Hobbit Hole Revisited North Island, New Zealand
By Size 13 on 03-Nov-18. Waypoint GC7ZWHE

I am regretfully archiving this cache since there's been no response from nor action by the cache owner within the time frame requested in a prior reviewer note.

I hope to replace cache at the end of the month

No luck for us either.

Now that I have internet. I may have misread clue.

Did not find

Wow. Couldn't fine

No luck today

Not a revisit for us as we have never driven this road before. We did like the name.
Thanks.

Having moved out to Whangamomona in January of this year and with family living in Cambridge, it was inevitable that I would have to do this road one day, I had just hoped it would be in nice weather. But a last minute to decision saw me coming through here today on my way to celebrate my mum's birthday in Cambridge. A great place to stop and I was surprised to see a name I recognized on the nearby Heritage sign, my family used to work for him a few years ago. Cache is in good condition but could probably do with a replacement log at some stage.

Great little spot. Tftc

Thanks for placing another cache in this area.

I'm on a trip with my Mum and two youngest children. We're doing a quick tour of the North Island. We walked around the rim of the Waihi gold mine and stayed in Tauranga the first night. Stayed at Lottin Point then we headed to Gisborne before driving down to Napier. Turangi was our next destination before heading to our old stomping ground Palmerston North. We came via Whanganui and Hawera to New Plymouth yesterday. Today we're going to Taumaranui via the Forgotten Highway. Next is a quick dash down to the Raurumu spiral before going up to Waitomo Caves. Back to Auckland for a few days with family, the long awaited 2020/2022 Mega then home to Whangarei.

I picked up a few caches in New Plymouth this morning. We went up the mountain on the way here to get the earthcache. I collected a solved puzzle, went to Stratford for lunch and watched the fantastic 1pm clock performance there. We then headed out to the forgotten highway. Loved the tunnel here. We went through, parked up to walk back and take photos. I figured the cache title was based on the type of hide before I noticed the sign on the tunnel. Very cool. A quick find of the cache by my son, thanks

Found while driving from Taupo to Stratford. What a road and what a tunnel! Cool spot, thanks for placing a cache here!

Found it. Summer Holiday 2021

Quick find in an awesome spot

Heading on to Taumarunui this morning from Whangamomona - the first time I have driven this bit of road since the 1970s when it was all unsealed. No problems here, a quick find in the first place checked. Signed log, TFTC!

#12,606. Park, walk and grab on State Highway 43 in Tahora. GZ was all quiet at the time of our visit. Quick find. The cache was in fairly good condition. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

Favorite point added for the Hobbit Hole location.

Thanks for the placement, and for bringing us to this site, and …

.T h a n k s. .f o r. .t h e. .c a c h e.
.M a u r u u r u. .k o e. .n u i. .a t u. .h o k i. .t e. .k e t e r o k i.

Amazing! Great photo location! But take care of the cars that might be coming. Thanks for placing a cache here and making us aware of the place ahead of time.

TFTC Size 13

*** Out on our MEGA Roadtrip with Wilbywarrior. Who says this can only happen when the MEGA is actually held?! Greetings from Dunedin, caching friends
#370 ***

Nice spot to pull over to see the Hobbit’s Hole. Quickly found. Log a little damp but ok.
Malinkaly and I planned a road trip to go to the MEGA but Covid has postponed the event again. We decided to continue on with our planned journey making adjustments as we go with the ever-changing travel restrictions.
Greetings from Dunedin!
Thanks for the cache, Size 13
#2616

Running blind as I had no Internet and not sure exactly what I was looking for. ReD the sign waiting for a muggler to drive away. Thanks for bringing down this forgotten highway. Awesome.

On holiday but the tramp weather has failed us and we are now on a road trip, grabbing caches along the way (between rain storms!). TFTC

Sveppi and I had a week off work. With Covid, the weather and other shenanigans we had to change the plan 4 times... make that 5! Long story short we cut short the tramping trip and made it into a road trip. Half the drive through Hiaghway 43 was in pouring rain, but once we got to hear it had eased a bit so I decided to stop to grab the cache. I had driven past it quite a few years ago and did not stop. Good to log it now.

This was the only cache I was able to stop for as it was a club over nighter trip on the bikes and being here getting this cache last time I came through, I did a head scratch to why there was another since I last visited.
there was a large mold thingy growing inside so next person could please bring a babywipe or something to give it a clean out as I could only use a stick to scrap off what I could.
Thanks for the placement

Found on the drive to taumarunui. Great spot.

