X @ X-Creek (Wairarapa) Western Lake, North Island, New Zealand
By skindo on 01-Jul-12. Waypoint GC3PKCR

Short detour from the days main objective.

Last find for the day with a lovely walk up to summit and back. Code noted although will take a while to complete!
Many thanks

I checked the wrong corner first, but of course it is over there, nice easy find here, TFTC

Great workshops on the trail. Pity can't get my car up here to use the pits.

Dnf as I set off up the trail. Coming back down though I reinterpreted the hint for a quick find. Great trail.

Amazing weather for our bike ride there and back today. Even had a tail wind home. Really enjoyed the historical information. Cache is all good. TFTC

Catching up on missed or forgotten logs. Thanks GPS!

...Today is 9 October 2021. Going through my Drafts on the Garmin I realised I forgot to log quite a few geocaches this year! So I'm catching up.
Sveppi spend a lot of time here... not often geocaching though. These days we spend a lot of time crashing off track with a rifle looking for deer and goats.
On 7/8/2021 we were out here. Sveppi wanted to come to the end of the flat as we had seen goats up the gully in the past. No goats here today (we found some elsewhere later) but I took the opportunity to grab the cache.

We had been up to the summit but had missed this one on the way up. As we approached GZ my GPS was playing up and so it took a while to zero in on the cache. It was eventually found by new cacher Mona Mower. So the log book has been signed and the cache is nicely back in its spot all ready for the next geo-hunter. Thanks heaps for taking the time to set up this cache. I really appreciate your efforts in doing so. TFTC

Found quick, good hint, log soaking wet, a mush, chucked it and replaced with WP paper, hope it lasts, tftc

This geocacher reported that there is a problem with this cache.

Found on a short trip away with tmann421 hunting caches
Nice quick find here
Container all wet inside and log noy able to be signed
Log stamped tm/ww NZ

Needs some TLC log not signable

we are out trying our mt bikes out and what better place than the Remutaka rail trail.
This area is so full of rail way history an the things people did many years ago just to help the wheels of the industry to keep going around
many thanks

All safe and dry in here Thanks Skindo

Found on way back from trip up to the Summit. Thanks

Following the GPS was enough to eventually get to this cache a little bit off the beaten track. I haven't really made a lot of progress on this series but I noted the code in case I never need it. TFTC.

Quick find based on the hint and accurate coords. Looks like quite the setup in its day.

Took a few minutes to locate the cache in the overgrown location. All good inside when found. TFTC!

A big mission over the hill today, focusing on Skindo's A to Z and 2 from 2 series caches, but picking up others along the way.

I struggled with cycling from the Cross Creek car park, having not ridden regularly for a couple of decades, but I still managed to make it in the end. Very interesting reading about the village. The cache was a quick find and the code recorded. However, I forgot to bring my pen (and I wasn't about to go back to the car and return with it) so took a photo instead. TFTC

Excellent example of expired railway yards. Expeditious find & extraction. Thanx skindo!

Thanks for the cache. We cycled to the summit and picked up some caches on the way back also picked a travel bug

Quick easy find. TFTC

Interesting place to explore.
I suspect I may regret not collecting series code but currently not chasing the series. Thanks

Collecting as many caches as possible on our three days on the Rimutaka Cycle Trail, made it to the top and down again aftr enjoying the downhill. Found with Lilywyte. TFTC

Cycling the Rimutaka railtrail and caching with Trampingkiwi.
Day 1 Maymorn to Cross creek.
Interesting cycling around the old town. TFTC!

tftc

Accidentally touched a skeleton while looking for this one! TFTC!

Well here we are, the last one of the A-Z series part one, we now have all the codes for part one (yes we have started part two but this is the last one and that will help us to get more of part two ). this too has keep us toing and froing over a lot of the lower part of the north island especially the wairarapa and wellington, just as well we are not just chasing this series as there are always other caches along the the way. Again part one of this series would have taken some planning , getting the coordinates right and making the geocheck right everytime you put in the right coordinates.Some of the places we have been too we have never been too and others we have frequented on more than one occasion ,Some times caching is a bit like a box of chocolates you just never know where or what you are going to end up with next .
It was back in the mid eighties when i was last here a work buddie asked me if i would like to walk up and over and back which was really cool , but now it's a new millenium and i am back but not to walk over and back just to pick up a couple of caches in this area the ones further on will have to wait for another day (damit) but hey you can only do so much in a day, enjoyed the walk up even though it looked like rain and had been spitting , we arrived at the designated area read a few of the info boards as we were walking to ground zero,on arriving at ground zero cache was exactly where it should, log was found to be in very good condition so we signed and gathered the vital information then replaced as found then back to the car we headed.So thank-you skindo for placing this cache here and for this part of the A-Z and i wonder what adventure's you will have us on next all i can say is BRING it on or perhaps not , BUT this is what caching is all about (the unknown).TFTC

Yes . Final cache of the level I caches. Took much longer than it should have. Fav point for final in level. Thanks for the cache. Now to step it up a level.

