Orient Express (Canterbury) Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand
By linleye on 03-Mar-07. Waypoint GC11683

Has been disabled since March 2017. If the owner is not going to check or reenable it, perhaps it should go?

Making way for another cache by another user.

Earthquake strengthening work is about to commence on GZ which means we've had to take the box home temporarily. Hopefully this cache will be active again in July 2017.

This morning I did an 8K run in the park that enabled me to stop at the Final Stage to make this find. I was a little puzzled how this cache could be wet inside, but it's still in decent shape. Signed the log. TFTC!

Cache was filled with water. It should be dried properly. Thanks!

On the second day in christchurch we had decided to go geocaching around the botanic garden. We parked the car in the middle of the park and went for a walk. The weather was nice but not as hot as the day before. After a picnic-lunch in the park we continued our journey and drove further north.

The day before we did this round, but couldn't find the final that time. There were so many muggels leaving the festival that was going on. We just looked for a few minutes and decided to return the next day. So here we are, new day, new luck. There weren't as many muggels anymore, but still a few. After a few minutes we found the deep buried cache. It was filled with water and everything was completly soaked. We tried to dry it as good as possible.

Thank you very much for this cnice multicache!

Greetings from Switzerland , Team Fludia

Bn

Saw that the CO had done some maintenance, so went and checked out my GZ and voila, a smiley. Thanks for the maintenance run!!

Thanks to the CO's for the hides. Cheers.

Searched a few weeks ago exactly there where I found the cache today.
Was a little bit unsure about my worked out co-ordinates but today I could log in a new logbook.
Thanks for caring!

All good again. The box is there at GZ to find with swaps for the younger ones. Enjoy the hunt.
The Linleye team.

Cache is definitely gone.

Looks like we need to do some maintenance here. If you still want the walk, spring is springing and it's a lovely trip through the park.

Hmmm, a nice walk around the park in about 50 minutes, but I couldn't get the smiley at the GZ I had. Could CO check that it is still there to be found?

Cheers

nice casual stroll , got all the info and found the final easily.

Found! Over the course of approx 9 months, by bike and by foot, usually at night. Finally grabbed the last bits of info this evening and made my way to GZ. a very enjoyable and challenging multi, for those who only visit Christchurch occasionally for work! TFTC

Enjoying the walk round the park

Found easily on the bike during a lovely fine quiet day. The easterly was blowing, but warmer than normal. The hide is safe and secure.

Took the younger Ponies around the exercise trail to burn some energy off. (See photo). The cache was a quick find but the logbook was so soggy it was impossible to sign. TFTC and the workout!

I attended my event, did a wherigo and completed a CITO. This cache was part of a mission to find as many cache types as possible. The cache's lid was off, the contents were out of it. I found the lid and placed everything back. The log was slimy. I did my best to sign it.

Was on a bit of a mission with Nosynel to find a few different types of caches on one day, this one made the list as it was close by to the event we had just attended. Cache was a little messy and contents out and log book very very wet. Nosynel put it all back together and we managed to sign something in the book. Cheers for a fun cache.

On a nice and sunny day we could not do anything else but take the bikes and go for a caching day in our home zone This cache is definitely one of our favorites, the coordinates were found easily but as we reached the final we found the empty cache box. The Box is still alright but no log book. We biked the track in 35min. Many thanks for guiding us to this place!

Finally found it! I started to do this about 8 months ago, but never finished. Today I had some Rangers with me who were keen to do the walk. I don't know how much they actually took in because they talked so much but we got there in the end. Time around 1.5hrs. TFTC

16/08/2013 08:21AM
2988
With my car out of action, I have been cycling to/from work every day for the last almost 2 weeks on a borrowed bike. It’s been quite enjoyable, and I’ve even been cycling to the gym first some days! – Till I got ill, and had to take time off work and work from home some of the other times, with which not having a car didn’t help…

But as I did the nice cycle though Hagley most mornings, and every evening, I would sometimes stop by and collect clues on my way. So I ended up taking a different way every time pretty much! Unless I was in a rush! Very enjoyable collecting all the clues over the days. One time, as I was counting seat bits of wood, one of the guys from work jogged past… must have thought I was weird! Lol.
But it was a good excuse to explore a different part of the park each time

One of the clues I didn’t find at all despite looking, but it was luckily one that didn’t matter, and another I couldn’t find the plaque, but I found a sign nearby that gave a year that could have fitted. So I used that.
Collected the last of the clues that I needed this morning, and worked out where the final could possibly be… hmm… that looked weird? Oh, entered one of the digits wrong into the GPS. Try again. This time I came up with a very likely location, that I knew matched the hint, as I had been there quite a few times already whilst cycling through the park!! YUSSSS!!