We found it even if it was a bit mouldy

So cool

Found after stopping for a coffee with GTT4. Interesting stop on the Forgotten World Highway. Thanks for the cache

Found, quick easy find,

After a full day hiking the Tongariro Crossing, I left the rest of the team and made my way to New Plymouth. I thought the cache would be in the hole, but then I realized what this referred to. TFTC.

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)... We've been trying to smash out some of the PWGT trail since its release, but work and other commitments have pulled us in other directions. Gap had work in the Waikato and Taranaki today, so this set the tone for our adventures...

We remembered finding the previous hide in the area... This one was a minor challenge as we had to be aware of motorists approaching. It's always a buzz to come across a road tunnel in our travels. Thanks Size 13 and TFTC.

just had to be mind full of vehicles that be coming the opposite way when entering tunnel.
all clear and a good area to park.
cache all good
tftc

Thanks Size 13 for the cache. It’s #1393 for us. We found your cache on 16 February 2021. A very spectacular place.

Simple find here. Parked up and walked to it. A few cars here giving way to faster ones, all good. TFTC Size 13.

Day 4 of a 10 day road trip round the bottom half of the North Island, and today it was New Plymouth to Owhango.
We weren’t going to go the Forgotten World Highway until it was mentioned to us by our hosts in N.P, so we did some research and thought that would be the way to go.
Pretty cool drive, would be frustrating in parts if you were stuck behind slow traffic, but we did not have that problem with a few regular cache stops. Whangamomona is a real treat of a town - great pub, and you get the feeling there is a great community spirit out here.
Really enjoyed it, great weather, and no problems with any caches, apart from adding some log paper. Thanks all COs.

Located with Ricardinho
TFTC

Good spot to take photos of the hole from! TFTC!!

A quick stop for some photos and a cache. The only cache we managed to get on the forgotten highway because we kept forgetting and driving past them. TFTC

Our 1000th find. Couldn’t ask for a more amazing spot. Tftc.

Sweeeet altho no food in the tunnel so the Hobbit must have gone! Tftc

TFTC a brilliant day for a drive through here

Tftc. Found on a lovely day while on our Xmas break from the south island

A nice quick find thanks. They LOWERED the floor rather than raising the roof so truck and trailer units could fit through! Fav Point from me.

Ms_KR and I are on our annual pilgrimage to Auckland for our family Christmas. A biggish day km wise, from Gordonton to Stratford, via the Forgotten World Highway. A nice place for driving and views at times of Mounts Ruapehu and Taranaki. Please excuse the generic logs, there have been a few finds and they get muddled up sometimes.

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

On a trip from Wellington via this highway. Previous time through the tunnel was a return bus trip after the golf cart day. Found it easily once the gps settled. Picked up two trackables which were looking a bit “forgotten “ TFTC

TFTC CZ

Loved the tunnel! Tftc with jakesrage

Cool Tunnel. Really interesting that it was hand carved. Tftc with isistibisi p.s dropped off trackable.

We are on a ten day road trip to Taranaki, The Forgotten Highway, Taumaranui, Ohakune and back home to Palmy. Along the way will be sightseeing, short mountain walks, museum visits, a rail cart journey and, of course, geocaching.
We were now on Day Six of our trip and off along the Forgotten World Highway to Taumaranui. It was quite a journey with some very rugged, spectacular country, and unique experiences like driving through the narrow, one way Moki Tunnel (aka the Hobbit Hole). The unsealed section of road through the deep Tangarakau Gorge is not too bad, but has quite a few potholes!
As usual we had a mixture of weather - mostly quite fine, sometimes cloudy and chilly, sometimes warm and sunny. Towards Taumaranui we had a short downpour and thunderstorm.
The drive through the tunnel was a unique experience and after we emerged we were able to stop for this cache. It was a quick and straightforward find, TFTC

Hi all , found this on 26 th , a wet miserable day whole making a family pilgrimage to Tahora and Whangamomona.after 62 years . I went to school in Tahora . I left a traceable here . One because it is beautiful and two because only a true geocacher will travel through and pick it up , tyfc

Omg amazing

After talking about it for a few years we decided it was time to drive the forgotten highway.  This was found on day 1 on our way to spend the night at the Whangamomona Hotel. It was Mama bears turn to look around I quickly saw a likely spot from the comfort of the drivers seat, cache was soon signed  Found as part of our school holiday North Island road trip.  TFTC

Cute spot!

