Hunting in New Zealand ( Lots of NZ Photos in this thread)

HOLY COW!!!  I just looked up Amazon Books and they have a second hand  NEW ZEALANDS LAST GOLD RUSH  by Heinz  for $123.53
They could be hard to locate but a second hand shop may have any of them.... maybe ..... possibly ..... doubtfully ... luckily?

The Cat

G'day Wildcat, How many copies do you want? I have a vast collection of NZ historical gold mining books & do deal in them. Sort of started off buying them for myself to do research. Research is the key to finding gold. Lots & lots of research. I then realised there was a huge want for these types of books & now buy & sell them. You name it & I have probably got it. I have just sold two copies of Costly Gold & Two lots of the four historic gold trails series. I have a few copies of the ones you mention & many many more.







 One you may hugely be interested in & one I got just prior to your starting of this thread, isnt it a small world, is a 1906 copy from the Department of mines. New Zealand Geological Survey Bulletin No/2. The Geology Of The Area covered by the ALEXANDRA SHEET. Central Otago Division including the survey district of Leaning Rock, Tiger Hill & Poolburn.



Very interesting stuff, 50 pages with old maps showing the land make up, cross sections & gold workings, both alluvial & reef. Alluvial workings around Ophir are: Blacks No/3 diggings, German Gullies No/1, 2, & 3 where the paydirt is mostly shallow & that these slope deposits occur in places where there is no water. Gold bearing loads include Ophir Load, Trig N Load, Red Hills, Chatto Creek, Green's Reef Ophir & Ophir Reef.  It has an old black & white pic of what I reckon is those Chinamen stones, oopps SORRY, I mean those Siliceous Cement Stones that you arrowed in a photo across the Ida Valley & is probably near the German Hills Diggings that Aloysius is refering to.

  

Oh well I better send this off before some thing happens & it gets lost in cyber space.

Happy golding all

JW

JW  You just blew me away.....  lol   Wanna Partner?  hehe   Certainly some of the Ophir Gold Project findings look very rich. Good luck to them. The picture of those 'rocks' scanned up well. Looks like a good prospect for the future.
Cheers
The Cat

Lanny, I ment to mention about those quartz rocks/boulders. Take a good close look at them. Go back to my earlier pics & Wildcats & the one with the gold I found sitting on one of those rocks. They are smooth. There isnt a sharp edge on any of them. They have all been rounded off. Look at the one that I show that has been turned over. The one where the hole from it is where I got the 4.5 grammer. Take a look at the rocks that you can see sitting deep in the ground with just their tops flush with the ground surface. They are smooth & as rounded off as can be. That is from ice grinding over them. Look at the scenery pics of the mountains. They are all very smooth from glaciation & not rugged & jagged from faulting & folding of which they would have been before the glaciation. Here is a pic of the Remarkables Range in Queenstown in the back ground. The tops were above the ice during glaciation but notice how smooth & ground off the tops of the other hill are in the foreground. This was totaly ridden over by ice. You will see the left hand side of the hill where the bed rock has been ground smooth & groves ground into it. Probably by big boulders caught up in the glacial ice like giant sand paper grinding over it & scouring it out.


Here is a shot from a bit further around. Again you will see the very top has escaped the ice, just, while the flanks are smoothed off. This lake is a glacial lake & has its bed way below sea level. You can see from the smoothed off mountains how deep this was buried in ice.



Here is another view looking down over the Arrow Basin towards Queenstown. Again this valley was buried in ice & you can see how smooth & carved out the bed of the valley is & how rounded off the hills are where the ice rode up over them. Probably buried bloody deeply.. The smoothed off hill centre left is the same hill in the first pic above from a different angle.

 

And a live glacier



With smoothed off rock wall



You will see the jumbled up pile of rocks & debry in the foreground, that is the lateral moraine left behind from the retreating glacial ice that has been pushed to the side by an advance of the ice, like a giant bulldozer blade, & then left when the ice melts back in retreat. This material has travelled many miles from it source & it is such material that could be carrying gold bearing material that the glacial ice has smashed & ground & transported many many miles over many many centuries & then just dumps in no paticular place or order as the ice melts & drops it. It is this kind of activity that has dropped the gold on the side of the hill that Wildcat has started this thread on. I believe any way!!  So like they say. "gold is where you find it" Looking at it today can makes no sense as to why it is where it is & you can do your head in trying to work out where it has come from. But if you take on board the glacial theory it puts your mind at rest. All you can do is look for the indicators which in this case & the German Hill Diggings. are the Chinamen Stones. Stuff your PC.



Thats me for tonight

Happy golding all

JW

Great pics JW...you should get in touch with Jim at Sierra books in California..he deals in mining and geology stuff.Very good fellow.

Lanny, I ment to mention about those quartz rocks/boulders. Take a good close look at them. Go back to my earlier pics & Wildcats & the one with the gold I found sitting on one of those rocks. They are smooth. There isnt a sharp edge on any of them. They have all been rounded off. Look at the one that I show that has been turned over. The one where the hole from it is where I got the 4.5 grammer. Take a look at the rocks that you can see sitting deep in the ground with just their tops flush with the ground surface. They are smooth & as rounded off as can be. That is from ice grinding over them. Look at the scenery pics of the mountains. They are all very smooth from glaciation & not rugged & jagged from faulting & folding of which they would have been before the glaciation. Here is a pic of the Remarkables Range in Queenstown in the back ground. The tops were above the ice during glaciation but notice how smooth & ground off the tops of the other hill are in the foreground. This was totaly ridden over by ice. You will see the left hand side of the hill where the bed rock has been ground smooth & groves ground into it. Probably by big boulders caught up in the glacial ice like giant sand paper grinding over it & scouring it out.

Yes--thanks--I now see what you're talking about. The edges are rounded, and from glacial action--much like the rocks I see very close to the mountains--chunks of bedrock that is, that have been tumbled by glacial/glacial stream action. I guess I've been referring to two different things. What I generally refer to as glaciated rocks are the ones that have been tumbled to such an extent that they are "round" or oblong and rounded--you can't find an angle on them anywhere. But, now that I understand that we're talking about the same action that rounds off sharp corners on pieces of bedrock and stone, I understand what you're saying. 

I'll see if I can dig up some pictures of glaciated rock from this area. Beautiful pictures of your mountains and the glaciated areas--and the live glacier!

Thanks again, and all the best,

Lanny

JW  Thought you might be interested in this semi technical explanation of exactly what the MXT is and how it was developed

The Cat

http://whiteselectronics.com/info/field-reports/73.html

Hi there Wildcat, Thanks for that. Very interesting.

Happy hunting

JW 

Hi all, Well I have been down in Central Otago now for just over a month. Work was real bad up home & a phone call had me work down here. So I packed up & headed on down. I am now based in Queenstown but on my way down from my sunny, warm costal place from the base of the Coromandel Peninsula in the north island I called in for a weekend back at this spot to do a bit more detecting.
On my first day I fot 4 little bits all up. The first was a little .44 gram piece. All was found with the 24" X 12" coiltek elliptical UFO coil. I am amazed at the small gold this big coil finds.



Close up of the .44 gram



My 4 bits for the first day



I woke up at 2.30 in the morning feeling rather cold. Felling there was a frost coming on, I knew I had no anti freeze in the radiator of my wagon, I got up & went out to start it to warm it up. On getting outside I saw how light it was & that there was a full moon. I could detect in this with out needing to use a head lamp to get around. So with the wagon idling away I cooked a breaky of sausages, eggs & bacon washed down with a couple of cups of coffee. At 3.30am I rigged up & went out & turned the wagon off & got in to it.
With in an hour I had my first nice mellow signal. I scraped away the shallow surface material & the signal was still there. Down about 4" I was hitting the schist bed rock. The signal was still there, that was a good sign. Usualy a bullet shell or bullet head would have been scraped away at this stage, but not always. Especialy the lead bullet heads & they have that nice mellow signal just like gold. I was feeling pretty confident that this was the goods. I had to start hacking into the schist after pinpointing the targets location. Using the pointed end of the pick to smash into the schist & break it up & using the flat blade to pull the broken up schist & material out. The signal was getting stronger but still that nice soft, mellow sound.
I have a strong rear earth magnet glued in to a hole in the base of my pick handle. This is great for waving over the hole as you go on down so it will pick up any ferrous metal junk.



Suddenly the target was gone. I backed up & scanned my pile of material & there the signal was. I scoped up a handful of broken up schist & waved it over the coil. The target was in my hand. by halfing the pile in my hand to my other hand I wittled the target down & then it just droped out on to the coil. A nice 4.5 gram piece.
That target lead to a nice little patch.



I have since that weekend discovered some old sluiced workings only 15 minutes drive from where I am living that has given up to me just over 12 grams. We have had the first big dump of snow for our winter last weekend. Coronet Peak ski field is opening tomorrow. My gold sluicing spot is on the fringe of the snow line.