Some time ago I spent about 40 minutes searching for this cache with no luck. Today, on a whim, I decided to have another go before cycling to the summit. Today I began searching in the same spot as previously and had the cache in hand in a matter of seconds. I have no idea how i managed to miss it the first time. However the joy of finding it helped to (marginally) off set the pain of gusty head winds and rain as I headed to the top with the Foo Fighters singing "I wana get outside, baby, lets get outside . . ." in my headphones. Sadly i left my pen in the car but have a photo of the cache that i can send to the CO if required.

We'd stopped off at the Fell Museum before we started our walk up the incline so we found it really interesting to look around the shed area. Found with Aoraki Sheep.

Co-ords spot on and hint was most helpful. Found with debsnz

Great cache great ride

Quick find on a New Year's Day bike ride. Tftc.

Quick find with Wafflekitties, TFTC

Decided to go for a spontaneous car trip with LCBuilder and the geodogs. Going where the caches take us and sleeping where ever we were when the sun went down. Really loved this walk, we didn't even realise where we were heading to until we got here! The coords were pointing us at the wrong corner but found the cache soon enough. Thanks for bringing us here!

#1452. Every once in a while there is a day of madness. Today was that day. To complete an Auckland based challenge cache (GC3QY6Q), I needed to visit 50 caches in a single calendar day. But I couldn't use any power trails. Each cache had to be at least 1 km apart. So I spent several nights planning out a route around the Wairarapa that would allow me to achieve this target plus enough spares to cover for the DNF's. I managed to get around all 50 caches (only needing to use a torch for the last one) and was home by 10pm. Apologies for this generic log. This was a bonus cache No.9 (a) of the day. Too close to another cache to add to the main challenge but one I needed for the Skindo A-Z challenge. Fascinating bit of old history in this area. The last time I was at Cross Creek was back in 1979 (36 years ago). All I can remember from that visit was lots of dense old growth gorse. Things have definitely changed for the better. TFTC

Finally! I've had 3 attempts at this one - previous attempts were thwarted by lack of time, bad weather, &/or phone battery about to expire! I finally made it up here today, on a quick raid into Skindo's realm. Despite the phone battery being on life support (4% when I started) I was determined to finish off this level of the series. Fortunately, the rain held off, and it was a very pleasant walk (glad I read the comment about sticking to the path though!) to the area. The coordinates were spot on, but I needed the hint as this was well camoflaged, and I overlooked it the first time. Now for Level 2 - hope I can complete that in less than the 3+ years it took me for the first stage. Have a FP as a thanks for the series so far - it has certainly broadened my knowledge of the area!

Nice easy find - but another one where you have to be patient and follow the path and not take the direct bush bashing route - had to sneak past yellow tape. Tftc

Found on day 1 of a 2 day Scout/Venturers bike ride over the Incline and around the Wairarapa Coast. TFTC

Rail trailing again. Love it up here. Cycled in from Kaitoke end and made a return trip.
In amongst the engine room of Rimutaka Incline history. Good one.
Cache in order, log signed; safely re-hidden, just as found. Clue harvested. Thanks.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

My first find of the series. I know what's involved; I'm not sure I should try to continue with any more, in case I get drawn in too far!

Anyway, cool historical place.

Found with Juice_Box while riding the trail.
tftc.

We were intrigued by the concrete pits that they used to use for working beneath the Fell engines, having never been down to this part of Cross Creek before. Cache was an easy find once I had made my way through the undergrowth to get to the pit near GZ. Noted the code on the film canister just in case we ever find the others in the series: this was our first one. TFTC

Quick find after wandering around this interesting area. Will be back on our bikes to explore further. TFTC

Out for a cycle ride with a group of friends to Cross Creek and back via Back Road. A cold blustery day. TFTC

That’s one more find for me! Thanks so much for hiding this geocache.

That’s one more find for me! Thanks so much for hiding this geocache.

Went for a ride with Wbond1116 over the incline to Featherston today and got some caches but saved some for another trip.

Quick find. All in order. TFTC

Out for another family bike ride on the rail trail. The boys rode right through from Kaitoke to XCreek, while the girls went to the summit and then back to collect the car to bring it to XCreek.

The GPS was wandering a bit at GZ, which caused to me to start looking in the wrong corner, then I noticed there was a wasp nest only a couple of meters away. I retreated to consider my options, recalibrated the compas then was led to the right spot. Only about 4 or 5m from the wasp nest, so take care not to disturb any long grass along the edge of the slab.
TFTC.