Great find before heading through the tunnel with Pepperoni90. TFTC

We decided to head away for a few days in the camper and do some geocaching. One of our aims was to travel the Forgotten World Highway. Mr S figured out this one, Mrs S's iPhone hadn’t downloaded all the necessary information. Wow interesting tunnel, looks hand hewn.
Taking the camper through was interesting, wouldn't like to take anything too big through there tho'. Thoroughly enjoying this drive through the Forgotten World Highway.

Thanks Size 13.

A lot of muggles but hardly to see a hobbit. TFTC

Beautiful scenic tunnel, we watched a few cars going through from the cache spot. TFTC

Made it through the hobbit hole. Quick find, logbook is a little wet. TFTC

A bit late logging this one. We had been hosting some French travellers and they wanted to hitchhike the Forgotten Highway but after seeing the dearth of traffic we decided that dropping them off in Taumaranui was a better option.

Stopped and logged this cache on the way home.

Seems appropriate to log this cache on the Forgotten Highway when we all seem to be lost in the mists of lockdown! Good hide - very rough road when we travelled it. TFTC

Found it! ️

On our loooong roadtrip at the Forgotten World Highway we stopped here - as most of the other travellers and tourists do - and took some pictures. It was good, that noone else was here so we could have a closer look into the tunnel.

Nice place! And we found the cache as well.

Thank you for the cache!

Today we cruised along the forgotten world highway. This was one of many stops on the way. Haven't seen a tunnel like this before
TFTC eSirius89

TFTC:)

On the way back from the lord of the rings at national park just had to stop for a hobbit hole,thanks for bringing me here again TFTC dropped off Tb

Found with MrsC on our NZ travels, thanks. A great day travelling the Forgotten World Highway. What a great tunnel!

The most amazing tunnel ever and hobbits too. Found with mr c on our travels from the UK thank you

Cool drive! Cool tunnel and a cool cache.
Dropped a TB here that came a verry very long way with me.
Good luck traveling on TB!
Thanks "Size 13" for the cache

Was für eine tolle Idee: Endlich eine Hobbit Behausung, die man sogar noch durchfahren kann.
Auch hier war das Versteck schnell zu finden.

What a great idea: Finally a Hobbit dwelling that you can even drive through.
Also here the hiding place was easy to find.

> TFTC
> HanSoloAndFamily

Spannend die Tunnels hier. Wir kennen sie nur größer und voll betoniert. Dfdc

Found with our 3 and 6 y.o. Thank you Size 13 for making us stop here!

Found it on the way from Wellington with PeanutButterBaby. Dead animal near GZ. TFTC

Took the forgotten world highway on my way back from Wellington to Auckland. The tunnel was awesome! Tftc

Enjoying a ride on Forgotten World Highway. TFTC

Stopped to check out the cool tunnel and grab the cache while we were here. Loving this road.

Heading south along the Forgotten Highway, with the team back together. Loving all these info boards along this road. Had to stop and check out this Hobbit Hole. Got this one tagged. Cheers

Day 17 - Sunday 29 December. Taumaranui through to Hawera today. So lets go!!

The Seagnoid, Zara, Toby and I are spending Christmas exploring Taranaki via geocaching. Its been an amazing 3 week adventure. Rattls BBQ was a great event, meeting many other cachers. But also managed to fit in a few more events, especially New Years Day celebrating the start of 2020. Lots of caches - over 500. Lots of cache maintenance. Lots and lots of kilometers. And lots of amazing places visited along our journey. Mt Taranaki remained elusive for much of our travels and the caches on it at the top. Loved Pukekura Park Night Lights Show and the the Wooden Mechanical toy exhibition at NP Info centre.

I vaguely remember the tunnel... I vaguely remember a tunnel... I vaguely remember many tunnels...

I have lost my notebook! When I go on a geotrip I record my finds and notes in a log book or, in the case of this big circumnavicaching trip around Mt Taranaki that Taybeedragon and I did over Christmas, in three notebooks. And I have lost notebook number 3 - 29th December onward. Luckily I enter the caches as found on the GPS (helps with avoiding backtracking) so I am using my GPS log to identify which caches I found/DNFed. Alas, however, no cache notes. So it is now March - and I am relying on memory. A fickle thing, memory. I suspect most will have no notes above. Sorry, folks.

