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Trip planner
Motunau Beach (Greta Siltstone)
Best windows in the next two weeks, plus a packing list calibrated for cliff beach hunting.
Top 5 windows · next 14 days
1
Wednesday, June 3
Cliff site — continuous erosion baseline · heavy rain (0.5") — fresh cliff slumps likely
58
Good
2
Tuesday, June 2
Cliff site — continuous erosion baseline · recent rain (0.4") — clay saturated
54
Fair
3
Sunday, May 31
Cliff site — continuous erosion baseline · spring tide
52
Fair
4
Monday, June 1
Cliff site — continuous erosion baseline · spring tide
51
Fair
5
Thursday, June 11
Cliff site — continuous erosion baseline
51
Fair
Packing checklist
Essentials
- ☐Water (more than you think)
- ☐Hat + polarized sunglasses
- ☐Reef-safe sunscreen
- ☐Phone with offline copy of this dossier
- ☐Snack / electrolytes
- ☐Trash bag — leave it cleaner than you found it
Creek tools
- ☐Sifter + folding shovel
- ☐Wading shoes
- ☐Fanny pack or hip pouch for finds
- ☐Small magnet for testing iron-rich matrix
Find care
- ☐Soft toothbrush
- ☐Padded box for any 2″+ tooth
- ☐Cotton or tissue layers between teeth
- ☐Notebook (or open the Toothhound logbook)
Trip planning
- ☐Permit for the preserve (some are required)
- ☐Recent weather check — high creek = no go
Tactic refresher
Walk south from the Motunau Beach settlement at low tide. Search the wave-cut platform and concretion-bearing layers for teeth weathering free. Concretions sometimes contain articulated fish.
Don't forget
New Zealand's Protected Objects Act 1975 governs fossils. Personal-interest surface collecting on the foreshore is generally OK; export and significant specimens are regulated.