I dont know if I will carry this on far but a starter - I began gold mining or fossicking rather as an 11 year old - back then you could carry a rifle from one end of a city to the other after buying it at a gun shop and no one would blink an eye, you could shoot any where AND you could fossick for gold any where. Any way all you dumb peasants out there have allowed the government to take those rights away, paranoia means that if you do what you did fifty years ago you get shot by the Gestapo under the pseudonym âArmed Offendersâ for carrying a rifle from gun shop to car AND the Mini Himmlers who control DOC (Department of Constipation) take you to court for digging up a tin can on a DOC reserve or panning for gold outside one of the 18 or so designated fossicking areasâŚin other words welcome to prisonâŚOops welcome to âDemocracy within a dictatorshipâ the land of the Elite.
Once upon a time New Zealand was actually a democracy and within the rules of that democracy you COULD go get a miners right for a few bob - Shillings) from the PO (nothing to do with urinating - it means Post Office) and go pan or fossick for gold ANYWHERE on state owned land.
New Zealand was a pioneer country but today its far from it as Elitists take control and your rights are eroded. Well as a young fellow I dove across a paddock one day to the site of a Copper mine - the ore was Chalcopyrite - For anyone mad enough to read the following then I draw their attention to this report which is tedious, boring and very dull - http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00288306.1979.10422552
This is the mine to which I drove my 4WD - a battered and beaten up Landrover. The year was 1970. I fell in love with it - there was nothing there but I still fell in love with it. Over the courses of a couple of visits I did find a couple of huge copper ore boulders part of one of which I still have.
To those of you who want to have their own claim now days then weep and be pissed off because back then there was no red tape, no bureaucratic white collar aresholes new out of university who wallowed in sanctimonious self righteousness and no political puppets who served their banker masters to the detriment of us good old kiwis. In other words if you wanted a claim then it was âcut and driedâ and as good as yours.
I decided to claim this copper mine and so I set the wheels in motion. There was no need to consult âDepartment of mInesâ nor a high faulting lawyer. I just got a claim form, filled it out, and made a few assurances that I was not going to blow the province to purgatory. detailed my methods of working and operations and a few other simple technicalities and submitted the form to the âWardens Courtâ which in those days sat in I think Cromwell. No one represented me and I did not attend. The fee was bugger all and the whole thing cut and dried and next thing I know is that I am the proud claim holder of the Waitahuna Copper Mine.
The first thing I purchased was a case of gelignite and in those days you just went and bought it - no licence - no nothing. I then went up to the mine and took malicious delight between bottles of beer in throwing sticks of gelignite down the old water filled shaft and creating fair facsimiles of Pohutu Geyser. It was all in good fun.
Now days you younger ones cant do that. Your freedoms gone and if you want a claim then it costs an arm, a leg and possibly your partners virginity.
The rock illustrated is the last piece and the biggest piece I have of the Copper ore from the Waitahuna Copper mine
This ore is a combination of Copper - iron - sulphur with traces of gold and silver and is one of a number of interesting mineral samples I have from Otago, the rest to be shown here when the affects of the gin wear off!
Lammerlaw how dear you refer to me as a pheasant, I will have you know I am a Feral Inbreed. I was branded as that by none other than Auntie Helen Clark, when NZ had the misfortune to have her as PM.
She was asked by a reporter, " What are you going to do about those West Coasters who are stirring things up.Her reply. " Why nothing, they are just a pack of Feral Inbreeds. I asked my Mum and Dad, what she meant by that. Dad just said, it means you come from good stock Son. Stock, I said, " Dad does that mean my mother is a cow. Well she can be at times, said Dad, and at other times she can be a bit of a goat. Now my pretend Mum, cause she must have been, was a really lovely person. Well then Dad I asked, how come I havenât got horns. You will get one later said Dad, you are a bit young for one yet. I asked Dad lots more questions, but he went all sheepish on me, which confused matters even more. So I gave up. But Auntie Helen was onto it.
Feral inbreeds are realists and sure in hell are not elitists. I met Auntie Helen once and she actually spoke to me. At the same time about ten jokers who all looked similar, a bit like Men in Black sort of, gave me the evil eye as though I was about to do somethingâŚmaybe they thought I had desires!
In any case I used to live over the West Coast once when I worked for NZFS - loved it and went back for a nostalgia beer a while ago but the sods who own the pub must have long memories and saw me coming because the pub was closed and I think the district had gone dry - the pub was the Heatherbell and the place Totara Flat.
Now kiwigold you need a spelling lesson so note well
Dear - that is the cow or goat that you are married to
Dare is the spelling of the word you say when you say "How dare you"
Deer - its an animal that you can shoot shit out of if you see it unless it is in a farmers paddock with a high fence in which case you can still shoot shit out of it but you might get into trouble but only if you are caught. Its also a bloody good tractor as in John Deer though judging by the name of said tractor I have no ideer if you can or cannot shoot shit out of it as well though if you can shoot shit out of Sika deer, Red deer, whitetail deer etc then I can only assume that you can also shoot shit out of John deer!
These simple minded West Coasters have their generalisations all mixed up.
You Stoners burn through all your winter stores of Puha once the sun shines again.
Donât listen to any of these common folk - itâs the holidays and they are ALL OFF THEIR NUT!
By the way. I want to set the record straight (for those that donât already know it) IâM CRAZY!
Being crazy is GOOD - everyone KNEW I was crazy so that they left me alone and work became a forgotten memory unless it was on my terms - in fact I am so crazy that I am going to go and sit on the beach at a place called Taputupotu Bay and catch Snapper in a week or two and just soak up the sun and forget the world exists.