The sluiced workings



Not a bad view isnt it??


Gold on the left of the pen is from the old sluiced workings & the gold on the right is from the spot that Wild Cat has shared with us.



I am going back to the old sluiced workings tomorrow to see what else they will give up to me.

Happy golding

JW

great pics ,as always kiwi.  good luck .

Hi Guys, Well the old sluiced workings were kind to me today although the ground was hard digging with the permafrost making it like concrete.



Ended up finding 5 little bits in this rotten schist rock. Thought I was doing ok with 3 but after I took this photo I found 2 more in the same hole.










Got 12 pieces all up for the day for a total of 6 grams. the biggest was 2.2 grams & the smallest .08 of a gram. Found with the little 10" X 5" mono coil & a Minelab 8" mono.

 

Guess I will have to go back again tomorrow.

Happy hunting

JW 

Nice stuff JW...any rough gold with quartz around there?

Hi there Dave. No this gold has been transported by glaciation & is on a very high plataue. Way above any river today. The nearest hard rock mines from the old days are 20 kilometers away. I think one of those is the highest in alttitude in NZ at around 6000 feet asl. Having said that there are a few bits that have quartz attached when viewed with a magnefying glass but they are all pretty rounded & smooth from their journey. I am going back up today but we are in for a crap day this arvo with snow forecast to 300 meters. That will bury these workings for the rest of our winter I would say so I best make the most of this morning.
Hope all is well with you

Regards

JW 

JW

Hey JW  I see your GPS is the same as mine.   You will have to send me that coordinate in case I get over there one day 

The Cat

Hi there Wildcat. Hey no problem. It isnt hard to get to at all. Can drive right to it , jump a fence & your there. It is a bit of an antiquated GPS by todays standards. Not like the ones today that you can plug in to your computer, down load the coordinates on google earth & have your waypoints & path come up on the map. Bloody amazing.
Didnt do so well today. Weather forecast wasnt good but I got up there to make the most of the morning before it really turned to custard. They forecast snow to 200 meters for the arvo.
There was a very light drizzle so I put the old plastic shopping bag over the detector control box. I tried in a different spot as I had gone over the same ground a few times with different coils & the bigger mono's were getting a bit noisy with the wet ground so I put on a DD to get a quieter threshold & used it in the pesudo mono mode. Only found a 1 gram bit & the rain was getting worse & the briar rose bushes had torn the plastic bag so I bailed. The snow hasnt materialised but they are now forecasting it for tomorrow.
We have a public holiday for monday so if the wether isnt too bad I will give it another shot but I think it may have given me all I can find. I will have to find another spot

Happy hunting

JW 
     

G'day Wildcat, JW, all
I managed to get permission from the owner and had a detect around that spot. I thought It'd be pretty well cleaned up seeing as JW had been over it with his 3000, and aloysius with a 4500, but decided that it'd be worth a look anyway. I managed to pick up a few nice pieces, just around that middle area between those two rocks where the schist isn't too deep. It just goes to show from the 4.5 grammer JW picked up that nobody ever gets it all
I was going to bury an easter egg for you to dig up JW, but hunger got the better of me...
I had a great time, Thank-you Wildcat.
Cheers
G.T.

Hi there GT, Well done. When were you there. What size were the pieces did you found & how many? It always amazes me how I can go over the same ground on different days & still pick up pieces. Ophir being no different. Yesterday & today were to be no different as well. I went back up to the old sluiced workings this afternoon as it was raining this morning but it stopped so I went for it. I used the little 10" X 5" mono. Had a bit of fun getting up to the workings as the snow was down lower & that made it pretty slippery. As I negotiated my way down to where I found the 1 gram bit yesterday I detected at a spot that was now covered in snow but I knew there was shallow schist. After a few bum targets I got a small bit of gold. I had been over this ground before & with the same coil. I got nothing more at the 1 gram spot but the snow was worse there & kept sticking to the bottom of the coil. I elected to go back to where I had been getting most of the gold from earlier days & found 3 more bits. All in the same ground I had been over with a number of different coils. The last bit I found it had been snowing for about half an hour. I wish I had taken my camera but I didnt in my rush out the door. All 4 pieces were small at .23, .16,.17 & .14 grams but gold all the same.
Where abouts are you based? Dunedin?

Happy hunting

JW 

Good stuff JW  You won't want to go home now? 

The Cat

Hi there Wildcat, No you are right. Trouble is the snow is going to drive me out of the hills. Not sure where to go from here. May have to try some old workings down by the Kawarau river. Trouble there is they would have been thrashed by every man & his dog due to there easy access. I will need to put my thinking cap on.
Interesting that goldtimer snaged a few at ophir as well. I did notice quite a few "fresh" looking diggings that werent mine & just assumed they were from aloysius. Sure wish I had dug up an easter egg though, that would have had me scratching my head Not sure I will head back there again unless I try else where. Maybe lower down to get out of the snow line. Must go on google earth & see what the altitude is compared to the old sluiced workings I have been working in. I know Naseby has been having its share of snow. My mate from there has bailed to Australia for the winter & is looking at picking up a GP 3500.
Coronet Peak ski field must be having night skiing tonight as the mountain is lit up like a christmas tree.

Happy hunting

JW 

Hi Guys, I forgot to mention that on the sunday after finding the 1 gram piece I found a 1924 English six pence. It must have been lost by a 1930's depression miner. Here is a pic of the weekends total finds.



Happy hunting

JW 

Allow me to be first to say great hunting JW.  Just got home from town so won't get on here till a bit later.

The Cat

G'day JW,
I live in a cool spot, and do a bit of detecting and prospecting on weekends when I can.
There are a few spots here and there that the oldtimers worked, but Sunny places are much more enjoyable with the good climate. And chunkier gold
I stopped in there over the easter break. I ended up with 11 pieces for two days detecting. Just over 10 grams all up.

The biggest bit is 4.3 grams, top left is 1.1, and the top right is 1.8 . The rest are all half a gram or less. The 4.5 I found just  off to the side of the shallow area between the rocks, It was not too bad a signal, but it was hard up against one of those rocks, and there was a bit of tussock beside the rock that I flattened with my boot to get the coil in there. The 1.1 and 1.8 were about 2 metres apart, up the hill a little further. Those two were just a bit of a waver on the threshhold, but took an inch or two off the top and they turn into that nice "gold sound". All of the wee bits I found were not far from the shallow area either, except for two that were out to the side a bit further down the hill. You're right about the going over the same ground and getting more pieces. I went back over an area where I'd got a few wee nuggets before with the 8" mono, and using the same coil was amazed to pick up another two. This was only in a tiny bit of wash that I thought I had cleaned up. I think that having your detector tuned right makes a huge difference. Sometimes when it's running a wee bit ratty and you retune it, it quietens it down heaps, and it makes it easy to hear those quiet targets that you'd otherwise walk straight over.
Anyway I'd better stop rambling
Cheers
G.T.

Hi there GT, Well done. Beautiful gold. I had a feeling it must have been easter with your mention of leaving an easter egg for me to dig up. LOL. That would have been a laugh. When you went back over the ground you thought you had cleaned up, was it the same day or the next day? It amazes me how I can go back over the same ground with different coils & also the same coils & still pick up pieces. It is usually on a different day & I have said this before but I believe that atmosphere conditions influence sensitivity in coils on any given day & if the ground is wet & getting wetter it increases sensitivity & depth. The wet making things more conductive.
The last few times up in these old sluiced workings was very wet from the snow & addmitidly the pieces I was getting were quite small with them being less that .3 of a gram. The bigger pieces I got when the ground was dry & I was able to use the bigger mono's but as the ground got wet & in creased in sensitivity the bigger mono's were getting too noisey to hear those faint threshold sounds of the tiny gold. When I put on the smaller mono's, the 10" X 5" & the 8" round, they were very quiet & I could easily hear those very faint murmers & every time the target was buried inside the folds of schist. Even once the target was out it was still very elusive to finaly have in my gold bottle. A couple of times I just thought that it must have been a bit of ground noise & as I dug in to it I was breaking it up until the signal had gone. But the signal really was too positive in the first place & perserverance paid off in the end.

