top of 7 mile down to the tailing piles then carry on for a half k until the path crosses the creek head up the small creek at the bridge upstream you will find an area I have cleared up there have a crack at digging down to bedrock there and tell me how you get on? My first few trips in we're very rewarding.

I think i will be up there on sunday unless it is raining heavily so will post back with my findings

has anyone done the shag river lately or is that a bit out of the way for you guys.

Shag river is over east otago.

I went up 12 mile again yesterday. winter conditions. air was 10 degrees, water freezing. had the 7mm suit back on. a bit of a flow due to rain so got pretty pummelled. Did get one little chunk and a couple of specks. cleared a heap of bedrock too. shows how well the oldtimers did the place over.

had similar results the other day. was a bit warmer so went out in the 3mm suit. felt naked in that. plus felt the cold. got one little chunk.

oddly enough didn't see anyone else doing anything. has the cold weather sent all indoors?

yeah, that's me.
was back out there today. had to drop some gear off out at moke lake for a mate whose down on moke creek dredging. meant to be there too but have a bit of work on and off so haven't got there yet. weather was pretty shit but was in a 7mm wetsuit. got a couple of little bits and got pounded a bit more in the water. can really only do the quiet eddies at present or you get a hammering. each day water is slightly higher.
yep, there's gold in the bedrock for sure. gets in the cracks as its all faulted. the original miners knew this and bust off the outer layers of bedrock up in the terraces where the river used to be. unfortunately they left this over most of the ground so hard to access. it's pretty fine stuff as the cracks are minute. i've had small bits of flake out of bedrock where i can't hardly even see a crack. eventually realised it wasn't worth the labour to bust it up to extract.
i spend a lot of time out there digging, sniping, sluicing, walking and climbing. pretty much know the place inside out. or so you think until you find another way to something new.

as far as gold goes it is there. unfortunately a lot of the place has been hammered. if you put in the hard yards you can always take something home. wouldn't expect too much tho. just a good place to enjoy nature really. nice and scenic. bit of wildlife and birds about. lots of history hidden away up there too. yesterday i took the detector in and rediscovered a stash of old bottles, boot soles, clay pots, little tobacco tins etc i had previously come across years ago. bottles never intact of course - too many rocks up there!

in a way its a shame no one takes time to get off the track but you know how it is. most tourists hardly make it to the track itself. and most gold seekers hardly get past the first few metres of river.
the track in its current state has only been there about 15 years. i remember when you had to scramble around the rock face by the first pool.
i know people used to takes dredges up there too so its had a good working over all right.

today some lousy bugger decided to chuck a rock down off the new loop they blasted up the mountain. nearly hit me. closest yet as its happened before. some tourist from the campground across the road. got to be careful. they don't think that someone may be down there. you can always tell someone's chucked a rock as a rockfall brings down more than A rock and makes a bit of dust. the thrown ones tend to bounce after the first impact so you never know where its headed.

i will PM you my cell number. will prob head out there tomorrow if it doesn't snow or blow too hard. pretty rough on way home tonight. meant to be pretty shit so will see.