Kittyhawk Down (Wellington) Homedale, North Island, New Zealand
By ADV, adopted by agcnz on 03-Feb-09. Waypoint GC1MCE9

Even for a lack of actual wreckage, this is a pretty interesting site to have a look at. Can only imagine the plan came careening down the stream. Thanks for the cache, and adventure!

I have no idea why I've never attempted this before - it's the kind of adventure that I love about geocaching. I hadn't even been planning this little excursion but I found myself with no plans on a public holiday and some magnificent weather that needed to be enjoyed. From parking it was "only" 900 metres to the destination. That's be 10 minutes then as I often imagine when doing flat ground time estimations. Nope, took me 45 minutes of cautious foot placement. When I was "suddenly" only 30 metres from the cache I was surprised as the time seemed to fly by. I had a careful look around before deciding I needed to re-read the guidance in the description. I was a bit confused by what I assume is geologist jargon because I had no idea what "true right" meant. But I infer that it means from the point of view of the water's travel. Wondering where the markers were I was surprised to see them just 5 metres from where I was standing. I put down the various things I did not need for scramble mode and headed up. Hmm. How far up? Spotting several candidates in succession I kept going until it came into view. That would have been impossible to find without good guidance! Getting back down was slightly tricky and I managed to reappear in a different place from where I ascended. Then heading back down the stream was probably more tricky than coming up but no dramas. It just took a while - 90 minutes for the round trip. But better than spraining an ankle or something.A very long time coming getting to this cache and totally worth it and requiring an FP. Unfortunately I didn't see any artefacts other than the prop hub but it didn't matter. TFTC.

What a great walk up the stream to Kittyhawk down, I love this type of geocaching, quite the adventure. Really enjoyed the walk, beautiful scenery and a couple of impressive trees. I was having a bit of trouble with my technology today and thought I might have missed the arrow, but no, thankfully it was obvious when I got there and it was pretty clear where I needed to head to find the cache. I made sure to go up and down carefully, could be easy to do yourself a mischief! Found a little "camp" on the way upstream and stopped there for my lunch on the way back down, sat in a comfortable chair and was joined by a fantail overhead. Had been wanting to find this cache for a while and the whole experience was great, adding a favourite point. TFTC

Found it!

Headed down to Wellington today to drop my parents dog back and dog sitting. Decided that we’d hand her back more tired than we got her by zipping up the creek to nab the Kittyhawk Down cache. Managed to grab a few extras on the way that haven’t seen action since 2021!

The directions in all the cache descriptions were very handy to get onto the right creek bed. The beginning of the creek there was SORT of a track but that soon disappeared. It took us 2 hours to do a round trip and we only managed to find the rotor pictured in Kittyhawk Downs description. I would definitely recommend some good boots as I got wet up to the knees and some long tights or trousers as the biddies covered us and the dogs completely

The only part of the aircraft we could find was the rotor pictured in the description, this is now directly under the arrow (picture attached). J & I scrambled up the hill, he went over the top of the trees to have a look but it was I who successfully found the cache log was wet but dry enough to still sign

+ fav point for location and hide
The TB listed here was unfortunately missing. There were some names in the log from 2022 but this was not a username, some muggles may have stumbled upon it perhaps & removed the TB.

TFTC
C&J

If anyone is interested in doing the trek to this cache next year, say February or March, please let me know.

Incidentally, I am kind of surprised there is no mention of the pilot’s fate in the cache description. He was, of course, killed in the crash. His name was Sgt Thomas Victor Marchant of Wanganui. He was 23.

Here is a link to a recent Stuff article https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/hutt-news/112367077/relative-wants-plaque-for-wwii-kittyhawk-pilot-killed-in-1943

and one about this aircraft’s history:
https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/p-40/NZ3031.html

So sad, even after all these years.

On a goat/deer hunting mission we took the long way down to this one. Great place and great cache. +FP

It took sveppi and I six and a half hours to get here... approached from the top. We don't geocache much these days, instead spending too much time bush-bashing with a rifle looking for goats and deer. Our day started at 6.30 am, trying to get on the trail before other people who would scent the area and spook the animals. Up the Whakanui track, explored the headwaters of the Turere stream, then crossed the McKerrow track and quickly down the Boy's Brigade track to a long spur where we knew goats lived. Very very windy. No goats heard or seen, but we eventually found ourselves above the wreckage and geocache. This is our kind of hide so we dropped down the face to get to it. The first 90m were OK but steep and the last 30m crawling in goat-sized holes through a tangle of supplejack and kiekie was pretty rough! Finally dropped on the stream 20m from what is left of the wreckage. GPS a bit shifty so read the hint and description. The two hint object are now in the same place. Had to read twice to line myself up property. I do a bit of indoor bouldering so it's always up to me to get caches that need a scramble! Cache in good condition, signed and returned. We explored a bit further upstream, then down back to the car. No further sign of a plane wreck found.
TFTC, our kind of cache so gets a favourite.

