Thanks for the advice keith, really appreciate it!
So, for next time I might change my spot (Goldsborough is a bit far from where I live but I might have to make some excuse to the wife 
); and make sure that I am digging down enough.
Good advice re the historic areas - I kinda thought that it was a gold area so a plus - but a known one so maybe done over. And apparently it was never great.
You may well know where I am - up north on the Coast. Further north than you (I think!)
Oh yeah I meant to clarify: Is ironsand usual with gold? Do you ever get gold without ironsand?
Cheers!
ironsands , blacksands, white silicon sands. gold and others can all be found together gold also by its self. red sand are very small garnets .
send me a personal message i maybe able to help you with location
Iron sand is heaveyish & so sort of hangs out & deposits in the same places as gold. Some creeks aren’t renowned for a lot of iron sand. Unlike here in Queenstown & the likes of the Shotover & Arrow rivers that are over loaded with the stuff. Flood gold, finer flakes & specks, usually gets replenished to a degree after a good flood of which the west coast rivers are prone to. So even the known gold creeks that have been thrashed over the years should get a bit of flood gold redeposited. You just got to be Johnny on the spot after a flood.
Look on the inside bends & the downstream side of larger rocks & boulders. You should notice little deposits of material & hopefully black sands in behind those rocks & boulders. Leaver them out of the way or man handle them from their resting spot & pan the material from under & around them.
JW 
OK thanks very much! I really appreciate the info.
Looking forward to getting back into it now 
Hey BarleyBender cant add much to the previous posts. But I can try 
I had never been gold panning before so there is probably any number of things that I didn’t do right!
Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it!
This is genius:
if you haven’t panned much before practice with some lead shot - you can do that at home
Here I was actually thinking I need to buy some gold, put it in river gravel, and see if I can pan it out again ha ha!
classify as you learn to pan
Do you mean, like, identify the rock classifications (types) as I see them in the pan; or use a 10mm classifying seive? (or both!)
Hi there Mr Barley Bender.
Your post reminds me of my early days panning over 20 years ago. Usually I tell no one nothing/no-how/never/but I shall relent this once and share. 1. If you want to learn how to swim, get in the damn water. Doggy paddle (oops, apologies to sensitive folk; no doggies were harmed in any way in the writing of this post except maybe their feelings for which I will pay reparations for the rest of the life of the planet) here there and everywhere.
I too think I know the crick you are in, or at least similar in design. and 2. you probably drove over countless cricks with yella in em on da way there. 3. Climb the banks on both side and grab samples in bags and go test. 4. What-cha doing it for? Monies/fame/ fortune. If-in it be dinero ya want ya need to start your journey at home on NZ claims map. Find a place not claimed (or get permission) and go at it. 5. With practice you can do a pan in less than a minute (black plastic); you don’t need to pan it right down just enough to get a clean sample. Practice. The lead shot is a good idea and you could try flattening it with a hammer to more closely resemble gold or even better keep hitting it until it breaks up and add that to a pan of gravel. 6. The heavier/harder the pack (ground you are working in) the better the odds. Light gravel even with big rocks in it is less likely to hold gold unless its way down. Again, how much work do you want to do. I never believe people who say I would be happy with a speck. Everybody wants to win the lottery; but a person of intellect knows the odds and buys a ticket with a realistic idea of the odds.
7. Know thyself. If-in you a lazy sod who prefers the beer to the sweat dat bin what you get. however; if-in you “love"the adventure as much as the “get” gitting it may be for you. Here is a self test. Walk along a beach/ river bank/ etc and watch what you do; yes, observe yourself. Kinda like know you simply can’t resist a blonde or chocolate, know thyself. If, as you walk you thrill at the sight of interesting"stuff” then finding the yellow may be for you. Sure I know folk far more interested in gitting drunk (who are successful) than seeking that wonderful feeling of finding things for yourself (a feeling foreign to the dummies)It is pure joy to create things that you and you alone created whether it is an engine or a poem. That same joy is found in studying a flower closely and letting you eyes wander a crick imagining the passage of time and events from glaciers to flood to mining activities long ere faded into the mists if time.
8. Think outside the box. Gold price is up, people everywhere become protective of their spots, claimed or not so you will have to do the hard yards if you want success and even then you may not succeed But any honest effort is a reward in itself. Plenty of people cheat. I have had people charm me/ follow me/ wait till I sleep or am away for supplies to jump my spot / attack me/ rob me/ threaten me/ vandalize my property etc. (those people will never know joy for their hearts are made of stone and their women and even worse) .
9. Remember the laws, trespass/ health and safety an so on, as they are will only get worse; The greenies (self important sewage pond monsters) want to stop anyone doing anything, especially looking at a river or breathing,eating etc.
10. This mission, if you choose to except it will self detonate in …
yeah buying some gold would work But I would go with a cheap equivalent to start with, in case of loss.
