04-Mar-2013 -- After stopping in the coastal town of Whakatane for a tour of volcanic White Island (a tour that I highly recommend to anyone visiting this area), I decided to visit this confluence point nearby.

The confluence point lies less than 600 metres from a paved road, but at first looked daunting, because it lies high up a very steep bush covered slope. I parked beside the road - directly west of the confluence point - and crossed a gate into a small clearing at the foot of the slope. There was no sign of the beehives noted by previous visitors. What I did find, however, was a narrow dirt road that zig-zagged up the slope. This road - because it's hidden by the dense tree cover - did not show up on the satellite imagery that I had inspected beforehand. Fortunately, this dirt road made the roughly 200 metre vertical ascent quite manageable, and brought me just 130 metres south of the confluence point.

At this point, it was an easy hike along the top of a ridge, and then just a short scramble partway down a steep hillside to reach the confluence point, which lies among Ponga ferns (ubiquitous in the New Zealand bush) and Manuka (aka. "tea tree"). Nearby (between the dirt road and the confluence point) I also saw some small, young Kauri trees. According to Wikipedia, Kauri trees are naturally found north of latitude 38 Degrees South - so these trees stray over that boundary by a few feet!