Where Goblins Play (Canterbury) Glentui, South Island, New Zealand
By Moneydork on 26-May-07. Waypoint GC136CC

Today, I set off early to explore the Mt Thomas tracks (or some of them at least). I had planned to head all the way top Bob's Biv but the weather was against me and my more rugged tramping gear is in storage at the moment. I went up the Wooded Gully track and once I got up to the ridge, I found that it wsa just too cold and wet for me to continue on to the hut, so I looped back down via the Ridge Track. A classic cache! Must have been one of the first ones on this track. Cache found exactly where it was supposed to be. Thanks for keeping it alive! TFTC, Biggles.

Not exactly sure why this one has been on my watchlist, perhaps a reminder to visit this area; TFTC

Today I enjoyed a great walk up Mt Thomas with Tarmacprof. We walked up the wooded gully track and down the summit track. We definitely enjoyed the wooded valley track the best. Thanks to all the cache owners for making this a fun caching walk!

Tftc

Our plan was to go to Bob's Bivvy tonight but as we slowly made our way up here, we were really starting to struggle with the heat, weight of our packs and the steep terrain. We stopped here for a rest and cache on the way up and after abandoning our plan and coming back down stopped for a second lunch break here as well. Thanks for placing Moneydork

#11662

nice easy find with paddle chick in the hot weather for a walk up one of the paths TFTC

While walking down the wooded gully track. TFTC

Nice quick find, love the name, really helped us. Cache 4 on our Mount Thomas trip

Great to see such an old cache still going strong. Haven’t done this trail for a couple of years. Sure it gets steeper every time ... or maybe it’s just me getting older .... tftc

Found it thanks

Camping in the campground at the start of the track for a few days while we cache around the general area. Today's plan was to head up the Wooded Gully track to Mt Thomas and come down a different way. As far as up & down, mud, tree roots and zig zagging goes, this was probably the hardest of the track options for me. At least we had plenty of stops along the way as it was also the track with the most caches on it.

Still slowly plodding up and down the gullies. Andy is going ahead and finding, signing and replacing the caches again by the time I catch up to him. All further caches for the day were nice easy finds. Tftc

13:43
FITW GreenMenace, sanita_deksne and non-geocacher friends

No goblins around. All clear. I jumped in their lair and laid hands on their treasures. Ah, what glory, what triumph! But I didn't stay long. It is said if a man lingers in the goblin's lair, the tangled roots will take over his body and soul, and he will become part of them, forever frozen into a shape of a tree.
So off we went to the next geocache!

TFTC!
#6542

What fun rocks around here, and a 11 year old cache to boot. Took the TB, cheers

#3,414: Goblin Smiley!
I came out to this one on my way back from an FTF attempt at the "Saddle" with GeoYoungling #1. The weather held out for us, and we were able to find a few caches, though today was more about the walk than caching. GY#1 got fed up, and made me turn the GPSer off at the top, so as I was walking down and saw this area, I thought, "Hmmm...nice place...I would hide one right here." And there it was. Ha! Nice find without the need for a GPSer! Happy to find this "oldie" too, placed by a fun hider. We miss you over here!
SL/TFTC!!

We set off for an adventure to Bob's bivvy for the night, heading up the summit track, along the ridge, then back down along the wooded gully track. The temperatures were unusually hot and we were wishing there was more water going up, as we did not see any for 24 hours. We had great fun finding the caches along the way, as they were making the long journey more interesting. TFTC!!

Finally getting around to logging a bunch of caches I got with Trifolia Argentea on 30 December, when we went on a climb of Mt Thomas. Thanks, and sorry for the late logs!

Where Goblins Play: another one where I waited for others to catch up, and admired the view. TFTC.

Spotted first by Ilmari the Red on a tramp together on the Mt Thomas loop. TFTC

I found the geocache together with CitizenJessica during our New Zealand trip 2018 / 2019.

