A Cache For tmann421 (Wairarapa) Ponatahi, North Island, New Zealand
By skindo on 23-Dec-13. Waypoint GC4VQKM

2023-11-14 teamsturms is at it again, logging a find on this for 2015-07-16

Waitangi weekend, and the heavens have conspired to pour a winter month's worth of rain on us over 48 hours, which put the mockers on my plans to tramp Totara Flats. But here we are on Monday, and whilst the rain hasn't entirely gone away it is at least light enough not to be so much of a nuisance whilst out caching. The Seagnoid and I have decided to have another raid over the Rimutakas into Skindo-land, targeting a long gravel road that neither of us have travelled along before. There are a lot of archived caches along here, most of which would be lonely caches too...

We happened to be passing by this cache, so it was worth checking out in spite of the last few log entries...but I have to add another DNF to the list.

Stopped here today and had a look for this one. Its hard to imagine how a cache that could hide a TB inside could be placed here and not be found by muggles. I searched all around several posts and nothing was found. Not sure if it was really muggled in 2015 or just very hard to find. Will check with a few previous finders to test their memories and see if its worth coming back for a second look.

Spent half an hour here. I think it may have gone

Spent half an hour here. I think it may have gone

Gone!

Found it with NZ1 but late logging find, TFTC.

I have known Todd for a couple of years after meeting in Hawaii. Now that we have returned home I look forward to catching up. Made this one harder than it should have been, log was damp and will need to be replaced. TFTC

TFTC

After looking at the recent find thought this was a lost cause, surprised to have in hand within 10 seconds. Dropped off TB.

In Wellington checking out the Gallipoli and AirNZ exhibitions and decided to pick up a few caches on a road trip to Martinborough.

Think we could see where this one was supposed to be, but it appears to have been muggled/missing.

First and only DNF for the day.

Couldn't find this on an epic road trip with Skaga which saw us getting a total of 52 caches in just over 11 hours.
This one had us intrigued so we made a slight detour to come search for it. After spending at least 20 minutes searching all likely, and unlikely, spots, we finally and reluctantly had to admit defeat. Skaga made friends with a local pooch though so the stop was not entirely a fail.

A DNF on a photography/geocaching roadtrip with Nic-jay that ended up with 52 geocaches and many great photos. Was really disappointed to not find this one- we had a thorough search about but couldn't spot anything. Met a friendly papillon though so all was not lost.

Was harder than it should've been

Seemed to take me an age to find this one - covered a bit more than I was expecting, so only discovered after increasing my search area, and then coming back to my starting point. Found on a long day, and around 200km along gravel roads, with changeable weather all day.

TFTC!

At last a wet day - lucky a quick find or we might have drowned. Tftc

Nice easy cache rather surprised by the star rating. We have done a fair few of tmann421 caches and they often prove abit of a challenge which is great.

tftc

Not as hard as we thought it might be! TFTC

We have come to Martinborough for a couple of days caching, with the odd winery as an add-on.
+ a marble, - nothing.

In Martinborough for the fair and a chance to grab a couple of caches on the way home. The D/T rating for this one piqued Mr All7ofusNZ's interest and so it was top of the 'must do' list for today. So busy looking for the cache that it got missed entirely on first look, and very nearly again on the second. Amazing how a couple of wrong assumptions can make things a lot more difficult than they need be... TFTC skindo.

Well another year and another week away from home collecting caches around the country (outside of work time obviously). Have been working on a number of challenges in this region for the past few months and seeing this one pop up (and knowing both the CO's reputation and Tmann421's reputation) I had to make a go for this one.
Thankfully after all the fine weather and the then rain tonight was not too bad apart from a little wind so now was the chance to to fill in another square on the DT Matrix.

thanks for promoting my OCD tendency (Mrs Dragon thanks you not!!!) and giving me many more reasons to cache

Very quick find, when approaching GZ we were prepared to over think it, no need papa bear had it in his hands in 30 seconds, What? Really? That's it? Wow! TFTC

This entry was edited by The3BearsNZ on Friday, 30 January 2015 at 08:37:29 UTC.

A bit tricky

Quick find. Picked up tb

Well done skindo for all the hides, and well done tmann421 for all the finds. A cool dedication cache although I certainly struggled with the find, plus found the terrain a challenge to park my motorbike well clear of the road.

TFTC

A mini road trip today, Masterton and Martinborough to track down a new D/T combo and a few more skindo caches to get us past 200 for the C O. We had high hopes of crossing Henly Lake by boat to grab the T level 5 cache there and lunch out was also 'on the menu' for today.
This cache was one of the main reasons for todays Wairarapa cache raid, these D/T combos don't offer themselves that much so was quite desirable for the D/T matrix which is slowly getting filled in
No problems with the find, nightowl19 made the actual sighting
Added in a T B whilst in the area
T F T C and generous rating skindo

Another great day out with Paua. Some really well place caches found, we also enjoyed the tricky ones around Greytown. TFTC.

A quick find, TFTC

easy find with Pooke

With the D/T rating we expected something very difficult and to jump over the fence. Thus, we were very surprised (and disappointed) to find an ordinary container in an ordinary spot.

Our first GC in NZ. I don't know why the D/T Rating is that high, because it was a quick found. Nevertheless a fantastic region (especially for wine lovers) and a great weather today. TFTC!

Quick find on the way past. Tftc

A quick easy find of this cache with somewhat strange ratings, with markhnz and hayleyhnz. TFTC

Managed to find this extremely difficult cache with W.E.K.A. and hayleyhnz.
Thanks.

Found with markhnz and W.E.K.A.
TFTC

This was because of the D/T combination an interesting cache for me. So on a day tour this was the second but last stop. After this I headed to GC46 before the sun got down.
Thanks for the cache and greetings from Germany, Peter M.

