A question often asked in mineral exploration is does it really work? Pioneering workers in 20th century established fundamental procedures and databases and a substantial list of success stories were published.In New Zealand, some of the most ubiquitous plants are the southern beech, pines and ferns, all of which have been used internationally as sample media in the search for mineral deposits. Since 2010, under the auspices of GNS Science, several surveys have been conducted to further establish the usefulness of these, and a few other common plants and their typical multi-element composition by collecting them in areas of known Au mineralisation. CITATION: Dunn, C E and Christie, A B, 2019. Biogeochemical exploration: orientation surveys in New Zealand, in Proceedings PACRIM 2019, pp 267269 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).