Hidden Stalwart (Upper Hutt, Wellington) Upper Hutt, North Island, New Zealand
By Nic-jay on 03-Oct-14. Waypoint GC5E4QG

Up the airy mountains down the rushy glen etc. Luckily I went up the true left after being non plussed. Thanks #Nic-jay

A nice quick find after sruggling uo the river. Thanks for placing your cache.

Ms_KR and I are off for a wee break "up north". Time to move on from the Kapiti Coast, over to Martinborough, through a less well travelled route. The weather was mostly good, but there was the odd shower of rain. Maybe tomorrow we'll get back to summer!

Thanks to all CO's for publishing and maintaining their caches. .

Fairly easy to get, I second the comments in the previous log about the sign.

There is now a large sign saying KEEP OUT NO HUNTING obscuring the cache. You can reach the cache without crossing the sign but you can't really see the cache without doing so, so it may be worth the CO thinking about moving it a little bit closer to the road. Apart from that all looking good . Tftc

This has been bugging us all week, so we decided to give it another shot. Decided not to venture as far as previous visit. After about 15 mins searching around, still no luck. Resigned ourselves to the fact we weren’t going to find this one. Just before leaving we had one last scan from down low and there right in front of my face was the hint item lying on the ground!
Cache located finally!
We feel that the terrain level seems quite high for this cache. Combined with the description to ‘climb as high as you can’ and ‘not to take geokids’ suggests a much trickier and adventurous cache. We did enjoy our bush bash/ scramble however!
Thanks!

On a trip to get all the Akatarawa caches in 1 go. Was a little concerned about this one from the start as GPS had the cache in the middle of the road! We climbed all the way up one side, then all the way up the other. We then started looking every which way we could think of, but no sign of hint object anywhere. After an hour and a half we admitted defeat. Was very frustrating especially as reading other’s logs, everyone had found it fairly easy. Oh well.
Thanks!

Not suitably dressed to scramble down for this one after lots of rain etc

Initially followed the gps up the wrong side of the creek, turned around and after studying for a minute spotted the hint object on the other side, following the previous logs and with a quick scramble geokids had in hand. Thanks Nic for the cache, haven’t seen you in a while, hope you are well

This is a nice spot for a cache. It was a fairly quick find once I had read the previous logs.

Thanks for the cache.

Out and about with Flowerydaze, Taybee and Taybee NZ checking out the caches along the Akatarawa Road. Taybee NZ was the finder here, it must be good to be young and nimble! However he had to re hide in a small tree nearby. TFTC

Out and about with Talla64, Taybee and Taybee NZ checking out the caches along the Akatarawa Road. Taybee NZ climbed up to get this one. The hint object where the cache was hidden has fallen over, and Taybee NZ almost disappeared down the bank. He found it necessary to hide the cache in a small tree very close to the original hide. TFTC.

#6937. I must have been up and down this road half a dozen times in the past 5 years and its odd that I never noticed I had overlooked a geocache up here. Today I was checking out nearby caches while at the start of the track to Birchville dam and saw this one. Figured it was well overdue for a visit. Parked on the suggested area well off the narrow road and checked out the stream. The coordinates were pointing to the other side of the road but the description indicated that climbing was necessary. Scrambled up the bank and found a sort of path by the creek. Then I saw the hiding spot. A relic from the past it seems. Cache was in good condition. Signed the log and replaced the cache as found. Thanks Nic-jay for the cache. Wish the bunyip was as quick to find.

Found with bkj97 and team China doll 47 on a day out caching. T4tcsl

The fence post is there to hold up the multiple strands of wire. Tftcsl

Out for the day with Bkj97 and Little Blue Hen caching over the Akatarawa Road to Upper Hutt. Some amazing views and fantastic caches. All found stamped and returned as we had found it. TFTC

**taybee nz** is caching again with **taybee**

Quick / easy find to day

All in good order, sign log book as **taybee nz** or **tbnz**
or tb's as team log TFTC Log by Gsak
Cache was find at **2018-11-04 13:18:00**

**taybee** is caching again with **taybee nz**
find it in the end was 18 meters out on my GPS

All in good order, sign log book as **taybee** or **tb** TFTC Log by Gsak
Cache was find at **2018-11-04 13:18:00**

Finally it's here, the wonderful WENZ Mega weekend! My son and I have been eagerly awaiting this weekend for over a year now. My apologies for the generic log, but with so many caches to log it's the only way to get through them all.
Today was just about the drive down from Levin to Upper Hutt to get to our accommodation in time to check in and then get ourselves over to Trentham Memorial Park for the pre-WENZ Fish n Chip gathering.
I've never really liked the Akatarawa Road at the best of times, but today was a nightmare due to the huge volume of cars heading in the opposite direction to us due to SH1 being completely shut down courtesy of a chemical spill from a truck crash just south of Pukerua Bay!

However, we used some of that downtime to check out a few caches along the way, and this was one of them. A quick park up near GZ and then the hunt was on. The GPS co-ords had us looking in the wrong place initially, but then it all settled down a bit and not long after that I heard a shout of "found it" from my lad. So the log was duly signed before we put it all back and hit the road again for the final push towards the campsite.

Thank you for placing this cache, and helping us get our weekend off to a good start.

Found today with the help of TwigNZ while traveling over for the WENZ Mega Event, TFTC

We looked around for a while before rereading the description and the hint. Should have done that earlier as they led straight to the cache!
Signed RE as I'm out caching with Ethness today.

Followed the instructions (perfect) and used the hint to find the cache. I wonder why it is there -marking a boundary perhaps. Had to be careful coming down the the last part as I returned to the geomobile. Signed RE as I was caching with RosalieNZ. TFTC

Quick find where all good at GZ. A short climb up to the hint object and everything simple from there. Only away from the car two minutes.

Not much flow today - these wee streams drop pretty quickly after rain stops and they have drained their catchment.

Thanks for another smilie and cache of the day.

Planning is now well underway for a major Event in the Wellington region later this year. Check out the details on the [Wellington Event NZ (WENZ) Website](http://203.118.159.23/index.php). The official cache page is live [GC78NMQ - WENZ Event 2018](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC78NMQ_wenz-event-2018-wellington). You can also visit the event’s page on [FaceBook](https://www.facebook.com/groups/590545297801072/). If you are planning to attend, please ensure you register each planned attendees geocaching name on the official page and also on our WENZ website. .

Despite the recent rain the Hidden Stalwart is not giving much contribution today Maybe 1 litre per minute so the Hutt River stopbanks should do the job TFTC

On my way home now, after three weeks holidaying witht he relatives over Christmas. Heasdding back to Upper hutt - I had borrowed a car from a local geocacher there.
I haven't travelled this road in a long time, and am enjoying it as much as I did those other times (including the day I cycled it).

Quick find while in the area tftc

A nice and easy find. TFTC

Quick easy find thanks

A nicely located cache - plenty of room to get off the road and the cache itself is out of view of traffic. I considered seeing if I could get an averaged position from my GPS but the coverage was so patchy that it would have taken ages to get anything close to reliable. As it is, the hint works around that problem so it's all good. TFTC,

A few years back I cleared out all the caches along Akatarawa Rd, about 4 IIRC. Now they seem to have multiplied, so it was time to come back for another cleanout. I think it must be 5 years since I cached along here!
TFTC.

Fun wee challenge; plenty of contributions to Hutt River today! TFTC Nic-jay.

Found it. Current coords are S41 02.252 E 175 07.199

Nice easy cache in a lovely little spot. 2nd find on my way to the family bach for Christmas.
TFTC.

#3000 A quick find while completing the caches on the Akatarawa traverse. A bit of a scramble to get to this. All in order. TFTC

17:12
FITW skaga, keewee
Coming form Latvia, I have a **predisposition** at looking at terrain ratings and thinking that they seem a bit overrated. I wouldn't think it's 3,5* but maybe it is, maybe it is.
What is it doing there? Well, probably marking la land border or something

Thanks for the cache!
#4371

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[facebook.com/HMRoads](https://www.facebook.com/HMRoads/) <-- The Road Less Travelled to the Place Furthest Away --> [hmroads.com](http://hmroads.com/en/)
(Or "Why did we go to The Chathams and what did we do on Pitt Island")

#2552 On the road with nic-jay, keewee and ivss_xx, post MEGA. Took Akatarawa Road home from MEGA to avoid some of the Labour Day traffic. Another nic-jay cache, didn't need any hints from the CO though today. TFTC!

The description contains everything you need to know to retrieve this cache, except how slippery the track is just after the rain. I found the cache and signed the log, and picked up a fair quantity of mud on the way back. TFTC.

Found on a crisp white -2 morning while on a reccy in the valley for a club Sunday trip onto Deadwood. TFTC

Nice little hop to game zone. Thanks for the cache.

A quick diversion and the wonderfully dry cache was located. Managed to nip in between passing cars, it's a surprisingly busy road. Tftc

Thanks for the cache, great spot

Found without any trouble, just follow the directions. Tftc.

Dry today so a bit of a scramble up. Easy find. Come down was worse. TFTC

Not hidden from us Found with UlmusLynx

Took a whole to hunt down the stalwart - the rest was easy

Quick find by Papa Bear. Tftc

Was a bit worried after reading the description, but was not so bad and had cache in hand fairly quickly. tftc

Another trip through the Akatarawa road. Why do I do this? Picking up the odd cache here and there. This was one.
A straightforward find on this one. All in order; log signed, cache then safely re-hidden.
As it says, watch your footing. A tricky wee spot for a cache hide. I was happy to have my walking pole in hand.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

All good here, TFTC

The terrain rating and description scared us off this one on our last caching mission over the Aka's. We were fresh nubies then so with more experience and confidence we decided to have a try while passing today. Not sure what we were worried about as it was a very quick find on what really isn't too much more than a park and grab. SL TFTC

A nice easy find after dinner.

