Hand Drill with unknown beach combed wood.

Whilst travelling around New Zealand, I'm constantly searching for suitable wood to effect fire by friction either by hand drill, bow drill or the fire saw.

This pursuit is often frustrating due to my lack of local tree knowledge. It's more trial & error. However tonight I have managed a couple of embers with a hand drill.

I filmed my second attempt, which has been sped up in places within the edit. Unfortunately I have no idea what the wood is, the hearth board I found as drift wood on a beach and the spindle was a dead dry twig on a tree. The spindle has characteristics similar to Elder, a large pithy centre, so I gave it a go.

Has anyone else tried beach combing woods for a hand drill, what do you look for?