Thanks for hiding.

Greetings from Germany.

Mirko83

Mirko83 and me traveling through New Zealand from the 15th of december to the 10th of January. We rent a camper, one of the jucy green ones. We made a long list of places we want to visit. Geocaches are on our list as well. This will be fun

We were in Akaroa before and arrived very late here yesterday. We are going to hike to the peak of Mount Thomas today. The whole walk took a few hours and not only did we find a lot of geocaches, but we found also mushrooms. So we had some really fresh food to cook in the evening. There were no clouds in the sky so we also got a little bit sunburned. Thanks for hiding and maintining the cache.

On a Labour day hike up to Mt Thomas with perfect weather, the high number of caches added to the happiness and allowed for motivation and breaks.
TFTC Yaws

This series of caches has been on my radar for a while but unfortunately I have been working Saturdays and couldn't fit it in. But now new job and no weekends gives me to head out for a hike first to bobs bivie and then onto pinchgut hut .
Wasn't sure what to expect of the track probably a bit tougher than I thought (with a full pack on ). 2 1/2 hours to first break the tree line and 4 1/2 to bobs ...and it was empty !!!!


Could only be one place nice easy find tftc cache all good

Quick find, TFTC

Easy find

Quick find on the way back down. TFTC

20 Geocaches in One Day. My biggest day caching ever. I wanted a good leg-stretch so I climbed Mt Thomas up the summit track and came down the Wooded Gully track, finding pretty much every cache along the way. Cool breeze. Nice views from the top through patchy cloud. Lovely bush on the way down. Found a few more on the drive home to make up 20. Cheers to every cache owner for placing and maintaining these.

On a mission with Shannonp1 to Complete the Mt Thomas loop. Day dawn bright, clear and warm but the forecast was accurate and we were in cloud mid way up and heavy rain and hail before the top. But we weren't alone with others running past and walking in the opposite direction. Would have been nice to see the view but will have to be another day. Quick easy find on this one.

Contacted Surveybase the night before to see if he was keen for some caching around Mt Thomas. The reply was a bit cryptic but I hadn't looked at the weather forecast, around midday it became clear why. Rain hail and wind was the ticket. It wasn't cold though so we carried on through. Not a lot of sightseeing from the top due to the cloud. Nice spot though. Quick find on this one. TFTC.

Quick find TFTC

?

Found it

Found today walking back down from mt Thomas with quinella - beautiful day for it tftc

Soon had this in hand . A brief pause heading down from summit. Thanks

A quick easy find at the very obvious feature, as we made our way up the Wooded Gully track. TFTC

Quick find.

MadCat9 had the day off work so we made a plan to get together and climb Mt Thomas. We meet up at 8am at a spot and then all went in one car. I was the driver. Team MadNosyBear were off, arriving at the carpark at 9am.
The weather was just right. Not to hot and not too cold.
Oh my we were in need of a breather. Little did we know how much more climbing we had to do. These geocaches made the uphill less daunting. No goblins, fairies or gnomes. Just three mad geocachers.

No goblins here thank goodness I hear they are not very Friendly, well
they aren't in The Lord Of The Rings. Cheers for the cache.

At last a day when all three of the Mad Nosy Bear team were free (BBear44, Nosynel and Madcat9). We picked a route where we could combine caching with our shared interest of tramping! Found the goblin and we're on our way. TFTC

Simply awesome day for a walk up here. Cache quickly found, and we took the opportunity to place a few more on the way up

Great hide! Lovely day for a hike. Tftc

Easy find on the way down from the top of Mt Thomas.TFTC

TFTC. Awesome trail.

Approached this one from above, after walking up the Summit Track to Mt. Thomas and then back down the Wooded Gully Track. This was by far the nicer track, though quite hard work on old knees. Coming from above this cache was a very easy find in an obvious location, though not visible from the track. TFTC

One unexpected 'bonus' near this cache was that we heard a stag roar from across the gully on the far slope and after a few minutes a second one started up as well. We were very glad they were the other side of the gully! The roaring carried on at least 20 minutes off and on: the most we have ever heard whilst tramping. We met a hunter walking up the track and he told us they often started up around 3:00. Roaring for afternoon tea?

