Jailbird Smurf (Canterbury) Darfield, South Island, New Zealand
By gracie7 + Mum on 27-Oct-19. Waypoint GC8FNQH

Nachdem ich vorgestern nicht alle Schlmpfe besuchen konnte, da das Wetter mir gegen Abend einen Strich durch die Rechnung gemacht hatte, ging es heute frh morgens noch einmal auf die Schlumpf-Jagd. 25 Schlmpfe konnte ich noch treffen und mich jeweils in ihr Gstebuch einschreiben. Den intelligenten Schlumpf (brainy smurf) konnte ich leider nicht treffen, da meine Lsng des Rtsels zwar richtig, aber eben doch nicht richtig war. Gibt es mehrere Lsungen? Egal; ich hatte jedenfalls die ermittelten Koordinaten nicht geprft und den Checker einfach ignoriert. Das rchte sich nun. Insgesamt also 3 DNFs und 1 falsche Lsung; alle anderen Schlmpfe waren an Ort und Stelle. Eine interessante Runde und ein Powertrail, der fr mich angesichts der teilweise groen Distanzen zwischen den einzelnen Caches, Neuland war. In Europa liegen die Powertrail-Dosen dann doch eher nur auf Mindestdistanz. Ich sage vielen Dank an gracie7 + Mum fr diesen Powertrail mit der Ausarbeitung der Rtsel und auch der Pflege dieser vielen Caches. Die Runde hat mir viel Spa gemacht!_________________________________________________As I wasn't able to visit all the Smurfs the day before yesterday because it got too dark and rainy towards the evening, I went Smurf hunting again this morning. I was able to meet 25 Smurfs today and signed their guest books. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet brainy smurf, as my solution to the puzzle was correct, but not the right one. Are there several solutions? Anyway, I hadn't checked the coordinates and had simply ignored the checker. That caught up with me. In total I had 3 DNFs and 1 incorrect solution; all the other Smurfs were on the spot. An interesting round and a power trail that was new territory for me given the sometimes long distances between the individual caches. In Europe, the power trail caches tend to be at minimum distance. Many thanks to gracie7 + Mum for this powertrail, for working out the puzzles and also for maintaining so many caches. I had a lot of fun on this tour!

Four Swedish ladies driving around in NZ looking for caches. We log as TULP. Thank you

D var det dags fr lite ventyr. Resan gr till Sydney i Australien och sedan vidare till Christchurch och Dunedin p Nya Zeeland .P resan ker Tigertassen, jag sjlv, ursus67, Lnganfans och Pidjas, vilket gr att vi loggar under det gemensamma namnet "Tulp". Tanken r att vi innan vi ker hemt ska ha beskt ett Megaevent, Geo Toroa.Hlsningar frn Sverige, sdra Lappland Then it was time for a little adventure. The trip goes to Sydney in Australia and then on to Christchurch and Dunedin in New Zealand .On the trip are, Tigertassen, myself, ursus67, Lnganfans and Pidjas go, which means that we log under the common name "Tulp". The idea is that before we go home we should have visited a Megaevent, Geo Toroa. Greetings from Sweden, southern Lapland

We are four ladies from Sweden who are visiting Australia and New Zeeland We are logged as TULP This was one of the caches we found Thanks from Sweden

We are four ladies from Sweden on visit in New Zealand. We log as TULP (tigertassen, ursus67, lnganfans and pidjas). Today is our last day as we are going home tomorrow. We had a lot of solved mysterys so we tried to log some of them.A big thank you to CO for the cache.

Day 5 of our Enzed adventures with Robmc. We are staying in New Brighton and today we headed out to find us some Smurfs because There is a place. that knows no sadness, where even feeling blue is a happy thing. Another beautiful sunny day to be traversing the countryside. We found all except 2 today.Thanks for contributing to the fun gracie7 + Mum

Day five of our epic New Zealand Adventure with The Morris.Staying in Christchurch and spent the day collecting Smurfs!All the puzzles were solved before we came to NZ.We start the trail about 9:30am and finished about 16:00 (including coffees and lunch)A lovely mild day just right for caching.Most of the containers were in good condition except for a few wet ones.Thanks for this series, Robmc.

