Getting a PhD in Procrastination (Manawatu) Palmerston North, North Island, New Zealand
By AtomsNZ on 18-Mar-14. Waypoint GC50JKW

I am logging as a find. I solved this a long time ago and loved it. I went to gz and looked but it was missing. I contacted the CO with no reply. I did so again when it was archived. Thanks for the puzzle Atomsnz

We solved this over a year ago …an enjoyable solve as I am chemistry oriented..when we next visited the Palmy area we went to GZ and spent ages looking for the container with no luck…we contacted the C.O. With still a negative response. I am logging this as a find …thanks atomsnz

Not going to be able to replace this one

Not found for over a year with multiple DNFs. No response to suggested maintenance. Maybe it’s time to archive?

Looked all around ..and extended the area ...zippo ...what waste of time solving and searching...C.O needs to address this so the cache can be found

This geocacher reported that the cache might be missing.

Very frustrating not to find this. Searched all around with no luck. Shame as I really enjoyed this cache which was right up my alley.

Generic Log for todays caching. Target today was the Stickman series with Barefoot Guru. We left early in the morning to head up to Palmy, with a focus on puzzle caches not too far off the road that we had solved. Enjoyed the day and got back well after 8pm. Most caches in good condition. Thanks for the caches. Unfortunately this was one of the few DNF's . We searched everywhere and it looked like a previous cachers had done the same, but after 15 minutes we called it a day..

Had a good scrounge with CrystalFairy, and there were signs another cacher had done the same recently too. Will be a while before we get back here, so reluctantly moved along.

Bike ride to find three caches out this way. Had help to solve this puzzle from my ex work. Thanks AtomsNZ for this puzzle cache.

#16503. I remembered enough chemistry to solve this one. Quick find on the last day of our four day trip to Palmy. TFTC.

Day #4 of our four day caching trip to Palmerston North and we fly back to Christchurch this afternoon. The focus today was solved puzzles in and around the city, but with the rain forecast, we weren't keen on any long walks.
StreetWalker solved this puzzle as I have forgotten most of the Chemistry I learned in school and uni - if you don't use it, you lose it. Happy to see good parking and safe access to GZ where SW also found the cache - I just tagged along and signed the log book . TFTC.

Was in the Manawatu for work and needed a cache for today, had a look at my GPS and noticed that I had a few caches to chose from, having solved this puzzle a while ago, I had it on my list of unfound caches and noticed that it had last being found un June, so decided that I might as well see if I could go and find it today.

Procrastination - to keep delaying something that must be done, often because it is unpleasant or boring: I know I've got to deal with the problem at some point - I'm just procrastinating. Well that sound familiar indeed it does.

Arriving near GZ, I managed to find a parking spot not too far from GZ, from there I had a choice of a few ways to get to GZ, but I decided on one of the safer options and it didnt take too long for me to get to GZ, arriving at GZ, the GPS started bouncing all over the place so I decided that I would check out the most obvious spots and after a short search I was pleasantly surprise to be able to find the cache in the most obvious spot.

Thanks AtomsNZ for creating such a clever little puzzle, I was glad that I loved chemistry and that once I got my head around the puzzle it was obvious what you were aiming at. I think that I do have a PhD in procrastination according to my wife[xx(], but it is alway interesting as to what you want to get done and what order that it happens, maybe it is just naturaly[:o)], well it does for me. TFTC TNLNSL (13020)

Called into this one today as we headed south to Levin signed the log and replaced as found,thanks for the smiley( I think) and the placement.
Well that was the easiest part of this cache.I looked up what a phD meant-A PhD is a unique type of degree, involving advanced academic work and attempted by comparatively few students.And what procrastination meant-The action of delaying or postponing something.
I think that I should have one of these degree's now(I think),because We have looked at this cache on many occasion with absolutely no idea where to start this was not a subject that did not interest us in the slightest, so after putting it on the bottom of the pile on more times than i can remember it was time to have another go, but where so we played the email a friend card which they replied with a helpful hint (thankyou) .So a week later it was off to sign this log(yay) TFTC.
Log in good condition

wow this has only taken 4 years and even now I have to put my hand up and say I this was way above me and what I am able to do and needed the help of a fellow cacher, gz was busy but managed to find a quite moment while going on dusk and have a good hunt, the cache seems to have gone, replaced with the ok from CO not a camoed mint tin with water proof paper. thanks for being a "?" for so many years now to become a smile

Possum is a retired chemist so he looked at some obtuse way of solving the puzzle and failed so asked his brother in law to help. He quickly suggested a much simpler approach - grrrrrrr - and this proved to be correct. We searched for the cache but no joy. It has not been found for over a year so perhaps it is buried deeply or washed away?

-For this cache I employed the help of the two chemists in the family,my daughter and son-in-law (both have Massey degrees involving maths and chemistry). They soon had the puzzle worked out without any procrastination and gave me the co-ordinates! It didn't take me long to get to the GZ,(by which time it was dark),so with torch in hand went straight to it...the co-ords are bang on!A well hidden cache in good order and the log is dry...wrote my entry and re-concealed.Well done AtomsNZ,a great puzzle and a well executed hide...a good night cache too! TFTC!

Awesome puzzle...took a long time to remember how to do chemistry. It took even longer to work out the co-ordinates as apparently i'm a terrible counter and kept missing a couple out. finally got the green tick and off we went. Co-ordinates were good, took a bit of searching but cache finally found. TFTC

Finally got a puzzle cache for the road trip. After several attempts at some other puzzle caches. It was a lovely day to be out and ask had to go thro to Levin I could look for this on the way. The cache was in fine condition. Thank you for the and another smiley face

Bit of a saga this one but got there in the end with some help from Massey chemistry friends and Gr33nslime (thanks!)

