Waikato River Walk #19 (Meremere - Rangiriri) Hampton Downs, North Island, New Zealand
By Biartch79 on 20-Mar-16. Waypoint GC6DMPY

A day of biking and walking and caching. This took a bit of looking for. After I read some old logs I knew what I needed to find. I checked all around before finally pulling back some grass to see the tiny nano. Thanks Biartch79#5491Logged using Cachly.

Quick find, only so many options here.

A nice quick park and grab here today. A nice day for a drive along here. Tftc

In the area on ANZAC day.
A quick park and grab
I parked, Jag signed.

A quick park and grab of this cache. Cache was found in the first place we looked.

In the area today for date night, with junior cacher having a carer, and the teen down at Uni in Christchurch.......we had walked the top part of this trail last week and found a few caches had been swept away during Cyclone Gabriel, (possibly), so we came back today for the bottom part of the trail.... we planned to walk in to the one we stopped at last week and search for caches on our way out as sunset was getting close....back out on the road now, so used the car to speed things up a little.....

TFTC.

Nice easy find here as spotted on approach. Found with jagersmum and boneybruce. TFTC!!

I had the opportunity to whizz up this way and collect some of these River Walk caches this afternoon. Unfortunately (although unsurprisingly) the river level was really high due to recent rain and there was a really cold wind so we didn't get as far as I had hoped, but still made an impact on the many previously green faces on this walk. I tried to be discreet here as there is a house that overlooks this spot. Straightforward find, TFTC

I've been looking at this trail for a while and wanted to it done. A call out to Team SEAC to see who else wanted to tackle this with me. Keylev and Mr. Hemaludy was onboard, ready for duty! So off we went!

One the way back to the starting point for the Waikato River Walk and we had to grab this one. Quick find.

One of the Team SEAC members decided to plan a trip to complete the Waikato River Walk series. Today was the day with B4Dawn, Keylev and Mr HeMaLuDy partaking in the adventure. We dropped one car near the pumphouse and headed to the Dragway end to start the walk. On the way to the start we stopped here to get this quick park and grab. Nice easy find. TFTC.

Out on adventure with Mr HeMaLuDy and B4Dawn to explore this area. Having read some of the logs about the walkway I was worried about how challenging it might be but I needn't have worried it was a great day out!

This was the second find of the day after dropping a car off in the nearby carpark and we were driving to the start line.

Nice quick find.

Thanks for the cache.

Nice view of river. The last person forgot to sign. Quite a common theme on the series along the river. Claim a find on internet but don't sign log book. Getting a bit annoying.

good thing the road is quiet, not a lot of room to pull off the road, at least my geomobile is small, tftc

Sweet

My last find of the River Walk caches today as I definitely didn't have enough time to go along the non-road part today (not that I had the footwear for it anyway, and the map says the trail starts not far away but I couldn't actually see where it was, maybe it was a lot lower down?). A quick find. Thanks for placing Biartch79!

Found it

Quick find, dog greeted us from above

Nice straight forward park and grab. First if the day. Thanks for the placement.

Quick find in good condition under a SPOR. TFTC.

Another quick find while near-by, geocaching 2hen I'm meant to be working... Naughty

Nice and quick find here. It's a big container considering it's a micro! All in good shape here, cache is in good condition and dry. The dog living in the house up the hill is taking his job very seriously, if I were a burglar, I would definitely spare that one. Good job Bello.
We will definitely come back to do some more of the Waikato River walk as soon as the weather permits. Looking forward to it!
Tftc

Found easily. Found together with Pyphant and Piratenschatzsucher! and signed as "Team Piraten".
Tftc

Easy find. Thanks for hiding and maintaining.

.

Due to Covid19 will be re enabled once the alert level is back at alert level 1

Nice easy find after a walk up the hill! Gernita got covered in seeds retrieving the cache though. SL TFTC

Saw as I approached making a nice quick find TFTC

Found

Heading south today with Team Gold ( 0B80B8, Lis's Crew & DaffyNZ ), from Northland to do a weekend caching trip in the Waikato, with the main objective being the Hakarimata Trail.

