Thomas the Dragon (Canterbury) Castle Hill Village, South Island, New Zealand
By Dragons Ring on 23-Feb-07. Waypoint GC11365

We are archiving this geocache at the request of the cache owner.

Little miss 5 made this 5. I was following my gps thanks

Saturday morning out for a jog waiting for some new snow. Great views. Tftc

Thsi took for ever to find. The boys went on a bike ride, which didn't go well, as one bike broke down. Anyways, I headed in the forest and tried to locate the magic pounds, but couldn't find a track, my next goal was this dragon. Close to GZ I saw the beech tree, but I couldn't locate the other tree, GPs wasn't that precise, and previous finders comments took me in the wrong location, after looking for quite a while, digging snow if a few spot, I expanded my search, and there it was, quite easy to see from about 2-3m away, once you are close enough and with the right angle of course. All good at GZ, both container and logbook are in good location, including a very dry content, despite snow all around. Thanks for placing this here, the walk was great, although, it was a bit tricky to find tracks at times.

Did a circuit of the main target before spotting . A bit of scramble with windfall in the way! Thanks

Reasonably quick find. TFTC

4

When I saw GZ, thought its going to take ages to find this one. But luckily when I circumvented the right tree, cache was soon in hand. All is well here. TFTC.

14:07
FITW ObnoxiousSpaceCat, Rich214, GreenMenace

Looks like the dragon was away in it's hide, sleeping. Phew! I was ready to shout Fus-Ro-Dah at any given moment while approaching this cache

Nice to find an oldie in a good condition with a historic logbook.

Kia ora! Paldies!
Thanks for the cache, Dragons Ring!
#9823

Found with ivss_xx and rich214.

I will always favorite an original logbook as old as this one. Cache is in great shape. This is a cool area. Bit of a maze. TB in.

A great walk through the bush. Beaut day for this find. Tftc

What a fantastic walk on a magical day - TFTC

Quickly found on my first walk in this area; TFTC

Big beech

A quick find on a nice walk with the dog. Thanks.

Enjoying walking along these beech forest tracks around Castle Hills. From The Depression we are finally on the downwards path. Met a family on our way. We got this one snagged and tagged then started back up the track to get to the other track. We meet the family again and TS takes them on a Geo Hunt, the children with his GPS to check out this cache. Lots of fun . Cheers

Its Saturday and we explored from Lake Lyndon to Coal Pit Spur Track. So lets go!!

Its Queens Birthday weekend and The Seagnoid, Zara and I are heading out of town for a long weekend to Arthurs Pass, via Kaikoura. Had a fantastic weekend, seeing lots of new places, limestone formations, amazing views, awesome beech forest walks, but getting nowhere fast. Bloody cold at times with -3deg frosts but thankfully the snow stayed on the top of the highest mountains.. Enjoyed driving back via Lake Brunner, Murchison. An awesome few days exploring.

While walking the loop we met a young family who had just come down from the top. They had kids about 8 and 6 years old. about a couple of minutes after we put this cache away we met them again, so I invited them on a treasure hunt. The family did not know about geocaching, so I told them what it was all about, gave the kids the gps and sent them off. Naturally that loved it, and it sounds like dad might be signing the family up. New converts!

Taybeedragon and I are on a five day extended Queen's Birthday weekend. Happy birthday marm! The plan was to cache the Arthur's Pass route, from Rangiora to Lake Buller. You would think four days was enough to do the 211 kilometers, but we didn't even manage the 130 to Arthur's Pass village before we had to pull the pin Monday lunchtime for the drive back to Blenheim. But on the way we saw some amazing views, strange geology, weird amounts of ice in the puddles, ice on the inside of our windscreen - it was that cold. Caves, wonderful beech forests, rather a lot of bridge barriers and even a cache or few. And there was blisters, sliding down icy grassy hills on our bums (what fun!) and rather a lot of walking. Many thanks to all the cache owners that made this such an amazing trip.

Beaut day full of sunshine, bellbirds and the sweet sweet scent of bush. And sandflies. Again, nice quick find. More comfortable now with the addition of bug bands. Less comfortable with wobbly knees after the downhill

A wee bit like looking for a needle in a haystack but found after not too long. Cache in good order. Thanks for the hide.
#5020

Great cache thanks for hiding

Found by Team DD...

Walked the loop up to The Depression in a clockwise direction and found this one on the way down. It was a quick find. TFTC.

