Little Blue (Auckland) Karekare, North Island, New Zealand
By Sp8sm8 on 30-Aug-08. Waypoint GC1FQZX

time to go

Was out this weekend for a tramp with the family to Tunnel Campsite and we decided to do a spot of caching along the way. The area where this cache may be located is completely overgrown with chest high weeds now, making the hint location no longer relevant or visible. Given the length of time since it has been successfully found I think you need to either try and locate it yourself with the aim of perhaps moving the cache 100m to an easier to find location or it needs to be archived.

It's been a while since this one was found. No luck for us, got within 1m & searched hint but nothing.

Spotted some penguin footprints but didnt have any luck finding this cache. We were a little disappointed but hope to come back and see the penguins another time.

Family festivities weren't happening until later in the day so I met up with Pazza2 to go for a walk with the hounds on the beach. An overcast day meant it wasn't too hot and while Mr Pazza looked after the hounds, Mrs P and I walked along the beach to get this cache. I'm not sure the spider cache guardian was very impressed with having his sleep disturbed as the container is very difficult to open now and took a bit of effort. Log is starting to get a wee bit manky too.

Well Merlot and I managed to miss this cache on a previous walk so today seemed like a perfect time before the masses hit the beaches over the coming holidays. It was also a good oportunity to burn off 100 calories before I was about to consume 2000 cals today.
I saw some oyster catcher chicks on our walk out here that hopefully survive the summer crowds. The amo container however may not survive much more of the sea, salt and sand now but it has certainly been around for a few years. Tftc

We did not spot any blue penguins but there was a rather scary spider on the cache which turned out to be a false katipo. Beautiful winter day, TFTC

Was a mission to open (don't like spiders!) but managed to find while on a Sunday walk! TFTC

Having never been to Karekare before I decided to go on a day trip to this famous beach with the kids and grab some caches along the way. This was a pretty easy cache to find but the hardest part was opening it as there was a particularly nasty looking spider guarding the latch The inside was pretty damp but I could still sign the log book. I love Little Blue Penguins so maybe I'll have to come back at dusk another day to try and spot them TFTC!

Well I got my wires crossed and came out to find this cache for a second time (previously 05 April 2015) when it was a little harder to get too?

Found the container, opened it up for lots of Earwigs to make a prison break. Once they had left home, I bravely emptied the container and gave it a wipe inside. Suprisingly the log is all good.

Because of the swag is covered in some sort of insect poo? I have removed all the smelly swag and placed in bin.

Amo can is back in its hiding place, hopefully the next cacher will have no insect problems?

Took a lovely walk on Karekare beach and found a few caches. The place was crawling in bugs and was quite dirty in general. TFTC

Lazy Sunday in Karekare with PeanutButterBaby. GPS bang on here. Container was slightly open and had tones of bugs inside. Wet content but log OK. We grabbed one TB from here. TFTC

I struggled to get it open and wasn’t able to, might have also been the creepy crawlers all over it that creeped me out! Will come back later today and try again

Many thanks Nick for moving this!
Out here today with geo mate nette who was very quick to find it....Glad it is in a very accessible place now....
Easy approaching this way too .
Last time I came from Tunnel Point and didn't find any tracks...
Was rather tightly closed but finally managed to get it open....
Phew. So nice to have success here!

Lovely day for a beach walk with my mate supernanny

Don’t know how it was I didn’t log this but did find it years ago

Coordinates changed from:
S 36° 59.783 E 174° 28.610

Coordinates changed to:
S 36° 59.795 E 174° 28.548

Distance from original: 310.0 feet or 94.5 meters.

Moved the cache so you wont have to tackle the sea of gorse that was surrounding the old GZ.
Took a few minutes but found the ammo can as expected. Bit hard to get into after so long without a find

Moved to a new location, still the original ammo can.

While I'm sure the cache is still there, who other than a cacher would wade through that gorse, I feel it has become to difficult to reach. I'll admit to giving up on getting to it on the last maintenance run as I was wearing shorts. I'll try moving it out to somewhere still reachable, and also suspect the ammo can may no longer be viable, given others of mine of a similar age.

