Stairway to heaven Bluff Hill, North Island, New Zealand
By Carla6 on 23-Mar-08. Waypoint GC1AF36

As this cache has been out of action for too long, I'm archiving it to keep it from continually showing up in search lists, and to prevent it from blocking other cache placements. If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact us (by email), and assuming it meets the guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.

Regards,
Growly Bear
Geocaching.com Volunteer Reviewer.

I noticed that this cache has been in need of owner attention for a period of time well in excess of the period of "a few weeks" as contemplated by the cache guidelines published on Geocaching.com. While I feel that Geocaching.com should hold the location for you and block other caches from entering the area around this cache for a reasonable amount of time, we can't do so forever. Please either repair/replace this cache, or archive it (using the archive listing link in the upper right) so that someone else can place a cache in the area, and geocachers can once again enjoy visiting this location.

If you plan on repairing this cache, please log a note to the cache (not email) within the next 30 days so I don't archive the listing for non-communication.

Regards,
Growly Bear
Geocaching.com Volunteer Reviewer.

Well, despite seeing 3 previous DNFs and not hearing back from the CO, we decided to give this a go. Had a great walk, and enjoyed the views, but couldn't find the cache.

Sadly, after a series of DNFs and no response from CO, despite an email and note on here, I think this cache needs to be disabled until the CO confirms the cache is still there, or replaces it if not.

Hi Carla, could you please confirm that the final cache is still in place? I am quite keen to do this one, but after 3 DNFs I dont want to waste my time if it is not there. Thank you

Couldn't find despite a really good hunt around and searching in other spots in case we had miscounted the stairs. Looks like it was damaged earlier in the year and hasn't been found for a while so wondering if it's gone?? Enjoyed the walk though, we live closeby so will do this walk (and keep looking) again

Couldn't find stair 2. We think Brewster street may have once upon a time had steps? Had a really good look at our two possible stair counts (eighteen and twentythree). Possibly not there anymore.

This morning I've tried to find the stairway to heaven I've had a really nice walk and been to some places that I would never had seen without the cache and could enjoy some really nice views. But by enjoying the views, I must have miscounted the steps cause when reaching the last stairs, I couldn't find the cache I've tried a few steps further up and down but nothing... But it was a nice walk so thanks for that

Greetings from Germany,
MissPerfect*

An excellent multi that takes you to different areas of the hill. A lot of really nice homes with million dollar views. Knew I needed some exercise and I got it. TFTC

Lovely walk lots of Tuis

A perfect multi cache for your fitness. Since we are a bit lazy in holidays we did it another way. Very nice view from up here! TFTC (#9651)

This route goes past where I live. Good exercise, thanks.

Thanks for taking me to this walk. I enjoyed it very much. Unfortunately, the container is not in a good condition.

Out doingsome caching on my own, as my caching friend stayed in for an early night. This was quite some workout, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Had a bit of trouble with the coords for the 6th set of stairs and was unsure if I was in the right spot (gps out by 24m). But it all worked out in the end and I found a cache .
Left a spare log sheet in a plastic bag because the original is quite soaked.
Thanks for an enjoyable after dinner walk

Log book really damp to the point of soaking. Gone moldy. May need to replace or just let dry and put in better container

Wow. What a climb! This one hasn't been found in quite a while. Legs are really tired but well worth it. Had nothing to do on a Sunday, so decided to give this one a go. Didn't expect quite this many stairs. Log book quite damp and a bit moldy but managed to dry it out a little. TNLNSL TFTC

Nice walk found the cache but the log was a bit damp TFTC

Well, this cache has been dormant for a while hasn't it!
We trekked up hill and down dale here in May last year only to be defeated at the final steps by a well-placed decoy hide.
Returning today to only the final staircase with another year's caching experience, the treasure was soon in hand, leaving us time to hunt down more of the superb caches around Napier's hills.
A most enjoyable and challenging cache - thanks Carla6.
P.S. the log is damp and could become quite fragile if left like this over the coming winter months.

IN the dark and found. Legs need the work, so does my belly.

What a wonderful walk. I loved it but it took way longer than an hour. I kept stopping to take photos and to breathe lol. Thanks for the wonderful tour.

Uff! The first stairs was fun, the rest ws just... But we managed to finished it, even we had to recount one stairs twice:) Beautiful explore of Napier. Thanks

One hour and XXXXXXX steps later, having gone up hill and down dale, I had the cache in hand. Does this time make me an honorary Kiwi?! Actually it DID make me very red in the face! The coordinates for Stair 6 seem a little out, but the path is obvious enough, and I was bemused by the fact that Stair 3 makes up for Stair 2 in more ways that one! This a very good workout, through interesting locations, and well worth the effort. It is big and convoluted up here: I was surprised to find myself over 1km from the start and over 1km from the lookout (and that's crow-flies distances ... it was even more on foot!). Thanks for the cache Carla6.

My legs are still aching from the hundreds of step walked in pursuit of this cache! It was a great tour of an interesting part of Napier, saw some lovely houses and gardens.
Thanks for the effort in setting up this enjoyable cache.