TFTC

A quick search, find, sign and replace as found while passing through the valley.

A bit of a clamber, a little treacherous with the ground being wet and slippery, but quickly found. TFTC

People give you the strangest looks when they don't know what you're doing.
Thank you.

A quite pretty little spot once you leave the road.

TFTC

Read up on the cache a bit as we approached and thought we might be in for a challenge but actually the cache was one of the quickest easiest finds on our day caching along the Akatarawa Road in the rain

Thanks for the cache

I almost carried on with my journey when I saw the terrain rating but decided I may as well have a look to see how challenging this cache was going to be. It didn't seem to be as bad as I expected and I determined that underfoot conditions would never get better than they were today. I decided to give it a go and got to the cache without any difficulty.

Another cache in the rain. Did with Mycro Man and the Wandering Dragons and Clan. Thanks for the cache.

Did with CrystalFairy

Cache # 2,352 - terrain rating certainly worth it in the rain. Fell once getting there. Did with the gang today. TNLNSL. TFTC!

Did today with The Wandering Dragons, Crystal Fairy, Violet Butterfly and MycroMan. Thanks!

Cache #388

Found today with Crystal Fairy, The Wandering Dragons, MycroMan and Astro Hunter. Thank you!

Cache # 923

Left the GPS in the car. Followed the trail and soon found it. TFTC

With the information given it was a quick and easy find.

TFTC.

#6190. A little drive to Akatarawa Road this afternoon. Quite a bit of holiday traffic today, but GZ was quiet when we visited. Read the description, and decided that given the cache hidden location, we might as well leave the GPSr in the car and went on up to see what we could find. Quickly found. The cache was in good condition. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log. Thanks for the cache.

Doh,should have read the description thoroughly as was looking on wrong side of road,where GPS was pointing.
Had a quick look where I "should" have been looking but didnt climb up stream bank.
Oh well...lesson here kiddies...read everything .

Nice find on the way home with Just-Lookin after going to the Te Marua Speedway.

Quite tough in the rain, but good fun.
SL TFTC

Found with tmann421 on our way home in the dark tonight.

I headed one way, tmann headed the other and a short time later I heard the call 'found it'. A nice spot to stop. Rain getting a bit heavier here.

TFTC Nic-jay

Diverted to here on my way back to Wellington from the Wairarapa this afternoon. I had parked and was just heading off the road when a ute pulled up and a guy got out - turned out it was the owner of the property here and he was a bit worried that I was heading onto his patch. I thought the cache might have been on road reserve but he claimed that his boundary is within a few feet of the road - he had just had it surveyed for a planned subdivision so he was pretty sure of that. As he wanted to know what I was doing, I gave him some information on geocaching. However once he established that my intentions were benign and that I had no guns or dogs he was quite happy to let me go on up - he didn't ask where the cache was and just left me to it. But the CO should be aware that there may be problems in future, it might be worth contacting the owner to check regarding access. The cache was a very quick find although the coordinates are way out, they place you across the road. I agree with CaligulaNZ that a 2.5 terrain rating is about right. Signed log, TFTC

Straight forward find . tftc. All in order

GPS was a little off, got there in the end

A quick find once I carefully read the description and realised I shouldn't be following the GPS (which was taking me downhill, and about 20m from final GZ). A good location ... and I'm amazed you found this spot. Nicely done. While a little awkward, I don't feel it warrants 3&1/2 terrain. To my thinking it was a 2-2&1/2 at most.
Love this road, as I used to cycle it frequently. Felt a pang of guilt/disappointment as I realised my current level of fitness would be decidedly sub-standard to attempt this currently.

TFTC!

Good to see this hidden stalwart is now serving a purpose! TFTC, #6980

{FTF} Found 10 new listings had been published around Upper Hutt when I got up this morning, but as one of them was mine that meant only 9 to consider looking for. We were up late as had both been very tired last night and after breakfast I had some painting to do in the spare bedroom. However, Mrs B went off to see the neighbour at 10:00 and gave me leave of absence from the painting to go and search for some caches, so long as I bought her a rose bush as well before heading home . No problem.

I suspected that anything close to town would get found my someone fanatical before heading off for work (e.g. CaligulaNZ ), so opted to search for the new caches along Akatarawa Road instead. This was the first one along the way. Boy, this road can be pretty busy even on a weekday. Luckily there is a nice safe stopping area next to GZ. The GPSr was useless for this one, even worse than the cache description indicated (over 20m off for me), so I trusted to the hint to make the find. Finding the cache was nice and easy, getting there and back however...good description Nic-jay, I advise people to wear shoes that provide some traction: do NOT attempt this in jandals.

Log signed around 10:30 and, as always, very pleased to find a pristine log book. Then off to look for the next one. TFTC

Published