New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Well I got over there about lunch on Sunday so dug for the arvo and a full day the next day. Rained like a rainy thing on Tues so I called it quits. Shoulda toughed out a day in the rain-I was pleasantly surprised at how much I got (about .4 gram).
Hard work as usual with pretty big boulders everywhere, but the gold is sweet! Some quite chunky bits there as "crushit" stated in my Locations post. Almost gunna call the biggest piece a nugget haha. For the full day I was just shovelling material into the box (taking the odd big rocks off the shovel and picking some outta the box and I dont think I lost anything by the looks. I was a bit worried the rocks bouncing down might have knock some gold out but I was keen to get as much run as possible. Good ol Keene sluice!
Over a 4 hour drive to get there from CHCH but seems worth it if ya can stay there a few days. No facilities, just a grassy clearing with a picnic table and a 20 min walk to the start of the fossicking area.

Good that you got up there and got some gold.The boulders are quite large and hard to shift .When you get to the fork in the creek where the doc sign is the track splits with the top one carrying on to the battery.It is well maintained and some peole mountain bike it. If you carry on up the creek from the doc sign the track is not so good with a few windfalls. About ten minutes up the track crosses the creek ffor a short distance then recrosses to the true left.There are the remains of another large battery on a terrace on this side of the creek but it is harder to find.Thr quartz for this battery came from further up stony and brittania creeks .Parts of old ropeways and tramways can be found but I have not spent any time following them up.The area has become a bit more popular but you can spend a lot of time in there without seeing anyone.The largest piece of gold Ihave had out of there is about one gram but I have heard of bigger bits being found. Give me a call if you are over this way and want some more info.

Hey nafcd, I just pitched a tent in the picnic/parking area

Cheers for the info crushit - much appreciated :) Is there any bedrock showing up there or is it all big bouldery stuff? I'll give you a shout if I get over there soon. This weekend has another mission lined up as weather looks a bit better further east from the coast ;)

Most of the creek is pretty boulder. There is the odd bit of bedrock showing but they have been fairly well picked over. I usually check it out after major floods and things do shift about a bit but no new areas of exposed bedrock . I suppose we all live in hope. Early records suggest that the quartz reefs were vary rich with stone returning 10oz to the ton. The reefs were very faulted and easily lost. The top battery worked into the 1930s and the reefs worked were around the 600 meter level .One adit at the top of brittania creek was covered up by a large slip a couple of years ago. This is the one marked on some topomaps. There is another one below the track to the top battery and the tunnel appears to be quite solid but I have not ventured far into it. Always been a bit distracted by the gold in the creek. There was a licence over the creek from the carpark to the rec area but Iam sure the operator has relinquished it. He has a large screening plant in the waimangaroa river and this was a lot more profitable than the tests they did in brittania creek.