Pateke - Brown Teal (Northland) Whananaki, North Island, New Zealand
By No fixed Aboders on 25-Aug-08. Waypoint GC1FM9G

It was fun to get to the cache via a not "beaten track".I saw no Pateke today, but may have been too distracted by carefully watching every step.Log is pretty dry, especially when considering where the cache is sitting. Thumbs up & fav point for the themed container!TFTC!

Real bush bash, the mentioned path no longer makes it to the cache, be ready for mud and cobwebs and a slippery slope! Cute cache. Thanks for the walk, saw a pair of Pateke and a shag

Last minute decision to go camping yesterday morning and Otamure DOC campsite was the choosen destination. What a great campsite and beautiful beach. After packing up camp and moving our cars to the public area we set off to find the last two caches in this area. We went to what we thought would be GZ to find we were a little out and then thought we were totally in the wrong place, however found the details we were looking for. This cache requires walking shoes as the path disappears so we had to bush bash the last 50 odd metres to GZ. We managed to find the cache but unfortunately didnt see any Pateke (think we may have heard a couple). Thanks for bringing me here and TFGC. Found with The TravelbugTribe, Nessvab & BeansproutNZ.

It was much easier to work out the final coords than it was to get to the gz!The track starts out fine, but then the bush bashing began. I suggest better caching clothes than togs, hooded towel and slides But find it we did. It's now signed and returned to its hiding place. Tftc

Good find. Hubby had to do the climbing as the bank a bit slippery with foliage etc. TOTT were needed to extract log but all in good condition. I admire the people who placed this cache as it deserves its D/T rating. FP from me. TFTC.

Did not find

Found it but no thanks to the Coordinates which had me out in the bay.

Well, that's one of the great things about Geocaching - it takes you to beautiful places that you may not have been before. Sad to say, I have lived in and around Whangarei for all of my 60+ years and I have never ventured along this road further than Whananaki North.

With such glorious mid winter weather though, today was the day, with 6 caches on offer before the end of the no exit road.

I DEFinitely stuffed this one up to start with and it took me 3 goes at my workings before I had a likely set of final coordinates. A short walk, a bit of bush bashing and the mysterious rare species was soon located. Signed newish log and replaced securely as found.

I only saw mallards on the stream here today, but later in the afternoon, whilst on my training jaunt across the longest bridge and along the road back to town, I spotted a big group of over 40 Pateke hanging out on a side tributary. What a neat sight. TFTC

Re finding it. Thanks for putting it back!

It was quite dark - bush and time of the day! Lucky the duck had a bright colour!

Queen's birthday weekend in Northland. Lovely walk from my campsite where I'm staying tonight. Collecting numbers wasn't big deal but to get to solved final is a different story! Thanks for recent maintenance. I didn't see any species but I didn't pay attention to.
TFTC

Missing cache replaced

Took two attempts to get a logical calculated GZ (just a lesson to read properly and not assume.,.,)
Then off to GZ . Searched a few hint items....no luck, but also not confident after years since a find ?
Nothing but standard ducks today...
Thanks

I was out in the area again with my geocaching friend. I thought we'd try this one again after last year's dnf. Two sets of geocaching eyes looking for a regular sized cache but no cache to be seen. Can the CO please check this one.

I could log three DNFs here. While camping down the road I went back three times and failed to find anything. Maybe I should brush up on my native fauna because I think I saw loads of the target but no caches

Another pretty beach nearby. We got the info and headed off in search of the final but just couldn't find it despite searching nearly every hint item. We only saw one duck (?mallard) on the way but we probably scared any others away bush bashing our way around. Another time, thanks anyway

#764 6:20 pm DEFinitely stufFED up the coordinates on my first go so we returned to our tent site to figure out my error. Returned a few hours later to find GZ. The only water birds I saw today were about nine ducks at the DOC camp. But at least I got a . TFTC(for the birds).

Found it such a great idea kids had a blast hunting. Only 2 brown teal spotted today. Tftc

First ever multi-faceted attempt. My other half jumped when he saw the cache, haha. Felt very lucky to spot 2 Pateke amongst 4 Mallards. Beautiful ducks!

Unfortunately everything was quite damp, log book has begun to go mouldy.

Mr E has been very keen to find and photograph Brown Teal so we were very pleased to visit this one. We were lucky to see two of them quite close up as they are usually very shy. A photo will be added later. Meanwhile I tracked down the final, which took me a little while to find - it is very well camouflaged! Thanks No Fixed Aboder, another deserved favourite added.

Took a while to work this one out, but, got there in the end. No ducks in sight.

Up this way for the long weekend. Solved the clue but GPS wanted me to follow the path leading up the steps, which is wrong...Once I was back on the correct track I soon located this very cool cache. TFTC, not many ducks today.

Tftc,saw 2 brown teals , and another strange one

Finally a nice quiet weekend at the beach. We all loved the final TFTC

We found it! Thank you, we loved this cache, the kids especially. We found the structure and date and eventually found the well themed container. Unfortunately we did not see any ducks on our walk today but there were plenty of seagulls lurking around the stream.