With the weather not that great today, we delayed the walk till tomorrow and did some other local caches instead. The River Walk was another option we considered and as the forecast rain hadn't yet arrived, we decided to at least do the northern half. The drag racing was cancelled though, so no traffic problems at the start point. Twenty minutes in to our walk and the forecast rain started. AArghh... Oh well, no option but to carry on.

Just before we got back to our agreed pick up point, the rain eased off, but we are all still quite wet, despite rain jackets. Met up with our driver here and glad to not be still walking in wet clothes. A bit of a search and then a nice quick find here. TFTC

I hadn't found a good parking spot on the way down the hill so I had flagged this one. With team G0LD together again it was much easier - having a driver makes a difference with parking especially as it was their car. A good clue made it a quick find here, thanks

Out with Team Gold. Nice quick find while in the area. TFTC

Quick find out with team Gold. Turns out that when you cache along a walking trail, it gets a bit complicated if you're in a car!

This was our last find of the day and was fortunately nice and quick as a dog started barking from the house up the hill. We also startled a sheep and two lambs as we parked.
We'll be back to complete the series sometime soon. TFTC.

Saw these on my phones app, not on my preloaded GPS as the caches are T3, and I didn't load higher than 2.5 T. So went along these ones caching via my iphone for a change - it was good actually. But still prefer my GPS.

TFTC series.

Time for another wander round while my wife stays with some friends in Pukekohe. This was day 3 where I was torn between getting numbers or clearing an area. In either case I managed to pick up this cache without any hassles. Cheers Biartch79 & Tftc

Had a lovely wee drive along here as cain't walk too far these days. Had been racing at Hampton Downs in the Ladies Lexus summer series today so was a nice early evening to find a few smilies thx.

Time to head inland again, so the last one in this series for us for today. Will be back sometime to get the rest. Thanks Biartch79 for putting out these caches, we had fun.

Enjoyed the view from this one. A favourite for the series. Thanks for the effort in placing them all.

This was the last of the series for us today. It has been a great run- thank you . I really hope we can get back with plenty of time to tackle the other half sometime. A fav for the series so far

we thought we would try to grab a couple of these caches, but the phone app didn't play ball so we only managed a few before moving on, thanks for the placement we will be back to finish the run.

Last one in the series for me. Section done by car. TFTC

Quick find here not onto the trail
TFTC

TFTC. Friendly cow watching me. And several cockroaches guarding the cache.

Today I headed south from Auckland in my spare time in search of caches. One of my goals today was to see how many of the caches along this trail that I could find. I didn't have time to get to them all but had a good go at the one's along the driveable section and a few caches at either end of the walking section. I don't usually like cut and paste logs but sometimes make exceptions for 'power trails'. I'll note if anything stands out. A quick find here. The neighbouring dog was upset by my presence. TFTC, Biggles.

Last one here for now before I head off. Nice easy hint, quick find cheers

Out and about finding a few caches out of the way of the holiday traffic TFTC.

Easy find due to the hint thanks !

Not the best of weather for caching this afternoon, but we wanted to increase our finds for today's date by at least 10, so we thought a few drive by caches were in order.
A bit awkward doing driveby caching in a truck when there's not anywhere to pull off the road, but at least the find was quick, and no other traffic around. TFTC,

Here for some quick drive bys not the whole trail. Quick find at the obvious location [8]

#5015. Had a short but enjoyable stay in Auckland. Now its time to head home to Wellington for Christmas. But first another mission. My DGSC bulk find challenge concludes on Boxing Day and by then I will be trying to find up to 200 caches to bring up 1500 qualifying finds this year. So have three full on days of caching ahead of me before I get back home. Today I am tackling some Waikato power trails and staying overnight in Te Aroha so I can visit the old timer cache 101 tomorrow morning. I checked all the caches on this power trail that were accessible by car and were roadside caches. A few I didn't find in the 5 minutes I gave myself to find each cache. Not logging any DNF's as most are still likely to be there somewhere. Thanks for the river walk series Biartch79 and sorry about the generic logs but I have 170 to write-up after 3 days!! Parked up the road and walked downhill. Thought it might be tricky when I saw the drain and rocks but turned out to be an easy find. Quick sign and away. The dog in the nearby house started barking when I pulled up and didn't stop until I drove off!

