McKerrow Track Wainui Views (Wellington) Lower Hutt, North Island, New Zealand
By agcnz on 21-Apr-12. Waypoint GC2XNTQ

It's another size Regular dot-day. And it's the weekend, so that means something further afield, that not really achievable midweek after work. Well, the last two Saturdays I came up here, and as this is the mountain that keeps on giving, I may as well come up here again. Got off the bus near the end of Hine Road before dawn, but there was just enough light to see on the track without needing a torch (I did bring one just in case). Man it's cold, and I wondered if I had brought not enough clothes. But once on the slope I realised I had brought too many, and it wasn't long before gloves, beanie and polar fleece were stuffed into the pack.Looks like they are setting up for a race or mountain challenge of some sort - the route to the McKerrow/Whakanui junction was marked with long and short route markers. They both turned left to stay on the Whakanui, I turned right onto McKerrow and to this cache.The cache was an easy find, mainly because, as I said, I have travelled this route before, and had prefound all the caches ready for these dot days. The cache had about 600ml of water in it (odd, the lid was on properly) but the inner container was bone dry. Double containering! Yes! That is where it is at!! Dropped in a trackable and headed back down again.Two more regulars up here still to claim, and plenty more weekend dot days to do it in. I will be back. It's rather a nice walk, even if it is a bit of a slog. And the boggy bits are a bit too boggy. Still gets a favourite Anyway. Another regular dot-day found, just... hang on... 27 to go.

What a pleasant find this one is! Was a little dubious about it as it hasnt been found in so long but knowing your native plants helps and found it soon after. Thanks heaps for setting this trail up. Ive come up from the cemetery in Wainui today. Been up here before but that was in the days before I was introduced to this mad sport. No views of Wainui today and way more than a sea breeze too

Who left this wide out in the open?!

This was the first stop on a maintenance run to refresh all my caches along this ridge. The container had some water in it and the logbook was very damp despite having been inside a plastic bag. The old contents have been removed except for a few plastic items which have been dried and replaced. The old Xeonic container has now been replaced with a larger camo-painted 2 litre Sistema container with a smaller Sistema container inside that. The new waterproof logbook is in the inner container in a plastic bag. Hopefully any future water ingress will be only to the outer container and the contents of the inner one will be protected. All good to go, happy caching!

Quick find, log only a bit damp. TFTC

Well it's already been 6 weeks since I was last on the McKerrow track, helping to re-bait the DOC200 traps along the way. So it's my turn again. Woke up to some rain but since it looked like it was going to ease off I waited an extra hour before making my way to Wainui. It was bucketing down when I drove over the hill but by the time I picked up my lures for the day and drove to Sunny Grove, that had stopped. I still wore full waterproofs because the vegetation was going to be quite wet, but apart from a bit of drizzle at the top the weather was fair, and even sunny for the last hour. I am grabbing a different cache each trip, and today was this one's turn. Took some finding as the hint led me a bit astray. Logbook a bit damp but was able to sign.

TFTC

Great spot, look out for the bush lawyer

Found during a trip with agcnz up Skerrets Creek He did a check on his Kittyhawk Down cache We then carried on up the creek to score Aces High #2 and returned via McKerrow Track
A quick find here Some minor condensation was dried out
Thanks agcnz

Great view. Thanks for the cache

Our second cache today (where we braced ourselves before heading down off-track to spy some Kittyhawk fuselage). A bit of water in the container which I tipped out but the pencil was growing a layer of fuzz. I didn't have a rubbish bag of my own (realised after we'd started, doh!) or anything to put it in to remove it unfortunately. Lucky I had my own pen today. Log was still usable inside the double bags but the moisture is gradually getting in. What a great track up here, always nice to get up a bit higher into the tussocks where it opens up for lovely views. We spotted the car in the Wainui Rec Area from back along the track a bit! Really neat, thanks for putting a cache here.

Found by Ned, the random kiwi tracker we met. Found with Gr33nslime also. More to follow

# 1507 Out here today to find a newly placed cache near the site of a historical plane crash, just off McKerrow track. Surprised to se jefraser as the last person to log this one, he must have done so when placing our target cache for today. We bumped into a random guy who was tracking kiwi with his antenna and radio. Had to spin the story about geocaching and he was super receptive and even found this cache for us. Nice to have a decent sized container finally today. All good inside, thanks agcnz for this one.