TFTC. Here with Merlelutz and monkeyseemonkeydo as we visit Castle Hill for adventures.
This beech forest is a sensory overload - the perfect light through the trees, the smell of the honeydew and the intense song of the bellbirds. Paradise.
Thanks Dragons Ring for placing the cache.

Nice and easy find. TFTC

Nice easy find while going up leith hill. TFTC

Found on the way back to the village from the depression where we built a little snowman. It won't last long in this hot hot sun. TFTC

One of the older caches - and still in great shape. On our way to the depression we just grabbed this one. Thanks to the generous hint a quick and easy find. TFTC

We (katkat82 and me) are on vacation in New Zealand! We stayed for 2 days in castle hill and found this litle one during a walk.

TFTC
steph0815

We are staying in the village for a wedding on St Paddy's day at the outdoor centre up the hill so I needed to visit the local caches. Nice morning walk though low cloud makes it cool and not best views.
A nice hide.
TFTC

Great cache

TFTC

Nice and dry container

Revisited on a pleasant day with Jayjewel

Crisp frosty start to Mothers Day but a good find to bag, a few fresh deer hoof prints in the frost!

Great walk! Found some of the Narnia set in our way

Quick find

Tricky lots of trees

The climb required a couple pauses, but standing and looking through the woods was certainly enjoyable too. Arrived at the approximate spot easily and found it almost immediately. Very lovely area. We considered a straight shot back down to the lodge, but decided to rely on the established trail system.

End of our afternoon walk after a morning Orienteering run in the same general area. Very different vegetation and terrain than we find in the US, so it has been an interesting day of Orienteering, Geocaching, and photographing. I'm sure it will be a very memorable weekend!!!

Nice easy find after a good walk. Tftc.

Went on a big adventure with Wafflekitties and geo pups, had a blast thanks for the memories! TFTC.

Found while on holiday in the South Island with LCBuilder and our two geodogs. We spent 3 weeks travelling down the east coast and then up the west coast, moving to a different campsite each night. We got a few geocaches along our way; our best day was 41 and our worst was 6 we saw a lot of awesome sights and will definitely have to come back one day! TFTC!
Loved the walk, thanks for bringing us here

101st,YAY,Oh no the star war's imperial trooper got burnt to a crisp by Thomas the dragon.

having not quite made it to the top due to snow I had time to grab a few more around the track. walked around in circles for a while but finally got it, on to the next one tftc

Nice one. Kids really enjoyed looking through the box.

Awesome walk. Found with a bit of bush bashing.

This entry was edited by v1rot-8 on Sunday, 08 November 2015 at 07:24:23 UTC.

Another day to pick up a few caches outside of Christchurch with BaldEd doing an area that he needed to sign off a few.

I bush bashed up from the end of the airstrip? to the cache.

Cheers for the cache.

Checking out a few caches around the village on my way through

Good little place to hide the cache

Grabbed this crafty wee cache after a wonderful walk up Leith Hill. Short hunt and then soon found, thanks for another smiley in the area

Yay

With Hugo his first cache

A lovely stroll from the bridge. Easily found with gps navigation. A beautiful location with heaps of bird song. TFTC

Darted away from a wedding reception quickly with friends in a gorgeous day. TFTC!

First cache for the Williams and Childs families. Great fun, good eyesight Tor!

My first ever. Took my 1 year old Thomas and 5 year old Sophie. Well, Sophie spotted it first actually.

Nice detour back from Lightning Tree to Castle Hill Village.

Nice Area - TFTC

Great spot walked up this track a number of times over the years and would recommend this spot to everyone. If you get the chance after this find carry on to the top of track for some fantastic views over castle hill village.

Found this cache fast and easy. No muggles and great weather. That's geocaching how we want it. TFTC!

Staying at the lodge for the weekend, it seemed a shame to not pick this one up. Cache is in excellent condition. Cheers!

Headed straight up the hill after a picnic lunch by the river. Took a few ever-increasing circles to find it - good find!

Pleasant walk on a warm day in the mountains. Enjoyed the bush bash up the hill... cache in good condition.

Nive walk from Castle hill village. Cache is in good condition. Thanks

Walked in from the closed Bridge.Found quickly after a wee walk.TFTC

Thanks for the find. Nice wee walk to this place. Yet another place we would never have been without caches to find. Thanks.

Almost did not do this one as when we got to the gate the GPSr said 5.7km to go and given the climb up Bealey this morning that was looking a little far as a return trip. A quick look at the path and a rest of the GPSr showed a much closer number so we where off. Followed the road up and then crossed the creek. It was from hear we could see it is an uphill bush bash of a bit over 100m. We found some tracks that stopped and started as we pushed up but we suspect they are animal tracks. We managed to make a reasonably straight line to GZ and made an easy find. SL, took the TB and returned.