The road was nice and quiet this afternoon. Had a good run through the series and found everything I looked for. Cheers and TFTC

A quick find as we retreated from the mud and wet. T4tc

Headed south today to take advantage of the weather and put a dent into this trail of caches. Our last find on this trail for today. We will come back again in a few months when the ground has dried out a bit and do the rest. All good here to finish off with, TFTC!

Container was completely grey with skaters. Fortunately none had made it inside. TFTC

Nice quick find here. Thankfully no passing traffic as l signed the log. TFTC

Another great find on the way home from a short trip away.
Stopped off to get some more of this series
SL TFTC

After a hike nice to find an easy one on way home tftc

We met up this morning with KirsTim and yorkshirekiwi83 in order to tackle this Waikato River Walk series. Yorkshirekiwi83 had already completed this track, but decided to join us to collect a few of the ones she was missing. Even though when we headed off this morning, there was a threat of clouds and possible showers, but it turned out to be a beautiful day, and the track was not too muddy, despite being quite overgrown in some places. The trail was definitely more uneven than we expected, but thankfully we were warned! We encountered lots of cows and sheep today, and managed to find every cache along the trail. We did the first half of the series by foot, having parked cars at each end, and tackled the remainder by car, our legs pretty weary at that point.

Another quick and straightforward find here. Signed the logs as KKKT in effort to save space on log sheets, representing the first names of today's team. Thanks for the hide and for all your effort in setting up this trail.

Set out today to do the river trail with Vamber & yorkshirekiwi83, with cars parked at both ends so we could complete the end of the series by road.
Quite a difficult track in all, a lot of uneven ground from the cows, squeezing past gorse, narrow paths, electric fences, overgrown weeds and parts that aren't even REAL tracks (middle section the farm owner probably doesn't really want people walking on his land so has made NO effort to make a 'track'). Glad to have found all the caches on this series as to not need to do this trail again. Thanks for placing the series.

End of the track but two more to do on foot, easy find here, signed the log as KKKT

Decided to come back today with bike to find more here. Weather was average but attempted as many as I could before getting drenched. TFTC

Found ... the weather forecast was for an overcast day ... Mrs McMike2012 decided that we needed to go for a walk to 'walk off our Christmas dinner' ... so I decided we should tackle some more caches in the 'Waikato River Walk Series' & some related caches in the area ... this being the 4th of 19 for the day ... the cache was easily found, the log completed & replaced ... TN:LN:SL ... TFTC ... #1,456 for us.

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)... Heading to Auckland for a weekend of caching... It's all about the numbers, baby!!!

Not sure about this placement... However, it was a quick find as the sun was setting. TFTC.

8.55pm - More like a drain than a river this one but got it. SLTFTC

Vistra and I decided to head to this trail as we both wanted a numbers fix, havent been on many walks recvently and this looked like it might be a good starting point for the summer. The trail was actually harder than it looks being very ankle turning in places and very muddy in others (although not as bad as previous finders have reported). Also was getting a bit sick of having to pull the rain jacket out only for a couple of minutes later it decide it was done and it would be fantastic hot sun. Thanks for the caches.

I have been meaning to do the Waikato River Walk for a while, so today joined up with yorkshirekiwi83 to undertake the trail. We left one car at the pump house half way point, then drove around to the Drag Way Road end to walk the first half of the trail, then used a car to complete the second half of the trail. The first half was done in mixed weather conditions, with the occasional shower passing through, but overall it wasn't too bad. We encountered a bit of gorse, mud, friendly cattle and the odd live electric fence along the way. Took a stroll up the road and made a quick find here. Thanks for the cache and placing this trail!

We also clambered up and then realised we needed to go back down to find the cache. Thank you

Had a good wonder through the countryside and stopped and walked back to this cache.
Nice easy find.

On our way home from a visit to grandchildren in Auckland and thought we'd have a go at some of this trail. We have had our eye on it for a while. We did check out the Meremere end a few weeks ago but couldn't decide where to leave a vehicle, or whether we should bring bikes. Today was the first opportunity we had to make a start and check out what we might need to do to complete. This was the 1st one on the hit list. Mrs S made the find here, signed and replaced while being watched by two cows.

Thanks Biartch79. Made a start at last.

