Kerosene Creek (Bay of Plenty) Rotomahana, North Island, New Zealand
By sandancer (adopted by fanfan-77) on 25-Jan-08. Waypoint GC18WWD

Sadly, after 7 years, 210 finds and 32 favourite points, I have decided to let this one go. I have been living in the area for 10 years, and the place is hardly recognizable from when I first started visiting this spot. Back then there were only 1-2 cars in the carpark and most visitors were locals. Now the locals have deserted the place as dozenz of tourists a day are taking over trashing the place, lighting fires, etc. Every time I visit now I get sad and depressed. I feel that bringing more people to this place via geocaching is not going to do it any good. I also feel that the safety of my cache will always be threatened by muggles and am not prepared to make trips every few months to replace it. Out of principle (or stubbornness?) I refuse to hide a Micro in these parts. Sorry... If anyone wants to adopt it and keep it going, I will pass the reigns on to you.

Found the spot where cache would have been. Beautiful area

I am alive and well and intend to look after this cache. As stated in the note from November, the area is overwhelmed by muggles, getting severely damaged, and I have to reconsider how this hide is going to go. The Christmas holidays and peak overseas tourist season is not the time for this, unfortunately. I also suspect that if the disrespect of this area continues much longer, the forestry service will shut the gate because of fire hazard. I will try to re-enable this cache later this year, or if not I will archive it.

Dropped by to put the container back in its hidey-hole but...
The place is suffering from a severe increase in foot traffic. Side-trails everywhere, undergrowth trashed. GZ itself has been taken over by muggles. My camo, which I had left in place when I removed the container, had disappeared... I found it further downstream. Recovered it but at the moment it's obvious that GZ is compromised. Plus today was muggle central with at least 12 vehicles parked on the road and people all over the place.
Will have to re-think this one... Smaller size, new location, or both...? or archive?
So for now sorry but the cache is still disabled. Will have to return very early in the morning and/or on a rainy day to avoid muggles.

Been here so many times 'to take the waters', driving over for the weekend from New Plymouth, but so disappointed it's currently unavailable as it's been some 14 months since my last visit. I note the road is now well signposted but currently "rough as guts"! Also nice to note there's a toilet at the car park, and extra rubbish bin, but there's still quite a bit of rubbish lying about - including toilet paper! Water was a little cooler than has been in the past. Please get it up again soon!

Like the previous finder, I loaded up my GPS before it was disabled. Found the (clever) hiding place today. Added a zip lock with paper inside just to try to get the cache back up and running again. Definitely needs a new watertight container though. Thanks!

I have been here today and although the container is still missing I like to lock it anyway. I found the "it´s not as heavy as it looks" and saw were the container should have been.
I did not know the cache was disabled. I loaded it on my Garmin weeks ago in Germany while deciding what to do on my trip though NZ. This was one on the top of the list. And YES, it was fantastic, what a great place ! We took a nice swim, had the place all to our own ! We would have never found it without Geocaching !! Thats what I do it for ! I leave a big Fav and many greetings from Germany

Yes some maintenance required, took container home for a clean and spruce up...

Dropped by with fanfan-77 to grab cache for maintenance. Nice little spot, been here before. A++ for the hiding idea

Unfortunately water has got in and the cache container was two thirds full and everything swimming. Emptied best I could.

Nobody around today so an easy find, pity about the state of the road. Just about disappeared down some of the pot holes. TFTC must come back again.

I skimmed the description at first and thought it said you don't need to cross the river, so was very confused for a while. Took me a while to locate the cache but very cool hide. How cool is that river!? Thanks for the cache.

Very, very wet day but found it!!!

TFTC

Amazing spot Little sad about the garbage people are leaving at the creek though.

Found this some time ago on holidays with my fam - words can't describe how grateful I was to be taken here - the memories are some of the best and we wouldn't have come here otherwise - I also had my father-in-law with me and this was his first day of caching and this was a great example- dead set legends - cheers!

Found this some time ago on holidays with my fam - words can't describe how grateful I was to be taken here - the memories are some of the best and we wouldn't have come here otherwise - I also had my father-in-law with me and this was his first day of caching and this was a great example- dead set legends - cheers!

Great hide and well worth a fouvourite point.

Nice crrrek for a sit and soak after going up the hills.

TNLNSL TFTC

5th and final find for the day... on our way home to Wellington. Would have stayed longer if I wasn't pregnant Cant wait to come back, it true what they say "the best things in life are free"

What a nice hot creek - we relaxed here the whole evening before a cold night the best thing we could do TFTC

This place is gorgeous!! We had such a good time, spending the rest of the morning in a warm bath. I heard a little boy there saying "this is litteraly like going to the spa... for free!!" haha. Rotorua volcanic phenomenon are mind blowing... Thank you so much for the discovery, I decided to check it out thanks to the cache! Cheers from two french natural spa lovers (+1 favorite point)

Bain chaud naturel sous une cascade à 35 degrés!!!

From Ohio, USA. The best, found it hard to leave.