Rocked up, waited out a few school kids, and then made the grab. Simple!! Yaaaay!!
Just before I returned the cache, I got asked by another cyclist if I was alright… why do all the cyclists assume something is wrong with me whenever I am sitting down with my bike next to me in random places?!! Weird…

And so has been marked, consecutive geocaching day # 285!

TFTC!!

Awesome Cache. I have probably done this run about 5,000 times and finally got round to combining a lunchtime gallop with a multi-caching challenge. Must admit I think I got a couple of the clues wrong, and ended up runnign an extra half km in the mix, but once a loaded things up the right way it was fairly quick to locate the final. Its all dry and in good nick.

28 minutes for the 'data collection' phase (running), then cache in hand 8 mins later

TFTC

Was out and about with Team Gaters tonight picking up a few mutltis that have eluded us and myself for a while now. I need to pick up the final for this one and haven't had the chance for a while. We were collecting WP information for Puzzling Plaques and was in the neighbourhood. Parking is a premium at the moment and a strategic park was called for. The cache was quick to hand. All the donkey work was done by TG. We went and had a look in town since the cordon is officially been removed. We had a poke around in the Square and was eerie. I don't know when it'll be a vibrant city centre again? Hopefully soon.
Thanks for the cache.
#1208

This was my closest to work unfound cache, but unfortunately my printer wasn't working propertly, and I needed to find my cache for today. Decided to head to GZ and look for likely hide areas. Spotted something in the distance that looked likely. Didn't really need to look at cache was in plain sight, although a bit dirty. Log was triple bagged, so was well and truly dry. Will complete cache requirements once I can view the map properly. Rehid as best I could. Thanks for the cache.

Found it nice cache

Took me 20min exactly on the bike. I spent about 15 min looking with the hint, but the cache eluded me. The orienteering was lots of fun though!

Seems like the map might be missing. We have uploaded the map but it is still unclear at 600dpi. I'll consult our tech about this but in the meantime, if you want to do this cache and haven't yet left home, email us and we can send you a pdf of the map.

This entry was edited by linleye on Tuesday, 18 December 2012 at 00:01:53 UTC.

Since we did not find the map (seem that it is gone?!) we had to do the final directly. But meanwhile we stumbled around in the park and the botanic gardens for about 3 hours.
TFTC - frigidor (Switzerland)

My first attempt I think someone else must have been having ago, no maps. Second time I got all the info (by car! Not the best idea, in retrospect) then, true to form, lost my notes after not being able to work out the waypoint. Then today we were sitting around so we decided to go for a wander and get this cache off my list. We spend about an hour dawdling around the park, and we sure did pick a great day for it. Quick find between passing muggles. TFTC (828)

Was a great run/walk around the park. Justanurse and I along with a boy on scooter. Had lessons on how to read a map and played on the rings and fitness equipment along the way. Took 1 hour and 10mins to complete and a great way to start the day.

What a great day for a walk/run around the park, thanks for a great multi, discovered some cool exercise equipment in the park I never knew existed tftc

Put the new map in place. Instructions now match what you will find on your journey round the park. We also checked the final box and were amazed to find it full to the brim with water BUT the log book was dry (thanks to last cachers who did such a good job sealing the bag)! Dried it all out and double bagged the goodies.

Thanks to our recent visitors for the information about the problems they encountered. We have completely revised the cache with a new map that should be there in the next few days. We will post a note when it is in place, but if you go before that, at control #2 please do 'number of round signs minus 2' and you will get the correct coordinate.

Did the orienteering bit last week and took about 50min to complete but even though we had an idea where the cach would be, the calculated final cache location eluded us so left till today to sort. The problem was that the apparent answer to the no.2 clue gave an answer which put us a a whole minute of latitude out from where we thought the cache to be and that the site we had concluded earlier was an exact location of this point minus our added minute of lat. On this assumtion we visited the corrected location and would'nt you know it came up trumps.
The map shows a location for clue 2 at the left of the track and there is a post there which may have housed the required round signs but has been annihalated. The confusion arose since there is another post nearby with 3 round signs on it and it was this from which we derived our answer and resulted in the error as mentioned.
Maybe the owner of this cach could check this issue out. Regardless of this problem we encountered, we had a lot of fun doing this cach and in fact the problem only honed our geocaching instincts and the whole experience was positive- nice one LINLEYE.

