Marawhara Memories Piha (Auckland) Piha, North Island, New Zealand
By Susiedog on 07-Nov-09. Waypoint GC20R5D

Can CO please confirm this is still there please. 6yrs between finds and the final location looks like a waste land now.

We tried to figure this one out, but the map appears to be different to that in the cache page photos. Not sure if numbers have changed but we couldn't get the co-ordinates to make sense.

Obtained coords easily, but got it slightly wrong and realised when I wandered into the track. Exited and revised the coords, and I realised where I was wrong. Unfortunately, there was a kauri die back compliance officer who was watching my every move and questioned me on what I was doing. I quickly denied any caching, and left promptly.

Stopped at pub coords a few days ago for photos & then worked out possible coords back at our accommodation. Checked with a previous finder we were sort of right & yep, all ok.
Out walking early today & really enjoyed walking to GZ. Made a nice quick find. TFTC

I finished up work this morning and decided to take advantage of the lovely Autumn weather by taking a walk. Having completed one walk and having had some refreshments at the general store I headed over to GZ for this multi. I had visited the way-point a little while ago and worked out a likely set of coordinates for the final. But, on that day there was a wedding (!) being held at GZ, so searching was impossible. Back today and I had the area to my self. After a good search, including much widening of the search area I still hadn't found the elusive final. Checked by notes and decided one digit could be adjusted. This got me closer and after further consideration of the hint I was finally able to make the find. In a spot I had searched earlier, just not well enough apparently. Cheers for the multi cache placement!

Headed out to Piha with Merlot58 and Jag50. We were heading up to the Marawhara waterfall and happened to park in the carpark at the posted coordinates for this multi. So took a picture and figured out the coords. We decided to pick this up on our way to our destination. Took a little searching to find the right spot even with the hint, but got there in the end. Lovely walk up to GZ.

Headed out to Piha with Merlot58 and Aiden29 early to beat the crowds and the heat. We were going to the Marawhara waterfall and just so happened to park in the carpark at the posted coordinates for this multi. Once we had figured out the answers we decided to pick this up on our way to our destination. With a bit of effort we finally found GZ.

Nice little multi after a day of stream bashing down the Marawhara stream from Anawhata Road down to here.
TFTC

We came to do this one after we decided that it was going to be too hot on the sand for Albert the Geohound's paws today. We were a bit concerned judging by some logs that the coordinates would be hard to work out but we didn't have any problems once we worked out the idea of "x". Perhaps the clue has changed over time.

We had a lovely walk to GZ, the nikau palms are spectacular on the way, well worth the walk. Once we got the right spot we looked a bit aimlessly before we had a good look at the hint and decided where that might mean the cache is. Sure enough once we applied the hint it only took us a few minutes to find the geocache. Nice size and plenty of swag too. We did a little swap and signed the log. The TB listed doesn't appear to be in the cache, unless we missed something.

Nice geocache and a nice memorial to your nana, thanks for placing this here.

When I heard about this memorial cache for Susiedog which is being maintained by her family I was very moved .
As we were on a walk to get some nearby caches up the stream at the time , we stopped off on the way back to hunt for the cache .
Good camo on lid !
Great idea to use the Boards to calculate the co ords.!
Fave point. ..
All good here at gz.

This was a juicy challenge to take on at the end of our walk to Whites Beach and back. The determination of X had us baffled for a good while but then inspiration! Arriving in the GZ, we then appreciated the clue but still there was work to be done to find the cache itself. It proved to be a combination of good teamwork, inspiration and some graft but the satisfaction of finding this was immense. TB left and a favourite awarded-it was challenge and I think a lovely memory for Susiedog. Thanks to her her family for this cache.

Couldn't find this one. Did my math at the first stage, and made sure to do the right thing for X. I think my coordinates were right, as I went up on a stream side trail and ended up in a grassy opening. I didn't find the container where my GPSr zeroed out, and then I widened out to check out many other spots around the grassy area, but I couldn't find anything. DNF.

