New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Seriously, learn to korero.
What scant Maori I picked up (as the only white guy) when I was working in forestry has just served me well.

Today rocked up to a door looking for a permission for an old house site I'd found on Google Earth. Was chatting to an old guy who turned to his mate and said in Maori, basically, "The white fulla wants to look at the old house"

To which I replied (in extremely broken Maori) "Yep, I don't speak much, but I'll respect the place."
The old guys eyes lit up and it was like I was the missing son, he held his hand out - I went to shake hands and ended up in a hongi!

...And then the stories started.

Finally got away after an hour and a half, with some AWESOME leads one of which could lead me to my Holy Grail of a Brown Bess find.

Make the effort guys - There's a lot of information out there that aint on the internet - But you have to earn it!

And Charles, if you're reading this, thanks for following up and Ngā mihi mō tō manaakitanga mai.

The "White Fulla" :)

Just loved reading this story MW.
A real lesson here we all need to learn.....taking a situation at face value can be the worst mistake to make.
Talk to people, find a commonality and you'll be surprised what "little pieces of gold"(information) you can put into your pocket for a rainy day.
This is a real "wake up"call for me, as I know an old bloke in a rural community that has lived there all his life. I speak to him pretty much every time I am out his way but have never asked him about the areas history or his childhood, growing up in that place. There is a rich and colourful history in his area and I have been negligent in learning from him it's hidden secrets.
Thank you MW for sharing your awesome story. My eyes are now that much further opened!

On way back from Whangarei yesterday, decided to check out the first lead.

Drove for about 40 minutes into the hinterland that is the Far North Wild West, where the roads are all incorporated into one farm or another and basically luxury council maintained farm races. After many stops to consult maps to convince myself I wasn't totally lost, ended up at the house site.

Rocked up to the milking shed, introductions and back story got the all clear from the cow spanker and I headed into the paddock.

A low heap of rotten kauri which looked to have been a nice porch/verandah with some fancy scroll woodwork was slowly becoming compost.
Phones on, opened the AT Pro up to full throttle and into it.
Quickly got a signal, faint, non-ferrous Oh yeah! this is going to be awesome.

I dug, it's still in the hole. I dug, still in the hole. Down 20cm now and I hit that old pebbly concrete which I assume was a path, tucked down the edge was a sad-looking heavily corroded brown-stained ha'penny.

Next few targets were lead heads, again at 20+cm

Hmm....Hadn't considered this as a possible issue. Many years of dairying and flooding has produced a layer of soft, sticky black topsoil about 6-8 inches deep over the whole site, practically guaranteeing lots of digging and little other than leadheads.

Spent a half hour there collecting maybe a half dozen leadheads before conceding defeat for this round.

At the bottom of the last hole, I returned the Ha'penny to the site to 'Rust' in peace.

Next time I'm passing with the time and available petrol, I'll take the big Nel coil...and a shovel.
Not done with this one yet.

MW

Edited by user Saturday, 4 June 2016 10:39:32 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified