Mothers Day....thinking of you.

Sunday was another peach of a winters day and a friend Dave who is on his way down to the South Island to do some prospecting came along for a swing. He loaned the Garrett ACE150. First stop after a late lunch was Rawlpindi Reserve in Point Chev.

Dave skirting the edges of a barren Rawlpindi Reserve.

The park was unable to produce anything other than a few nails and the weed mat pins caused havoc. We soon lost interest and headed to the next park. The rocket park in Mt Albert, a big park, a very well populated park but too our disappointment now a rubber mat park. on we trundled. A small park in Sandringham shopping area was next on the list.

Again no luck at all. A rusty hinge being a highlight. The lack of bark left lots of weed mat on show again. The local council must be spending their money on things other than bark.

The constant bing bing bing of Dave's  was getting to me so I headed to the $2 shop to buy the missing plug for the headphones. A snip a $3.50 and good for my demeanour. I do like quiet when I'm awake.

So not a coin between us and a good hour spent on the job.

Balmoral was next. A big park and quite busy. Dave soon had a few kids digging for him but after thirty minutes all we had to show was a little kids brooch which Dave gave to one of the kids anyway. We needed at least one coin before we could go home as per the rules. Luckily in one last sweep a nice little gold $2 coin fell into my hands and we were good to go.

Part of Balmoral Park from across a duel carriageway.

We decided on home and I could feel Dave's disappointment in not reclaiming anything worthwhile.  The evening was closing in but we spotted another park in Owairaka Road.
Dave keen as to get going jumped out the Rav4 and got straight into it. So I pulled over and joined him.

Dave heading for his first ever coin finds, bless.

 We figured we had thirty or so minutes before dusk and as it turned out to be the most giving park of the day we ended up staying till dark. Again the park was threadbare with little or no bark in places but it held a few treasures. I had a good run of smaller coins and another $2 and an Aussi 10 cent. A very cheap kid's ring popped out of the bark as well as a curious piece, one of the very same of a find I had in Manukau Sports Bowl.

Nocturnal Dave trying to squeeze another ten cents out of Mount Albert.

Dave at last, in the murky gloom, found his first $1 coin and was very happy about it. He followed that up with a 10 cent and in the end I had to drag him away. I think he is hooked.

Coinage and tin Ring

Strange bits with hinge

So all up Dave plundered a $1.10 and I managed $4.90. I also had the cheapest of cheap rings and this unknown object pictured below with the one I found earlier. Any one got any ideas what they are?
Someone suggested part of a lock mechanism. Maybe.


See you out there.

The Boys Keep Swinging....

Gareth, Ritchie and myself headed out this morning for a few hours to check out a couple of parks hidden away in Whenuapai. I was with my Cobra Beach Magnet , Gareth with his Garrett AT Pro and Ritchie with a loaned Garrett ACE 150. I suggested a fiver in for most spending finds but the lads did not rise to the challenge. The Beach Magnet took that as a compliment.
The first park was the Bill Moir Reserve. We spent about an hour there and uncovered mostly coins. I scored $2.50 spending, Gareth 60 cents and Ritchie 40 cents. The trash was minimal both metal and otherwise and it was a pleasant park with nice grounds.

Ritchie getting a head start on the lads

The Garrett Gang

We then moved a hundred yards down the same road and hit the Malcolm Hahn Memorial Reserve behind the Whenuapai Hall. A small park with several kids using the bike ramps there. The pickings were slim. The kids on the scooters and bikes started to give us a hard time but they did shut up for a minute when Gareth told them we were a bomb disposal unit, but they became quite verbally abusive. We all smiled when a mother suddenly appeared and hearing his tirade against us dragged her child home, who burst in to tears, that after giving him a good dressing down in front of his mates, . That shut the others up. We don't mind kids joining in and sharing our time and indeed encourage it. But that was not going to happen with this little gang. Their loss.
The weed mat was close to the surface and well pinned down which caused a few fruitless holes to be dug. I got 40 cents with three coins and a 6mm Alum key, Ritchie's take was 30 cents with Gareth chipping in also with 30 cents plus a few early decimals, a 10 and a 5 cent.

Leaving the second park with a dollar between us which will help pay for our counselling after all the abuse

We then headed to Christmas beach were the tide was favourable to wander out on to the mud flats. We had been here a few months ago at high tide. That time a local told us of a ship the sunk in a storm in the channel a long time ago. He had picked up copper nails and brass fittings in the past on this very beach.  Gareth was keen to find something from the wreck. But it didn't happen.

