The Tippy Top (Central Plateau) Tukino Alpine Village, North Island, New Zealand
By GuanoGerbil on 11-Mar-18. Waypoint GC7KE3G

Standing on the top of the north island is a privilege indeed, and not to be abused. Any cachers who are awesome enough to have the gear and experience to get up there in winter conditions to find the cache is buried under the guano, please provide proof that you are worthy of the respect earned in doing so. A summit selfie or a photo with an elevation reading on your phone or device would be nice. Otherwise your post may be removed.

Thanks so much for that lovely photo, lanthanein. What a gorgeous day that was, huh? I took a couple of beginners up Tongariro then - I thought I could see you waving from up there!

#350
Went up to the summit today- was not going to log a find since the cache was buried under metres of snow but since EXPNZ’s log was allowed I’m gonna be a bit cheeky too

Well done EXPNZ for adding a rather large degree of difficulty to the climb by doing it in the snow, your foto looks amazing!

Amazing winter climb up. Cache buried and many metres of snow, so attaching picture for proof. Thank you for the cache. Edit: Have attached a map with my GPS location at GZ.

Was just looking at previous logs and saw that it was @daywalk who left those poles up there. One was at the summit and one about half way, funny!

I even picked that one up and played with it for a minute!

We went up this morning beautiful weather, clear skies and we make our way up the mountain following the chairlift. After passing the last one the fun begins, you really have to climb now! It was great to see the glacier as we went up. Once on the top the views are mesmerizing, we could even see Taranaki that we hiked a few days ago. Thanks for the cache it was great!!

The way down is way easier just have to remain careful

After doing Taranaki just a few days ago, we decided to come tackle this well the weather was still good.

We had unbelievable weather. Almost totally clear skies in every direction.

The road up wasn’t to bad, but the road face definitely got a bit hairy at parts.

We followed the ridge and that last little zig zag up definitely made us put in a bit of effort!

The ridge line to the summit wasn’t too bad, but it definitely gets a bit narrow!

The views from the summit were amazing, even comparing photos from earlier this year, you can see how much ice has receded.

After a nice lunch break, we headed back down. Which I actually feel was worst than the way up, it’s very steep and my knees don’t enjoy that!

Back now, safe and sound. Time for break!

Thanks for the cache! Great experience! Thanks for the fun!

For future climbers -
Went up in just under 3 hours, about 45 minutes at the summit and back down in around 2h15.

Strava is telling me it was about 5.1km each way.

Climbed with my 13yr old daughter and 14yr old son plus a friend with a 50yr old body like myself. Was a lot of work and I felt my heart pumping like I'm not used to on the steep part a few hundred meters below the top. Thanks for the guidance in the description for the best way to access the cache.
The rattll rock made note of in a log from last year was still in the cache which was great for my daughter who was hoping to get it. Traded an unused gold plated charm necklace in its new packaging for the painted rock.
We had good views but many obscuring clouds too. The carpet of clouds was below our feet and we could see the summit of Taranaki. Neat to think that at that moment there were certainly also climbers on Taranaki looking a Ruapehu as well.
The cache was in remarkably good condition. How was it dry and good on the inside when it must be buried in snow for much of the year?
Good for a FP and thanks for putting a cache in this special location.

What a climb! What a view!! Thank you for dragging me up here lol

Climbed with my cousin Warren doing his SOTA challenge, and David who turned back at 2600m odd.

One of my missions for 40 for 40 years, see the summit lake, capture the highest North island cache while I'm at it.
Definitely qualifies for a favourite