A quick easy find on our way up, also a welcome resting spot for a few minutes. Didn't see any Goblins but we imagine they would have fun near this GZ

TFTC. Found quickly on the way up through Wooded Gully track. It was stunning afternoon.

Thanks for a great cache

Found with my wife to be Sonia26642

Found after veering off the Red Pine Track to grab this one. TFTC.

27/10/2014 11:49AM
# 5217
A long weekend means a hike away! - Unfortunately a busy life, and heaps on my plate meant only an overnight trip could be achieved!
So Bob's Bivvy has been on my to-do list for a while, and figured that that looked like a good one to tick off now!

Woke up with the sun in the morning, and re-hydrated the scambled eggs I hydrated at home - wow - amazing. Stuff that expensive store brought stuff!
So eggs and coffee, and time to set off!

So given we came up Mt Thomas way - naturally had to return this way to get the extra two caches!!

It was a horribly rainy day - we were soaked to the core, and my fingers were numb!!

This one was also luckily in hand quickly - and my numb fingers managed to scrawl our names - just - and like a child really! Haha.

Consec caching day # 721

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For more info on the next NZ mega event, and to register, go to:
www.nzmega2015.com

and log your will attend at:
coord.info/gc587bc

Found during a damp tramp with GHIJKGardner, Ewie21 and RDKcache. What a nice spot! TFTC

tftc

Nice find on a great track, TFTC

Second person to find this cache today, TFTC

Nice walk quick find tftc

Has been quiet up here so have moved King of Mystery trackable on. Didn't want you up here over winter.

Lovely walk on a beautiful morning and the tree stood out before I got to GZ. Have left a trackable so hopefully someone may get it up to the top of the mountain soon. One pencil in the cache needs a sharpen. Also added another swap. TFTC

Beautiful area. Found this on my down from Mt Thomas after walking up the Summit track this track was very different with its beautiful trees and wet gully's. Excellent hint and I almost expected a goblin to appear.

Came out to Mt Thomas for a picnic and a bit of a wander with the family. Wee Dudes enjoyed the walk in to the track junction just past the river bridge. They then headed back to the carpark (and play in the river there) whilst I ventured furhter forth to find this cache. Fairly hot going and a few boggy patches and trees down that have to be skirted....but all fun. Nice wee hide. CHeers.

15:20
Found durind nice trip from Mt. Thomas. Together with Mracek 303 team.
The snow is gonne, when we went down to the valley.
TFTC

Thanks for the cache

We walked via Summit track up to Mt. Thomas, where was nice view and than went via Wooden Gully track back to car park, which is damaged by heavy snow fall. Once we only saw way on the other side of stream, fallen trees and heard water. It looked scary, but fortunately we climbed over the trees and found the right way.

Nice and easy hike to Mont Thomas. Find with the Christchurch tramping club !

Muggled by a party of visiting Aussies staying with SmoothHound. Signed the log and replaced. Went on to Bonk! GZ meeting a party of about 12 exhausted school kids staggering along so ignored the second cache on the track.

A good stop on the way up the hill. Thanks for the hide.

A great walk with Craig and Emily, the cache a highlight of our walk.

This was our first long-range New Zealand hike and, although tiring, we enjoyed it quite a bit. Found the cache pretty easily once we got there. I had grand thoughts about continuing on to the "what a view" cache but turned around after about 20 minutes past this cache.

Have passed this cache many times on training runs. Decided to get it today on our trip out to Bobs Biv camp and Pinchgut Hut. TFTC

Found it on the way back from the summit.
Very nice track!
TFTC, Mapua (Germay)

Found our first cache in quite some time, what a nice area!
Thanks!