The serenity of Christmas Beach. Before headphoneless Ritchie arrived. Bing...bing...bing!

Ritchie and I stayed in the little park there and we both felt grateful to pick up a 20 cent each in what Ritchie described as the cleanest park in Auckland. Gareth just hunted on the beach. When we got down to the beach I had a problem as the iron sand on the beach was giving me all kinds of signals. So I put aside the Cobra Beach Magnet and I tried our first video shots. I enjoy watching other detectors videos and hopefully I will become as proficient as they are. But this first one is a little rough, sorry. As my friend Sarah would say "it is what it is".
Can anybody recommend a decent video editor?

Metal Detecting Adventures
Featuring Glen, Gareth and Ritchie, at Christmas Beach, Herald Island.

Doh, no Video. Lol. Watch this space....

Reassuring I'm not a geek but.......

Gareth pulling up a 1960 half penny with a hole drilled through the centre of it was the video highlight after several non events. As he said it was probably at one time on a chain around someones neck. In fairly good condition too. Apart from the middle bit.

Gareth's incomplete 1960 Half Penny

He then found a Lockwood key.
We had come ill equipped as really the beach needed sturdier digging implements other than our trowels. Below the surface sand and mud is quite a hard layer that was a struggle to get through. Gareth found another early decimal five cent and Ritchie a small button in a hole Gareth had given up on. But digging was taking toll on Gareth's withered arm and tummies were rumbling.
We lasted about another half an hour or so and decided it was time to return home.  Which we did via the pie shop then the bottle shop.

Totals for the day $3.10 for me, Gareth with a $1 and Ritchie rocked up with $0.90 . No other finds to stir the imagination, apart from Gareth's half penny and his Key, the 6mm alum key for the set I'm slowly building and Ritchie's small bland brass button.
Once again the CBM (Cobra Beach Magnet) ruled.

My return.

Gareths Early Decimals

See you out there.

A Tee for Two

I've been studying a 1941 map of Auckland, kindly sent to me by fellow detectorist  J C Allen, looking for potential detecting sites. I found a few, a disused brickwork site with the remains still visible on Google earth, a couple of wharves that no longer exist and a few other interesting anomalies that need to be investigated. 

The North Western motorway has since been constructed cutting through the center of the map and changing a few land marks. It reminded me of what I knew, that the municipal golf course, Chamberlain Park, was partly dissected by the new motorway. It was a course I played many times during my youth. The clubhouse and first tee and from memory a practice putting area and maybe the eighteenth green were all stranded on the North side of the motorway. A new clubhouse, situated on the far side of the course, was built and the holes rearranged, totally changing the course.

The old club house, white building, 15 mm left of the red badge, top centre.

After a waiting for a day when we could visit it together Gareth and I were finally both free today. The previous weeks downpours would have softened the ground nicely and under a beautiful blue sky we set off late morning to check it out.

Ye Old Club House Under a Vivid Blue Winter Sky

The Old First tee shelter interior, home now to graffiti exponents 

The ground was soft and the old stone shelter was sadly in disrepair. The roof was collapsing and it was a blackboard for graffiti artists.I remember sitting in there, rain teeming down, waiting to tee off. That would have been 37 years ago.
Ahhh memories.

Well it was one of those days that didn't pan out as I expected. We arrived full of expectation and began to swing over the small area I had defined by research and personal knowledge. 

A happy Gareth on arrival at the first tee, unsuspecting of the fate that would befall him.

The targets were very few and Gareth with his better discrimination (AT Pro) only picked up a couple of promising signals. I usually dig everything, excepting bark in parks, so my first two signals produced a bit of twisted wire and a nail. I also dug down to concrete slabs in two different holes which maybe we thought pointed to an old pathway. I was beginning to think that the land had been scraped and refilled when the motorway was built. Lots of small scoria rocks and loose stones. None the less after three holes, the last, revealing an old squashed tin can I was still happy to dawdle on.

The old first hole fairway, a par 4, now a 4 lane motorway.

Not so Gareth who suddenly on his first hole was struck down by a rash on his forearm. It was so limiting for him he could not dig another inch. He stopped and put his stuff away and came to watch me. After a while, to get him involved again, I suggested that we visit a park close by that I have yet to search. No digging required and it's a popular park. He was still uncomfortable but I talked him into it.