Another photo - recently exposed airframe at night

Up here in the twilight on Rosscache’s first day of caching. He had been up here before hiking so knew the way and relative distances. There have been more rain events so things are different but the same. Creek was up so dry feet were not an option. Propeller hub now downstream of the arrow. Motor is disappearing fast. Cache all good. Found at 8.38 pm so trip back in true darkness. TFTC

Submitted via Garmin Live Geocaching

Been looking for this one for a while. Finally managed to find it this avo. Nice walk up the creek. Tftc.

Coordinates changed from:
S 41° 17.351 E 174° 58.603

Coordinates changed to:
S 41° 17.348 E 174° 58.596

Distance from original: 36.9 feet or 11.3 meters.

This should get people a bit closer to the cache than the old coordinates. Bear in mind, however, that any GPS device is likely to wander quite badly due to the steep terrain and heavy vegetation cover. So it pays to wait until you can see a trend establish itself. These coordinates are an average of many readings.

Found during a trip with agcnz up Skerrets Creek He wanted to do a check on this cache so I had the happy advantage of just signing after he had done the hard bit! We were surprised not to see more of the plane parts that are noted in some of the more recent post-flood logs Perhaps we were just not looking well enough
We then carried on up the creek to score Aces High #2 and returned via McKerrow Track
Despite the absence of plane remnantd I'm awarding this one a favourite just because it brought me up here The vegetation is great and the environment is remarkably peaceful Thanks agcnz

Came for a visit to here today with IanL1#. A much easier trip up the stream than in the past as the April 2019 flood has cleared away a lot of vegetation. I'm pleased to report that the cache is exactly where it should be, and in excellent condition. I think people were looking too close to the stream and then assuming that it had been swept away by the flood. Not so, the cache is well up the bank at about 15 metres above the stream bed. The big tree growing at a 45 degree angle (the cache is at the base of this) is now much bigger than when I was last here in 2009 and it is now one of the two most prominent trees for some distance around. I have amended the cache page with another complete section on how to find the cache now, using a couple of unusual items as pointers to the place to start climbing towards it. I have also increased the terrain rating to 4 which I think better reflects the nature of the access. With a more modern Garmin GPS receiver than the one the cache was placed with, I have also updated the coordinates which should make it a bit easier to find. All good to go, happy caching!

Me and my brother went up here yesterday and the landscape has changed dramatically compared to when we first went up there about a year ago, but happy to report that we did find the propeller hub, and also the engine which as mentioned is half buried under a lot debris, we also found some new bits that we hadn't seen before, bits of mangled up ali sheet, and the further up were it splits, going left we found what we believe is to be apart of the landing gear, we dug it out and place it to the left had side of the track where hopefully it wont get washed away again, then a bit further up stream by a bit of a waterfall feature, we also found some more ali sheet which was stuck in the side of the bank.
I have hopefully attached some photos of the landing gear for you all to see, very well preserved considering how long it may have been buried for!

Revisited the site with a friend attempting to find the engine block. Happy to report that we found it, albeit about 100 metres downstream and with some damage sustained. I've uploaded images of a piece that broke off (now located about 300 metres downstream) and the engine itself, buried under a lot of rocks and debris.

This geocacher reported that the cache might be missing.

I'm afraid that the cache, the large tree mentioned in the description, and even the engine itself are missing. Incredible as that might sound there was flooding down Skerrets Creek two weeks ago. I walked the length of the creek today and saw several huge slips. There are very large deposits of debris everywhere - I fear that the engine is buried under one of those. I've attached a few images that show the damage.

The walk up is now very different. It took me 20 minutes to get to GZ from the car park - most logs below refer to a one hour walk at least. All the trees are simply gone.

On the positive side I dug-up what I believe are "new" relics from the creek. One is a twisted piece of aluminium that may be the nose cone, the other is the base of the propeller. Very exciting to dig up something that has been hidden for over 70 years! I've attached photos of these items as well.

A nice challenging walk along the creek. We had to go off track due to a fallen tree, unfortunately stood on a bees nest and got stung serveral times. we found our way back to the creek and Eventually we found the motor and big fallen tree which was quite impresive. Unfortunately we failed to locate the cache however it was a great challenging walk overall taking us about 1 1/2 hour there and 1 1/2 back. Make sure you wear long pants due to the cutty grass and some sturdy tramping shoes. TFTC- will try another day.

First cache of the trek, we powered up to this one to collect the rest on the way back. What a walk, loved it! The person with waterproof boots managed to keep dry feet, I quite enjoyed the refreshing stream walk.

GPS wasn't great under the trees so I was hoping we hadn't accidentally gone past the motor but it's very obvious, can't miss it! A quick scramble following the instructions had the prize in hand.

Passed a couple of sealed Coke cans placed on steps in the track closer to the Outdoor Planter cache, we took out some rubbish but left them for the next person, maybe a treasure hunt or something..
Thanks for the great hide, we really enjoyed it!

Took 45 min from car park to the engine block at a fairly cruisy pace with no stops. Could see the hint object on our left when 3 metres down stream from the engine block and facing upstream (as mentioned in an earlier log the cache is on the "true right" which means the right hand side when facing downstream).

