Thread: How accurate are doc boundaries

It is a bit more nuanced than what I think you are hoping it is.

A lot will depend on what you can see on the ground. i.e. in an extreme case if the map shows it as DOC but it has a house on it with smoke coming from the chimney, then there is no confidence.

In a more commonplace scenario, as you say, often they spill across stream or road, with the waterway this is often due to shifting over time of that waterway but not shifting of the boundary. Humans have at times been known to be pragmatic about boundaries and land use and what works and what is theoretical. So at times there may be farming on what is technically but not practically DOC estate, or there may be rimu trees and deer on what is techically but not practically a farm.

There have also been times when someone was confidently on the right side of the law but they still had to spend time and money in court to prove that they were.