2023-01-13 -43 172

From Geohashing
PXL 20230113 003716884.jpg
Fri 13 Jan 2023 in -43,172:
-43.4917617, 172.0111245
geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In a field in Darfield, outer-outskirts of Christchurch.

Participants

Plans

Drive there, hop the fence, strive triumphantly to the hash.

Expedition

I drove to the paddock, assuming it would behave like Australian farm hashes tend to. To wit, a huge paddock, full of grass, far from houses, with no risk of damaging anything by entering.

After spending a few moments worrying about a field full of cows, I realised I was looking at the wrong paddock. Across the road, the field was densely planted with some kind of crop. I really don't know what, but I'll guess...beetroot.

Surprisingly, after doing dozens of farm hashes in Victoria, Australia, I've never come across a field with any crops in it. Most of the time, it's an empty paddock. Sometimes some cows or sheep. I assume that someone somewhere is growing vegetables, but they're clearly keeping it on the down low.

There was clearly no way I could get to the hash without trampling someone's crop, and that seemed mean and unjustifiable, so I sighed, and got back to driving on outer-outer-Christchurch's incredibly boring, flat, straight, narrow, and surprisingly busy roads.

It sort of feels like "no public access" isn't the right label here. The private-property nature of the farm wouldn't necessarily have kept me out, the "not wanting to damage someone's property" did.

Photos