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Lead poisoning from the Wakamarina - Don't drink water from the Wakamarina unless you want lead poisoning! :P

gavin		Posted : 12 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Administrators, Registered Joined: 20/02/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,326 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 736 times Was thanked: 535 time(s) in 287 post(s)		Just back from 4 days playing up the Waka - awesome river with great side creeks to explore. But I wouldn't recommend drinking the water with the amount of lead it contains :P I couldn't believe how many bullets, pellets and lead buck shot I was finding - just about every junk signal was lead. On the plus side - just about every lead target I dug I did find a few gold flakes loitering nearby which was nice. Took the Gold Bug Pro with me and just used the standard 5" round coil that came with it as was targeting bedrock. Found 5 wee nuggets up one creek one day before I started hitting buck shot again. They only totaled 1.3 gram all together but I was stoked. Photo uploaded - all the little flakes apart from the largest one were found alongside the lead targets. The largest flake was from a wee play at sniping having a very pleasant but cold drift down the river in my wetsuit with another guy from the forums who was there from Hawkes Bay with his go-anywhere wee friendly dog called Pen. Luckily there's still a few sections of unclaimed river to play in. Interesting to see how much equipment is stashed in the bush. Up one creek found 3 stashes within a stretch of 50 m. Seems old deep fat fryers are the choice of classifier up the Waka valley! Photos attached in case anyone recognises them ;) Don't worry - they're all still there! Had an awesome time up there and enjoyed the company of 2 others that happen to be on these forums. Always a bit more fun when there's someone to chat to and a pleasant surprise to have some company for missions up there. Edited by user 12 years ago \| Reason: Resized photos gavin attached the following image(s):
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overdog		Posted : 12 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 2/03/2010(UTC) Posts: 418 Location: nelson Thanks: 69 times Was thanked: 82 time(s) in 68 post(s)		Hi Gav-the waka is a great place isn't it? But it always staggers me how much lead is up there-then again heavies tend to settle out in the same place so gold wont be too far away from the lead. Good effort on the gold and go the bug!

gavin		Posted : 12 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Administrators, Registered Joined: 20/02/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,326 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 736 times Was thanked: 535 time(s) in 287 post(s)		Awesome place, I agree! There must be a hell of a lot of shooting going on up there. Maybe it's to keep claim jumpers in check ;)
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overdog		Posted : 12 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 2/03/2010(UTC) Posts: 418 Location: nelson Thanks: 69 times Was thanked: 82 time(s) in 68 post(s)		I find a lot of what looks like musket balls cut in half-they are lead but no idea what they were for...

Chrispy		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 31/07/2012(UTC) Posts: 314 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 82 times Was thanked: 230 time(s) in 102 post(s)		Hey Gavin cool pics mate. Are there any spots up the waka to drop in a wee sluice for a morning. Heading up to Picton at end of the month for weekend. Family stuff but hoping to sneak away for a wee fossick on Saturday morning.

Golddigger7		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 6/09/2012(UTC) Posts: 252 Thanks: 1 times Was thanked: 46 time(s) in 35 post(s)		nice pics Gav, surprised that the sluice box is still there, be gone after your posting...:)

overdog		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 2/03/2010(UTC) Posts: 418 Location: nelson Thanks: 69 times Was thanked: 82 time(s) in 68 post(s)		It better not... Ive got stuff stashed up there... @ Chrispy-Butchers flat (right at the end of the Waka road) hasn't got a claim on it-been hammered but you might get lucky.Nice place to spend a morning but be prepared for lots of Germans in campervans... Edited by user 11 years ago \| Reason: Not specified

kiwijw		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 28/03/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,152 Thanks: 92 times Was thanked: 658 time(s) in 324 post(s)		Nice finds Gavin.....but you shouldnt have mentiond or shown pics of OTHER peoples gear stached in the bush. Naughty boy. I really thought you would have learnt that from 1864Hatters post & pics of that dredge he put up & then bit by bit it went missing....Like Golddigger7 said...Be gone after your posting. Nothing surer. JW :)

trigger		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 13/02/2011(UTC) Posts: 142 Location: marlborough Thanks: 12 times Was thanked: 25 time(s) in 21 post(s)		Hi gav wakamarina is an awesome place even better when the river is in full fury very impressive . You may have seen our hole we dug over xmas depending on how deep you went in the valley got 20 feet run out of hose we were gutted we couldn't get to the bottom . Anywho hope you had a good time there visit again

