Powder Magazine (Ngaio Gorge, Wellington) Wadestown, North Island, New Zealand
By Skytracker but now administered by robnzh on 13-Feb-07. Waypoint GC10YB2

Unfortunately I have to archive this cache though I do it very reluctantly.

Access from both entrances is closed off during stabilisation work on the bank above the gorge, and as this is not scheduled to be completed till October next year it is too long to leave the cache disabled so I have no choice but to archive it.

Here's hoping when the work is completed another cache can be placed here as it is a spot that deserves one.

Thanks to all who have visited.

Found on a stunning day, but container full of water. Poured out, attempted to dry log before signing. Returned container to hiding place upside down, but not sure how much that will help. Tftc.

This geocacher reported that there is a problem with this cache.

Thanks, as waterproof containers are now available just down the road I should be able to do something about this

The container is wet. Have put back.log book still there.

I have no idea why I've never explored this area before as it's actually really nice. I found a place to park a bit further down the road than the entrance and set about exploring the reserve. A rather unexpected place for this kind of artifact and and an interesting read about why it's there.

It took me longer than I was expecting to locate the cache as the GPS seemed to be exhibiting rather large errors today and not settling until I'd been loitering for quite some time. Ultimately it was cache sense which lead me to the right place and the cache duly discovered and signed.

Just the tiniest bit of water in the cache (now emptied of course) and the log was only slightly damp which did not affect its signability one iota.

Thanks for the excuse to visit this reserve.

Another interesting place I would never have visited if not for caching, TFTC

We are at Level 1 as from 9 June.
Social distancing is no longer required but use of hand sanitiser is still a good idea.

You can resume firing provided you observe Level 2 protocol.

This includes using hand sanitiser before and after handling the cache and social distancing from anyone around who is not part of your bubble.

Lives including yours and those of others you care about may depend on it!

Disabled owing to the nationwide lockdown.
No logs will be accepted the lockdown.

Parked up the road and walked down the access road to the river trail. Easy find once at the GZ, thanks CO for the cache.

First one for the 2020! Great bit of history, nice sunny day. TFTC

Needed a cache today to deal to a dot day. This was it. Made a slight detour to this one on my way home from work. Took a fraction longer to find it than I needed to. It really isn’t a difficult hide! Emptied out a little bit of water in the container. #2866. TFTC.

What a nice place for a walk in nature. Hint made for an easy find, although was muggled by a growling dog who didnt like me fossicking around in the bushes - busted ha, ha!!!
Somehow the sealed cache had water in it, so tipped it out and wiped everything dry. Log book ok. TFTC.

I was concerned about the recent log stating that "there is nothing in the box." As the photo shows that there were indeed contents and the finder has signed the log I guess they are referring to the lack of any swag! Something they should feel free to rectify if they wish.... I didn't have any with me but might drop off some when I get a chance.

Anyway I checked out the cache and the contents were getting a bit damp.
I have replaced it with a 380 ml allegedly leak proof Sistema container and a new logbook.
Coordinates updated as per my previous log.

Coordinates changed from:
S 41° 15.478 E 174° 46.792

Coordinates changed to:
S 41° 15.475 E 174° 46.789

Distance from original: 22.8 feet or 7.0 meters.

Updating coordinates.
GPS reception a bit dicey here but they seem to be OK within about 2 metres. Let's see how it goes!

Nothing in box

A quick find thanks to the hint. Container wet but logbook okay as in a ziplock bag. TFTC

TFTC!

Ngaio Gorge Road and the walking tracks are going to be closed between April 29th and May 5th between 9 a.m and 4 p.m. Therefore the cache will be unavailable during those times.

A nice walk and a a quick find. All safe and dry here, TFTC.

Running the kids while others run their dogs! TFTC and the excuse!

Thanks

Nice stroll by the stream! Thanks

Lovely area,tftc

Beautiful spot thanks for bringing me here!

Tftc

Thanks for bringing us to this spot. A quick find with Libranj. Thanks!

We enjoyed our short walk to GZ and looking at what remains of the old buildings. Quick easy find. Thanks for placing a cache here. Cheers

Left a treasure TFTC

An easy find after dark as the clue item was very obvious. I wish I had the time to walk the whole track.

Quick find. GPS is a wee bit off and don't wear white shoes when it's just been raining. Nice arvo to geocache and walk the "furson". TFTC.