#2645. Certainly had to work hard for this one. Liked the car turntable we spotted on one drive. TFTC.

This is quite a walk or should I say several climbs! the reward is some wonderful views over the area. I spotted the final cache as soon as i arrived but thought it was rubbish so it was another 15 minutes before I picked it up and made the find.

Achieved on a beautiful winter day. First time geoaching as a team. Great day for it, wonderful villas, great views, lots of steps. TFTC.

Found on a cloudless day, saw some beautiful houses and architechture with my Mum. Good fun.

Finally achieved on third attempt. Completed with son on a beautiful early winter day a good time to be doing this cache. Climbing up and down all the stairs on a hot day would be hard work. Thoroughly enjoyed the cache, thank you.

This should be a compulsory tourist trail for all visitors to Napier. The climbs and descents are well worth it for the views alone and it only took us about an hour without rushing. Unless we made an error with one particular climb, we are confident of the rest, and our maths. Also, there was a probable hide at our calculation of the right spot, but it was vacant. Will have to watch for future success by other cachers. We won't give up on this one though and will be back for another try.

This entry was edited by cartertonic on Sunday, 22 May 2011 at 19:52:30 UTC.

completed this with Wilkie Walkers help. Great 90 mins of walking the Napier Hill.

Well guess i cocked this one up, as we didnt find it opps. Still have to have one failure on the trip tee hee. Might be brave later and have another go.

What great views, found with Grace_elisabeth

This entry was edited by Lizid11 on Saturday, April 23, 2011 at 6:33:31 AM UTC.

Found today with Lizid11! Great exercise, well hidden. Happy Easter! ?

Found on our second try. We did all the leg work a year ago but couldn't find the final. Our hunt this time was successful. Afterwards we realised that we had made a careless error in calculating the final location last time!

That's a lot of STAIRS!!!! Awesome idea though...loved the exercise, loved the houses, loved the hill, loved the view Re-hid the cache a little better (Very exposed). Thanks Took marble left I-ching coin

Think I miscounted somewhere, but ended up close enough, quite fun, I like stairs

Fortunately the temperature had dropped slightly from earlier in the day, but it was still hot work on a beautiful evening. Mr W.E.K.A. doesn't want to ever climb steps again. Missing a step in the calculations had us looking in the wrong place inItially, but the error was soon rectified, and the cache found without too much difficulty. TFTC

Always wanted to visit the dead centre of Napier.

Did the hard yards and the easy maths with this last Friday during my lunch break but didn't have time to complete. Came here with Cougar Hunta who had also done some stair walking but not the final. Counted down, used the clue, did a bit of gardening, then some more gardening. All of a sudden the cache was presented to us and our mission was over. The second flight was a real pain, I kept losing count of the number of steps - next people beware.

Found with Kiwiowl ( and with unhelpful abuse from Morgan Ed ) TFTC

Great walk, went like clockwork. Did some extra steps when I forgot to average, but mistake was soon sorted and cache in hand. TFTC and all the effort.

Feel the burn! After some hiking yesterday, the legs felt this cache. TFTC

Really very nice multi-cache. Did most of it in the dark, but had no problem and cache found quite quickly. Pretty tired after those steps though! TFTC

Success in the dark. I enjoyed looking at some of the houses along the route. TFTC #1318

nice easy cache on a not to hot not to cold day TFTC

Found it with mac attack. Jazzy 9 mac jr 21months. Lotsa fun and a big hard hike up some stairs. Tnln. Tftc

the beautiful and preggy Jessica found this one
completed in two stages
last weekend with little ones had to stop for tiolet break and refreshments
completed today with preggysaurus
TFTF
really enjoyed this ones wasnt what i had imagined
thanks again
ps swapped the lollie for my lost marbles

found it

Hi found this one with some very tired legs. We were in town for the Deco weekend and had to do soome deco-caching along the way. The final waypoint seemed a little off but we were successful with some scratching around. Cheers

enjoyed doing this cache
in my youth i lived on the street at the top of the seventh set, used to walk up and down those stairs daily, some days twice ... memories lol
TFTC

Counted steps but no luck at gz

Not that hard, although counting steps is confusing sometimes, but the calculation gives a rough enough location.. Even if your a few steps off, shouldn't be that hard.

Needed the exercise, thnx for that A lot of steps going up and down.

We enjoyed our walk around the Bluff Hill area - a lot of character and great views, although rather too warm for all those stairs! Unfortunately we were not able to find the cache after all this exertion. Have emailed the owner with our calculations to check if we made a mistake. We met a local while searching around on the steps. Funnily enough he called these stairs "the stairway to heaven".

Well after doing the hard yards we didn't find it. I guess we must have been close as we looked at the few possibilities up and down from it. We found an empty glad bag and wondered if it had been muggled as there were lot's of kids playing on and around the area. Took a long sit on the steps before the kids got bored with us being in their space before they moved off. We found our waypoints for each set of stairs a little off but it was obvious where to go as they were the only stairs in the vicinity. Not too sure if I want to attempt this again in a hurry. Our answer had .833333 on the end. When I re read the instructions at home I saw that I had counted the top flat. So I recalculated and got a straight answer which was the same number and no .83333333 so there was no difference from the spot we looked. Puzzle caches are definately not our strong point.

