High Country Stations: Molesworth (Canterbury) Hurunui District, South Island, New Zealand
By TwoSharpe on 06-Sep-18. Waypoint GC7XC3J

Quick find once I choose the right leg. TFTC

Quick park and grab thanks for the cash

Quick find on a beautiful Autumn day. TFTC

We are only having a four day summer holiday this festive season, so we did a bit of a whirlwind trip around the top of the South with a night in Westport, a night at Klondike Corner and a night in Christchurch.This morning started with us attending an event on the New Brighton Pier at 5-45am (that is a miracle in itself). Then it was on the road to travel through the Molesworth Station and Awatere Valley.We were a bit surprised at how many people were in the area, lots of push bikes, motor bikes and four wheel drives, but there were not so many other campervans. Not sure why not as it is a really good road with plenty of room to pull off and pass in most spots.We stopped here and the cache was found in the thrid place we looked as we misinterpreted the hint.Thanks for placing this cache and thank you for the smiley

Enjoying a day up the Molesworth. TFTC!

Hadnt planned going for this cache, but it suddenly showed up nearby, so of course I had to. No phone reception, so no hint, logs or images. Luckily the coords were accurate, and the location Kiwi-standard. Log book was wet, but dried out quickly in the warm wind. Thanks for the hide.

Thankfully relatively easy find despite the foot or so of snow. Thanks to both the Sharpes for the cache and nzser for the company.

Annual mid winter trip to Hamner Springs. Not going to let a little bit of rain, sleet and snow stop us from geocaching. First attempt up Jacks was in the Subaru. I chickened out and headed back due to a lack of chains. Back up in KiwiLegends truck. Stop at the top to fit chains and off we go.
Oh the joy's of caching in the snow. 1 to 2 foot deep around the cache point but a splash of colour lead the way.
TFTC and boy I won't forget this trip.

Found it during bike trip aroud Mt Isobel. TFTC

Nice and easy, beautiful day for a ride through molesworth, log book was wet, thanks for the hide

Spent the day along Clearence river with some walking and swimming and a tour to the cob house.
This HVDC power line was upgraded the first time in 1991. There were a lot of Swedish people both in Wellington and in Benmore at the time and I actually spent 9 months in the country at the time.
Cache was easy to find, but a bit wet. Tried to dry it off.

Speedy find as I continued north. TFTC

Found with StreetWalkerNZ on an overnight trip to Hanmer.
We "did" the Molesworth back in 2018, before this cache was placed. Gosh, Jack's Pass is scary, especially for the passenger (moi) travelling north. It was much more pleasant travelling back towards Hanmer, and the views were good as well.
Cache was a quick find for SW, then we scuttled back to the car as the wind had got up and it was cutting. TFTC.

#21408. We headed over Jacks Pass to find three trads, and make a start on a multi. This was our first find. After finding this one, we turned around and headed upstream along the Clarence, eventually reaching Tophouse Rd and going a few kms along it before turning around and heading back to Hanmer. TFTC.

With pretty much all the caches we can get done done on the Rainbow road it is time to venture along the Molesworth side and see where we end up. Our first stop is here and not quite in the first place we looked but soon after. log signed cache replaced as found and we are off again. tftc

I had intended traveling thru the Molesworth and camping and tramping. But I left it too late in the season and road is locked.

The river through here is fascinating.

The Northern end of the Molesworth road is currently closed which fits the DOC website and signage unfortunately it also says to go to the council website for more info, that had only been updated 3 days earlier saying it would be open for Easter the bigs signs further in from the Awatere end indicated it wasnt open so backtracked and came down to Hanmer via Kaikoura then up through Jollies Pass to the Cobb Cottage for the night, now on the way back to Hanmer. Nice quick find here. Thanks TwoSharpe

#12073

Thanks for the cache TwoSharpe, Quick find once my phone settled down.
Cache is dry.
Up here today accidentally after I drove through to St Peters homestead to ride the St Peter's trail but had left my bike battery back at Hanmer Springs on charge. Dah. A head win and uphill start to the afternoon ride I had planned wasn't happening so rather than waste the trip off I went to find some nearby !! caches.
Thanks for placing and maintaining

I overshot this one while thinking of my last trip through here so continued on to the next one and signed this on my way back past. TFTC # 16,939

Spent a day exploring through the back of Hanmer Springs collecting a few caches along the way. A really enjoyable trip, and some great country. TFTC and the excuse to travel through a remote-ish piece of NZ.