Happy hunting

JW     

JW, yes you're right - it was on a different day that I was able to pick up the two wee pieces. They were both real shallow, and were so quiet that you had to get the target in your hand, put the dirt onto the coil, then move it round using your fingers until you get a bit of noise. It's pretty small stuff when you have to do that using the 8" mono, but it's all gold and it's all good fun.
That damp gorund is a real pain when you're trying to use the larger monos, also the nig one really doesn't like the powerlines, even when you try and quieten it right down, tune it etc. it still doesn't run nearly as good as the 8" when around powerlines.
That's nice gold that you've been getting around the sluicings. It's quite good fun working some of the sluiced areas with the wee coil- that is as long as you don't walk over a bulletshell on the surface with the 8" mono   Painful on the ears....
I would've thought that all the sluicings around QT would be pretty hammered.  Its funny how sometimes the most obvious spots are the ones that haven't been hit very hard at all, -everyone walks straight past it and thinks that  there's no way there'll be anything there it's too obvious.
Good luck
GT
 

Say Goldtimer,  I would be interested to know what part of Southland you live in. I know the place pretty well
I reckon it would have to be invercargill area the way you use the word 'wee'  lol
The Cat

Hi there GT, Yes it sort of suprised me too. I can be there in 20 minutes from where I live. I have known of them for a long time from research I have done. Even way before my detecting days. There is no water up there so never went up with a pan or box. If you know where to look & what to look for you can see them from the main road. I never saw any thing that looked like a detector dig hole prior to me going there. These workings probably arent all that well known but there are quite a few local detectorists here & I would have thought some of them would have known of these workings & being so close & easy access...... You can drive right to them, jump a fence & you are in them...
Snow is driving me out of them at the moment though. Cancel mode & a DD coil will sort out your interference from powerlines. You will lose a bit of depth & sensitivity though. Never use cancel mode with a mono coil as you will lose all sensitivity & may as well just detect with the detector turned off. You will have just as much luck.  Salt mode will quieten down a mono a bit in wet conditions but again you will lose a bit of sensitivity & depth.
I know full well the scream in the ear of a .22 shell at close range

Happy hunting

JW   

G'day Wildcat - Great spot if you don't mind a bit of rain. There's always something to do down south - duckshooting, whitebaiting, then off chasing the gold in the summer. The main problem is finding enough time to do it all
JW - The 11" standard coil is the only double d that I have, most of the time I can use the monos, but I've used the 11"  in a few really close to the powerlines spots and it's a pretty good coil. How often do you use your 11" mono? A lot of guys on the Aussie forums reckon that they're the best all-round coil on the  new detectors, and I'm wondering whether it'd be worth getting one. The big coil is too big to manouvre round a lot of the workings, and the 8" you have to waddle around like a duck if you're trying to cover large areas of sluicings.
Cheers
GT

Hi GT, The 11" dedicated mono has become my main coil that I use. I found that 18.7 gram piece with it at a good 12" deep & also a .2 gram piece at about 1.5". It was the 11" that I used on my first day at these sluiced workings & found a 4.4 gram at about 6" down into a tight schist crevice. Also got a .73, .43, .98, 1.08 around the same area. That was when the ground was dry.
 The next day I put on the 10" X 5" mono & got a 3.65 gram piece at about 4". I thought I had swept that spot with the 11" the day before but may have just missed hitting that nugget with the "sweet" spot of the 11" mono. The next day the ground was starting to get damp & I tried the 24" X 12" mono but it was a bit noisey & also difficult to swing comfortably in the uneven & steep terrain of the sluiced workings. That is a great coil in open flat areas & my main choice when there to start off with.
 If I can get back to the sluiced workings in the weekend I will try the 17" X 11" DD & the 18" round DD in both DD mode & the pesudo mono mode & see if I can get anything of a desent size at depth. They may prove to be too difficult to manouver. I may have a go at making a swing arm tomorrow to make it a bit easier.

Happy hunting

Regards

JW  

Hi Guys, Well I have learnt a valuable lesson today & one you can all learn from my mistake. It has happened to me twice now at this same spot & only a couple of feet away from each other. The other weekend I went back to a spot where I had some exposed bed rock schist that was giving me three very strong signals that screamed at me .22 shell, .22 shell all in very close proximity to each other. Well last weekend I dug up those targets to get rid of them in case they were masking a good signal from that schist. Well they were not only masking one good signal, but 5.
Today I went back to these old sluiced workings thinking I had pretty much done them over for what ever gold they were going to give me. The bigger mono's were too noisy now in the wet ground & I had been all over them with my smaller mono's & 11"DD. Today I gave the 18" DD a run to see if there was anything of size at depth. I went to the spot where I had dug out those 3 .22 shells & then got those 5 good pieces. Well not 2 feet away there were a number of other loud junk targets that I decided to get rid of. They turned out to be lead bullet heads & then I got a "sweet" target that was a half gram piece of gold with the 18" DD in DD mode. It was only a couple of inches down & had I got rid of those junk targets earlier then any one of my other coils would have snapped it up.
So the lesson is.....GET RID OF ALL JUNK TARGETS!!!! You never know what they may be masking.

Happy hunting

JW     

GT  I only ever used the Joey coil  (11" mono elliptical) and a 14" nuggetfinder mono when working in deepsoil areas. Beautiful coil but too heavy to swing all day long.  I have kept both those coils for when I get the new TDI.... You must have a jar full by now JW... lol

Hi there Doug, The jars have slowen down in their growth as I have only been getting sub gram bits lately & not many at that. Last sunday was 4 bits for a total of .66 grams & yesterday I didnt get up there until just after 2pm & it is dark by 6pm. My wife came with me which is cool as she likes to share in the excitement of the finds. She has even videoed one little piece that I got. But we were only there for about an hour & she was making noises of being cold, GGGGRRRRR %$&* . I had by then found my 1 piece. She was just sitting in a fold up camp chair reading a womans mag & doing a cross word. The sun had gone behind a cloud but I told her to get up & go for a walk around to get warm. There was a bit of snow on the ground but it wasnt too bad. Not as bad as last sunday, but then she didnt come up that afternoon. I then told her to make herself a cup of coffee which she did. I may have managed to drag out another hour but the whimpiring was getting stronger so I relented & packed up & we headed back to the wagon with 1.5 hours of day light left. BUGGER.
We are off today to search some old historic tailings on the edge of Lake Dunstan. Here is a google earth pic of them. Isnt it sort of beautiful. So neatly done. Looking like a fern leave pattern from space. Each rock individually hand stacked in their individual rows with the center "stems" being the tail races. The things man does to chase GOLD.




Happy hunting

JW  

  

JW I know I would have to be finding an awful lot of gold before I went to the trouble of stacking rocks like that, and then again if I was finding it, I think the rocks might be flyin' and lyin' where-ever.  lol

The Cat

Hi there Wildcat, I am back from seeing those sluiced workings & boy are they impressive. They are the result of ground sluicing & not the high water pressure from a hydrolic monitor or those water pressure guns. With ground sluicing they would bring in water from a near by creek through water races & gather the water in dams or reservoirs above the ground they wanted to work.
 This was usually done during the night & the water from the dams was then directed to where they wanted to work the ground. After digging a tail race to allow the tailings & waste material to flow out of the workings the water was allowed to pour over the edge of the claim to wash down material. The bigger rocks & boulders were stacked in such a fashion after they had been washed down from the working face to allow the finer sands & gold to wash down what was to become a central race which would be lined with riffles made of wood, or stone & tussock grass to catch the gold. The rocks were stacked to act as wing walls & so direct the water flow & gold bearing sands & gravels into the central race & sluice box. They also worked on the touch it once principle so that once the rocks were stacked they didny have to be touched or moved again.
I guess they never thought of the patterns they were creating but that it was just the result of their deliberate & methodical engineering & working principle. Allowing the water to do the work in the most efficient way possible. These workings are over 140 years old & the scars they left are a monument to the men who created them & not the usual enviromentaly ugly scars left by this type of mining.

Happy hunting

JW 

It makes you wonder JW when you look at the eagles view just how much gold is further back in the hills. They wouldn't have been able to locate the tailrace too high up as they couldn't have got water up there. Methinks there is still a lot of gold in the dirt there.

The Cat

G'day Wildcat, Yer I was thinking the same thing as I gazed down into them & looked at the unworked portion of the faces they had exposed. I guess they had done their homework & if it was worth their while they could have easily have carried on back up into the hills. They are actually very low down on the flanks of the Dunstan Range. They have probably just worked a rich little (Big) pocket in what looks like a high old Clutha River terrace. The tailing rocks are very round & water worn & look very much like river rocks as opposed to glacial. Also the shear number of them in one localised area. There are smaller sluicings further up & down from these, although on google earth you cant really make those out like these ones. But I noticed them as I walked up to these ones. They are at a spot called Quartz Reef Point & I saw three lines of reef striking in the same direction parallel to each other. They cant have been gold bearing how ever.

Happy hunting

JW 

Hi Guys,
 I went back up to these old sluiced workings on saturday & I still managed to get a bit of gold from the same ground that I have been over numerous times already & with the same coils. The gold is getting small & it takes a keen ear to pick up the slight threshold change that signals a possible target. If the ground is too wet & the coils threshold sound is a tad "noisy" "Mono coil" it is very hard to pick up the very slight threshold change amongst the threshold chatter.
It suprises me at the lack of rubbish items from the old timers amongst the sluicings. I have by far found more .22 shell caseings & old lead bullet heads than general ferrous metal junk items from the actual workings of these sluiceings.
11 pieces for the day for a total of 2.5 grams. All less than 1 gram with the smallest .11 of a gram



Total from these sluiced workings so far is 25.5 grams



Happy hunting

JW 

Well done JW.  You will have that machine trained to pick up dust before too long...

