New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

does anyone do it or am I the only one stupid enough. maybe Goldsborough this weekend if I can get across the passes

Digging Frozen ground not good !

I'm debating whether it's too cold to make dredging fun at the moment. Hmmm. Maybe a test mission to see how I get on.

That is some legitimate gold fever there 1864hatter!!!

I'm down later this month after exams, fresh all terrain tyres on the truck, taking a chainsaw and some recovery gear, extra food if all else fails.

I am actually looking forward to there being more water around then there has been this long dry summer.

I can remember shaking my wetsuit to break the ice up the pell in the winter (that was where my claim was) -22 deg one morning on the truck computer. but always rewarding when you get out and put dry clothes on and count the gold

something about chipping the frozen smoke from round the fire place before lighting the fire

so who went out and how did you go

Queens Birthday saw me in the Maniototo with a few other crayzies who drank way too much around the fire, talking far too much bs about gold mining and not doing much gold mining LOL T'is the life........obtained the fine colour from the Quartz Conglomerate that skirts the plain at the various places we did try........most of the wee dams were frozen, apart from Hoffmans dam in it's own micro climate, where as coal pit dam near by was frozen sold.

Edited by user Monday, 13 June 2016 4:04:51 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Winter of 1995, much of Otago was covered in deep snow and encased by hoar frost........Records at Black's Hotel, Ophir, show the warmest daytime temperature over the six weeks of white was 0 deg C.........so what do I decide to do during the school holidays.....go to Naseby!.....had planned the trip for a while but I did not count on an average snow depth on flat ground up to my knees and many places thigh deep drifts.
The fever was strong, breaking through inches thick frozen gravel in the Hogburn to find soft ground and dig myself a panning hole, three layers of gloves meant my hands were dry but the bone pain cold still spread up my arms......The fire at the Naseby camp ground at the end of the day was very welcome! I had the whole place to myself.........on the night Ophir set a record temperature of -21 degC, the thermometer under the verander of the camp lounge read minus 18.....that night, even with the heater on in my chalet, my boots thawed and re froze, connecting themselves intimately with the carpet.....my dishes froze solid in the sink....silly me.....the toilet bowls split and wood had to be defrosted first before being put on the fire.....my pants were like wearing cardboard......lol.
Some local girls decided it was an ideal time to take me out for my first time ice skating on the natural ice, in ill fitting skate boots.....I lasted 5 minutes.......fell hard on my arm and hit my head with a whack on the ice.....did not lose consciousness, but lost my eyesight for half an hour and my whole right arm had no feeling in it.......remained calm and slowly tried to undo the boots with one hand while my sight came back gradually as an expanding blurry tunnel of light.......that was the end of ice skating for me....for ever!.....silly thing for a gold miner to attempt........wear shoes on the ice from now on.
I had a couple of days left in Naseby, though gold panning was now off the list of things to do, so I decided to go on a short nature walk through the forest and around the Hogburn gully.......6 hours later I arrive back at camp exhausted from pushing through snow drifts........my tramping boots were worn back to fresh leather......and for several days, all I could see when I closed my watery eyes was bright sky blue!....mental note to self....wear sunglasses!! Spent the next day watching the curling....what an eerie sound the stones make rumbling on the ice......it can be heard for miles.
On arriving back in Dunedin I went straight to A&E department for X-ray's of my head and arm.....Head not cracked, though probably have a concussion....arm fractured.... but had set itself evenly so wont have to be re-set!....and was lucky to have only developed the first stages of snow blindness!!!
Loved it and would do it all again :)

I'm inspired - might just have to shrug off my hibernation mode!

Spent a couple of frigid nights a few weeks ago before the snow, at a certain DOC camp site near Danseys Pass, putting through chunks of frozen gravel, freezing the tips off my fingers.....I hate wearing gloves......still paying for it....lost a layer of skin......the water might have been a little too cold for it lol, still...it was the life.....and loved having a fire to sit by....