Day 4 of our 17 day South island Rd trip. We started our trip in Hamilton. Trip meter ticked over 1000 kms today. We left Hanmer Springs this morning to travel as far as we could today into Molesworth Station. We went roughly 60 kms down the rd then returned as we needed to be at our accommodation tonight at Orari in South Canterbury. Elaine always had the goal to travel some way up this rd and today was the day. Beautiful weather for the trip and so many lovely photo stops along the way.
This was the 1st stop on our trip today. We came up Jacks Pass. Met a young lady preparing for some activity here and we told her what we up to. Easy find thanks.

In Hanmer for a week of work, so on my day off I did the Jacks/Jollies loop with a couple of dog-legs. Here I watched the workers below playing in the riverbed and watched that runner go past me again. I think we leapfrogged each other about 3 times I stopped and searched

A nice find here. First of the day with Campmotherandken today as we begin our journey through the Molesworth TFTC

Very wet log - off on an amazing time with Juju54 - TFTC

Grabbed this one as my last for the day after cycling part of the St James Cycleway.

TNLN. TFTC.

An easy find on a hot dusty day. TFTC

Found on a nice drive in the area. Enjoying the caches

An easy find for our last of 38 caches for the day.29 finds including 5 favourites and 9DNFs. An awesome day for our 40th wedding anniversary "cruise". Arrived in Hamner at 5.15. An 8 hour trip.

Fantastic day, tftc

Quick find here, thanks, while biking the 25km Jacks-Jollies passes curcuit.
The climb up Jack's Pass was a bit beyond my fitness level, and I had to walk 2 sections. The downhill made up for it!

Its my first time on this road, fantastic country.

Quick find thanks

Took a wee drive over the hills after having been to the fete. This was a quick find on a lovely day out. TFTH

Easy find with Wilson#41 on a cold and snowy morning .
The road up was a bit slimy, especially from Jacks Pass saddle down to the river, but the trusty Caldina took it all in its stride.
Good layer of fresh snow above us and enough at the saddle to make a mini snowman.....
TFTC

Quick easy find with Kwaka40.
Cold and snowy up here today
TNLN

It's a couple of years since I was last here. No trouble getting over Jack's Pass. There was a group of about 15 walkers on the other side of the river. Wilding pines are spreading.

I came to Hanmer Springs with my dad (BigglesNZ). I mainly wanted to go to the pools but we found a few caches as well. We drove over the hill to find this one and a couple of others. Nice hide. Thanks

Visiting Hanmer Springs with Flying Phoenix. We drove over the hill to find a few caches over here. This was the first one we came to. Zero'd in on GZ and spotted the hide in the first place checked. TFTC, Biggles.

Another weekend and another road trip..this time its hamners turn.
Early start to the day with a walk through the forest doing the multi ...and a few caches then up conical hill.
It was time to jump in the truck and head over Jack's pass
Clear skies and a dusting of snow on the tops made for great views after visiting Pete's pass I made a quick detour to grab this, drove the molesworth road a few month before this was placed so was good to finally tidy up the are nice quick find and the snow on the tops makes for a cold grab tftc

We had come up Jacks Pass and found the Tophouse Road around to this one was closed..
We went left to find two Caches along there, then came back down to Hamner and drove up Jollies Pass Rd,although it was a lot more rugged with a few Washouts..
Strangly No Closed Signs up that way,so we contiued around to here,and it was a quick find.TFTH

Found this Cache on our way from Hanmer Springs to Molesworth Cob Cottage Campground. TFTC

A little extended bike ride to get these Geocaches today, thanks

We are in Hanmer Springs for a couple of days Geocaching with Busy Paws. Today's adventure was to go up JolliePass and back down Jacks Pass. We cameto this High Country Station and were happy to find the cache. Thanks for bringing us here and the cache TwoSharpe.