TFTC

Eventuallly fouond after circumnavigating the area from an alternative direction.
TFTC

tftc

Evening walk up and very pleasant. Quick find.

Thanks

Quick find while exploring Castle Hill Village. Nice day to explore the beech forest. TFTC

Gorgeous day for a nice little hike. TFTC

Had fun getting to site. Started on bikes and enjoyed the bush walk. Watch out for the prickly bushes.

Walked in from the bridge. An easy find. Took "Purple Dragon" TB. TFTC. (8/10/11 Ran past the cache as we headed for the finish of a 4.5hr rogaine).

Staying in the lodge it was a no brainer to do . The road was being damaged by people so it has been closed so you have no option other than walk

The GPS did its job LNTN Best wishes LGM

Last cache of the day. Wanted a castle to drop off teh "Purple Dragon of Mystery" TB and this seemed to fit the bill nicely, a dragon named cache at Castle Hill Village.
Thanks for the walk and a chance to see the new lodge with no one there......

Nice walk up from the bridge. Awesome facilities. Wish I had a key TFTC

Another walk in new area for us. A group of students in residence today. TFTC

We found and logged. A bit too uphill for me. LOL

#2093 After visiting Cave Stream this was next on the list. Walked up from the bridge as the barrier was down and locked. Easily found and another D/T combination ticked off my To Do list. TNLN TFTC DS8300

Finally the GPS lead me right to the spot today.

Parked at the bride and walked on, no one home so no problems with the lodge. I really enjoyed the trek up the hill.
Walking pack down through the field after the find there was a lite drizzle, smell of honey dew in the air, not to cool, not to hot, it was just magic, that moment just made it for me, not that I didn't enjoy the rest of it.

The pen in the cache doesn't wont to share it's ink, so I suggest byo pen, I don't normally have one on me, but luckily I still had one in my pocket from an earlier cache that needed one.

Cheers, fantastic.

This is the last one for today. Nice walk in a nice area. But my wife was already log tired and hungry...

TFTC
Roland aka tasdevil13

Tasdevil13 litterally forced me to do one last cache on that day, but with an empty stomach walking up the hill on the search of a silly plastic box was no fun. Luckily we had put up our tent close by and dinner wasn't too far away any more....

My friends were getting married at the lodge this afternoon.
The ceremony was slightly delayed, so we took the opportunity to walk up to the cache.
A very nice scenic location.
Thanks.

Cheated and drove up to the lodge, and made it just before the gate was locked. Great location, stunning views, TNLN, TFTC

On way home from orienteering at Craigieburn.

Nice place, thank you!

After my efforts with First Dragon Reborn earlier in the day I wanted an easy cache and thought it was going to be that way till the GPS pointed up hill. So much for a wander up the stream. Finally got there.

TFTC TNLN

Great walk up to the sink-hole with the Edwardes family. Had to call in again on the way down to demonstrate the wonderful art of Geocaching !!
- Tauranga keyring tag and 2xAA batteries
+ small carabiner and pink highlighter
thanx
Geovix

Didn't have a clue what a dracophyllum bush is but on a glorious day when the hills are far as the eye could see were capped in virgin snow, we had a great run. Thanks. TNLN

Bit worried about getting the car back out once I'd driven in. But the climb to the cache was nice and in the end the road was fine too. Thanks.

1000th cache
Took TB slug

2138. That is a large lodge that is being built - it will be great for the students to have the use of such a good facility.

It was an enjoyable walk up to the cache site - the GPS took us straight there which was good as it was starting to drizzle quite heavily.

Thanks
Iris & Rodney

TFTC
+Travel Slug
-Spoon

Nice hike to the top, GPS was bang on to 1m!! TNLN TFTC

Managed to park quite close and after a short work and a bit of a bush bash and a hint another dragon bit the dust

A nice easy find, I had a wee bit of a walk as the road and the bridge was out of order and being worked on but it was such a wonderfull day to complete this cache in an area I hadnt actually been to, so I did enjoy this one , cheers Bo

Had to hunt a bit for this - we seemed to have about three metre accuracy for this one. Was very pleased to find it after that last wee steep bit!
- fuzzy hair red thing
+ cow
+ polar bear

This was a fun and quite unusual we bush bash. Loved exploring a new area for me too. Cheers very much. 2 more dragons to slay.