My last quick couple of hunts

Driving through the Lindis Pass we noticed an old stone building a rather rough detour took us the site,turns out to be an old hotel built around 1865 and still in very good condition,the temptation to have a detect was over whelming, so I had a quick go well away from the the main building structure managed the threepence but for sure there would be lots more here as it was a very popular place during the gold mining era,but time forced us to keep on travelling.There is an enormous amount of these old stone buildings in this area just oozing history, the mind boogles with the thought of lost gold and coins etc.Had another hunt at Wanaka this has a very large beach frontage and the results are after just an hour and a half.Anyone coming this way have a go it is a little untouched goldmine.

Where it all began

Well we are at Lawrence,stayed last night at Gabriels gully right in the heart of the gold country,problem is it is raining relentlessly and I cant get out for a look around so spending the day in the van and going to the museum etc,we have been to some great old places full of history with names like Bendigo,Carricktown,Bannockburn,Logantown,Welshtown etc and there are lots more we would like to see but the roads are just a bit to mean on the old camper,I tend to forget we are not in a 4WD.

 We had a good poke around alot of the old brick buildings some dating back to the 1860'S,The old Bendigo school was interestingTony found a nice 1884 sixpence and an old silver thimble,I must of found 300 .22 cartridges as they all have a tid similar to a small nugget,they had to dug up.But alas no hidden caches of gold or sovereigns.This may be my last post for a while as we have sold the camper and are heading to the Gold Coast,the plan is to work there for the next 6-8 months knuckle down and save some $ then come back and start over where we left off .In saying that I am taking the Etrac with me and intend to haunt the local beaches,so I will post any finds etc

Brrrrrrr

Woke up this morning to 7 degrees and fresh snow all around the hills,what a wake up call for us woossie north islanders from the sunny bay of plenty,pictured are some more finds from the beach front here in Queenstown.Also a picture of all the finds from four trips $123 in gold coins plus all the change Tony found another silver ring we felt a bit like a goldfish with all the wealthy tourists staring at us and taking our photos. Yesterday Tony (son) and I walked up the twelve mile creek in the rain this is the sight of many old gold workings and lots of it is still very clear to see,massive amounts of tailings and rock walls that have been piled up to support sluicing channels,we took the detectors up and dug up all the corrogated iron ever known to man,along with an old axe and some other scrap iron.Ran the detectors around the the base of the old hut stone chimneys hoping to find a hidden cache of gold (haha)No luck but plenty of spiders.....ps I have now posted the correct photos on my previous page sorry about the muck up.

Kind of sad find today

Well here we are in Queenstown it was raining all day,around 2pm we decided to heck with it its only rain so headed to the lake front,this is a very popular spot with tourists,Found quite a number of coins and also a few foreign ones,my son was using the xterra and got a good signal under a tree on the beach,the target turned out be be a what looked like a small parcel btu due to the amount of time it has been in the ground the paper that wrapped it had become soggen,but there aws still a good signal coming from inside the wrapping.

 Pulling the paper off there was another layer and this turned out to be a photo,but unfortunatly the picture had completed faded,inside this wrapping were the two rings in the pic they have japanese names inside them with a date and the words silver.We have done some research on the net but no luck so I guess the next move is off the police.certainly have to wonder how they got there,judging by the date they have been in the ground for 7 years.....the mind boggles...hopefully we can get them back to the rightful owners....oopps picture of the ring in paper clip is from a previous find

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.