Great spot. No goblins today. Found with Espired. TFTC.

TheOrmos found it before I could even turn around. TFTC

Got the gps to within 25m on this one while on the way down from mt Thomas. Had a sneaky suspicion as to where it was as we were passing by and it turned out to be right. TFTC

This was an interesting one for us first we ran straight past cache site, then once we realised our mistake went back, Kaitlin found the spot and not realising moved to a different place then Lucy picked up the cache!
Lucy Kaitlin

Slogged our way up the mountain with the intention of making the summit - so this cache along the way helped keep our morale up. Nice hide! Sadly we left too late and 40 minutes from the summit the light started closing in, so this cache was the only spoil. They said it was a 3.5hr return walk... but took us plenty more and we didn't even make the top! Bah. TFTC.

An easy find after reading other logs regarding wandering co-ordinates. As a help to others the cache is 5mins past the junction of Wooded Gully and Red Pine tracks. I took a reading of S43 10.355, E172 20.321 at GZ! Moved Blue Car trackable to the bottom of the hill.

Lovely walk up to this one, did not make it to the top to get the other cache, we underestimated this track and did not bring enough water or food for the full trip up and down.

Found on the way down from the summit,TFTC

I found the cache, but unfortunatly I did not spot any goblins, perhaps they were all glued to their TVs waiting for the AB game! Really enjoyed the walk up Mt Thomas. TFTC

Great walk with friends, GPS wasn't playing the game and showed 70 metres to go so went on past it then the GPS wanted me to go back, found it but GPS still said 14 metres. Must be the area.

Good work, took me 2h50m return to hike up there along Wooded Gully and back down via Red Pine and Kereru. Dragged a bunch of camera gear up but didn't end up using it - no vistas south of the cache, just mould-covered beech forest and muddy tracks. Overshot the cache - my GPS coords were 11 metres off.

Popped out today for a bit of exercise, and got it This cache was rather incongruous. I was wearing a shirt and shorts, it was 20c out, but there was still a fair amount of snow in places, and the last 500m or so was almost all snow and snowmelt (coming down the track). Probably about 1h10m return and what is probably my first cache contributing to the altitude elective for the DGSc. Nice hide and find. Cheers Gav [9697]

A perfect, windless, bright sunny day made finding this cache a pleasant exercise. The air smells so nice and fresh and the forest is about as good as it gets. Although I had the GPS switched on when I came to the spot I guessed this had to be the place,"Where Goblins play". Outstanding location for a cache. The track is muddy, wet and slippery in places after recent rain especially higher up the track heading to What a View. Noticed several fresh deer hoof prints too...

45mins from the bottom to here. GPS showed about 40m to go, but just in case I checked a likely spot that matched the hint. et voila. TFTC.

Went running for this one. Missed it last time I was up this way as iPhone didn't work here. Proper gps this time. Got strung by a wasp on way back when having a drink at the river. I lay on it.

Found easily on the way upto the Summit. Unfortunately, due to fading light and energy (and finding out we had another hour to walk) we turned back at the top junction Ridge Track and came back down. It was a beautiful New Year's Day with a surprising amount of campers and picnicers around. Awesome track and area!!!
- TB
+ hacky sack
I notice some muggles had found the cache by chance and written their names in the log. All good though - they did not take anything. Hopefully they'll be interested in geocaching now!

Been past many times but finally stopped as the new Garmin has the requisite reception! Dropped MS Walk TB "my quest South Pacific islands". I couldn't find an island so went for the "walk" option instead, hey it's still in the South Island of NZ, South Pacific.
48 mins up from car, carried on to the summit in 1:50 with snack & cache stops. Nice calmish winters day with snow along the tops - heaven! TFTC

Muggled. Here! And not by goblins. #497

Found the spot easily when running back down from the top. From the Goblin description,I already had this rock in mind. Quaint area. TFTC TNLN

A good excuse for a break on our way to the summit. Easy found but no Goblins. And of course no trouble with muggles. TFTC

there was plenty of big red toadstools on the summit track for goblins to hide from the HAIL storm as I trudged up.found this on the way down

Only took 30 minutes to reach the cache site. Was quite hot today (26c) but was much cooler in the bush.

