Barra Track (Wairarapa) Kaituna, North Island, New Zealand
By skindo on 11-Jul-12. Waypoint GC3QB8K

I biked out here today to give the new gravel bike a spin and thought I would have a hunt for this cache when I arrived (as well as a rest off the bike). I checked the info and the map image, thinking it would be a straight forward Skindo find when I arrived. As it turned out, there were plenty of possible hiding spots. I lost cell phone cover right at the gate here and didn't have my GPS with me, so I just bumbled around, moving rocks for a while before giving up. The fact that I didn't find this cache in no way means that it is not actually here. Will try to be better prepared next time.

Cache doesnt seem to exist anymore. Had a good search around hint areas with no luck.

24 April 2022 11:24. Drove to the end of the road for a quick find.One day I will walk to the others.... TFTC

Thanks for the cache. Staying at Riverside cottages. Awesome spot. Just out for a walk to look at the lovely rural area and of course caches.

Having a swim at a nearby waterhole, realised this was very near the car so had to grab.
Thanks!

TFTC Found while on a nice wee holiday with nzref to end the year

Nice easy park and grab with claireyc

Spent the day on a return trip to Mitre Flats in the company of ianL1#, Cartertonic and Yeetrees. Great company to enjoy the beautiful bush with and lots of laughs along the way.

We replace the missing container with permission of the CO.

TFTC skindo

Found during a group trip into Mitre Flats
The log was completed on a replacement for the one that was almost certainly buried during installation of the new gates
Thanks skindo

If this is where I think it was then its gone. There was a digger there pulling out the gate and fence!

Think it's gone!

Never been this far up this road. Carried on a few meters to the end and discovered an amazing swimming hole. Will return.
Cache in excellent condition with original log , tftc

Easy find on a cool summer day. TFTC

Well... 3rd DNF, out of 6 cache attempts this weekend...
Should have been easy with the hint. So maybe I was blind...
Last time this one was attempted was almost a year ago, and was found... Don't know... the sight of the car to sit down and get out of the wind was more appealing than me kneeling and grovelling for too long trying to find this...

Tftc

Dab

A quick find before heading up the Barra Track today. TFTC

This was a popular spot today (I think everyone was keen for a dip in the river which is not far from the cache) so we needed to wait for a gap between muggles. Signed RE as I'm out caching with Ethness.

This is the first time I have visited this area. There were a few cars around - trampers and people enjoting swimming in the river. TFTC.

A quick easy find, with a nice dry log, on a trip up the east side of the Waingawa River. TFTC

Saved this one for the end of our trip into Mitre Hut. Very quick find. No working pen with us so unable to sign the log.

I'm off locating and signing off some trads and solved puzzlesbefore attending a CITO on Henley Lake later this morning.

Had to watch out for the blackberry.

Cheers for the cache.

Up here for the eponymous penultimate cache of course This one is a handy nav destination — Siri had me parking 50 km away and circling to the goal from the back! Had to fight the blackberry before it would release the treasure. TFTC skindo!

Decided that I would head down to today's lunchtime event to Celebrate Canada Day. What else to do on a weekend but to celebrate (not once, but at two events) the 150th anniversary of a country in the other side of the world that I've never visited! I decided to leave at the crack of dawn to collect another run of Skindo puzzles that have been solved lately and are in the generally Masterton/Eketahuna area.

Another quick find although not pleasant as I had to reach through blackberry. TFTc

Climbed the mountain today with Hurricane Luke. Intended to find this but were so tired we forgot to look. At least I can drive to this and not have to walk in.

#3024. I decided to have another day in the Wairarapa and in particular wanted to get another A-Z cache and a few of the 2:2 series, plus pick up a few solved puzzles. Got over here a bit too late to get a big total today but still a chance to see yet more of the Wairarapa I have not been to previously. Started the cache raid at Masterton. Drove down this rural road and parked at the Barra carpark. Nice quick find here. Signed the log and replaced the cache as found. Thanks for hiding it here.

First find of the day, before I got underway on my walk. My first time up here in about 25 years - nice to be back. An interesting history of the area - TFTC

Found

Lovely day to walk into Mitre Flats hut for an easy overnighter! Quick find

Nice qick find here tftc

Picked a great day for a foray up the Barra. An area of my namesake ranges that I had not previously visited.
Pretty quiet around here when we started out around 9:30 am.
Cache was a straightforward find, of sorts. Used the magic finding pole to get access to what we were looking for.
All in order; log signed and cache safely re-hidden, just as found.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
Taken me awhile to get to this part of the Tararuas, but I was well rewarded by this visit.
The Turtle strikes again!

