Search the Community

Hi team, I found this a number of years ago, had never seen anything like it, and haven't seen something like it since. The pock marking is pretty consistent, and it is lightly attracted to a pretty powerful stack of magnets. I suspect its volcanic, and am hoping it is some sort of ejecta from the "Banks Penninsula" volcano. What things can I do to diagnose? There is a closeup photo of a small section that has chipped off, which looks to me like rust staining.

I braved the 30 degree Celsius heat to check out one of my local rivers, the Waipara, last weekend. I've had good luck there before with finding whale vertebrae and was lucky enough to find another one this time which makes 3 from a 1km stretch of river. I also managed to find the usual oyster shells and even a nice bit of petrified wood. Here is a video of the hunt:

In the past, for us Easter has been a time of cracking open presents at our local, but we had other plans and headed to a different spot for our holiday (Still did some fossil hunting & found some nice oysters but I never posted as I thought its a bit boring - I dont know if they are that exciting to others..). Anyway, I am a creature of habit and had to have a crack at getting some crabs and although we didnt find anything special as the sand and driftwood had covered everything, we still all came home with some "pocket crabs" and some prep training ones for me. Tinbum bought back some bone and even the girl found herself a couple of nice crab pebbles. Following @Doctor Mud's advice and soaking the tools afterward, I think I'll give em a light oil this time too as I have been mistreating them.

So as some of you may know, the good Dr has been back in New Zealand and we have had 2 incredible trips so far with the results being accepted by the Canterbury Museum for prep and identification!! So I took the opportunity of a day off work to take the Good Dr and a friend to a local spot for a nosey around looking for more great Gastropod hash plates like I have all around my garden.

Well, Doctor Mud is back in North Canterbury for a bit so as threatened we met up for a trip.. and what a trip it was. Was great to spend some time with someone who knows more than Tinbum & I, we started off the day with Doctor Mud showing us how its done! Yep - its a beauty! Cant see too well from sun reflection but there are legs on both sides.... I ticked a box finding this, as I was tracing the whorl with my finger realising what it might be, Doctor Mud quietly exclaimed "Nautilid!" I have seen several of these before, but always passed them off as being geological, but this ones patterns were stronger - Doctor Mud explained its probably a calcification of swamp ferns!! So while Tinbum was resting in the shade rehydrating, Doctor Mud spotted a sharks tooth on the rock above! That got Tinbum pretty excited, so while the poor Doctor Mud was hacking it out of the rock, Tinbum found another! The poor man was knackered after whacking them both out with his hammer.... (With Doctor Mud's prompting) Tinbum found this as well... a vertebra (dolphin or seal?) I had another couple of interesting finds, but no good crabs for me this time... Doctor Mud had a ball, and a very heavy pack with some great examples in it, and even donated a very good one to Tinbum & I. Not sure if this is organic.. Big thanks mate - we learnt a lot and had a great day, I cant wait to see yours prepped out!