It's mine! (Otago) Logantown, South Island, New Zealand
By The-Organist on 28-Sep-07. Waypoint GC160J4

Loved this! TFTC

Didn’t expect to be taking this detour when we left our accommodation this morning but the history of the area was so tempting. Bonus to have a cache or two on the way. Found our own gold here in the form of this cache TFTC

Found by Dave on a trip over the crossing

Nice find lovely place to hide

Very interesting place. TFTC.

What a gem of a place. Came to go through the Thompson Gorge Road as our daughters had mountain bike it years ago- Gold Rush event days. However, didn’t know that this area was/is mined.
Thanks for a great out of the way, but easy cache. NB glorious autumn day view stunning- spotted Mt Cook and Mt Aspiring on the way through (came from the Omakau side)

Out caching with Tufty (Grandad). Great hiding spot. Thanks.

Out with grandaughter, Redco5, for a nice walk to Hooker Lake and nearby kocations.

Loved the road to get here. One day I will travel from West to East. It should be quite an experience..

Cheers for the cache.

In Cromwell for Christmas and since I have been wanting to come here for a long time Gadget169 said right let's go for a wee drive and a geo adventure. Very cool place to visit and nice quick find here TFTC

Dnf! I spent here about 30 minutes, searched the pile of rocks visible about 3 meters on the right side when you come from mine outside and nothing . Too hot and clueless to continue.

Please, next geocacher - could you take me with yourself? I can help you with opening gates . I work nearby till 2pm so please write me a message, we could find two my dnf caches easier together .

Forgot my torch so back uphill to the van quick find then walked to the end. No cave Weta's or glow worms. Down to see the stamper battery. Fantastic.

Many thanks for this one. A fave from me.

Found it!! Beautiful place, walked all the way to the end of the tunnel tftc

Out on a night adventure what a cool spot. Walked up to the end for a look. TFTC. Sorry for late log.

Logs indicate all fine.

I set out this morning for a day in this area. I had a couple of must do on my list, this was one.
It is great to be brought to an area that I did not know existed. To see all the workings and then go into an actual mine tunnel was a treat. Hats off to the men that worked in this harsh, remote area.

I relocated the cache back to where it should be, cleaned out all the undesirable contents (left by muggles) and replaced the full log by inserting a sheet of waterproof paper in the original.
Thanks
erninz

Awesome spot that wouldnt be easily discovered without this cache.

Founds it by accident about a month ago but for for to log it. I did put my name in the logbook.

Found while out on a four wheel driving adventure. Was a little exposed, hid a little more carefully.

Decided to go for a drive to Omakau for lunch and this seemed like a good way to go. Once I got to the entrance of the mine I thought I would go in and have a look before I found the cache. So I walked right to the end of the mine and behold a cache. Wasn't sure if it was surpossed to be there but signed it and left it where I found it. As I found it there I never read the cache description so was unaware that it should have been at the entrance of the mine and not the end. Anyway was a Nice and easy to find. TFTC

No luck today despite searching with a previous finder. wil lkeep an eye on it as I would be glad of an excuse for a return to this area.
erninz

TFTC

Were off-roading in that area last weekend. Found this cache by accident as it was just lying around on the rocks and not hidden at all. Wasn’t sure if that was meant to be, so logged it and put it back where I found it. Needs maintenance anyway as the book is more than full. Squeezed my name in somewhere where I found space. Anyway, great location in a beautiful landscape! TFTC

Logbook full. Really full! Needs replacement asap. Cheers, Markus

Logbook full and damp. Cache not hidden Needs replacement. Cache not hidden anymore. Cheers, Markus

Either it is not here or last person his very well. Moved lots of rocks but no sign of cache. Awesome place to come too though

Found this many years ago and looking today with RowenaD. Was nothing in the place where I thought it was which is weird as found only a week ago by someone else. Will keep and eye on and come back when others have found. Great drive in regardless.

CZECH
vždycky mě procházka podobným tunelem uchvacuje
ještě že jsem se nezastavoval na začátku, keška z nějakého důvodu jen tak leží na konci tunelu
zajímalo by mě, jestli ty třpytivé mikročástečky na zdech jsou částečky zlata

Very cool discovery!! Poss my fave cache so far

DNF here too, searched right up the mine, and a little around outside

This one is a DNF for me today.

What a cach. And an adventure to get to it. Awesome tftc.

Stumbled on this one while exploring the area, Took me longer to find it on a map than find it in the mine!

Best spot for a cache!