Actually I have concrete evidence that all New Zealanders who are not elitists and rich dudes ARE crazy - if they werent crazy then they would see through the government and overthrow it, try the PM and his buddies for treason and put in a peoples government who cared for the people and not themselves and their rich cohorts so that old rights and privileges were restored and you could go detecting and panning, hunting, fishing and build a home without draconian conditions, rules, regulations and restrictions and little white collared mini Hitlers with Pommie accents who looked suspiciously like Himmler reincarnated or police women who ARE clones of Irma Grese (The Angel of Auschwitz) enforcing those rules.
Tell you a secret. If I spot hunters in the bush. I wait until they are drunk around their campsite then break a stick - it freaks them the heck out.
Or sometimes I scream terribly just after they have gone to sleep.
Or I do a spooky long moan from somewhere up high.
Some times I - call out maori curse chants, or get a Taonga Puoro (long flat wood on end of string) going. That makes maoriâs loose their shit.
People sober up pretty quick, sometimes they pack up
There used to be what was called âThe School of Minesâ in Dunedin. This School of Mines was the main one but there was also the âSchool of Minesâ in Thames which is in the Coromandel and there was also a âSchool of Minesâ in Reefton.
The Dunedin School of Mines had a fantastic rock and mineral collection part of which I have no doubt is now incorporated into the University of Otago Geology Department.
When a friend of my family came back from WWI (World War 1 for anyone who doesnt know) he enrolled at the Otago School of Mines. This chap was a hero of mine when I was a kid because he had a great big hand cannon which he brought back from the Western Front. It was a 'Broomhandled Mauser" - a pistol with a straight âbroomhandleâ handgrip or stock and a box magazine in front of the trigger guard. The old chap also won the MM (Thats MIlitary Medal) at Gallipoli.
As a 7 year old I used to call at his house to ask if I could play with the gun and he used to strap the holster around my waist and away I would go, waving the gun around up and down the street. His wife on at least one occasion when I was wearing it got me to go to the shop for a loaf of bread and heres me walking into the shop wearing this big automatic pistol. Mr Palmer who owned the shop would merely say âI see that your wearing Mr WâŚ's gun Graeme, you must have come to do some messages for Mrs WâŚâ and yes he was right.
Today you could not get away with this and some sanctimonious bastard would phone the Gestapo and the Armed Offenders all dressed like Darth Vader would surround me and threaten to turn me into a sieve if I didnt lie on the ground hands on head etc, Mr Palmer would get counselling at the tax payers expense, Mr W who owned the gun, despite being a hero of Gallipoli would be arrested and thrown in prison and the whole episode would make National News, all enhanced and embellished to make me out a little criminal of evil intent!
Any way back to the story. Mr W. went to this Otago School of Mines where he became a Mining Engineer. Now apparently he saw a cat out the window of the School of Mines museum and being a native bird lover with no liking whatsoever for cats he grabbed the first rock he saw went and out to destroy the cat. By the time he got there the cat had gone and so he put the rock in his pocket where it lay forgotten until he got home.
Over sixty years later he gave me the rock and it is shown here. This is a specimen gold sample from the famous South African gold mines and through all four sides of the rock a seam of gold can be seen as a band.
DO you know what ârealâ sandflies are like - I carry a Semi automatic Beretta Model 1200 12 guage short barrel riot shotgun with a magazine capacity of seven cartridges to shoot sandflies and also air condition the tent on hot days. In south Westland I use a Brand (thats the make) muzzle loading Whale Harpoon gun loaded with half a cup of blasting powder, a wad of dunny paper and two cups of 9 shot, shotgun pellets and when they run out, pebbles off the beach, false teeth, rusty nails, pieces of glass and anything that fits down the barrel to keep the mozzies and sandflies away. This latter gun is wicked - it takes out entire squadrons of sandflies, lights fires from a range of twelve feet, blasts down trees, blows open holes to bury rubbish and can even be used to shoot anything from ducks to elephants. I have even considered using it to propel the boat when the motor dies and I feel too tired to row - if its tied down to the transom and aimed to the rear and fired the boat is quite likely to go a considerable distance forward propelled by the recoil however there is the chance that if I tried that then there could be a loud bang and the transom and gun all disappear heavenward while the boat sinks under a mushroom cloud not too dissimilar to the one that rose above Hiroshima.
Prefer not as I can see no reason why you should not start a thread of your Australian finds as I had begun the thread to show material that was specifically mine - Australia - wheres that? My kids are descended from three Australian convicts!
I was past there not so long ago and want to see its museum next time - I had the chance of going there in three weeks but heading to the top of the Island to catch me some snapper but I daresay I will be on the Coromandel for a week or two before too long - just love the place.
hi lammerlaw
well that is the best laugh ive had for a long whileâŚthanks
not to sure which one you thought was me maybe the voice or was it the sheep shagger. either way I enjoyed
GREAT - when and where are we going - Goldmining? Shooting rabit rabbits? Deer hunting? Fishing for fishes? or a Sandfly killing expedition - Boy oh boy bring on the Skeeters and Mozzies
Heres my Mozzie killer - fire starter - tree chopper downer, hole blaster and potential means of propulsion for my boat - AND you can even use it for harpooning anything up to the size of a whale after all thats what it was made for - can I bring it?
And the thing is for real as this report indicates - it could also be used to demolish buildings, cars, trees, little girls dollies in prams and anything else for that matter.
once the sun shines again. 