The Cat

G'day Wildcat, Thanks. I am getting a bit over the real small pieces now. It is time to find some new pastures & hopefully bigger bits of over 1 gram. I see now what you mean by "Do you really want to find such small pieces" When I was going on about the Whites GM 4B & picking up all the gold on offer at a spot.
I have gone over these old workings a few times now with different size coils. Both DD's & mono's & I am sure there are no bigger bits on offer for me. I found the bigger bits on my first couple of days & found no bigger bits after going back over the same old ground. Just the smaller bits with a lot of focus, concerntration & guess work as to a target signal or ground noise. Most small bits were with the 10" X 5" mono & 8" mono coils & rubbing them on the ground.
Take care & happy hunting.

JW 

Yes JW,  You can spend (waste) a lot of time on the really small stuff and while it is always nice to find any gold at all, it does get very frustrating finding tiny bits all the time. I get disgusted when I have a very loud signal and I think that it HAS to be at least 4-5 grams and it is 1/2 gram when it finally comes out of the dirt.
Such is life. HH
The Cat

Went to a new spot today & found 4 little bits for a total of only .65 grams. Suppose it is better than nothing & shows there is a bit to be found at this new spot. Awoke this morning to snow on the ground & snowing hard out. BUGGER I thought. Actually I said something else that I cant really repeat on here.
By 10am it had backed off & patchs of blue sky were showing & the forecast was for improving weather. So I headed off for the 1 hour drive to this spot. It was down country a bit from Queenstown & so hadnt quite had the snow as low as we had it. I was fearing the spot would be under snow as it was up on a mountain side, but it wasnt so that was good.
I came across 3 quartz reefs running parallel to each other but in different gullies, but they showed no gold in them or their float. So the gold I found hadnt come from them as the gold was further up the side of the mountain & very flat & water worn but were nowhere near a river or water course. Glacial???

Happy hunting

JW 

Glad to hear that you are enjoying paradise in our area (Cromwell basin) I've lived here for years but only been MDing for a year or so. I've hooked up with a mate who knows the area like the back of his hand and we spend heaps of weekends out fossicking - Quartz Reef being one of these, just amazes me that people keep going back time & time and still come out with worthwhile hauls.

It must be remembered that just about all land in the Basin is privately owned including the Quartz Reef area (Northburn Station) and permission must be gained to access these areas. The owner of Northburn is a very nice guy and usually has no problem in letting people on to detect. However he is getting concerned regarding the increase of people not asking permission. Digging has been noticed around some of the old miners camps which is illegal (as well as even moving tailings) under the Conservation Act. I would really hate to see access limited to a few.

We are lucky here in that we know all the runholders on a personal basis and access for us will be OK but I would hate to see others not given the chance to try their luck.

Keep up the work and never know, we may meet up out there one day.

Hi there Peejay, No it wasnt at QRP that I detected. My wife & I just went there to view the tailings & then went back to QT via Wanaka, Cadrona valley & the Crown Range road. The highest tarsealed highway in NZ. We couldnt muck around as we had no chains & had to beat the late arvo freeze.
  Yes I love Central Otago & it is a paradise.
What detector are you running??
I sent you an email & havnt heard from you & wondered if you received it?? Maybe we could hook up for an outing.

Happy hunting

JW 

Wildcat and others--love this thread!! Well done.

All the best,

Lanny

Good to have you back Lanny. I wondered where you had gone.  I myself haven't been out lately except down in my own bush block. I found a penny or two and some brass relics. Also around a dozen exploded .303 shells.  There used to be some loggers here once so I guess they camped. I wouldn't have liked to be around those shells when they were exploding. Might put a piccy up later.

The Cat

Wildcat--the 303 is a right venerable old rifle--there's still all kinds of them in use around the world. You're right when you say you wouldn't want to be around when those bad-boys were cooking off--flying lead isn't my favorite either.

Got some nice flake gold sluicing--right around 4 grams, but I'm itching to get after the big stuff. It's been too long since I've gone eye to eye with a fat, sassy nugget!

All the best,

Lanny

I see you are using a Garrett? Gravity trap gold pan in your avatar Lanny.  I had a large one and a small one. Lifetime guarrantee they said.  When it was about 4 years old I dropped it accidentally and it split straight in half!  No-one would replace it back then.  I still have the small one. It worked well with the black sand and gold on NZs West Coast. I have att. the Piccy of the shells and the 1924 penny.

The Cat

JW, I reckon it might be a good idea to have a NZ detectorists get-together. Pick an area, get permission from the owner and/or claim holder, and have a weekend out detecting.  Saves flying to OZ too
Probably be best for the summer......

Wow--those shells really cooked off didn't they! That's crazy. Nice find on the penny.

The pan in the pic is a Keene Superpan--a tougher, much more flexible plastic. I haven't split one yet, although most plastic pans will crack if you've got them loaded with river-run and you set them down quickly on an angular rock! I've done that before and it's always a sick feeling when you hear that bottom snap.

Once, way up north of here in the Omineca gold field, a Cheechacko visiting our gold camp had a pan loaded with gravel while he was sampling the face of a wall in an open-pit placer operation, and a rock came ripping down the face, hit the pan, and broke the bottom out!! He was sure lucky that day that the rock didn't hit him in the head.

All the best,

Lanny

Hi Guys, Welcome back Lanny. It has been a long time between drinks. What you been up to??
 Goldtimer....I may not be here in the summer......heading back up home about october. I will send you a PM tomorrow. I would like to catch up with you. Must get off to bed. I have a day back up in these workings tomorrow. We have had a couple of scortcher days 11--12 degrees. Bit of a change from minus 5-6 degree frosts & highs of 2-3. The snow up in the old workings has melted back a bit so I will go up for a look. May be the last time I go up there. I think I have got all I can from them.
  Wildcat....The Garrett super sluice gold pan is my favourite.







Happy hunting

JW 

Nice pictures JW--I'm glad you got out in that 11-12 degree scorcher and got some sluicing done. What kind of a pump are you using to run your high-banker, and what size of hose is your output? That's a nice looking little rig you've got there--did you fabricate it yourself? That Garret Super Sluice looks like it has a nice, wide flat bottom--I've never used one. What do you like about it?

Well, nice to hear from you again.

All the best,

Lanny

Hi there Lanny, The pic of me running the little highbanker/banjo was from a couple of years ago & is in the river directly below where I have been detecting these old sluiced workings which are much higher up on an uplifted terrace. As the crow flies they are about a mile apart but the high terrace up about another 500-600 feet. The motor is a 5 horse honda coupled to a purpose built dredging pump. There is no makers name on the pump but it is 2" in & 1.5" out. It came on a 3" dredge I bought that I have made in to a 4" dredge. I dont normaly use this motor & pump to run the highbanker/banjo as it is an over kill & heavier to carry but I was able to drive right to this spot & wanted teh hose attachment coming off the pump to wash down the exsposed schist that is abobe the normal river flow. I actualy took the 2" suction hose off the end of the 2" nozzle & used the water pressure from the pressure hose to blast the schist. Bit like a mini hydrolic monitor. I would then just use the hose to help wash material into a hole & to give the nozzle some water to suck up to help clean out the hole that I had washed the blasted material into. Worked bloody well.

Result was 16 grams for a coupke of hours

Hi guys, Well I took this mate of mine up to these sluiced workings that I have been detecting in. We couldnt have had a more perfect day except for the lack of gold. I think some bugger had all but cleaned it up.
Prior to getting up there I took Gavin into the Gold Shop in Arrowtown to show him what he needed to keep his eyes open for. Jim the manager of the shop went out the back & came back with a 23 ounce nugget that he dropped into our hands. WOW.... it was found on the west coast a couple of years ago by a detectorist.



Gavin was down to a "T" shirt in the snow detecting. Bloody poms, I dont know?? LOL






He managed to find a good haul of.303 & .22 shells along with bullet heads & other asorted junk. I too found my share of rubbish & thought I was going to get skunked. It would have been my first day that I hadnt found anything. It was well after we had stopped for lunch that I got the faintest of signals that could have been anything but a signal. But after scrapping away an inch or two of soil it got a lot more positive. Then I hit the schist & it was still there so I was 100% sure it was gold. I looked up for Gavin to see if he was close bye so I could get him to sweep it with his Fisher C Scope & see if he could pick it up. He was no where to be seen. He had gone off to find a spot that hopefully for him I hadnt been. I waited a bit but he was still not in sight so I kept digging. It was a bit elusive to find but I finaly had it in my hand. Not a minute later Gavin turned up. I poped it on a rock for him & he was able to get a signal at about 3-4 inches. It turned out to be a .46 gram piece & the only piece for the day.
I think Gavin had a good time despite not finding a bit of gold & I am sure he learnt a thing or two & what to look out for in the old workings.
 I wont be back to these old workings again. I have photo's & the memories of some great weekends up there.
I awoke this morning to another postcard perfect day when I opened up the curtains.