Out on a fine day chasing Smurfs with Sally tftc not expecting a bisson

TFTC Found with andyfreya

I couldn't find this jailbird either. Because of the specific hint and limited hiding places I decided to replace it to keep it ticking along. Strangely I don't travel around with a selection of smurfs in the back so it is a bison with a jailhouse rock on top until the CO does another maintenance run. TFTC #22,494

Spent a bit of time searching right on the hint, messaged the CO to try confirm whilst in the area but no luck here today.

Sadly may have gone

Trouve ! / Found it ! Premire partie de la srie des Stroumpfs aujourd'hui. Un seul DNF dclarer mais je pense avoir mal cherch. Un autre inaccessible car des ouvriers travaillaient juste ct mais ce sera peut tre pour demain.Des caches sympathiques et la plupart du temps facile trouver. Merci pour cette belle srie Merci gracie7 + Mum pour la cache First part of Smurfs series today. Only one DNF to declare but I think I have searched badly. Another inaccessible because workers were working right next door but it may be for tomorrow. Friendly caches and mostly easy to find. Thank you for this beautiful series Thank you gracie7 + Mum for the cache

Today we headed out to round up a few more of the smurfs. We have already done quite a few and have a few to solve but as the occasional one needs to be redone, we thought today would be a good day to collect what we had on the list so that they are done and dusted. Thanks to the CO for the series and apologies for the cut and paste logs. Another that has been solved for a while, finally found. tftc#7278

Today we did a big Smurf check daytrip, we werent too confident we would get them all but we could atleast make a start. We surprised ourselves by managing to find them ALL (bar the 6 we visited last month) and amazingly we had a 100% find rate. We couldnt have asked for a better outcome. (well maybe the weather couldve been cooler )Happy to report eveything is all good here. Happy Smurfing

Finally finishing off the smurf trail. Enjoyed the trail

Down in the Christchurch area with woolwood9. Day 1, mainly the Smurf puzzle series - a very nice day out. SL *tm/ww NZ**Thank you for the reason to visit this cache and location* *Another good Smurf cache found!*

Headed to Christchurch for a quick geocaching trip with tmann421.Enjoying the tour around the area finding caches some more challenging than others.Signed all logs tm/ww NZThanks to the owners for their efforts in maintaining their caches for us to find.Wonderfully themed series enjoyed all the containers. Nice to see maintainance had been done recently allowing the finds to be easier for us.

22 April 2023 3:54 pm. No problem breaking out of this jail.
Signed as Team M.I.K. (MacPacMum, Ivss_xx & KiwiCampNut).
TFTC gracie7 + Mum

Sorry for the cut and paste logs but there are so many to do. Will note if something needs noting Signed as MIK in most cases or our own.

Out with Macpacmum and Ivss_xx doing the Smurf series in order to reach this month’s challenge for the month. I will need extra after we do all these though. The area farmers are a bit suspicious as several have given us the once over look as they drove past. However the day is good after all the rain. Some extra caches found for us all along the way.

Thanks Gracie7 + mum for all your hard work in placing these caches and the maintenance.

15:54
FITW MacPacFamily, Kiwicampnut, logged as "MIK"

Fifty seventh.
A very quick find of a very fresh logbook.

Smurfin' good day to upgrade my Busy Cacher badge! Aiming for 80+

Kia ora! Paldies!
Thanks for the cache, gracie7 + Mum!
#9586

**#18,105**
We had spotted a few other North Islanders make a personal 24hr find record so we took note of the general caches found and made a plan to try our luck, our previous best was 172, our aim was "more than Yeti", check out GC6PRMW once we have logged them all to see how we did...
Well, he's got a good reason to be blue, but hey, if you don't like doing the time, don't do the crime!

Log quite damp, plastic bag missing tftc.

Cute container. TFTC.

I've flown down to the Garden City with Itchyfeet2020 and NZ_B for the weekend, and what a weekend it has been! Cumulatively we had targeted so many personal challenges, individual caches we wanted to get, 'things' we wanted to do etc, that teaming up with these two caching troopers has been one of the best things I've done in ages. We've achieved so much in our short time here that my mind (and body) is still reeling. I'm sure the enormity will still be sinking in for many days to come.