What a lovely way to honour your nana's memory. I had never been to this part of Piha before and loved the walk through the bush, so beautiful! Nice job on the cache container too. Picked up the TB and will move it on soon. Fav point added

"Marawhara Memories Piha" now back and upgraded and restocked, has a travel bug in ready to be carried to a new location. Hope we didn't inconvenience any fellow cachers while we did maintenance.

Found ours nanas cache again after a big search and have taken it off line to do some maintenance.

Cache temporally unavailable for owner maintenance.

Joined up with yorkshirekiwi83 today to clean up a few more caches around Piha. We worked on the numbers a few weeks ago, eventually working out where the final would be, but not having enough time to go and find it. So we returned today to locate the cache. After a nice walk to GZ, the cache was soon found. Thanks for the cache!

Picked up a TB.

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Vistra and I worked out the coords last time we were out here, it took a while and plotting many different options on maps until we had the option we wanted and then worked out backwards what the question and answer were. If you get the answer 8 or 9 you are incorrect, dont take the number as the full number use the digits and be literal.

When we got to site, there was a perfect spot for it and searched it pretty thoughly, but no, was near though. TFTC


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It took a little while to determine 'x' but the clue was pretty straight forward and the cache was soon found. Picturesque clearing. TFTC!

Take some tradeables!!!

We took a lot of new geocaching friends on our walk today. We are all familiar with Piha, but it was fun to explore the area with a treasure hunt challenge. We got our coordinates wrong, but with the help of the photos and logs we were able to find it pretty easily and there was a lot of excitement over all the trinkets to trade.

A nice quick find here this morning while in the area picking up a few other caches. A nice spot for the final, dropped in a trackable too, TFTC!

Out and about with some very keen cachers today going to a new cache 'Marawhara Falls' , one of us who had done this cache was able to give me and the others a clue to the final. All good here!

Out with RustyNZ and Rebel98 and the Muggle crew celebrating a significant Birthday, had a go at solving this but clearly made a significant error, all was not lost we had not walked this beautiful track. Came to the afore mentioned clearing and one of the muggles calls out "this looks like a geocache" and a geocache it was, how was that for luck? Now we have to work backwards to se what we should have solved in the first place. Putting it back was a bit more of a problem, where did it come from? Put it back to what looked like a good spot, have attached a spoiler image and emailed CO with the co-ords where he cache can be found. Thank you for sharing this beautiful spot.

Found with a group of cachers and muggles, funny enough a muggle found the cache thanks for bringing us to this beautiful spot Tftc

I visited the boards last night to gather together the required information for the multi. Then rebel98, urbanygypsynz, myself and 3 muggles returned for a discussion around the boards to come up with some co-ords. We then started our walk along the track, and eventually one of our group (muggle) called out that they had found something, and it was the cache!

The co-ords I had calculated where way out, so I created a waypoint and will try to reverse engineer the numbers. The log looks like it had been signed by a few muggles, but at least the contents are dry and not trashed. A cool adventure, beautiful day, and I learnt about "Monkey" rock, which now needs a visit and a climb. Thanks for the hide, lovely location for a cache

A nice day to visit Piha to find the first geocache in the new year. After breakfast in the close by cafe left my mom on the beach to collect the final. Some month ago I already collected the info's but as well had issues with X. Received help from CO and finding the geocache today didn't provide any issues. TFTC

Questions & answers were quite confusing, and coupled with terrible weather we didn't attempt. Doubt we'll try again unless the questions are re-written

Owner please change the clue and fix the cache it smelt bad.

Difficult find because coordinates were wrong-but found it in the end.

There were a few ambiguous answers to the clue which gave strange coordinates-very frustrating. I think the clue needs rewriting as the kawakawa refered to isnt the obvious or dominant plant surrounding the cache anymore. Found the cache by just searching in the general area as it wasnt covered-just sitting there. Covered it over so its not so obvious to passing people.

A plan was hatched last night to make an attempt on "Holey Mercey" cache in Piha with Nova and HPG, so we turned it into a day adventure and found some caches on our way up and on the way home.