No probs finding this one. Found with Coconuts3. Having a great day exploring the area. TFTC

A quick stop with Rincewind3 for the cache. TFTC

Cache number 1 of 5 today, on our trip to Lakes Guyon, Tennyson, and Sedgemere, Island Gully Hut, Hanmer, and Scotties Hut. Caching as a team but Not Manly Jack is in Hanmer now so all logs signed Bo&bronnie + Rincewind3 (or R3 and B&b to save space).

This was an easy first find at the second spot we checked. Did a spot of CITO too - no-one wants a glass Woodstock bottle sitting in the dry grass over summer!

TFTC TwoSharpe
Find number 4023

Thought we would come down this side and back over Jollies pass after a walk up Mt Isobel . Thanks

Taking a winter drive from Hanmer Springs over Jacks Pass.. A fine cold day, the temperature never got over 3 degrees. Still a good day to to find geocaches and get out and about. Enjoying the fabulous scenery all day. Thanks for this quick find TwoSharpe.

Nice hide tftc

In Hanmer for a few days of R&R. Got up enough motivation to pedal to here but that was far enough so after finding the cache followed my route back to the couch. Thanks TwoSharpe for the cache.

The second of the pair of High Country Station caches for the day and nice and easy here and replaced as found. T F T C TwoSharpe

Day 2 of the trip and the weather really behaved nicely and provided awesome all day sunshine which highlighted the overnight snow-fall on the peaks. I was up nice and early for a quick walk out to the nearest Trad cache, then we headed on foot to the Forest walks, then back into town for coffee and a slice, then a slog up to Conical hill, then back down for a round of Mini golf then after a quick refresh it was lunch in a new café and finish the day off with a few caches part the way along the Molesworth. Quite a full on day but a good way to explore the area.

With our eldest (NZ) daughter down for a long weekend we decided on showing off some of the best of the Top of the South namely Marlborough and North Canterbury. I had booked a holiday home in Hanmer a few months ago and we were down to stay on Friday and Saturday nights. The weather forecast wasn't looking too flash for the Friday trip down, nor the Sunday return, but we weren't likely to be thwarted. There was torrential rain heading through Kaikoura and we later heard of rocks damaging a passing motorists car and road being closed so our timing was good. By the time we got near Cheviot the weather had improved and a couple of caches were grabbed before we arrived at the destination.

As we had just travelled from our overnight camp at Molesworth, this seemed an appropriate cache to find. Another in the High Country Stations series ticked off.

Quick find.

Found with Kiwimykl on a drive through the Rainbow, refer to his log for details.

TFTC TwoSharpe

Found with NZDi near the start of our drive through the Rainbow to Hanmer Springs. We have had the two days between Waitangi Day and the weekend booked as leave since the end of last year with no real plan to do anything, but a week ago I checked the bookings for the company holiday home in Hammer Springs and saw it was free today and tomorrow. After a quick word with NZDi, it was booked and I began researching a geocaching trip. In a moment of inspiration I thought about going through the Rainbow Road to give NZDi's new geomobile a real test. Although all the warnings say you need a high ground clearance 4WD and the Sportage is a bit of a soft roader, I still thought it would have the goods to do the job, and it did although I had to use 4WD on one occasion for 50m.

As we didn't know how long caching would hold us up on the trip, we considered bypassing the caches up to six mile stream as we could come back and do them any time. In the end we decided to do them all and we still arrived in Hanmer Springs before we were allowed to check in.

When we got to the turn off to Jacks Pass I mentioned that I had this cache saved in my GPS, so NZDi took a slight detour off our intended track to get it. At GZ the hint actually put us off and we found the cache in the third place we looked.