Headed off to a new spot not knowing what I may or may not find. Went to some more old ground sluicings & targeted the exposed bed rock. Ended up with 12 bits. The biggest was 1.21 grams & the smallest .11 for a total of just under 5 grams.

The piece by itself is the bit I found yesterday with Gavin



Happy hunting

JW 

I look forward to late Sunday evenings because I wait to see what you got for the weekend!
Well done JW
I know my Bro spent a lot of time around Lake Hayes Building many years ago. It is a beautiful place. Driven past there many a time myself.

The Cat

To the Cat--this thread never disappoints; neither do the pictures disappoint!

To JW--nice finds--I'm glad the Oldtimer's left you some. Depending on rain, ground moisture, atmospheric conditions, a newer more sensitive coil etc., your old worked out patch may yet produce more gold.

All the  best to both of you,

Lanny

Hi Guys, Since taking my friend up to the old sluiced workings I have been to a new spot that I have been told has been pretty hammered by detectorists over the years. I found 12 pieces on my first day for a total of 4.96 grams. Smallest was .11 of a gram found with the minelab 8" commandar mono & the biggest 1.21 found with the coiltek 10" X 5" joey mono. The area is old ground sluiced workings down to schist bedrock. The gold being found in the folds of the schist that is standing up on edge & also under the schist layers that are laying horozontal. The old timers I guess just got the gold that their water would wash through their tail races & sluice box channels. These are still very easy to see & often lined on the sides by rocks stacked up on there edges to form a "U" channel to direct the water flow & material down them. Over a few days I have found 27 pieces for a total so far of 8.5 grams.



 The smallest .08 of a gram. Most have been found with the joey coil & all in soil/sensitive & boost/deep modes. Deadly on the tiny gold in this shallow bedrock. I would say the detectorisists before me have found anything of size & I am getting the rats & mice. I have yet to try a larger coil than the !0" X 5" but will try the 11" mono on the fringes of the bedrock where it drops off into a bit more depth. Will also try the mini UFO & the UFO coils. There are some powerlines going over parts of very shallow bedrock where the mono's are a bit noisy so may try my 11" DD.

Happy hunting

JW   

You are making me jealous JW...  I have been informed that the new Whites TDI Pro has arrived in Aussie, however the battery packs are arriving on a later flight. Must get my gold sold so I can get one...

The Cat

JW--you little detecting devil you--well done--and in a worked out patch to boot. You're doing great--keep it going and then post the pictures of the big stuff you sniff out.

All the best,

Lanny

Hi guys, I have been a bit quiet on the posting front lately but have still been getting bits of gold on each visit to these sluiced workings. All be it quite small & on occasions only one or two pieces. My last full day there had me only get two .11 gram bits. One was in some old workings further up stream that had some good exposed bed rock but it looked like it may have had some modern day activity with possibly a trommel plant & excavator doing some work over the old workings. I was supprised I didnt do better there. I was about to give it away when I got a .11 gram bit with the 10" X 5" mono. I then went back to the workings where I have been doing quite well to a spot where I had got a few bits where a road in has crossed some bedrock. I put on my new 6" round coiltek mono to see if it could sniff out something more than my 10" X 5" had got. I had been over the ground very slowly & very thouroughly with the !0" X 5" a couple of times & had got a couple of bits more on a previous visit. My first signal with the new 6" mono was a .11 gram bit. It was dark by this stage so I packed it in for the day. Boy what a long day for a total of .22 grams. I would have walked miles backwards & forwards over the workings. Through briar rose, broom & gorse.
 The weekend before I had crashed through some briar rose, tearing up my old jacket in the process, under some powerlines, which made the mono a tad noisey, when I spied some good looking bed rock up on a small slope that I hadnt noticed before. Damn the powerlines . They where above some stacked tailings & looked as though they may have been washed down with the ground sluicing in the old days, but there was no tailings on them but some small tail races either side. So my thoughts were that they must have been pretty exposed in the first place. It was the usual schist up on edge but very smooth & rounded off by glacial grinding.
Here is a pic of the slope looking up hill.



Within a minute I had my first signal that had that lovely mellow gold sound. I scraped away a couple of inches of the topsoil, checked the signal & it was still there. Another scrape & I was on to the schist bed rock. Another check of the signal & it was gone. Bugger, I thought. That isnt a good sign. Scanned the pile & the signal was there. Not giving it much hope now of being gold but more likely a bit of lead. Too my suprise it was a piece of gold. You beauty. Must have been sitting right on top of the schist. I got 6 pieces off that slope when darkness set in. I didnt take my head lamp with me so had to bale before it got too dark to find my way back through all the briar rose, damn the old miners for planting that stuff. They planted it to use the hose hip to make tea as a source of vitamin C. Now the bloody thing is growing wild & taking over the land scape & invading the valleys & mountain sides. A real pest now. HORRIBLE STUFF.
Looking down the slope with a dig hole & detector showing another find. Notice the powerlines & briar rose bushes.



Notice the shallow topsoil down to the schist bedrock, About 2"




And another piece down into the folds of schist. The broken out schist to the left.



Piece of gold on the white lid of my gold bottle



River way down below & the exposed high bank on the other side cut down into the glacial material. Notice the powerlines & briar rose, GRRRRR



Some of the pieces I found before dark on this slope.



I went back during the week after work & found 12 bits all up off this slope using the 10" X 5" mono I havnt tried the 6" mono but had a go with an 11" DD in mono mode to combat the powerlines. Got nothing further off that slope but on my way back to my wagon snagged a .7 gram piece on some bedrock exposed by a 4 wheel drive road that also gave a heap of crap targets & .22 shells.

Total finds from these working since my last photos. 32 bits. I think I have now done my dash at this spot & will have to find another.



Found 20 grams all up. Not bad for a spot that has been trashed in the past & also by a GPX 4000 that I know of.

Happy hunting

JW 

As they say in this part of the world JW,  You da man!!  Congratulations once again. Will catch up when I get time. Too many docs and specialists at present.

The Cat

G'day Wildcat, Sorry to hear of the Doc's & specialists. Hope all is well.
I am looking at getting back to Poolburn this month. I have got myself an 18" mono & I am looking at a 20" nugget finder mono. The country there is ideal for these bigger coils. The weather has taken an unusual turn & heated up a bit. Not normal for this time of the year, as you will know. I am sure it will turn to crap again any day. We have only had two falls of snow in the Queenstown & Arrowtown areas. That is unusual as well. I am sure that will change too before winter is over.
I went back tonight after work to the sluiced workings armed with a saw to cut back the briar rose to get at some more bedrock. Didnt find anything. That dented my pride as I had been getting bits of gold every time. Oh well, I knew it couldnt last. Two targets had me very confident they were gold. Both were down into the schist a good 4". One was a boot tack & the other a piece of wire. BUGGER. Makes you wonder how they got so far down.

Take care & I hope all works out well for you.

Regards

John

Hi all, great reading on this site, specially this thread. I'm an older miner / detectorist coming back to have another crack at it. Awesome to see the NZ content and hear of recent finds. Keep posting guys it makes my day and enthuses me to get out bipping again.

Wecome nuggy,  Hope you enjoy the site as much as we do. What part of the country are you from?

The Cat

Hi there Cat, I'm near Greymouth on the west coast, but am wishing I was in Queensland like you cos it's still cold as here.

Spent an hour searching for my 4 inch dredge nozzle today, pretty sure it's in that garage somewhere. The weather seems to be getting warmer, though that might be wishful thinking. The motor and pump look ok. Need new pack straps for my carry frame. Got my wetsuit that I haven't worn for ten years and ten kilos, might still fit  ?
Got to get a crevice sucker (cheers JW), a big gad (thanks Lanny) might even take a trip to central, (good one Wildcat).
 My new detector coil is on it's way from the states. Reading all the posts from you guys has helped with tips and attitude adjustment - about a month more preparation and I will be good to go, should be a great summer. Thanks guys!

Hi Nuggy, good to hear you are prepping and psyching yourself up.  I went through Greymouth once, at least I think it was....  lol
I used to have a b in law that owned the Whataroa hotel for many years and have been fishing on a few of the lakes up that way. Beautiful landlocked salmon.  Happy hunting.

The Cat

Hi there Nuggy, Welcome to the forum. What detector are you getting??
 I went back to my thrashed sluiced workings a few weeks ago as the weather here has warmed up & the snow & permafrost gone from them. I headed up there on friday after work for a few hours before dark. I put on my little 6" round mono & decided I would clean off some of the rocks that the old timers had stacked on top of the bedrock that they had exposed & cleaned up with their ground sluicing. I had found a few nuggets in what bed rock they had left exposed & hadnt covered with tailing rocks. I was gambling that there may be more gold buried in the schist crevices that their water hadnt washed down into or broken away & was still trapped in there.
I was rewarded with 3 little nuggets for my effort.