Decided I still had some energy to burn off after kayaking and diving already today so decided to throw in a few more caches to end the day nicely. I was wandering around like a lost duck here for the first few minutes trying to find the right info but I eventually gave in and trusted where the GPS was pointing me and bingo there it was. Nearly made a mistake on the calculations but quickly relised what I'd done wrong.

A bit of a scratch around at GZ before the container was found, very appropriate and the only duck spotted today. Thanks for the fun multi.

I'm back in my home town of Whangarei for the holiday period and was out at Whananaki today to bring up a milestone cache find. After bringing up my milestone at "Island in the Sun" we then took a look at this multi near Otamure Bay. Soon worked out the co-ordinates and headed off to GZ, where the cool cache container was quickly found. No Pateke spotted on our short walk today. TFTC!

[red] For information on the 2016 New Zealand Geocaching Adventure being held in Turangi, go to... http://www.nzgeocachingadventure.nz [/red]

Found the date to work this out a while back but this time had more time to find it and also the one up and over. Loved the container - must be a cuzzie of one up Coromandel way! TFTC

Visiting family nearby and decided to find this great little multi. Saw 6 Pateke swimming nearby in the lovely spot. Worked out the coords but ended up somewhere else, don't know what I did !!! but managed in the end. Loved GZ...great geospot and found the cache in its hiding spot. Fav from me for everything about this cache. Thanks.

re-visiting caches along the way ( an excuse to stop & rest as have not been on the pushbike in a long time!) saw 8 pateke & a mallard today

After a short search we found the required information to start the multi. We then climbed the stairs to visit Tauwhara bay. The water is a beautiful emerald colour, there is still so much heat in the sun, magic. The cache was so clever! love it, the camo brilliant

We were so lucky, to see four Pateke on the pond, a bonus find.

How can I describe this cache but WOW, beautiful spot for a refreshing swim, nice walk over hill to next beach and the cammo was great, but the added bonus had to be the four Pateke that made themselves available for viewing.

Loved the container no ducks around today many thanks

CLUE HELPED especially as I stuffed up......DEF is not FED!!! Enjoyed the extra walk I forced myself to do! Over 20 ducks at the structure, but only one at the single punga!

(1011) Nice easy multi to solve and an easy find once we reach GZ. Love the container. Not a duck in sight today. I guess it is duck shooting season. TFTC

Just arrived to camp for the night, actually had brought some old bread which we had lying around, but on our way to the final there weren't any ducks about. Love the camo, deserves a favourite for this. On our way back, in the pond next to the bridge there were 3 Pateke plus another downstream nearer the sea. Four mallards were wandering about the campsite, we imagine they were regulars doing the rounds to get any tidbits, thanks for the multi

No live ducks found today . Interesting find.

TFTC, loved the container

Having enjoyed a very pleasant evening in the campground we walked the beach and made our way to make the grab. Lots of birds around and we counted 19 Pateke in the stream as well as 10 Paradise ducks too.
Mrs B hadnt seen this type of hide and it bought a large smile to her face. TFTC

Found the date and worked out the coordinates but the track was overgrown and a bit of a quagmire of soft disgusting slippery mud, so we decided to leave it. Shame. Thanks anyway. CBE from England touring Northlands in a VW camper.

Found on our tour of Northland from Te Anau with The Italian Job from Auckland. Loved the cache "box", saw 4 Pateke. TFTC

Saw two pairs of the ducks. That in itself made it all worth while. Found with 'Kev & Chris' from Te Anau. The Italian Job was here....!

I quickly figured out the coordinates and they led me into the right direction. However, GPS accuracy was pretty low. So I found a box of some sort and thought that this shouldn't be a cache container as it would be quite dangerous. Nevertheless I inspected it carefully but to no avail. Looked a bit further and didn't find anything else. Re-read the logs and noted lots of people being frightened when finding the cache. So I reconsidered the dangerous box. But it definitely was what it looked like, i.e. no cache at all. So I looked even further in a last attempt, and there it was. Nice container, but not frightening at all, at least not to me.
I didn't spot any Pateke today. Maybe there should be more of those boxes.
TFTC

Did the same as evul09 and had an extra walk. Took a while to figure out but then it was straight to it.
Thank you. David.

Nice simple multi while out caching with Red6 in the Geonut thanks. Cameo here is great.

A fun and simple multi with a cool cache container. Only one piebald duck in residence. TFTC

Had good fun with this, couldnt get the number at first but eventually we spotted it, and then I put the final coordinates in the wrong way so we ended up going for a much longer walk than we should have (after first passing by the eventual GZ anyway) - but it was a nice day out and the very cool cache was soon found once we did what we were supposed to... Enjoyed the wander, TFTC

TFTC
we enjoided the short walk from our campsite
wobees

What a fun cache! The best one we've done together as a family!
Great clues. No ducks tho.

nice simple puzzle this one, lovely spot today, hell of a fright for someone at GZ!!
nil Pateke seen today
TFTC!