**#15,199**
This has been a cache on the radar for about 4 years, finally all planets aligned and got a small team of 3 together to tick this puppy off.
We stayed the night in Horopito for an early but not crazy early start of 8.30ish from the Turoa top carpark, the weather was looking not too bad for today, a bit of cloud around and looking to clear later in the morning.
The first section was relatively easy going gaining altitude following the groomed gravel track up to the Cafe (closed unfortunately!)
Once up a bit higher we pretty much followed the ski lifts up, picking the sort of trail clambering over some of the bigger stuff, we did have the waypoints in the phone but sort of made our own way once it was clear where the route to the top was.
We got to the smaller ice flow and followed it up on the left hand side until we spotted a narrowing a bit further up, there was maybe half a metre to navigate across with a hop and were soon all on the right hand side, the ice was rapidly melting and a bit of a hollow underneath.
again we sort of followed the ice and soon realised we needed to head to the right towards the ridge, the track on the phone map showed just over the ridge but as we got to the edge it was clear that wasn't happening! a steep drop off and a massive Glacier compared to the one we had crossed earlier, I lobbed a couple of pebbles over the edge and it was definitely not soft snow down there!
The temperature was starting to drop at this point as some thicker cloud passed over, so time to don the gloves.
From here it was a case of just following the easiest lines till we got to the bluffy stuff, a bit of a zigzag and were soon only minutes from the top.
Got to the top and there was just a guy up there (Mangove Merv perhaps???) who we had seen 3 hrs earlier in the carpark, the clouds temporarily parted in sections and managed to get a few good pics.
waited a few minutes for DavidsonClan to make it to the top by which time unfortunately for him the clouds had rolled back in so he had slightly more limiting views.
Took a few pics and then it was time to make the journey back down, we took a slightly different route down, not dissimilar to the route GG took, looking at his tracklog...
Up time: 2hrs 52 minutes
Down time 2hrs 10 min, (Including top time)

Teamed up with Geckoh and my son this weekend to climb to the top of Ruapehu to get the Tippy Top cache. We got to top carpark about 8 am to start the climb. Weather conditions were good it was cool a little windy through the mid section in clouds at top but no wind temperature was cool but not freezing so good for climbing/hiking no rain which was good. Took us 3 hours up and just under 2 hours down plus a break at top so a total of just over 5 hours. The last 500m were the hardest for me Geckoh and my son got up to the top before me I was getting a little light headed probably lack of oxygen. I was so glad to tick this of the list been watching it for a few years. Definitely a FP from me .

Thanks GuanoGerbil for placing this awesome cache in such a spectacular location.

This one has been on my watchlist for a couple of years, with a few winter visits to the skifields but just never getting around to visiting in summer... however the last few days I had read the logs of Greenblat, KiwiLeon and Hari Sree and I decided it was time for a climb...
(Sorry Hari I did not find the missing ear-pods up there - they may have been blown to Raetihi by now!)

It was a good climb in cool weather with no wind, then requiring storm gear and low-viz navigation in the clouds for the descent as showers became hail and breezes became gales... but no worse than I expected.

I knew the weather window was narrow but also went prepared and keen to try out my new Macpac parka and enjoyed some excellent crampon practice on both the way up and again crossing the icy tongue on the descent.

I was going to collect the rattl pet rock but left it behind in my haste to close the cache as the rain started.
Added a stormtrooper and a DOC hut ticket.
Several TBs just had a fleeting visit.

Definitely gets a favourite point for this day out up on Tahurangi!! ️

Hey fellow geocachers. This may sound bit silly, but thought its worth giving a shot. My friend lost his airpods at the summit on 8th of Feb. If anyone is planning to find this cache anytime soon, and if you don't mind, please give a look for it. We will be really grateful.

FITW Muggle friend Anvin

Its last week that we decided to climb this beautiful mountain. First we thought we will do it from Whakapapa as we were keen to explore creater lake as well and also bag Santa's surprise. But Im glad that I emeailed CO, to check that route and after reading the reply, we decided to do it from Turoa an to just focus on summit now. Drove to Ohakune the night before and started our climb next day as early as possible. As many others have mentioned, this was defenitely a very demanding ascend. We found it really hard to find the right way up even after lot of reasearch and realised there is no easy way to do it. Loose and cracking rocks, icy patches, mist clouds etc also made their own contributions to make it harder. We are super glad that we made it to the summit eventually and found this cache. Thank you very much GuanoGerbil for placing this cache and for the tips as well.
P.S: Also glad that we made it back to the car park with no major injuries.

This must be one of my favorite places in NZ!
Great walk up with GreenBlat and Lill'Red Hood.
We stayed at the Whakapapa Holiday park for the weekend.
After an early start to drop someone off at the start of the Tongariro crossing (for a run!) we started walking at 7am sharp.
What an amazing view when you get to the end of the ridge and look over the lake!
After enjoying the view and taking plenty of pictures we made our way down and made it back at the carpark in just under 8hiyurs.
Thanks for this amazing cache.
TFTC

Found together with KiwiLeon and Lil Red Hood. This has been on the to-do list since publishing but has taken all this time to get here. We were very lucky with calm clear weather and no snow underfoot.

