Rock fans can rejoice.
After fears that the 44th show would be the last, the 45th annual North Otago Rock and Mineral Club Gemstone, Jewellery and Craft Fair was a hit - about 450 punters came through the doors of the Scottish Hall in Oamaru for the two-day rock show at the weekend.
North Otago Rock and Mineral Club president Karen Aitken, in her first year in the role, said she was pleased the show had been "very well supported''.
Last year's fears that low membership would force the society into liquidation had proven instead to be "a trigger to draw people out'' and a new committee was formed this year; the club now had 30 members.
This year's show featured pottery, flowers and local art as well as the usual suspects: dolomite, from America; hematite, from Italy; kyanite, from Switzerland; and, of course, botryoidal agate from North Otago.
The children's activity corner where youngsters could have their faces painted or try their hand at painting rocks was popular, as were free stones vendors gave young enthusiasts.
At his 44th show, Malcolm Luxton, of Ashburton, was able to look back at the show which started as just a "swap and brag''.
It had transformed over the years and this year, he said, was "brilliant''.
Mr Luxton, an agate aficionado, cut and polished the stones he brought to sell at the North Otago show, those he did not have room for at the Agate Orphanage, the private museum he runs with his wife, Yvonne.
New Zealand agate did not receive the attention it deserved on the world stage, he said.
And he had always wanted to address, or to fight against, that perception.
The retired meat inspector stayed on at work two years longer than he planned to fund the coffee-table book, "Agates of New Zealand'', he authored and self-published a year ago.
The 340-page book includes 840 of Mr Luxton's photographs of the cryptocrystalline volcanic rocks and details roughly 30 locations where agates can be found in New Zealand.
"If it's not fun, gee whizz, you'd better give it up,'' he said.
An avid agate hound since he was aged 18 or 19, Mr Luxton said beaches from Temuka to Christchurch offered a lot for those looking for their own; he suggested North Otago agate hunters have a look at Hampden Beach, or Waianakarua, for the stone which forms inside the old gas bubble of certain lavas.
Toby Page, of Nelson, has been coming to the show for over 20 years with his wife, Kathleen.
The couple import the majority of their stock from overseas.
Mr Page said it was his wife's love of amethyst that started them off as vendors at the show.
By now they had been walking rivers together for about 30 years.
"She loves her amethyst,'' he said.
At their display was everything from the tumbled stones punters could pick up for about a gold coin, to the crystals the couple sold - usually, but not exclusively for decorative purposes - which ranged up to an aquamarine from the Shigarv Valley in Pakistan for $360.
