Big, Black and Beautiful (Auckland) Kaiaua, North Island, New Zealand
By No Fixed Aboders on 15-May-08. Waypoint GC1C9KQ

100th cache. Tftc.

I first saw this sculpture at the beginning of last year when I brought my daughter and my dad around to Miranda to spot birds. It was good to come and see it again! I quickly worked out the final coordinates and walked back down the road to find the cache. A nice easy find, I spotted the hint items as I approached. But as I picked up the cache, 5 million ants escaped. And then as I opened it a snake also escaped!

Thank you for this cache. I enjoyed doing the easy but fun work to get to the end point based on the plaque. Just been out flying along the coast, it's a beautiful place. Keeping my April goal of one a day.#150

Was in Kaiaua for the weekend and came over here for a quick solve and find. TFTC

Thanks for the cache. Lovely for kids.

A very nice areaThanks for bringing us here

Staying at wings camp. Pleasant bike ride this morning. Had lunch and walked here. Nice little multi. No problem with calc or hide. PINO TFTC

#13,986. Making my way south along this coast before heading to Rotorua for the night. Great to see the piece of art at the virtual coordinates. Sat in the car and worked out the final. Then it was off to GZ where I had a quick look at my calculated coordinates, read the hint and soon had the cache in hand. Thanks No Fixed Aboder for hiding this multicache here on the Shorebird Coast.

Cache has been replaced

Hier werden wir eine Nacht bleiben und was liegt da nher als dieses kleine Rtsel zu lsen. Gut lsbar und fair versteckt danke frs Herlocken sagt die Hamburg Hummel

Second attempt but found it this time!

Visiting Australia and New Zealand has been on our bucket list forever. After three cancelations due to covid, we are thrilled to finally be driving, exploring, and caching. We enjoyed seeing the artwork at this location, plus the wildlife along the shore. Solved the puzzle, found the cache, added our ink to the log, and dropped a trackable off. Thanks for adding to our adventure today, Nukeworker and Racquetball Girl, Arkansas, USA

Dropping TB. Will log later.

Stayed the night at FC on the foreshore, walked along to get the info & worked out info for GZ back at our Camper.Back out in the cold wind to sign in. TFTC

Stayed the night here then went searching the next day. After a few false starts eventually found it. Thank you for replacement cache.

A kind person replaced the cache

Contacted CO asking if i could replace as i was in the area today. Didnt hear back so took a spare cache with me & replaced it. Now a black pill bottle under a couple of smooth rocks.CO has since made contact & approved me replacing the cache. [TFTC]

Apparently the cache is missing. Not sure when I can get there to replace it

This geocacher reported that the container is damaged.

Cache is missing

Had a surveying job for the first time over this side of coromandel. Quick solve at the interesting structure and off to the familiar monument.Was an obvious spot for cache but nothing inside but dirt.Would have loved this find, but cache is gone.

After a little miscalc. We did locate the cache, thanks fo making us stop here.

We stayed at the freecamp near the water and I took a picture of the date and year. I made the simple maths at the pub and found the cache during the morning. A very nice cache with a beautiful view !

Greetings from the Czech Republic and Thanks For This Cache.
Díky za keš.
14:39
Moje 5058

Beautiful beach and overnight place. The cache was a quick find.
TFTC and greetings from Germany.
Klatho & Gazzelli

Great find. First multi. Quickly solved the riddle and it was all of to Ground Zero. From there it was a very quick find. TFTH

What a great cache. FP from me. Very nice to solve this one. Lovely day for a walk with the family from overseas. Great fish and chips nearby

Great find. TFTC.

Found it

Had a great day driving along the coast today. Interesting spot here. Nicely hidden cache. Tftc

Staying at the new NZMCA Park nearby for a few days. Geopup Finn and I went exploring along the Rail Trail and found the Big Black Bird monument. Calculations done and located GZ. Quick easy find . TFTC.

