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Otago's Golden Bay

diggerjoe		Posted : Sunday, 18 December 2011 3:23:24 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 21/09/2011(UTC) Posts: 36 Thanks: 24 times Was thanked: 23 time(s) in 15 post(s)		Saw this article in a old ODT I was burning.Hope it don't cause another gold rush haha! http://www.odt.co.nz/new...9-captain-found-gold-bay Do you Graham or anyone else have any additional info on this event?

LepreSean		Posted : Sunday, 18 December 2011 6:13:39 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 8/12/2011(UTC) Posts: 171 Location: Wherever I may roam Thanks: 187 times Was thanked: 130 time(s) in 78 post(s)		Originally Posted by: diggerjoe Saw this article in a old ODT I was burning.Hope it don't cause another gold rush haha! http://www.odt.co.nz/new...9-captain-found-gold-bay Do you Graham or anyone else have any additional info on this event? The gold is associated with the volcanic's, an intrusive Diorite ? Similar in type i am told to that of the Coromandel, a small shaft was sunk behind harbour cone, at battery creek. Interestingly at Port Chalmers near Scott's memorial, in the breccia, fragments of very altered schist can be seen. I wonder if the volcano erupted through some gold bearing basement schist, mineralising the erupted rock.
		auri sacra fames (accursed hunger for gold)

diggerjoe		Posted : Sunday, 18 December 2011 11:53:16 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 21/09/2011(UTC) Posts: 36 Thanks: 24 times Was thanked: 23 time(s) in 15 post(s)		Hi LepreSean, Thanks for providing that additional info it certainly is interesting. Certainly the mention of quartz and a possible reef would have similarities with the Coromandel and parts of Central Otago.

Lammerlaw		Posted : Monday, 19 December 2011 12:18:13 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 24/05/2011(UTC) Posts: 1,721 Thanks: 72 times Was thanked: 579 time(s) in 396 post(s)		The geology is rather fascinating and on the Otago Peninsular beside the Gold discovery, which incidentally came to little there is Jasper Opal at Cape Saunders, to be precise at Puddingstone Rock and there was also some rather attractive samples of Aragonite crystals to be found at Pipikaretu. At Saddle Hills and environs there the geology is quite complex - starting at the old cement works there was mudstone with a band of Glauconite containing Penguin bones, sharks teeth and stingray spines plus a few fish vertebra then a little south at the Fairfield brickworks sand quarry the most beautiful ammonites can be found, sometimes around 20cms across then as we head up the slopes of Saddle Hill near the old Coach and Horses we have the site of the Government Stamper and the Gold mine that was situated there. This means that the sediments have given way to patches of schist, overlain once again with more sediments and the Saddle Hill coal measures then of course the volcanics which formed the saddles of the hill. I like looking for ammonites as much as I like my gold - funny that but true - its not so much what or how much you find but just finding interesting and fascinating things.

diggerjoe		Posted : Monday, 19 December 2011 8:37:09 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 21/09/2011(UTC) Posts: 36 Thanks: 24 times Was thanked: 23 time(s) in 15 post(s)		Thanks for all that great info Graham. The area sounds like a geologist's and paleontologist's dream. I know were I am Duntroon has some very good marine fossils at the Vanished World Centre. I also found a shark's tooth at one of our local beaches called Bushy Beach.The shark it came from was called Carcharodon Megalodon,something like a giant great white.If I can find it will try to post some photos.

Lammerlaw		Posted : Monday, 19 December 2011 9:03:28 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 24/05/2011(UTC) Posts: 1,721 Thanks: 72 times Was thanked: 579 time(s) in 396 post(s)		Originally Posted by: diggerjoe Thanks for all that great info Graham. The area sounds like a geologist's and paleontologist's dream. I know were I am Duntroon has some very good marine fossils at the Vanished World Centre. I also found a shark's tooth at one of our local beaches called Bushy Beach.The shark it came from was called Carcharodon Megalodon,something like a giant great white.If I can find it will try to post some photos. Absolutely love to see the photo - three quarters of an hours drive from Oamaru you can get sharks teeth in two locations with in sightof each other and both lots of Sharks teeth come from vastly different eras - the first ones are in the highest point on the road going over Pareora Gorge in a narrow band in the cliff. Thet are on a sharp bend and its a dangerous location due to traffic coming around the corner - last time I was there the cliff had slumped at that point and the band of tooth bearing strata might be a bit hard to get at but the teeth are prolific. Down in the river at Evans Crossing within siteof the first location there are fossil beds. The teeth are scarcer but really good when you find them - they are very hard like glass yet will break relatively easy - the nicest one I have I had to glue but it is 2 1/8 inches long. My son found a fossil crayfish there minus the tail and that was of tremendous interest to a Paleantologist who heard of it. The latter are not in the bed with the turritella fossils but in the bed with all the others shell types - very hard so you need sledgehammer, block hammer and chisels. Edited by user Monday, 19 December 2011 9:05:15 AM(UTC) \| Reason: Not specified

5AMP		Posted : Monday, 19 December 2011 9:45:29 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 3/11/2011(UTC) Posts: 57 Location: wellington Thanks: 105 times Was thanked: 16 time(s) in 11 post(s)		Like you Graham I am very keen on fossils not to mention gold and other minerals. This takes things a bit away from Otago but one of the most interesting places, if you enjoy a conjunction between fossils and gold is the Aorangi Mine in NW Nelson.When I made a couple of trips there about 30 years ago there was a large amount of mining equipment ,including as I recall, part of a stamper battery and the mine entrance was spectacular, coming at the bottom of a high sheer cliff with yellow -green water pouring out of it. Around the mine in black slate were graptolites which are some of the oldest fossils to be found in NZ apart from the trilobites in Cobb Valley. I was not looking for gold at the tiome so couldn't say whether any colours to be had. Never found any ammonites in NZ but lots of them on various visits to the UK.