I picked in to the solid schist just above a little crevice. I got a signal there & at first thought it was in the little crevice but it was up above the crevice. I thought the crevice might be going in on an angle but the the signal was above the crevice. The schist was very hard & sparks were flying. I started to think it was probably just a layer of iron stone or iron sand in the schist itself. I was down about 3" & it was hard going. I thought about coming back to it at a later day with a cold chisel, it was that hard. But I kept at it & was finally rewarded with a piece of gold. I was really supprised that it was gold in that part of the schist & not in a crevice.

Close up of the hole.



I then got two more pieces in the bigger crevice to the left in the pic below. They were in the bottom of the crevice itself.

This photo was taken on sunday when I went back & pulled more rocks down. I had the joey coil on this day as I planned to go to what I thought were some more old workings further along the mountain side. Well I thought they looked like old workings from a google earth view. There was only one way to find out.....right.
Well the joey coil found me another piece on sunday in the crevice to the right.





On the friday after finding the 3 little pieces I headed to some soft rotten schist that I had got 5 pieces from at an earlier time. I hadnt got a signal but had just dug into the scgist because it was easy digging & got the 5 bits. Well because of my success with pulling down the rock pile I though I would just hack into this soft schist further & expose more of the crevice. I was rewarded with 3 more little bits for my effort.

This is the crevice in the soft schist



The gold was in the bottom of this crevice.



It was getting dark so I needed to get out of there as I didnt have my head lamp.

On sunday after finding that piece back at the spot with the joey coil where I pulled down the rocks I then headed off to check out what I thought was more old workings. Turned out they were but there wasnt very much exposed bed rock. But what bed rock there was I managed to find 8 pieces. The biggest was .98 of a gram & the smallest .05 of a gram. That is the smallest piece I have found with my detector to date.



The 4 small pieces were all found in the same hole. I only got the one signal to start with but when I got that piece out I checked the hole & there were no other signals. But going by my exprience of the last days detecting I just decided to keep on digging into the soft schist & bingo ended up getting 3 more bits out of the same hole by just keeping on hacking into it. So lesson learnt........Dont stop digging in a spot that you get a piece of gold from just because you are getting no further signals . They may be only just out of range until you dig a bit more.

Happy hunting

JW  

JW your superb photos tell it all. What an excellent gold trap that rock is. There is no stopping you mate. Congratulations

The Cat

Hi JW, great photos, some dogged persistence showing there and paying off too! Nice looking pieces.
I have a Bounty Hunter tracker 4 detector (because it was real cheap) and got (3 days ago) a 4 inch coil from ebay for it. The budget won't run to a Minelab or even an MXT at the moment unfortunately .
I don't consider it a serious detector, but it will find an under one gram piece at 2 inches with the new coil in an air test. only the back half of the coil reads the tiny bits, so I will have to overlap sweeps and walk real slow.
I am pretty busy with work, and projects I'm constructing, but get the detecting bug every now and then. I plan to take the detector out crevice hunting to work areas of exposed bedrock in creek beds.
I had a gold bug 2 a few years back that was good at this, but bottom here can vary a lot, three total changes in one meter is not unusual, and the constant ground balancing to get good sensitivity drove me nuts. I used it in Aussie as well, I think it might have caused my tinnitus from it's reaction to them brown hot rocks!  LOL 
My 4 inch dredge is almost ready to go just need to cut some spaghetti matting and expanded mesh for the box.
Keep it coming guys, I'm having some connection problems lately so I don't get on net every day. Nuggy

Hi there Wildcat & Nuggy. Thanks for the comments.
I dont know if I have the Mida's touch or what but I just dont seem to be able to miss out on finding gold. I usually go to areas where gold has been found before which is usually a save bet to finding something. Even if it is only a bit of colour. But lately I have gone to areas that arent that well known or not a lot of gold has been found at them. During the last week I went for a bit of a walk to just check out a hunch. It was quite a long walk but I was rewarded. Not a lot but 3 grams. The buzz was that it wasnt a known area for gold so that made it all the sweeter.



Went for another walk on saturday & only got in 2 hours actual detecting. I was using my favourite little joey mono & got 5.99 grams. They were all pretty shallow & found way up on a mountain side.
Here is a view not far from where I went.



Well today sunday I went for a bit more of a walk & got in 4 hours detecting but I struck the jackpot. Total for sunday 26.11 grams. I was using the 24" X 12" UFO mono & it just proves it can find small gold as well & larger bits. Here are three I got all pretty close to each other. The big one is 13.85 grams.










I think I will have to call in sick for work  & head back there & see what else I can get. Best money I have made for a couple of days (work).

Happy hunting

JW 





 

Great stuff  JW.....

Watch your tail JW...  lol,  I had blokes that used to follow me around once. They eventually found me but I had pretty much cleaned out the area by then.  That is real nice gold JW.   

The Cat

Great stuff JW. I met a guy who was on strike from the freezing works, so decided to go do some dredging. He got 16 ounces for a week or so dredging. Then he went back to try get some more and it turned out that it was all cleaned up. You don't want to throw in that job too soon!
Very nice gold
Cheers
GT

G'day Cat & GT, Yes it blew me away. All very shallow. The big sucker wasnt more than 1.5". Screamed like a .22 shell but I dug it any way. What a suprise I got when 2 scapes & it was out. I was expecting a .22 shell or a .303, but fell over when I cleaned the dirt off the piece of "crap" that was sitting in my hand & screaming at me.
Went to some old workings today that have been thrashed by every man & his dog. Met a guy there, first time ever I have come across some one else, who was detecting there with a GPX 4500. He was using a 14" nugget finder elliptical mono. Not sure how long he had been there. He probably told me but I cant remember. He took a guess who I was & got it right. MMMmmm guess he has seen my posts & also being in Queenstown....... He hadnt got anything. I wasnt holding much hope myself as I have thrashed the place myself but to date have got over one ounce there. That suprised him as the place has seen probably every gold machine out there over the years.
I decided to look in places that I hadnt given much thought to & went real slow with my little favourite joey mono. Places like the side walls & edges of the old tailing races. Well one as it turned out. I didnt get there until about 4pm. He was just leaving as the weather looked a bit dodgy & it started to rain a bit. I had a plastic bag over my control box so wasnt too worried. After we had a bit of a chat the rain stopped & it looked a bit brighter so he decided to stay a bit longer. I had just got my first signal when he walked up to me. When I got back in to it it just turned out to be a bit of crap. He went off a couple of tailing races away & I headed to the edge of one. My next 4 targets were all bits off gold. It was probably about 1.5 hours later & he decided to head off.
I asked how he did & he had nothing. He was suprised when I showed him my 4 as he had scanned that area when he first walked in. We said our goodbyes & then I got 3 more bits right where I was standing when he walked off.
I was right in the zone....I dont know what it is......Mentaly ground balanced or what But I was just getting piece after piece with no junk targets. Just on dark I got another one & didnt have my head lamp with me. I had left it on the bloody roof of my wagon It was right in the hard schist & not in a crevice & right on the top lip edge of a tailing race that was a good 10 foot drop into the bottom  which was full of briar rose. SHYT BAGS....what do I do?? Keep at it & risk it going off the edge & down in to the briar rose bushs & lost for ever or wait until another day......NA go for it.......All went well be it dark by the time I got it out. All up I got 13 pieces for a total of just over 4 grams. Just when you think a place has given all its going to.....13 pieces for the GP 3000 & nothing for the GPX 4500  



Happy hunting

JW  

The Midas touch or whatever is definitely working for you JW, great stuff. Your mention of the chap with the 4500 proves the saying "it's not the detector that matters it's the operator". Good on ya mate, keep at it while you're going good and staying in the zone, long may it last for you. Nuggy

Hi All,  JW i had to come online to say your posts and piks are very good,  Theres only on problem, some of the places you are going you havnt asked for permission from the landholder or claim holder, you have been warned already to stay off one area, but you keep going back, have respect please, as your actions have now started a campain by land/claim holders to deny permission for the rest of us, so please ask permission, and if you dont, then dont show the piks on the web, your only digging a very deep hole for yourself and ruining it for everyone else. 

You have brought up a good point there NZ - 99% of land in Central Otago is privately owned and permission to detect must be sought from the landowner/leassee. I would never dream of going onto someone else's property without their OK.

I live in Cromwell and get on very well with the runholders (a couple are distant rellies). This year there seems to be a growing dislike to fossickers, one even took me and showed me some quite deep holes dug on his land by someone with a detector, his concerns are that the strong hot winds that are due in a couple of months will scour out the loose dirt and leave even larger holes, and that grass is very hard to grow here and digging it up is against their way. If we do dig we make sure that the turf is replaced and tramped down.