TFTC TwoSharpe

On from Hanmer on day 2 of a geocaching mission with Nosynel. We signed logs when room was cramped as JE NN. The aim of the trip was to try and find most of the Molesworth caches. My lovely son loaned me his flash Toyota Hilux so we were in more comfort bouncing over corrugations than we would have been otherwise. Thank you for placing a cache in this spot. Number 1 for the day. I think in my excitement that I may only have put the date and forgotten to sign our names.

The big Molesworth circuit has begun. Today is day two of Jude _E and my geotour. Thanks to her kind son we have use of a Toyota Hilux, very handy! Tonight's destination is Blenheim via the Molesworth.
Our first on the trip.

Sadly there is no large event in New Zealand in 2019 but there are a few Mega events planned in Australia. I plan on going to the OzGeomuster in July. To find out more visit this site: https://www.ozgeomuster.com.au

If you can't make Aussie. New Zealand will have another large event in 2020 in Auckland. I will keep you posted in my logs.
Thanks for hiding this geocache.

Always wanted to drive through here. Thanks

A quick find with the family. Thanks.

Found with our 3 and 5 y.o. Thanks!

We got to here after Jollies Pass Road. That road was a bit slower than we had expected but the cache was a quick find, as was the one here. Nice to have another in the series smilied - and another to come.
Thanks.

Mr D is taking Mrs D on a conditioning ride on the Jack's Pass - Jollies Pass loop. Sunny on the Clarence side and the mountains and river are scenic. So, this was a place to pause and enjoy the moment. The infrastructure our forebears built, from the road to the pylons, is worth commemorating.

Molesworth here we come, the aim of our weekend. We even got an hours chat with the station manager as we waited at Ward's pass to let the cattle over.

An awesome Molesworth Mission trip with Karma Reprint and The Wanglers (signed as K2T), tonight up to Acheron Accommodation campsite. Thanks TwoSharpe for the cache, 6 of 132 for the trip. Cheers

A quick and easy find. Thanks

Friday night, Christchurch to Acheron campground.

The plan: Cache the Molesworth road
The cast: Kiwi Moose, The Wanglers and Karma Reprint
The result: A great fun filled drive, and cache filled haul.

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

Out with BaldEd again today trying for a few more caches to the north of Hanmer Springs.

The previous cacher had really stuffed the log back into a bag that was too big for the container. It was ripped trying to extract it so we replaced it with a smaller one.

Cheers for the cache.

After MTBing the Peters Valley loop track, to check on my Peters Pass cache, Tufty and I headed off toward Acheron Valley to seek some of the caches there.

This was the first stop en route to Acheron. Nice quick find after we had checked all the 'far' bases.[^] Thanks for another High Station cache TwoSharpe.

Our second second to find today

TG and I had planned a 'mental health day' trip last week and it was fortunate that a few caches were published the night before! We had planned to head up to Kaikoura but we promptly changed plans when a few popped up on the radar Hanmer way. We dropped off cachelets and I packed TG and I a school lunch and we headed for the hills. We had the plan to head back homeward at 12.30pm. We made a bee line up to the back of Hanmer to try our luck on two FTFs and we were rewarded with our first FTF on the previous cache and scored our second {FTF} here as the wind started to pick up. We headed back to Hanmer via the Jacks Pass road.
We got back home in time for the cachelets to get home from school. Good fun.

Thanks for the cache TwoSharpe.
#5570

**FTF** 11:30am with TheWanglers
TW was keen for an adventure and a distraction....so I took a 'mental health' day to make it happen...the plan was to met up after school dropoff and head northwards (kaikoura way) - yak and cache the day away and get home in time for school pickup.....but a flurry of publications made us change our minds & head to Hanmer for the chance at a couple FTFs and whatever else we had time for....an awesome day....
After the St James FTF we detoured to the 'Under the Wires' WP before heading to this cache. Wind pretty cold and blustery here...but a quick find and sign here. Cool views. Heaps of hawks cruising the airwaves.

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