Thanks fanfan-77 for fun.
This is my 5089th find.
Found on 04/08/2014 [dddd, mmmm dd yyyy] @ 6:32:00 PM

Great camo! Quick easy find. Picked up TweecalYourio trackable which wasn't listed in the inventory.

Wow amazing place and cache. Will get a fav will jump into the water now. Greetings from germany

Amazing cache awesome hide thank u for this amazing place!

TFTC - what a great place. Amazing hot water. Amazing hiding place. Favourite point from us.

Wow, What an awesome place this is. Didn't know anything about it when loading this cache onto the GPS. After finding the cache, which was very cool itself, headed back to the car to change into togs for a dip. This is truly a hidden gem. Thanks for bringing me here.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing mttomatoking and I here! The unplanned swim was definitely a highlight of our holiday

TFTC!!

Nice to take new people in to this area, TFTC, TB dropped off

tftc, found with goltara and mineemo

Great hiding spot!

What a great place to spend some time. The hide is awesome.

The drive up the unsealed road is ok, but the 7.7 meter long campervan could not go too fast.

Kids loved this place.

Tftc
Sanenwan
The Netherlands

That is one of coolest caches ive seen in a while! TFTC

Wow what a beautiful place. Such a sneaky hide. Got a travel bug and will take to Sydney with me in a week or two.

Found on the way home. Lovely spot. cool hide

TB Drop

We spend some time at this great hot springs and found the Cache.

TFTC

Found this one during our holidays in New Zealand.
First a bath in the river and then a short cache found.
Thanks for hiding the Cache and for showing this nice place!

Visiting from Western Australia. WOW!!!! This is such a beautiful place. Thank you for bringing us to these "secret" hot springs. Not too many people about either. We had a mini adventure getting to the cache. Super hide. SL TSLS TFTC. A fave point from us.

59th cache found in NZ!
TFTC
Loved the hotpools, especially after a good dinner.

From WA (Western Australia)

Nice pools found the wrong rock at first

Bei meiner Reise um die Welt ist Neuseeland derzeit mein zu Hause. Heute in Rotorua halt gemacht und die heissen Quellen und Schlammlöcher im Park bestaunt. Weiter ging es zu einer Runde um den See Rotorua. Beindruckend, auch der ständige Schwelfegeschmack in der Luft. Muß man mögen...

Der Besuch des Kerosene Creeks war schon eine ganz besondere Sache heute, unglaublihc das einfach ein warmer Fluss quer durch die Landschaft fliesst. Amazing...

no trade

thanks for the cache

Greetz Sandman633

P.S. Unser Leihmaskottchen, Travelbug Rascal the little racoon, war natürlich wieder mit auf der Tour.

love this place tftc

This is the way geocaching should be. A nice find, then a nice long soak! TFTC

Came for a dip after climbing Maungakakaramea. Had a bit of a giggle as hubby is from Murupara and didn't know the pool was here - took an ex Pom from Auckland to show the local .
Loved standing under the falls getting a shoulder and back massage.
Found cache quickly which was good as I knew I needed to be quick as a car had pulled up as we started down the track. TFTC We'll be back.

Fund this nice little cache on my way to Taupo during a short break at this bathing spot. Skin smells after the water even the next day. Thx
GC out

We found the cache on our walk through NZ
Thanks for showing the beautiful place.

TFTC

Found it! What a great place to swim and relax! Lots of people around, so had to be careful! TFTC

What a wonderful camo!
Thank you very much!!!

no trade

liberatus_ from Austria!
#46 in NZ
#1741

This cache its one from my favorite . Excelent bad and very nice waterfall.
T4TC greatings from Czech republic

Nice place, looked very tempting to hop in but we were on our way to the nearby Waikite hot pools.
Cool hide.
TFTC

fABUOLOUS SPOT . GREAT HIDE .

Loved this one . Well placed and enjoyed the find. left TB .TYFC.

together with egika

Great place - cool hide

A fantastic cache idea and what a wonderful spot. Had it all to ourselves. !!!

!!! Top place thanks
marcel czech rep.

So glad i followed the fav points and went off the beaten track to get this one. Meant to be a quick grab ended up spending about 2hours swimming in the spring. What a great place. Cache was easily spotted as it is out of place to the keen cacher. Thanks for bringing me here.

Nice

Wow nearly fell in the water using all my strength to lift.

Awesome place with a few people in each pool. Luckily we were able to find the new cache without being seen by anyone. We love it and think it blends in pretty well. TFTC A favourite from us. We didn't go swimming though.

Owner visit. Rushed out after work and before sunset. I finally took the time to replace the temporary micro with a regular. I'm very proud of my camo, I hope it works as intended and doesn't get muggled! I had to move the placement by about 3m. It was almost dark when I did it so I'll have to come back to make sure it blends it well. Please cacher be careful not to be seen when getting the cache, and put back to make the camo as believable as possible for the next cachers' enjoyment!

12:15 - TFTC

14:00
Found before having nice bath under the hot waterfall. Very nice place. Was it good when was raining. Even when was rain there were some people in this place.
Another really great place for relaxing.
TFTC

Listen to the hint

Awesome creek. TFTC

Great to be able to retrieve a cache from this busy spot.

