dig4gold

The weather in NZ can be very fickle with 4 seasons in one day. It kind of gets more settled down in Central Otago where you are heading. The West Coast of the south island has the wettest weather in the country. Coming in from the Tasman sea & held up by the Southern Alps. It just drowns the West Coast. D4G

GEOGRAPHY THE POWER OF TAUPO Lake Taupo lies in the caldera of an active supervolcano, the site of the world’s most violent eruption of the last 70,000 years. Just 10 km beneath it sits another lake of molten rock 50 km wide and 160 km long. With a growing need for alternative energy sources, plans for tapping this latent reservoir are hotting up. Why would you consider it a minor eruption? It wasn't too minor from what I have read about it. You only have to see the size of the lake. Which you have. According to geological records, the volcano has erupted 29 times in the last 30,000 years with 25 of those in the last 12 thousand years . They reckon it last erupted about 250 CE, that is around 2 thousand years ago. Did you consider Mt St Helens a minor eruption? Would NZ survive if Lake Taupō erupted? This is what they say. For NZ, especially the North Island, if it's a real big supervolcano eruption, everybody dies (TM), to a first approximation. It could also seriously affect the climate of the whole earth. Well depending on the wind direction, the very least the east coast would be covered in ash, and lots of it. I could go on but I think I have made my point, that is it wasn't a minor eruption. D4G

A few more photos of the Aurora Lights viewed over the weekend from various places around the Queenstown area. Very spectacular. I believe Mitchel is heading for Queenstown. D4g

Hi Mitchel. Were you aware that Lake Taupo fills the caldera of of the Taupo volcano. That being a volcano that has collapsed into itself, often filling with water to form a lake. As in this case. Believed to have erupted 2000 odd years ago. A super volcano. Now that you have been there & seen the size of the lake, you can but imagine how that eruption must have been. I hope the weather is clear for you as you travel on from Taupo heading south up on the volcanic plateau & along the desert road past the three volcanoes. Mt Ruapehu, Mt Tongariro & Mt Ngauruhoe. Still classified as active. Don't forget to stay on the right side of the road. In our case that is on the left. 😉 D4G

Why do you call it a wire? It is a cord. As Nenad has said, you need to lock the bungee cord into the grove. You pull down on the cord to achieve the right height of your detector off the ground & then while holding the weight on the cord horizontally pull the cord away from your body & up & it will lock into that wedge shaped groove & you are good to go. D4G

How come no photos? D4G

Or reduce their price. D4G

Maybe because there was/is lots of gold there. Goes without saying I reckon. D4g

That's interesting. I don't recall any posts you have made of gold you have found from where they are prospecting. https://www.santanaminerals.com/bendigo-ophir-new-zealand D4G

Hi Mitchel, what made you go to Waihi? A good walk for you & family would be the "Windows" walk in the Karangahake gorge. Site of the 3rd richest hard rock gold mine in NZ back in its day. The Talisman, which has activity going on today. The Martha mine was the richest followed by the Blackwater mine in the south island at Waiuta. The Birthday reef was a late discovery in 1906 & was found on King George's birthday. Hence the "Birthday" reef. It closed in 1951 due to the shaft collapsing. Today an Australian company has driven a low level tunnel & have very recently hit the Birthday reef way below the extent of the old workings. Looks like happy days ahead. The Blackwater mine had the deepest shaft in NZ. Sorry I can't recall the depth off the top of my head. Do a google search on Waiuta. Could be worth a trip up to the old ghost town. Very interesting. D4G

The Martha Mine in Waihi. Yep, still mining there. D4G

Some nice stuff there for sure. D4G

No, but there were other peoples lives involved in this last incident. It didn't need to happen. D4G

That's the way I see it. He knew what he was doing & must have known what the result would be. I reckon you guys got off lightly. Makes for a good story though. D4G

Jacob can take full responsibility for starting that s#it fight. Not fair on the rest of you. What was he thinking?? D4G

Exactly.... like large gold at depth..... Sounds like a win to me. You might find you will not fill your pockets with so many lead pellets either. If you don't search for large deep nuggets you are never going to find them. D4G

Agree totally with that. A 3000 was listed on our online auction site for NZ$800 & got passed in but it did sell so a deal must have been struck. I was very tempted myself. If your spot is virgin ground you are very lucky & a 7000 would be a killer. Even with the standard 14x13 coil. Whack on a 15" cc X coil & you just might be blown away from what I have heard about them. D4G

That is a very generous offer from DrillerDave. I reckon you should take him with you. D4G

So are you saying you bought one & have never used it? You might be surprised if you hook it up to your Algoforce. I have found deep gold with my one & it wasn't too shabby on smaller shallow bits either. D4G

I would have to wonder with using an older model ML PI or GPZ 7000 that the bigger deeper gold you are looking for has not already been found with them back in there day. Hence the GPX 6000 mopping up the crumbs these days. A very high chance that any ground you go over has already seen many a coil over it. The gold doesn't tend to grow back. D4G

Just weighed my ML 14x13 & it is 1239 grams. That is just the coil with skid plate & curly cable. D4G

Yes, absolutely. Hence going in with the drone. You can't zoom in as much as you could do on Google Earth without it losing a sharp focus. D4G

That's a tease showing a recreated photo of gold found years ago. D4G

When weren't they worth collecting? No catch & release on my watch. Gold in NZ NZ$3,822.00 D4G

Quite the opposite here in New Zealand. I have found that moisture in the ground enhances depth & sensitivity in our mild ground. D4G