Had a verrrrryyyy
Long hunt here today...had oodles of time as had day off!
Was tricky pushing through head high lupins.....then chest high gorse...plus that creeper like wire that trips you up....
Plus all the hidden rocks....
Was spooky looking up at the high cliffs too.
Hope the ammo can isn't covered with foliage..
Should be a 5/5!
Good luck to next searcher...will put on my watch list.

Ok, so I didn't find the cache, but that doesn't mean I can't leave a note. I was keen to find it. The photo shows my GPS as I circled GZ to no avail. The srcub was dense and prickly for the last 9 metres. Alot of overgrowth. But I did enjoy the adventure. Wouldn't have come here otherwise. I hope the cache is found soon after this long streak. Thanks Sp8sm8.

My friend fell over it in the dark! Pretty sick! Nice cache. THAMES HIGH SCHOOL we were here lol. Jody, Lennard and John

Vamber, Metzgan and myself decided to tackle some of the Waikateres this holiday, so we decided to start with this walk, we had heard good things about it so were looking forward to the walk.

We had just done the Zion Tracks and were heading back to the carpark past this cache, well we couldnt walk past it, the gorse is now chest height, but we found a route that had marginly less than others, as we get to the hint item everyone spread out and to look for it, read how people had tripped over it and i looked down and there it was. Nice one. TFTC (no penguins in the middle of the day)


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

A nice sunny summer's day meant for an early set off with yorkshirekiwi83 and metzgan to tackle the tracks of Karekare today. This was our last find for the day before heading home. Took the wrong approach to this one, tackling a lot of gorse bush, before we we realised we were a little bit out from GZ. Soon we found the right spot, and the container was quickly spotted. Dropped off a TB. Thanks for the hide!

Spent quite some time trying to find this one as vegetation over time had grown. Our GPS's also had us moving around a bit, probably due to the effect of the cliff face above. Almost by chance one of us was clambering around and just happened to stumble upon it.

We are on a walk out to the Pararaha Valley, and have made this detour to the cache. After reading the previous logs I was hopeful of a path without gorse. Well I found the one with the least amount of gorse. The thing I did not like was spotting the rocks at the base of the point, suggesting a few rock falls. No concerns today and no penguins found.

I was a bit worried that the previous finders had done a really good job of covering the amo box, luckily once I the GPS settled, eventually I spotted it sitting there. The contents are lovely and dry. Thanks for the hide and this little side adventure

The last find of the day and it took a bit to negotiate a way through the prickles. Of course, when I was leaving, I found a prickle free path...Murphy's Law. It was a nice easy find that presented a good view of the cliffs that are here. TFTC! NINO.

Out and about enjoying a hike around Karekare this afternoon. I took the Zion Hill track in, with a couple of side adventures, and came back along the beach for a nice loop. After following the Hillary trail I soon abandoned it for what appeared a more direct route to GZ. I was not wrong. Cache was quickly detected amongst the vegetation ad it was a little exposed. I tried to hide a little better on replacement. I took the TB. Cheers for the exercise!

Fortunately the gps was accurate. Puh, it was hot and we had to go up the hill again. Tb in.
TFTC tonionov
#2805

Had some fun getting to GZ through all the gorse, but found a way in from the south and just about tripped over thew cache.
TFTC.

This one was a battle to get to with the gorse starting to grow bigger. Maybe impossible in a years time!At GZ I stood there wondering where it could be as I couldnt find it but then almost tripped over it as I was leaving.
Best approach to this site could be from the south end perhaps as the gorse barrier isnt so high and dense.

After hiking out to Pararaha Valley along Zion Hill Track, we returned to Karekare along the beach and stopped for this cache along the way. I initially overshot this one as I wasn't paying attention to the GPS, so I had to backtrack a bit. It was a bit of a battle getting through the gorse to GZ and once I got there it took a bit of searching to locate the cache! But eventually I spotted it, despite having walked past it a few times! TFTC!

Took us a while to find this cache! Pretty gnarly grass made things interesting. We left it tidy for the residents.