Quick to find, good to get the kids out on a wet day

Tftf

GPS isn’t great down here but found it eventually. Just in my backdoor! TFTC

Good day for some geocacheing. We looked for this one before it got moved. All in good condition. Tftc

Found with Tara Ted in its amended location after several fruitless earlier searches.
TFTC

At long last, after at least three other visits, quickly located the cache with Peters. Thanks so much for what had been a very elusive cache.

Greetings from the Netherlands. Staying in Ngaio to visit friends.

Nice spot even in the rain. All good here. TFTC

Found it this time! TFTC

It's a nice, and not very windy, day in Wellington today. I came out here for a ride on my motorbike during my lunch break.

I have been here before but didn't manage to find it... until this afternoon. Thanks to the recent maintenance I was able to locate the cache quite quickly this time.

The cache is in good condition. All nice and dry.

Thank you

Cherrys Rule

Coordinates changed from:
S 41° 15.478 E 174° 46.789

Coordinates changed to:
S 41° 15.478 E 174° 46.792

Distance from original: 13.6 feet or 4.2 meters.

Updating coordinates, moved slightly and hopefully more accurate.

I was surprised after all the difficulty everyone including myself has had with the coordinates that they were only about 5 meters out.

As the old link for information on the history was no longer valid I have substituted another one.

We must have missed the CO by a hair's breadth! No problems finding the cache, thank you. Spent a few minutes wandering around what remains of the buildings, marvelling at their construction and history. Very informative board nearby was interesting to read. TFTC!

Cache replaced.

Hide changed slightly and hint updated.

Please ensure you replace the covering material completely when you leave.

After chatting to CO at recent event we went to check/find cache… to discover he'd beaten us by a few hours! Fast find. Interesting ruin. TFTC robnzh.

Sorry for delay. I hope to check and if necessary replace the cache in the next week or so (had hoped for today but can't fit it into my schedule unfortunately.)

I hope to do a check in the near future as this cache has not been found recently. If anyone has DNFed it since the last found log please let me know.

It seems the cache may be AWOL. Will try and check once the remains of the cyclone has gone! Who knows, GPS may behave enough to get some reliable coordinates while I am there!

Please do not hesitate to submit DNF logs for caches you can't find, it alerts COs to the possibility of any possible problems if there are multiple such logs and/or if the evidence is strong enough it may be missing.

A nemesis beaten. Had been here a couple of times before and no luck. Came along this afternoon and the goodies were soon in hand. TFTC

Tftc

TFTC

Pretty easy to find on a lunchtime walk, thanks to the extra clues in the logs. Interesting spot that I hadn't discovered before. Tftc.

Took a bit longer than I thought but the GPS came through in the end There were plenty of hint objects to cause confusion TFTC

Hi there. Took a little while to find. The activity log helped. Actual log is about 15 metres WSW of the magazine.

This was going to be one of those caches where I'd either spend hours in a fruitless search, or strike lucky straight away. I arrived at GZ and looked about - I was stood in the middle of a clearing. The hint didn't give much away, but there seemed to be some likely objects 'just over there'. No luck initially, but I spotted some more likely objects a metre or two into the bush. Whad'ya know? Success at the fourth location. Total search time: circa 2 minutes!

I estimate the actual location to be about 6m NNE OF GZ.

TFTC

PS I hadn't read the recent logs for this before heading out, so I didn't see TallGuys Found log until I got home. His hint might be easier to follow!

Disabling till I can check

Thanks Tallguy789 much appreciated.
Logs will probably appear a little confusing as gc converts disabled and enabled logs to US dates.
The disabled log was on the 30th prior to Tallguy's found log and the enabling followed on from his log.

Clue didn't narrow things down by much and the GPS was all over the place.

Went for a walk in the gorge with a dog walking group. There were about 15 or so dogs of all sorts of shapes and sizes. Lots of fun!

Afterwards, I decided to have another go at this geocache. Having previously been defeated and with a disabled status, I wasn't very hopeful. I had a better GPSr and it was pushing me further west than last time. After a bit of searching, I hit gold and made the find! I can confirm that cache is in place and in good condition (the log book is slightly damp and mouldy, but still okay for use). Nice to finally have ticked this one off! TFTC.

This is a rather difficult cache to find. The GPS signal is patchy at GZ. I recommend walking up and down the path in the clear where the signal is best and use that to determine the point at which you need to leave the path. The hint isn't very helpful as there are hint objects everywhere. For those that want it, here is my hint (in ROT13). Svaq gur evat va gur pbapergr naq fgnaq ba vg. Jnyx abegu (be irel fyvtugyl jrfg bs abegu). TM vf nobhg n zrger vagb gur gerrf ng tebhaq yriry.

