07-Jul-2002 -- Near Seafield, NZ

On the way back to Christchurch from Dunedin on the last day of our New Zealand holiday, we had just enough time to make a slight detour at Ashburton to register an attempt of this confluence and still make it to the airport in time for our 3:50 pm flight to Melbourne.

This confluence is approximately 3 kilometres off the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand in the Pacific Ocean.

We arrived at the main gate of a farm operated by the Shaw family and noted that we were 3.5 kilometres from the confluence. There was a prominent sign at the main gate alerting people to the fact that there is no beach access from this farm - both due to it being private property and the edge of the property being a cliff overlooking the ocean with no pathway or other means of getting to the beach.

We drove down the driveway to the homestead to seek permission to get a bit closer. Nobody appeared to be home other than some slightly agitated dogs, but I did spot a couple of blokes repairing a fence in a nearby paddock, so I put my gumboots on and walked over to have a chat. There was no livestock in the paddocks I would need to walk through to get to the cliff, so the gentlemen gave me the OK to stroll over and take my happy-snaps.

I've included three map images produced from TopoMap NZ Lite (refer http://www.mapworld.co.nz and my comments at 46S 169E in which I endorse this product) which may be useful for a more serious attempt at this confluence using a boat.

Picture #5 is the zoomed-in 1:250,000 map which shows us driving down to the homestead to seek permission to cross private property.

Picture #6 is the zoomed-out 1:250,000 map which shows the proximity to the nearby town of Ashburton and potential access points to the beach. As we were running a bit short of time, we didn't check out which beach access points had boat ramps, but I suspect the roads coming out of Pendarves and Dorie would be the best bets.

Picture #7 is a section of 1:500,000 map which shows how close this confluence is to Christchurch (less than a one hour drive).

I'll pop my asbestos suit on now in anticipation of being flamed for posting an attempt where, in reality, I had no expectation or intention of getting to the actual spot; which I know some confluencers find irritating.