Followed the hint by going under the large fallen tree then straight up the hill a few metres later - the only time we have ever been grateful to have supplejack to contend with as it made progress much quicker given the steepness of the slope. Like others we approached the cache from a small clearing above but then had to go below to find the nice dry container.

Pretty much the perfect cache for us - not a sistema (so nice and dry), off the beaten path, a history lesson, a bit of a climb and a place we would not have ventured to otherwise. Therefore another FP awarded from us to add to the collection.

This has been on our watchlist for some time now, so we ventured up this way in the weekend to seek out the land and the track- could we manage with our team of 6 (4 kiddies and 2 adults). So today we ventured back, allowing more hours in the day, plenty of food and some spare warm socks for after. It took us a long slow time to get there- 2hrs? up. But that was with us hauling/dragging/encouraging/feeding and carrying a 2yr old, a 5 yr old, an 8yr old and a 9yr old up with us! Not something we would reccommend to anyone, but we do like abit of adventure!!! We got there, and with a tight turn around period, we really didn't allow much time to search for the cache. We gave it probably about 10-15 minutes, but we just couldn't find it.........arghhhh the frustration!!!
BUT, it was a memorible, fun and adventurous wee trip for us all. We will be back, I'm sure we just didn't look hard enough!

Count on getting wet feet! A fun walk up the river, happy to see the engine near gz had trouble locating cache, gps not helpful. Had lunch and read through all the activity, which helped refine search area,there is a good view of engine below cache. Tftc.

Received an invitation from TheWanderingDragons to come and find a plane wreck! Ended up a group of eight made our way up the creek to find the engine and eventually the cache.

Barefootguru made the familiar call ‘got it’ as several us clambered over the bank nearby.

all good at GZ. Thanks for the adventure and a great day out. This cache earns a Favourite Point


Thanks for another smilie.

Did you know that planning has started for a major Event in the Wellington region in 2018? Check out the details on the [Wellington Event NZ (WENZ) Website](https://sites.google.com/site/wenzgeo2018/home) or visit the event’s page on [FaceBook](https://www.facebook.com/groups/590545297801072/). The official cache page is now live [GC78NMQ - WENZ Event 2018](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC78NMQ_wenz-event-2018-wellington). If you are planning to attend, please ensure you let us know through this page.

Thanks to the Cache Owner who has gone to the trouble of creating this cache, determining the coordinates and then averaging them to make sure they are accurate, placing the cache and registering it online for our enjoyment. Without Cache Owners doing their bit, there wouldn’t be a fun hobby that we all love - so again a big THANK YOU. For our bit, all we need to do is find and log the cache that was carefully placed for our personal enjoyment. As we log it we should consider that the Cache Owner also needs to maintain it - when the log sheet fills up, they must replace it. When the container becomes full of water, they need to empty it. When the container is broken, they need to repair it. When it goes missing they need to find or replace it. Well..... the great news is we can do our bit too - make sure your log doesn’t take an entire page - just a name and date. If full of water, empty and dry the cache as best as possible. Be careful when handling the cache and make sure you replace it where you found it. If it has a bag, seal it. Just remember - the Cache Owner showed respect to you by placing the cache - please respect them and fellow cachers that follow you by being careful with the cache. And if you have a spare log sheet and the cache you are at needs one, please leave it behind. Finally, if the cache does need maintenance, please let the Cache Owner know - you can log a Maintenance Log or you can drop a line to the Cache Owner. Above all - have fun and remember the Geocaching Code. .

On quite an adventure today with a group of geocachers. Thanks to all of them for their help in making sure I reached the cache. Very, very memorable!

Cache # 1,371

Wow! I think I might qualify as the youngest to reach this one, and wouldn't have done so without the support team behind and in front of me. Thank you!

Cache # 837

Cache # 4,097 - After an aborted attempt at this one nearly two years ago, and having it on my radar for years before that, I decided that I wanted to do this with a team of people. A number of invitations sent out, and 8 hearty souls set sail today to pay our respects to the remains. And we needed the team to help the little cachers (5 and 7) make it. 2 hours up, and an hour and a half back down made for a much longer trek than any of us anticipated. Took a while at the GZ to locate the cache, as the bush has grown significantly since the cache was placed. All good in the container, and enjoyed our time at the engine. None of us had the energy to venture further up the stream to try to find other pieces, but we did capture most of us at the block (in the attached photo). I took a tumble on the way down and banged up my knee, and several others slipped on the very slippery rocks. A very memorable experience, and worth a favourite point. Thank you!

Found while out with wb1116 and 6 others.
River trek ok as low water level this time of year. Loads of dead fall to climb over but find well worth the effort.
TNLNSL, TFTC.

We made it! Fortunately the weather was dry, the stream low and everyone made it in one piece. The first part of the track, up to the Outdoor Planter cache, is the trickiest.

It took 10 minutes of serious bush bashing to find the cache (barefootguru claims the honour). I wasn’t game to climb that far!

A lovely walk. TFTC!

