Mangakara Nature Walk (Waikato) Harapepe, North Island, New Zealand
By psychrn on 22-Sep-07. Waypoint GC163ZP

Tricky one to find, with no service but we did it. Worth the hunt, beautiful location. Unfortunately container is wet on the inside, might be worth owner replacing with a waterproof container and paper

Found it Really easy

Coordinates were playing up a little bit, pointing me towards the other side of the stream. Looked at the photo and just walked around looking for something similar, and cache was soon found! Yay. Beautiful place, must come back.

With the Geotour coming to and end soon Yvettetb and I decided to go on a road trip to collect Tahi and Rua. Of course I had some puzzles at various places to collect and a few special types were added to the list too.

Wd didn't have a set plan for our second day so we just did as much as we could. These lettterboxes were our first targets, then Pirongia, and a detour out to Tupaia's map (a necessary PWGT cache). We then headed back to Te Awamutu to visit the beautiful Rose Gardens before finishing up in Arapunui for the night.

We took this sidetrack so that we'd have completed the lower caches on these tracks. My GPS was a bit jumpy here but the spiiler photo was very helpful. Unfortunately the cache was full of water. Thanks for the cache along this pretty part of the track

Our North Island Roadtrip from Whangarei to complete Tahi & Rua of the NZ Geotour - Day Two.

We decided to walk back via this loop walk and grab the cache as we were in the area getting letterboxes.

The cache was easy to find and unfortunately full of water. TFGC

As everyone else has noted, a lovely lovely walk. Thanks.

Four of us are down here from Auckland today to do the Letterbox Series primarily; plus an Ad Lab.
We had noticed this trad on a side loop while planning our course at home....so were keen to find it .
Really enjoyed this area...and it wasn't too steep....We spread out to search various roots...and one of our team soon called out "Found It ".
Managed to find a piece of paper to sign on...
Thanks so much psychrn for bringing us here !

Out for a caching adventure with Merlot, Supernanny and Nette to Pirongia with the letterbox caches our main target for the day. This is a really pretty walk which we had not done previously. Once we were at gz, we spread out and soon located the cache. The cache is very wet - a previous cacher had added some waterproof paper so we signed this, before continuing on the loop walk. TFTC

What a stunning walk this is so thanks for placing this cache. It was a chilly, foggy morning and we were thankful there was a bridge to cross the stream as I checked out the water temperature and it was not inviting! Mrs Jag had no trouble finding this one

A lovely walk along this stream.
Bush just lovely.

We decided to leave this one on the way up to the Ruapane trig, and pick it up on the way back down again. So it was a short diversion to enjoy this beautiful little section.
The find didn't take too long thanks to the spoiler photo.
Thanks for putting this here. Now we'll head up another track to grab a few more caches.

This is such a lovely nature walk and we really enjoyed exploring it this morning. We were also especially lucky to have the area almost completely to ourselves.
This cache proved a bit elusive at first and our GPS just wouldn't settle down so we decided to do a wide and systematic search.
We started a bit further away than we thought the cache would be and were very pleased to find it almost immediately.
Unfortunately the container was full of water and the contents were saturated but we managed to sign the additional piece of log paper which was a lot drier than everything else.
We emptied out the water and tried to dry things out a bit, then we gave the cache a bit of a rest on a log in the sun near the water. It isn't found often so we thought it deserved a treat.
Great spot, we will definitely come back here again sometime.
TFTC.

Doesnt appear to be any issues currently

Got to what we thought was the GZ but then the GPS told us to go back about 30m but when we walked back it aimed in the other direction. So, while the kids played in the freezing cold water, armed with the picture I set off in search. An easy spot from the path if you have the pic on hand.
Everything very soggy in the box.
TFTC

Found whilst out with keylev.

Thanks for the cache.

Found with team
SEAC

This was on the cards for Team SEAC for a while but because of the last lockdown, we had to put off for a while. Finally it was back on and off we went! Most of us were in pain at the end, some of us comtemplated life choices but I think we all came out of it proud to finally get to the summit and back again.

