Getting started . new boy

Hi , not sure if i am in the right forum or not.I am curious to know where i can start looking.A bit of advice. Is it worth going to the areas that are set aside for fossicking. Would seem to me that they will be pretty busy places. Do you have to have a licence to go on doc land etc. From reading lots of comments i get the impression that one tries likely spots where you find them.,unless they are on private property or already claimed. would seem that knowing if claimed or not is not easy to check. I must say i am a late developer for this business. but i am suffering from a attack of nostalgia. there is a history of gold mining a way back in family… my father mined up the side of lake wakatipu during the depression. [late 1920s—early 1930s. kept the family of six fed … my grandfather mined in waiuta, [west coast] and up the skippers[queenstown] My efforts wont be with a pick and shovel though .[they were were hard men in those days] But i would like to try with a metal detector just to commemorate their memories. They found some gold Kept them alive… I would like to have a go… any advice would be grate fully received. Sorry for being so long winded. Regards, Old timer

Hi new boy, I am not one with a great amount of experience, however I have been to most of the public fossiking areas, of which there are 13, all in the south island, you can find out where they are from the Public Gold Fossicking Areas as shown at the top of the page under locations. follows is a little rundown of some of my experience.
Aurora river; need to be fitter than I, and 4wd is handy, I found a small amount of fines at the upriver by brown hut but the lower area was too hard for me to get down to.
Lyal; lots of sandflies but when you get up the creek ok with a sluice.
Slab Hut; wander up the river, its been flooding over winter, gold would of been washed down. a very nice place to camp, DOC camp.
Goldsborough; lots of room to fossik, not much good for metal decking, too much iron scrap left from the old miners.
12 mile delta, nice DOC camp very fine gold by the camp, walk up the river and you will do better, pan and sluice.
Gabrieals gully, I bombed out here, won’t be going back.
Franz Joseph; I found the river a bit scary to work at so only had a very quick fossik.
hope that this helps a litle bit.

Hi Barrie sorry i answered your response on my e,mail , in future i will answer on this forum.
Brian [

Good luck out there Oldtimer. Look forward to seeing some of your finds.

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thanks shady will do looking for a good patch of weather

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just got in from being for a walk behind seddonville one small nugget and a few colours I think it maybe worth a trip back

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hi new boy / oldtimer here is a place you could follow up on I was reading a book called “high country family” by betty dick all about lillybank. there is a reference to gold in the stony stream up the macaulay river. it would follow a gold line that goes all the way through to macraces flat .

Thanks kiwi i ll do a bit of research on the area and see what the accessability is like… thanks again…
regards
oldtimer

sounds good …I can feel a fever coming on

Every year flood water wash gold down. A metal detector is your best bet for finding them.
The public fossicking areas are some of the best highest gold locations (that are easy to access).

It is easy to check where claims are - don’t get caught out, you don’t even want to be near someone’s claim.

Claims:
http://data.nzpam.govt.nz/permitwebmaps?commodity=minerals
The Topo map (change at top) are a bit easier to compare with other maps.

Also make sure you’re not on anyone’s private land, you don’t want them to think you’re a deer and get shot or anything crazy (it’s bad enough with the psycho hunters shooting each other on doc land).

click the red + symbol for Topo 50 maps, then the + symbol for Property Titles and you’ll see a blue overlay show up.

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Thanks Gold pan, Sounds like very good advice . will look up areas and have a look when i get geared up. ,[ Have a great day]

Oldtimer - where aobuts are you - winters here now and I am heading for the tall timber for an undetermined amount of time - partly to get over major surgery - two hernia ops at once, brought on by lifting a safe, a 120kg gun barrel and a complete Anti Aircraft gun (I kid you not) all in one week plus boulder moving - Tioday just lifted and changed eight large 4wd tyres and over doing it so heading away for my healths sake to where I wont be tempted to do things against Doc’s orders - let me know if you travel about a bit and come near Dunedin at all…one never knows - I just might know a place for an old timer - a bit of walking, a bit of roughing and maybe pan or detect a colour or two.

Hi Lammerlaw,Good to here from you. I answered you earlier but some how was returned no destination.
Unfortunately i am living in christchurch now but most of my life was lived south of the Waitaki… thanks for your offer but i cant take advantage of it at moment,however would like to take a rain check on it.Have been scratching around on this side of the mountains up here… But still a gold virgin. Have been testing my endurance capabilities which at the moment fall abit short of requirements. However will press on… Will keep your offer in mind if i may as i do get down that way occaisionally… Had a scratch around Gabriels Gully a few months ago but found it very disappointing even from a tourist point of view let alone Gold… I can see from your e,mail why you need to get away for a few days, Thats some lifting. If you keep that up you may stuff; your body for the rest of your life. I can tell you that from experience that the older you get the more important a healthy body is…Had a back operation in 2011 , although it was successful it will never be the same again. So mate treasure your strength but treat it with respect…Sorry Lammerlaw getting a bit carried away with the advice from a stranger … Anyhow have a good break and take care …Will keep in touch if i have any luck up this way…
Regards,
Old Timer