Stop over (Waikato) Huntly West, North Island, New Zealand
By eyespyben on 22-Nov-10. Waypoint GC2JK5B

Can we please get this cache closed down due to the complex closed down and not there enymore and hasd moved on now it is a empty building's and nothing there so i chose to re colect the cache and close it down .

cheers Ben.

Nice quick grab. Thanks for the cache.

In the absence of a MEGA event this Labour Weekend, Keylev had spent some time planning a Mega Mysterious Weekend for members of Team SEAC (a group of cachers from south and east Auckland who often cache together). Today's plan was to head south and find as many caches as we could around the Huntly area. In the group today is HeMaLuDy, Stik-a-Crane, NurseDr, Keylev, UncleSamNZ, Liverkiwi. Logs were sighed SEAC or Team SEAC to save space. It ended up being a long day and a bit - leaving the start point at 9 am and returning home after 1:30 am the following day.
The hint was more helpful here than the coordinates. So sad to see this area looking so forlorn, obviously an impact of covid and the new motorway.

Last year, Team SEAC members went on a road trip down to Cambridge to clear out as many of the caches in that town and its surrounding areas. On the way home from that trip, we stopped off in Huntly to do the night cache. After completing the night cache, we vowed to come back to Huntly and grab as many of the caches in that area as we could. Today was that day.

This place brings back memories. I remember stopping here a few times for something to eat and a pit stop. Oh, how the place has changed since the by-pass has been put in place. This used to be bustling with tourist busses spewing out tourists of all nationalities taking pictures of Huntly Power Station across the river. Now, it is more akin to a ghost town.

We parked as close as we could to GZ and then proceeded to walk closer. As we got closer, everybody fanned out as per the directions of their GPS units. We heard calls of "I'm still x meters away" when somebody said "Well, I'm 0 meters away" as they produced the cache from its hiding place.

The log was signed as Team SEAC to preserve log space.

TFTC

Labour Weekend has historically been a minimum 3 day Team SEAC all out adventure so a little while ago I started planning some fun for us. After a walking day yesterday, today was a driving one and more about the numbers and clearing out an area we have had our eyes on for a while. Ended up being a massive day (left home around 8.30am and got home at 1:40am!)....it wasn't called a Mega Mysterious Weekend for nothing. Enjoyed the fun with friends...just like the 'old' times.

Whilst most looked in the wrong spot, Mr LiverKiwi went elsewhere and came up with the find. The coords seemed off but follow the hint as that makes sense. Sad to see the centre and cafe all closed down here.

Thanks for the cache.

Day 2 of our Labour weekend caching mission, and also happens to be a significant day for me yearly...... Our group decided to head down Huntly way for a good variety of cache types and then head inland and back up to Auckland.....some of use a little jaded from the impromptu high elevation gain hike yesterday, we eased ourselves into search mode.....

Signed is as SEAC to save logbook space and allowing us more time to enjoy the area which surprised us as to how many scenic places are hiding in Huntly....

Thanks to all the CO's for hiding and maintaining caches here.....and to mother nature for the awesome weather we had......

The hint was a nice assistance here....

TFTC.

Out on a long weekend adventure day with team SEAC. TFTC.

Did not find

Easy find after a few helpful hints. TFTC

Easy find once looking in the right spot! Thanks to _parrydise_ for finding that right spot!!

Disappointing to see this area all closed up. Made us hard but found it

Bit of hunting as navigate is within 3 meters so sit and then look around.

Stayed the night in Huntly at the campground on Lake Hakanoa. A delightful place with lots of caches around for us to look for. Got up early and headed out on my bike before it gets too hot. Meant to be 29 degrees later. Nobody about this early and no trouble finding the cache. Thanks eyespyben for the sm

Took a few minutes, but got there. Thanks.

A good hint and a nice quick find, very quiet around here, hope things pick up soon...TFTC

Found, good clue

Found

Quick stop at this deserted spot.

Nice quiet rest stop

.p

This one took awhile. I found the cache sodden inside so added pill container and log. Tftc

tftc got questioned why i was there due to this area and both business being closed down now they thought it was suspect so in the process of explaining what i was doing i believe i forgot to sign log book so will go back and do this in the next few days or at least check to be sure i did

Done a check today all good still waiting to be found still

On trip south first cache of the day

Co-ordinates were a few meters out so persistence paid off. Quick coffee at Cafe & away again. Tftc

Found it eventually using the clue - not where the gps was indicating though.
+ a marble, - nothing.

Found. Nice spot for a coffee.

I-Centre was closed so it was much fun to play in the area. Spotted nice hiding spot after short search. Left TB. T4TC

Found on a stop of the bus from Auckland to Waitomo. After a re-reading of the hint it was an easy find.
Thanks for the cache and greetings from Sweden.