Died out cache, put bag around and replaced notebook

Thanks tndtnd for the new bag, original log still soaked. Left large diamond earing -as the stash was looking rather meagre..
It helps to follow the instructions fully, finding cache is then no problem.

After work on a lovely evening Dad Daughter and Son took off for some staircase walking - mum decided she had more important things to do! Well that sure was hundred of stairs and so many in one go some times I will admit to stopping to admire the views a few times!! Great cache although at GZ there was some broken bottles and glass lying around.

Log was SOAKING wet so I put a new piece of paper in a new plastic bad so any other cachers could log their visit on a temporary bit of paper till some maintenance can be performed. I don't know how you are going to read the old logs though?? It needs a new log book fairly soon. We made it round in the 90 minutes as recommended thanks. TNLNSL TFTC

Found the cache very wet and needing maintenance.

Great day.Lots of steps so good exercise! TFTC

Here on a work trip, and decided to go for a stroll. Well, that was a good little workout. Not sure all counts correct, but good enough to find final. Very enjoyable route. Cheers.

We found it very easily. Although we were not sure if we counted correctly. Thanks for hiding. Greetings form Switzerland. Naaabiii

Napier has a lot of stairs! TFTC

Dropped the car off at Bayswater for servicing, and demolished an enormous Ujazi breakfast before heading off to conquer the stairways to heaven. Stair 1 was straightforward both Sweet P and I counted independently and then confirmed agreed counts at the top. Stair 2 was a bit bemusing, taking the left option – was that meant to be left looking down from the top. Nevermind the huffing and puffing was well rewarded by a great view once on top. Stair 3, oh no! Stair 3 is closed for maintenance (from 25 May to 6 June – I think). So we had to engage in some urban subversiveness and sneak about guesstimating the number of steps here. It also meant quite a detour to get to Stair 4. Stair 4, 5 and 6 all conquered with ease, and bets of all we were both agreeing our counts!

The find at Stair 7, despite our uncertainty over the stair 2 count to include and our estimating the count for stair 3, was pretty straightforward. Cache all in order, signed the log and re-hidden well as found. The best part of all; as we were sitting on the steps signing the log, my phone rang and Bayswater were letting me know that the car was ready for pick up. That just happened to be only a few short minutes away. A perfect round circle!

We really enjoyed this invigorating romp about parts of the hill.

TFTC – found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

Unlike TT, saw no goats at final GZ .... but unfortunately far too many wasps for the butterfly (who had a nasty experience with several stings in the head once while caching and still has a fear of them!). Had to retreat and leave the Nut to sign the log. Enjoyed the step workout today - thanks

Finally back to find this one after previous failed attempt and see that the hint has changed ..
TFTC

Out for a HB tidy-up while Mrs TT ran in the Kaweka challenge. Worst possible weather for all concerned - at least it was low muggle count. Sorry about the wet and dirty hands.
When TT got to GZ he was suprised to find some local goats munching on the vegetation. Not the cache thankfully - it is safe and well.
Thanks for the cache.
Cheers TT

Well we were unsuccessful. I was sure I was at the 2nd as the co-ordinate was correct and there were no steps it was just a walkway. I will have to read my manual to learn how to use the GPS to key in a co-ordinate. Better luck next time.

Well, I'm sure I was at the right place, but couldn't even find the object referenced in the hint. Perhaps the cache has become inaccessible, as the area was someone overgrown with scrub. Will keep an eye on this and if someone else finds with no difficulty I guess I'll have to give it another go. Bit of a shame after such a great walk about the hill on a lovely (hot!) morning.

An interesting walk on Boxing Day morning in Hawkes Bay, we left a TB although a bit of a tight fit in the cache. TFTC

Great walk - but my legs really felt this the next day. TNLN. TFTC

Our last find of five today. We really enjoyed this one, perhaps not such a good idea to make it the last of the day, but we plodded on none-the-less. Think the co-ords on WP5 stairs are a little out? but we got there anyway. Enjoyed the walk around Bluff Hill, some fascinating old homes up here. Made it back to the vehicle seconds before the rain. NINO, TFTC, #648

Did all the counting of the seven sets of stairs a month ago in the drizzling rain. It was too wet to get the PDA out to check on the instructions on what to do when I had the totals.
When I got back in the dry and read them I mentally kicked myself. Nevermind I was coming back soon and it would have to wait until then.
Well it is now ticked off my to-do list for Napier caches.
Cheers for the exercise and the cache.

was looking for heaven and never found it(due to my faulty maths)but a week later bingo.
thanks

Nice one hour walk thru Napier... so many stairs

TFTC

Tom & Caro

A nice walk on a Sunday morning. Took nothing, left nothing. Thanks for the cache.

What a great idea for a cache. Loved this one (but my legs weren't quite so keen..haha) Found with friend Liz. TN LN TFTC

An interesting little tour on a hot sunny day, a quick final find. Thanks for another great cache idea and an excuse to visit the sunny H Bay. TFTC. and the FTF!!

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