This one was a bit of a head scratcher. We worked out most of the numbers but couldn't get a sensible answer. Looking on the topo maps on the GPS I kinda gathered where it might be, so while the others were still crunching the numbers, I went on a quick scouting mission. Found a spot that looked right and had a quick look around but didn't find anything. Took a waypoint, and ran back to the number crunchers with my findings.

We settled on some coordinates that we though looked good and we headed to GZ. Took us a while to find the cache, after reading a few logs to try and eek out some more clues. The hint is in need of an update.

Was up in Auckland to collect the cache, holey mercy. We were collecting caches in the area and on the way home. It was a long day but always glad to add another smilie to the list.

This cache took us a long time to calculate as the directions were a bit obscure. Being a math teacher I had to cringe, changing the word number to digit for the final instruction would help a lot. Also at GZ the hint makes no sense. We only found it when we saw a small pile of rocks that didn't look natural

Out on a caching mission with Novalightning and HKCB to knock off Holy Mercy. Of course we couldn't ignore the other caches in the area so we left Hamilton early to get in a full days caching.


We thought 3 brains would make short work of this multi... well it took a lot longer than expected. A bit of guesswork at the sign on what numbers meant what but soon figured out something that looked plausible. A LOT of searching round GZ using hint item. Feeling very defeated so re read logs and found some more hints on where to look and bingo.

Couldnt understand the questions. To many x.

Found it today with one of the cache owners (I had to solve it myself). Needs a new box as this one has water in it. Will replace next time we are out there. Thanks Nana.

Have been meaning to do this one for ages and finally took the time to do it this evening with lemski. No initial trouble with the board until we experienced the same X interpretation as others have. Reverse engineered a number for X that looked right and then saw how we were supposed to interpret the instruction.

Nice walk to GZ and found the cache without too much bother. It's in a bit of a state but all good for writing on at this stage. Nice little multi - TFTC

Collected the information and found the walkway. Pretty sure we were in the right place but no luck with finding the cache. Awesome area though.

I am very new to this, and was pleasantly surprised to discover this cache so close to my work, in a place we frequent often for walks and picnics. Today during our eel catching adventure, I took the opportunity to introduce my peers to geocaching, and take them on a little adventure. Lots of fun had by all, and great excitement when the cache was found, and lots of fun had exploring the treasures inside. We will be returning on our next trip to exchange some items. TFTC [^]

We also had trouble with the last number, so did a process of elimination until we came up with the most likely spot on the map. Made sense once we got to the track start, matching with cache name.
Had a lovely walk to GZ, and found an area matching the description in the cache notes. Then the searching began. Checked hint, and logs.... spent 30 minutes plus eliminating and checking the cache page photos to match against the hint....
Eventually found in nested in at GL, 6m north of solved WP, hid in a manner that made no sense of the hint!
For future seekers, think LEFT of path. A great final location, an easy walk along a historic track. Thanks for bringing us here.
Rescued the jeep trackable.

I made hard work of this cache, but finally found it.
Good to see some hardcore GCers also had difficulty with this one
The cache is very well stocked with goodies so did some swaps

This is one of the caches with a story behind that you'll not forget about. The first time we were at Piha to get the data for the final, our car's battery decided to die. So we had to involuntarily spend half an hour to wait for the AA battery service and give our little faithful Nissan a kick. Back home (after getting a new battery), we struggled a bit with the coordinates, but ended up with a result that looked promising. That was 6 months ago.
Today, the unexpected sunny Winter Saturday and the Auckland Photography Festival brought us out to Piha again and we wanted to finish this cache. The only problem was that we had no idea what the hint meat. So while searching, we turned up a lot of empty bottles, but no box. Then, just as we were about to leave, Rumo nearly stepped on it. Sometimes the thing you want is not in but close to the obvious.
Under the watching eyes of a curious fantail flitting around us, we went through the surprisingly good contents of the cache and swapped a wee bit.
Took: Dolphin, Geocoin, Shells, 6 bottles from the surroundings
Left: Rubber fluggball, Tiki, Motivational button, Silica satchel for the logbook
TFTC

Proud to say that we actually worked out what X should be (Clue: Don't use any maths). Then we had a devil of a time at Ground Zero. GPSr seemed to be jumping around today, not giving us a clear fix. The clue helped, but it was still quite a hunt because of the camo.