A great adventure initiated by The Wandering Dragons with cellojoss, the dragonettes Violet Butterfly + Astro Hunter, GLAD-NZ, wb1116, and Denomynator & me. We took 1½ hours to walk & wade up the stream bed, but they’re very little — and spirited — dragons. (Ignore the tributary on the RHS coming up.) Amazing to see the V12 relic sitting in middle of stream bed! Not all of us braved the bank… I won’t say which! Cache took 10 (for me) to find, though instructions good and cache obvious — also tied on for a nice touch. Thanks ADV/agcnz

Kittyhawk Down (Wellington) was transferred from ADV to user agcnz

I've been eyeing up Kittyhawk Down for a long time now, but the time never seemed quite right. Today all the stars aligned and my daughter we keen for an adventure, so we set off for the trip and the other caches along the track. I think the days of a quick 30min dry foot dash from the car are long gone. We didn't bother trying to keep our feet dry but just headed up the stream where there was no obvious easy track alongside. To be fair we were probably a bit cautious and slow on the slippery rocks, but made it without mishap. I think it took us about 1 hour to get to the engine, but only 45min to return.

Once at the engine, my daughter opted to guard the bags and enjoy the spot while I did the searching. Having noted in some logs that it can take a while to fine, I checked the cache description and followed the instructions to the letter. Like Streetwalker, I found an easier approach slightly upstream and then dropped down onto GZ once I spotted the right tree. The cache was sitting there in plain view, as advertised. Everything was in pristine condtion, so signed the log, and since this an old cache, left a wee comment in the book along with my name.

As an aside, I've found a couple of older caches recently, and it is quite noticeable that we used to write bit of a note or story in the logbook, but then by about 2012 or so, people just started leaving there name as a one line log. I guess in this day and age of incessant power trails, we don't have time for more than a one liner.

Thanks for the adventure, and I'm glad I finally made the time for this particular wander.
TFTC +FP

Giving this a favourite point as I omitted to do so when I logged the find. Thanks again for the adventure!

With Yosser 9. This was a most excellent adventure, but, like many others, it took us far longer than 30 minutes to the engine. I suspect the jungle has grown somewhat in the years since the cache was placed. I had come prepared to get my feet wet so didn't worry about rock hopping too much - it seemed easier just to walk in the creek, rather than along the bank. At the engine, we struggled to identify the tree - my GPS was pointing to the opposite side. In the end, after reading previous logs, we took a punt - and climbed way too high. We actually ended up quite far away, and were on our way down in defeat when I thought I'd take a chance on a "ledge" of sorts. We'd been expecting a flat rock, or something, but this wasn't very rock-like, I didn't think! Getting there involved a precarious scramble - the vegetation had rotted almost to soil, but I used to be a rock climber so I was reasonably confident using tiny roots as hand holds. Once we'd signed the logbook, it was matter of getting off the ledge and down the hillside - scary stuff! I was very glad to make it back to the creek in one piece! Our muggle companions had headed off to look for the wing and undercarriage (but didn't find anything), so when they returned we set off back to the cars. It was easier going this time, but we still took an hour ... Thanks so much for the cache - it was a really great day out.

Have wanted to do this one for a while now. Got a chance today. Took a Lot longer than anticipated. At least a couple hours. Found the cache after about 15 Mins of searching and some climbing. A favourite point from me for the interesting piece of history.

Really enjoyed completing this cache. A good adventure for New Year's Eve. 30 minutes to get up is a little misleading, maybe if you knew where exactly you were going and was travelling by yourself you could do it in that time. It took us about an hour to get back down but I was going carefully! Really beautiful scenery and lovely little creek! One part in particular was a bit tricky where a tree had fallen over the stream but there's still a way around it. Took a little while to locate the cache. Would recommend this one if you've got an afternoon to adventure. Tftc

Great walk. Some of it was tricky to navigate, but you just follow the creek, so can't get lost. You may want to wear clothes that will protect your legs from the cutty grass. TFTC

This has long been on the list of 'good intentions'. On one occasion I set off heading up creek towards GZ but found the going slower than I wanted (having just spent several hours marching around in the Whakanui and McKerrow tracks area). Finally I got to make good on my intentions today.
This is quite the caching adventure with all the elements needed for a great experience present in spades. The clambering and rock hopping upstream. Route finding, vine dodging. Native bush surrounds, gurgling babbling stream, dappled sunlight. Then the sight of a large V-12 engine slap bang in the middle of nowhere. Finally some bush bashing and climbing to arrive at GZ. And this is a real cache. The type that will be here still in a hundred years time, just like the engine block!
This is caching as it is meant to be.
So, if you are sitting around wondering where your next adventure is going to come from, look no further.
The return journey was rock hopping downhill. My feet got wet, I didn't care.
So as not to ruin my reputation as the caching turtle that I am, this all occurred at my usual 'slow but steady' pace. From the top of Sunny Grove to GZ and return I measured as a 4.82km route. This took me 2 hours and 25 minutes. Time that included stops for the usual stuff, including finding the cache.
A favourite point from me.
All good with the cache; log signed, the cache replaced safely, just as found.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

This entry was edited by Tararua Turtle on Monday, 30 November 2015 at 08:36:16 UTC.