First day in Rotorua, and although it is raining slightly, what a beautiful place to start. This has to be one of the craziest things I think ever experienced. So happy to find a cache here

A long walk in for this one because of the locked Gates,still it was well worth it also a lot of muggles around. We dipped our feet into the hot stream it so good after that long walk,TFTC

Road closed because of high fire risk. Will need to wait until things dampen down a bit.

Despite the good hint, took us some time to find it. Found it with Geffen. Took TB, TFTC.

Excellent description of site. Easily found. A good hiding place with a bit of privacy despite many muggles coming and going. Thanks.

Really great spot! Loved the water. TFTC! We placed a TB inside.

Wonderful place, thanks for showing me this!

Traveling through New Zealand in February with the Campervan we visited your Cache.
Thanks for showing us this place.
What a great place !
We were lucky to be alone here.
Enjoyed the hot creek, but did not notice the warning, but nothing happened to me.
Worth a favorite point !
TFTC Mammut75 with LumpiMaus / Austria

TFTC, great location, nice find once we got our bearings right and didn't end up going the wrong way!!!

I came here for a quick road stop and didn't know about the main creek feature, but that was very nice indeed!
TFTC, Wiesel Flink,
#1342

This entry was edited by wiesel.flink on Sunday, 27 January 2013 at 11:56:00 UTC.

TFTC

TFTC had wanted to come here for the creek. The cache convinced everyone to come.

Wanted to go there anyway. Having a cache to aim at with the GPS made finding it even easier. TFTC

Owner visit, taking part in a CITO event... Picked up a big supermarket bag full of old bottles, wrappers, cans, and even the odd nappy... The place is nice and tidy now, looking very good too with a recent growth spurt of the vegetation.
Checked on the cache, and was a bit disappointed that nobody found it since I replaced it. It normally gets found at least 3x per month... But I know some of the tourists filter out micros... Don't worry, I'm still thinking about how to hide a regular around here somewhere...

Cache temporarily replaced with a Micro, until I can ascertain what is going on with the building of the cycleway. (Waiting to see when it is "safe" to place a Regular, and where, after the work crews have been through...)

It appears we visited this one, the day before it was replaced None the less, we knew it was disabled, but the area still sounded beautiful, so we wanted to check it out We parked up, and headed in along the track, and soon spotted GZ. We had a good look around, and couldn't spot anything, so we headed down further and found the beautiful falls [^] A great area indeed, and although we didn't log a find, the stop was well worth it

Thanks fanfan-77

Gaz'n'Kab

Removed cache for a dry out and change of container. Will keep an eye on the construction of the cycle lane, so I don't know when I will re-instate it just yet...

I think I will come back here with my togs next visit - I didn't know this place existed...a quick find once I waited for a muggle to pass so that I could jump the stream. Container and log quite damp but signed it and went on. tftc

Quick found,

TFTC

Georode

This one has anoyed me for a while....Got it now tho....

No problem with this one but we were not quite brave enough to get in the water. Thanks. XN. CBE

cool hiding spot and great location !!! what a fantastic place

What a shame we have already enjoyed a bath and we were running of time ! But it was great place to discover ! Thank you for the cache / Merci pour la cache. Greetings from France !

Owner visit. The cache is alive, but a bit exposed, so i covered it a bit better. The access road is in much better condition than it was a few months ago.
The ongoing cycle lane construction from Rotorua has now taking it to Kerosene Creek. Not sure where the route will go next, but can we all please keep an eye out for the construction work? If it goes too close to the cache I will remove and temporarily disable it to prevent it getting muggled. Cheers and happy caching.

Disappointed couldnt find. Used to come here in younger days. Still as beautiful.

Stopped by with some of junior's team for a soak after their Rotorua tournament, my 1st visit in >10 years. Easy cache grab, esp as our exuberant kids distracted the few muggles. Great place, nice to see not much has changed. TFTC

Fantastic place! stream was so hot!!!

Grabbing a few caches in the area while passing through on our 'how ever long it takes' NZ tour.

Thanks for setting this up.

TFTC

Mud & Kim

How great to find a place like this that has improved so much over the years (as in cleaner and tidier) and has so many visitors-muggles and is still free!!!
We didn't have our togs regretfully!!
But the muggles didn't take any notice of an OAP having a paddle!!!
TFTC!!

Lots of muggles going for a warm bath. After a bit searching (GPSr showing different directions) I found the right spot and with the hint I found the cache. Interesting how few natural camo a cache needs when it has the right colour. The cache itself was not really tight, but not much moisture inside, that may change. TFTC

Lovely spot! Didn't know it was good for swimming until we arrived, next time will take togs. TFTC

Hot and steamy find with Josie and Dom. TFTC

may have added the wrong date after the hot water and a beer - great cache which I found on march 13,2012

The road in was rough and potholed. Cache was hard to find at first. Although in plain sight, it is well disguised. Very clever! TFTC.