I think these deep holes are a downside of some detectors(I suggest Minelabs) being too good and locating far deeper than what we are used too. My Goldbug and GMT really only locate a few inches unless the nugget is quite sizable. i only carry a small grubber and trowel, some guys now are carting full size shovels and picks and digging holes of a size that are really upsetting the landowners.

One runholder has told me if this continues without permission on his property he will slash tires on vehicles involved!

For our hobbies sake we must continue to work with the landowners and leave their property exactly, if not better than we found it. I would hate to think that they would consider refusing us onto their properties.

Hi there, MMMMmmmmm I had been on one property that I thought was crown land but the manager of the property informed me that it was private property. QT area. I have respected that & I havnt & wont be back. Is this the one you are refering to as you mention more than one?? It doesnt have a claim on it. The other 2 properties I have been on I do have both the owners permission & have been invited back when ever I like as long as I let them know I am going to be on there. I have even been given the use of a hut on site for over night stays.
I back fill ALL my holes, & others that I see left open. No matter how big or small & mine arent all that big in the first place. Deepest would be 12" & I dont use a shovel.
Thank you for your positive comment about my pics & posts. This is something I am very passionate about & I dont make a habbit of treading on peoples toes

JW

Hi all, What I know of JW is that he is very particular regarding permissions as we have discussed in emails between ourselves. If I did not think this I would not have suggested some areas to him. He is always very open about what he has done, and this certainly does not show him to be unethical. In fact, friends like JW are very hard to find nowadays, especially where gold is involved.
However there are others that read these threads and sneak around and do not participate in the forum at all, but use it for their own gains.
Maybe we (meaning myself included) should not be so open on these forums as this certainly seems to encourage 'others' to flock to these places.
Lesson learned.

Happy hunting to those who retain their ethics...

The Cat

To JW and The Cat--love this thread! Great pictures and stories. I only wish I didn't live a world away--I'd head for the hills with either of you in a heartbeat. I'll have to add some stuff to my thread as soon as I can this next month.

All the best,

Lanny

Hi J W, how is all the wild weather treating you, is your roof holding ok? I bet you will have had more snow.
We have had ten days of bad weather, wild westerlies, hail and a ridiculous amount of rain up here.
Can't go whitebaiting or even creviceing, rivers are all way up and dirty. Trying to think on bright side about some of my old favourite crevices getting restocked, but patience is hard to come by. Got both the gold fever and cabin fever burnin away at me. Wasn't for this site I'd be in a bad way.
Don't let the nay sayers stop you posting. Tall poppy syndrome I reckon (jealousy). Or they worried your posts will attract other detectorists into the area.
May your earphones sing your favourite tones all summer long...... Nuggy

Hi Nuggy,  One of our online buddies was going to go up there hunting this last weekend. Hope he didn't get snowed in as they copped 6" of snow down south. My Grand daughter has just gone to Invercargill for a holiday for 3 weeks and has never seen snow. She is 17. It will be a real experience for her. Apparently they were lucky to make it back from the airport.
Anyway, why would you bother with whitebaiting? Those little eyes scare me off....   Methinks it will be a good season for the dredges in NZ this summer. Meantime, there is plenty of time for ideas  and reading   Oh, and a good hot cuppa 
Cheers

The Cat

The Roof of stadium Southland collapsed down this way with the snow on it. Yep, you guessed it, flat roof 
When will those architects learn?
The snow will stuff things up for dredging for a while to come. Oh well, like nuggy said, at least some new gold might get washed out of the tailings in them thar hills.
Cheers

Hi Guys, Nuggy, Wildcat, Lanny, Thanks guys for your support & comments. Much appreciated.
 We didnt get the snow in Queenstown like they did down in Southland. A few snow flurries & that is all. Nothing that settled on the ground. Bugger, as it is lambing time & 10's of thousands have perished.
As you would have noticed I have been making a pig of myself with my detecting. There is good reason for that. I live up in the Coromandal in the North Island of New Zealand where the gold is hard rock & not of the alluvial type, as it is down here in Central Otago. I am heading back up home at the end of this month & my detecting will be over so I have made the most of my time down here. This next weekend will be my last. My plan is to sell up home & move on down here to live. Goldtimer & I may be hooking up for a detect this weekend if it works out for both of us. Been nice to meet him & his son & I wish them well this dredging season with their new claim. I wont say where it is
 Went out last night after work in to the old sluiced workings where I got those 13 bits the other week. Well bugger me I got 4 bits in the one crevice which was along a bit in the same run of crevice where I got 3 bits last time. I did scan that spot before but got no signal. Same joey coil although the ground was a bit damper this time & I think that was the difference. The ground being a bit more conductive. Got 5 bits all up for a total of 1.35 grams. Biggest was .75 of a gram.
 Here are some pics of gold found last week using a combination of coils over the same patch of open ground. Coils used in order of photo's
This lot was found using the 24" X 12" UFO mono. Biggest was 2.17 grams & the smallest for this big coil was only .17 of a gram



Three of these next lot were found with the coiltek 18" round mono. They were found one after the other in the same line as I walked along. Biggest only .94 of a gram.



 The other 5 where found with the joey mono including the one top right with the quartz still attached to it. I didnt use the joey over the same patch but amongst bed rock in the sluicings



I then put on the 11" mono coil & went over the same patch again & got 2 more bits. A 1.10 gram bit that was down about 8" & a .51 gram bit. I then got 4 other bits all less than .5 of a gram each out in open country that were just random. Funny thing was that two were close to each other. So I stuck sticks in the ground where they were & tried to see if there was a pattern. There wasnt. Then I got the other 2 in a very similar way & again put sticks in the ground but again there were no more & no pattern. I then pit back on the joey mono & got 6 pieces in the old workings.



Here I detected just below a dam that the old timers built to block up a gully & use the water for their sluicing. I saw a small patch of bed rock & thinking there wouldnt be any gold in it as it must have been gone over by every body who has detected here.



But I headed on down & checked it out any way. Detector sitting on the bed rock.



Well I got a faint signal.....& blow me down......it was a piece of gold sitting only half an inch down on the bed rock. One scrape & it was out. Thinking there was no way it was going to be gold. But it was.



Total of 13.79 grams. I gave the Land owner & couple of nuggets to thank him for allowing me to detect there. He wouldnt take them as he saw how hard I had worked for it. But I insisted & I think he was quite tickled & needless to say I am welcome back any time. 

Happy hunting

JW 

Again great stuff J W, nice looking nuggets too. How did you go over the weekend?
Just got back from Christchurch, moving the sister in law from her earthquake damaged house. Got a couple of days of sunshine there, and when I got back here the wind had eased off and today we only have showers forecast.
Good luck with selling up north. Nuggy

Don't let the nay sayers stop you posting. Tall poppy syndrome I reckon (jealousy). Or they worried your posts will attract other detectorists into the area.
May your earphones sing your favourite tones all summer long...... Nuggy

No, never call me a nay sayer Nuggy-I've done plenty of promoting my hobby in the last 15 or so years that I've been detecting, I don't know JW but he sounds a genuine guy I was just expressing a very important point to him. In Central Otago we support the Landowners who in return allow us use of their land - there's no six gun rules here mate. I have introduced many people to detecting, I've even, and quite often, taken people (even American visitors to NZ) in my company's chopper (I am a pilot) to some of my most favoured detecting back country spots for absolutely no reward so never accuse me of striking down a tall poppy.

However, I have NEVER EVER entered anyones property without their express permission and all I'm asking is for others to do the same and you accuse me of negativity. I think you should have a real good look at yourself.

However, for the next couple of months we give up detecting as most farms are lambing and calving and the last thing wanted is people disturbing the stock.

No use anyone replying to this as I'm signing out from this forum for good.

Good luck and I hope to meet you out in the blocks sometime JW.

Sooooo Retyred, I guess that was just a random point that you make to anyone in Central then. Not just successful detector operators on a public forum. And you are off here forever because.......Detecting is your hobby and passion for fifteen years?........... it's the only point you wish to express or read?............. no-one here could possibly say anything you don't already know?........ or??
If you don't want to be thought of as negative - be positive, too easy. Use friendly encouraging words, without accusations!
Seems a little strange that for two months you can't detect anywhere in the whole province for fear of disturbing stock? Land owners can usually direct people to areas away from such sensitive beasts. When I worked on a farm we carried on fencing, grubbing thistles, feeding out and even moved stock with lambs and calves from one paddock to another with dogs. All of these activities I would have thought more disturbing than detecting quietly along. Unless of course you usually arrive in a screaming, dust raising helicopter right in the middle of the lambing paddock! But I guess you'll never read this, yeah right. Nuggy

[Totally inspirational!]

I'm so glad this thread bubbled up. It's been fascinating reading, and the photos are awesome. Totally inspirational! Thanks for keeping it going and for sharing your adventures!