All our signing of logbooks this weekend has been as T.I.N.T (for Team Itchyfeet2020, NZ_B, and TwigNZ) regardless of how many of the 3 of us are claiming any particular cache (as some of us may have found it previously).

Today was our big day, the main point of the whole trip down - trying to get 200+ caches in 1 day.
This turned out to be a huge success for us, achieved by targeting 3 geoart series (Eclipse, Metal Mania, and Smurfs) to give us as little driving as possible, and any other caches we would be literally driving right past at the time.

We started with the Eclipse series as that was closest to our accommodation in Darfield, then dropped down to the Metal Mania caches, finally moving back westwards so that we would be close to home when exhausted by the end of our day. The driving was shared, but was mostly provided by NZ_B, with an excellent job of route planning courtesy of Itchyfeet2020. A truly joint effort for which I'm very grateful.

Our main numbers for the day are;
Time we started: 05:30 (in the dark before sunrise)
Time we finished: 21:30 (in the dark after sunset)
Hours caching: 16
Total caches found today: 236
Total caches DNFd today: 8

I apologise for the generic 'cut n paste' nature of my logs. If anything individually stands out in my memory about our experience at GZ then I will try to mention it. Certainly the puzzles themselves were a mix of easy and truly frustrating, but between us we got them all solved in the end.

Thank you for setting up this series, and helping us achieve our goal

NZ_B, TwigNZ and I have come to Christchurch to complete a number of shared and individual challenges. Today is the BIG day - a goal of over 200. The puzzles have been solved (thank you CO's), the route has been planned and caches listed in order with hint, side of road and next driving instruction. Start time is 5.30am and we finished at 9.30pm with 230 for me.
We saw sunrise and sunset and had some great laughs as well. I cannot thank the CO's enough. I know you get cut and paste logs but I certianly appreciate the absolute blast of a time thanks to you and my travelling adventurers in NZ_B (espcecially since she had many of these and was the main driver) and TwigNZ. All caches signed as T.I.N.T - Team Itchyfeet, NZ_B and TwigNZ. Thanks again CO's a lot of work goes into these power trails and probably not a lot of thanks or respect for the puzzles - it is much appreciated.

Today I found in 10 hours 60 Smurf caches that are all I have solved, For the rest I would need a hint but dont get. The hint for the 60 was OK and I know already that the 2 ladies like to crawl under trees. I am 1.85 meter and had some problems and scratches. I am wondering that all the smurf survive but the most of them need a shower. All the logbook are ok. There where always space for parking.
Thanks a lot.

The idea of doing 200+ caches in one day had been one that I had considered for a long time, but not something I had made any moves on doing anything about until the idea was raised by others in a geocaching group I am a part of. As we were all based in Wellington, the logical place to try this was Christchurch with it's lovely flat lands, long straight roads, and wonderful art work series. Unfortunately the weekend that worked for most of the group was not one that worked out for me, so instead I came down here a few weeks earlier than they planned to and did the the trip by myself.

I started finding Geocaches at exactly midnight on Sunday. I kept finding Geocaches for the next nineteen and a half hours, when at about 7:30pm I decided that the tiredness was getting to a point where this was no longer a sensible idea. I found:

31 Traditional
180 Unknown
1 Multi

For a total of 212 Geocaches in 19.5 hours. That's a rate of 10.9 per hour. I am pretty happy with that. I focused on the Smurf series, the Metal Mania series (a set of puzzles that I very much enjoyed), and the Glossary of Geocaching series, with a few other sets and individuals in between. It was a fantastic day, very much helped by the wonderful weather and the use of a car that had no problem on gravel roads ('cos it was a rental).

A huge thanks to all the CO's that place and maintain these Geocaches. Despite the rushed day I created for myself, I did enjoy each and every cache I found. It is only with CO's like this placing them out in the world that this wonderful game continues.

