New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Hi Susan,

You'll find some for sure but it will most likely be little flakes - so don't expect to retire from it ;) If you get down to black sand in your pan then that's a good sign. At first I was chucking this away until someone pointed out that if you look carefully you'll often find a few flakes hiding under the heavy iron sand grains.

But you never know - you might get lucky and find a nugget with some beginners luck! It does happen!

I've never been to Moonlight Creek - let us know how you get on.

Best of luck - hope you find some colours,
Gavin :)

Thanks very much Gavin and Colin for your advice, it will be a while before I get over to the coast to give it a go but at least I've got plenty of time to swot up on some tips. Do either of you know what the camp ground is like there, most importantly does it have good loos? I can put up with cold, rain, sand flies, camp food and a half flat air bed and any other down side to camping, but long drops are just too much:)
And yes I'm definitely hoping for some beginners luck.

Will keep an eye out for any other tips on this site, its very interesting reading and the photos are great

S

Hi SusanP.
Just in case you get disappointed on your first ever fossicking trip to the “Moonlight”.
I am going to tell you something that I have never mentioned to any other person, because I thought at the time (years and years ago) that it might be a slightly illegal thing to do.

On reflection over the years though, I guess it isn’t, as the gravels supplied for the public to pan in (for a fee) by the panning proprietors of,(Say) a place like “Shantytown” or the others,are put in the troughs for you to get as much gold from as you can.
(these gravels are usually left over stuff from their own sluicing claims that they recycle it to get a few more $$$$ from the waste from the sorting tables, or the sluice box.)

O.K. here’s the plan that I followed, but now that its published for all to see, you might have to be quick if they should read this and change their system.)

What I did, was to take a small “Sniffer” type bottle into these places, pay the fee, and go panning, with the difference being that if you observe these panning troughs you will see that they are usually 44 gallon drums that have been cut in half lengthwise, with 2 to3 grooves running around them, (well they used to be.) No matter, they will still have seams or whatever at each end.
Your mission is to realize that all the people that have panned in them previously have “Concentrated” most of the gold that these tailing originally contained into these grooves or seams.
The rest of the mission is to deflate your Sniffer bottle stick it under the water "Hard" up against the bottom of the groove, and then vacuum up the concentrated lower gravels from these grooves, or seams at the sides of the trough,(and all the gold) into the sniffer bottle.
Empty this lot into your pan, and pan it down to a small (hopefully rich) little quantity.
Empty into your gold holding container, and laugh as you leave. :) :)
It might just pay for your trip.

Cheers---Colin.

P.S. Bet you never knew about this one Gavin?

Nice nuggets Steve - might have to try the spot myself!

Edited by user Thursday, 22 July 2010 4:47:19 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi Steve,Gavin.
Whats happening?
When I click on Steves file attachments, all I get is this Message:

Please do not link directly to this resource. You must have a session in the forum.

??? what does that mean???

Cheers---Colin.

Edited by user Monday, 7 March 2011 1:13:30 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi Gavin.

I just did a restart, followed by a refresh too.
seems O.K. now. Sorry!

Cheers Colin.

Hello everybody,thanks so much for the advice, had to laugh at the sniffer bottle/shanty town idea. The advice, stories, pictures, encouragement and banter is hugely appreciated. I think I may invest in a chemical loo before any big adventure over there, was hoping to stay a week and take my dog for company but maybe no dogs allowed if it's a DOC area?
If any of you chaps are planning a group trip over there and could put up with a well intentioned beginner, who will probably ask too many questions, please let me know.

S

ps keep the stories coming :)

Hi guys,
thanks for the kind words Colin,
SusanP the Moonlight is a Dog free area as Kiwi live there,well thats what they tell us.
On saying that I do quite oftern see dogs up there.
The best chemical loo you can get is about 100 meters into the bush,Colin had a few good tips on that.
If at some stage any of you want to head up that way we can get some thing sorted.
Cheers
Steve

Thought I would mention that Jones Creek has some good facilities since it is in the Ross township; Jones Creek is where New Zealands largest gold nugget was ever found; 99oz in an area that had already been worked; quite a long time ago though.

The Empire Hotel is the place to stay and it's dog friendly; the Brownes have a lovely old pub there with good meals and the best homemade pies in NZ, and you can stay inside the tavern or hire cabins out the back which have facilities like communal kitchen and ablution block; good West Coast prices too. The Roddy Nugget cafe is worth checking out as well; Paddy and Karen are great hosts.

Edited by user Thursday, 29 July 2010 9:19:35 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi Susan,

Didn't realise you were in Christchurch! Forget peoples location is shown - doh. Want to catch up for a coffee sometime and chuck some ideas around? I'd probably be game in Nov.

Regarding beach gold - going to be very fine stuff? Think I'd prefer to try my luck a little more inland myself ;)

Cheers,
Gav :)

Edited by user Tuesday, 27 July 2010 4:21:55 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified