Greenhithe a Cursory Search

A quick hour and a half trip to Greenhithe on Monday night, after work/pub by the three of us. Ritchie, Gareth and myself produced a few good finds. Being sober, I drove whilst the other two imbibed burbies. We did two parks, one by the local hall for about an hour and then the 30 minutes before nightfall was spent in and around the one by the tennis courts.
Interesting finds in the first park were a silver earring by Ritchie, I found a toy car (hotwheels). Gareth just found coins. One was a Peruvian 20 centimos. A cool find indeed, Dropped maybe by a Peruvian peasant whilst watering his donkey.


Greenhithe the 'Machu Picchu' of NZ



The second park was clean, not a coin between us, just a couple of iron targets. Ritchie hit the grass areas under the trees next to the sports ground where we all picked up healthy signals. Older decimal coins were found in every dig (3).  But with the ground like concrete digging was arduous, reinstatement was not easy and the light was fading away fast. Though the floodlights from the tennis courts assisted us we noted this venue as a future winter adventure.

Spending discovered for the evening between us was only $3.30, I weighed in with 30 blood draining cents while Gareth pulled out $1.80. Ritchie hitting $1.20 but with a nice silver earring. Home we trudged.

See you out there.

Olympic effort out west

We set out once again to trawl around the Ponsonby beaches but due to a late start and early morning appointments out west we decided to hit Olympic Park in New Lynn. Three parks, two in bark and one in sand made up the Olympic complex. We also had in mind to visit Blockhouse Bay beach. Midge Marsden performed there in 'Music in the Parks' to a large audience who we hoped suffered from dropsy. To help us with the expedition was Anton, a friend I met on the Spartacus set during my acting phase. It was Anton's first MD adventure and I hope the lack of spectacular finds did not dampen his enthusiasm.

Olympic Park New Lynn

Gareth won the day at the park with a few dollars spending with finds being quite scarce in the bark. I had trouble with the metal pins holding down the weed mat under the bark so I switched to the sand area and had a modicum of success with a succession of 10 cent coins. But Gareth had found the goldies and won the park test. Anton I think managed just the one coin. We moved on.

After a few navigational difficulties, we found ourselves at BHB beach. It was another hot day and the beach was well inhabited with visitors. I've always liked this beach, though the beach is an ugly beach it is surrounded with nice walkways and flowing manicured grass areas. A old stone shelter bought back memories of a teenage love affair and the boat club sits well at the end of the perimeter pathway.

Blurred BHB Beach

To spruce it all up it looked like the council had dumped fresh sand on the beach to cover up the unsightly littered black sand or mud that is usually there. We cleaned up at the beach, literally, as some of the rubbish from the concert was still visible. I found several small denomination coins and I also uncovered a cheap heart shaped pendant with only one sparkly stone out of many left. Probably fell off of a keyring I think. There is also a bark park at the beach but it was too well populated for us three to take it over. Why can't kids find other places to play other than barked parks?
Gareth and Anton failed to produce too much apart from various items made of  mostly iron and I think they had just a few coins between them. The grass area also gave us plenty of signals but with the ground being rock hard at the moment we will wait until the rains come and digging is more amenable to sort that one out. We are researching as we go. Many of our summer digs will be revisited in the winter when digging is easier. Summer is a lazy time for sand and bark.
Well an interesting and pleasant day with scant reward but it was good to catch up with Anton and one can never knock being out in the fresh air.
Anton took a few photo's and hopefully they will be published here soon.
See you out there.

Four Park, One Hour Challenge.

Triangle Park....from a distance.

Yesterday was a scorcher and rather than hang listlessly around the homestead three of us set out for MD challenge. We knew of four bark parks, three close together and a fourth one in Riverhead which as an after thought we visited on the way home. We had only an hour in each park and the prize apart from obvious prestige was a dozen cold
beers which sat at home sitting in the fridge awaiting the victor. We set off in the Rav at about 11 am full of anticipation. I was with my Beach Cobra, Ritchie on only his second adventure, in which strangely both featured beer, had the Garrett Ace 150 and Garfy strode out proud with his ATPro.
First stop was Triangle Park.

Ritchie was the first to find and due to the lack of headphones his signal could be heard binging regularly. He quickly gathered a following of kids all keen to help him dig and no doubt he cultivated a few future detectorists. I did reasonably well after a slow start a few coins and a couple of small keys.  After the hour was up my total stood at $2.40, Ritchie and his band had managed $1.70 and Gareth had 20 cents.

Then we progressed to McClintock park. A very picturesque park which the photograph didn't really do justice to.  I didn't hold much hope for too much as it was along way of the beaten path and probably underused.

Garfy and me in McClintock Park

But it was a good hour spent. Gareth found three nails in a row, Ritchie commented all you need to do now find is the hammer!! Amazingly within a few minutes I had dug up a hammer head about three metres away. Which caused a few laughs. I also found a Japanese 100 yen coin which I later identified from 1980 the Showa era, only a 580 million mintage!!!!

Only 579,999,999 left to find.

Also my Cobra produced an old 20 cent and $2.10 spending.
Ritchie came in with a couple of old currency and $2.80. Gareth found a few more old 20 cents, only 40 cents of the new stuff and a old rusty cheap chain.

The next park was Gallony park a very small compact park and quite secluded.  We forgot to photo this one and we actually gave up after 30 minutes as we felt we had drained what little it had to offer. A couple of Ritchie's young followers had skateboarded across to watch how things went on. He managed only forty cents, I plucked a single 10 cent and Gareth won the round with 40 cents and an old currency twenty.

Our last stop was the park behind the Riverhead bowling club. Kids cricket on the adjacent field was in full swing and the heat was becoming really oppressive. I found zip. A broken one otherwise I found zip. Ritchie nailed it but managed a few small coins and Gareth plucked a ten cent. After a trip for much needed ice creams and cold drinks we set off for home. 

Approaching the last leg, Riverhead Park



So Ritchie and his Ace 150 won the day with his total of $5.10, I was second with $4.60 and Gareth uncovered $1.10.

We all felt worn out and luckily Ritchie decided to share his prize and we spent the rest of the afternoon analysing, dreaming and planning our next adventures with lashings and lashings of foaming beer.

See you out there.

Has anyone seen Herne Bay?

Gareth and I headed downtown to check out Herne Bay beach in the early morning. Not as early as we wanted though due to a flat battery in my car, we arrived at 7.30 am. I spent many a day on this beach in my youth and also worked in the area through the eighties. So I was a bit shocked when after following the path to the beach we found that we were on Home Bay beach and not Herne Bay! I had forgotten which was the right access way.
Home Bay is a smallish crescent shaped beach and we decided seeing as we were there we would give it a run over. 


Home Bay 1911.
(Acknowledgement 'Sir George Grey
Special Collections, Auckland Libraries)

 I headed to the wet sand and Gareth seemed busy up at the top of the beach in the dry sand. In my first three digs I found a $2 and a 50 cent piece and my hopes were high of a good haul. There, my finds of anything valuable stopped. Suddenly I was a pull tab and bottle top magnet. In the couple of hours or so that $2.50 was my lot. Gareth meanwhile was well in to double figures, his ATPro finally kicking in and producing lots of $2 and $1 coins. He was a happy man.

After having to drag Gareth away we were off to Herne Bay but once again we failed to locate the walkway to the beach.
We asked a local and he in his wisdom somehow sent us to Sentinel Bay. So Sentinel Bay it was.

Sentinel Bay - Ponsonby Auckland.

I found just 40 cents on the wet and Gareth once again found a few dollars in the dry. I went around the boat sheds and exposed bedrock at the city end of the beach but found nothing but trash. I took as much broken glass, whole bottles and plastic bags as I could to the rubbish bin. How different from the clean Cheltenham Beach almost directly opposite on the other side of the harbour where we were at last week.
We had been on the go for nearly four hours so thought to grab a feed. Whilst munching down some not that tasty morsels we decided to forget the lost Herne Bay beach and hit the a couple of big playgrounds in Walker Park, Point Chevelier. It was very hot at the park with little cover. I managed just a few coins, including a 20 centime French coin, but Gareth once again was having a good day. He found a few dollars and a pocket spill of old currency of four coins in the same hole as well as a Singapore 20 cent coin and a cheap earring. I had had enough though Gareth was still keen. The heat was sapping a lot of our strength, mostly mine it seemed.
He talked me into a quick run over at the Walker Road beach just a hundred metres away. Lot's of trash but a few coins kept us interested and maybe a place to visit properly at a later date.
Around 1pm we headed home.
I had managed the grand total of $4.90 for the day. Gareth was unsure of his total as he bought his lunch, a coffee, a pair of shoes and a shirt from the local op shop out of his finds but still had $15 or so left.
So the ATPro has beaten my Beach Cobra twice now on a hunt. This time quite spectacularly. Maybe Gareth is getting to master the machine, we will see.
See you out there.

To be franc I was only looking for the spade.

After a run in to the city (Kumeu) for supplies. e.g. Spare batteries, new gloves, a headlamp, a sieve, a new digging implement oh yeah and some food. I went to look to see if Gareth's spade was still in the park where it was left last night after four lads went out on a early evening beer and detect contest. Won by Richard with 5 tent pegs and the only spending find of the night a shiny $1 coin which he saw on top of the grass before he even heard the signal. Gareth was 2nd with a few old currency 20 cent pieces and an amazing collection of bottle tops. One of the tent pegs found was the mother of all tent pegs, which points to a huge marque in place at some time. So I'll go back and do a more sedate run later :)
Anyway I digress, Gareth's spade had long gone and I continued along the road looking for a place to turn when I spied a playground unknown to me. I thought to have a wee look.
Within two yards I found a 1924 French 1 franc coin in reasonable nick and just under the bark. My second target revealed a 10 cent piece , then a couple of nails but then the rain cometh and I wenteth home.
Though it looks like we are going back this afternoon as Gareth wants to check it out too.

Four years earlier these were made of silver.

So the coin I found is described below. Not at all valuable I imagine but has it's own story which is valuable in itself.

It is a one franc coin and is an aluminium-bronze coin minted under the authority of the Chamber of Commerce. They were minted from 1920-1928. During this time inflation over took Europe. Silver and gold coins were hoarded and the One Frank coin being made of silver up to 1920 disappeared. In order to do business the Chamber of Commerce had coinage made that had little value metal wise. This helped people do business until the government could get things going again. Regular coinage came back in 1931 but without any silver in it.

Gareth's here and we are off for a second run.

Back from the second run with an extra $1.30 spending, a Skytower plaque

Sky Tower VIP Badge

and an old 2 cent piece.

Lots of rusty nails, tabs and small  links from the chain on the swings. We didn't get to cover the whole playground as school ended and kids materialised from everywhere. Still a great way to spend an afternoon and it makes these beers taste a little more refreshing.
See you out there.

Lucky Horseshoe

Low tide in Auckland was at around 5am this morning so Gareth and I, after a strong cup of coffee, headed off to Devonport arriving at about 4.30am.

We were eyeballed by the security guy that is protecting the venue of the Devonport wine festival due to take place on the weekend. Which will be another place worth running the detector over after it has finished.

Anyway around and under the wharf  turned up little but trash so after 30 minutes, Gareth always keen to cover as many beaches in the smallest amount of time suggested we move to Cheltenham beach.

I had instant success finding two coins with my first two digs. I think that this beach is the cleanest I have detected on so far. Very few trashy items were found and targets were at a minimum. The cross harbour ferry cruised by all lit up like a Christmas tree. I didn't realise how big those ferries are.

After finding another coin just above the low tide mark I then uncovered a heavily encrusted horseshoe which I mentioned to Gareth will bring me luck. That was the last find before we headed around the point to Narrow Neck beach. The sun was crawling above the horizon so we were able to doff our headlamps and use natural light to glint off of our treasures. Again the beach from the high tide mark down was very clean with not as many pull tabs and bottle tops that populate most other beaches that we have detected on. I found just one coin, a safety pin, several long iron bolts and as usual a tent peg. The tent pegs I have found were all used in a practical way to pin down the chicken run on the weekend.

It was getting near 8.30am and we were just heading towards the car when I got a good signal. After going down a few inches I found a very heavy .925 silver ring with a big cut glass stone. A wonderful find to be the last of the day for me. 



.925 Silver Ring from Narrow Neck Beach



Note the Huge Diamond, not unlike the famous but now lost 'Peacock Egg' Stone discovered  in Botswana, 1966,

 So the horseshoe did bring me luck with my second ring of the year.



Gareth then grabbed a last coin from the sand and we left for home.

An eventful trip home included two really amazing steak and kidney pies, two dodgy coffees, a car wash and 30 minutes pulling a Toyota Ute out of a deep ditch. The driver stopping for a urgent wee and he left the handbrake off. Luckily we were able to get him back on the road.

So another enjoyable early morn adventure, another ring and a few dollars spending. Life is good.

See you out there.

After the market was over......

With a spare few hours to kill I decided to run the detector over the venue of the local Coatesville Domain after Sundays monthly market.  After we have had a little rain up these parts I thought the digging might be easier than some places I've dug recently. I thought wrong as the blisters on my palm now show.

Pre search conditions

I arrived mid afternoon and in the field next door the local pony club was holding a show jumping meeting and was packed with horsey people and judging from those I met in the dairy, most with horsey teeth. Looking at the crowd I think that this could be a good place to visit in the future.

I didn't have a great deal of success on the domain but had one interesting find. On a very hot day I dug about thirty odd targets and found seven coins amongst the trash I uncovered. The trash consisted of two tent pegs, several bottle tops/teartabs and a number of nails. 

The best find was a 1943 New Zealand shilling which was about six inches down and still in a reasonable condition and I think predated the market by many years. There was a old currency Australian 10 cent and the rest were all spenders amounting to a $1.10.



Reverse of shilling



Front of shilling



An enjoyable excursion on a lovely day in picturesque surroundings. The only downer was the mild sunburn that was a little uncomfortable the next day.

See you out there.

Cornwallis, not a good day.

A day to forget though valuable lessons were learnt. I am writing this up to remind me of certain procedures that I will now definitely carry out in the future and take a little time checking and cross checking equipment before haring out to get amongst it all.

After some research on Cornwallis I decided that here was a place that showed activity from very early days when on Thursday 29th October 1841, after 301 days at sea, the longest ever sailing of a passenger ship between Great Britain & New Zealand, a group of 27 Scottish settlers from Glasgow arrived on the ship 'Brilliant'.
Since then housing, a saw mill and several other small operations have come and gone and it looks like a place that could be full of relics and old coins.


Cornwallis Wharf

 The day started out great, weather not to foul early on and low tide was a midday giving us a chance to follow the tide out. Gareth and I arrived an hour before low tide and spirits were high. It was also Gareth's 52 birthday and he was hoping to find  something nice as a celebration.
Things started badly for me. My Cobra Beach Magnet indicated low batteries straight away which was frustrating. More frustration followed as I realised I only had four spare AA's (left my other spares at home duh!) when my machine takes eight of them. I tried it with the four new batteries and four of the existing ones but it was no good. Meanwhile Gareth was having trouble with the iron sand which he found hard to ground balance against. He did a 15 minute sweep but his readings were all over the place. Gareth uses a Garrett AT Pro and it is a good machine but he is still getting learning how to get it working at it's optimum. There are is a lot of information delivered via the screen but it takes a while and some experience to interpret it all.
So after frustratingly watching Gareth struggle we decided to go buy some more batteries for me from the local shop. I managed to get the last four they had and while Gareth supped his coffee I was frantically changing to my new power suppliers.
We then decided to drive along the peninsular and check out the grass verges and shade spots rather than battle the iron impregnated sand.
By now the tide had turned and the weather was closing in with a very strong wind which made it rather uncomfortable. These bays are really open to the elements and we could see rain heading our way too.
My detector still was indicating low power and I feared the worse that I had a malfunction of some type, maybe a short? So with me out of action I became Gareth's digging pal. He found the signals and I dug them up.


Little Huia northern end

 We ended up at the end of Little Huia bay by the Whatipu road turning. The ground was very trashy and all manner of rubbish seemed to be buried there. I remembered from my Telecom days that there was a phone box situated not far away, now long gone (since 1990) and I manged to locate the concrete pad it sat on. We had almost instant success with a 50 cent piece not far from the pad and things looked better. But after another several trash finds and with the weather now quite horrid we decided to put this one down to experience. We stopped for a five minute search at the local playground and Gareth uncovered a crusty old coin which we have yet to determine it's origin.
The wind was oppressive and with small showers dampening our enthusiasm we headed home.

So points to remember from me are, always make sure to carry extra batteries and after three trips to the West Coast beaches (two unwritten Muruwai excursions) I have learnt that although there will probably be loads of interesting targets to find it is pointless unless one can confidently eliminate the iron sand. So I will stick to the East Coast beaches and parks in the near future until I have a detector that can be balanced on iron sand. Gareths AT Pro does have that ability and he has vowed to become conversant in this facility.
So a waste of time finds wise but a big lesson taught and hopefully learnt.

I got home and tested my batteries I had in my machine and found out the reason for my problems. Somehow, in my haste, I had mixed up my new and old ones when swapping them. I felt a bit of a fool when I told Gareth and he gave me some well deserved stick. But on the bright side my machine is not broken and sits there looking at me for an Waitangi Day adventure. Yet to decide whether to go out but one thing is for sure it won't be to a West Coast Beach.
See you out there.