This was a bit of a slog, much more challenging going up than down with all the fallen tree obstacles. Found the cache a bit further away from the main hint object than I was expecting, but great to find it
TFTC

Thought I would take advantage of a spare 3 hours in Wainuiomata this morning to finally take a crack at this one. Was optimistic after re-reading the original description, but had not taken the time to re-read all of the logs. Was pleasantly surprised to find the beginning of the trail easy to follow. Not more than 100 metres in I started the stream crossings. After 4 or 5 of them the trail suddenly veered up a bank, and it was raining and very slick. Decided today was not the day to continue, and will be back sometime in drier weather. I also now know a bit more about what to expect.

Found with carrie2000. Hard trudge with the kids up the creek. Found engine first then about 5 mins to the cache. Still sitting safley in its spot Beware the cutty grass !!

A bit drizzly and cool in town, so headed for the shelter of the bush. The route up was pretty much as the previous logs described - lots of walking up the stream, a bit of walking alongside it. One or two places involved climbing over fallen branches over the stream - interesting!

The trip up took about 40 minutes. The find was another 30 or so - it took that long to fight through the supplejack! I found it in the end by following the description to the letter - pretty much along the lines of Streetwalker's log. There's probably a good geotrail there now!

Trip back was 30 minutes - easier to boulder hop downhill!

This was plan B due to the fact it was way too windy to do a Climie mission. Quite a scramble to find then decided to continue on up to the forks and bush bash up to McKerrow Track

Did this with the logiebogies and despite there being 9 of us we couldn't find the cache. Got to head back and crack this at a later date

had fun hunting for this with johnyNopants funny when he fell into the stream. could not find and we searched for a good 45minutes. everybody enjoyed the walk. water shortage/drought my a**. will try again without womenfolk. found engine couldnt jump start fun had by all

3rs attempt to get this one. First time tried to include it in my Jogging-round but gave up after 100 m with jogging shoes. Second time came along with hiking boots but weather was not good and boots got wet after 300 m. Today took the gumboots and got all the way up. It is some serious bushbashing and a lot of crawling over fallen trees and riverbanks, The final is also a little scramble. Think this cache harder than T3.5. The place and story is very interesting and i liked the little adventure. TFTC. Sherlock Hood.

Found good walk dog loved it to. Took mint 3don't photo of engine. Tftc

Myself, brighty1960 and Andy B set off early excited about doing this cache, the second in what was to be a mass cache finding day along Whakanui and McKerrow tracks.

The trip up the creek was pretty straight forward, if not a little narly in places. Engiene was in plain sight as we approached the GZ. Stopped at the still impressive engine, even after all these years at the mercy of the elements for a quick photo op.

It was then on to the search for the cahce. 45 to 50 mins of searching later we had it.
We ended up being put off by the description and hadn't been looking high enough.
Managed it in the end by finally getting a lock on the satellites after losing them and following the GPS compass as best we could.

A fantastic spot, walk and one of the best geo caches I have done to date. Thanks very much!!

Removed geo coin PCDNNK to drop in another cache.

Cheers,
brighty

Wandered up the stream with my two boys brighty and andyb,found the engine block took some photos.Took us quite a while to find the actual cache.
Awesome.

Lots of comotion when we found the engine, took 1 hour and 20 mins to walk up to it!

With CaligulaNZ and Oresome4some.


Found on 17/6

Cool cache,

Great fun scrambling up the creek bed in chase of Orsome4some, CaligulaNZ and Fiddlefingers. The cache was easier for us to find as thanks to sleeping in there was a bit of a track to follow. Made it back with wet feet but still warm.

Awesome hike up to the cache ... in great company with three of the Orsome4some and FiddlefingersNZ. Thanks for the invite Orsome4some! This is definitely what i love about geocaching ... getting out to new places you never knew existed ... especially those with a history or a story, and a pretty wild location.

Chased up the creek by Metal-Art, Bradenski, Jax479 & Phiona#1.

TFTC!
#170

Nice Sunday morning walk in chasing CaligulaNZ, fiddlefingers, & orrsumfoursum up the Creek. 1hr 17 mins later we arrived at the Engine. Reasonably quick find for the cache. 50 minutes back down the creek and we were out. Wet muddy feet and all. Excellent cache.

Great walk with fellow cachers. Great spot. Engine great. TFTC

Fabulous walk in for 3 out of 4 of the Orsome4somes along with CaligulaNZ and FiddleFingers. Quite a lot of debris along the stream so the walk was challenging in places but loads of fun. Prize for most number of spills into the stream goes to Master Orsome4some.

Definitely took us longer than the 30 minutes listed. More like 75 minutes to get in, but faster on way back down of course, especially as some of us slid back down.

The hunt for the actual cache also took a little while but we got there.

Metal-art, Bradenski, Phiona#1 and Jax479 arrived a little bit later. Thanks for joining the party and sorry we had to leave you all to it. Miss Orsome4some was much missed, but she enjoyed Cub Camp at Brookfield so all happy.