*Arrived to New Zealand and Auckland from Stockholm, Sweden via Bangkok for a two week group travel. In Auckland we toured the city, sailed in the harbor and visited Waiheke Island. Continued with bus to Rotorua via Huntly and the interesting Waitomo Caves. Outside Rotorua we visited Wai-o-tapu, the impressive and active geothermal area, and the Tamaki Maori Village. Continued by air to Wellington with a visit to the museum Te Papa and the exhibition about Gallipoli as well as the cable car up to the Botanical Garden. The next day we went by ferry to the South Island in very nice weather accompanied by dolphins/purpoises. Via the Marlborough vine district we came to Nelson were we stayed two nights. The next day we went to Abel Tasman National Park, a lovely day trip by boat and foot. Then by bus to Hokitika via Murchinson, Punakaiki (the impressive pancake rocks) and Greymouth (beer tasting at the Monteith’s brewery). The day after it started to rain on the way to Franz Josef and it rained heavily on the walk to the Franz Josef Glacier of which we saw nothing. The leap day was spent by bus to Wanaka via Lake Matheson (with a nice walk around the lake and a view of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman), Haast and Makarora. The next day we continued to Te Anau via Cromwell, Gibbston Winery and Kawarau Bridge (with bungy jumps but not me). The next day we went to Milford Sound in the Fiordland National Park. Luckily it was opened a few days earlier after heavy rains that damaged the road, so the bus traffic was restricted with convoy driving three times a day. The boat trip in the fjord was very very nice. After that we travelled via Te Anau to Queenstown, the last stop. The day after was spent sightseeing and geocaching with a last dinner at Walter Peak High Country farm with a boat trip on Lake Dunstan with TSS Earnslaw. The next morning we started the long way back to Sweden via Auckland and Bangkok. All in all a very nice group travel to a very nice country!*

Finally found this cache after a few attempts. TFTC

This tin was found good at a coffee stop.
Thanks for this cache
Pöni.

Finally a chance to grab one during a tour stop!
Not what I’d call a key case, but a find is a find.
Number 878 overall and #1 for the day.
SL/TFTC!

Tftc nice wee hide found with Mrs Tuolei

Not lucky today. Shop next door has wonder will RN products and nice snacks.

It's sad to see the Huntly iSite is permanently closed.
Tftc

Wir fahren mit dem Autobus nach Auchland. Vielen dank für den Cache.

The coach stopped here on our way to Auckland - everyone else went for a drink in the café - we went in search of this cache! SL. TFTC

Got this one on our way back to Auckland, tftc!

Collecting caches around Huntly today still had a bit of time before heading home so stopped off here to collect this one.A good hiding spot and liked the message inside.My dad loved aeroplanes so reminded me of him a lot.

Had a great day in Huntly picking up some caches. The weather was beautiful and giving us a taste of summer. Thanks to all the COs for taking me to Huntly’s interesting places Luckily quiet here today TFTC

Couldn't sign log, lost my poem between this cache and the previous one!

Quick find on the way back from Hobbiton and the glow worm caves. Great tour with Auckland Scenic! Thanks for the cache.

Found on a lazy Sunday drive home from Hamilton. Nice easy find

Nice easy find on a Sunday drive

Forgot pen. Lol

Mr Northwood had to make the airport round trip to pick up a family member. So he took the opportunity to stop along the way for a few caches.. some missed on previous trips, some not tried before. Weather was fine enough, if cold and windy.. but it is winter!

But the afternoon didn’t get off to a good start with first dogs at DEKA and now people picnicking right on this one!

Found at last at the third attempt. Widened search zone and found about fifteen metres from GZ.

Easy

Second time we've failed at this one.

In the area telling naughty people to stop making so much noise, I couldn't resist but grab a couple of caches on my drive.

I remember Becsicasa and I tried this a considerable time ago and failed.. I can see why, I remember the GPS was pointing a distance away than where I found it early this morning. The GPS on that phone wasn't overly reliable. Nice to tick this one off though! Said hello to Remy who came over to investigate what I was up to, he must have been in a good mood, he even let me pat him.

Grabbed TB!

The Central North Island, Day 5: National Park - Hamilton - Auckland

It’s Christmas Day, and the end of this incredible journey through the North Island. Today’s weather was quite a mixed bag with some rain, some sun and some wind. This didn’t dampen the mood though, as we drive North through King Country and Waikato to get a sampling of the history of the region. A very productive day throughout, despite the weather, and a great Christmas Day!

The following is the specific log for each cache:
Another quick cache find, but I had to walk in as the gates were locked for Christmas. Good thing is that there was absolutely no muggles about here, so this was a very peaceful hunt. Searched in a few wrong places before coming up with the goods. TFTC!

Hope you move on soon

Done a check today log book all good

Thanks for dry cache. Nicely tucked away .