We were there 2 minutes and Gareth's arm obviously was giving him a lot of pain. I saw a few scratches on it but otherwise it looked fine. He left to sit in the car. I was reluctant to stop as the day was amazingly beautiful and this park was proving loaded with signals but a minute later Gareth needed a Doctor and can we go now please. Grrr. I was just in a happy park mood. I had my home coin, a $1, so we actually could go home, but I had only traveled a few steps into the bark and uncovered the coin, a part of a brooch, a Zip puller, a watch clasp, my first four targets that did not require a dig. It promised so much. 

The Park I will visit Tomorrow, With or Without Ol' One Arm.

It was hard to leave but mates is mates and one dying of 'poison ivy ' or 'something that might have bit me' or 'the Velcro strap on the AT Pro' or 'scurvy' or ' arm flu' needs attention so I took him to a chemist. Where surprisingly he was not put down but emerged with a tube of savalon.

We arrived home, being gone only a couple of hours. Not a complete waste of a day just a tad disappointing that the old first golf tee did not show any great signs of being laden with treasure and with the overall brevity of our hunt. If anybody with better detectors and fitter mates go and have a look at the golf tee off area let me know how you got on. I think myself the area either has been previously detected or noting the composition of the soil, it is more likely been filled since the motorway came through. So a lot of research, well a little bit, high expectations and a bit of twisted iron to show. But hey tomorrow I'm free so I'll go back and finish the park and maybe spend the day in other parks in Mount Albert. Will Gareth come? It all depends on how the amputation goes.

A couple of minutes work. Before my audition for Shortland Street.

See you out there.

Orewa's Beautiful Parks

An Overcast Orewa Beach Almost at High Tide

I spent the afternoon in Orewa, 25 kms north of Auckland, a popular beach resort for both locals and visitors. I took both my Cobra Beach Magnet and I also had a friends Garrett ACE 150 on hand.

It was overcast and almost full tide (bad planning) when I arrived at the beach just after noon. I spent a while wandering up and down the fast incoming waterline with no success just a modicum of trash.

As the beach had all but disappeared I moved on to the two parks that are on the grass promenade. Pickings were much better there. I pulled $3.90 spending out of one and $1.90 out of the smaller park. Nothing much else to report, just spending. I then moved on to a sand based volley ball court but it was as barren as the beach. Not even a rusty nail.

The Orewa Beach Park No.1 

After a break for sustenance and a quiet time to enjoy the surroundings I drove into inner Orewa and found three parks. I already knew that Orewa was home to some very beautiful things and I can now number the Orewa parks among those. All three very spacious with the surrounding grass a wonderful shade of green and a lovely mixture of exotic and native trees complementing the serene atmosphere that the parks emanated.

Park whose name will be updated Soon

Murrays Eaves Park  

The parks as usual enabled me to uncover a few interesting items. A miniature pen knife surfaced which I think belonged to the owner of the small harmonica I found a few days ago. American one cents coins were in abundance,  two examples turned up in different parks. One is 1987 the other 1982 but they are not the same size.

My own two cents worth.

One being a little smaller than the other. A 5/16th's alum key was unearthed, as was an old currency one cent piece and a very cheap ring engraved with O's and X's. An oblong setting for a stone, probably an old part of a brooch, also emerged. It is very heavy for it's size and Richie reflex reckons it could be gold. I'm not to sure of that but I'll hang with that idea it till it's proved other wise.  Another $1.60 spending was also added to the haul. Two other initially bland items had cause for a second look. First was a piece of flattened metal that was once spherical, imprinted with a design that looks like Asian symbols, I seem to remember I had a toy cowboy pistol in my youth with similar designs running up the length of the barrel. So part of a toy gun?

The Triadic Symbol As Yet Undeciphered.

Another, as yet unrecognised, item is some sort of nozzle. It is hard rubber with a metal spout. When cleaning it a small round gauze fell out of it which makes me think it is part of a filter for a boat engine or such like.
A complete chain link and a couple of tent pegs made up the day's take.
I used a Garrett ACE 150 at a couple of the parks without head phones and the bleeping attracted a following of children. I tend not to dig to far down into the bark but the kids were keen and at one stage I had three excavations going on as the young ones enthusiastically carried on digging after I had moved on. Ten year old Chloe uncovered a ten cent and the whole day was worth the look on her face as she proudly displayed her treasure to her Mum and older brothers.
All the finds have been professionally photographed with my new camera but typically I have mislaid the download USB cable so cannot throw the pictures up yet but will do ASAP.

The days all sorts

So at 5.30pm as the sun rapidly disappeared I meandered home, another enjoyable hunt under my belt. A range of interesting finds and $7.40 spending.