simon		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 7/01/2011(UTC) Posts: 789 Location: Central Otago Thanks: 33 times Was thanked: 239 time(s) in 150 post(s)		is the sluice box gone yet? lol. nothing lasts long in the bush once it has been 'discovered' again. you just need to look as some of the old time 'settlements' to realise whole buildings and plant were removed bit by bit, for their metal content or whatever. with helicopters even the impossibly heavy stuff seems to vanish!
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gavin		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Administrators, Registered Joined: 20/02/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,326 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 736 times Was thanked: 535 time(s) in 287 post(s)		Originally Posted by: kiwijw Nice finds Gavin.....but you shouldnt have mentiond or shown pics of OTHER peoples gear stached in the bush. Naughty boy. I really thought you would have learnt that from 1864Hatters post & pics of that dredge he put up & then bit by bit it went missing....Like Golddigger7 said...Be gone after your posting. Nothing surer. JW :) The Waka and all its side creeks = a lot of ground. Would be suprised if someone could figure out where the gear is stashed from my photos. They don't even have any background scenery for points of reference ;) I'm thinking only the people who stashed the gear would recognise where I'd been from my photos. Originally Posted by: trigger Hi gav wakamarina is an awesome place even better when the river is in full fury very impressive . You may have seen our hole we dug over xmas depending on how deep you went in the valley got 20 feet run out of hose we were gutted we couldn't get to the bottom . Anywho hope you had a good time there visit again The Waka itself I didn't get much further up than Butchers Flat. There seemed to be quite a few very deep pools in various spots but I didn't explore much on claimed bits as figured I'd keep my activities confined to the other spots so probably didn't spot your hole ;) Did it still produce much colour despite not hitting bottom? There was some photos at Pinedale Motorcamp of someone dredging deep quite some time back. Looked pretty impressive and deep. Was told it was from dredging the old claim Pinedale used to own. Would love to see the Waka in full flood - reckon it would be very impressive to see!!
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5AMP		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Nugget Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 3/11/2011(UTC) Posts: 57 Location: wellington Thanks: 105 times Was thanked: 16 time(s) in 11 post(s)		Great Pictures Gavin and good to see your gold. Wanted to thank you also for the permit map -so easy to use.

gavin		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Administrators, Registered Joined: 20/02/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,326 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 736 times Was thanked: 535 time(s) in 287 post(s)		Originally Posted by: 5AMP Great Pictures Gavin and good to see your gold. Wanted to thank you also for the permit map -so easy to use. No worries mate - my pleasure :)
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element111		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 2/12/2011(UTC) Posts: 114 Location: blenheim Thanks: 49 times Was thanked: 34 time(s) in 21 post(s)		Hay gavin nice photos,hatter and I borrowed that sluice box a few months ago to dig a wee hole by the water fall you would of come accross got a cupple of specks,that fulla in the photos is colin he did real well dredging the waka a few years ago he said about a few photos there of him,id be more worried about mercury poisioning from drying the gold that comes out of the waka some days you can get bits just coated in it lol

gavin		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Administrators, Registered Joined: 20/02/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,326 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 736 times Was thanked: 535 time(s) in 287 post(s)		Originally Posted by: element111 Hay gavin nice photos,hatter and I borrowed that sluice box a few months ago to dig a wee hole by the water fall you would of come accross got a cupple of specks,that fulla in the photos is colin he did real well dredging the waka a few years ago he said about a few photos there of him,id be more worried about mercury poisioning from drying the gold that comes out of the waka some days you can get bits just coated in it lol The river and creeks were up a bit while I was there so wasn't any wee waterfalls at the time, but imagine there could be when water levels come down a bit. Mercury eh... I'm now wondering if some of the flat lead shot I found was gold covered mercury flakes?! Probably not, but I've not knowingly seen mercury in the wild yet so not sure what it would look like. Very curious now. Does it look like lead at all?
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Metal Kiwi		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 19/06/2011(UTC) Posts: 1,210 Location: Auckland Thanks: 498 times Was thanked: 484 time(s) in 322 post(s)		When I saw Mercury in the streams at Ngawha Springs in Northland many years ago it was just bright, shiny silver coloured balls of many different sizes. MK
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element111		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 2/12/2011(UTC) Posts: 114 Location: blenheim Thanks: 49 times Was thanked: 34 time(s) in 21 post(s)		Yup looks like lead put it in a pot outside and burn it off ,if its got gold on the inside you will know :)

gavin		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Administrators, Registered Joined: 20/02/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,326 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 736 times Was thanked: 535 time(s) in 287 post(s)		Well if anyone wants to check my lead collection for possible crafty ninja flakes hiding under a coat of mercury feel free... I left all the bits photo'd on the porch decking of the cabin my mate was staying in. If you go in to Pinedale Motorcamp it was the hut far right corner, furthest away from road. I left them all tucked in next to roof post on the deck. Feel free to keep any gold but please let me know so I can learn for next time ;) There is a few flat bits in there that I assumed were just squashed buck shot. All in photo above, but flat bits might be hiding under other bits.
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FossickFester		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 14/09/2013(UTC) Posts: 174 Location: Tasman Thanks: 63 times Was thanked: 35 time(s) in 31 post(s)		Thought pinedale was closed?

x-terra steve		Posted : 11 years ago
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 7/04/2010(UTC) Posts: 224 Location: Nelson NZ Thanks: 103 times Was thanked: 69 time(s) in 42 post(s)		Cheers for the pic's and info Gavin, nice to see you up this way, As for the naughty boy comment, I recound the humble old grasshopper will have more of an idear were the gear is ???? Happy new year all, Steve

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