Restrictions on Access to Slope Point Beaches

The beaches of Slope Point, at the bottom of the South Island, have long featured as fossicking areas for rockhounds. The beaches are not easy to find and all the “Slope Point” signposts take you to the tourist carpark and an area of high cliffs. I finally worked out how to get to a couple of beaches early in 2021 and have since visited them maybe three or four times each year. Their stones are unusual and interesting.

You need to cross paddocks and follow farm tracks for a few hundred metres to get to these beaches. They seem to be visited often by fishers and there is signage warning about catch limits and the need to beware of rough seas when on the rocks. A recent news article mentions that in the last ten years there have been four water-related incidents resulting in fatalities within a five kilometre radius of Slope Point (Southland Times), the latest at the beginning of this month.

I have been advised by two different parties that landowners are now refusing access across their land to Slope Point beaches. I don’t know why this has arisen, and I don’t know if they will make exceptions for Rock and Mineral Clubs.

Author: tumblestoneblog

Retired Academic, male, living in the New Zealand countryside near Whanganui with his wife as well as Jasper the dog, Fluffy the cat, Dancer and Penny, the horses, and a shed half-full of stones. Email john.tumblestone@gmail.com. View all posts by tumblestoneblog