#3207. We'd had the chance to join the ADV-lead expedition in May, but Troodles thought it sounded like a cache she wouldn't enjoy (I'm now sure she's right). Having a few extra days holiday, I've tackled a couple of "slogging up creek" caches that aren't Troodles' cup of tea. After leaving the track at Kitty Corner initial progress was good. However, things soon got a lot slower as I started encountering the windfalls described by simpsonsrgr8 and Gyxx. I'd say my overall timings were much closer to simpsonsrgr8's than the ones in the cache description. I'd worn my leather tramping boots and gaiters as I wasn't expecting to be able to stay out of the water (and that was certainly the case).

Finally, I rounded a corner, and there was the engine some 20 to 30 metres upstream. At last! Finding the cache took some time. Initially I clamboured up the bank on the true left, probably confused by a recent fallen tree. My GPSr seemed to be saying the true right was a better prospect (but could it be trusted under the trees?), and that bank is a lot steeper, so I started clambouring round that bank in search of the cache. After a while, I decided I probably needed to go much higher, and that I should try sticking close to the fallen tree. After gaining some height I spotted a tree that was a good match for the one in the description. I ended up circling round behind it, and then dropping on the ledge from above, and was very happy to find the cache. I had a good view of the engine from GZ (I was probably upstream of it, but not by much) from a decent height (10 to 15m maybe).

An excellent cache, well worth a favourite. TFTC.

I remember when I was a lad hearing stories of a Spitfire that had crashed in the hills above the Hutt Valey. According to playground lore the wreck sat virtually intact on the hillside - overgrown with and hidden by the dense jungle canopy. In some tellings the skeletal pilot remained in the cockpit - a bony hand still clutching the joystick. However the stories where always of someone's friend, brother or uncle finding the wreck, never any first-hand accounts let alone a reliable location to go exploring. As is the way with these things the stories of the wrecked Spitfire passed into urban legend in many peoples estimation - including my own.

Now here I am some number of years later armed with the real story of Flight #3031 and a grid refrence to lead me to the wreckage - had to be done...

The recent snow's bought down a lot of vegetation which has of course mostly ended up in the creek. There's a lot of detouring around fallen trees and ducking and diving through vines and deadfall - forget about keeping your feet dry. You'd trip over what's left of the V12 Allison engine if you didn't see it first as it's on a very small rise only just out of the creek-bed proper. The actual cache took me a good half hour to find as I wasted twenty minutes looking on the wrong side of the creek.

Great cache for the history and the lovely bushwalk. Hopefully the next couple of rains will flush a lot of the deadfall out and make it a bit easier.

This was a really fun cache, and what caching really is about to me. We really should have been better prepared for it, having a topo map would definitely have been a plus.

It took much much longer to get to GZ than the cache page suggests. From where you leave the main track to follow the stream it took us an hour (or slightly more) to get to the engine, about 20 minutes to find the cache (and just before we were going to head out, it was 1630 and we knew there wasn't much light left). The return leg was faster, we were less cautious and had a fair idea of what we were in for, we got back the track in 45 minutes. In considering those timings though I did have a back pack on (which got caught on branches etc) and the female member of the team came along too. Both of which slowed me down - but I won't go in to specifics.

I notice we're the first finders after the snow, maybe that bought down some of the foliage, there were a lot of trees lying in the creek bed to negotiate which hadn't been there long (still green, no moss etc). In quite a few spots we could see where tracks might have been but some had become impassable. We gave up on keeping our feet dry reasonably early on which made our journey quicker, we did spend quite a while in the stream. I'm pleased we accepted it early, at one point we were in knee deep water to get under a log.

At GZ I was hopeful that the cache was still in place given the shift in some of the other plants, and was relieved to see the cache was still there, thanks to the securing device that was attached to it.

Definitely a favourite.

This is certainly my type of cache with a little bit of adventure, some good history and a nice big ammo can to top it off. Managed to navigate my way up the river without too much trouble and then followed the Geotrail up to the cache. Was getting a little dark on my way back down but that just added to the fun! Thanks for a great cache - one for the favourites.

Thanks Neil for the guided tour to this excellent site. This is my 3rd time attempting this cache. First time it was pitch black by the time I got to the cache site & couldn't locate the container, however I did see some amazing glow worms. 2nd attempt with family was stopped by a difficult hike after a bit much rain.

Today was a great day for it. Had good footwear so my feet stayed dry. The cache was in good order & easy to find when we knew where to go.

One of my favourite geocaching experiences to date - thanks again for the cache & taking the time to guide us up the creek.

I had attempted this one before but to no avail. Thank you to Neil for your help leading the way today, much appreciated!

Good to have the cache owner along, sort of a talking cache page you might say. Slithered our way up the stream, marvelling at the great variety of fern and tree species. Then the engine - great find. Cache nicely hidden away up, up, up. Good to have the company of other local cachers as well, all in all an excellent trip. TFTC

All go for tomorrow @ 10am, weather forecast couldn't be better. Looking forward to it, and catching up with those who can make it.

For anyone interested in joining a small group to visit this cache I will be providing a "guided" walk to it next Saturday 21 May. Please meet at the end of Sunny Grove at 10am on the day. The trip will be weather dependent and may be postponed till Sunday if conditions are not suitable. Any postponement or cancellation will be posted as a note here so please recheck Fri night/Sat morning. Please feel free to email any questions.