#12,145. I drove down to Christchurch yesterday and stayed overnight at my sisters place near Leeston. Today has been chosen for my big day out. I was on the road by 5.30 am and finished right on midnight 18.5 hours later. I managed to find 188 physical caches and 22 adlabs for a total of 210 caches. Overall it was a fun day doing the Smurfs, Skelly and Eclipse tin power trails and a scattering of other traditional caches. Glad I did it and glad I wont have to repeat it. Apologies for the cut and paste logs. I think you can understand it was all about the numbers today.

This was No.21 find of the day. I just couldn't see what this one was about so got a hint from my puzzle team who helped me escape from the jail. Mrs GSEL suggested a way to reveal the numbers. Logbook is slightly damp. Thanks gracie7 + Mum for setting up this well maintained powertrail.

Day off so decided to head north and collect a few caches that had solved a couple of months ago with Rayzr. Tftc

Another successful find in perfect condition ready for the next finder

He was in a damp cell.
Thank you for this amazing mystery series
NathanS05

A road trip was required to qualify for GLCS20 so I drove down via Arthurs Pass yesterday.
The Challenge is to make 150 finds in a week of which 20 have to have different D/T ratings.
I cracked 100 finds today. The 20 D/T may take a bit more planning!
My first job was to clean up the Smurf caches in the morning drizzle.

I'll add individual details when required otherwise they were all "quick finds".
Thanks very much Gracie7 + Mum for placing these hides and for keeping up the maintenance of the trail. It made for a pleasurable experience.
Some pretty tough puzzles to solve which has taken me years!
TFTC

Team G0LD: Geocachers 0B80B8, Lis's crew and DaffyNZ are down from Whangarei for a few days. We've all solved the 4 big geoarts so they are the main target for the trip. Of course there were many other solved puzzles that we collected as well. We've finished the Fresh Breath series and are now onto our second big series - The Smurfs. The kids loved doing the jigsaws and completed them many years ago. I had 2 kids going on 2 different computers. We took screenshots after they'd completed the jigsaw and I then had to solve the puzzles. Some were very tricky. Good preparation and a fantastic team to work with made this an enjoyable and successful day. Another massive series with really neat cache containers. My totally muggle husband helped with this solve in Jan 2021. I liked this idea. We managed to quickly put G0LD on his log before any jailbreak occurred. Thank you again for the wonderful series

Team G0LD ( 0B80B8, Lis's crew & DaffyNZ ) on a caching mission to Christchurch. We had travelled down from Whangarei on Wednesday avo. Solved puzzles were going to be the main focus of our trip. We had spent a lot of 2020 and 2021 solving over 400 puzzles, so we had a lot on our list.

Today looked like being the best weather for our trip, despite a heavy thunderstorm overnight. We had a Big Day Out planned, with a perhaps optimistic target of finding 300 caches in one day. Working together well as a team, with a driver, a navigator and a jumper, we made good progress, but in the end, the bigger distances between caches, that we hadn't anticipated, meant we ended the day a bit short.

A fun day though certainly, and sincere thanks to the GeoArt & Trail CO's, and others, for placing and then maintaining such large numbers of caches so well. A testament to your dedication to Geocaching was the very low number of DNF's during the day. Apologies for the mostly generic logs, but be assured your efforts were truly appreciated.

Lis found the jailbird here.

Northland's Team Gold (0B80B8, Liz Crew, DaffyNZ) are in Christchurch for a few days collecting all our solved puzzles and other cache types as we drive past. This is our "Big Day Out" to collect as many caches as we can in a day. Sorry for the generic logs. Thanks for placing the cache. We are loving every cache we locate that adds to our tally for the day.
Found it. TFTC

Found this on day 2 of our weekend in Canterbury. It turned out we found 48 caches on my 48th birthday - just the way it turned out. Thanks for the puzzles and dry log books.

In the area getting some caches this is day 2 and getting some smurfs. All good. Thanks

Quickly found. Didn’t even get stuck on the side of the road.

We'd solved these a number of years back and made a start on gathering some smurfs on a visit last year. We're now back to round up some more.
Thanks for setting up this trail.