2nd quick find here. TFTC

Team SEAC had a few tramps lined up for the year and as a training exercise Mount Pirongia popped up as an option PLUS it had quiet a few caches to find along the way. For Mr NZT this was to be the first overnighter tramp staying at the DOC Hut at the summit. So with a 13 kg pack thrown into the back of the car and the HeMaLudy's as passengers we headed to the Greys Road carpark to meet the rest of the Team SEAC members and start our adventure!

Replaced the soaking paper in the cache.

TFTC

Almost a year to the day some of the Team SEAC (South East Auckland Crew) walked a short track in Pirongia and vowed to come back to complete a longer one and add a hut stay in. With the various lockdowns this didn't eventuate as planned and had to be cancelled a couple of times but today was the day the mission was ON!

We started at the Greys Rd carpark, went up the Tirohanga Track and back down the Mahaukura Track. Took us approx 8hrs each day so we were very grateful the hut was nice and most of us managed a good nights sleep. It was probably the toughest track I have done and certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone at some points.

Nice little walk along here...definitely nice and easy track! Quick find, replaced log paper.

Thanks for the cache.

Last year various members of Team SEAC made plans to stay in the Pahautea hut. This plan had to be altered due to Covid lockdown. Today was the new day selected. Mr HeMaLuDy had planned to join the other Team SEAC members by himself, then Darthcacher1's (Dy of HeMaLuDy) plans changed so he joined us, then a few days out Purply's (Lu of HeMaLuDy) plans changed so he joined as well. So the day started bright and early with Mr NZT picking us up. We met the others of our group at the Grey Rd carpark. In all there were 10 members of Team SEAC hiking together. We set off in great spirts up the Tirohanga track. We spent the night at an amazing location and met some cool people up there. Then we returned down the Mahaukura track. We all really enjoyed our 2 day trip with all the challenges included.
This was our second find of our trip. This took a bit of a search using the hint, as all our devices were jumping around a bit, however we got there. Signed Team SEAC to save space on log. TFTC

In the area today for a special celebration with Mrs stik-a-crane....25 years married to this special lady....just shy of half my life .....

Headed up the hill for a luxury night in the DOC hut on the top, picking up caches along the way....

Thanks to the CO's for placing and maintaining caches in this somewhat challenging environment....

Cache was all good.

TFTC.

Found it but really needs maintenance as soaking wet.

It was about time to collect those letterboxes in Pirongia Forest Park. Weather was not that great with clouds around the summit and some drizzle. It took me about 3 hours up and down both the tracks. It's a beautiful forest!
On my way back to the car park was a Tradi left to be found! Would call it a box of water!
Thanks for hiding.

Out over to Pirongia today to claim the Adventure Lab Cache and to pick up a few other yellow smileys on the way as well. A great walk here on a cool spring day - quite fresh up Ruapane. Took quite some time to find this cache as my phone and Garmin were both jumping around, and I couldn't download the spoiler photo but we eventually got there. The log is still very wet so I added another small piece of paper, but it will probably be very wet now as well as the plastic bag was very wet inside....TFTC

Cold miserable morning. First find of the morning.

Just noticed I hadn't logged my find. Lovely bush walk. TFTC.

Lovely walk through the bush, unfortunately the cache was soaked

We were just about to give up, but found it! No photo hint as no reception down here, plus like others said about 30m away.

Its contents are soaked.

Found after a bit if a search as no photo again. About 30m away from gz but just looked for big roots.

One of our favourite walks as a whanau, so fun to have another reason to enjoy it here. My phone struggled with reception, so thanks for the photo hint, I dont think we'd have easily found it otherwise. The cache was very wet, so didnt log physically. Thanks for the find

Found more later

Co-ords we out quite a bit for me, eventually found it, T4TC

My GPSr didn't seem to agree with the coordinates so it took me a few minutes to track down the container which was very wet.

no issues with the cache currently it seems.

20m over river according to GPS and no photo so not bothering.

great place for a walk, good to be back. busy area , not much water in the river.

