Hi Guys, Mrs JW headed up to the North Island to attend a funeral so I was home alone for the weekend. Well it didnt take a second for me to decide to head away for the weekend detecting. In fact I headed off straight after work on friday as with daylight saving now I would be able to get in a few hours before dark.
I was up in the hills & detecting by 6:30. Had on the NF 12 x 7 & targeted some old dry gully workings. After a couple of hours & a fair bit of walking & getting my share of .22 shells, bullet heads & shotgun pellets....things werent looking good. It was starting to get dark when I got a very very faint mellow signal. To cut a long story short I ended up with 5 little bits of gold in an area of 1.5 sq meters. The last bit was the biggest of the 5 littlies & the deepest in a crevice down in the schist bed rock. The dirt is where the others were found.
The bed rock crevice
The 5 little bits of gold
I called it quits after that & did it rough & slept in my wagon up on the workings.
I was awake at 5am. Cooked up some sausages & eggs washed down with a couple of cups of coffee & was detecting by 6am.
Got a nice little mellow signal in what looked like the discards from an old detecting dig scrape. The "hole" in the thyme bushes above the coil.
Turned out to be a small piece of gold. Ye Ha
Another mellow shallow signal
Out pops another small piece
Looking down the gully & the turned over piles from the old timers.
Another wee shallow signal
A tiny tiny piece of gold. .06 of a gram
Right next to it on the left yet another very faint little signal. Cant be gold....must be just another shotgun pellet.
But gold it was. Man how small is that?? Another at .06 of a gram
I ended up with another 5 little pieces from these workings but then it dried up on me.
I oppted to head off to some workings I had never detected before as I was of the opinon that the gold was very fine a floury & un detectable. But thought....what the hell...nothing ventured nothing gained. So I drove off & headed in.
Old turned over piles of rough, course granular quartz. None of it water worn or rounded.
Washed out ground sluicing in a fine clay/quartz gravel mix. Hence my thoughts of very fine floury gold.
I started detecting up out of the main washed out area & got a very positive signal in the undisturbed quartz gravels.
A bit of the good stuff.
Then a real loud signal & thoughts of a .22 shell....only the signal wasnt as sharp as a .22 shell....maybe a lead bullet head.
I dug in to the quartz gravel. & a beaut piece gold.
Just over 2 grams
I then spied a small area of exposed schist bed rock that the old timers had washed down to in the old washed out gully. I head down to it & started wondering up the bed rock. I got a loud signal & bent down to examin the schist & saw a piece of gold just sunbathing in full view resting between some stones.
Not far away another signal
After a scrape it was out. Another tiny bit.
I ended up with 5 pieces off these old workings with those last two found right on top of exposed schist bed rock.
So all up 15 bits for 4 grams & an old button. The 10 on the left from the first lot of workings & the 14 small bits all up didnt weigh as much as the bigger one.
Cheers & good luck out there
JW .
WWW