No Goblins but plenty of wasps sniffing around on the track up. It was a super hot day on the trail.
TNLN.
Cheers Mountainpoetnz

We found this coming down Wooded Gully after visiting the summit. Walked straight past initially thinking what a great spot for a cache this would be. Realised 50m down the track that we'd missed it and returned back. TNLN Thanks.

Nice sunny day today, so packed a lunch and six of us headed off to Mt Thomas. Headed off up the obvious track and about an hour later we were getting close to gz, but couldn't seem to get close than 50 - 100 meters away ( GPS indicated 50 meters East of the track ). In hindsight, should have known better, anyway we trudged on up the hill for a further 30 minutes, since the track was starting to circle around, but after crossing the river, the track was heading in the wrong direction ( towards the summit ) so we turned back. Right then we accidently disturbed a bee's nest, and collected 4 bee stings between us ! On the way back we stopped at the original stopping place ( this time GPS said gz was 40 meters East ) and we checked the hint and found the cache 30 seconds later !
Took punch, left flip-pen.
No goblins today, a few muggles, wasps, sandflies and bees !
Enjoyable walk, although our version was closer to 3 hours return !
TFTC !

nice spot, many thanks
-candle & +wee man

A nice 3km (approx) bush walk with the bonus hill climb to 644m AMSL - needed to help me sweat off some of my xmas excess. Took 55mins to reach the cache. It was too hot to continue on to the summit so the walk back to the mothership was very pleasant. There were quite a number of people camping in the campground. TNLN. Thanks for the cache.

A cool hiding spot, we had a well deserved rest at the cache site, it took us about an hour to get to this spot.
+ punch cutter
- Big City Cachoid, we took this geocoin to the top, upto "what a view".
Thanks!!

A nice day for a walk, and get fit and find a cache or two. We stopped at this very spot a couple of years ago and had lunch. Little did I know a cache would be born here. Took: Cups (As we also could not get them in the box!) Left: Jigsaw puzzle

The satelites must have been badly placed today. The GPS only gave a couple of brief readings on the way up the valley (unless it was because I was running). The last reading was 250m before the cache. I just estimated the distance and looked for a likely spot. Luckily the cache location stands out. I carried on up to the top and grabbed the other cache.
+ Big City Cachoids Geocoin
TFTC!

2nd time I have been down this track in a week, the last time I forgot to look at the GPS and had passed it before I realised. This time I set the proximity alarm and it went off right at GZ (should have been 100m away but nevermind, I will take the find)
I couldnt work out how the measuring cups ever fitted in there so I left them outside.
There is quite a lot more snow up on the tops this week

Cheers and thanks,

S.T. TNLN

1477. A lovely afternoon so we went for a drive. Decided that this one needed doing and Moneydork said 2 hours and moderate gradient, so off we went to the Mt Thomas car park. Whole thing took 45 minutes up and 25 minutes back to the road. Another great hill work out! The GPS still said 65m to go when there was one of those geocacher intuition moments. Stopped and looked in a likely spot and found the container. By the time the log book was filled out the GPS had settled on 12m - obviously the bush had affected the GPS readings. It was only another 1.02 km, as the crow flies, to the summit cache but decided that it would have to wait for another day since had no information and hadn't allowed for the extra time anyway. An excuse for another run in the hills. TNLN but couldn't fit all the original stuff back in, so left the measuring cups in a safe spot next to the container under a rock. Thanks for another great cache Moneydork. [^]

[This entry was edited by Sallies on Monday, June 04, 2007 at 1:43:17 AM.]