Hi there gracie7 + Mum. We found some time for a visitto the quarry park here today after quite a late start. We're now in our 3rd week of 5 in this visit and absolutely loving the quality of NZ caches. We found this cache at around 4:28:00 PM - TN, LN, SL. Thanks to gracie7 + Mum for this cache - our find 9768 and the 18th of 19 finds for the day.

FieldNotes: The cache and log were both found in good condition.

FITW Albijos

Wrapped up work early today, so we decided to go for some caching.
Hunting down smurfs today

TFTC.

FITW Harisree

Taking break from work and finding few caches around


An easy find with help of hint


TFTC

Solved in lock down 2020 so time SJT_NZ and I picked these up while in the area visiting family. Solved of the series took longer than anticipated for the T/D rating but learnt some new puzzle solving skills so it was only a handful that I had to reach out to a friend for a nudge. Thanks gracie7 + Mum for the series.

out caching with kiscardi today i think we found this cache as number 10 not number 11 which I think was bashful smurf. must have logged the drafts around the wrong way. we are aiming to find 200 today so I think that may happen a few more times

On a mission today to pick up 200 caches with NZ Bozzy. This is number 11 and cache number 5011 for me. Enjoyed solving all the puzzles and picking up most of the series today. It has been well maintained over the years which made our job easy today. Thanks gracie7 + Mum. Sorry for all the copy and pastes.
Scratched our heads lots with many puzzles and learnt lots of codes.

TFTC

Penultimate.

Apologies for the cut and paste logs. I usually don't like those but will make exceptions for serious 'power trails' or cache series - like this one. After a week in Christchurch catching up with our kids for Christmas, today it was time to start to head for home. I decided to take the long way home and find a few caches along the way. I had some vague memories of this series existing but hadn't made much of an effort to solve the puzzles or find the caches. A few weeks ago when I hatched my plan to come back this way I got down to solving as many of the puzzles as I could. I kind of ran out of time and brain power but decided I had enough solved to make it a worthwhile side trip. I had a lot of fun out and about, even though the weather was a bit dodgy. I didn't get too wet. #19 Smurf for me - TFTC, Biggles.

Need some night caches so looking for Smurfs. This is number 4.

Another great find with Sherlock the puppy

Found this jailbird quickly thanks to your hint. So the log book has been signed and the cache is nicely back in its spot all ready for the next geo-hunter. Thanks heaps for taking the time to set up this geocache. I really appreciate your efforts in doing so. TFTC

Found as part of team DAAWKS thanks for such an awesome series

A Labour Day weekend trip for a group of us from the south in leiu of the cancelled Mega was sorted. To try complete the Smurfs Series and grab a few others along the way.
DownsouthInv, AnnieLin, Abbykitt, Wombats_4, and KNCN combined as a group and signed logs as Team DAAWK's
A very long day but we managed most with only a few DNFs. A perfect series to do with grandson who was chuffed at every find! All caches found in good order, thankyou for placing and the effort made, also the maintaining of the caches..A big job!

Sneaked away early from work on a quick long weekend road trip. Time to capture some Smurfs!!! Lovely day for it, had fun working on the puzzles
Logged as team DAAWK.
Downsouthinv, Abbykitt, AnnieLin Wombats4 and KNCN

On a trip to Christchurch for labour weekend.
Thanks to everyone for solving them.
Logged in a term DAAWK.
Abbykity, Annielin,downsouthinv, wombats, KNCN.
Tftc

A road trip in to uncharted territory so why not .
Loaded up the cache mobile and headed up the road and let's see what fun adventures awaite us.
Today we continue our adventures and head towards our targets for the day .
It a smuffi g good day to be out caching. We need to bake a fike in a cake quick

With Annielin and Abbykitt and wombat4 and kncn
Signed as DAAWK

Getting out and about in to the out doors is my happy place so any excuse to go caching.

Life is short. Live one foot step at a time.Never say" I'm gonna "- Just do it!!
Thanks for the hide
tftc

Full log to come

Solved this puzzle many moons ago. It’s good to be out logging on a clear winters day

We are on the tail end of a trip to the South Island, a trip that had been cancelled twice because of lockdowns. I knew I'd have a full day in Chch, so I worked on these puzzles starting over a month ago. I got most of them, but got stuck on about 20% of them. I got some hints, pushes, and white canes to get me over the finish line. Thanks to the PFers for all the help.
This was a really nice series of puzzles and caches. I really liked the cache figurines guarding each container. TFTC.

