NoTown ( West Coast ) Notown, South Island, New Zealand
By Bitsprayer on 30-Jun-07. Waypoint GC1428Y

No joy for me. Had a long look. I was still glad I came.

Spending the winter woofing, tramping and exploring the west coast caching along the way ..of course..

Back in greymouth for a while working at the Noah's ark backpackers...so a good base to tick off a few more..

Set myself a mission to hit 8000 finds by the end of the year...that's an average of 6 a day .
Out for a drive around the block..hadnt read the description so was surprised when I pulled up at gz..wow what a peaceful place...plenty of history in those stones...cache was a quick find..replaced saturated log book and dried out container..all good to go..location gets a fav from me
Always good to find one of the Co caches..a long way from home..tftc

Out for a day exploring. Nice to actually get to these areas finally. This was an amazing place to visit. Great history in the area you could easily miss. The log book was soaked and disintegrating. I have a photo of needed. Usually I would have a replacement log book in the car but I was out with the parentals today. TFTC

Stopped and tried to make sense of all the signage at the start of the road but in the end just decided to press on. So pleased that I did because i love visiting these wee cemeteries away in the backblocks. Found quickly thanks to Paddle Chicks log. Then I had a wander round reading a few of the headstones before heading off again. TFTC # 13,825

Found this one while on a holiday away from our home in Whangamata. Thanks for the cache

Surreal spot, literally in the middle of nowhere. Enjoyed the history here. Tftc

Kai Kelamoku read some logs that lead me into the overgrowth that had nasty blackberry to deal with. Took my time and come out of it ok. The location is amazing. Tftc

The last day of our West Coast break and we were headed to Reefton for the compulsory lunch time pie.

We had turned into this road yesterday without knowing a cache was at the end of it. Instead we turned here because we had a flat tyre and needed to get off the highway. With the spare I'm not was time to return to Grey for repairs. Today though we did turn down the road with the intention to go fund this cache. Glad we did too as it was a classic Bitsprayer type locale. Well worth the visit.
Thanks Bitsprayer for the cache.

I'd only just got out of the car and started reading a couple of the headstones when a ute pulled up containing 3 big hunting dogs turned up, the driver was the owner of the surrounding property, covered in tattoos, a pistol on one hip and hunting knife on the other which made me feel a little nervous to start with. He keeps an eye on the cemetary and has permission if he ever gets his son back from Pike River to bury him here. He has the cemetary under video surveillance after multiple occasions of vandalism, last night being the most recent when they drove over the grave destroying one of the fences surrounding a grave he'd only just fixed it after the last time. I explained my reason for being here, he knows the cache as one of the dogs came across it years ago and he's spoken to cachers searching for it when it was first put out. He was kind enough to tell me to look at the base of the punga which saved a lot of blood loss. Had an interesting conversation with him, he told me some of the history of No Town and tells me that they are planning on felling the pines further up the road and then mining that area as well. What shame they've already destroyed the area on the way in. Thanks for bringing me here Bitsprayer

#7219

An area with lots of great History, So to great to have been able to explore the area a little. TFTC

Wow. What an interesting spot to come. Lots of history.
I had to read the other logs to be able to find the cache and yes i did loose some blood. Tftc

thanks for the cache. Imagine the story's that could be told from those that have gone before us

I heard about Notown while I was at work and started to do a bit of research about it. I was pretty fascinated by this old mining town and wanted to come out and visit it. Luckily the road out was in pretty good shape, but Notown sure doesn't look anything like it used to. All of the mining activity has made a mess of the area and the location of the former township is overgrown and recognisable. It was wonderful to see the old cemetery which is a peaceful location.

The website crashed when we arrived but luckily my friend saw the gap and spotted the cache. A prickly spot but we managed to extract it without drawing any blood. Thanks for placing a cache out here so that Notown won't be forgotten.

Wow, old cache in an old place. A pretty sad time reading the "NZ death" awardees on one headstone - three from one family drowning in various rivers in the area. A bit of a hunt required but an easy grab in the end once one walks into the gap in the bush edge. Cheers

Took a little hunting but we came up with a smiley in the end. An interesting road to come up, plenty of mining in evidence, Cheers.

Found on a raid to the Coast with Kiwi Moose. Signed the log KM+KR or KR+KM to save log space.

Thanks to all the CO's for their hides.

Found it. Took a while but did end up getting my hands on it. Might need to change the loction soon its almost overgrown.

After a day of over indulgence we needed some fresh air so headed off out for a few caches. This one took a bit of getting to in this most unexpected spot. Thank you Bitsprayer and Merry Xmas.

On our annual pilgrimage to the Coast we always have managed a "special" cache. This year is no exception. After an easy drive over a well maintained road and passing an area that would make a nuclear holocaust look like a picnic came the big surprise. A sizable cemetery maintained to the point that you would expect a funeral to start any moment. The cache was well guarded but no match to our determination to get at it and sign the log. A fav. Thank you Bitsprayer for placing this cache.