We were parked up right next to the sculpture, which seems to have had a nice new paint job recently.
I took a photo as soon as we arrived and worked out the final back in the van, with a coffee in my hand.
I woke up this morning to another beautiful sunny day, so headed out early, while all the other campers were still behind closed doors.
A quick walk to GZ and the cache was soon in hand.
Thanks for putting this here at this beautiful spot.

Great sculpture and hide. Having a good day on this coast. Tftc

Found on a damp blustery day. A nice quick decode and then on to the cache. Nice hide thank you. Heading to south island and stopped here for the night.

Found on a windswept day

Took the coastal road on the way back from Thames, lots of campers in this parking area today. Stopped right next to the sculpture and quickly managed to gather the required info. No problem at the final as well, nice position along here. TFTC.

Our caching along the coast here. Off to see the Godwits at Miranda. What better cache to find to start our day of geocaching. Nice hide. Favourite from us. Thanks No Fixed Aboders.

An interesting sculpture and a nice easy multi to do. Lots of campervans parked up today though the weather is not the best

Great sculpture.
Nice quick multi
Great hide

Interesting sculpture which we wouldn’t have seen were it not for this multi. Nice quick calculations and found the final quickly too, cache in good condition. Thanks No Fixed Aboders!

Surprised this one has not earned more favourites?

Multi came together without any problems, and I was soon searching at GZ.

Spotted something, and yes it was

Very clever hide, thanks for that No Fixed Aboders, one of the memorable hides this mini caching adventure

Very clever hide. Liked how you hid this one. Cool location. Thanks for the hide. With rustynz

Out and about today making good use of cheaper fuel (due to the corona virus) so I can go caching. My 2nd of 3 multi's today and though I have driven this road several times I have never seen this huge bird. Very cool and I love artwork like this, especially when a multi becomes of it.

Drove right up to the bird and amazingly it never flew away, funny that! Soon got the info required with pen and paper by the plaque and read all the other info too but was not necessary for the answers for the final. Took some fotos and off I drove to GZ. I did wonder for a moment about the previous DNF, but the cache was right where the C.O said it would be and well covered.

Thanks for the multi N.F.A, it was fun!

Log later

Having finished with my work commitments for the week I had some spare time today to go out and find a few caches. I headed off in a south - east - north - west kind of loop. Had a good time with a variety of caches found along the way. Cool sculpture and easily accessible information. With a final location calculated I headed off in that direction. I found the hint object but could not find the cache.

Spending an evening with family and friends, lovely walk along the shoreline to solve this cache. After some searching this clever cache was eventually in hand.

Out to Kaiaua for fish and chips on the beach we stopped along the way to grab some caches. I enjoy multis, nice hide. Thanks

Such a cool multi, and easy to do while taking a break from driving. Nice final as well, have a FP, cheers

I'm not sure what I did here to screw this one up but my coords had me in the water and since I was in a hurry ( I snuck away while waiting for some fish n chips from down the road) rather than redo my maths I took an educated guess on where GZ might be and came up trumps. Neat spot and a multi is a nice way to highlight this monument. TFTC.

Had great fun to find this one! Not a Multi fan but this one is class! I like it. Simply and effective! FP awarded. TFTC

A pleasant challenge to calculate the co ords...this is when it turns to custard...found the the hint quickly but that was it searched all around the item ...nearly gave up when egale eye KL did some digging...buried deep in natural camo...uhmm!! A D1.5 I can see why it has stood the test of time...enjoyed the calculations but digging for caches is not much fun ..tftc No fixed aboders

Love these multis. "Just one more" before parking up for the night. I wasnt sure I'd find this as the last was a dnf. I don't give up easily so after finding a pipe of stones concealing nothing, I looked around a bit, dug deep and extracted the well covered cache. The natural elements sure have made this a difficult hide. Thanks for the multi and cache No Fixed Aboders

Worked out the co-ordinates but nothing at GZ. There is a very new fence blocking the hint object. May be worth a check by the CO.