Amazing view! Had a wee look inside. TFTC

wow great drive ,
having stayed in omakau for the weekend this was the perfect excuse to see I we could get through the Thomson gorge in my trusty 2wd VW. had the kids with me so plenty of help opening the gates .
definitely a drive worth scraping the sump for had a couple of close calls but great scenery.
this cache has been on the radar for a while after working in the area a couple of times. made it to the cache and time to stretch the legs , in our eagerness to get the find we walked straight past the tunnel and ended up in the bottom of the valley so back tracking we finally found the right place and a nice easy find .
ventured into the darkness to explore and find "gold" tftc
fav from us for an all round experience dropped of tb

Awesome

Found this after a GREAT drive over from Omakau via the Thompson's Gorge road. Definitely 4wd at this time of year; quite muddy with snow patches above the 600m level. A beautiful drive with gorgeous views of snowy peaks and ranges in the distance. Found a cache near the entrance as suggested in the hints then decided to see just how far the mine went - its about 60m - when, lo and behold, there was a 2nd cache to be discovered! GO FOR THE GOLD. Did a bit more exploring of the old mine area, they worked hard for meager returns in harsh conditions - a tough bunch. TFTC

Hi there, we came across your cache when we drove the Thomson Gorge track yesterday- I've been thinking of joining the geo-chache community and our find prompted me to join up. Goo(l)d spot!

Great seeing all the Model A's making their way over the pass. Quickly found and wanted to explore deeper into the cave but Thor wasn't having is and stayed at the entrance. Logged find with Granville86a

Found with Chosen1978. Arrived at GZ along with Model A car club members on rally over the pass. Great to see the old cars handling the roads. Quick find. Would have gone in deeper but Me and Thor were scaredy cats. TFTC

Was going to leave this one until we come back next year but the lure was too great. Favourite for us. cheers.

found on 01/26/2015 at 3:46:00 PM
A great place for a cache we really enjoy these historic areas which we wouldn't see it wasn't for geocaching.
Thanks for the cache The-Organist
Pipedream

Did the drive over from Omakau side, been meaning to do this drive for ages. Great views. I must've opened at least 15 gates, I lost count. A high clearance 2WD would manage this road in dry weather. Good spot.

Our last find for the year. Found by myself and my two boys. We (I) didn't read the description properly and went to the end of the mine before deciding to come out and review the description. Easily found from that point. Cache had a bit of useless rubbish and wrappers in it which we disposed of and now contains just the log book and pencil. Rehid properly.
TFTC.

Was just out for the day and not actually geocaching but the smallest glimpse of the container made me suspicious! The log was damp but could still write in it and it appears some muggles had found it previously so re-stacked stones to recover completely from every angle!

13.30: On the way to Omarama via Thomson Gorge. Magnificent and very interesting place! The mine, the cache and the stomping battery are worth visiting and the remote location may be the only reason for the rare visits of this cache. We were wondering about the mine: digging a little deeper/further and they would have come out on the other side of the mountain. Has this been intended by the miners?

Weather: fine, sun, extreme strong and gusty winds (we weren't able to open the doors of the Landcruiser at Thomsons Saddle[xx(]), 11°C;
Wheelchair: no, steep slope, narrow path, no view to mine nor cache;
State: all good.

IN & OUT: nothing.

Thank you for showing us this place! A favourite point goes out for this one!
Oliver+Gabi

TYFTC

Just checking. All good. Logbook half full. Remember this is under rocks, VERY close to entrance.

Easy find. Enjoyed exploring the crossing.

Called here on the way east over the Thompson Gorge road from Bendigo, a really enjoyable trip and all the gates up to here were open already for us. I hadn't realised until I actually arrived at the mine site that there was a cache here, but it was really worth coming to! Went down and had a good look over the excellently restored stamper battery and then came back for a quick find for the cache. The rest of the trip over to Becks was a saga of opening and closing multiple gates and in some cases the wind along the crests was so strong that Mrs agcnz had great difficulty opening/closing the vehicle doors, let alone the gates. But at least it wasn't raining and the views were fantastic!. Signed log, thanks for a great cache at a really interesting site and it gets a favourite point

Thank-you for placing this cache in a very interesting place

Amazing to see these places. Good quick find, just happened to pick the 1st & correct rock.TFTC

Only had to open two gates today - coming from the west. Walked right to the end and then went to the stamper. Well worth the effort. Thanks.

Scarey going into this mine with no light. Future cachers note,take atorch.Those miners had to be hardy and tough. Todays youth would not hack it,I know I could not. Imagine being down 200 metres.

I just cannot understand how they could work in such small spaces. We are so lucky.

Amazing what you find in the miidle of nowhere, old timers did it tough.
Dropped off Easter Bunny coin.

Great adventure with krewzy TFTC

ole twinkle toes strikes again, all three made it to the end even with the whites of the eyes showing from two of us X)
amazing history lesson thank you so much for placement of this cache very cool day planned around this cheers.