Thanks for the cache!

put this in our cache situated at Piha Beach West Coast North Island New Zealand. Hopefully will be moved along soon

13:40
First we failed the with clue, but on the way back the penny dropped. TFNC
Carolin & Matthias

Out with TWS on a great day for caching. Like others, couldn't make sense of X so we got creative. Our first choice turned out to be pleasant indeed and the description matched. Mmmm, pepper!
Search took a little while - nice camo. although a sturdier container would ensure longevity. Cheers!

X marks the spot they say. Guestimatted X value and came up trumps.

Lovely wee walk and cute camo on the final.

Thanks for setting up.

TFTC

Like Sp8s got rather confused with X. Played around with the numbers and went to where we thought we should be, then couldn't find a thing (didn't have the stick). Hunted and hunted. Rang Sp8s for confirmation that we were in the right place - we were. Then hunted and hunted, and finally, hot and bothered, found it. This is a great walkway, lovely trees. TFTC

Struggled a bit to get a sensible answer for X, but the topos on the GPSr made it easy to comfirm or deny the answers I was getting. No problems at GZ had it in hand in a couple of minutes. Nice camo job, but not sure the box will take to many probes from walking sticks.

TFTC, +/- geocoin

Went with the people who hid the cache ( my nana and poppa) found in the first 5 min all by ourselves!!, cool box IN:geocoin, compass and keyring OUT: dolphin and card set TFTC

[This entry was edited by blackmanfamily on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 10:40:51 PM.]

Kiwicouple's First to Find Geocoin visiting.

Turned out to be not as hard as we thought. Went back today and met kiwicouple at the cache site for a joint (after all the effort we collectively put in the other day) find. They had actually located the cache before I arrived and were relaxing on the grass, but they were waiting for me so we could all make a joint FTF. Took the geocoin. TFTC!!!

Got confirmation from the cache owner that we had calculated the correct co-ords, and that the cache definitely was there. Decided to have another look after work, and contacted FMZ to give him the opportunity for the deserved joint FTF after so many hours searching for this cache.
And this time the well-hidden cache which had eluded us for so long was found within minutes. How on earth had we missed it?
Joint FTF with FMZ

# 980

Tried again today and spent about 2.5 hours searching. Kiwicouple arrived and joined the search not long into it. There seemed to be an obvious area to search but 3 of us scoured it, moved everything, searched inside, under, around everything, and searched everywhere else around the clearing and came up with nothing. Both of us were consistently drawn to the same spot, kind of out on the grass, but near enough to where thought the hint meant - although unless we're not understanding a hidden meaning, there were a number of places to which it could refer. Ah well, better luck to the next visitor.

Worked out the co-ordinates and they took us to a grassy clearing where we found Funkymunkyzone searching for the cache. Joined in and searched . . . and searched . . . and searched. Checked every example of the hint items around the clearing and further afield. No cache to be found . Gave up just before dark after nearly 2 hours on the hunt.
Disappointed not to make the find, but appreciate what a nice spot this is, with the stream curving around the clearing. It would be a lovely place to be in summer.

Published

Eventually got the coords right (don't know what I was thinking the first time) but they put me smack bang in the middle of the clearing. Moved around a bit as I searched around the clearing but always took me back to the centre, which wasn't altogether helpful because there are quite a few of "those plants" around. After a good half hour, maybe a little more, of searching and scratching around various flora by torchlight, had to give up and come home.

On the plus side, if you visit at night, cross the stream and walk a bit further there are quite a few glow worms around the stream.

Just adding the TB and Geo put in the new cache