Hobbit Hole, great name for this tunnel. That's why we stopped here. Easy to find

Greets from Germany
Tftc. Danke fürs Dösle

Interessante Straße, das durchfahren der Höhle abenteuerlich. TFTC

After one night on the bushland campground we went on the highway. Thanks for the cache and greetings from Hamburg Germany

Away for a week of adventure leaving home in the rain and a strong southerly wind but as we advanced and the days ticked by the weather improved. Our main aim was to cycle the timber trail then blob out for a day then head north to Waitomo and return via Te kuiti and head south
on SH 3 getting caches along the way and in some cases taking alternative routes around around the Awakino gorge before geting back to NP then home
Thanks to all for placing these geocaches

If I remember right, I found the old cache on the other side some years ago. Finding this one was easy, just a little wet from above TFTC!

Driving towards mount Taranaki from Tongariro and decided to stop to inspect the hobbit hole and pick up this cache. Enjoyed our drive so far. TFTC

After spending the night at Middleton Bay we stopped at the lookout on our way out to start day ten of our journey. Todays plan is to drive along the forgotten highway and then head to whanganui for the night. I got a bit surprised as i lost cellphone coverage and was only searching with the aproximat coordinates that were still showing on screen. After driving through the tunnel we pulled over and made a quick find before continueing our drive along the forgotten highway. Tftc.

Amazing amazing amazing! Thanks for the stop and the history.

Ever sprinted through a tunnel on a state highway? It was fun. TFTC

Dot had never been along the forgotten Highway before. So first time seeing Hobbit Hole. Great day out. Grab tb. Tftc

That is one cool tunnel, thanks for putting a cache there.

Cheers,
S.t.

With my brother and my friend Lea, I set out to discover New Zealand in a Camper Van for three weeks. It was a wonderful time. We were hiking a lot and enjoyed the diverse nature of New Zealand. It is exciting to drive on the curvy roads. We discovered great waterfalls and beautiful beaches. Bathed in thermal springs and climbed high mountains. It was a very special time. Of course, one or the other box was collected. All the caches I made were in exciting places. My travel companions always came with me and often found the caches rather than me. Thank you for laying and caring.



Driving this forgotten world highway was a real adventure. Our old camper van had to fight with the curves and hills. But the views were worth it. And also the stamp in the passport of the Republic Whangamomona. Or the sheep herds that had to be passed by car. Of course, this cache also fit the name of one of our TBs, the Elves Path Geocoin, and that's why it had to be discovered.

Den Tunnel ein paar Mal durchfahren um Fotos zu machen und dabei gemerkt, dass ein Fahrzeuglicht nicht funktioniert.


TFTC

Grüße Orientexpress

The Hobbit Hole is so awesome!

Really enjoying our drive today and as it looks now tomorrow too. An amazing tunnel and we were just about to go and try to have a look a bit closer when an enourmous truck went through the tunnel. It just fitted! So we decided to concentrate on the cache which was found quickly. Tftc Size 13

With kiwitien. TFTC

Snel gevonden. Samen met Kakariki. TFTC

For our NZ visit we created a "wishful-thinking-to-do-list" ... knowing we can not do them all but we can at least try. Old caches, earth, virtual and webcam are on the top of our list... but also some traditionals, multi etc...

Nice spot for a cache ...
TFTC

Staying nearby, really enjoyed our drive along this road.
Nice quick find here.
TFTC
Tim and Viv - ddm

I was dropped off at one end as we had a car behind us. After finding the cache I realised that walking through the tunnel probably wasn't a good idea. Luckily the husband had the same idea and came through to pick me up. Thanks

Von Stratford führt die Reise von Heckenstürmer und mir über den Forgotten World Highway nach Taumarunui. Von da zur Turoa Ski Arena, wo wir eimen kurzen Spaziergang machten. Danach weiter durch die grandiose Landschaft des Tongariro National Parkes nach Turangi. Morgen folgt dannn die grosse Wanderund durch diese Vulkanische Landschaft.

Greets from Switzerland

Day 18 in Newzealand. Today we drove from New Plymouth to Kuratau.
A very beautiful Country with lovely places. We were able to find nice Caches and See Lots of beautiful places.
Thank you for showing us this place.
Tftc

When we stopped to search for the cache, a truck almost got stuck in the hobbit hole ...

Escorting Yeetrees on an outstanding Taranaki geocache hunt today. This was my first find of the day, but Yt must be up to about a dozen or more. Cache was out in the open, but then there seems nowhere else to relocate it to. Reinstated as found. TFTC

tftc found it on a waitangi day trip

Last day of the family holiday, and the first time up the forgotten world highway for masters 4 & 7.
Master 7 had fallen asleep by this stage after lunch in Whangamomona.
Took a couple of pics of the tunnel and quick look around found the cache
TFTC