2014-06-26 -43 172

Location

Sumner Beach, Christchurch, New Zealand

Participants

The Quaternary (talk) family geohashers

Plans

Checking out Eupeodes this morning, and "w'oh - this looks interesting!" The hashpoint was on the foreshore, albeit on the very shifting sands of the exit of our city's estuary.

A quick check of the tides indicated low tide to be 09:41. Let's get going, and get this one under the belt before work!

Expedition

Just in case any wading was in order, I put some swimming togs under my trousers, in case I needed to strip down to them.

And yes, it was necessary to put my bare toes, feet, calves, thighs, and (at times) hips, into the freezing waters of the Pacific Ocean in the middle of winter near the shortest day of the year.

But it was you, my dear fellow geohasher reader, that was egging me on. And I knew that if it was you who was faced with this delimma, that you would not let the fear of cold water or dangerous rips stop you from getting to our ultimate goal! (And I knew that many of you had suffered much, much worse.)

Tracklog

Photos

Arriving at the beach, the famous former city landmark of Shag Rock, which was brought to its knees by the earthquake in 2011.
Tide was low, but not low enough! At it looked like it was coming in.
Brrrrr.
Checking my bearings.
Finally, after a little bit of going around in circles, I'm here!
A final farewell before I let go of the geomarker to sink to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean (all 100 cm down).
Looking back to the foreshore.
Selfie ... only because you made me.

360 degree panorama

If you were wondering what those line-up of shipping containers are doing, they are there to stop the rocks falling onto the road below. After the Christchurch 2011 earthquakes, this hill side became rather unstable ...
... and a close-up indicates how frigtening it must have been for all within.
Most houses still remain and enjoy the view.
But many are still in a precurious state.
Not wanting to let ugly shipping containers distract from the local beauty, they were quickly adorned by artists, from near and far.