Lyell: Buller Gorge creek fossicking and ghost town

Where: New Zealand · Oceania · approx. -41.8, 172.05 (vicinity only)

Why this spot: Rockhounding locality: Lyell boomed on quartz gold in the upper Buller Gorge then burned and faded by the 1900s, today a DOC campsite, cemetery in the bush, and creek fossicking

What turns up: gold colours in the pan, eyes-only ghost town: gravestones, mine machinery on the walkway uphill

Access: Open / legal.

Fossick with hand tools in the designated Lyell Creek area only, no permit needed, the townsite, cemetery and mine relics are protected heritage, look but leave them

Satellite view, historic-map overlays, tide/flow context and field notes are in the app. Exact research detail is part of Pro.