Hey peeps,
I’ve been looking at getting in to prospecting in wellington region, i’m fresh to this and have no idea. if anyone would be kind enough to point me in the right direction in regards to the following -
Rules/permits.
equipment were to buy and what to use.
Areas in wellington.
Anyone keen for me to tag along on a weekend.
Thanks in advance
Sam
Might be a little bit of gold left in Wellington
Don’t get caught though, you can only really mine in public fossicking areas
Thanks for this but i wont be doing something ill get in trouble for.
Isnt there any public fossicking places on the north island?
sorry sammy. none up your way. have a look at locations section at top of paydirt page and it show public areas in there.
Not a lot of places I can recommend Sammy. There are places like Donnelly’s Flat , Mount Holdsworth in the Wairarapa where tom Donnelly worked thnd in the early 1900’s where a couple of us have had a fossick without luck. I did see some old photos where he was excavating ditches so assume he was following the alluvial stuff. there have been traces in the Wairarapa and Manawatu (inland from Levin) in the 1800. I haven’t found any locally. Better to go down south.
Yep …better too jump on a plane and gold fossick in south island mate…get on the real gold!
NO.
JW 
Hi Sam, I used to live in Wellington and “walked” a few streams 
back in the day and did some research on the area. Gavzilla’s map of the “upper” kaiwharawhara is pretty cool. If I recall this area was mostly hard rock mines and is now around Zealandia? I could be wrong its a while ago since I looked. There was some small amounts of gold found in streams in a few places - like karori creek and out makara, cape terrawhiti way - but not heaps found. I have seen some crown mineral reports on that area which are interesting. However totally dodgy to head out that way now with current laws.
If you are bitten by the bug definitely worth going to some of the SI public areas to learn a bit and get some colour. Possibly easiest to reach are Lewis Creek or New Creek up by Saint Arnaud? if you are crossing using the ferry, its a couple of hours drive. PM me if you want some tips on those areas. I warn you though once bitten by the bug - thats it!
Elliot , they flooded those mines at the head of the Kaiwharawhara stream when they filled the karori reserviour
there were a dozen or more mines on Terawhiti hill and black gully ,wairiki stream,break neck stream,south makara.
I grew up in the area and know of many workings in south wellington.
Nice thats good info! Haven’t lived in the north for a few years now thankfully 
You mentioned Wairiki stream that is a nice sounding place
Gidday Elliot , the one is break neck stream
Walk up wairiki from the coast and break neck stream is off to the left about a k up from memory
There are old house sites and bits and pieces
Of concrete (from old fireplace I expect)
The last full time gold panner died there in 1957 and is intered atop outlook hill with the old station
Manager old man Waldron
there are many shafts and adits in the area .
Break neck got its name from a young prospector had a good find (gold)
Ran down to show the others tripped and broke his neck
A good book : terawhiti and the gold fields by James Brodie
Hope this helps
GL and HH
Mike
This be that book.
JW 
That be the book ! reading it at the moment on loan from the Johnson library.
Yes , that is how break neck it got its name.
There’s also a stope on the East side of Tinakori Hill (Cave with a view). As a kid, I spent an uncomfortable Winter week living in it when I ran / walked away from home.