A nice quick find after walking up Skerrets Creek. Met a hunter near the cache and told him about the two goats I spotted en route. He headed off down the creek in hot pursuit.

A great day for hike up to McKerrow and with the bulk of the climbing behind me it was time to enjoy the walk along the ridge. This took me several minutes find as when I got around to the looking at the hint it provided distance-from-track information which seemed to be a bit misleading. The cache was nicely hidden but reachable from the track after all. TFTC.

Stopped here on the way past this afternoon to score a cache a bit further up the track. There was water in the container, probably due to somebody not ensuring that the seals were clean before closing it. Fortunately the logbook was OK in its bag. I have cleaned up the container, contents and seals, and added a second ziplock bag to protect the logbook. At some stage I’ll make another visit and replace the container with a much better one; however it’ll be OK for now.

I'm ashamed to admit I had to google what a Miro tree looks like and then it was a straightforward find without needing to go into the bushline.

#5466. Saturday dawned fine and clear with light winds. Time to head out into the bush and do another Welly Climbs cache and get some exercise climbing the hills around Wellington. I have never climbed Mt McKerrow before so that was a target cache of the day. All up 34,000 steps achieved so the legs have been pumping. Great views in places and some lovely tall forest of rimu, rata and kamahi plus some open groves of hard, silver and black beech. Nice variety. A good long steady climb up to this cache with the track gradient easing off after the Way to McKerrow cache. Was not as bad as I was expecting. The hint made for a nice quick find. Learning the names of our native trees as a teenager has proved a real bonus for geocaching in my dotage! Bit damp in the container so dried out contents as best I could. Signed the log and replaced the cache as found. Thanks for hiding it here agcnz. Have placed a few new caches on the track so you can come back up here some stage to enjoy the views again.

I'd had a moderately lengthy search here on the outward journey but I wasn't too concerned as this site wasn't too far to return to on another expedition. After leaving here and before returning, I managed to find the four further away caches and also do some googling that may be helpful in identifying a certain type of hint object.

After a few minutes of unsuccessful searching, I paused to put more emphasis on identifying the hint object rather than wandering randomly. I should have done this earlier as I did single out (although not with a high degree of confidence) an object that I had examined earlier. However, this time, I checked a spot that I didn't really expect the cache to be but there it was.

A very pleasing outcome. TFTC, agcnz.

Came up from Willis Grove, with the aim of doing a circuit up Mt Crowther and across to the McKerrow Track. I found the first two caches of the four to the south of here, but turned around because it was slower going than I'd hoped, and I didn't have a lot of time before I'd be missed.

It took a few moments to find this - there was only one hint object, but it was nicely hidden (almost in plain sight!?) The second lonely cache of the day. TFTC!

This was another target cache for this summer as part of my efforts to collect a few local quality caches in my own backyard. Also helpful for a challenge I'm currently working on. Left carpark at Sunny Grove end and, after taking several rest stops, got to cache in around an hour. Was about to commence my search when I was muggled by two runners!

Cache found after a short search, paperwork completed and a sense of satisfaction. Checking back, the ironic thing here is that I'd last been up here on 25 April 2012 on a walk with a group of friends to Mt McKerrow - when I saw this one released at the time I realised it would have been there already but not published!

Great to be up here again, I really enjoy getting up to these spots, and thanks go to Geocaching & agcnz for getting me out here. #7535, exchanged geocoins, gets a fav from us.

This entry was edited by waiiti20 on Saturday, 24 January 2015 at 07:03:35 UTC.

#5991. We took a good day tramp from Sunny Grove to Clay Ridge Track and back. It was very muddy in places en route. Saw this unusual purple fungus on the way. Great views at GZ. Quick find.
+Coco x-mas 2013
Took nothing, signed log. Thanks for the cache.


This entry was edited by huhugrub on Thursday, 04 December 2014 at 01:04:16 UTC.

Found it.

On the way back down now - this one was a nice easy find and right next to some spectacular views. TFTC !