It appears it may still be there but will check - this is a very difficult area for GPS reception but no finder has come up with better coordinates than mine which I am not totally confident about.

After four visits I feel quite familiar with the Powder Magazine except for its cache.

Turned the corner to find GZ completely filled with Kiwirail vehicles associated with track maintenance work on the Johnsonville line. Will return for this another day.

The history of the van is briefly mentioned on the cache page. But the link giving more details of that and the history in general is no longer valid, I will update as soon as possible.

nice wee spot. Missed the history of the big robbery. An armourguard van was torched here after a big heist in town.

This one took me a wee while to locate due to the Gps being all over the place. Tftc

Couldn't find it

Tftc

Nice sunny day at the magazine picnic area. Tftc

Quick find with Wafflekitties and Geodogs TFTC

I remember reading about the burning of the security van at the time but thought the powder magazine was somewhere quite different. Yesterday I finally found out the truth because of this cache. A pity about the lost history but at least it makes a romantic ruin.

The cache was in the second place I looked, maybe the first was the original location .

Cache well hidden but log nice and dry

Press article referring to the heist which included the burning of the security van in the Powder Magazine http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/67677469/wellingtons-milliondollar-heist-ends-in-prison-for-robbers

#1638 Decided to collect some caches on my way back from Karori to convert some more icons to smilies on my map- collected caches until the battery on my phone and GPS were spent and I was resigned to going home and sorting some chores! Had seen this cache listing numerous times and been interested in it but never got around to finding it. Had time to kill this afternoon and the rain had cleared again so parked and wandered down. Had the place to myself today which was handy as the co-ordinates had me quite a few meters away. Determination and process of elimination allowed me to find the cache and take some photos of the building on the way back to the car- neat spot!! TFTC!

nice old buildings tftc

GPS slightly off but managed to find cache anyway. TFTC!

# 131. Decided on an afternoon walk out of the wind. Took a while to find this one, in between the dog walkers, the compass playing up, and lots of the hint around. Found with TMCNZ. Tftc!

False start at first but eventually on the right track. Tftc!

Sunny New year's day. Nice spot. Birds singing in the trees.tftc

A good one to look for with my canine accomplices. Found without too much difficulty. No muggles about on a Friday at lunchtime.

Found the cache today without too much difficulty. We have been here previously in the dark and quickly realized that without good torches we were in for a challenge, but glad we came back today to make the find. TFTC

Quick find after a short walk

Had a good search for 30 mins and couldn't find

Took a bit to find as GPS was well out ...actual location point on the map provides the best clue

Cool piece of history. Took a while to find this one but mostly because the GPS just needed a bit of time to sort itself out. Coords were pretty much bang on once we waited for a bit. TFTC

Cool piece of history. Took a while to find this one but mostly because the GPS just needed a bit of time to sort itself out. Coords were pretty much bang on once we waited for a bit. TFTC

Interesting to walk around the sight TFTC

Sauntered down the walkway for a quick find. Lots of doggie walkers about but luckily not while I was at GZ.
TFTC

TFTC

#32 Found it where the clues suggested. Left the laminated paper geocoin we found on Desert Road on Friday. Interesting ruins. Other sites planned today will have to wait until the weather warms up.

Quick find, tftc.

Took a while to pin down GPS but with the clue nutted it out

A jumpy GPS made it difficult to pinpoint the exact spot, but, just as I was ready to pack it in, Yosser9 triumphed! TFTC

This entry was edited by DjaliDjinn on Thursday, 21 August 2014 at 05:22:25 UTC.

As last find was about a month ago hopefully it's still there. But will check when the opportunity arises.

On reflection I think that I should have upped the difficulty level when I moved the cache, so I have updated it now.

This entry was edited by robnzh on Sunday, 03 August 2014 at 23:45:12 UTC.

A very interesting place, loved the ruins. Unfortunately, there were a significant number of rocks in the area, and with the light fading, I had trouble locating the cache. I'll come back another day.

An interesting area, never knew this was here! TFTC

Straight forward find. I was last here last year, but couldn't get a good GPS fix. All fine today though.

Found with jessicalee222

Found after a bit of hunting. Not too far from the coordinates! Found with nzphoenix