A couple of dollars from Wanaka

We are now Queenstown staying with No;1 son and his loverly lady,great to have a decent shower and stay in a real bed instead of our  cramped wee camper van,Stopped at Lake Wanaka and had a bit of a detect around the front of the main rest area with pretty good success $23 in goldies an old 20c and an American 1c,plus the silver ring,I ended up with bogley eyes after steering at the massive trout swimming around under the wharf (no fishing allowed)....ah well good to dream.

couple of pocket spills

We are heading down the West coast,what a great place with lots of old mining history,also a lack of phone and laptop coverage so I havnt posted in a while.We went up to a very cool old town called Waiuta a great drive through nice native bush generally one way,but fortunatly there were no logging trucks comming down,the town itself is now derelict but lots of old remnants and it once had its own bowling green along with tennis club and dog raceing.Rode our bikes up to the prohibition mine ( I now know why they are called pushbikes we did that more than rode).This mine is the deepest in NZ see photo...Spent two days there looking around then of to Nelson creek another real interesting area full of old workings and history,managed a few old coins and a few dollars from around the old campsite.

 Of to Blackball to a rally with 87 other campers,had a great time but couldnt wait for the time when they all left so we could have an MD at the sports ground we were staying in.Managed some nice old coins although not as old as I would of thought as the chinnese were here a long time ago,I think I found my first farthing although it is pretty grotty...maybe some one can confirm it.Miles of old places to detect all around here lots of empty houses and old sections that hold a history...... 

Three days at the Reefton race course

We at at reefton until tomorrow,and have had pretty good luck MDing on the grounds surrounding the course,Quite a few silvers and sure am pleased with the 1895 half crown,the oldest penny is 1877.Noeline did well with two sixpences a threepence and half a dozen penny
Also managed $22 in goldies and the usual collection of 1c and 2c bits unfortunatly the etrac shows them up the same as a dollar coin.a well its the old story if you dont dig it you will never know,
   

 Ran into a local detector enthusiast a real nice guy,sure was helpful and we both learned alot from him,after watching him I now realise that I am going far to fast and missing out on the smaller deeper coins.Thanks for the help Russell hopefully we can catch up again in Otago.

Found a cartwheel penny

Some of you might know more about this coin than me,I found one of these about six months ago but it was very rough,so I just thought it was a token of some sort.Well this one I found yesterday here in Nelson and although it to is pretty hard to make out any details or writing I can see brittania on the front and someone on the reverse.A google search says they were produced way back in 1797 and 1798,all of them were dated the same,unfortunatly I can't quite make out a date,They dont appear to have a great deal of value as they were produced by the zillion.The interesting thing is how it got its name when you look at the front in the correct way and turn it over to the reverse side in the normal manner it is then upside down (hence the name),they are much bigger than a normal penny from memory 36mm in diameter and around 3mm thick a fair ol' chunk of copper.
  Also found a another two nice silver coins,one is another english sixpence (1903),the other is an Aussie sixpence (1911).Also another nice condition penny (1874).

  We both tried the local beach but that was a bit hard found a few dollars,and Noeline managed a digital watch (still going).Ran into a local Mder so had a chat and left him to his turf ......

Found some nice old silver

We are at Nelson after being in the Marlborough Sounds,what a great place plenty of fish and mussels,but alas not much old goodies,but I had a bit of good luck here at Richmond at an old camp ground in the racecourse,we are looking at staying here a while as there is a lot of work in the apple packing sheds etc (not finding enough to keep the wolves from the door hehe).

 The coins are two sixpences one is 1867 the other 1908,I think the 1867 is the oldest coin I have found yet,the threepence is pretty worn I can just make out the letters 18?9.The oldest penny 1875 and the shilling 1917,also the 1933 florin.The old sixpence,threepence and penny were all in the same hole,I guess some one lost them many moons ago at the races or A & P show.I took a deep breath with the Aussie penny for a moment it looked like it was dated 1950,unfortunatly after a good clean up all was revealed..... 1952 ahh well I was still a happy chappie with what I had found......  

A few bits coming down the coast

Lots of coastline on the way down the coast towards to Wellington,but the going was hard I guess the local MDers have already been here but I did better at some of the racetracks.Meet an Australian family at a camp site and young Will new his way around detectors I lent him my spare xterra and he had did alright between the two of us we managed to find all of NZs current coins as a memento for him to take home.Unfortunatly his pic wont upload (camera user issue).The ring although .975 silver the stones are not real the two three pences are from the Otaki racecourse I only had an hour and a half there,it is very old and well worth another go....maybe on the way home.

Aussie trifecta

We are at Palmerston North,so just had to try my luck at the local race course what a great old track with two very old covered stands that are no longer used.Managed a total of 54 coins the best being the 1906 sixpence,and a very nice aussie half penny to go with the other au.ssie coins