Retrospective log as i'm now a premium member. Greenslime was the brains here, i just found the cache. TFTC.

#675 Right down my alley this one, good to put the chemistry degree to some sort of use =) Solved easily enough, just took my time getting around to actually finding it. Small snag with our gps being stolen from our car parked at the car park near by, but we were back the next day with JimmyNZ's battle spare. TFTC!

Intended to grab this today after a short run as Greenslime had solved the puzzle. Didn't in the end as our car got broken into at the convenient carpark near the hide location (and the buggers nicked our GPS!). Other cachers, please beware theft happens in this area. Don't worry about us, we have a spare GPS

Checked on this on due to the recent DNF since it doesn't get found often, but it was still sitting exactly where it should be.

Found the correct coordinates with some help from chemistry friends! But despite 3 return visits couldn't find the cache. I'll park this one for now and may come back another time.

#5851. Interesting puzzle ... certainly learnt something. Found after a short search. TNLNSL. TFTC.

After spending time in the company of this cache's C O earlier in the week it was Friday Ferry back to the North Island and normal life resumed! I really enjoyed my five day visit to the top of the South Island and a bum and worker cache fest but the Manawatu is still my home (for now) and I have some unfinished (caching) business to attend to before I head South in a few weeks time.
I'd traded some cache locations to puzzles and was a lucky benefactor for this one thankfully. A tricky puzzle it was but the final location was one I'd had my eye on a few times in passing and wondering why there was not a cache already there. A nice location well captures Atoms N Z (I know it's supposed to be one word, but I've made it four) That's verbosity for you!
As I said a great final location but the recent rain had left it's mark here.
Now off to find another recent listing as I attempt to clear out Palmy prior to moving in a few weeks time.
An elongated T F T C from me, every word helps the master plan!!

Ha ha. Over heard this one being discussed at a recent event - thanks Geodatum for the added info I needed to complete this. This is certainly not a subject I know anything about.
Nice and quiet at GZ, & GPS took us straight to it. TFTC

If procrastination means spending a lot of time unproductively when you really should be attending to other things, then we have certainly earnt a PhD in it!
Mr G did very well remembering his chemistry, but , despite many tries, we still couldn't quite get the green tick. In the end, help from edvern was greatly appreciated to put us right.
The cache itself proved a bit tricky to find as our GPS kept pointing us away from the correct area. It was a great relief to finally claim the find. TFTC

Chose this puzzle to solve for the August Challenge. Fortunately Mr E has a PhD in Chemistry (from Massey University) so he was given the task of working this one out. There were a couple of red crosses on geochecker before it was finally sorted to get the tick. Biked to it early Sunday morning - a bit more fossicking around than necessary really as the coordinates were very good. Thanks AtomsNZ for this puzzle with a difference and followed through with a good hiding place.

Maintenance check. All good here

Took a while to find. tftc

took a while to find this. good hiding spot

An interesting puzzle, for which we needed markhnz to point us in the right direction. The cache itself was a little tricky to reach. We went under the bridge, tip toeing across the power poles which have temporarily(?) replaced the presumably washed away path. It took a wee while to find the mud covered cache, although the placing was logical. TFTC

Found this one at the end of our trip into skindo country. Ended up finding 61 with three DNF's. The little creek nearby had quite a bit of water in it and I don't think the temporary looking bridge will survive in a flood. Cache was buried deep in its little hidey hole. Thanks for the cache and the smiley.

This took me longer to solve than it probably should have as I had missed one - I have no idea how as I tackled it quite methodically, I think I logged about three or five red crosses along the way.
At the site it was a fairly easy find with a very good twist on a traditional local hide style that I'm quite a fan of.

Back in place and good to go

This area appears to have had an extensive haircut around the cache and it is now missing. Will replace.

Finally went and picked this up after solving a while ago, cool little hide, missed it the first time I looked at where it was hidden.

I had this one solved soon after it was published. Realised straight away what was required to solve this, it just took a while to get. Fairly quick find once at GZ with jesso22 and the Seagnoid.

[green] Here with Stardust, Mini-Stardust and Jess022 after taking ridiculously too long to find Trees and Rock. At least this was a little faster, although at first the structure would not play ball and had our GPS signals all over the place. At At one stage Stardust and I were walking over there, about 15m from the cache.

I had no idea how to tackle the puzzle for this cache, but stardust gave me a tiny hint. Thinking about it and looking at the puzzle I suddenly realised what was needed. Yay. I hate finding a puzzle cache without have worked out the puzzle. I can sleep better now!

Nice to see your coords are spot on, Atoms, both here and at Trees and Rock.

Again. Too small for trackables.

Didn't take too long to work out what was needed to solve the puzzle but clocked up 12 red crosses on the GeoCheck playing GZ-battleships... (Might have helped to record which combinations had already been tried too ) Some assistance from markhnz confirmed that we were on the right track, but that things didn't quite add up the way that we had them - finally got the green tick.

That was all several days ago so decided to stop procrastinating and claim a find, although it did take a minute or two of searching to find the cache tucked away in it's hidey-hole. TFTC.

I had to ask for some help from the scientist in the family for this one.
Once she sorted me out, it didn't take long to get the correct answer. Although I did get 2 red crosses along the way.
I'm glad I didn't go to Massey, because I don't think I would want a PhD in procrastination.
A reasonably quick find at the final location.
Thanks.

This entry was edited by markhnz on Sunday, 23 March 2014 at 02:41:34 UTC.

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