A marvelous place. As much as we like birds Rich and I saw none flying, swimming or walking. t4tc

Noticed 2 ducks on the way. Nice cache box! Thanks for this cache and greetings from Latvia!

We stayed two night on the fantastic camping site.when we climbed on a hill we had 3g internet and saw that there was a cache.unfortunately I did not see a brown teal, although there were many ducks on the site.but I really liked the cache container.very funny found.

Greetings, chilifarmer

Cool cache - almost got the fright of my life when I found it. TNLNSL. TFTC.

Saw no brown teals this day. Wow! What a quack of a cache!

No Pateke today, just five of your bog standard, garden variety mallards who have survived duck shooting season.Crossed the chilly waterway and was looking around GZ and didn't expect to see that sticking out. Great stash and theme which the group really enjoyed.New house being built over the road with some noisy machinery so probably explains lack of Pateke today.TFTC.

Found with butters and Mitch.We loved the container.TFTC,

Today we saw no Patekes but found this great cache-box.

thank you
dschuko

Sadly no brown teal to report today, though we saw plenty a couple of days ago just slightly north.

TFTC

The campsite (our preferred option) was filled to the brim. T4TC - M@

Found with DeadRockFlower while KingLuna and MBuckland went on the Island in the Sun run.
Got big fright when found it! Fabulous cache. Thanks so much.
TNLN

Cool cache. Love the camo! Gave Princess Luna a big surprise when she found it! Took 2 wee bucks to find this one while the boys went kayaking for another. TNLN TFTC.

Had no trouble getting the required info or finding the cache. Nice cache container! Unfortunately there were no ducks to be seen today, despite being weather for ducks.

# 876

Second and last find for the day. Took a bit of looking to find the date, but then it was getting dark and I am blind. Found the final no problems and there were about 4 of the ducks swimming around. TFTC

Dropped of the Bulldog T/B to protect the Pateke from preditors!

Dropped off Patrick the Pukeko T/B to enjoy some time with his feathered friends - the Pateke

Theres heaps of track work going on, but you can still get to the cache site. Nice hide indeed. TFTC

This is a great cache! We counted 5 ducks on our journey. TFTC

The maths was no problem, just put it into my GPS wrong so was looking at the other end of the campground! Went surfing then sorted it out.
Saw 2 ducks above bridge but no others.
- TB

I made a quick stop at the cache today to drop off a racing TB, and now I have a tale to tell

"Revenge of the Pateke?"

I picked up a racing TB earlier and thought Pateke might be a busier/easier cache for it to move along more quickly.
The Thing Is , the TB "Skookums" is a cat! I am sure the duckies will be happy to evict Skookums, so someone please move it along soon

So, I was walking back to the car and fished my keys out of pocket just as I was appoaching bridge.... strange premonition/thought entered my mind * "oh, wouldn't want to drop them in the drink" * ... so fumbling to put finger through actual key ring..... looked down & saw BIG SCARY SPIDER on cuff (must have collected it from the cache) and of course shrieked, and flung my arm and of course the keys right into the drink! Spider still attached... *dance around... *shake arm more, *give it a flick.... Whew! big sigh of relief.... OH crud! peers at murky water below; Notices kayaking girls giving crazy lady strange looks & giggling .... After getting thouroughly wet, discovered taking shoes off and fishing with toes is much better tactic...
Swam around with 6 Pateke today; I swear they were having a good quack-up about silly me [:o)]

(1812)
No problems with the maths here either. Mrs Y got a pleasant surprise at GZ. Didn’t spot any brown teals… Many thanks for a well themed cache.
TNLNSL, TFTC

Very cleaverly thought out cache.
Thank you.
Lots of ducks around and the DOC traps working well catching rats and possums.
Having no ducky things to put in decided to leave things alone
Nothing in or out.

Oh yeah, dont presume on this one

Ended up looking at someones back yard while eating my pie(rather nice too!). Went back (after noticing a interesting "muggle" nearby,

Re worked it, aha, down there, so off I trotted. Got a fright when I pulled back the curtain at GZ .

Then I was muggled by Salty, a double scare, and its not even halloween yet

Great to meet a local cacher and had a chat before pushing on.

Took some pics of the wild life.

TFTC!! Great stuff, we love this area!

Hmm a trap for older players, read and dont assume!
Easy find, Co-ords spot on. 13 in residence today

The mermaid Does enjoy the odd wave or 2 so Did agree to go on a wave search with the Pirate... but after some considerable time of watching "not quite right" conditions, she threatened mutiny and demanded to be taken treasure hunting! ('twas her B-day after all )

This was Such a fun cache! Thank You!! LOL, I am still "quacking up" over the whole duck theme...
We saw 2 Pateke and need to check out a bird book from the library! There was another pair of ducks, but we were unsure of the breed. Black, with white on chest and a bit of green on head. Not Paradise or Mallard... ( as best we could tell)
TNLNSL

Awesome container, really muddy on way to cache but meh.

TFTF

Dropped of T/B

Published