Initial height was easily gained on the ski field but above the Giant cafe, you need to start navigating across the stream above the waterfall and below the permanent snow slide. There were a couple of snow bridges that we crossed between. Sticking close to the snow now on your left seems to be the best tactic to avoid boulders early on, but once you reach the smoother lava slabs, straight up is good to reach the skyline view over the Mangaehuehu glacier to Girdlestone. On the rock band, we swung left on a handy diagonal but remember to swing right again or you'll end up steeply below the summit ridge.

View from the top opens up in the last few footsteps - just an awesome place to be.

T4TC

This year we enjoyed the shorter version of our yearly camp out during Waitangi hanging around Port Waikato. After the crew split with most of them heading back home I decided to use the rest of long weekend to drive down to national park.
Since it got published Tippy Top is on my must todo list.

So when I woke up in the morning and the weather was still playing nice I made my way up to the Turoa car park. Only one other car provided plenty of parking to choose from.
Started the hike up and made good progress along the way. No clouds so far, providing stunning views over NZ every time I turned around.
Had to backtrack a bit to be able to find a save crossing with the snowfield still being very large this early in the Tippy season. I was able to find a spot just above the edge of the waterfall to cross. Made it in good time to the summit to enjoy a great view and lunch. I did spend at least an hour there and decided to move on when clouds started to move in.
All the way down I had no more views but instead enjoyed the feeling of being in the sky. Roundtrip took me 6-7h. All in all a great day out tramping and one more GuanoGerbil down . TFTC

.

Wow, I am truly humbled to have one of my caches selected for such milestones for you both! Congratulations - I really admire your determination

Part II

The terrain becomes more challenging and technical, but its nothing we have not done before. We climb, rock hop, balance our way, taking our own path. One boot in front of the other. I would be lying if I said it was easy, this is hard work. We are taking it slowly, other muggles pass us, some wearing helmets in case of rock fall. It makes sense as they spread out, rocks/boulders move easily. We are now on the "Vertigo" ski trail, it feels like it too. I keep looking back to see where we have come from, but ahead too, to see where we need to go.

Eventually we get near the top of the High Noon Express (2322m), I see the top, but what I see is not the top, but the ridgeline that takes us to the top, and there is a group of muggles standing with their arms in the air in celebration.

We climb and zig zag our way, with a few poles/cairns marking the way.

For now I am happy, the weather is good, we have plenty of water, food, warm clothing and daylight. Each step forward takes us closer to the top.

When we get to the ridgeline the views are amazing. With no cloud and a small breeze, we are almost there (ok almost half way, we need to get back!)

The summit Tahurangi (2797m) is only a couple of hundred metres away, an easy walk to the top

At the top, the views are even better, we try to capture the beauty of the place, its just perfect. An unexpected surprise was to watch water from the Crater lake cascade down to form a waterfall and join the Whangaehu river. We take our time, taking in the magic of the place. It is a time of celebration.

But we are also here to find a cache, and gorby quickly retrieves it from its hiding place, and the log is being signed.

With more photos taken, we know its time to leave, the Mountain has been kind, and now its the tricky part. We are going downhill, and are tired. So its going to take a lot of effort to get back with no injuries. This time we can see a rocky slab (a lava flow) and we make our way over, trying to stay on it as much as possible, hopefully avoiding a fall due to the scoria and loose rocks. We make the time to have a late lunch stop, perched on a rock, its steep, but sheltered.

On our return we are walking into the sun again, as it makes its way West and the horizon.

Making our way down, a helicopter hovers above, and over the ice flow, it makes lots of noise, and is distracting. I am guessing it was on a sightseeing trip. Secretly I hoped it was rebel98 coming to collect us early. Sadly he is not on board, and with no offers of a ride, I was happy to see it buzz off.

Again we are at the top of the waterfall, and cross over the stream, to make our way back to the Giant Cafe (being the off season no cafes or toilets have been open, so bring lots of water/food etc). The terrain should be much easier from this point.

We change our route slightly, with us coming down under the High Noon Express, along the "Boneyard" ski trail, and eventually weaving our way to the Snowflake Cafe.

Things look a little different in reverse, and the Pond is a welcome sight.

At last we arrive at the Carpark, it's about 7.30pm, its been 12 hours.

The sun has a golden glow, we take more pictures, wait for our ride, and enjoy the moment.

Thanks GuanoGerbil for the hide and gorby (thanks again for TB 5000 Finds) it has been an amazing day of caching fun.

