Battleships 2 - Bold Beginnings (Wellington) Redwood, North Island, New Zealand
By ADV on 13-Jun-08. Waypoint GC1D68N

I love logic puzzles, and this series was fun to solve. This is the first one I've come to collect, and it did take a few minutes of strolling back and forth and getting different answers from my phone before I spotted somewhere likely. Then it was just a matter of trying very hard not to destroy the impressive spiderweb that is protecting it. All good inside, TFTC.

I had to learn this version of the game first as I had never heard of it before this.Once understood, I still found it difficult and sorted YT for some help and found a strategy guide for noobs like myself. This helped a lot by suggesting some ground rules and tips on how to start off. I still failed a few times until finally I got that shiny green tick.Parked at the dot and took a fairly short walk to GZ. It took a bit of waiting for the GPS to stop bouncing around, but after some patience, it locked in.The cache and log are in fine condition. Happy New Year!Sleepy was here!

Sunk my battleship on this hide at least once previously, and I have no idea why. Given how much I searched on my first attempt, it is baffling that I missed this very obvious spot. Glad to have it in the bag now, tftc!

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

We have one full day in Wellington for collecting a few puzzles and special caches with Lis's crew. This cache was an easy find at GZ. Thanks for the puzzle & TFGC

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.

We stayed with my friend in Wellington last night. Todays plan was to collect puzzles and a few special caches around Wellington. I solved this in May 2018 so it's definitely time I collected it. One hit was taken by the geochecker with this one but the battle of Bold Beginnings was won after a pursuit on foot today. Glad to complete the series. Thanks for these fun puzzles

Loved the puzzle, brought back memories. I was originally distracted by some remains nearby but soon switched focus to bag the prize. Thanks.

A nice quick find thanks. Solved a while back and today was the day for the walk.

Time for another trip to the North Island for Ms_KR and me. Another Christmas/NewYear in the North Island complete. On the Ferry south today, and the crossing looks to be relatively smooth.

Thanks to all CO's for publishing and maintaining their caches. Cheers.

I solved this one earlier in the month, but failed to find it today. I found many spots in the area that seemed like possible cache spots, but none had one there. Will re-check my numbers and visit another day.

I guess the only reason I haven't solved this before now is because of labour involved. Nevertheless I enjoyed working through it which, thankfully, was completely deterministic and didn't require any trial and error. I've sometimes wondered how one creates puzzles like this that ARE fully deterministic because surely that doesn't happen by accident.

Today I headed into a reserve I've now been to several times - all for geocaches - but this was on a particular track I had not been on before. I got to GZ a little quicker than expected and proceeded to find the cache. If I'm not on any kind of schedule and not standing on the street I will always search without using the hint. Certainly the hint is not required here (unless the cache were missing in which case the hint would give you no validation at all) and the cache was quickly uncovered in one of the logical places. Of course while I was there with things scattered on the ground a muggle started approaching (I mean what are the odds?!) so rather than "hide" where I was I returned to the track with the log and proceeded to sign that while the muggle and his dogs passed. Doing something like signing a log always feels a lot less weird than, say, standing around whistling nonchalantly.

I've also now solved the others in this series which I will find in coming weekends.

Thanks for the logic puzzle and decent cache to cap it off.

I really enjoyed solving this puzzle! Headed out with barefootguru to make the find. My phone is hopeless under tree cover so needed a nudge from BFG to get the right location. TFTC ADV!

I needed some caches today for my personal challenge, a drive down to Tawa to walk Redwood Bush/western loop track to find 21 caches. Good to get this solved puzzle. Favorite point from me. Thanks for the cache.

Turns out that not that many caches were published in May this year, and somewhere around this track there is one, that I need to get. If I'm gonna head around a bush track at close to midnight on a calm winter night, I may as well collect all the remaining caches around the track, and so here I am. I solved this one without much trouble some time ago I had some final coordinates to head too, and despite the tree cover it didn't take long to locate the cache safe and dry. TFTC.

An interesting topic to me as my grandfather served on the HMNZS Archilles during the Battle of the River Plate.

I rather like that the CO tells the story of some battleship, then has a battleships games of sorts and has turned it all into a little series. Gets a favourite for tying hte puzzle into the write up. And the cache is a decent size. And it is a nice puzzle too, I quite enjoyed it.

Anyhoo, Twig and I are near the end of our trip, and it's borderline get a torch out time. No problems here, and one cache to go on the way back to the car (except that it turned out to be two with a bit of back-tracking).