TFTC, enjoyable walk around the park.
Control point number 2, number of round signs minus 1 was misleading for us, we located 3 round signs at the location on the map.
Control point number 8, Number of hinges was also bit confusing.
We knew roughly where the final cache location was but needed to complete the 10 control points for closer coordinates.

This was our first Geocache, my Fiance found it almost straight away. It was well hidden though. Nice Hide. Brand new log book too. We were the second to write in it. Pencil and Sharpener were there too

All is well with the cache at the moment. Please let us know if anything is missing or moved or taped off. Seems to be a busy area since 22/2/2011.

#1303 - 18:50H
On the last day of our holiday in New Zealand I walked around in Christchurch doing some caches. This was one of them.

I started with this cache already early this morning. I found the directions at the starting point and started hopping through the (still partly white) park. Making some pictures of the nice mathematical shapes in the park and enjoying the lovely autumn and winter scenery. I finished hopping exactly after 63 minutes, pretty sure that I would be the the fastest 'HDRCS' (hopping dutchy in a red coat through the snow) ever doing this cache...

However, then the tricky part began. Calculated the coordinates and hopped to the indicated place. A pretty obvious place to put a cache, but... I couldn't find it. After 20 minutes of intensive search labour I gave up. Went home and sent linley an email. It appeared that I searched just a tiny bit off the exact location. A second try later today was more successfull. Linleye, thanks for the pleasant hop and quick help!

Gpsgek from Holland.

Coordinates changed from:
S 43° 31.658 E 172° 37.622

Coordinates changed to:
S 43° 31.609 E 172° 37.629

Distance from original: 299.3 feet or 91.2 meters.

Revised coords to new starting point, text in the listing also revised to reflect this. New coords are S 43 31.609 E 172 37.629

Re-enabling after moving initial starting point.

Ahh - time for the annual flower show. They do love to come right out past the map spot. Cache on hold until the fence comes down after the show. Thanks for the heads-up.

I think the lamp post is currently not reachable.

An enjoyable Sat afternoon wander with Mporokosa. Took us about 90 mins by the time we had stopped to pet every dog we saw and chat to their people, and popped into my old golf club.. If we had've started earlier we would've been able to take in a busker act or two. TFTC.

Next time I make this circuit, I'd like to be running. But today we strolled, petting dogs along the way. I loved going after this cache. TFTC.

Dropped off a new dry log book. Will add some more swaps next time I'm passing. Thanks for letting me know it was wet. Strange - the box is clicking shut, so don't know where the water is coming from.

This cache is soaked. Log book was not inside the plastic bag so the weather has got to it. I drained the water from the container, but did not put the log book back in the wet plastic bag. Way to wet to sign so have left a piece of paper with who we are.. TFTC.

(602) Great walk around the park, TFTC.

Beautiful day, strolled around with the team. Then easy find. TFTC

Wasn't able to find a card at either of the light posts

easy find once i got the co-ords correct. at g.z there was a bike tied up to the railings and when i was halfway through the logbook the owner came. luckily she didnt pay any attention to me!!

TFTC. I really enjoyed this well constructed multi. No card at WP1, so used backup one. Thanks for the great hint I needed it due to large number of exercising muggles.

Thanks for replacing the cache. It's been a very long time since we gathered the info and got the co-ordinates (just before the Feb quake)...and the cache has been either out of bounds or missing since then. Saw it was back in place and sent Mrs Gaters off to sign on her regular Thursday evening run...Excellent multi & we'll take the record for longest time from starting it to signing the log!...Cheers.

did the course and found the co-ords. trouble as that they pointed to the middle of harper ave.

Decided to have a lunch time ride after working nearby for the morning. A lovely day for being in the park. Cache easily found. TFTC.

At last!! Completed tour before quakes. Enjoyed the ins and outs but could not find the cache. Now we have. A very quick find as there were walkers and weirdos. Thank you. Should we have a new category? SGC holders. (Super Gold Card)

Re-enabled. Noted in the text that you need to seek out the spare map while the tents are up in Hagley Park.