Hiked up river with diziet sma, gps very patchy but hard to miss the engine block when you get here. Bank scramble successful, if a bit hairy in places. Great cache, perfectly cool and shady on a hot day. Tftc.

Another epic attempt to find this elusive cache. I probably should've waited for a period of dry weather so the stream would dry out.

It was slow going through the bush, over fallen trees, wading through water & scrambling over big slippery rocks.

We got past the halfway mark before deciding not to risk our lives any further.

Last time I attempted this cache, I ended up in the pitch dark, with a small lamp to guide me. I didn't want to do that again - although the glow worms were spectacular.

Maybe I'll try again next week!

Given the nature of the day, and previous week, sandals and shorts were well in order, and wandering up the stream was more fun than keeping your feet dry. The youngest EU crew member thought it was like Bear Grills taking his kids on an adventure! The EU "blokes" thought this was a real cool cache - a great "kiwi" cache. TFTC

I didn't locate ADV's 30 minute "keep your feet dry" route, but I did find the cache. I am sure every cacher has their own idea as to what makes a great cache but this one really appealed to me because: a) there was an interesting bit of history to read about; b) it involved some good exercise; c) it took me somewhere I hadn't been before; d) the "walk" to GZ was varied; e) the scenery was terrific; f) there were no muggles to be concerned about; g) a wee bit of a search was needed to locate the cache. Tremendous work, ADV.

One member of our group found the engine but it was a bit wet for the younger members - especially after one had been pushed in the stream Decided to walked down to keep warm. Will return another (summer) day. Great walk and lots of fun - away from computer games.

Interesting site and interesting walk. Thanks.

A little more info about the actual plane http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=65221

Slipped, tripped and splashed our way to this cache, but what a rewarding cache for a warbird nutter. Though the other half of the RichKai team found it to be a bit more of a ripper. Was pleased to have the cache owner on hand to locate the final as with no cell reception for the phone-a-friend it would have been a bit out of the search range that we might have expected.

Now this is what caching is all about... Had a really great time navigating the river up to the cache.. About 1/4 of the way took off the hiking boots and put on the sandals and splashed my way to the cache in the cool water.. A couple of bumps, grazes, slips and falls, but we all made it to the cache site in one piece and back again.. Gives one a new found respect for people who have to search for needles in haystacks (or engines in forests)... Thanks for bringing us here.. Would never have done this one alone...

#400. A memorable cache to bring up number 400. We started with a large group the morning of the '10 Years!' event but soon fell back as the littlies (Miss 6yr old and Mr 7yr old) have shorter strides than adults. It is quite a hard slog over many slippery rocks, fallen trees and stream crossings all the way to GZ - but rewarding to see the old engine when you make it. We got there without injury and the kids were very chuffed to get a round of applause from those already waiting there. Thanks to all those cachers who helped us out there today, it was very nice to meet such a great group of people. SL, TFTC. -plane, -soft toy, +dino, +shotgun shell.

(11:24:21 AM) Found with the group of cachers going to the 10 Years! Wellington, New Zealand event, was my job to bring it down to the creek bed for everyone to sign and then return it to it's hiding spot.
TFTC!

A fantastic walk with many fellow geocaching friends. Thx ADV for both the cache and the guided walk. I certainly feel sorry for the poor buggers who attempted to roll the engine down the hill. I struggled to roll myself down the hill never mind an aircraft motor.

11.18am. Came up with the group on way to event.
Cool cache, one of those that you would never have known about without geocaching.
A special mention has to go to LeftyNZ with the two little ones getting all the way to the cache site. GREAT work for such small legs.
+ domino
-nil
TFTC
Cheers M+S [:O)] (1570)

Found with the group after a slow walk up the stream. TFTC. Geodatum.

Found in the company of the 10 year celebration group. Thanks ADV for the guided walk bringing us to this interesting feature. Great to see how well Lefty NZ's 6 year old and 7 year old did to complete this tramp as it had its tricky moments with wet feet, slippery rocks and fallen trees to clamber over.

Quite a trek up stream to the cache site. No way I could keep my feet dry despite trying very hard. A great spot to visit. thoroughly enjoyed the natural bush and the company of the 10 year celebration geocachers. TFTC Done and Dusted.

Found it with a nice group of people yftc

Well a real bush bash and ankle scrape to get here tonight, certainly more than a 30 minute walk on water and got feet very wet. At the half way point in failing light realized it would be completely dark when we would get to GZ.
Believed we were in the right spot but couldn't see the cache anywhere, and it looked like others had been searching recently too. But was really too dark to see a thing with torches so possibly come back in another week when wounds have healed. In the pitch dark of night the area is full of glow worms, but don't recommend a night visit.

Great site, took a bit of a bushbash to get to, and the occasional duck under overhanging treebranches. Interesting site, and a great place to put the cache. Be wary of supplejack vines and slippery rocks.

I’m not sure why I haven’t done this cache earlier really enjoy this type; decided today that the time had come to go and do it, and it seemed a fitting choice to bring up cache number 600 .