After trolling Facebook looking for a place to live, I saw that TwigNZ was looking to a group to do the Tawa "figure 8". I had a spare day, so why not. After 9 hours we found over 40 caches on the slopes beside and up to Colonial Knob. I completed today's objectives (find a cache for my streak find 3 caches to get my finds to 10 finds per date, a puzzle and an "other" for my puzzle and other dot days) and also found some archived caches, a cache released today (third to find), a geocacher, hardly any people and three trees (also some more trees...).

With the days drawing towards their shortest, it can be harder to get out and about for a good bout of caching. I knew I needed to get one really solid day in during May, so put the call out to see if anyone else would be interested in a raid on Tawa.
A few parties showed interest, but in the end it was just The Seagnoid and I that parked up at Brasenose Place and then spent over 9 hours tramping a basic 'Figure of 8' along the bushwalks that border Broken Hill Road and on to the slopes of Colonial Knob Scenic Reserve, getting over 40 caches each with just a couple of DNF's along the way.

As I come to write up this cache find, I immediately recognise the puzzle as one that I have started but never finished. Unfortunately I have a great deal of those, as witnessed by the large stack of printed cache pages sitting in my lounge! So today I was along for the ride, as tS had the final location for this one.

The light was beginning to disappear by this time, made all the more noticeable by being under cover. With time starting to be of the essence I have taken to looking up the Hint before arriving at GZ to try to speed up our finds, and so my contribution here today was making a quick find of the cache itself.

There were no issues encountered with the container or the log, which was signed before everything was replaced exactly as found.

Thank you for setting up and maintaining this puzzle cache. Now I'll have to dig it out of the pile of paper and have another crack at solving it

Fun puzzle and a lovely find in this bush- especially after such a hectic week! Many thanks

Solved the puzzle a few weeks ago and finally returned to search - TFTC

Out and about with Flowerydaze on a lovely summers day. A new area for us and we were puzzled how to get to GZ but spotted a little entry off one of the side streets and we were away.
TFTC Tmann

Talla64 and I were out and about finding a few caches and this one was on the list. We had a bit of trouble with GPS wander when at GZ, so I was delighted when I moved something and there was the cache. A tricky puzzle, and GZ was a very nice area we have not been before. Thanks for looking after this one tmann421.

It took me a while to get the right combination to solve the puzzle but eventually sorted it out. We enjoyed our walk through this pleasant reserve. TFTC

Exactly as described! TFTC.
(This really is a lovely piece of bush!).

Had fun solving the puzzle and then a quick find at GZ. Nice dry cache but log just a little damp. Thanks for a puzzle I could actually do and Tftc!!

enjoyed solving this puzzle and at GZ it was my quickest find of the day, no problems with the phone GPS here, love the area the cache is in, thanks for the puzzle and TFTC

I had solved this one quite some years ago but have never been to this location before in order to get the final. That changed today when I was targeting a specific cache and happened to pass by this one so of course I had to grab it. Took a little looking but found it in the end without any problems. Certainly a pleasant area to walk through. TFTC

Testing application

We had solved this puzzle just last month as we prepared for our trip to Mega.
We are caching our way to the Wellington Mega, concentrating on picking up solved puzzles along the way. We had a few routing issues on the way to the parking to start the walk, as our in-car GPS tried to take us somewhere different. Then we had a routing issue on the walk to GZ when we reached a track junction and our in-hand GPS suggested the wrong path. After back-tracking, and much twisting and turning we eventually we made it to GZ. And after all that, the find was nice and straight foward. Thanks.

Just passing by and thought we'd revisit an old friend. Still there

These naval puzzles have been an enjoyable challenge and the little park in which this final is located is quite an unknown gem to me Thanks for the mental challenge and for bringing me here on a great day

Routine maintenance check, all good here.

Battleships 2 - Bold Beginnings (Wellington) was transferred from ADV to user tmann421

#4011. I needed to find a few caches today and decided this one would be a good one to pick up on a sunny clear Wellington day. Once I arrived at the virtual coordinates I could see immediately why the CO placed the cache in this area. Certainly a famous battleship. Headed off along the tracks and soon arrived at a spot with some towering buttresses. Spotted the cache soon after. Almost got muggled by a woman walking her dog. Signed the dry log and replaced the cache as found. Thanks for the enjoyable puzzle and cache. Favourite awarded.

Second in the series to solve and second to visit. The hiding place was simple enough to find - no real need for the hint.

Everything in good order

TFTC

Fun puzzle! Lovely piece of bush. Phone GPS was dodgy, so needed to lean on hint and scavenge.