Out on my first caching mission for a looooong time! Caught up with Z-master for a spot of hunting. Signed as Becs and Z. #15 for the day. TFTC

A call from Becsicasa last night who had remembered her password and wanted to go for a bit of a mission. I'm always keen for a bit of a mission, and we hadn't seen each other for a few years so was good to catch up and collect a few smurfs that we had solved. No issues with the finds on this series, thanks for putting it together! Now I need to sit down and solve the rest.

Signed as Becs&Z. TFTC gracie7 + Mum, the cache was found in good order Signed, sealed and returned to GZ. 15 find(s) of 29 today, making this find #2693

TFTC

Solved some time ago, found today along with 4 sacks of pine cones.

I solved these smurfin good puzzles during lockdown. Some of the puzzles took a bit of brain power to solve but I got there in the end. I went out to collect these as I was in the area. The containers were well thought out but they did blur together after the first hour. This series took me six hours to collect in total and I think I ventured into every single (flippin) hedge in the Charing Cross vicinity. Most stops resulted in an "Oh no another hedge". Most hides were easy park and grabs but there were a couple that were more elusive. TFTC.

#12. Just in the waiting room not locked up. TFTC

A beautiful Canterbury day to find a few more smurfs! Thanks for the cache

Team BOP on another crazy mission down to the South Island. Lockdown gave us a lot of free time that we directed into Canterbury’s many Geo-Arts and with the Auckland 2020 Mega postponement, Christchurch was an easy decision. Team BOPs current incarnation is DavidsonClan, NZFlossy, McJandals and myself and we’ve signed all the logs as Team BOP to save time and log space.

So Labour Weekend 2020, it’s a numbers mission, the Cachly cut’n’paste template is sorted and while I unapologetically use this tool I am truly in awe of what goes into a series this large. Some puzzles were straight forward, others required a little more time but we got them all in the end. Almost all the hides were sorted quickly and without fuss but the tricky part about this series was trying to plan an efficient route as this series seems to be all over the place haha.

Thank you so much gracie7 + Mum for placing these and sharing with us such an awesome Smurf collection. We had a great time today, Cheers, TFTP + TFTC

As Auckland Mega has been postponed we decided to do a trip south to Christchurch. Four of us from Team BOP joined up to share a car and accomodation. I always love these weekends as the company is great and makes our days and nights out caching lots of fun. We have done lots of puzzles in preparation and did some long windy roads to get them. Found lots of great caches and thanks to all the COs for the effort that goes into these Please excuse the copied logs and I will try to make some individual notes on as many as I can This sort of trip is where I find the cachly app very valuable. TFTC

On a mission to the south after mega in Auckland was canceled. Team Bop booked airfares and here we are. Thanks all COs for your efforts. Due to numbers please excuse copy and paste logs in advance.

After puzzle solving in the Canterbury region along with EyeSpyBen we were invited to join Fap (from Fap & Gap) and Squirrel Nutcase to a week long caching adventure in the Canterbury area. With flights and accommodation booked were off, all met up in ChCh. and many hard dusty Kms travelled and many caches found, I think the Squirrel has said it all in his brief. Many thanks for the placements and Cos for bringin us to the very pleasant areas we travelled in to your region

With the Mega Covid cancelled this year a part of Team BoP decided to come south and try get all our solved puzzles, and some others along the way. So here we are!

I am logging using the Cachly app template so please excuse generic logging along the way. It’s just my way of keeping track, but I do genuinely thank each and every one of you cache owners for taking the time and energy to place these cache. Many Thanks for bringing me here. Cheers.

Down in Christchurch with the Squirrel, ABCDF4 and eyespyben. During Covid lockdown, we solved a load of puzzles and decided that this would be a good time to visit. We've enjoyed a few days of good weather and seeing the Canterbury countryside. The caches have been in varying states - some good, some not so much. Our time here has been a blast, and we'd like to thank all COs who have made this adventure possible. Thank you and TFTC.

