Wet Boots and Kea (Southern Alps) Arthur's Pass, South Island, New Zealand
By Sandfly tucker on 19-Feb-08. Waypoint GC197FP

Spotted the hide the previous evening but we were all outside socialising - the weekend trampers were crowding the hut taking up space and being noisy. Awoke to kea on the roof, especially bad from the third storey bunk I was relegated to. Thump thump, in the excitement I snuck in and got the cache. Such a beautiful spot and hut. I'd love to come up with a lighter bag. TFTC

Found on a two night trip in the area. The great hint led me straight to the cache. What a fabulous area to explore. We came in to the hut on day one (got completely drenched) then day two was a pleasant potter up to Lake Mavis to have naps in the sunshine before returning to the hut. Some lovely hut mates met including TA hikers and a couple of dad mates with their gutsy wee kids. Awesome trip. TFTC!

Found after a two week trip in Arthurs Pass

Found on our TA thru-hike. Really enjoyed the last bit of trail up here, but glad to be at the top!

I was helping my friend guide a few friends through Goat Pass in preparation for a social event in November. During our lunch stop at the hut I was able to quickly find and sign this cache.
We definitely picked the right day of the weekend to do Goat's Pass - warm temperature with a gentle Nor'west wind behind our backs.
*TFTC Sandfly tucker #738* +FP

Easy find, TFTC.

Weekend trip over the pass.
Busy track with 2weeks to coast to coast so lots of practice runners. Thanks

Found on 3 Jan with other fellow geocachers. TFTC.

TFTC!

Found it! TFTC

Great hut & well hidden cache. Glad to find as this one hadn't been found since 2017

??

Have tramped the Deception-Mingha previously (10 years ago!), staying the night at the Goat Pass Hut. Since then we have always wanted to have a go at completing it in a day trip. Today was the day; and it was with a small group of friends (7 in total) we set out from the Deception foot bridge carrying minimal gear and running shoes...with the aim of running the sections that we could.
We started out with a hiss and a roar running in....but after 5.5km one of the party stumbled on rocks and bashed her knee (which was carrying a previous injury) quite severely - and she couldn't continue. Her and her friend headed back to the Decepetion end. The rest of us (5) carried on but at a more sedate pace! Took 9.5hrs total...could have done it quicker without injury delays & with more running. Not quite sure how the record run for the Deception-Mingha (A coast to coast team with a specialist runner!) is 2.5hrs??!!
Sweet spot and we had a wee bit of a rest and snack here in the shade before moving on. No one else present at the Hut whilst we stopped by....A few Kea calling in the distance. Now to head across the tops & then down the Mingha!....

Another couple of nights here, all good in the cache

Found it with "FrenchSuperTrampNiko" on our hiking Te ARAROA trail
TFTC!:)

Oh darn! I already had D/T 2, 4.5. Easy find when the geocach owner is literally sitting 2 metres away from the cache.Ran thru here last year competing in the C2C however didn't have time to stop and have a look. T4T$

All good

Made it to the hut! Woohoo! Great hide, it's very safe and dry. Just waiting for the summer trampers to come find it. TFTC

On a deception/minga day trip. Quick find at the hut. Cach in good nick TFTC

Great day for a wee jaunt over goat pass with father-in-law ecfam. Easy find, great day in the Alps. TFTC. B-)

Did a solo one day west to east of goat pass in 2010 and missed this cache. BAck today with Son in law for a damn enjoyable days trek. Quick stop then onwards. Tftc

This entry was edited by ecfam on Saturday, 08 March 2014 at 07:05:55 UTC.

Easy find once we got to the hut.
Came here with the CBHS tramping group, aiming to go tent at Lake Mavis but the weather (5m visibility) stopped us.
The morning dawned bright and so we ventured up to the Lake. Surprisingly there was still a metre of snow on the ground.
TFTC

Snow, sun, a great trip. No muggles luckily, as I spent a while looking - the hint doesn't quite indicate the correct place - it's easier than that!

Day 127 of Te Araroa Trail. Nice wet boots to start the morning down Mingha Valley.

Decided to come to this hut last minute as we had planned to go up the Waimak. However this turned out to be one epic of an adventure!! Lots of Coast to Coast Runners doing their training. Slept on the balcony at the hut and listened to the Kea and Kiwi all night, there was so many of them and so relaxing to fall asleep too. So good to hear Kiwi again in the wild. The next day walked up to Lake Mavis and then further onto the ridge of Mt Oates where we looked down onto Tarn Col, over to Falling Mountain and many many more!!! The view was just breath taking! Could look out as far north as the Lewis Pass and as far south as the Arrowsmiths! Going down didn't take too long to get back to the hut, thanks to a bit of scree running, but Mrs Sharpe did fall over and land on a "Sharpe" rock and now can not sit properly. Ended up walking out in the dark, but the views from the tops were too good to give it a miss! Thanks so much for placing a cache here in this beautiful spot.

After having a good hunt around all the corners of the hut I had given up and headed back down the track to see if I could see the other members of my party making their way up Goat Pass Creek. About 20m from the hut I saw a small container fitting the cache description in a pile of sticks (see photo). It must have been washed down with all the recent rain up that way.
After signing the log I put the cache up high and dry under the front right corner of the hut as you stand looking at it. Sorry if this is not the spot indicated by the hint.
Great spot and great cache. Thanks

New log and container, there is no pencil. Container is now camo'd and just a little smaller than a film container and tucked right up.

Beautiful! We really enjoyed the tramp including wet boots and Kea `alarm clock´
Even though we had the place to ourselves and searched the hinted spot several times really well, we couldn´t find the cache.
Perhaps worth a check!
We are for sure looking forward to do the tramp again!

Found on a very cold, windy and rainy day. Doing a bit of a check out of the "Coast To Coast" course. Ran 1 1/2 hours up the Deception Valley yesterday. Decided to head up the Minga Valley today and take the opportunity to grab this cache while up on top.
Have a bit more training to do before tackiling "The Coast" next year.
TFTCSL

Found It!

An awesome trip up the Mingha and down the Deception. Lots of coast-to-coasters practising the route. Lake Mavis was well worth the trip if you have time. Clue was helpful and enlightening so that we did not get bogged down.

All well within

Ha! found it, but first had to figure out what a "Norski" was, there are not so many of those further back in the back country! Anyway had my eye on this one and was helping out on the Coast to Coast mountain section again and happened to be around here on the Friday night so while the others were busy sneaked around and put in the second log. A good weekend again, will be back next year!

When I saw this listing come up some weeks ago, I thought "this one sounds like me". I have been up and down that valley on a number of occasions over the last 44 years, so it seemed like a great time to make another visit. The weather has been bad recently, and I had to wait for a good anticyclone. But at last it came, and my friend and I made the 4 hour tramp in to the hut. So the cache was duly found - thanks for the FTF!! Just when we thought we might have the place to ourselves, in came a party of 14 Outdoor Education young people. It made for an interesting night, but at least we had room for all. The weather was perfect with a light frost in the morning, and an easy walk out. No swaps, thanks and cheers from Grandalf(1123)

Published

Two coins and a TB passed through