Hi guys. Over the Christmas Break we had some friends of ours down visiting us in Queenstown from our old haunt of Waihi Beach at the base of the Coromandel. My mate had hit a few public areas on their travel down the West Coast & got skunked. I took him to one of my detecting areas where I gave him the GPX 6000 to use while I swung the GPZ 7000. I liked his chances of getting something as the 6000 is pretty deadly but unfortunately he came up empty handed. I managed two small bits with the GPZ 7000. The first bit was with the 15" Russian made Concentric X coil & then I swapped over to the 12 x 8 X coil & snagged one with that.
My mate wasn’t having much luck on the gold. The next day my wife & I took our friends on a bit of a day trip up in to the hills. We chucked in a couple of detectors. The GPX 6000 & the Gold Monster just incase we got close to some old workings. Packed a lunch & thermos & headed off. Towards the end of the day we did get to some old workings that I had detected years back with my GP 3000 & got nothing. So I wasn’t really liking our chances, But hey, what the heck. Again I gave my mate the 6000 while I used the gold monster. We hit some old workings that I hadn’t detected before & we weren’t doing any good. There were signs of old detector digs & there wasn’t any bedrock that I was looking for for the gold monster. There was heaps of rubbish & old sluice pipes & rusty scale off those.
I bailed & went to the old workings that I had hit years back with the GP 3000 as I knew the ground there was a bit more shallow & there was bedrock. I was about an hour into it when I got on to a few small bits. I saw my wife approaching & knew she was going to make noises about heading off as it was getting late & we had a bit of a knarly track to head up to get out of there. She wanted a bit of day light up our sleeves incase things turned to custard.
When I told her I had found a few bits & was just digging another when she got to me she gave me half an hour more. At this point my mate saw the writing on the wall & was heading over. My wife yelled out to him to come over, as I had found a few bit, & I liked his chances of getting something a bit deeper with the 6000. He didn’t, & with that we left.
The 8 bits I managed to get.
I had got those 8 in about 20 minutes & liked my chances that there was going to be more there. So I went back the following weekend with plans to stay for the weekend. The weather was supposed to be alright but on getting back up there late on the friday afternoon it was anything but. White out, raining & quite miserable.
I detected for a few hours with the gold monster before calling it quits for the night & hunkered down. I had managed a few bits & hoped the weather came right the next day as per forecast. Well that night the wind came up & it pissed down. Bugger. In the morning the wind had gone but still white out & drizzling. I covered the detectors with plastic bags & got stuck into it. I used both the 6000 & gold monster but didn’t last more than a couple of hours before deciding to flag it & get the hell out of there.
I managed about 21 bits all up before calling it quits & was gone by 10am.
The drive out.
The following weekend the weather was supposed to be fine all weekend. In fact it was forecast to be -1 at 7pm saturday morning. 
WTF.
So off I go again & get there late arvo on the friday. Again it was white out & drizzling. No way!!!
I had a quick detect with the GPX 6000 & managed a few bits before calling it quits for the night. Next morning was crystal clear blue sky. Not a cloud & a bloody frost. Who would have thought. Frozen windscreen & bonnet in January. At least the forecast had been right. Became a mint day & the gold came in at a steady rate. Using both the GPX 6000 & Gold Monster to mop up the crumbs. 53 pieces for over 10 grams for the Saturday.
Sunday dawned another cloudless blue sky day. If there was a frost that morning I missed it as the sun was well up when I woke. Getting stuck into it after a coffee & breakfast of sausages, eggs & baked beans. This day I used the GPZ 7000 with 15" coil & the Gold Monster. I went back over the ground I had covered the day before to see if the 7000 & 15" coil got more depth than the GPX 6000. I kinda knew it would & I wasn’t disappointed. It amazes the depth the 7000 & that 15" coil gets fairly small gold. I was of course hoping it would get bigger deeper if it was there. The biggest was 1.45 grams that the 6000 didn’t get. The bonus of that extra depth was that with the gold monster there was often more tiny bits once down in the clay at depth. So the smaller bits were got with the GM.
Sundays haul in 57 pieces.
A total of 16.8 grams for the weekend. Over half an ounce & still more detecting to do.
So back there again Saturday just gone. My wife came with me & made noises about doing some detecting herself. Gosh, that hasn’t happened for many years. We got there just on midday. I set her up with the 6000 & put her on some ground I hadn’t detected yet. Bloody hell. In 5 seconds she had a signal & her first bit of gold. This was followed with a second bit but quite a bit later. She managed the two bits & called it quits at that.
I used the 7000 with the 15" coil & the GM & managed 21 bits for 5.82 grams.
The area has just about played out now I would say but it was fun while it lasted.
Big country up there
Best of luck out there.
JW 