We have been to NZ, South Island and visited some gold areas like Central Otago, Arrow Town, Greytown and Ross. We didn't take our detectors as it was mid winter and too darned cold for swing a coil. I wrote an article on Ross, etc for the Gem and Treasure Magazine not long after our visit. Must have been about 3 years ago.

We must get over there one day and do some swinging. One thing I have learned from this thread is that not all nuggets come from the rivers. Some spots looked very inviting.

Below is our gold from our WA trip this year

NNNNNice gold, plenty of it too. West Australia is the best, hope to get there one day. Nuggy

JW--I love catching up on this thread! You do such a great job with your pictures and your friendly, tag-along narrative style. Excellent thread.

All the best,

Lanny

Hi Guys, How you all been? Its been a while since I have done a post. Guess that is because I dont have a lot to show & tell since being back from the south Island & up home here in the Coromandel.
Granite......I remember that article that you did in the GG&T mag very well as it came just after I had been through the West Coast on my way back to the North Island from one of my stints in Central Otago. Especially in the Ross area where you visited the black beach sand operation of Birchfield mining. They are doing very well with an operation at the south end of Ross as I tap these keys.
 On my way back up from Central Otago this last time I spent a week on the West Coast fossicking in different places. Called in to the Callery River which is a river that flows into the main river that drains from the Franz Joseph Glacier.

Franz Joseph Glacier



The Callery was quite rich in gold in the early days although a very difficult river to access & was done in the winter when frozen. I only spent a few hours there as it is quite a walk in there. I didnt really hold much hope of finding any thing. But I spyed a good looking crevice that was a way above the normal river flow & thought, what the heck. So with my crevicing tools I scraped out a pan full of material & went down to the freezing glacial melt water to pan it out. Bugger me, some nice bits of colour. I went back & got another pan full of material. This time I was down to a puggy blue clay & thought this should be good. As it looked to be virgin material & I doubted that it had been cleaned out before. Unfortuantly I was down to the hilt in to the crevice with my crevicing tools & could get no deeper. I got some nice pieces out of it & as it was not long before dark & I didnt have my head lamp & I had a bit of a walk ahead of me. So I headed on out. One more spot that I will have to get back to.

Gold found



My next spot was Moonlight Creek/Gully. A place I have been trying to get to in earlier times but the first two I was foiled by the weather. The 3rd time I was almost in there when I came across a big tree across the track & I had no chain saw & no way of moving it. This time I got in & had two days of brilliant weather. The first day it was early afternoon when I got in there & not knowing the area I had a bit of a walk around off the main tracks amongst the old workings & old water races. Sussed out the creek & looked for shallow exposed bed rock areas to have a go with the detector.

This is a picnic spot at the turn off from the main road & on up the Moonlight



And this is right in at the end of the driveable road to the start of the Moonlight track itself



I ended up with 6.5 grams of gold using the little joey coil & the 12" X 7" nuggetfinder advantage mono.



Also found was this beautiful 6 gram speci



Well that was it for the South Island. Since being back up home I have only been out for two weekends with my 4" dredge up a Coromandel creek. Ended up with 18 grams of pretty piss week gold compared to the gold down south. Very high silver content but some nice specimen pieces amongst it. One was even found with the detector. The bigger brown piece on the right. My first detected gold from the Coromandel.



Here is some close ups of it





And some others











Well this year has really flowen buy & it is just around the corner to xmas. Bloodey hell....where did this year go??
MERRY XMAS EVERY BODY & a prosperous new year. May your pokes be full of the yellow.

Happy hunting

Regards

JW

JW--great pictures and nice write-ups. My, but you've been a busy little nugget-shooter/dredger. Well done. It's always so great cruising though your pictures and your travelogues--gives me a well-needed fix!!

All the best,

Lanny

Hi J W, Wildcat, Lanny and all, Well you were right at my back door on the coast here J W, on the way from the glaciers to Greymouth you actually have to drive past my house!
Moonlight is an old stamping ground of mine and it has been a rich area, consistently yielding gold despite having had a lot of attention from miners - fossickers  for many years. To get any results in there you either get lucky after a flood, or you really know what you're doing. I know from your posts you fit in the 2nd category. Nuggy
PS DOC pulled out the bridge about a week ago I'm told, so you can add about a 5 k walk to get to the start of that walk track you drove to, nice of them aye!

Have to mention the Pike River miners on here at some time. This being the unofficial Kiwi thread cops it. As the News went around the world of 29 of our men caught underground in a coal mine here, you will have heard about it. J W was fairly close by at Moonlight River.
This disaster has cast a gloom over over our town, and the suffering of families going into the festive season with this still so fresh in their minds cannot be comprehended.
I knew one of the guys very well, he was a carpenter doing contract work underground. A hell of a good guy, he worked with me on a couple of jobs. "Rolls" was a great guy to work with and a good mate. I and many others will miss him.
I know 3 others who have lost sons. Anyone with children can only sympathize totally with what they must be feeling. I won't go on about it or raise it elsewhere but it has to be at least mentioned as we are all talking mining, and it is never far from my mind these days though it is hard to talk about it. Thanks for reading this, Nuggy.

Been quiet lately ay?  good to see things happening. Been going to email you JW but haven't got any news re house as yet. Man, that is --deleted--ty looking gold up there!!  lol  (You know what I mean)  Only been coin bopping lately but hoping to get out again very soon.  I gave my daughter one of my detectors as she is ultra keen on it and we and one of my grandkids are going to hit the bush soon.
Will keep in touch
Wildcat

(Panther on other forums)

Wildcat, AKA The Cat--nice to see you back. Glad your daughter is ready to head out detecting, and you out chasing coins can sometimes be not a bad way to burn up the time as you wait to hit the goldfields.

All the best, and thanks for your hello on the AZ Outback!!

Lanny

Update; Moonlight bridge. For Kiwi JW. . . . Apparently, ( I haven't been up for a look myself) DOC have removed the wooden deck from the bridge due, they say, to it being unsafe to drive over? It was ok last year when I went up for a look.
There were, 15 or so years back, several batches up there that belonged to locals. Doc pushed hard for these to be removed, even though they were allowed to stay, from historic use rules, in force when DOC took over the land. Over a very short amount of time most of these burned down under suspicious circumstances. Now I believe only one still stands.

If DOC are unable to maintain these few bridges, they should all be sacked, and a crew that can do the job taken on. They charge mining permit holders to use these roads / bridges, then divert the funds to god knows what. Not the local staff's fault I know but the higher ups need a rocket under them. It is a disgrace how this recreational panning area has been treated by DOC. They no longer allow suction claims in this river even though it was the most dredged river here for 30 years. They will never avoid conflict over these policies as there is gold shedding into this river in every flood, and we get plenty of them. The locals have been fossicking there for generations and they just aren't going to stop.

A friend has been driving up to the bridge then cycling to the panning area. He tells me the locals are trying to collect funds to re-deck the bridge themselves so there is a small ray of hope, if DOC will let them do it.

Not sure if I can get my dirt bike over the bridge skeleton or not, but I'm willing use it to help you get up there next time you want to get in if you like. All the best for 2011, Nuggy

Hi Nuggy, Thanks mate for that update on the bridge. I had heard that they had just pulled up the wooden planking from the steel structure with there intension to inspect the steel work for rust. I think I will give DOC in Greymouth a call & get it from the horses mouth as to what they intend to do with it. If they arent going to make it good again then I wonder if it is possible to redirect the road & make a ford crossing over the creek. If enough people get behind a petition or lobby the hell out of the local MP then surely something can be done about it. 5hit its only a poxy bridge. Me think they dont want any one to go in there full stop so the easiest thing for them to do is pull up the bridge. Where there is a will there is a way & people will find a way up there. It is the local fossickers that keep the road clear of tree fall any way & the local fossickers that hassled the hell out of the council to put a grader over the road a wee while ago. Be a damn shame to lose access in to there. I for one cant see it happening....not for long any way.
I went for a dredge back at the spot where I detected the above specimen hoping for more. Took me two hours to get the dredge in place & set up running.







Dredged all day & got 2 grams of shotty Coromandel gold just like the gold in the above post. Before leaving I raked & detected my tailings pile. As the specimen I got the previous time was very rounded & water worn & as there wasnt a lot of weight in gold in it I thought there was every chance that similar pieces could just roll & tumble & dance right down & out of the box & not settle in behind the riffles.
Well my luck was in & I snagged two beaut little speimens. Check these two puppies out.





Here is a few pics of the different sides of one





 



Close up



And the other one



They brought a smile to my dial 

There has to be more of those.

Happy hunting & a prosperous new year to you all

JW 

nice speci ,jw.      keep us posted , fill your poke!   

Yeah the Moonlight Bridge has all of the boarding taken off. Damn DoC, they could replace all the wood in two or three days if they wanted, but they leave it off for the holiday season. At the bridge it's like tent city. About half a dozen people camped there lol