Graves Track ( North Otago ) Oamaru, South Island, New Zealand
By Bitsprayer on 27-Oct-07. Waypoint GC170K5

track still close, plus I do not like how they make you go through the building to access the Public Track.

Bitsprayer

Easy find TFTC.

Track is officially closed, but still getting some use. Nice to be reacquainted with Peppi the penguin!

Track is a bit dodgy but safe if you take care.Penguin waiting to move on.

Quick find, although the track is still a bit dodgy. Dropped off Peppi the Penguin TB. TFTC.

Track is closed and there are rockfalls and slips even before the cache. Not particularly safe. Nice spot though. The penguins obviously think so too. TFTC

Nice track to bush with nice views. Thanks.

We could not get to the cache as the path was closed due to a landslip. My GPS read 30m from where the path was closed; I was so close! But it may need checked out - I fear the cache may have gone along with the cliff edge .

#1341 (9/25 on a day in Oamaru). Loved the track. Nice sunny day to do it. TFTC.

great spot, even a seat on which to sit to admire the view and sign the log. TFTC.

Quick find, thanks.

Great day to walk this track ! beautiful view.

Been on this track before BG (before geocaching). Nice wee spot, even saw some penguins in their boxes (from a safe distance). TFTC

Found on the way back from the EC.

Great location

thanks

Lovely area for the cache. Soon located. SL TFTC

Heading around further. No wildlife.

The penguins in the area have certainly been commercialised but the staff were helpful in showing us the start of the track. A quick find. TFTC

Quick n easy one thanks

#1372
After 3 weeks at New Zealand and my homecoming I'm loging all my finds...
Nice walk around a sea coast.
Thanks.

unfortunately we did it half an hour before closing so we could not do the whole track.

tftc
team karlkater

Just been for the Sapphire Tour. The Blue Wing was very exciting. A good place to leave a Stealth Ninja Penguin pathtag. Hopefully Goldilocks can pick it up in a week or so.

TFTC

Stealth Ninja Penguin wore out the first tour guide at the Penguin Colony so she got the marine biologist for us . We had a great chat with her before wandering off to find this cache.

Great location; thanks for showing it to me. Left a penguin pin which we picked up from a cache in Adelaide, a customised-for-NZ penguin log sticker , a SNP pathtag, and the Silver Bullet Geocoin.

Cheers!

Greetings from Australia
Penguins' Kiwi Caper: 012

Quick find & replaced without being noticed. Great area, walked on to second beach. TFTC

Nice and easy find before we could watch the blue penguins come ashore. Thanks for placing a cache here and greetings from Germany, Team Loopi

Quick find by bloodhound, although had to be wary of passing muggles. TFTC

Found with rebeckingham palace

A nice track and views.
TFTC

Found with YuGeo4. First cache for the day after a bit of a sleep in, nice spot to start the day, TFTC TNLNSL (1315)

3619
A great spot for a cache, found with Yeetrees after a bit of a sleep in.

TNLNSL, TFTC

Next time we use this track to watch the penguins in the night, even if it is a longer way. Nice walk. TFTC

easy find with jetmadchic, she went gooey over the seals!

Found with plexy - seal pup playing in the water

Punga scored extra points for this one, it was too rough at high tide yesterday but a nice stroll on this lovely calm morning. Watched a penguin inside his little house, peeping out the doorway. TFTC.

After visiting the penguins (well suppose they're all at sea or so?) we followed the track and located the cache. Too bad the weather wasn't that nice, else we would have finished the track.

It was very nice sitting in the sun at GZ signing the log and watching the waves pounding into the breakwater. Thanks for the cache.

A bit scarey to go poking around in there, but a cache find is worth it every time. Interesting machinery. Left a trackable 8LONOPMO.

cute little hide with a great view out across the ocean! just as we were giving up our 10 year old found it and was very smug finding it! TFTC!

Quick find thank goodness before the people following came round the corner. TFTC (678)

Great place to hide a cache with a nice view.TFTC.

i could not have done it without birdflu

Nice cache with a great view of the sea.
TFTC

Nice place for a cache. Had a seat while signing the log. TFTC

Quick and easy find. Managed to spot a seal right under the cliff beneath us, and then went back to the little gift shop to spend far too much money on all the cute little penguin things. TFTC

Easy find. Lazy big sealion keeping watch from below.
TNLN TFTC

Nice stroll down from the forest and a rest at cache site. TFTC

A nice place to sit, log the cache and wathing the sea. No muggels was there this morning, except a seal, coming out of the sea for laying in the sun.