See you out there!

Out with a buddy today.

My mate Darren arrived this afternoon with his ACE150, his camera and was keen for a hunt. The welcomed rain of the morning had dissipated and blue sky was slowly nudging out the clouds making for a hot muggy atmosphere. After taking pictures of the results of my last two adventures, I found I was still unable to upload them as Darren had forgotten the USB cord to download them!! Still they are being e-mailled to me tonight.

We set off at about 2.30pm and grabbed a nice coffee on the way then started our adventure at the southern end of Maraetai beach. It was new ground and it was heading for low tide opening up the beach. It was still very warm but strangely the beach was almost empty. We spotted a fellow detectorist working around the wharf and I wondered if he was picking up much that I had missed during my previous visits. Off we set, I trolled the wet and Darren stayed up in the dry. After an hour all we had was a single 20 cent to our names. Lot's of nails, tent pegs and other fugleys were in abundance though. So we headed towards the wharf again, the third time in 36 hours for me. The other guy had gone and I thought the area would be completely cleaned out now. But I was wrong, as once again it again proved much more fruitful than the rest of the beach had been. I immediately picked up a dollar coin and that was followed a bunch of twenty cents with a couple of 50 and 10 cents. Most coins were heavily encrusted signifying they had been laying around for a while even though I and others had done this area to death! The trash was negligible as I think I have removed most of it already this week.

Is the Maraetai wharf magnetic?

My other finds included a nice silver fishing lure, a 'Grim Reaper', with a three pointed hook still attached, a  lead sleeve for connecting electrical wires, another handy screw thingy from a boat and a disc that could be the base of a bullet of some kind or something quite completely different. It has the letters DEKS PAT APR printed on one side. (After googling those letters it seems the disc is from a plumbing and roofing supply company and is probably the head of a nail of some sort). Of course, tent pegs proliferated. 

Darren's ACE150 ran out of battery power and we decided to head home at about 5pm. Once home, Darren took a few more pictures of today's haul to be sent on to me later before he hit the road home.

My accumulation of spending for the day was $2.90 all but 20 cents from the wharf area. Tomorrow I think I will hit a different beach or a few parks and give the wharf area a well earned rest. Maybe Gareth and Dave will arrive to go gold panning.

See you out there.

Kaipara harbours gold and coins.

 

Shelley Beach in a heat haze. 

During the lads after work drinks the discussion inevitably found it's way to metal detecting. The fever kicked in or did it ever leave? Shelley Beach was mentioned and a quick check on the tides meant we could be there for low tide at 11.30pm. I cooked up a quick feed, sweet and sour prawns with a bit of spice to hopefully get the boys sweating. The meal disappointingly wasn't that hot but outside, even at our set off time of 8.30pm, it was still very warm.

It is a 40 km trip out to Shelley Beach and after a gas stop we arrived about an hour later.  A few camper vans were parked up for the night, a few pale faces peeking out to see the magnificent three don their headlights, tune their sticks and disappear seawards into the night. Otherwise the beach area was empty.



A reasonable sized bark playground was spotted at the southern end of the beach, you could hear it calling softly, "Don't forget me". We won't, seductive young park. 

Ritchies first ring and of course the silver

earring he found that day in the park.



Shelley beach is on the Kaipara Harbour, the biggest and muddiest harbour in the world. Though having white shelled sand at the top end of the beach it soon turns to mud the closer one gets to the low tide mark. As usual I headed for that very wet sand while Garfy patrolled the dry. Ritchie hit the barked playground first, conveniently placed on the reserve just for him and the yelling I heard soon after was Ritchie first ever ring. Picture soon. See above left.

I too had success with my first dig. A jewelled crucifix on a chain with another pendant that later was determined could be gold.

Cross my Heart you beauty



I'll let you know. 



I then dug up a succession of washers, brass bits of boats, bolts, and the fugly iron lumps that could be anything. The mud was everywhere and my thought to wear gumboots was a good one. I might have ruined a tee shirt and some shorts though. That mud stinks.

My next find worth keeping was my last. I hit the playground looking for my 'Go Home' coin and managed a single dollar, my solitary coin of the night.

I certainly hope my Cobra Beach Magnet is waterproof as I definitely gave it a good test out there.



A Token effort

Gareth it turned out had a cool find too. Well, two cool finds actually. Both the same. They were both shiny nickle tokens from Abberfield Industries. On further investigation I found the company provides 'Innovative solutions for revenue collecting equipment'. Based in NSW, Australia they have been in business for 47 years and they mint personalised tokens for companies for use in parking meters, vending machines and the like. There are three designs all different sizes for the full set of generic tokens. Outside of that there are a myriad of tokens the company has produced for others that look quite collectable. Cool huh. 