Nice little walk, people swimming. Beautiful day to be out with friends. Kept up our 100% record. Lovely place. Off to lunch now in Pirongia. Fav point. Tftc

A lovely day for a walk along this amazing track. Well worth a visit.
The cache was very wet inside. Fortunately the log book was in a sealed plastic bag. No pen available so bring your own.
TFTC

Great walk but no luck for us Is it across the stream from the path? GPSr points that way...

TFTC & Cheers
Paul & Fabienne
**South Australian Geocachers**
6 January 2020 12:06

#314

Stayed in Hamilton couple days for the Xmas holiday, it’s the 5th day and we decided to go somewhere nearby and more natural walking.. we first headed down to the 1hr natural walk loop. Nice water, many useful information boards and of course a cache.

TFTC!

GC163ZP
Dec 23, 2019

A nice walk in this reserve and with nice weather.
No worries about finding the caches except for a few.

---
Thanks psychrn for the geocache [^]
Greetings from Belgium,
Frank et Muriel travelling in New Zealand

Happy geocaching

Nice to have a walk along here. Minimal muggles today. Tree cover made it difficult, but once the spoiler location was found, it was sighted from the right angle. TFTC

Found as a part of a previous group TanjackMüley, now WanderingSparrow. Now I'm continuing on my own. TFTC

After an attempted search yesterday that took us over the river we decided to have another look today. We looked the obvious roots in the area but with it still saying it's 30m away. With everyone finding it we continued to search the area until we found it. At the gz the coordinates on my gps reads S 037° 58.011' E 175° 08.955'. hope people won't have the problems we did. Thanks for the cache.

Nice easy find!

Nice and easy

Nice spot follow the GPS and look for big roots.

We found it after our Garmin GPS could not find satellites but my geokid kept me looking for it by looking at big tree roots and finally the GPS led us to the nearby vicinity. The logs inside the box were all gross and wet so added a new log book and plastic bag. Was a great day for an adventure in the bush. Geokid enjoyed the outing and could have explored the bush tracks more. I'm sure we will be back.

(I apologise for the late log but the date is accurate)
Found today with the help of TwigNZ while we were up in Waitomo for a holiday of sorts. I had a great time finding this cache and thanks for placing it. The log was basically mush but we were able to mark a little piece of ?waterproof card thingy? TFTC

School holidays, plus the combination of public holidays and 3 days leave means I get to take my lad on a road trip. This time we have chosen Waitomo to be our destination, and today was the drive from Cambridge (where we stayed last night) over to Waitomo itself.

I had searched the maps the previous night for potential caches to maybe go for on our drive, and spotted this cluster of Letterbox Hybrids which was definitely worth looking for, especially as they appears to be hidden in a bush walk. And obviously if we were going to be looking for those then it made sense to take a look for any other caches in that area, including this one.

So we were on our way back to the car, and took the little loop track that would hopefully lead us to this cache. The GPS signal was a little patchy, and initially was trying to tell me that the cache was about 15m on the other side of the water. I didn't have a decent mobile signal to look at the Hint photo either, but just cast my eyes about and wondered where I would hide it if it were mine. That worked a treat and we soon had the cache.

However, once opened we discovered that the container has suffered quite a bit of water ingress and the logbook(s) are mostly mush. There was a piece of waterproof card in there that we were able to leave a mark on to record our presence, but this cache could do with some maintenance and a new container (or at the least a new lid with a fresh seal) and obviously a new logbook too.

Thanks for placing this cache.

This geocacher reported that the container isn't keeping the water out, and the logbook is mush.

Very quiet day for a walk through the forest. As others have reported the logbook is very damp. TFTC.

Nice to join up with Team Kake for part of their trip to Pirongia to look for caches including this one. Lots of letterboxes and this nice sized trad on the trail. Everyone was pretty tired by now so happy to avail ourselves of the photo of GZ.

The logbook here is a slimy mess so we ignored that and used the temp log that had been placed here and that was fine to sign in on. No water in the cache other than that so perhaps the leak was either winter or at some point the cache hadn't been closed properly.

Thanks for the cache.

Made plans to head down this way to hike Mount Kakepuku and part of Mount Pirongia with a group of other Auckland cachers. Having complete Mt Kakepuku, we headed to Te Awamutu for a late lunch before heading over to Mt Pirongia.