Neuseeland und Australien im Frühling, der anscheinend besten Reisezeit
ein langgehegter Traum von ufridolin-Mann welcher nun in Erfüllung ging
mit dicht gedrängtem, aber sehr informativem Reiseprogramm ausgestattet
beginnend mit dem Flug von Zürich nach Singapur (wo natürlich auch gleich der Cache im Schmetterlingsgarten geholt werden musste)
Weiterflug nach Auckland, welches wir nach 25-stündiger Anreise wohlbehalten erreichten
nun wurden erstmal 2 Tage lang diese Stadt der Segel erkundet mit allem was dazu gehört - Stadtrundfahrt mit dem Hafen, dem Kriegsmuseum usw
nun Weiterfahrt nach Rotorua, dasThermalzentrum Neuseelands,
hier erwartete uns ein "Hangi" das typische ursprüngliche im Erdofen gegarte Festmahl der Maori
es gab aber immer wieder ein Zeitfenster in welchem ein Cache gesucht und auch gefunden werden konnte
tolle, abwechslungsreiche Landschaften, so vieles erwartete uns, welches nun nach und nach aufgearbeitet wird
vielen Dank an alle Owner für die Aufgaben und für's Hegen und Pflegen
TFTC und liebe Grüsse aus Liechtenstein ufridolin #13320

A great view of the Power Station from here. This was the last of your finds we got today eyespyben. Time was running out - we got one more in Taupri before arriving at our friends in Melville, Hamilton for the night. Fortunately for us, our friend wanted a walk that evening so he took us to the Hamilton gardens where we got a few more caches for the day. I'll have to come back as there's plenty more caches in this area and I'd like to do the caches on the other side sometime as well. A good hint, no muggles around, we soon found the cache. Thanks for all your effort placing and maintaining caches

On a long trip down to the mega with Lis's crew. So for me it good for numbers and favorites caches. With several stops and a lot of caches and several souvenirs up for grabs the trip was the perfect opportunity to get my numbers up and get some challenges that I have qualified for. For today we managed 25 which is good. Thanks to all the CO's for placing and maintaining the caches.

What an awesome tribute to dad! Xxx

In View Power Station.
Thanks

What a cool way to remember your dad! Thanks

Tftc

Took a while to find.
GPS 10! metres out
Thanks for the cache
#126

A crew from BOP and Jag50 and I teamed up to become BOPnJam and hit Huntly to get numbers for the Hidden Creatures souvenirs. The weather played nice for us and we had a pretty successful day with only a couple of dnfs. Another quick park and grab before heading home

Out for a day's caching with Team BOPnJam. What? there are lakes in Huntley!!!!
We went for a wander around the lakes and the rest of Huntley and found what we could find, only a couple of DNF's for the day, pretty happy and not so late night.

Out caching with Team BOPnJAM. The aim of the day was to clear as much of Huntly as possible.
Another quick park and grab to boost the days total.
TFTC

Another big trip planned this time in an effort to obtain all the Hidden Creature Souvenirs. Team BOP (Davidson clan, McJandals, Frogybecaching, TNXPro & myself) joined with a couple of Westies (Jag50&Merlot58) to fill up the van and clear Huntly off the caching map We signed the logs as BOPnJAM for expedience and to save on log space.

A nice park and grab to end our time in Huntly. Cache found quickly thanks to a previous finder and a straight forward placement. I really enjoyed our time here - so much so that'll I'll have to return because there's just a couple we didn't get to. Cheers eyespyben, TFTC.

***

**What are you doing Labour Weekend 2018? Wellington is set to host New Zealands largest Geocaching Event of the year! Check out the details on the [WENZ Website](https://sites.google.com/site/wenzgeo2018/home) or visit the event's [Facebook Page](https://www.facebook.com/groups/590545297801072/). Once you're registered and have logged your attendance on the [WENZ Event Page](https://www.geocaching.com/…/GC78NMQ_wenz-event-2018-wellin…) you're all set, see you there.**

We joined up with a team from the BOP and Merlot58 to collect caches for the Hidden Creature souvenirs. Signed the logs as BOPnJAM to save room on the log. Another quick park and grab and one of our last caches found before heading home.

With Hidden Creature souvenirs up for grabs. A plan was hatched with our Westie buddies. We were all ready for a stormy rainy day but the weather gods were good to us today with no rain until getting home at 10pm. A fun day was had by all and many thanks To all the COs for giving us a reason to come here. We had a nice mixture of cache containers, types, DTs and hides. We signed as BOPnJAM to save room on the logs. Please excuse my cut and paste logs in advance due to numbers. Cheers

Found with DisSister on our coach tour of the North Island. A popular stopover for sure. A quick find whilst everyone was enjoying a cuppa inside. Thanks eyespyben

Morning tea stopover on our coach tour. I headed here whilst every headed to the cafe. Cache was found safe and dry. TFTC, eyespyben.