Really love easy plaque Multis!
Thanks so much No Fixed Aboder...
Great Sculpture.....!
And the cache hide was totally unexpected.....took me a minute to find !
Very cool.....

Roaming around in the camper heading for Kaiaua today. Mr S did the math, worked out the co-ords and Mrs S found the cache. Big bird.

Thanks No Fixed Aboders.

Found while staying at Miranda for two nights. We enjoyed viewing and photographing the many shore birds here. The large sculpture here is very appropriate. This multi is well thought out and doesn't take too long, thanks No Fixed Aboders. The final location was unexpected and is the sort of place that we geocachers find interesting. Another favourite added.

We really enjoyed solving this multi and learning about the migratory birds. The sculpture at the posted co-ordinates is a very impressive work of art.
When we had all the information we headed to the final and found the cleverly hidden cache.
Thanks No Fixed Aboders for an enjoyable challenge.

Well you couldn’t miss this one! Great sculpture-soon had the information and after a short walk along the beach where we spotted some oystercatchers we found the cache. Thanks.

Enjoying a beautiful Tuesday! Haven’t been here in ages and it’s so refreshing!! Thanks for the fun multi cache, was our first!

We had a night without the kids so thought we would head out on a short road trip and collect a few caches along the way. A clever multi that was quickly solved, and then off to find the final. Success. Thanks for the cache.

found this one on the first day of my NZ road trip, starting from auckland and making my way down to the south island, flying out of christchurch. TFTC!

Wow. Sure is big and beautiful . Had a quick read and solved while my fur balls run about on the beach. Wondered to final and all good with my find thx. Very sneaky indeed. So gathered up the fur balls and walked back to camper nearby. Lovely place to visit and the best ice creams at the pink shop.

Tanks for show this nice multi cache, found on our trip around New Zealand, greetings from Switzerland.

Hubby and I set off for a 3 day trip in our motorhome. We headed for a place called Wharekawa on the Firth of Thames to stay a couple of nights. We were a bit concern as there had been lots of flooding and slips but we were lucky. I had sorted 19 geocaches to find on our journey. 10 on the way up, 3 while we were there and 6 on the way home. I have another 19 smiley faces. Today we decided to bike from where we are camped. Well what a mission. Had a headwind the whole 9kms. It was nice to reach this big bird. Solved the puzzle and soon had the cache in my hand. Put back exactly how I found it after I signed it. TFTC.

Great reason to stop and admire the big bird. Solved the puzzle and quickly found the cache. Liked the hide for this one. TFTC

While travelling through New Zealand we found this nice place and the cache. TFTC Die Waldelfen

TFTC, a nice place

Nice description! TFTC

There's Big Bird and then there's a big bird. Nice and easy decode here and then a quick stroll with Albert the geohound to GZ. Funny how a hint can make no sense whatsover and then you get to GZ and go "ooooh". Very nice multi here, not too hard at all and a good hide. Giving a favourite point here for this cache and for the excellent fish'n'chips I had just down the road. Worth the day trip.

My final full day in New Zealand after 2 weeks from Australia, visiting my sister in New Plymouth, then the mega event in Turangi, and some touristy stuff through the Bay of Plenty on the way back to Auckland. Today's final leg was the short hop from Thames to Auckland, mainly going up the East Coast Road to spend as much time in the country as possible. I think I actually wrote all logs today accidentally with 29/10/16 however. Oh well.

A nice quick find of the first object and getting the answer. Hmm I had just been here for a Geocaching Australia find. Back and the cache was quickly in hand. Thanks No Fixed Aboder, it's an impressive statue for the middle of nowhere.

Found while camping at nearby boat club.TFTC.

Great easy de-code and find for the family

A cute little multi centered around one very cool bird. We stopped for some fantastic fresh fish and chips while in the area. A great spot to b bring us thanks. Cache still in good condition after all the rain we've had.