With ABCDF4, eyespyben, and Gap (of Fap and Gap). Logging all finds as Team HRP (Huntly, Rotorua, Papamoa - Our hometowns)... During Covid-19 lockdown, we solved a truck load of puzzles around Christchurch - Canterbury region. No use thrashing the old grey matter for no cause - We decided we should make good on this handiwork...

There are lots of interesting trails and geoart surrounding Christchurch. What you aren’t told is how far flung some of these caches actually are. Some beforehand advice would have been great, so here are some of my notes... You’re welcome!

1. Mobile coverage is patchy, especially in those quiet, rural areas where it was most needed. Saving caches to offline might show that you are prepared and organised...
2. There are many dusty metal roads on the trails. The car will get messy, and your hair will feel like cardboard at the end of the day...
3. Suitable clothing and footwear are essential. You will climb in and out of hedges, gorse, and other rough stuff. You might get scratched, cut to shreds, and bleed a lot. It’s not advised to wear your brand new jacket on the day...
4. Take lots of food and drink. You’ll probably be head down, tail up and not realise you haven’t eaten until late afternoon. There are very few shops or gas stations out there...
5. Make sure that you secure keys and wallet and know where these are placed for easy retrieval. A full box of pens might be useful too, especially if you’re inclined to free some into the wild...
6. Know the difference between left and right, and north, south, east, and west. Turning right and heading north will not get you to South Christchurch quickly.
7. Look with girl’s eyes rather than boys eyes... Some caches haven’t been found in a while and you might have to get down on your knees to pray.
8. Always be prepared for misleading hints. This is what turns simple caches into D5/T5 hides... “Head height” could mean the cache is positioned at your toes.
9. Have a sense of humour and like the people you go caching with. It’s going to be a very long day, and you might want to hurt someone during the journey...
10. Make sure you can operate your phone/device and it doesn’t crash when you most need it...
11. Learn to cut and paste logs because you’re going to repeat this function so often when logging all of your finds.
12. Above all else, have fun and be kind...

If recent days have been anything to go by, then today's activity is going to seem crazy. We have such a big game to play, spread out over a very large area - An early morning start in the north, with a late finish on the trails to the south... Let's go! We decided to make our way onto the Smurf trail. Despite the timing, we knew we had the bonus of Daylight Saving up our sleeves. We enjoyed the challenge of solving all of these Smurfy puzzles, and the cache containers were too cute. The logbooks were mostly in good condition, and there was evidence of recent maintenance with some. The sun began to set around here. No problem with these hides - Found exactly as hinted. Thanks grace7 + Mum. TFTP and TFTC.

After puzzle solving in the Canterbury region along with EyeSpyBen we were invited to join Fap (from Fap & Gap) and Squirrel Nutcase to a week long caching adventure in the Canterbury area. With flights and accommodation booked were off, all met up in ChCh. and many hard dusty Kms travelled and many caches found, I think the Squirrel has said it all in his brief. Many thanks for the placements and Cos for bringin us to the very pleasant areas we travelled in to your region

TFTC. Out to gather a few long solved puzzles.
Thanks for your efforts creating and placing these trails and fun puzzles for the caching world to enjoy.

As we stopped and saw some lambs, little decided to "teach" them what to do in case a wolf arrives, so he ran out of the car screaming and didn't notice the puddles... On the way back from an easy find, with good condition container and logbook, he was much more careful. But fell in the water again as he trying to grab the door handle that was too far.

Left our calling card with Jailbird Smurf. Cheers.

Thanks to The Seagnoid for his puzzle solving prowess.

Its a long weekend in Christchurch, with The Seagnoid, Zara and Toby, and Star Gazing on the radar. Unfortunately clouds put paid to seeing stars but great event meeting up with the locals. Enjoyed visiting Halswell Quarry, Lincoln, Port Hills and running around after the Smurf family. Cool, fine days and NO rain made for an awesome weekend. Will be back again soon.

Finally had some spare time to have a daytrip with Surveybase and mop up the caches in the area. Was a great day weather wise and nice to catch up. Lunch at Darfield bakery also a plus!!. Sorry about the cut and paste logs. TFTC's.