Nicely dedictated cache which is in good order. TFTC

Seems this road gets a reasonable amount of mid morning traffic nicely placed. Tftc

Quick easy find thanks

A lovely crisp winter’s day today. A great day to go for a drive found a good mixture of Puzzles, Challenges and Trads today. Nice one. Last cache of the day. Number 51. Coffee time .Cheers and TFTC

A day caching in southern Wairarapa, 64 caches. Thanks for the cache.

Easy find.

Queen's Birthday weekend and a start to winter caching, time spent in the Wairarapa. Now how could you beat that? Try finding some caches too!
Was this more or less what we expected for a difficulty 5 and terrain 3.5? Didn't matter, we enjoyed the experience and then recalled earlier days spent staying in accommodations nearby.
Straightforward find, much as we would expect; cache in order, log signed, safely re-hidden, just as found.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

I think I know one of the reasons behind the placement of this cache. It proved to be quite handy for me as well.

A fitting tribute to Todd, congrats on your achievement. A classic hide….. nice choice! Many thanks.

Made a special visit over the hill from Wellington to collect a couple of caches that fill in empty D/T grid positions - this one first - a nice park and grab to kick off - TFTC !

Easy find

A quick find just off the road--TFTC!

A nice spot for a cache, cleaning up a few in the Wairarapa.

TFTC

Got it between the showers. Took TB. Thanks to you both for many enjoyable caches. Just one question, is tmann really the Stig? TFTC.

A big caching day which started with Dawn Service in Masterton and ended with a night cache. Approx 80 caches in total while on the road with Pagenz. Thanks to all who placed caches for us to find.

Loved this cache, met tmann a couple of times while he's been out and about in his little white van. TFTC

Something I am missing in translation... ah well, that's not unusual. t4tc

Yip, know Tmann421 well - congrats on being no. 1 finder. He's even collected some of our pet rocks in the past, so he's got to be a good bloke hasn't he
Not sure what we were expecting at GZ with those D/T ratings , but it wasn't that. Nice quick find.
Left a pet rock - a rabbit. TFTC

Finding caches on way to catch the ferry. Today was a nice fine day.

Nice area and outlook - found on a day out to Lake Ferry. Left ninja turtle here to go on further travels with someone else. Thanks

#5373. Thanks to both tmann421 and skindo. TNLNSL. TFTC.

Found while doing a mini morning road trip in the area - congrats to a couple of fine cachers I happy to be acquainted with. TFTC, #6402

Our mission today was to reach 1000 skindo finds (we are lagging quite a bit behind tmann). I needed 31 but StreetWalker needed 37 and this was the first cache find towards that goal.
An easy hide, but I made it harder for myself. Where was the brace?
A diff/terrain combination that I already had, unfortunately. Now if it was 3.5/5, that would have been a bonus. TFTC.

#7283. We were pretty sure tmann wouldn't mind us finding "his" cache. Troodles seemed to be struggling, so I wandered over and spotted the cache pretty quickly. TFTC.

Tftc,nice to nab a five star!

Managed to wangle most of a weekend in the Wairarapa. Knew it was coming up for a while so had put in a bit of an effort solving some puzzles. Had a great couple of days and wound up with about 300 finds. Hardly scratched the surface really - I'll be back!

Quick and easy find. Did with MyCro Man

Did with CrystalFairy

Use of a man look soon had this one

They have been trimming the trees

Called here on our way in to Martinborough this afternoon to walk the Rapaki Hill Track Loop. A quick find, just as well I hadn't looked at the difficulty rating! Delighted to find that it fills another hole in my difficulty/terrain grid. And congratulations to Todd - not only is he a great guy but he is now the number 1 cache finder for both NZ and Australia, by quite a large margin. An achievement like that and the level of dedication it implies can't go unacknowledged! Signed log, TFTC

K had a hunch for some reason that this one wasn't as difficult as it seemed and it paid off. Found easily, TFTC

Quick find on our wee Sunday afternoon trip in south wairarapa.

Found it during our kiwi traveling around north island. Thank you for hide.

This entry was edited by d'ronja on Sunday, 02 February 2014 at 07:55:10 UTC.

A quick find just a few hundred metres from where we were staying the night at Dara Cottage (lovely place). tftc

WELL DONE. TFTC

Saw this cache and thought to myself there is something funny going on here, decided to check GZ using some of my friends and they didnt offer me much of a solution that I was willing to accept.

After realising why this cache was here after the penny dropped, I soon realised that this was going to be interesting.

Finally getting to the Wairarapa and getting to GZ was the easy part, finding a park near GZ wasnt too bad, now where the heck is this dame cache, oh I see, or do I

After retrieving signing and returning it back into its lovely little home, I thought that maybe I should make it harder for the next finder but in the end decided that it was hard enough so left it as found

Great spot for a cache and clever cache, thanks for hiding the cache here and for bringing me to this lovely spot. TFTC TNLNSL (7198)

Another great holiday day caching in the Wairarapa. Thanks for the hide.

Congrats tmann421 on a great caching record. Thanks Skindo for the cache.

Nice New Years stop tftc added tb

Thanks for the cache skindo - really appreciate your hides and you certainly have provided a lot of fun caches to find and a lot of new roads for me to explore!

I am not sure how many days I have spent hunting your containers but thousands of kilometres driven and have enjoyed your good dry caches and accurate co-ordinates.

Another nice easy find at site - SL Left a few trinkets and a pathtag.

Found late in the afternoon between showers. TFTC

My second FTF and the first on Boxing Day. Merry Christmas. TFTC Skindo and fantastic geocaching tmann421.

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