Found by accident while looking for something else!

My third of the series; like the previous one, I solved it earlier in the year, but the location was out of the way enough that I was never able to pick it up on my way past. Today I took a trip to the Redwood Bush Reserve, which I have never been to before, and completed a circuit through the bush. Found this on my way round. TFTC, and like the previous one, worth a FP. Thanks for the interesting series!

Enjoyed the lovely walk after dinner, well hidden TFTC

The puzzle isn't as hard as it first appears.

After a quick battle with the ships I had them all lined up in formation. Today set out on my voyage and soon sighted target. Thanks for the puzzle and thanks for the cache.

#289. Had fun solving another Battleships puzzle. Solution brought me somewhere I had never been before, but I took advantage of this and found a few more in the area as well. Had trouble at GZ as I only had a smartphone and GPS was bouncing around. Ended up searching high and low up in totally the wrong area initially. After I took a rest and came back after finding other caches, I widened my search, used my caching sense and made the find. Phew. Tftc!

The path looked promising but we must have chosen the wrong turn because it took us on a wild goose chase. Frustratingly, we passed several caches on our meander up and down and all around, but I was so focused on sinking the ship that I didn't realise other targets were so close until we were back at the geomobile, nursing bruised egos and checking my calculations! Good bush walk, though, and next time I will stick to the straight and narrow.

Nice find while out with Just-Lookin.

Got a little lost on the tracks and made it a lot harder than required
A good puzzle and area - thanks ADV
SL TFTC

Out and about in the sunshine this afternoon with tmann421 collecting a few of the local caches.

Once we were on the right track it was quickly found by tmann421, log signed and enjoyed this nice bush walk. TFTC ADV and thanks for bringing me to this lovely walkway.

Took a few goes to solve the puzzle. Found with friend while getting caches in area. Had come from CELEBRATION and took the wrong way and friend and I wound up doing a decent mainly on my bum down the hill! Then initially couldnt find the cache and was just doing a last search when my friend found is a reasonably obvious place! Duh. TFTC

#613 Tried bush whacking this one as I came from the other end - the track meandered. Fun but I got rather grubby. TFTC

Solved this ages ago. Once I reached the trailhead I realised the track was an old favourite of mine. Recognised the general area where GZ was, and a minute later found the cache: The perfect hiding place. TFTC

#971 Day 5 of a 10 day puzzle streak with Nic-jay. A lovely walk to this cache- haven't explored this part of Tawa before and it was a lovely spot. The cache was safely hidden away and secure. Signed and replaced. Thanks for a fun puzzle! I had solved and found Battleships 3 back on 01/09/2012. Time to dig out #1 I think! TFTC!

Day 5 of the 10 day puzzle streak with Skaga. A really pretty area and one I will definitely come back to. Left TB. TFTC

Cache # 1,897 - Solved the puzzle over a year ago, and finally had a decent opportunity to come and grab it (making this my cache of the day in my ongoing streak). Did with Astro Hunter shortly after sunrise this morning, and took a chance on a different entrance than the one I am familiar with. Sure enough, it worked well, and loved this entrance into the area better than the others I have been in. Cache in good shape. TNLNSL. TFTC and the puzzle! Puzzle itself worth a favourite point.

Did this today with The Wandering Dragons. Lovely walk, lots of fun. Thanks!

Cache # 116

Completed this fun puzzle many months ago, finally got out to find it today... not too easy with the patchy GPS coverage, had to rely on the power of WaffleKitties! TFTC

Found after a little bit of searching TFTC

out and about on a pretty grey day, this was a nice distraction
TFTC

Saturday caching find.
Enjoyed the history with this one and the revisit of an old game.
Straightforward, all in order; log signed and cache safely re-hidden.
TFTC
The Turtle strikes again!

Found it after alot of searching around the GZ. Managed to find without GPS. Logbook is starting to get a bit damp though.

Took us ages to find searching on the wrong side of the stream. Solved the puzzle a few days ago had a good idea where it should be so found it without the GPS.

TFTC

Well I had quite an adventure getting here from the 'Out of Redwood' cache. Not being familiar with the woods I ended up taking a very long and hair-raising route along rivers and down steep precipices.
All good fun though. Thanks for the cache!

Revisited to pick up TB this cache is a bit quiet, returning to the UK soon , will release him there to continue his travels.

Back for a repeat visit 5 years on, still a nice walk in the woods. Dropped off cat tb, if someone takes it on that is fine, otherwise we will pick it up and return it to the Uk for more travels.