Cache # 1,552 - did today with Violet Butterfly and Astro Hunter. Was heading towards this one, but became confused when it seemed to not be on the same trail as we were. Made more sense when we got to the other nearby cache, and we were glad then that we did not decide to bush bash - especially with a river in the way. Almost no chance of this ever accidentally being discovered, and it led us to some fantastic history we might otherwise have missed. Gets a favourite from me, not only for where this is located but also on behalf of the series. TNLNSL. Thanks! Only 2 more to go in the first level of this group.

Did today with The Wandering Dragons and Violet Butterfly. Loved the blackberries along the trail. Thanks!

Cache # 9

Found this today with The Wandering Dragons and Astro Hunter. Wandering Dragons thought he had it all planned out, and the maps showed a road that ran right to the cache. Instead found the road to be private with a gate up on it, and so ensued a 4 km round trip, which I walked most of the way on. Of course Astro Hunter rode the whole way on Wandering Dragons back. Made a lunch of blackberries, there were so many, and the sound of the cicadas was deafening. A great walk. Thank you!

Cache # 583

Our first clue for a challenge. TFTC.

Lovely day for a walk. Had to clear debris off track after storm. TFTC

Really enjoyed the walk and the History to be found with this one... Will have to come back and do the walk up and over... particularly interested in Prices tunnel

My navigation was a little off today but got there in the end was a bit wet under foot.

It was a beautiful day for a stroll but I was wishing that I had loaded the mtb this morning. I have never been through the incline trail so thanks for bringing me up here to this very interesting location and TFTC

Found during a quick cache raid over the hill. It was a great morning to be out and about which combined with the latest release of skindo caches and another back country road to explore was all the incentive that I needed to make the trip.

Great walk in to do these two caches. First time ever seeing wild pigs and there were three of them. What an amazing piece of NZ history in here. Great to know one of the NZ Cycle Trail 'Great Rides' is due to come through here in October.

Found after a pleasant walk this morning. Only a few codes left to collect now - TFTC !

A nice short detour to a interesting spot.

Interesting old location to explore. Found with others on a scout ride. TFTC

Out with Belmont Scouts for our annual bike ride around the Big Coast ...

Enjoyed this cache. Cool historical spot, and one of those places i bet many riders and walkers don't take the extra couplea hundred metres to come and visit. No need to bush-bash ... considered location and took the long way.

TFTC!
with Zathrash, Metal-Art & Jax479

#199 Nice hidden treasure, would have totally missed seeing the remains of the sheds if we had not been looking for the cache while riding the incline with Belmont Scouts.

Finding a path through the vegetation was the hardest part of this find. TNLN TFTC.

I like the interpretation of the site. I made a pig's ear of this though after returning from Siberia. Found the cache ok, but made the mistake of being inveigled by the plump Kereru and cheeky Magpie who were occupying the workshop this morning. After signing the log, let my car keys near GZ. Discovered in time, just a 800m backtrack. TFTC Skindo

A quick find. Never would have known all the old workshops were in here. Didn't have a pen unfortunately. TFTC

Found this one with JimmyNZ on his 30 km out and back run along this track. TFTC!

Was lucky enough to have Greenslime with me to help find these.

Had cancelled a Somes Is trip with Broadbridges this morning as the weather was looking dodgy.
Mrs 1Grunta wanted to get out and do some caching anyway, so she decided we'd pop over to the Wairarapa and clean up Skindo's Alphabet Series over here.
Loaded the required ones onto the GPSr. Then loaded a few extra as well (or at least, so I thought).
It wasn't until we got past Featherston that we realized the extra cache info wasn't there.
Stopped at Maccas to use their wifi to get some cache info and continued up to Eketahuna.
Had a good trip around, a few extra caches in Masterton, and then this one to complete the Level 1 Wairarapa caches (still got to go up the coast side).
Thanks Skindo for a great series.

TFTC

TFTC

TFTC

Found whilst out training for the Oxfam Trailwalker. Took the tricky route in, but chose the easier route on the way back out.

1 of 9 that I found MTB featherston train station to Lower Hutt. TFTC

Find #1444. A glorious day out from the office for a bike ride so took the long route to this cache by cycling the entire Rimutaka rail trail. Very bumpy ride coming down the Wairarapa side and unfortunately it was a long hot walk back up to the Summit. Took a couple of wrong turns getting to this one before we finally settled on the right spot. Very hot on the concrete with no wind. Quickly signed and replaced and headed back. TFTC

I had some work comitments in Greytown today. So I brought the bike along and zipped up to Cross Creek to look for this one and the other cache here. A facinating place, my first visit for many a year. Another letter ticked off the list, and another code to enter into the spreadsheet. TNLN SL TFTC

Have explored the Cross Creek yard area before but hadn't spotted this particular pit.
GPS seemed to want me to explore a different corner, but once on target the cache was soon in hand in spite of being well submerged in leaf litter.
TFTC Skindo.