I was making this far harder than it should have been. Had a break, a coffee and a sandwich and found it immediately. TFTC.

Our tour made a stop here so the first thing I did was check my GPS to see if I had any nearby caches loaded.
Pretty easy find here.
Thanks for giving me an extra reason for the stop here.

Stopped off for an ice cream and grabbed this while we were here. GPS slightly out but soon found by Mrs M

Visiting from the US. Tour bus stopped here. After a restroom break, I saw there was a cache close, so Mrs. Surfcap and I made the quick find. TFTC.

Nice quick find on our way through to Hamilton. Would have found it quicker had my GPS been more accurate
TFTC

TFTC
Quick stop as we continue north after a day of caching.

Found it!!

Day four of our New Zealand tour.

Quick coach stop here. Took a TB , there was only one there.

Left a new log in a bag.

TFTC

Nice hide, found on our tour of NZ with Densmob, TFTC

Nice hide log bit wet but managed to sign it
SL, TFTC

Huntley in the house!

Daughter and I on road trip. Picking up caches on the way. First stop first find!

Gps bouncing all over the be place...Gave up on that and used our commonsense

This is our first overseas cache ever! We found this wonderful little cache in the beautiful land of the long white cloud. We are so happy to receive our New Zealand badge that we left the Trackable we picked up at the book Nook in Australia yesterday. There was no Trackable here to swap though, just a very soggy logbook that might need some maintenance.

This is Kelligula and my first find overseas (first of many!) in the beautiful New Zealand.
TFTC

Last time here looked in totally the wrong place! THis time I as I stood on the grass at GZ and looked around it was far quieter... Last time a bus of travelling muggles stopped, this time it was just me and my thoughts... Last time I search the natural structures.. this time I didn't spend more than 30 seconds on them before looking around and thinking hmmmm... didn't search there last time... Finally found it in the third place i searched this time. Its amazing how having the place to yourself makes it far easier to search! Right, onwards to auckland

My children couldn't kind a pitch fork in a bucket of hay

On our way down to Hamilton and had to make a stop to let out the dog. Not soon later it was a fortuitous stop because I need to "go" too - thank goodness for the stop across the road. Turning on the GPSr, just in case, I see there is one really close. Managed the find ok but not in a place that matched the clue and in the weather - attested by the wetness inside. I dried it out and signed the temp log Gorby put in when he visited (remarkably dry considering the water in the container). Of course, I didn't have a pen on me and GAR went back across the road for one while I did the drying out. Replaced very close in a place that more matched the hint and hopefully not as wet. Thanks for placing eyespyben - you might want to check on this one re position and log.

Came here latish at night and found the cache not quite where the co-ords told me to look! But anyway after expanding the search it was found out in the open so after signing myself in I put the cache back under out of sight.

log later

What a day!!!! We left Auckland at 7am with our tour guide for the 2+ hour trip up to the Hobbiton Movie Set. After our visit to the set we started our way to the Waitomo Caves. Finally we ended our day with a nice Ice Cream stop on the way back to Auckland.

I want to personally thank the CO for the nearby cache we did here as it gives me a place to share some of our pictures with caching friends back home. This was day 3 of our 22 day trip through New Zealand and Australia.

TYFC
--Team Kingsnu
Exploring the world one cache at a time
~~The only person any of us needs to be better than is the one we were yesterday~~
~~Sometimes you never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory~~

Thanks for the cache. This is our find number 670 and we found it at 3:09:50 PM NZDT on 26 February 2017. Found on our way home from the Bruce Springsteen Concert last night. Nice location and hide.

First geocache found on our honeymoon road trip. Thanks for the trackable!

First cache of the day on our trip south. Nice easy find and picked up a travel bug. TFTC

At first I was looking in the wrong spot, but then I moved to the right place. Once I was there, the hint enabled me to make a quick find. Signed the log. TFTC!

First geocache! Good find on our way to Auckland

Quick find this morning with eltee291. Visiting from Canada and driving from Auckland to New Plymouth today. Signed the log and replaced as found. Dropped a tb. Thanks for the cache!

Quick find today with hingis20. We are vacationing in NZ from Victoria, BC, Canada and are on our way to Blenheim. We were driving through town and stopped to see if there was a cache nearby and sure enough there was. TFTC

On our way to the Waitomo Gloworm Caves and decided to stop off here for a quick find. SL and replaced as found. Dropped off Friendly Elephants TB.

Found as part of our "2016 Pensioners' Road Trip"

Many thanks to eyespyben for setting this cache and greetings from the Isle of Man.

Cache number 4955

Dropped off Friendly elephants TB. Found log to follow.