TFTC. Took a while for the GPS to settle down under the trees, but eventually located by looking for likely locations with the hint. Found in about the 4th place I looked! Boxhill's confirmed I may use this for the lonely cache challenge, despite the logbook showing that 2 cachers had signed it but not logged on line. Thanks for a fun puzzle.

This entry was edited by Infoferret on Wednesday, 02 October 2013 at 05:46:34 UTC.

Great little puzzle, and a better morning for my first visit here.

Tftc

As my daughter isn't interested in geocaching, her contribution was to solve the puzzle for me. The next day I looked for the cache which is next to the Redwood Bush track I walk with the dog every Sunday morning. Found it without too much difficulty. Very pleasant setting. TFTC.

Dakota 20 better gps today that iPhone 4s. Tree cover still had both doing a merry dance so hints and intuition won at the end of the day. TFTP Hit and sunk your battleship ...again.

This entry was edited by Renard & Co on Friday, 14 September 2012 at 01:55:01 UTC.

Took a little while to locate, but found it eventually. Thanks for the interesting puzzle ! TFTC.

Easy find, a last minute find before the Kindy pickup. We solved this agesssss ago, it is good to finally have a smiley for this one

TFTC

I love these sorts of puzzles and solved it quite some time ago, so great to finally get out act together today and pick it up. Cache was in the first place StreetWalker looked, thank goodness as it could have been a prolonged search.
An interesting piece of bush, too.
TFTC.

#3444. Good to finally pickup a puzzle Troodles solved ages ago. Nice area. TFTC.

MY 200TH FIND! It was a great hunt for my 200th find. TFTC

We solved this one back in about March, Redants didn't want a Traditional Cache as his 200th find so we dug through the folder and found this one. I got us to the area, Redants made the find. SL TFTC.

Found shortly after completing Yeetrees' "Celebration" cache. I completed the puzzle a few months ago after ticking off Battleships 1 and 3, travelled out here today to pick up a few other solved puzzles in the area. I too took the high path, and realized I'd have to backtrack unless I wanted to bush bash downhill. Took a short time to track down the final when I reached GZ. Signed the log with a hoarde of enthusiastic tui chattering above. Thanks for a fantastic series, and for bringing me to this beautiful reserve. TFTC

This entry was edited by jardisliketardis on Monday, 07 November 2011 at 04:11:50 UTC.

Mrs Sobad enjoyed solving the series in the ferry on the way to Wellington. She and her sister grew up in Linden so we put this one on the must do list. Add us to the list of people who spent time on the wrong track. Once SoBad put us on the correct one the reception was much better and counted us in to the correct general area. Mrs SoBad takes the credit for finding the 'obvious'. All three of us enjoyed the walk. Picked up a TB. Thanks.

Another cache I solved a long time ago, finally got round to finding it TFTC ADV

Find #413... edged on by Yeetrees, who insists to us that mysteries aren't all that difficult (we beg to differ sometimes! ), I decided to have a go solving this one, which would wrap up nicely with the other Tawa mysteries we had solved. I quickly discovered that it wasn't optimal to use pen and paper, so I decided to create a grid in Excel which made things infinitely easier. Solved it about a month ago, only spent about 20 minutes on it before I got a correct entry. Well, today was forecast for nice weather and only light breezes - so it seemed like a good time to go for it. It was our second find today, after "Ye Trees" nearby.

We started along the track and almost immediately the compass decided it would throw a hissy fit and point in whichever direction took it's fancy. This led us up onto a completely different (well walked) track that looped around the main one. Only after finally completing the loop and getting back on the main track, did it finally start making sense. As we walked toward the cache (40m, 30m, 25m, 20m) the compass pointed in the opposite direction - we had completed a walk that looks a bit like a reversed 'p'. We found the cache pretty easily once we were in the vicinity of the cache. A quick find, decided not to take the TB, so we just signed the log. Very fun , thanks ADV. TFTC.

Nice puzzle - didn't take too long.
GPSr reception is a bit dodgy, but not too hard to find.
TFTC

Solved the puzzle a couple of days ago so dropped by today to claim the find. This reserve is a very nice location for a walk whether caching or not.
-GC
+TB
TFTC

Didn't take too long to find, quite a big spider protecting the final though. Saw more muggles on this track than the sum total of muggles I had seen while looking of the 13 other caches I found today. Managed to get it in a break in the traffic and moved elsewhere to log.