Part I

Well I was blissfully unaware of this cache, and now it was calling to me

Thinking I had already climbed to the top of Ruapehu (conquering Santa's Surprise in April 2015) and the other peaks of Tongariro (2016) and Taranaki (2018), I thought my next challenge was to climb Ngaruahoe.

So with a caching milestone of 5000 finds looming, and gorby approaching his 7000th, a plan was made to find a cache to celebrate our individual achievements. We had a few possible worthy caches, but Ruapehu and "The Tippy Top", was to be the chosen one.

Now a drive-by or an event would have been the easier option. But no, we wanted to do something memorable and challenging.

With the FTF long gone, we could take our time. With work and other caching adventures getting in the way too, we waited for the perfect weather window, and on Friday morning it was confirmed, that Saturday was going to be the day we would climb a Mountain.

Arriving at the Turoa carpark at 7.30am, with only a few wispy clouds about, and the summit just there (Alpine Cafe elevation 1623m) well not that close...... but within out grasp..... yeah right

A farewell to rebel98 (support and emergency crew), its time for gorby and I to start our walk, passing locked/lifeless buildings, stopping to look at the stillness of the water in the pond (used in winter for snow making) and to take pictures.

From above the pond is like a scar on the landscape, a beacon from afar, that navigates us back on the long return.

Its strange and foreign walking along the ski trails, usually I would be ski-ing down. The chairlifts are silent and there are only 4 of us on the Mountain (two muggles), compared to winter, when thousands would be on the Mountain enjoying the snow and the carpark full.

We climb up a ski trail called the "Boneyard" which seems appropriate as we make our way over the rocks on our way up. Its at the lower level of the High Noon Express that we stop for a snack with muggles, who are on their way to the top too.

At the Giant Cafe we pause for a sit in a chairlift (if only they where working, this would be so much easier!), take some pictures and admire Taranaki in the distance. Just ahead is a waterfall.

The top of the waterfall is our crossing point, our plan is to be below the ice flow that snakes its way down from the top, avoiding the need for crampons. Looking up we could not see a rocky bridge, as this might have been another crossing option too.

We are now walking into the sun, rather than the shadow of the Mountain, only the occasional breeze is felt. But if you stopped for too long, you quickly felt the cold, so time to get moving.

*I too remember when this cache came out!* But that was soo last year! This year late January, I had a thought about going for the FTF on this cache, and rusty was keen to go for it too, **HOWEVER…** we were soundly beaten to it by a whole week by rattll! Heh heh heh… l-o-n-g story *that* one. **BUT…** me and rusty had a milestone each looming up, hers is her 5000th cache and mine is my 7000th cache. So on 13 or 14th Feb this year, me and rusty decided to go for it proper. I started the mission on one of her caches on the 15th and it was all go from there.

At Turoa carpark at 7:30am. Rebel had other plans apart from this crazy walk! I had loaded up WP's, we both looked at the summit on this crisp beautifully clear morning and I thought… OMG… what am I about to do to myself! A couple were right behind us almost when we left, turns out he was an ex geocacher, I asked if he was heading to the cache as well, he said no but was still going to the summit regardless. We worked our way up and found ourselves at the café/turnstile at 9:07am, we decided to cross over the top of the waterfall. This is where the glacier ice started.

From about here is when things **got tough!** Probably about ¾ ‘s way up the ice-field on the left, I had enough! I was well out of my comfort zone, my breathing was restricted due to my asthma, I felt quite dizzy some of the time and at times it was hard to get air into my lungs and told rusty as such. But I looked up… I could see the summit, I knew how many people had this on their watch-list, gotta keep going somehow and rusty was a great support too!! Ok… all we had to do was rest more often, that was the clincher... climb 2 minutes, rest 30 seconds, drink heaps. But eventually we made it to the top and in another 200m according to my GPS, we would be there at GZ. The last bit was precarious! We were grateful for just a warm gentle breeze up here, a fall either side of this bluff would mean certain death. **THAT** was not on my agenda btw! Me and rusty had come this far and I’m sure as eggs gonna find that damn cache!

Got to the top, and my goodness… what a view. I forgot all about the stress and pain it took to get here, the views are stunning today, not a cloud anywhere. I never knew there was a waterfall at the crater lake… *I do now*! I took some video of the scenery and photos off course along the way, but we noticed then the huge amount of flies and beetles here at the summit. Where the heck do they come from. So after we find the cache, co-ords very accurate btw, we gleefully sign ourselves in, what a moment that was! **7000** caches for me and Sharon got her **5000th**. Great team work got us here, good planning too, so we signed in at 1:50pm (yea… I know…. 6hrs 20mins after we left the carpark), took a photo of the logbook and rattll’s pet rock (which we left there). Then we decided a good feed was in order, but not anywhere near those flies, so we dropped down some meters and ate there.