Started from the end of Sunny Grove and had no trouble locating the departure point off the main track, the co-ords given were spot on. Reached the engine in 32 minutes going at a fairly easy pace. A few fallen trees to scramble over but nothing too daunting .Had a munchy and drink break then went hunting for the cache. Found with out too much trouble.

Retraced my steps at a leisurely pace, stopping to take some photos along the way. Thanks ADV for another well set up and most enjoyable cache [^], I have learnt some interesting history here. Left my ‘Memory Map’ Topo printout of the area, and a calling card. (#600). SL 1130hr TFTC

Very pleased to have found this one today. I really enjoy the war relics. Have to agree - 30 minutes each way is fairly un-realistic for most people with the area in its current state. I had written the directions from motor to cache slightly wrong, but didn't want to come back - took over an hour to locate cache! With the rain today was quite a challenge resulting in one nasty slip and some bleeding! TNLN Thanks for an interesting cache

The trip up the stream took longer than posted, but there was a lot of storm debries blocking the way.
Would not be a good one to do if there had been a lot of rain as the stream may turn into a river!
Best cache found thus far and in excellent condition.
TNLNSL
TFTC

#476. A long walk in. Found the motor, and cache in good order. Lovely stream views. No muggles today.
- Gereta's Happy Caching Coin
- Slugger
LNSL. TFTC.

Teamed up with Linke and a mutual friend who has a strong interest in the aviation industry and another friend. We made a fundamental error early on by assuming the turn-off indicated in the description was on the Whakanui/McKerrow track as suggested by the signpost, which it isn't. Verified this on the return trip. After heading about 500m the wrong way we decided to 'bush whack' our way to the cache site (which was about 270m away at that point) and which we did without too many difficulties. Our return journey took about 30 minutes which was all downhill so I'd suggest allowing closer to 45 minutes from car to the motor. Was great to come here as we'd talked about wanting to find this about ten years ago but didn't know much about its location other than that it was around Skerrets Creek. So many thanks to ADV and Geocaching for helping me cross this off my 'to do sometime in my lifetime' list! Stunning scenery as well.

Decided been a local better get onto another local cache, havn't been up this way for so long so decided now was good. Had lots of fun running up to cache location, wasn't to worried about getting my feet wet and done in about 20mins!!! Found the motor with ease and then headed up to cache. Stopped for a few mins and stayed still while some muggles wondered on by, signed log dropped off some coins and headed back down, well rolled down the hill anyway. Another great cache, thank you to ADV!!

Dropped off this coin too.

Log suggest we were the fourth visit of the day. Long way up the steam, we got quite wet!
+ Gereta's coin Geo Coin
-Fan coin
TFTC

Found with Waiiti20. Even with 2 GPS's you can miss turn points!! Great fun bush crashing. TFTC.

This was a fun cache. Good navigation exercise, some off-track walking/wading and an interesting relic at the destination. Hunted for the cache around the wrong tree at first but soon realized where it had to be and it was then an easy find. Took geocoin, signed log. Thanks ADV for setting this one up, it's great!

What a fabulous way to spend Waitangi Day 2009 - Headed up here with my teenage B0rg (James) and worked our way up the creek, seeing large native Galaxiid fish in one of the deeper pools and a cool Giraffe beetle on the way! Managed to get wet feet and a skinned knee but finally seeing the engine and locating the cache was worth it!

When heading back we met a couple of muggles coming up the creek, who we stopped to chat to and it turns out that they had bumped into you Neil when you were placing the cache! The guy knew about Geocaching and confirmed there *was* a propeller section further upstream - We'll save that find for another time, perhaps when Kittyhawk Down II is published

Made some swaps and left behind the Kiwi to Crete GC (seemed fitting to leave it here...)

A very memorable cache in all respects, one of the best, so thank you very much ADV for bringing us here

FTF
Had a late start at work today so decided on an early morning walk to start the day,looked into the history of the crash myself a few years ago.as i've been hiking these hills for years,but never got around to getting up to the engine or the wreckage before,had my hiking boots on so didnt worry too much about staying out of the water except for the deep bits ,found the engine nice and easy,how can you miss it! the local story goes ,that some guys tried to bring the engine down from the wreck and gave up,personally i dont blame them and think they were insane for trying to begin with ,its been where it is ever since.this is why the engine is so far from the original crash site, Once I got to the engine the instructions as to how to get the cache were easy enough.found nice and easy
- FTF prize
+ Geocaching lanyard

TFTC

Thanks for giving me a reason to finally get up here at long last

2rd to find 1 hour up the river we find the motor 5 mins after we find the cache . thanks for the walk in and out will be back
to do this one again when Jr member is older thanks

Oh well great spot for a cache, rang a fellow cacher (Taybee) and asked if he would like to go for a FTF not knowing that it had gone but we would try. Once we got off the beaten track the bush bashing and rock hopping started, I noticed a few broken trigs and branches, Me thinks someone has being in today, me was right once me got to the cache, Boo Hoo me on 3rd to find beaten to the FTF by Roaming Kiwi and 2nd to find by 1 minute by the Taybee’s, no wet bum but great scenic / bush view, first time ever for a cache like this was worth it in the end as we managed to find the GZ. TFTC, took torch, LNSL (574)

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