5AMP		Posted : Monday, 19 December 2011 9:48:08 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 3/11/2011(UTC) Posts: 57 Location: wellington Thanks: 105 times Was thanked: 16 time(s) in 11 post(s)		Like you Graham I am very keen on fossils not to mention gold and other minerals. This takes things a bit away from Otago but one of the most interesting places, if you enjoy a conjunction between fossils and gold is the Aorangi Mine in NW Nelson.When I made a couple of trips there about 30 years ago there was a large amount of mining equipment ,including as I recall, part of a stamper battery and the mine entrance was spectacular, coming at the bottom of a high sheer cliff with yellow -green water pouring out of it. Around the mine in black slate were graptolites which are some of the oldest fossils to be found in NZ apart from the trilobites in Cobb Valley. I was not looking for gold at the time so couldn't say whether any colours to be had.

Lammerlaw		Posted : Monday, 19 December 2011 10:09:30 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 24/05/2011(UTC) Posts: 1,721 Thanks: 72 times Was thanked: 579 time(s) in 396 post(s)		Originally Posted by: 5AMP Like you Graham I am very keen on fossils not to mention gold and other minerals. This takes things a bit away from Otago but one of the most interesting places, if you enjoy a conjunction between fossils and gold is the Aorangi Mine in NW Nelson.When I made a couple of trips there about 30 years ago there was a large amount of mining equipment ,including as I recall, part of a stamper battery and the mine entrance was spectacular, coming at the bottom of a high sheer cliff with yellow -green water pouring out of it. Around the mine in black slate were graptolites which are some of the oldest fossils to be found in NZ apart from the trilobites in Cobb Valley. I was not looking for gold at the tiome so couldn't say whether any colours to be had. Never found any ammonites in NZ but lots of them on various visits to the UK. # Hi 5AMP - I have never been there and I would love to go - Would love to get some nice graptolites. I have been up Nelson - Motueka - Takaka on several occasions exploring but due to finances wont get up that way again for a long time...if I get there at all. Been exploring up the Roden River and love it up there - have a couple of nice pieces of native copper though it wasnt me who got them. I also went into the Cobb Valley Asbestos mine and my son lost his new, expensive pocket knife there - never got as far as the site of the hut of the 'Exiles of Asbestos Cottage' I think its called. I had hoped to find some complete Trilobites up at the end of Cobb Reservoir but my Aunties husband said that when the reservoir was constructed it flooded the actual site of the good, complete ones. Apparently Trilobite Rock is just a 'token gesture' and I didnt see much there - besides theres a sign there which says that anyone monstoring the rock outcrop will be hung drawn and quartered by a jumped up tyrannous little Hitler from D of Constipation...they tend to pick on the little guy - they never do anything about the boss upstairs when he sends down a nuclear thunderbolt and blows the entire side off a valley, damming it and creating floods and mayhem but when I take a broken bit of rock they get obnoxious!

5AMP		Posted : Monday, 19 December 2011 4:12:48 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 3/11/2011(UTC) Posts: 57 Location: wellington Thanks: 105 times Was thanked: 16 time(s) in 11 post(s)		I got some of that native copper and trilobites too but I bought them in a long departed rock shop in Nelson.As you indicated the trilobites are very fragmentary being just pieces of the carapace and hard to identify-a whole one would be quite a treasure. The Aorangi mine is worth visiting just for the scenery.One of the great things about gold-at least in NZ is that it mainly seems to occur in the most picturesque places as your great photos show.I suppose the forces that created the deposits also shaped the landscapes but a great bonus even if one finds nothing. Chris

Lammerlaw		Posted : Wednesday, 21 December 2011 10:10:07 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 24/05/2011(UTC) Posts: 1,721 Thanks: 72 times Was thanked: 579 time(s) in 396 post(s)		Originally Posted by: 5AMP I got some of that native copper and trilobites too but I bought them in a long departed rock shop in Nelson.As you indicated the trilobites are very fragmentary being just pieces of the carapace and hard to identify-a whole one would be quite a treasure. The Aorangi mine is worth visiting just for the scenery.One of the great things about gold-at least in NZ is that it mainly seems to occur in the most picturesque places as your great photos show.I suppose the forces that created the deposits also shaped the landscapes but a great bonus even if one finds nothing. Chris No one on the forum has spoken any word more true than your last ones '...even if one finds nothing' because the inference is that it is just 'being there' that really counts. Yes indeed - the most important thing to me is being there more than what I find there. Looking back at the Trilobites - my Aunties husband told me that he worked on the Cobb Reservoir and had found complete and perfect Trilobites - he had a bag full of them which he stored under the hedge in Nelson but when he went to get them they had walked - he said that the best ones are under water halfway along the reservoir. Looking also at Victory Beach here - it is not just gold but the remains of the vessel after which the Beach is named which can be seen at low tide. I also would like to go there with the metal detector because I had heard that it was once a bombing range about the time of WWII.