We worked out the multi at the carpark and headed off to the furthest cache and worked our way backwards then moved on to the loop trail to target all the letterbox caches. We signed as Team Kake all day.

We located all the letterbox caches along the path, even taking the high terrain route. It was nice to stroll along this reasonably flat, gravel loop to locate this cache before we could finally head back to Auckland. Thanks to the spoiler photo, we made a quick find as it was already after 6pm and I still had a 2hr 30mins trip back to Auckland.

Our last find in the area and for today! Managed by the "Kake Team" on beautiful long day. We did about 14km long hike in total and it was joyful! Beautiful location here! Enjoyed the trees and the river and well managed trail too! Thanks for bringing us to this spot! All good at GZ. TFTC

After a really long day of hiking, I was glad to come to the last cache before heading home. We compared a few places before spotting one that matched the picture and found the cache.
The rest of the team headed for the cars, but I rested by a family of four for a minute before continuing. Their two-year-old son had no trouble with the trail as I plodded along behind. TFTC.

After doing Kakepuku Mountain earlier in the day and a late lunch in Te Awamutu we carried on to Pirongia to grab the series of caches at the end of Grey Road. After working out the multi we decided to go to the furtherest and work our way back and then do the 'loop' last. The team had slightly changed but we continued to sign as 'Team Kake' as we did earlier in the day. Thanks for all of these caches, individual logs as follows:

Took a nice little walk around this great loop track to finish the day off. The GPS's were showing us some metres away from suspected GZ when we arrived here and we eyeing up a more difficult spot than the cache suggested. Thankfully a quick find by Tramyard stopped me from getting my feet wet. TFTC.

Great to be out for a walk in some proper bush now that most of the Waitakeres is closed. Lovely and cool in here due to the shade and the cooling effect of the nearby stream. TFTC

The link no longer works, but this one does:

https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/parks-and-recreation/tracks-and-walks/waikato/mangakara-factsheet.pdf

tftc for the nice wee hide found with abcdf4

Nice Big Cache.But it very very Wet
Great walk we replace the paper and sign it

Such a beautiful nature walk, Mr P and I both loved it. T4tc

Found at 12:24.

Our second trip to New Zealand. This time we explore the North Island for 3 weeks. This was one cache we found.

This cache was super wet. We did manage to get our name in the log

Thank you for placing and maintaining this cache psychrn

TFTC

Decided to check out the nature walk. Well worth. Beautiful walk round. Cache had water in it. Log far to wet to sign. So took pic. And even though we're way we removed the fireworks from cache. Yes fireworks. Lol. Tftc

Found quickly before more muggles walked past GZ

A very enjoyable little walk. Couldn't sign log as it was wet. TFTC

Quick find with the hints. Cache container had water in it and log bag torn so log very wet but signal. Log bag replaced. TFTC.

I've stayed up at Pirongia Hut a couple of times, but today we were here for a family walk around the Nature Trail. We made the find without too much trouble (thanks to the hint photo - wish all these sorts of caches had them!). Couldn't sign the logbook though, as it's completely sodden. Thanks for bringing us here!

I made a mess of this but it seems the coords are about 25 metres out. Thankfully the hint makes sense standing on the path. Cheers!

Decided to complete the Mangaraka Nature walk to pick up this cache. It was welll hidden and further in its hiding place than it perhaps should have been. We enjoyed the work that has been done to inform walkers of the flora and fauna of the area. tftc

Beautiful walk from Waite Rd to this cache. Last found at the start of this year. Could do with a bit of maintainence

Nice 45min walk! Thanks. Nice spot to hide a cache!

Went for a walk today as it was so nice, as we came towards this cache there was 3 young muggle families enjoying a picnic beside the stream... we wondered what to do... then some hikers with their packs came by!... we wondered what to do... Mr Darcy decided to start to take some photos... I was still wondering what to do... Finally decided to get out the phone to check coordinates, and keep on walking. Luckily the GZ was just out of sight of the happy lunchers, and was able to collect.

Nice day for a nice walk, clue was big help as gps was playin up. [8]

Tricky find because the GPS didn't work so well in the forest, but the clues helped. Nice day for a dip in the creek too.