The track is still technically closed but the risk of slippage was remote given the fine day and lack of rain. Clever hiding place. TNLN.

The lady in the penguin viewing shop proved to be very friendly and told us to feel free to go through the area. Nice easy find with a young seal standing guard. TFTC

A quick find in a scenic spot. Sat and whatched the shags nearby. TFTC.

Ran the gauntlet through the wretched penguin colony monstrosity which is situated on public land anyway. Found the cache but was held up by stupid loopies scrambling around the water with video cameras. It is a lovely walk through this area apart from Fort Knox at the beginning!
Thanks for an enjoyable callenge
ernienz

Quick find with the help of Luke, who got the container while we kept a lookout. A gorgeus day in Oamaru. TFTC

Another good spot Bitsprayer.

After passing through the penguin viewing area we found Graves Track closed because of unstable surface. But since our GPS showed the cache only a few meters ahead of us we couldn't resist and went past the barrier. TFTC
In: Electronic game
Out: Parachutist

Nice quick find so TFTC, the sea was so blue/green quite spectacular really cheers!

[Green]T[/Green] [Red]F[/Red] [Blue]T[/Blue] [Purple]C[/Purple] From Terman8or and Yum9me on their oamaru trip!

Unfortunately the track is closed because of loose dirt or something. We could see where it is and I was naughty and got it anyway. Thanks for the cache.

(It may need to be disabled till further notice.)

Thanks for showing us this track - not completely evident from the visitor centre. We had a great walk along here and watched the waves.
The container was bigger than we had anticipated and is small snaplock!
Thanks Jacqueline and Peter #2229

Found it by Guancos Team
TFTC!

Trobat per l'equip Guanacos
GPC!

Found it!
Cache found in our holidays in New Zealand.

The night before we saw the blue penguins to arrive home after a hard day out... .
And today in the morning we have gone for a walk.

Very nice place.

TFTC
Greetings from Barcelona

Nice Place And So Close To The Pings
TFTC

Tom

Nice easy find - only noticed the "track closed" sign on my return. Couldn't see any reason for it myself - maybe the problem is further along the trail. I went through the Penguin House on the way there and back - made sure I didn't buy anything though!! I've seen lots of penguins in Antarctica and the Sub-Antarctic Islands, so I didn't stay to watch the little blues come ashore. They would be a bit ordinary after I've walked through a King Penguin colony of thousands of birds. Thanks and cheers from Grandalf(1413)

Quick stroll and find. Saw some seals on the way out, only 2m from track. TFTC.

We went for a walk after booking our tickets to see the Little Blue Penguins come home from a long day, feeding out to sea. I didn't realise just how far those little Penguins swam in a day. We (Gencuster and kids) walked the track to and happened upon this cache on our way. Nice spot and a really interesting walk. We collected photo's and a few pebbles from the beach. Thanks

16:43 Had a walk around the track & stumbled upon the cache. Edged past a seal at a safe distance that the kids took photos of. V cool. Brisk. Came back later for the 'march of the blue penguins' and the same seal was still there, warming itself...

The return of the penguins was fascinating that night, watching them group up beyond the breakers and surf into shore. Preening and socialising on their rocky path followed by scurrying back to their burrows. One cheeky (brave?) penguin went up to the seal but a slight movement of the seals head sent the penguin dashing back to its own territory! [:o)] To the amusement of the crowd gathered to watch the nightly migration.

SL - Thanks...

A beautiful spot for a rest on a beautiful day.

Easy find. Had a look around the visitor center. Well worth a look.

nice cache, first onmyowncache

Found @ 1400

Day 10 of our NZ tour.
This turned out to be a true "cache-of-opportunity"... We were heading up the east coast, and stopped off at Oamaru to check out the Penguin center. We wandered out the back while it was still "free time" and saw a couple of blue penguins hiding in their box. After deciding to go for a walk up the track to see what else there was to see, we stopped to take some photos. My cache senses were tingling, and telling me that being such a nice place, there must be a cache around here somewhere. So I grabbed the gps out of my pocket... 4 Meters to the nearest cache??? So we sat and logged this one, before moving on...

TNLN, Cheers,
Murf & Mrs Murf.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Took a few minutes to figure out how to get on the track as construction is going on. Nice hide. About 7000 coromants were having a conference on the pier north of the cache. Amazing sight. Never seen anything like it before - beautiful! SL
Early Rizer

As the easy acces was closed the evening before due to the (verry few) penguins return, we came back this morning. Nice hiding place! TFTC.

