Are you interested in rocks, crystals, fossils and minerals?

Then you need to head along to the Leisure Centre this weekend and checkout the
Palmerston North Rock and Mineral Club's 2007 expo.

There you will be able to check out gemstones, minerals, crystals and fossils
as well as crystal healing, jewellery and numerous displays from both
Palmerston North and Wanganui club members, also attending this weekend will be
a reputable psychic artist. There will be demonstrators doing carving, silver
smithing, polishing jade, chain making and cleaning crabs from rocks, we will
also have a microscope to check out minerals as well as display cases with all
of the above in.

Club member Dennis xxx says there will also be about 8 dealers selling a whole
range of products.

The Palmerston North club hosts the expo every two years, Dennis says anybody
who is interested in joining the club can attend the expo where they can talk
to members about the club and the different trips they run during the year. Any
person who joins the club at the show will not have to pay any joining fee in
the first year.

He says the club holds field trips every six or seven weeks.

"We've got two good locations in the Wairarapa that we collect from, lots of
crystal material comes from here."

They also visit other places were you can find fossils and other general rock
material. Dennis has been a collector for 40 years and has about 8000 pieces
from all around the world, "once you find a good specimen you are hooked on
this hobby."

He says he is always looking for something different.

"When you've been collecting for a long time you can tell by the outside fo the
rock what's going to be on the inside. That's what we teach when we go on field
trips, you can find such beautiful things in nature that are just waiting to be
discovered.

"We have a monthly meeting, with another night just for minerals under
microscopes, this is just another world. Once a month we also go to the
Wanganui clubrooms to do polishing of different rocks."