Stopped here for lunch. TFTC

cool spot but lack of breathable oxygen, tftc

A slight diversion - just for the hell of it Nice drive in near sunset, and a quick walk down and easy find. Nice and interesting spot! Cheers Gav [10097]

Our driver offered to take us on a short diversion so into the hills for a great drive and the cache of the day. Enjoy coming back to the old mining locations. TFTC

easy find, lots of history here

Found the cache on what was supposed to be a training run across Thompsons Gorge but the crazy NW gales made it 80% a walk into the wind! Nice place to stop. Thanks!

TFTC

Found with gecko @ skinks and kids deep mine never been down one till now

Awesome walk in the cave thing. Scary though!

found with sting106075 & the kids

We took a wrong turn at the start after the first gate where we "turned right" instead of "veering right". We ended up miles away in a higher terrace amonst 1,000 sheep in the middle of lambing. Hahaha! The fact our GPS showed us heading away from the cache location was a giveaway too but we had a nice drive. After starting again we counted 8 gates in total. Thanks a million for a fun excursion. Cheers!

A cold damp foggy day with plenty of ice and snow and mud to test the 4X4 and the driver, not a trip for the faint hearted at this time of the year! Lil was well and truly over opening the gates by the end. We started from the east side and took nearly 2 hours. There are some great views as you climb higher up the road and when the fog clears for a moment.
Found the cache and wished I had brought a torch!
Drove out to SH 8 and then showed Lil where I am working on a vineyard nearby.

TFTC

Oh well, our campervan loved the tour...
We had only four gates, and we had a great view from the cache place. It was a great idea to visit that cache.
We enjoyed the mine, but didn´t went too far... thanks for that really nice cache!

When we went towards Wanaka Iceworm just asked:"Do you want to find the next cache?" The answer was clear. But she said nothing about this beautiful road. So we went to the first gate....and the second....and so on. It was fantastic to see the area from there. It was dry and it was suitable for campervans . The cache itself was a quick find.
On our tour back - we had to go back towards Wanaka and not towards Becks - we met a group of off road motorbikers who enjoyed their ride as well.

TftC and the fantastic trip

I really enjoyed this one! First off, only had to open one gate which I was very pleased about as only had my 4yo son as a passenger. The location of the cache was great, my son was thrilled at the start, but once inside he wasn't too sure about it! Thanks very much for such an interesting location.

Found while out exploring in the late afternoon.

After mucking around up the hill a bit, I eventually twigged about what was required and went to the more logical place. Wow! Even from 5m away the cache was obvious! It had not been covered up by the previous finders (or had since been uncovered by muggles). Previous finders were not the COH team but another group who made a log entry that this was their first find - hmmm.

Anyway, a great area to go exploring, some fantastic views back in the Wanaka direction and 15 gates plus a few fords in the Becks direction. Loved it all, thanks The-Organist. Left a valuable and highly treasured RexTrex 'Dino dropping' for some future seeker to claim.

Visited after the Bendigo caches so here about 9pm, pleased we had brought the torch. Have heard of the Come in Time stamping battery before but never knew where it was so thank you for that.

TFTC, nice cache, never been here before, so was nice to explore.

We love geocaching for bringing us to places like this that we didn't know existed. What a fantastic place to take a look around. Left Grereta's Happy Caching Coin & took the ATV geocoin. TFTC

Visited with Moneydork.
Awesome mine.

Took a shortcut through from Bendigo.
Fantastic cache site - cache of the trip for me!!! Well Done!!!

Adding coin.

Went on showery day fine at the time but with large threatening dark clouds. Took trusty Subaru. Mak fine with the road but Ra a bit worried about narrow windy bits. Lucky it didn't rain! Mak went to find cache. Spooky, but good hiding place. Spent a while exploring as area interesting. No-one else there. TYFC.

Great spot - enjoyed exploring the area. Beautiful Spring Day! We won't mention all those gates that had to be opened.
- Superglue
+ Dolphin
TFTC

TFTC lots of low cloud and not very warm but a good cache location and great site to visit.

cloudy day. dark dark darkness around

Invited sister and brother-in-law on a this little journey. Great site for a cache. They enjoyed this spot too. We also walked down to the stamping crusher. It was a lovely June day with frost underfoot and a very light scattering of snow to this point in the shady places only. Got this far without engaging the four wheel drive. Thank you for placing a cache here.

Thanks for bringing us to this site! Absolute beautiful view and we visited the stamper battery as well. Found the cache just in time before a group of motorcycles traveld along the road. Next time we have to rent a 4WD to do the whole trip. TFTC

A very cool spot to visit. Enjoyed the stamping battery in here. Good to see it so nicely restored. Quite the road to get in here, no signage at all from the highway, luckily geocaching points such things out. TFTC

FOUND 27/1/09 by Gary.Another top cache.Hot day but climb a breeze in Suzuki.Will do the full trip to Becks on another day.Lots of rabbits.There must have been a good head of water pressure with such a small diameter pelton wheel.You can see a water race on the hill opposite the stamper site.