Found on a stunning day out walking the Barra Barra, TFTC

An enjoyable drive to get to this one as I enjoy gravel roads. A quick find but beware of the blackberry growing at the GZ. TFTC

My first Premium member only cache. Found it while visiting a friends farm up the road. Found with helicopter1919 but sadly he couldn't log it as he is not a premium member. TFTC

Find #124

Start of New Years tramp up to Mitre Flats. TFTC

Quick find on the way back from a brisk walk up the track.tftc

Have heard about this area but never been this way, TFTC, #6958

We left this cache until last since we did not want to muck around at the start of the tramp. No problems here except the blackberry and gorse need to be negotiated with care - thick gloves would be useful. Overall a great day out and six more caches under our belt. This trip is well worth doing but it is a tramping track not a DOC highway. Thanks for this series on this track skindo making the our day more interesting.

Found it TFTC

Watch for the electric fence it is on

#5279. Found with Yeetrees at the start of the track. Well guarded and camouflaged. TNLNSL. TFTC.

A bit of blackberry in the area made the search a little more careful than usual, but got it ok.

SL TFTC

Quick find at the beginning of the track. TFTC skindo

Quick find. TFTC

Wet day but all good

Quick find.
A bit too late at night for a walk up the track.
Thanks.

Mr All7ofusNZ was out on a night caching mission to the Wairarapa with markhnz, serving as an assistant navigator and second pair of eyes. A quick find by headlight and another cache checked off the list for the evening. Need to bring some of the Jr Cachers back here at some stage in daylight to find the other caches up the Barra track.

TFTC

TFTC

TFTC

Another very easy find thanks to the hint.
Had a dog and a couple of horses watching us.
TFTC

Parked right next to GZ so a very quick find. TFTC

Quick find out by the car. Not quite a park and grab - had walked close to 10km in and out before finding this one. TFTC !

We made it! The end of our 3 day tramp starting from Holdsworth road end. Cache was a quick find - TFTC

A nice easy find at the start of our walk along part of the Barra track.
Bert Barra sounds an interesting bloke, though I have difficulty imagining anyone carrying a deer carcass out on parts of that track. Bro-in-law, who accompanied us on the walk, reckons that he would just bring back the ears to get payment for the deer cull. 24,000 kills still sounds like a huge number.
TFTC.

#5095. Nice gentle start to the series, which got rather more serious then expected (it looks like a nice easy valley walk, but the last part was anything but). TFTC.

Found after walk out from Mitre Hut after coming from Atiwhakatu the day before.
Easy find.
Very hot walk today.
TFTC, TNLN

Note hut does NOT now have any gas!.

Easy as, although I didn't realise there was a cache here on the way in, so it was a bit lucky I noticed it while we were finding the track series on the way out. A very secure hiding spot!
TFTC Skindo.

Standing in sun looking a biggggg black clouds over tararuas......easy find

Long drive got the car dirty. Good way to see out of the way places Nice find

A quick find at the start of our walk in to Mitre Flats. Thanks for the cache.

Note that the gas cookers have been removed from Mitre Flats Hut. However, the hut is still a "serviced" hut (i.e., three tickets per night).

Its nice to have an easy cache at the gate to get into the swing of things! TFTC

Back at the carpark I found the start-cache as well! Thank you very much for 6 nice caches Skindo! Greetings from Wellington!

Quick find after finding the other caches along the Barra track. Nice day today, although a bit windy. Far better than the last time we were through here when it was pouring with rain. TFTC

Setting off on the Barra track with the Wednesday trampers from the Manawatu Tramping and Skiing Club - 25 in the group. This find was a quick and easy start (they got harder!) TFTC

Came here on a day's caching in the Wairarapa to clean up some of the caches that have been beckoning to me for a while. I didn't know if I would have time to fit in this series but fortunately I made good time with other caches so was able to do so. I did surprisingly well considering that others have had problems - it took me an hour 10 minutes to find all 6 caches, then a further 50 minutes to walk back to the car. Distance covered from my tracklog was 7.8km. Having come along here a little while ago to find the final of the nearby puzzle cache, I knew what the walking would be like so I was well prepared. This cache was a very quick find - signed log, TFTC!

The walk to find this series of caches qualifies as Ramble No 7, the final one, for GC2XBA7 "Rambler's Reward Challenge (Dunedin)"

Nice day for a tramp into Mitre Flats hut. TNLN

Yay! An FTF! There were no cars at the car park when I arrived so I thought there could be some unfound caches on the track. I wasn't so confident about this one though. However, I quickly found a container with a blank logsheet.

Published