Next stop on our geo-outing with Kjwx, streetwalker, Troodles, simpsonsrgr8 and Renard&Co. 300m from the other Cross Creek cache felt like a looooong way on my aching feet, but I clenched my teeth and pushed on. Kjwx had the appealing idea of turning these concrete canal-like structures into an Egyptian-style natatorium. Interesting area that I'm sure most would miss. TFTC

Final call for Cross Creek; all passengers prepare to disembark ...
That 300 metres between entering the station and reaching its railyards felt MUCH longer after our group walk from Kaitoke; making it very hard to drag our backsides off the informative seats. Thankfully, a very determined JardislikeTardis led the way to GZ while I dreamt up all manner of business uses for the remaining relics.
However, the quick adrenalin rush from another find was just as quickly dashed by news of the 2km slog to the carpark. Pity there isn't another cache or two along this access route to spur weary travellers such as ourselves on.

Group find at end of rail trail geo hike. Interesting to see the skeletons of the buildings left behind.

This entry was edited by Renard & Co on Sunday, 30 September 2012 at 03:37:52 UTC.

Our last on the track for today with the group. Interesting spot.

Our 7th and final Ramble for the Rambler's Reward challenge

Found on our big walk on the Rimutaka Rail Trail from Kaitoke to here.
Very interesting area, probably not one I'd like to visit in the dark though!
Thanks for bringing me here.
(Ramble #2 for Ramblers Reward Challenge).

#4139. My third visit to Cross Creek. Not sure I'd ventured into this area before. It's a very interesting area. Last find of the walk for the Cross Rimatakas party that also featured Troodles, kjwx (organiser-in-chief), jardisliketardis, Renard & Co, and simponsrgr8 x 2. A great day out. TFTC. (Ramble #2 for Ramblers Reward Challenge).

Have been to Cross Creek a few times before but never explored this far east - amazing the amount of stuff here. Quick find then met up with wascox on our way out - nice to meet fellow cachers. Lovely walk this morning - TFTC

Have ridden over the incline track over 30 times but first time i have been up to this part of cross creek station. Great. TNLN

It has been a few years since I was last on this track so it was good to return. The track surface is certainly a lot better than some of the muddy ones I have been on lately.

#3205. A very pleasant walk in. Took the more difficult track to GZ, which was located in an interesting area. Returned via the easier track. TNLNSL. TFTC.

A nice fine day so decided to do a bit of caching in the Wairarapa. This was the second of the day. I have been over the Incline by bike in recent times but have always gone as far as Cross Creek and then returned the way I came. This is the first time I have walked in from the Wairarapa side for about 15 years and there's a completely new track now. A very pleasant fast walk and a quick find in a very interesting location. Really enjoyed this cache, it'll get a favourite point. Signed log, TFTC!

Whoopee another FTF (11:16) Saw this new alphabet series of caches get published and realised that Skindo must be on holiday again. As luck would have it I was going over to the Wairarapa for work so decided that I would try and fit in some time and grab some of the new caches that he had placed over in the Wairarapa, this was the second cache of this series that I managed to grab today only another 39 to go to finish the series.

Arriving at the carpark at X-Creek I noticed that there was another car at the carpark and wondered to myself that I might not be the only person here. After a short walk along the new and well maintained track it really didn't take too long for me to make my way to the junction, this was the first time that I have being on this part of the track as last time I walked this route was a few years back before I took up caching and did the full walk of the rail trail from Upper Hutt to X-Creek as part of a social walk with The Rumataka Rail Trust.

After arriving at the junction it was a short walk from here to GZ this was the first time that I have had a chance to explore this area and it really didn't take too long for me to narrow down GZ and managed to find the cache in the first spot that I looked, opened the logbook and was pleasantly surprised that I had the FTF, what a great little spot for a cache, thanks for placing it here and for bringing me to this lovely spot, TFTC TNLNSL (4481) Yeetrees FTF Craze also decided to come out and check out the adventure.

The longest walk in the series yet! Done with TuisReturn at about 9-30pm and was very dark with a few light showers of rain. Been to X-Creek before but not to these sites of the by-gone era. Good quick find and then off to the next cache in the series! SL TFTC

Out with tmann421 trying to do the alphabet series, was dark when we hit this cache & not the most pleasant of climates. A good slog to get this one, thanks for the cache Skindo

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