Out and about this afternoon enjoying a drive in the country. Nice to clear the mind after finishing work for the day. I parked up nearby and crossed the road to access GZ. I climbed up the steep bank as this was were the GPSr indicated I should travel. But there was nought to contemplate up here. Looking back down the slope I spied the hide from whence I had come. As it was a little exposed I recovered with a little more of the material located at GZ. Thanks for the hide!

Thought i had logged this already but i must've forgotten to push send.
The last of a great morning's caching. Now off to the pub for lunch.
Thanks for the series.

Found by Bennet24, and the last combined one for me to log, since i am baling after lunch stop.
It has been a great adventure with lots of mud and boots are a mess.
Thanks for setting the series,
Will do the rest later.
TFTC

We discussed why this cache was so far from the trail by the river, but didn't come up with anything plausible. TFTC.

A beautiful brisk morning for us to start out on this adventure with McTui and Agazo. (for #1 -20 we signed logs as 'Team BAM'). We found ourselves surrounded by beautiful scenery, wading through mud, up hills, down hills, across logs, bashing through gorse, crawling under fallen trees and electric fences. A few shocks, some splinters, wet squishy socks and several hours later we emerged victorious and completely satisfied with ourselves. Really enjoyed the adventure and the pints at a local establishment for lunch! Thanks for the series, we probably wouldn't have ever walked this 'trail' if it hadn't been for the caches, so glad we did!

Dog in the house near by not happy.

Dogs barking at us from the nearby house. Quick find. Log signed as b&p.Tftc Biartch79.

On an early morning caching mission with HKCB, Cats&Dragons, IamMrWalker and 11hpg11 before a caching event at 9am back in the Tron. Lots of banter especially with our very early start proving to be quite challenging for one of the crew who'd been at another event late the night before. Not sure what any muggles would make of us all descending upon GZ ... thank goodness too early for anyone to be around & another quick find. Thanks for more placements, TFTC

HKCB sent the word out that he was keen on a quick mission to grab some caches north of Hamilton and whether anyone was keen to join him. Lucky for me, my wife was agreeable and I put my hand up for an early morning adventure along with Cats&Dragons, Kiwi69 and 11HPG11. We met at C&D's house at about 5:45am and once confidant 11hpg11 wasn't going to throw up on us after a night on the town headed off in the Geowagon.

The others in the group had already got most caches in this trail but were keen to grab some late additions. I had done the walk section of the series a while ago but had been saving the park and grabs for another day. TFTC

An impromptu caching mission with Cats and Dragons, HKCB, Kiwi69, Iammrwalker and myself. We had a few hours to cache before needing to be back in Hamilton for an event. I had an event of a different kind the night before and was a little tired but who needs sleep when you can get up at 5am and go caching! We signed the logs as HOAC to save room. Thanks to the cache owners for their placements and giving us reason to get up nice and early.

A bit of deja vu with these new placements. Slowly working my way through the leftover caches that I have still to grab. Thanks for the new caches.

As we were heading home from Awhitu Peninsula late yesterday the call had gone out for a few quick grabs before an event back in Hamilton. A car load of HOAC's (HKCB, Kiwis69, iammrwalker, 11HPG11 & myself) were soon assembled and we set out at 5.45am to see what we could squeeze in before needing to be back at said event.

Collecting these caches along the road was one of the objects of the early morning mission and they certainly unequivocally lived up to our complete expectations for them. If meeting expectations was the catchword for these caches for the day, then they did just that. A few of them we had to laugh at there "NEW" placement and the note inserted into the log by the CO when they were published.
Thanks for the placement

1881 After doing most of the Meremere section I decided to get this one before returning to the car parked at the pump station. Seemed a bit off the trail but not complaining as the road was not muddy.

I have walked part of this trail before a few years ago and wasn't overly impressed with it, and being part of the HOAC team and hearing about it all, I wasn't overly keen to give it a go. So thought I'd make it a bit more difficult and walk it twice, there and back, and in the pouring rain to boot!

The plan was to do the trail backwards starting with the park & grabs and then parking the car at the pump house and walking to the start of the trail by the dragway and then picking up the caches on the way back to the car. The day turned out to be a hell of a lot more eventful than first thought, so I was glad to get back home in one piece and without any injuries.

