Hey Team Paydirt. I’m heading over to the West Coast for a couple of days work. I see there is a couple of fossicking sites not far from Greymouth where i’m working and Reefton area i’ll drive through going there and back.
Could I have some advice on what area would be best to head to for 2-3 hrs while i’m there? I only have 2 wheel drive so easy access would be favorable.
Have a sluice but would be happy just to take a pan to have a play
Appreciate your help in advice
All the public fossicking areas are reachable via 2 wheel drive. So no problems there.
Here’s the full list:
Nearest on is Slab Hut Creek:
Best of luck out there 
Just after going over the hill south side of Reefton Saddle go round right hander at bottom of hill, couple hundred mtrs from there on the left is a parking area. Park, get out an cross the road, through the scrub an blackberry then into the creek, pan to the left. Bedrock an bits of yellow stuff.
because this is not a public area don’t get caught unless you want to pay a $20000 fine and loss of car and all your gear. another km down the road is public area slab hut creek. always get gold there.
That’s awesome guys, thanks a lot for the replies.
This will sound silly but how do you know you’re at the right place for the suggestions above? I’ve only panned at a claim before so was told exactly where I could and couldn’t go
Normally there is signage but you can also work it out by looking at the maps provided. I use an app called ViewRanger with the Linz topographic maps, it’s $11.99/year. Put a mark at the top and bottom of the fossicking area and then use gps to stay within them.
Ah nice, that sounds like me. Don’t want to stir up the locals by panning the wrong place
Will the gps on phone work even when out of range?
Slab hut is really obvious mate no GPS needed, on the way back close to Reefton it’s signed on the right and just a decent track to the camping and fossicking area. Goldsborough is only half hour south of greymouth for an after work mission and again really easy to find. I was there a few weeks ago and there is colour to be had there just take a decent shovel not a kids trowel! It’s like a mini rush there and a bit weird I got lost coming back out of the creek and came across a creepy tent and camp in the trees which explains who had been mining the crap out of the river. Lots of people staying for weeks, lots of pensioners getting half a gram a day with waders on, classic.
Look on the paydirt permit map and select fossicking areas on the drop down box and you can see in red the bits you can go for. Good luck.
Great, cheers for that. Coasters trying to duplicate the nugget found a while back eh.
I’m in Blenheim and a good couple of hours from a fossicking site so I wanna get a couple of hours in each day. Looking forward to it.
Thanks for your help fellas
Yep, you just choose a section of map to store offline and then you can access with gps, no internet required.
Got it, cheers bud. Had a play with it today
What about if you went to river that had previously been worked that wasn’t under claim and was crown land and used hand tools? Would that be still wrong?
Yep, you’re not allowed… to get caught. Has to be one of the public fossicking areas.