After eating we were off, a little apprehensive going back down, but we found some zig-zag paths which weren’t obvious going up, stuck with those as best as we could, the bare rock further down was the best way to go, although steep, it provided the best grip on the boots, stay away from the loose rocks and grit where possible, It took **forever** to get back to the café/turnstile at 5:49pm where we sat on one the chairlifts for awhile admiring the still clear views. We got slower as we headed down, just put one foot in front of the other… we finally made it to the carpark at 7:30pm, that’s a solid 12 hours return for us! We whereby waited for our driver Rebel98 to return and boy oh boy, it was nice to sit down in the car!

**Thanks GuanoGerbil for placing the cache here**, it’s now official, me and rusty have THE highest cache in New Zealand under our belts! That is a good feeling and we are only the 3rd to visit this cache up to now. Whoo hoo to us, **thanks rusty**, we finally made it!

Made it!! Me and rustynz will log a lot more later.

What an amazing place to be. We gave a special thank you to the memory of Chief Te Heuheu, who gave the peaks of Tongariro to all of us back in 1887. Hadn’t expected we'd ever be here...

The back story - three years ago we came up to New Plymouth for a family wedding and took the opportunity to climb to the summit of Taranaki, which at that time had the second-highest cache in NZ. We joked that we should visit the highest cache at the Dome Shelter next time. Then last year an even higher cache got placed on Tahurangi…!

This year we were invited to another family wedding in New Plymouth. Mmm. So Mr D suggested we stay a few nights at Ohakune on the way back, to bike the Old Coach Road. Anything else would definitely depend on (a) the weather and (b) our energy levels after all that driving.

As it turned out the weather cooperated quite nicely the entire time we were in the North Island. Biking at Makara Peak and Lake Mangamahoe, walking to Maude Peak Extreme, the wedding (conveniently at WP4 of Have a Go Orienteering), exploring the First Taranaki Land War sites, some entertaining Wanganui gadgets, a delightful day biking the Old Coach Road. We’ve never had such glorious views of the mountain.

And there is a window of opportunity Thursday…! The snow is way back after this hot summer so we decided not to bring the ice axes, but we did pack full storm gear plus of course the PLB.

Drive up the Mountain road, with reminiscences from Mr D about the Massey hut and shared memories of our XC skiing day trip on New Years Day 1990. We borrowed Mrs D’s father’s ice axe and went from Turoa, cutting steps across to the saddle, then skinned and skied across to the Dome and back, watching the crater lake blipping a bit, before the glorious run back down to Turoa. That was 29 years ago... we're not quite as fit nowadays...

So boots and windproof on then plod up the skifield road, until it turns into a track going up the highest tow. Some skifield workers starting to walk down and others hammering away inside the hut – they had come up by chairlift they said. Third pylon up, turned right and found the snow-free route above the waterfall, going over to the true left side of the ice tongue.

By now that sneaky northerly has turned into a cold and very brisk wind pushing us backwards and sideways. So, on with the parka, hat and gloves. We each picked up a 2 m long bamboo pole from the debris littering the skifield and used that to brace against the wind and keep our balance – exactly like using a pole for river crossing. Chatting to the Ohakune Information Centre lady afterwards, the wind in Ohakune that day was strong enough to blow over her rubbish bin, and Metservice shows the strongest gust in Waiouru was 52 km/h.

Upwards over the rough scoria boulders, stopping in a sheltered spot for morning tea near the Big Rock With Chain, at a level with the top of the skifield. Looks as if the rock here must be used as a winch anchoring point for skifield maintenance? It’s cold enough that a trickle of water has stayed frozen. We had gone a long way, but looking upwards we seemed to have as far to go as ever.

Next landmark was to finally reach the slab of smooth stone. Keeping near the left hand side made it easier to find a secure route. Resting near the top of the slab, the wind had strengthened as you expect with height. We both knew that if we would probably be forced to turn back before the top, because it would be dangerous to be on the summit ridge in this wind. But that view of Girdlestone at a level with us is utterly amazing!