Sorry by classification, I meant use a classifying sieve. Ideally one that fits nicely into your pan. Basically getting rid of larger rocks is very helpful when you start learning. Why that matters is it helps with the specific gravity differential of gold to “not gold” which is what panning etc. works by. Basically that means when whats in the pan is all a similar size, then the gold will be heavier goes to the bottom when you suspend the material.
Ivanelmango has an important point here to remember. Its harder to find a gold partner than a good wife/husband/etc. Who hasn’t trusted someone only to be taken advantage off, be ripped off, find they are lazy, cleaned out the spot you showed them, or worse etc. From reading others posts, I dont think this is just me just being paranoid lol.
Thanks for the advice and words of wisdom. There is a lot for me to think about!
And I think that the best thing I can do is keeplooking and keep trying.
Especially interesting about people being out and about in their spots and gold price being higher, the bush tracks round here never seem particularly busy but there is probably a lot more going on than I would know about.
I am now on the lookout for a classifier. Cheers!
Hi BarleyBender;
Re: classifiers,
Um, what are they for? I have bought all sorts of classifiers and struggle to find their purpose. I am probably doing something wrong. I watch guys in the Arrow classify put result in a bucket and put everything down a sluice and then pan it out. it takes longer than a day on Jupiter. (10 hours). Meanwhile I have done 50 pans and have an ice cream container with concentrates to play with at home on cold winters days. Everyone has there style though.
However to combine my last reply and this one… How I pan (with a steel pan). I use a shovel that I can dig with, usually a long handled shovel (but I had great use from a $20 short handle), not the sort that one would move gravel about, that is more designed to load a concrete mixer. I would load my large steel pan with three or four shovel loads rocks as large as a mans fist included. I would carry this down to the river, fully plunge the pan and slowly-slowly! begin to shake,twist and rock and roll… the idea is to make the heavies sink, and then I would simply drag off all the larger material and repeat. One constantly looks at the bottom of the pan as one swirls the material. If you have gold it will quickly become obvious. With vast quantities of black sands (here I mean a large two handed amount or above) you should still see specks of gold, if it is there.
At this stage slow down and access your time versus the amount you clean. I find it best to simply put the concentrates into another container and take it home. Over time, you get good enough to take home less than a kilo of concentrates after a full day of panning (a full day is 5 to six hours of actual panning in one spot and several hours of getting there and away again).
Like everything some days are good and others not so good.
Using plastic pans is a little different because you need to be a little more careful, you cannot load them up as much, they do break, though rare. The darn things have a tendency to float or be blown away with the wind if left unattended for even a few seconds. I have lost a pan this way and found one too.
As to where to get gold, well there is this crick I know loaded with gold and little pickers. Go to town (X) follow road (Y), get to point (Q), open beer bottle, a nice big slurp, drive into (Q) open door reach down for the gold and load foot-well with all the nuggets. Drink more beer, go to pub, tell everyone how wonderful you are. Yes, I do have a grudge against drunks.
Or, quietly, so quietly that even sleeping dogs hear you not, shoulder thou pack and as the frost crackles, fog like, softly cross the land until you reach your spot. Using your ears and eyes make sure you are alone and commence your search. If DoC workers, farmers, fisherman, hikers, drones appear, put on your invisibility cloak and wait until the coast is clear.
It is a very sad fact that the romance of the gold rush days is 99% bullshit. It was and still is a cutthroat business.I have read of only one time in history where one could leave things in a spot and it would be safe and that was the first prospectors if 1848 in California. By 1849 claim jumping and theft was common. In New Zealand fights were as common as sand-flies. Sadly very few have the courage to prospect alone with fortitude risking life and disappointment to seek ones fortune. New Zealand’s history books are full of lone prospectors who were followed by the mobs who are too lazy and stupid to do anything for themselves. This is why secrecy is important. It is also why there is such a thing as copyright.
It is up to you as to your ability to handle risk. However as always there are rules.
I know a few spots where you could go to get reasonable color (though not enough to travel far, for I would be writing this from there) in most parts of the country. But I have always found it worthwhile to make the effort.
Chin up amigo, the days lengthen, there IS!!! still gold in the hills waiting for you. get at em.
Maybe try the clay bankn and moss and weed there? Lance
More great stuff here. I really appreciate the advice, it helps know end. Not second guessing myself all the time.
I am looking forward to finding my first speck! 
Do you reckon it might be worth a poke around under the mossy rocks?
Mate, you’re here on the coast. Gold is everywhere. Chances are you will find a spec or two in the drain outside your front gate.
Bloody hell, looks like some earthworks out the front are in order!
Go up the Buller Gorge. At Hawkes Craig you will see a gravel beach which ends just by the parking area. Scramble down the bank and bush a bit further up. Walk up to the top of the beach where it comes out from the gorgy bit, Dig on the right hand side, where there is a small overflow. Behind the large rocks or tree debris. The gold is in the top layer, no need to dig to china. Its only flood gold but plenty of it.
Cheers Trev aka “The Hatter”
Take Trevs advice and go up the Buller. I ve not been there but been told there’s plenty of finer stuff there.