Whew it was hot climbing up Thomson's Track today from the Cromwell end of Ardgour Rd. 30+C degrees. Even the 4x4 cachemobile sounded a little hot and bothered after we parked - there were rumblings from within the radiator that went on for quite a while afterwards. Found to my surprise that I didn't need a torch to find the cache. Interesting area. Drove back down to Tarras as I had caches to visit on the Tarras-Lindus Rd. I have previously driven Thomson's Track from Becks to Tarras - my wife well remembers all those gates - as I had thought at the time (2004) that it might be the quickest way to get from Ranfurly to the Wanaka airshow. Doh! [B)] Thanks for the cache. Cheers.

Extremely interesting location for a cache, a hard life in them days.
TFTC, TNLN.

We drove through the Thomson Gorge Track after a morning at Matakanui exploring all the old buildings as part of a Rail Trail Trust event. It was the first time we have been thorough that way (E to W). The site has workings on the other side of the road as well. The last time we were at the site was for the opening of the restored structure in March two years ago.

While we were enjoying the area a youngish man who had travelled there by motor bike joined us. Returning to our vehicle we continued on down the hill and turned left to follow the track directly to Bendigo in order to find the geocaches there. Thanks for the cache.

biked to this one, enjoyed the ride back out

A car drew up, two people jumped out and "Oh bother! Muggles!" we thought. They called out "We've been here already, we're just looking to find some glasses we've left behind, good luck!" and started looking around the roadside. Whew!
We trotted down the path and were soon at that exciting "Aha... it'll be THERE..." stage, when a cheery voice behind us made us jump guiltily. "Hello, have you found it yet?". Yes, they had spotted the tell-tale GPS-around-the-neck. So we enjoyed a chat with Mr & Mrs Parmur before they went off to tackle the Gorge road gates again.
The restored Come in Time battery is definitely worth a visit. Wonderful cache!
The Cromwell Info Centre has an Otago Goldfields Heritage pamphlet "Thomson Gorge Road", worth getting if you're going over the road.

THE RISE AND SHINE REEF
"In 1880 the Come-In-Time Reed was the last of the Bendigo reefs to be discovered. It was located on a sharp ridge separating Rise and Shine Creek from Shepherds Creek. Both open workings and tunnel operation were used at this site, know as the Red Tunnel Mine.
"Although a trial crushing was not very promising, a company was formed and headed by William Cameron. The old Eureka battery, further up the gully, was purchased and erected where is can be still on its present site quite close to the reef, and the Thomson Gorge Road. A double tramway and steel rope conveyor transported the ore to the crushing mill. The first crushing of 350 tons of ore yielded a discouraging 110 ounces of gold. Six months after the second crushing all operations ceased.
"The Come-In-Time Mining Company made another attempt in 1909. The 1910 report stated that only a meagre 4 ounces of gold was recovered.
"The final attempt to work the reef was made in 1919 by James Dunery and party. They used the same battery (Cameron's) and took over Cameron's aerial rope-way, which had been erected in 1912 to bring ore across from the opposite slope. For a short time ore from the Alta reef (over the ridge to the south of the Come-In-Time reef) was crushed but within two years all work on both reefs had ceased.
"On the left of Thomson Gorge Road, a marked track leads down past the entrance of the mine tunnel (on the left) and then on down to the battery. With the aid of a torch, the tunnel can be explored for some 60 metres into the hill. Portions of the cableway gear can still be seen high up on the opposite slope below the crest of the ridge.

This is what caching is all about, finding new and wonderful places,thanks to unseen friends. What a great drive, went all the way through to Becks, then after 'Par' discovered he had lost his glasses here, on way home had to go back up to cache. So in total 22 gates to open.
Met fellow caches on return visit.
First part road ok for 2WD, but not sure they would cope with second part, The whole trip is a must do if you got the time.
Thanks for the cache and bringing us here.

OK that was a great drive! Went right through from Tarras to Becks, had to open about 20 gates - but what an amazing place to be able to drive through. Oh yeah I found the cache to - thanks, neat hiding spot.

Hard to find - no hints udsed. Hot work in Otago sun but won the cache in the end. TFTC
- Orignal Stash Geocoin
+ Fluffy Lion
+ Golf Ball

This is without a doubt this is the best cache we have ever found. To drive into the "real" Central Otago and find such history. My children were amazed by the mine and the recently restored stamper battery.

We were so impressed we had to leave a special treasure - the Original Stash Geocoin found down the road in Kurow. The coin's goal is to seek out the best caches in the world - we think we found one.

Thanks so much to The-Organist for setting this up and adding a special memory to our holiday.

We were lucky and had to open only one gate on the way up. We had to open 2 on the way down as the extreme wind had blown one shut.

Neat spot for a cache, just be carful of the Ghost of the old miner ( see pic )

Many Thanks Bitsprayer