Getting in on the Jewellery act Garfy managed to release a stainless steel pendant with a snazzy design from it's sandy prison. About inch and 'arf and quite heavy. The design look's like a Sonny Bill Williams tattoo, so lucky for Gareth that he found it before the twelth hour otherwise it might have been beaten flat.

Once owned by Bruce Lee

Well done that man. 

 

Richard meanwhile was coining it. His loaned Garrett Ace150 was the coin devourer of the night. He ended up with $6.80 plus the ring and a few old decimals. A happy lad.





We wound up at just after 1am and after washing ourselves and equipment down with a handily placed water hose we wendled our way home. Ritchie hit the sack but Garfy and I sat with a coffee to muse over the evenings events with our sore bleary old eyes trying valiantly to find a hall mark on my pendant and doing so, faint numbers!! At 2.15 it was 'Rose gold' and at 2.30am it was  'Russian Gold'. Hmmmm.



This morning though the numbers we saw through wearied eyes, were looked at through a huge magnifying glass and are indeed just scratches that mean SFA and it is not my first gold. But a nice find none the less. And of course the sparkly bits of the crucifix might be diamonds :). Not.



So another great night time adventure and Ritchie's first ring. Yet to find what type, it was gold and covered in jewels but is it the real thing. We will have another look when he comes over after work. Gareth has already called in and wants an afternoon sortie to somewhere yet unknown.

See you out there.



Afternoon in Helensville

Garfy and I headed Helensville way and after a business meeting and a dodgy pie each we hit the park behind the library. We spent a couple of hours griding the park with some success. Gareth homed in to find two old decimal coins in his first two digs and I managed five coins in the first half hour. It seems this park has well established as some of the targets were a good 6 inches under the bark. There was a lot of scrap once more nails and screws making up the majority. I had the thought that perhaps the company that supplies the bark does not vet it's product for nails which is not that child friendly.

I plucked a $2 and a few more 10 cents before I found my find of the day. Right next to a plant that was obviously struggling with the drought I uncovered a foreign coin. At first I thought it was an Irish Euro as the dirt covered design looked like a harp. On cleaning it further I discovered it was a Malaysian $1 from 1990. No value but a cool find.

A ringgit. Which reminded me to call my mate.

A Harp not.





School was out and the children arrived to enjoy the equipment so we departed and went for a drive to the local museum. It was shut. Garthy then bought some more op shop tee shirts for work and picked up several really stylish ones. Lol.

We then checked out visually the Helensville Train Station. Been here since before trains and maybe worth a look at in the future.

We drove around Helensville and also checked out the showgrounds where the A & P show was held last weekend. The gate was padlocked so a mental note was made to ask for permission to detect the area maybe closer to winter. We then cruised around by the Helensville Rugby Club and across the fields spied another bark playground. Off we went and although it looked like it had just been rebarked there were signals galore. The finds except for one 20 cent were deep, well under the new bark and mostly four or five inches in to the old manky bark. I found 3 x old 5 cent pieces and two 20 cents spending. Lots of nails again. I also found a little charm of a bird in red enamel but just a cheap trinket. So after an hour we headed home. Tiring this MD-ing.

Days rewards were $3.70 for me plus a few old decimals and my ringgit. Gareth found 7 old decimal and $2.40 spending.

Proof our cricketers are rubbish.

Before ordering our fish supper, Ritchie and I on impulse, did a quick hour search of the cricket net area at Huapai Domain. First I must comment on the amount of surface rubbish spread right across the domain. It was disgusting. Whole areas were littered with empty drink bottles, plastic bags and food wrappers. Sad in this day we still have people who don't give a fuck about the environment, sadder still is that it was all left by the cricketing fraternity, outdoor type people who should know better. Huapai Cricket Club should address this as it reflects badly on their club. It is great to build new club rooms but who wants to look out the new windows on to a West Auckland Soweto.
Maybe the club and the council could get together and scatter a few more rubbish bins throughout the domain?
Rant over.
As for our detecting we found little, a tent peg, a plethora of nails. bottle tops and pull tabs. So we left there empty handed. But as our motto is we can't go home without at least one coin we did a quick run over the local playground.
Luckily for those waiting at home for their tea Ritchie pulled out a 10 cent and we were free to return home to feed them indoors.

See you out there.