Mr D’s impeccable nose picked the best route onward and, as so often happens, there was a faint track and small cairns to show we were on a recommended route avoiding the bluffs. We left our poles at the top cairn since it was now more of a scramble up the steeper slope and large rocks. But suddenly…Huey relented. We must have got into the lee of the mountain, with the wind deflected up the Whakapapa side, because the wind suddenly died off to just a breeze. What unbelievable luck!

We got to the summit ridge and Oh what a view and the colours in the rocks and the beautiful smooth path upwards. A short easy stroll took us to the summit – the crater lake! the Wangaehu River! The Dome! and a wee way beyond there was a white stone… this is it!
No it’s not, this has Chinese writing on it and there’s nothing in the rocks underneath. Mr D came to the rescue, glanced around and spotted the nice safe hide. Photos with the logbook, photos with the geocoin we were carrying, photos of the view. But even panorama photos don’t do it justice.

Then we went a bit down from the summit, for respect, and ate lunch while picking out landmarks and just enjoying being there. Both feeling a bit light-headed and lacking appetite because of the lower oxygen.

Going back we followed the same route, with the wind partly behind us now. Partway down the slab, suddenly felt we had more energy – that must be the effect of the altitude.
Distressing to see so much rubbish scattered over the skifield. Plastic bottles galore. We picked up three broken glass bottles across from the top tow hut, plus a munted i-phone, fancy pen, season lift pass… such a shame DoC haven’t insisted on a proper clean up.

That last section back down the skifield road was surprisingly tiring – we didn’t remember it being so rough going up! By the last bit it was one foot in front of the other. Got back to the car at the same time the skifield maintenance workers were coming down on the chairlift. Took us 7 ¾ hours altogether. This was a day to remember – thank you for taking us to a place we never expected to be, GuanoGerbil. The high point of our holiday!

Carpark 1640 m
Crossing point above the waterfall, 2140 m: S39 17.835 E175 33.042
Rock with chain, top of skifield, 2380m: S S39 17.688 E175 33.428
Bottom Cairn: S39 17.494 E175 33.702
Middle Cairn: S39 17.496 E175 33.716
Top cairn where we left bamboo poles, 2700m: S39 17.496 E175 33.744

A few more waypoints, after seeing John MacMillan's post on the Geocaching NZ facebook page. But use with discretion - these are single spot readings only and may not be accurate - nothing beats common-sense for route finding!

- Carpark 1640 m

Skifield road up, then follow track a short way up the top tow, until you cross to the true left of the snow tongue.

- Crossing point above the waterfall, 2140 m: S39 17.835 E175 33.042

Then we headed upwards, generally only 30 to 50 m away from the snow tongue.

- Landmark Rock with chain, top of skifield, 2380m: S S39 17.688 E175 33.428

At the top of the smooth slab the routefinding bit starts. You have to find the easy way up. Mr D's route was nice, not steep and kept us away from bluffs.

- We started up the next section from about: S39 17.505 E175 33.644 2620 m

- We got up to about: S39 17.485 E175 33.675 2640 m

From there you traverse across an easy slope, with bluffs below. You will find you're on a well-used route going across to the cairns.

- Bottom Cairn: S39 17.494 E175 33.702

- Middle Cairn: S39 17.496 E175 33.716

- Top cairn where we left bamboo poles, 2700m: S39 17.496 E175 33.744

At the top cairn, you're in the correct position to head straight up to the summit ridge.

Guano!

Thankyou for placing this cache.

I tried do get to it on 16th Feb 2019, glorious day for it.

My daughter and I found it quite hard as it is so steep as you mention, and it just gets steeper and steeper. We crossed the ice flow you mention near its top which was quite narrow at the time. I was coming to the limit of my technical experience and my daughter was well past her limit. We got to the 2560m contour line when we had the difficult conversation and aborted the cache attempt. About 10 mins after the decision was made we heard a chopper fly in below us. It came up very close to us and must have seen us but carried on up to the summit and over the next 2 hours we watched as it came and went extracting a group that were ahead of us on that climb to the summit. The first lift was very close to the rocks about 50 m below the summit with clouds of dust rising in its down draft. Two more pick ups from the ridge itself and the chopper landed in the car park for a long while then flew off south. Photo shows my daughter and the helo.

I can only assume there was at least one casualty and the rest of the party were carried off as well. I hope he/she recovers well.