So of the highlights and lowlights of the trip were:
* Nearly knee deep mud/clay in some of the Southern parts of the walk.
* Having to wade waist deep through the river in parts of the trail as the river was so high it had flooded some parts of the trail.
* Slipping while climbing over a wire fence and getting one foot tangled in the top two wires, took a few minutes to get myself out.
* 3 DNF's!
* Bulls! On three occasions, first having to bash through gorse to avoid them, second having to scare them away from a GZ to get to the cache (a pathetic moo worked somehow), and thrid when one decided to charge me (lucky there was a fence I could easily get over nearby)
* A possum sitting of one of the caches, still managed to get my name on the log.
* Racing a log floating along the river, lost sight of it after about 10mins, so we'll call it a draw (I was bored).
* The lovely sound of some local nature, cars racing on the nearby track.

Trail completed, minus the DNF's in 6 1/2 hours (4 1/2 on the walking section). With everything that went on, by the end of the day I really enjoyed my day out so thanks for the trail.

No trouble finding this one though I'm not sure how long this one will last.

I am never one to do things in order, and chose this cache as our first attempt at this series. A nice easy find as wondered what the residents above us thought about all these curious visitors and their fascination with this *particular* spot. tftc

Well what a view coming over the rise, so I missed Pazzabellas instructiion to stop at GZ.
Of course my excuse was that theres no parking here . TFTC

The parking wasn't so good here, but Steed dashed across the road for a quick find while I stayed in the car. A low flying kingfisher swooped along beside the car.

Last one of the walk for us as we had to skip this one earlier when the local hunters were off doing a bit of duck shooting. Back with alpenmilch80 later on in the day and in the safety of the car and a nice quick find was made. Just one more to get on the trail another day - TFTC

Contacted evilno9 for some outdoor action as I started to developed another outbreak of cabin fever due to bad weather recently. We made a plan "A" but a strong thunderstorm during Saturday destroyed our plans due to my height being a risk factor for drowning. So down we drove with two cars to walk the Waikato River Walk one way . The Walk turned out to be the perfect timing/place to escape some of the worst weather around Auckland. Returned with the car as we had to run from the hunters shooting ducks very close to GZ. TFTC

A phone call to the Mighty Zorgon and travel arrangements were made. I had not got a cache for 1 month and 1 day so I needed the Z man as I was rusty.

Thanks for the effort of making this trail

Quickly found and noticed we weren't the only cachers in the area today.

TFTC

tftc

Found more caches in one day today than in the previous 10 months! A beautiful autumn day for a walk along a trail that was mainly new for me. So pleased that Boges gave me a call to suggest we do it.
We started by dropping a vehicle at the northern end then car-cached the ones south of the pump house before setting out on foot. We only hit one snag when Boges realised that I had left the car keys behind so ended up walking a couple of unnecessary extra kilometres to retrieve them..... not to worry.
I had expected the trail to be largely flat which it was but there is the occasional steep and rough patch to keep it interesting. There are also some fantastic river vistas from the high points.
An all round awesome day in good company with a 100% find rate as a bonus.
Many thanks for placing all the caches along the trail!

Just sitting around on a beautiful day.So off we went to get some more of the trail done.Did not have the transport from the other end,but we were happy to finish this side of the trail.Great day we will be back to finish the trail thanks come on EyespyBen we will do i more.

I decided today to finish off this series now that the rest have been published.

Cheers for the cache.

Plans were laid, transportation arranged, date sorted and today was the day that Trout-fly and I walked the River Trail. Left a car at each end and we were off. This was found after lunch at TK and completed the rest of the series as drive bys. TFTC

Team Welsh and I got together to walk this trail. We sorted some transport at each end so it was a North to South walk collecting caches as we went. We picked a great day and there was plenty of sunshine, chatting and caching on this great little trail. Thanks.

For those that had already found this cache before publication your logs will be deleted if posted due to the co-ords been changed and your signed logs are no longer on the log sheets. Good luck with your new search.

Last of the {FTF} caches today but not the last of the caches I'll do for the night! A few more before I head home, looking forward to dinner and a good wine! Cache nicely hidden here, hope there are no floods though, it might get a bit wet. Thanks Biartch for the placements today! Someone has to get the FTF's right? It might as well be me!

FTF #253

Published