I’m not sure where the nasty weather forecast for today got too! At 12 O’clock we had blue skies with white puffy cumulus clouds floating merrily by. So I decided to take a walk. I left “Sunny” Grove at about 1:30 and as I like to do walked to this the furthest one first and then made my way back stopping off to find the others as I went. A nice quick find here, cache and contents in good condition. Although I’d been up here before I thoroughly enjoyed my return visit this afternoon. Cheers and TFTC

Quick find and great views here today - passing through with some Duke of Ed boys. TFTC

Easy once you figure out what the 'clue' looks like.

Found on a breezy stroll up to McKerrow. TFTC

Quick find with The Wandering Dragons.

Cache #932 - did with Downunder Wanderer today, on our way to the top of McKerrow, which we didn't quite reach. Quickest find of the day. TNLNSL. TFTC!

What a fabulous track! Today was hot and sunny and I saw a total of 2 people on the way up to McKerrow and no-one on the way down. A fairly quick find after a revision of native trees. Cache nicely tucked away and dry. TFTC!

Lots of mud around up here today, but not many muggles.

We enjoyed the varied landscapes as we explored up here today. A reasonably quick find after a little bit of research in the field - good to have reception up here.

Some lovely views up here. Quick find - TFTC

Great walk up to McKerrow today. Nice to get some cache finds along the way. Good views. TFTC

More awesome views! TFTC

Nice quick find on our way through the McKerrow track, TFTC!!!

Quite easily seen from the track i hope it doesnt ger muggled.

One of 5 during a caching romp along the McKerrow ridge. Track much boggier in places than we had expected, so lots of mud running to be had. Fantastically still and fine day meant that the views were spectacular. We did the climb up from Sunny Grove, and trekked as far along as the Clay Ridge Views cache, then did a U turn and retraced our steps. In all, with photo stops, lunch and rest stops (not too many of these), we took around 5 and half hours for the return trip.

Cache find was pretty straightforward, all in order, signed the log and rebidden safely, as found.

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

Last one for today. Also good hide, had quite a search. Great views of Wainui from here. Out : TB. TFTC. Sherlock Hood.

FTF 1530hrs . Which was a nice surprise as after following a set of fresh bootprints up the hill I expected to find a the log already signed. The track was very wet with a lot of mud to negotiate a path around but was very enjoyable location for a walk and with nice views along the way. I found the well concealed cache after a bit of a search and then onwards and upwards. A great location - thanks for bringing me here.
+ Navy Wristband Collector Trackable Adventure Guide
TFTC

Published

Find #1191. The third cache out of eight for the walk today - with the 'cache-owner-in-chief' and the 'cache-finder-in-thief'. This was a good spot to rest and have a short break, with an additional cache as a bonus. This spot has some fantastic views looking northwest over Wainuiomata & beyond. I'm sure it'd even be better on a sunny day.

This is definitely a most well written cache description that I am rather jealous of, and the walk a good mix of easy/difficult at times. Thanks agcnz for bringing us along to this area. SL TFTC!

Have being meaning to do the McKerrow track for such a long time that when I got the offer from agcnz saying that he was going to up to McKerrow to check on the cache GC1BDM2 -
OO's Mt McKerrow Cache (Wellington) which he had just adopted not long ago and was wondering if I was interested in coming along for the walk, now how could I refuse such a nice offer and also a chance to get some exercise in as well. Arriving at GZ and we found this lovely spot that really required a cache so decided to help agcnz in grabbing some co-ordinates and giving me a chance to get my breath back before moving on up the track. What a great little spot for a cache, thanks for placing it here and making me do some more aerobic exercise and giving both Hurricane Luke and you the opportunity to have a good walk. Thanks for placing the cache here and for bringing me to this lovely spot, TFTC TNLNSL (4311)

Find #1190. The third cache out of eight for the walk today - with the 'cache-owner-in-chief' and the 'cache-finder-in-thief'. This was a good spot to rest and have a short break, with an additional cache as a bonus. This spot has some fantastic views looking northwest over Wainuiomata & beyond. I'm sure it'd even be better on a sunny day.

This is definitely a most well written cache description that I am rather jealous of, and the walk a good mix of easy/difficult at times. Thanks agcnz for bringing us along to this area. SL TFTC!