Good cache! But hard to find tftc!

Haven't been up on Pirongia before, so thought this would be a nice wander. Went from Grey Rd around the Link Track then up to Ruapane Trig.

Last cache, left this for the return trip. I had an opportunity to grab this awhile ago, but left it as Becsicasa and I would only cache together at the time. Nice to grab this, and still a nice area to walk around! TFTC PsychRN, Elmo is looking after the cache, and doing a nice job of it

The show must go on... On the trail to finish a Geo License challenge, but fully ladden with the flu. Not a good look... But at least I'm wearing gumboots. With Gap (of Fap and Gap).

As this one was a mere stroll down the path, Gap decided we should try to clear it. A quick find after a brief search. TFTC.

Out and about collecting visiting specific caches towards a challenge. This one was also on the track so stopped and soon spotted the cache TFTC.

First gc for Greer kids.

We hoped to have a nice walk with our doggies. But had to leave them in the camper and we took up the walk together. We took the detour to get this one, but without a photo we didn't managed to tackle this cache. So a DNF for us.

Our GPS really struggled to pin this one down but thankfully my wife has good Geosenses and located the cache but pretended not to and pointed our two boys in the right direction so they could enjoy the thrill of the find. This is a great spot and really highlights the natural beauty of the area.

Beautiful wall to this spot

Nice hide no conection

Lovely walk

After I finished my work meetings in the region there was time to go and find a few caches. After finding most of the other caches in the area, I found this one on my way back to the car park. A really nice area to explore. After my last DNF I also added insult to injury by losing my pen. The pen in the cache doesn't work but I manage to mark the log book all the same. Thanks for bringing me here and TFTC, Biggles.

Lured to these trails by the publishing of 5 new caches, we had to make the short detour to find this older cache. There were a lot of groups of children on the Nature Walk this morning, including a large group just past GZ. But fortunately not too close. We did not have the hint with us, and the GPS was pointing across the stream, so we were beginning to fear we would not find the cache after spending some time searching. When we stood back and thought about where we might hide something here, one spot stood out. We checked it out again, and this time spotted the cache.
As it happens, if we had failed to find the cache, we met the CO shortly afterwards on the trail out, and could have asked for a hint. Thanks for showing us this picturesque spot Psychrn. Giving it a Favourite.

Found it on our little walk through the forrest.

Found with Arandee. Cftc

GPS no good here. The pic was the only reason I found it. What a beautiful slice of NZ

Helping out with bait station filling. After a few sausages headed of with KGD to find this cache. GPS was quite a way out, probably due to good canopy. KGB knew what he was looking for so soon had it in hand. TFTC

420 Cup of tea after bait station filing on Pirongia led to meeting of Davitales. Joined them in finding this cache. Thanks Davitales

Big day out...?this was the first of ten with Blair and Hayden

Needed to grab a cache for today's dot day. Wanted to do a big walk but life got in the way. So thought I would grab this one. Been a few years since I last did this walk and it is still lovely. Coords were off a bit for me so got as close as I could narrow it down then checked the hint, doh no pics on my gps. No cell coverage so just decided to look in the obvious, found it in the second spot I checked YAY

This entry was edited by 11hpg11 on Saturday, 01 March 2014 at 19:51:36 UTC.

What a lonely cache in a lovely spot! This walk seemed so long with we had preschoolers!!

Went for a walk with friends and their children (10, 10, 9, 9 and 4yrs). We decided to extend the walk with a 20 stroll up the track towards the Waite Rd car park, then returned to rejoin the nature walk track.

The kids played in the river by the cache for an hour - great kiwi fun!

Found the cache easily enough.

Nice walk. TFTC

Would of loved to explore this place some more but after a couple of big walks already today and still one more to do, I bee lined it straight to the cache, but still took in the amazing surroundings. Got to GZ, well close to GZ as gps wasn't much help at all. Was having a little bit of a look while waiting for the spoiler pics to load up when I spotted the cache.

Great spot. I will be back one day. Took TB.

Lovely walk today with clear crisp skies. Nice easy find. Tftc