It was a graphic reminder to us that this is an extreme environment and we are pleased with our decision to turn back before we came to any harm. Be warned all ye who enter here, heed Guano's warnings in his description!

Maybe we will try again another day.

This cache has been a life long ambition of mine since it came out in March last year!
We had originally decided to have a go at it on Friday, but after mentioning it to our daughter, she was keen to join us and Sunday was the only day that really worked for her.
As always farming got in the way and we were an hour later leaving home than we'd wanted but eventually arrived at our destination and set off on the track around 11 a.m - 3 Rattll's and an extra muggle friend of our daughters.
It was a fairly sunny day with a fair amount of cloud over the mountain so we knew we'd have a mix of weather conditions to contend with but at least it was good starting off.
That top cafe/chair lift seemed a long way off, but we slowly chugged our way up towards it, crossing to the right at the top of the waterfall as suggested but ended up not going far enough to the right so the climb started getting a lot steeper. Despite realizing where we should be, we opted to persevere on the route we were on anyway, and after many stops eventually clambered our way up to the top ridge about 200mts from GZ. That last 800 mts took forever! Then it was straight to the cache, although the narrowness of the ridge was a little challenging for those of us not keen on heights!
The cloud was starting to settle in so after first locating and signing the cache log, we managed to take some photos with peaks through the clouds of the view below, and had a quick lunch. But it didn't take long for the clouds to thicken and coldness to set in, so we started the decent, opting to take the direct route down again. That was pretty good going other than Mrs Rattll turning her ankle about half way down, which was then pretty sore for the rest of the descent, but other than slowing the pace down somewhat, that wasn't too much of a problem, and we arrived back at the car around 7hrs later, absolutely shattered, but very pleased with our efforts.
Thanks for setting up a cache here GuanoGerbill. We have done the cache at the dome hut but it feels great knowing we've now climbed the highest peak in the North Island, and it feels even better having picked up a {FTF} on such a special cache. It may have only been one cache find today, but these are the type of caches we'll remember.
We left a pet rock - a swan.

Thanks GuanoGerbil! I have freshmaps on my GPS also ( just need to remember to bring it & spare batteries ) Will have to get some GPX routes off you sometime or perhaps meet up for an adventure. Your abilities are likely beyond my skill/guts level (I'm too scared to attempt without someone along with experience!) , but the other half may be up to scratch. He still wants to go up Ngaruhoe someday, and also ski-tour across to Whangaehu...

I was up Ngauruhoe a couple of weekends ago - a nice walk up the southern side past Tama Lakes for a change. Happy to flick you GPX files or help with anything else

Sorry I missed you, SaltyCacheNutZ. Yes, you would have had some serious difficulty trying to retrieve this cache under all the ice at the moment!
I use Memory Map on my desktop to do these maps, and I use FreshMap with topos on my GPS when out and about. The two systems work together beautifully.

Lol, was checking geos on a down day & now seeing this panicked at the thought we'd missed one on our hike the other day

So, sveppi and I had planned on finding the Santa's surprise cache, after so many years of looking at the green dot representing the highest cache on the North Island.
Last night we were having one last look and had 2 surprises:
1- in spite of Dome Shelter having been dismantled and the cache removed, there is actually a new cache in place! yay! so now we can geocache as well as walk.
2- There is a new cache on the mountain! We got really excited as we may well have a crack at a FTF!

Turns out a couple of things happened. Firstly only the first lift was in operation at Whakapapa, so that pretty much put an end to our FTF ambitions as we would not have enough time or energy to carry on past dome with the extra hour or so of walking required. Secondly, we are not as fit as we would like to think, and the terrain up here is a bit more challenging that we had hoped for, so we probably wouldn't have made it past Dome even if we'd got up there an hour earlier.

We saw a couple of people on the top from our lunch spot, they must have had a grand view!

Well done on Santa's Surprise, fanfan-77. Sorry to snatch the highest cache prize from your fingers. It just means you'll have to come back now! Which is precisely my motivation for placing these caches - "B**" that I am
I wouldn't recommend trying to connect the two caches in the one day. You can get to Tahurangi from Dome via the crater rim, but it means crossing the glacier to do so. Depending on conditions, you would almost certainly need an ice axe, and quite possibly crampons even this time of year to do that. Even then it's a long and sometimes tricky rock scramble after that. And then you've still got to come back, which would make it a very, very long day. You're much better going up from Turoa side. But no cheating there either sorry, the chairlifts won't take you up that side either

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