Rock 'n' rollicking good fun

ROCK YOUR WORLD: Masterton musician and rockhound Stefan Brown wants to start a Wairarapa rock and mineral club. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Masterton rockhound Stefan Brown wants to revive a Wairarapa rock and mineral club that fell petrified into hiatus some time in the almost three decades since he first joined.

The 64-year-old gold disc-selling musician had studied geology at university after his enthusiasm for rockhounding was ignited as a boy in New Plymouth.

"Our neighbour was a professor, a retired geologist I knew only as Mr Duffy. Most weekends he went round looking for rocks and minerals and early Maori settlements. I used to go out with him - Bell Block, Te Koru Pa - and we found all sorts of things.

"It was a real education. I remember he took me in to a Maori burial cave once that only he knew about.

"I was a kid and I learnt so much from him. He used to give me stuff too like greenstone or argillite flakes they made adzes from, and moa egg shell," he said.

"I still have some Moa bone I found at Bell Block beach with him and that whole experience really built up a passion that stayed with me for life."

In the early 1980s, Mr Brown shifted to Wairarapa and joined the Wairarapa Geological Society in Masterton, which was then "a thriving little club with about 40 or 50 members," he said.

"It had a reasonable following and anywhere near 50 members really was healthy for something as obscure as geology and rockhounding."

Mr Brown said "geologically speaking" Wairarapa was comprised mostly of sedimentary rock with areas of fossil-bearing coastal formations, and some metamorphic formations that can yield jasper, quartz and iron pyrite along riverways.

"There are two or three hot spots in Wairarapa where there was volcanic activity near the surface that the rivers have cut through and a lot of crystals and agates can be thrown up.

"But you have to know where they are. After a decent storm it all gets pulled out and re-arranged and just sits there waiting to be discovered. There's even amethyst, if you know where to look for it," he said.

"Wairarapa has heaps to offer in terms of rock and mineral and fossil specimens and where geological formations are concerned as well, what with the faultlines that run through the region. There's some amazing rifting in some places - it's just amazing."

Mr Brown plans to hold monthly meetings where members will share a meal before "talking rocks" and arranging up to four rock and mineral-hunting expeditions in the region each year.

He also plans to link with clubs running in the Hutt, Wellington and Manawatu for swap meets, he said, and had been offered a comfortable base in rural Masterton to use as clubrooms.

"I want to get young people and their parents involved as well as other older people. It's a superb way to get kids away from video consoles and TV screens and cellphones and get them outside and moving and thinking.

"It's also a great social activity and the rambling is perfect for fitness."

Mr Brown was inviting prospective rockhounds and other interested people to a meeting on Thursday 7pm at 60 Church St in Masterton. For more information call Stefan Brown at 027 226 6019.