This must be a record between start and finash. We had the owner email us a copy of the map way back when the flower show fencing was in place. Mrs Gaters ran the circuit an evening shortly thereafter and collected all the info - but not the final. Then the Feb earthquake happened...and the final was innaccessible for quite some time. Today had us nearby so we had a hunt. Whilst safe and green stickered the structures foundations have cracked and moved a fair bit. Cache is AWOL....either due to the earthquake, or earthquake checking of structure, or due to the army dudes who were posted with 4m of GZ for a long time. Suggest owner checks and/or replaces if necessary....Thanks for the cool multi!...we'll collect it at a later date when it's there!...Cheers.

There's NO fencing

Taking this cache off line for a while as the Garden show fencing puts the maps out of reach.

We did this one by bike. We certainly were not the fastest, but we may have the record for the most shells of circadas collected and put in our backpack!!. Any way we really enjoyed this one. W also dropped off a TB.TFTC.

Mrs C and the two boys collected the coordinates a couple of months ago. Mr C met them after work, but we couldn't find the final. Passed by this morning before breakfast, no one about and the log was quickly in had (how did we miss it the first time). Thanks for the walk.

A really nice cache to do in the sunshine, walking round the park.

Been by and had a tidy up. The grass is cut now and it will be easier to find the cache. There is only one map available today, but we'll make another for the back-up slot when the shops re-open and we can get to a laminater. Happy caching.

Took a look at the final location and Warbut was right to voice concerns. We shall go down and have a tidy up - the litter is not nice but most probably there since the Post-quake concert and Christmas in the Park when thousands of revellers made a huge mess of the area. The cache itself is happily in place - I took it out and checked it before replacing it exactly.

Picked up the substitute card and was off. Really enjoyed the walk on a lovely afternoon and the wps were not hard. (Although we did look in the wrong place for the hinges) However we had no luck with the final. Coords spot on and followed the hint to the letter but no cigar. Even lay flat and looked and reached in, but no luck. And it is this kind of searching we would like to warn fellow cachers about. We came up with broken drinking glasses,and shards of glass which would cut so easily. Much was hidden in leaf litter and just where you would put your knees.

Back again, with much more geosavvy than at the time of my previous attempt; dusk on a Sat evening, few muggles around. TFTC. (PS Is 3 months a record for getting around the circuit?!).

Sadly, I have to confess, I was with KotukuSI on the previous unsuccessful attempt. But since I was going to complete the hunt, I didnt log the first attempt.
Anyway, Lynleye, thanks for a great walk. (and yes, we should have found it first time, but we are a little better at this now...

Really enjoyed the expedition; didn't have time to look properly for the cache 2 days ago. retured today and had a good look, couldn't find it.
Thanks for the experience, anyway.

We are pleased to say that this cache is up and running and ready to be enjoyed.

Temporarily disabled while the "Ellerslie" Flower Show is on.

Went to try this one for the second time, first time was beaten to the laminated card by other cachers and the back up card wasn't to be found, second time WP1 as enclosed within fencing as the area is made ready for the Ellerslie Flower Show.

Walked round with the kids last night after dinner but it was getting late by the time we got back to the start so saved the cache find until tonight. A great multi that we enjoyed - happy to get it done in just under 57 minutes. TFTC.

Walked around an we had fun.
We need round about 70 minutes with little breaks.

Our first multi and our last cache in New Zealand.

thx -Great job

DrFragger & Katja

Quick walk around the park on a nice evening, had to wait for muggles to disappear but enjoyed the walk. Walked with Geocacheing Widow in 49:30. TFTC

We estimated that it took us a total of around 56 minutes, walking fairly fast, but didn't have a reliable stopwatch, so it's guess-work mostly. Thanks for this, we needed the exercise and enjoyed seeing so much of Hagley Park. TNLN

Nice steady walk around the park for this great little multi,never been all around before.Took GC. TFTC

That was a very cool cache! Really great job!
I liked it so much that I will copy it, as soon as I get home to Hamburg/Germany!
(43 minutes and I cycled!)
P.S. Für alle Leute aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum, "hinges" sind Türscharniere!
P.P.S For everybody who does not speak german and who havn't english as their first language,
"hinges" are the thinds a door is hanging on! I really got stocked with that one!

Great cache, good walk around the northern part of the park.
Not that hard to find.

Took a bit more time than average, but did a couple of other caches which were more or less on the route and had a bit of a break at those points.

A surprisingly quiet evening in the park and a pleasant wander around WWC.

It seemed like a good night for a hike around Hagley Park so off we went... We soon realised it would have been a good idea to bring a pen, but we managed to record the numbers on a cellphone instead We took our time and took around an hour to complete the course, allowing plenty of time to watch the ducklings and chase the magpies...

Mit tigerUZ in Form eines Spaziergangs immer dem Donner nach zu dem Cache gelaufen.Zum Glück haben wir den Cache auch gefunden!^^:D
TFTC

Had this printed ready for about a year now but never quite got round to it. Quite straight forward in the end though. ( I did not make any mistakes in data collection for a change). Took a bit under 19 mins to bike the circuit part . (Its a wonder the laminate sheet does not go missing more often.) A fun cache. TFTH. TNLN

Enjoyed this cache very much. It was a beautiful warm early spring day. The daffodils and blossoms were out as were lots of muggles. Found the WPs no problems and didn't look at all conspicuous at the cache site. Nice to have a flowing multi.... TNLN TFTC

It was a great day to do this well organised multi. I really enjoyed the walk around Hagley Park, picking up clues for the final. I see that there isnt a Strolling, Sitting, Walking and Crawling category, so I will not put my time down. TNLN TFTC

Enjoyed the stroll (very much at a southerners pace). Dragged along Mark and he claimed to be exhausted by the end! Really?! If I could do it in high heels...
We stopped for a pie, and to feed the ducks - not sure if our time counts! Thanks for giving me a reason to stroll around Hagly Park

Had done this cache a while ago with StreetWalkerNZ, back to get my own smiley (luckily could remember the hiding spot).
Enjoyed the walk around the park - can't remember how long it took, just that it was a whole lot warmer that day than it is today!
TFTC.

I don't remember when I first read this cache page, but I do know that since then it's been on my list of caches I really wanted to find. Only I thought it would stay on that list for a very long time. Considering when we visit from Ashburton we normaly have all the time planned out and filled before leaving home with space only for a quick stop and grab sort of cache certainly not a 5km walk cache with 6 and 4 year old boys walking around it. So we headed off with no intentions of completing it but just doing the first half, but everyone was coping well so we kept going on a course that was shorter in distance as we didn't plan on finishing it in one trip so the timing didn't matter. As we went round and did one more than one more we got to the point were we realised we could finish it and we did. All up I think we spent about 1 and 1/2 hours completeing this cache.

one of many found before i leave this beautiful country! TFTC

Great autumn day for strolling this area! One of my must-dos for the year is kick & stomp on leaves- which brings out the kid in me! Great cache, Citycare workers at GZ clearing water weed but enough muggle activity to make it easy to pick up cache. #433

New maps in place and the cache is ready for action.

Disabled until the "Ellerslie" Christchurch Flower Show is over. They have fenced in the map hiding place

I'll go back in the morning to try and do this one with the running ink but it is a little tricky now. I went for the spare on the pole to the north but it is no longer there so the only copy is the water affected one.

Addition: I went back today.. the 10th (the original log should have been the 9th).. I know I said I'd do it today, and I wish I'd done it yesterday... The circus is in town today and the starting WP is fenced in and I couldn't get to it! I guess it just wasn't meant to be!!

[This entry was edited by Leighroy on Monday, February 09, 2009 at 11:00:38 AM.]

Nice to orienteer on this map again after so many years! What a great idea for a cache.

The seal of the lamination has failed along the edges of the card I used, and the ink of the map is starting to run. The start/finish triangle and the circles for controls 1 and 10 have disappeared, but for the moment it's still possible to work out where to go.

We enjoyed the nice easy orienteering walk around the park. It took us 47 minutes and we saw the circus as we went. They were packing up, but we had taken our granddaughters to see Jumbo yesterday.
TFTC

Found the card on our first day in New Zealand but realised that we could not complete it due to jet lag. So today is the last day of our holiday with time to complete the cache before the aeroplane leaves - just, maybe - so the pressure was on.

Great idea and one we may "borrow" for a cache in the UK. Lovely walk which included a visit to an elephant - the circus was in town. Collected the answers in just over an hour and off to the final which was a nice quick find. Took Orange Mouse Ear TB. LN. TFTC. (Caught plane as well!) Great cache for our last in new Zealand.

Great cache. Really enjoyed the ride around Hagley Park in the early morning. Fantastic. Dropped off a TB - to be left at a favorite cache.
TFTC

Completed this today without problems during a cache-hunting walk in the area. Beautiful weather, lots of people, Hagley Park at its best. We just took our time and did it in a little over an hour. Added elastic tie, signed log, TFTC and for an interesting tour.