2084 Nice easy multi. Love the bird and love the hide.

I am sure the camper van muggles were thinking WTF are these crazy car people doing parking right next to me to analyse the details required for the cache. Oh well they should not have parked there. A multi gives a little more flexibility as you are not giving away the cache. Soon had the final sorted and the cache was in hand. TFTC.

Never stopped at this location before and have never noticed the sculpture. There were a couple of buses parked up with one of the occupants directly overlooking. We took some pics and went back to the car to do our workings, then headed off to GZ. Cache located in a cool spot, to which we took some more obligatory pics. We both really enjoyed this cool little multi, fav point added, TFTC!

We're visiting from Florida, USA. That was great fun. Thanks for placing the cache.

tftc for the nice wee hide and nice and dry as well

Nice easy Muilt Loved the Sculpture.Now off fir Fish And Chip and hope it stops raining.

really a nice sculpture. answeering the questions to find the final coordinates was easy and also was finding the cache easy
tftc

Loved the sculpture and soon worked out the co ords and off to GZ. I tried to be very clever with the hint which was completely unnecessary. TFTC

Yay, only my 2nd one of this type solved solely by myself. After resolving the coordinates I headed for the location, only to not walk quite far enough... Once I realised the significance of the clue all became clear & I quickly signed the cache and headed back to the car

A nice easy multi, quickly had the numbers needed, and shortly had the cache in hand

Getting old but good cache. TFTC

Master SethRaven and I out down this way for the second to last day of the school holidays . . . . . a swim in every bay we stop at (slowed my caching plan down a bit but the delight on his face at each swim was fabulous!!) Seth swam and I worked on the cache [?] . . . . the thunder was rolling overhead and a few spits were felt but we were fine . . . . . got the co-ords quickly . . . . . gathered a few shells whilst I waited for the swimmer to finish . . . . . . and then found the cache and signed the log book . . . . . off to the next one. TFTC

Found on a spontaneous outing to Kaiaua last evening - took the BBQ with friends and had a lovely time. Went with my muggle friends and showed them this multi - the teenagers were quite impressed with it. TFTC

There were two smaller black and beautiful making their way along the beach while we were here. We had lunch here after finding the cache.
+ a marble, - nothing.

Neat one

Neat one

TFTC. Very clever hide.

We had a free day so decided to go caching some where handy and the Kaiaua coast was the destination. This was a good challenge to make us stop for a while TFTC

Working our way back from a weekend in Waihi and decided to stop for this multi, a short while later had some likely final cords and MrNZT made the quick find. Cache was in good shape, TFTM!

Certainly is big, black and beautiful as were all the other birds out in the water.

Found this one between rain showers while the fish and chips were being sorted at the Kaiaua Fish and Chip shop, collected on the way up the coast to the Curekids Great Adventure Race. TFTC

After spending a couple of days with Yorkshirekiwi83 caching around the Coromandel Peninsula, we decided to head back to Auckland via the Seabird Coast and around to Clevedon, finding caches as we went. Sat in the shade of the huge bird and quickly did our maths, walked along to our calculated GZ and made a quick find of the cache. TFTC!

[red] 2016 NZ Mega Event in Turangi... http://www.nzmega2016.nz

Decided to go away for an early start to the weekend and make a real effort on the Coromandel Peninsula, Vistra was up for the challenge of joining me. We went home via the Miranda coastline for a bit of a change. As we were driving to it I spotted an item and thought hmmm I wonder if the cache is there, after doing the maths and wandering in that direction, turns out I was correct. TFTC


[u][Teal]2016 Mega Event Labour weekend in Turangi visit [url=http://www.nzmega2016.nz/]New Zealand Mega 2016[/Url] [/Teal][u]

Very quickly worked this out wile litle one looked at beach and nice quick find tftc Lokky 1 1 March 2015 18:49

Got the math right first time, a rarity for me I might add, and found the final safe and sound. TFTC

Tftc and the information

I found this one on a tour to Auckland with handraweil.
Thank you for that Cache.
Regards from Bavaria
CR