+GC
-GC

Adding note to drop off the GC from my log.

Has been on the go get list for ages and we finally went on a mission. GPS took ages to settle but it was bang on in the end.

Nice little puzzle...tried to solve this one a few months back but didn't get it solved.
Had another go and did it in 5 minutes [?]
Found it quickly enough as well...15 Minutes walk from home in fact.

Great spot, apart from no GPS reception
cheers

Managed to find this one (3rd today on the way home). GPS was playing up a bit, but there weren't many hiding places using the hints TFTC

Solved on the night it was published, because I had nothing better to do, first time in the area today since publication, to complete the formalities.

Quick find.

TFTPuzzleC

Down from Auckland for a Cache Raid in the Capital

Out this morning to find and sign the log after having solved the puzzle sometime ago. Thought I knew where the GZ was as I had passed it awhile back while out doing other caches in the area. Got to the location and ...opps... nope got that wrong , should have been paying attention to the GPS. It said go back that a way, so backed up and hunted around a couple of 'fairly obvious' posies. Cache was soon to hand, log signed and returned to the car to do a few more (4 actually) before my caching time ran out for the day. Good hide in a great piece of bush . All good at GZ. TFTC.

1541 Solved puzzle sometime ago and have been waiting for the chance to claim the cache. Enjoyed the puzzle and the cache find. TFTC

Found as part of my three week caching trip from Wellington to Auckland - # 389. All good here, enjoyed. Thanks.

Visited with the caches owner.
Nice wee patch of bush. TFTC

Thanks for the fun puzzle ADV, I'm finally getting the hang of the battleships, but unfortunately I've now solved all 3!!

Found by mistake yesterday, a very mixed up day for me, but with the help of yeetrees have discovered the cache I found was not the cache I thought I had found!!! And the TB Hermione is now in this spot
Anyway, hopefully sorted and thanks for the very interesting day out.

A nice walk & a quick find by Miss EU. TFTC

A reasonably straightforward puzzle, accurate co-ordinates and lots of bird song at the cache location.
TFTC

Had fun with the puzzle, spent a long time looking at it before I arrived at a solution. Plenty of courses to steer at GZ, got it right second time. TNLN SL TFTC

another great puzzle cache solved. lovely reserve. TNLN. SL. TFTC.

I picked the wrong path to start with and took a while to realise this given my poor gps reception. After tackling the other path with equally poor reception I basically wandered blind until I came upon an area that seemed to scream out - cache located here. And it was. TFTC -medal, + car.

After finishing a local meeting decided to grab this one after solving the puzzle some time again. Fun puzzle and the GPS got me within 10m - found the cache eventually.

Solved some time ago, waiting till I had reason to go past for the find. Thought about my options with the paths, and given the pas logs, took the least likely looking option, which as it turned out was correct. Some recent tree felling close by had me concerned - had to remove a cut up branch from adirectly above the cache in fact. All good. No swaps, thanks for the walk in the bush.

Another fun puzzle to solve. We know this walk very well, so nice to do it again and find a cache at the same time. With heavy tree cover the GPSr only got us to within 40m or so, and the rest was down to the "where would I put it" technique.
+ gonefishing fish
TFTC.

Solved the puzzle for this soon after the cache was placed but didn't get the opportunity to visit until this afternoon's caching expedition. Searched first without success in the area indicated by the GPSr and then used the "where would I hide it if I were a cacher" approach and found it quite fast a short distance away. Quite an un-battleship-like environment for the final but a very pleasant spot that I hadn't been to before. Thanks for the puzzle, the cache and for bringing me here.

Grandfather found it!
A nice cache for an evening walk, thank you.

Another puzzle down.. Still need to solve the other battleship puzzle in time... Took the "wrong" path first and never got nearer the cache.. Reversed after quite a walk and found the correct path.. After a bit of a search under the tree cover we spotted the cache.. Thanks for the walk, and puzzle and cache.. TNLNSL...

Out caching with RichKai and CrystalFairy, so ditto CF's log.
+ Augustus McCray TB
TFTC

1st joint cache with crystal fairy and JnK, with a crew of 5 it was not long before we made the find. TFTC
+ Groovy caching coin
- Nada

(1876)
Last one of the day. Puzzle solved on the day it was published. Nice to finally sign it off. Enjoyed our walk through the bush with headlamps. Surprisingly the Colorado held up under the heavy canopy and took us straight to the cache. Many thanks ADV for the cool puzzle – looking forward to the next one. Jolly good fun old chap…
TNLNSL, TFTC