I love how so little needs to be done to each smurf to totally change their character. A few strips is all that is needed!

Came down on Thursday night with Taybeedragon for a three day geocaching trip and to collect a rare cache type - so rare that this will be the first ever for me - a 10-Year Celebration Event cache (now rejigged as Community Celebration Events). But that was yesterday alng with some adventure labs and Halswell Quarry, and I still have a whole day and a half to muck about in Christchurch before heading home. Time to smurf some more caches!

Was back in the area with Shannonp1 to mop up the series most were quick easy finds. Apologies for the mass logs... Thanks for the effort that goes into placing and maintaining a cache.

This one was nice and dry. This was a quick find on a great day out. TFTH

Went for a little drive (only 100 km's oops ) to get this one cache. We need this one for the July challenge and only couple of days to go. We have really enjoyed all these puzzles as been such a big learning curve. Thanks for the puzzle and the cache gracie7 + Mum.

Continuing in my personal challege, I needed to find 6 caches today to bring my finds total for the 18th June up to 26 and thus into a deeper shade of green in GC's Statistic Daily Finds Calendar.

As the forecast for the southerly front proved to be correct, I departed home in pouring rain to get today's targeted caches. It was still raining and a chilly 5C degrees when I got to GZ. Brrrrrrr. With gummies on and clad in my wet weather gear I made a quick dash to retrieve the cache before signing the log under the shelter of the cachemobile's rear door. Thanks for the little bank of Smurf puzzles you have left for me.

Enjoyed solving the Smurf puzzles during lockdown; TFTC

Our last smurfing adventure was a couple of months ago, just before the level 4 lock down began. Time for another go, as I wanted to find 10 caches today.
With the hint already decoded, we knew exactly where to stop and another quick find. TFTC.

#18155. This type of hint object is visible from a distance, so it's easy to know where to stop. Another quick find here. TFTC.

Heading home after a weekend of search and rescue training at Glentui, great chance to grab a few smurfs solved during lockdown..nice quick find tftc

Another Smurfing ride round the local area, thanks, great to get out.

24/03/2020
Needed some mental health caching. So that's what today was with mum!

TFTC!

Sorry excuse all the generic logs, but I'm so behind in logging that other wise I'll never catch up !!

Out for a few caches with daughter while we could. Quick find on most, and a pleasant afternoon to drive, chat, cache. TFTC!!

**Found on our February - March tour around the South Island. Logging back home in Auckland in Lockdown isolation**

After washout weather 4 years ago on the 29th February we have been keen to greatly increase our Leap Day Finds tally in 2020. To that end we made sure we were in Canterbury ready for some quick puzzle trails this morning, and determined to cache all day. Used a few tricks to get the coords for Jaibird Smurf. Easy find, thanks.

I have a 3 month sabbatical mostly traveling around the planet. My goal is to find and log 1000 caches. New Zealand is my 4th station traveling from south Christchurch to north Auckland, my first visit here, its far away. This riddle I solved already before my sabbatical. This is my sabbatical-cache #371.

Things have gone pretty well so far today. I had found all the TMGT caches I wanted to find. No Traffic holdups like yesterday, and I ended up with a couple of hours to fill in before my flight home. The forecast showers had not yet eventuated so I decided I’d see how many 2nd edition Smurfs I could lay my hands on in the time I had available. Made a pretty good fist of things, and managed to stay dry as well (just).

Cheers and TFTC

Another one off the list and off we go. Thanks

He tried to make a break for it so put him back and covered him.

This little guy was quickly grabbed and put back in his lock-up. tftc

I already solved this series in Sydney and had a lot of fun doing it.
As soon as I arrived in Christchurch the rental car was picked up and I drove straight to this smurf series.
During the search the joy was great - everywhere the matching Smurfs on the boxes - well done.
Thank you for the nice series
Team sissifalke

Had a great day travling from the West Coast back to Oamaru, 3 days of great weather, many thanks for the caches. - Bitsprayer

Travelling around the South Island and finding many interesting caches along the way. Thanks to all the COs for placing the caches we visited. Cheers from OZ!