My Precious... I found some Pounamu

Saturday 1 October

In search of the treasured pounamu, we had a hot tip from the docent at the Paparoa Experience that Serpentine Beach was the place to go. I asked how to tell which green stones were pounamu, and which were serpentine or other greenies… she said “you’ll know!” …and that the texture was different, a little translucent and smooth to the touch.

We wandered into the beach and started fossicking along with several others… and about the third stone I spotted, looked and felt different - so I shone my phone torch through it and lo & behold… I’d found a piece of pounamu. 💚 Louis gave up the scrabbling and wandered up the beach but my fellow fossickers and I continued our search as the waves washed in new shiny gems. I found lots of serpentine with beautiful markings and striations, and creamy white quartz plus some other gorgeous stones, but only the pounamu made it to my pocket!

Had a lovely chat with two women and their horses, Apple & Sharky, sometimes that horsy smell just takes you back ❤️. They had been on a lovely hack along the back of the beach and the horses were happily chowing down on some grass as a reward for their efforts.

We took a “scenic route” back to Banjo (it was a little underwhelming) then had breakfast-for-lunch before packing up and heading inland to Lake Kaniere where we had booked 2 nights at the DOC camp on our pass. As soon as we got back to the NZMCA we spotted the little teardrop van with the ladies with the six small dogs who we had met at Kaikoura a few weeks back - I am still amazed that they can live in such a wee space with all these hairy companions!

It wasn't far up to the lake and I got the giggles passing this car parts place along the way - the huge jacked up tyres made this probably the most sensible vehicle for the weather we've experienced recently!

There were a couple of other campers at the DOC camp at Lake Kaniere, but we found ourselves a really lovely flat spot with views out over the lake. Louis went to the end of the pier to dip his watch in and gauge the temperature - should have asked the mad teenager who had already jumped off the wharf and was shivering his way back to the lakeside beach!

The camp and the lake were gorgeous under the spring sunshine and we took a walk to Canoe Creek through the cool woodlands. The narrow boardwalk through the woods lured us in, but after a few hundred metres it petered out at someone's back garden so I guess it was their sneaky cut through down to the lakefront! Up the hill and round the corner we found the actual Canoe Creek track and followed it through the woods to a tiny wee lookout across the lake. The greenery along the way was gorgeous - stunning hairy ponga fern koru starting to unfurl, muppetlike rosettes of Menzies' tree moss covering stones and old logs, tall straight rimu trees reaching up to the blue skies & sunshine and a half-arsed Venus fly trap kind of plant, apparently called Hymenophyllum nephrophyllum or Raurenga to the Māori.

Loving the tranquility of this place and the awesome bird life - so far spotted tui, weka, pāpango ducks, a bell bird, two honk-wah ducks with three fluffy ducklings and a big fat kereru balancing precariously in a kowhai sapling!

Some kind person had built a seat on a tree. with a glass holder at either end for romantic sunset viewing ❤️🥂

Cooked a mega dinner from a new recipe - chicken, bacon & mushroom in a creamy Dijon sauce with spinach & kale - nom nom! Then settled in to watch the sunset and wait for the stars to come out ✨