Been to this place before, pre caching days. Followed a pig down the road on our way out last time but no piggies this time! Went in circles first off but finally homed in on container. Wet inside again but log was fine.

drained the water out ,all is well Except the blackberries of course.TFTC

deals to a DNF. What a prick(ly) hide....but such a neat spot.
Met the farmer who owns surrounding land and cares for this spot. Interesting.....things like....the doctors head stone fell and broke during Napier earthquake....he was able to rescue the slate from the alter out of church destroyed in nearby town.....from the same slab that came out by boat from England.....made replacement head stone. The gold mining (those huge piles of tailings) are on his land.....mined by some else, who is making huge money...he pays a royalty to this guy.
He said he would return to see me in the morning (I camped here) so I broke my own rule and grabbed this by torch.
As has been said, log is sodden....I put in a (double) bagged log which may do for a while.
Thanks My Bitspayer (you were spotted in a different occupation recently?)

Just to confirm C.C. comments.....access. Yes,, public road to here....private from the ford. That is soon to get a locked steel gate.
As for the road, council is grading it today. Mint condition.

Found it, but it needs maintenance. Log book soaked

No place like Notown to visit. TFTC

Lovely spot on a hot sunny day like today, but for all the drowning victims must have been wetter weather. Interesting history thanks

found in the rain. many drowning victims. tftc

Found the cache no problem the only problem was all the attacking sandflies while I was signing the logbook TFTC

wonderful drive never been here before
Thank you for making the effort putting this cache here.
TFTC

I've been meaning to do this one for a long time now. I even intended to camp overnight but was discouraged by the terrain. However it was a relatively quick find and took me to an area that has acquired a certain significance for me. Thanks. Hatas

Once again another random place for a cemetary. TFTC. Cheers

Long drive up a lonely valley + cemetary at the end = Bitsprayer.

A great quick and hassel free trade in an interesting spot!!!

Another find on our Sunday drive with the Old Willies. This township must have been so remote. Very peaceful complete with bird song and babbling brook.

on our Sunday circuit with DT Willies and dogs. Incredible spot INteresting reading the tomb stones Most were so young.

[0915 Came here after a visit to the Piney Peepholes (GCXZDQ) so if you come from that way, watch your coordinates or you might miss an important sign. There are a couple of fords to cross too; a little too challenging for a family car I suggest.

Initially had trouble locating the cache see hint below if you need it. When found, contents was wet and pen did not work. So dried it out and repackaged.

Hint:] Between the two of them, Dr Grattan and Peter Dall were pointing us to the cache a mere ten metres away.

went to site,nice one. one of the graves had obviosly been recently visited....by distant family? sadly, we could not find the actual cache. GPS kept taking us to a tree,but we were stumped by this one. Thanks for laeding us here.

Nice place quite a neat cache and quite a neat cemetery

is this road privet propity

Nice historical location. TFTC

Always considered there was No Town I hadn't visited so did it today. A very peaceful spot.
-NESW Geocoin
TFTC

2100. It was a good ride in on a well kept road. It doesn't seem as if too many people ever lived here - maybe it never had a hey day! We were interested to see that there is one family group that still keep in touch.

The cache was quickly found and obviously shifted from the nasties around it!
We left the NESW geocoin.

Thanks
Iris & Rodney

Three of three for this arvo, after finally finishing with all the weekend busy-ness of PB's little bro's (JemNZ) wedding and Annie's Little Sis being in town for the Around Brunner cycle race. Took a well needed bit of time out and tackled a few of our closer caches. Not surprised at the destination for this one being as it's a Bitsprayer cache!!!! Puzzled over where it could be hiding for a few moments and then extracted it more or less without encountering prickles.
TNLN TFTC

It was so peaceful here. The bird song was wonderful. Not wanting to get up close to the prickly we spotted a good place for a cache. And there we found it. Thanks for taking us down the road to no where to find more than a few drowned remains. TNLN

Found with our caching buddies Don Keyotee.
Lovely Cemetery with some weird looking graves.
But why bury it that deep in Blackberry?!!
Moved the cache about one foot which makes it less cruel.

[Have to agree.....this has got to be the "ugliest" cache for user-friendliness we have done to date!!!
We got there though]
Have to say that the leather break-down gloves came in very handy

[Every thing seems in good order in the cache. Lovely,fine day for the hunting of caches.

TNLN SL
Thanks for the cache - fun day for the 1st day of 2008!]

Found with Pinot Noir, although they definitely laid first hands on the cache. We were pretty sure where it was but ouch, prickles! Pinot Noir felt the fear and did it anyway, so another cache down. Great spot, just beautiful.

TFTC.

Not in the obvious spot, but in the second obvious spot. Co-ords are spot on. I thinks that must be the most prickly cache location I have ever visited.Cache was a bit damp, as one of the swaps was preventing the container from sealing. All good now though. -crikey coin -boat + bart simpson.

Interesting area, wouldn't have bothered normally - glad I did

It seems we need to be better prepared. We were out here a couple of weeks ago (after having looked once for it many years ago, and venturing down the wrong road). We thought it would probably be a good spot for a cache. Those that snooze...
The return trip was all the quicker. The road has certainly changed a lot with all the recent rain.
Cache was an easy find.
TNLN, TFTC and FTF.

A nice simple find in the dark. (9:00pm).
I can't claim to be FTF though!!!

+ Moneydork's Crikey Geocoin.

I did this one at night with Moneydork.

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