Quick find - lots of muggles TFTC

Counting kilometers!

Quick find together with little Laurence. TFTC

Awesome spot, I (and a bunch of tourists) had to get around a seal that was guarding the entrance to the track. With the waves breaking below, it was a fun cache to do. TNLN Thanks.

Nice hide buddy. Liked the area so much I stopped to watch the penguins in several bays round the area including the blues near the cache site. Viewing is free, but unpopular, from the other side of the path near the cache.
TFTC TNLN

What an interesting spot. We would like to return to see the penguins at dusk some time. It was a bit late to return for junior nzcoozer (2) so Mr W.E.K.A. bought her a soft toy one instead.

Quick find.
The sea looked a very nice colour today.
I was surprised by the large penguin viewing grandstand. That wasn't there last time I was here.
TFTC

No penguins were harmed in the finding of this cache
Many thanks

Aquick find on a beautiful morning

First quick find on a lovely summer morning. Took Spinning TB Left Penny Hat TB. TFTC

Oops forgot the TB. Here it is

Found this one with ToyotaVX 1. This is a great spot as others have rightly noted and well worth the trip.

The Sallies do have a point, but another thing to be noted (now coming from a town that does little to restore/celebrate/recognise its natural or historical features) is that it is great to see a small town (Annie's home town) make something of its self and the attractions it has, such as the penguins. The penguin population has increased so much and alot of people have been introduced to and encouraged to have more regard for wildlife and their environments because of the way the Blue Penguins are promoted. Yes - it is pricey and many people would prefer (us included) to view wildlife on its own terms in a more natural setting. But it does seem in this case that the penguins have continued with their life almost undisturbed and that the environmental/conservation message is being promoted to people who would not otherwise visit any animals except perhaps a zoo.

So anyway - back to your scheduled programme!!! Team Chelmo -- a thousand thankyous for the Christmas gift - we will release it at our 100th (which won't be too far away at this rate), so it will contribute to more celebrations!!!! Congratulations on reaching your 100th!!

Forgot to say we dropped off Spinner TB here - hard to find big enough homes in Oamaru for the three TBs we brought over from the Coast.

Was out look with Annie & PB one of what we did to day

Congratulations Team Chelmo. 500 is some milestone - almost worth a memento .

WOOHOO Find #500!!!

We intended on having our 500th find in Nelson between Xmas and New Year, but had to travel South for the weekend so called in to a few caches along the way, this was one we called in to on our return home.

From reading this cache listing you would think it was a simple none exciting location but how wrong could you be! This location has so much to see it even surprised me
1, Penguin Colony
2, Lava Pillar Formations
3, Historic WWII Gun emplacements
4, Sea Bird Life
5, Seals
6, Great Habour Views...
All within 10min or so of GZ!!!

I am so glad that we ended up doing this cache as our 500th as the Junior Chelmo's had a heap of fun exploring the area and seeing the sights (we actually spent over an hour here!). As a Christmas gift and also to celebrate our cache #500 we left a special gift for the next finder of this cache

Thanks Robert for placing so many great caches in great spots and of cunning hides, you have made reaching #500 all the more enjoyable, especially on this trip through your territory

Merry Christmas Everyone

+ Something Special
- Nil

P.S. Photo's to come

Nice quick cache on a nice warm day TFTC

1842. They certainly go out of their way to make it difficult to get to the beginning of the track these days. We found the cache at 9.25am and at that time of the day the barriers were still up advising you that you couldn't use the track after 6pm. We went around he barriers and other groups of tourists who had been hesitant to start on the track soon followed us in. It is such a shame that people are being put off coming into such important and impressive areas because groups of people are making money out of it.

Thanks
Iris & Rodney

Quick find on a hot windy day. TFTC

An awesome spot for a cache - pitty they have blocked off access so that you must go through the shop to access a public track.

Nofs may have had trouble finding the start of the track in the dark but I had trouble in daylight! It wasn't immediately obvious. Penguin establishment was closed (this was after 9 on a Saturday morn.) so couldn't go through there. There was a high gate open to the side of the building. Went through that and found way to the track. When I returned, the gate had been closed and secured so had to climb over it.

Had tried to find the track a few months ago in the dark with no sucess. Now that I see it in the daylight it is sooo obvious! Nice spot to stop and look at the sea too. Thanks.

At the start of the track there was a seal on the edge of the walkway that didn't like me passing, but got pass with all my fingers and toes.

Published