Rare Stonesof Aotearoa

Podcast archive

Stories written
into stone.

Documentary-style episodes that begin with a New Zealand stone and follow the evidence through geology, archives, collections and landscape.

01
Westland

Goodletite: The Hunt for Ruby Rock

In 1891, an unusually hard boulder on the West Coast revealed ruby and sapphire — and a geological mystery that has lasted more than a century.

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02
South Westland

Aotea: The Stone That Kept Its Name

A name that outlasted two mistaken identities. Follow Makawhio’s history into a rare South Westland rock of fuchsite, kyanite, quartz and feldspar.

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03
Golden Bay

Obay: The Colours of Golden Bay

Bands of green, blue and brown lead through old reports, local collectors and the geology behind Golden Bay’s distinctive polychrome schist.

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04
Fiordland

Bowenite: The Long Journey for Tangiwai

A stone whose story reaches beyond mineralogy into routes, exchange, landscape and the remote country around Piopiotahi and the Hollyford.

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05
Southland / Nelson

Sapphire: A Trail of Blue

From Orepuki to Richmond Flat, scattered discoveries and surviving specimens trace a little-known New Zealand sapphire story.

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06
West Coast

Amazonite: The West Coast’s Forgotten Stone

Old collections and scattered records reveal a little-known New Zealand amazonite story — and the challenge of separating real specimens from claims that travelled further than the evidence.

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07
Aotearoa New Zealand

Gold: The Fever in the Land

From the geology beneath the rushes to Gabriel’s Gully, Central Otago, Chinese mining communities, the West Coast, Hauraki and modern Macraes.

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