Out for a hike with my Cousin and Dad. First find of the day, good natural camo. Was located by my Cousin. TFTC.

Nice easy cache, fumbled my way thru the plant growth and there it was!

Nice easy cache, I fumbled around for a short while and there it was!

Found with the Pararaha gorge walk group. Had a lot of fun finding these caches, and walking in the interesting terrain.
TFTC

Reperio at 1700.

I arrived into Auckland early in the week for the upcoming NZ Mega event, and whilst the entire week was fantastic, the walk along the Pararaha Gorge to Karekare Beach today was by far the highlight of the trip. I met up with the rest of the walking party at approximately 0800, and we set off shortly after.

This was the penultimate cache found during the walk, and with the natural camo guarding it, it was fortunate that we had a some previous finders with us as it would have taken a lot longer without them. As the rain was starting to fall, we didn't hang too long.

Thanks to Paultaps, Greenblat and evilno9 for organising and leading the group.

Gratias sp8sm8.

Quite a bit of prickly bushes in the way but managed to navigate around. I had a little rest and the others found this one. TFTC!

I am logging this find as part of Rambler's Reward Challenge Cache (GC2XBA7).

1655 Knowing that we would be late anyway for the Fish and Chips Event as a group (the Pararaha Gorge walk) decided to stop and grab another cache for the area.
All good with the cache. Took the Jeep TB to continue jumping through caches in New Zealand.
Brought through for mileage: 3 Bros, Aust Light Houses, BEAGLE BIXBY, B 2 B ingot, BROWN BEAR 15, Coin of Danmark, CRDAVIS-Scottish Thistle Geocoin, Fishing Bell TB, GoLeo Travel Bug Dog Tag, Iconic Bridges, land rover TB, Lil' Miss TB, cache critters Baa, Neigh Neddy, and Oink, PAP, Rienan TB, Spooky, steben6's DNF Duo - Super Cacher Geocoin, Trakabulldog geocoins, and trackable shirt.
TFTC sp8sm8

25/10/2013 5:53:00 PM
3405
My mega NZ MEGA 2013 Trip!! Split into two halves - first, the journey up, and then the second half was the actual MEGA time.

This was the second half. After relocating a rental car to get up here, I now had 6 days in Auckland.
Friday was spent on the Pararaha Gorge guided walk. An epic as day out, finding some extremely epic and fun caches!! I love these higher terrain ones!!

Last logbook to sign for our walk. It was a great time, with great company, and thanks to those who took us out, as well as those who placed caches along the way

Sorry about the not as epic logs - but otherwise I would still be logging till Christmas - and that's Christmas 2014 I mean! Haha.

TFTC!!

No little blues around and hopefully we did not disturb any in spite of starting the search in the wrong area - heading towards the end of our epic Pararaha Gorge journey made possible thanks to some awesome local cachers with great sense of adventure [^] Thanks for placing the cache!!!

TB drop during our visit with the Pararaha Stream walk crew on the Friday prior to the NZ Mega event in Auckland. Always love coming out this way. Cheers for the cache.

I joined last minute the Mega Group Heading out to Pararaha Gorge/Karekare Beach. And oh boy did I learn a lot today. E.g.
Walking the whole day with new & watery shoes is not bad, I am not afraid of heights, I gained hands on experience about rock climbing and that swimming in a very cold stream could lead to hypothermia. Thanks to Paul and Alan for organising and thanks to the whole group helping me along the way... TFTC

This entry was edited by alpenmilch80 on Friday, 25 October 2013 at 18:43:10 UTC.

Spent ages trying to find it until we realised we were virtually standing on it!

P.S the box lid is a bit hard to get open, is rusty.

KK chickpea

A nice stroll along the beach took us to this cache, tucked away in an isolated corner of the ranges. TFTC

This involved a lovely stroll along the beach and through the dunes. The resurgent gorse made the search a little prickly but the GPS held true and put us right on the spot. There did not seem to be any obvious hiding place but there it was.

After failing to find this a couple of years ago decided to try again the way south to the Pararaha. Could not believe how quickly I found it this time. TFTC

When I first came along here from Karekare about 15years ago you had to make sure the tide was right to get around the point. Now there is so much sand built up and the sea is distant! Did not know there were blue penguins here. Will have to return one evening and watch them. TFTC.

Just heading out from a nice quite night at tunnel point trying out my new tent ( it performed ! that was a good purchase) , thought i would finally make the detour and knock this one off as well. Bit wary of the location seeing how many avalanches of boulders seems to be the norm in this spot, in fact the way the GPS was dancing all over the place trying to keep me on the move i was starting to think it agreed with me.

Had walked by a number of times looking under trees before i realised it was right there.. nestled in, really at the base like it had said so... bit of a mission to prise it open, but got there in the end;-) rapidly decided not to follow the cliff line around, with many many prickles every where - retraced foot steps to the sand...

The GPS danced around a bit under the cliffs, and based on a previous log steeled ourselves for a hunt...but stumbled right onto it within seconds. Also saw penguin tracks around this location, very distinctive. Thanks, great spot...but didnt dally under the cliffs, not keen on rocks falling on my head! Found with TheGeeGees.

Made a quick detour at the end of my walk from Whatipu. Noticed what look like penguin tracks on the sand. I remember my Nana nursing a blue penguin that she found on a beach near her house in Tauranga years ago.

Jeez looked for close to an hour. Not best spot for iPhone caching. Really awesome spot. Thanks

Out for a Sunday walk with friends while in AK. ove walking out here.
In TB Plain Drop Geocoin

We had almost completed our walk from Whatipu to Karekare when we made the detour up the beach towards the homes of the Little Blue. The penguins that live here certainly have a few different challenges to those living on Tiritiri Island where we had helped with banding a few back in our Uni days.
Magnificent cliffs and a great spot for a cache. Thanks.

From the bush track and now on the beach, loving this day with the sun shinning and great waves! Got this little blue guy after little encounter with goash bush. But anyways it was well worth it. Nice hide

TFTC sp8sm8

The coordinates were accurate to a meter so finding that box was not to difficult.
Dropped a TB

While heading back we have seen a couple entering karekare beach with a gps and discussing a way to that cache, so it was probably jd1992.

Enjoyed the time on the beach before/after.

Bit sad that people take their unleashed dogs to the beach that is clearly restricted.

I could never be unhappy looking in a place like this, thanks!

This was our second attempt at the cache, this time with reinforcement from Germany. And their systematic approach using a dried flax stem for poking everywhere like an avalanche search team paid off. "Klonk" - Yay. On our way out, we found a lot of little footprints leading towards the bluff. So cute.
TNLNSL, TFTC

Found together with Rumo and Rala after a longer search. As nothing else helped, the KrazyKat applied the same method used to find victims in snow avalanches. That worked in the end

Found it by accidentally stepping on it.

This entry was edited by Paultaps on Saturday, 04 February 2012 at 08:44:12 UTC.

Poor satellite reception with cliffs had a hunt around but no luck will have to come back with kids next time.

No luck after searching for quite a while. GPS got to within 1 m but didn't match the clue at that point. Will go back and try again some day

Found it on the way back from camping at Pararaha Valley with some scouts.
TFTC.

was just about to give up when eldest of the youngsters spotted it ! also spotted a gecko or possibly skink whizz by: lots of ants around the gz. took tb spoon. tftc

TFTC

Nice walk. Dropped off the Dutch Spoon traveler.

This entry was edited by agebeforebeauty on Friday, 21 January 2011 at 16:01:29.

Done with Tufty after missing it last week. Must come back and see penguins. Cheers

Out with Coldstream to finish off the caches we started a week ago in this area. We in fact walked completely past this one last week with both BaldEd and myself with this cache loaded. We both thought it was at the top of the ridge. Yeah, I know, all I had to do was to read the cache page and I'd know better. Even our abreviated title (Little Blue) didn't ring any bells.

Never mind it was done today.

Cheers for the cache.

This entry was edited by Tufty on Monday, 03 January 2011 at 00:07:39.

Found after a short search...Should have noted what size cache I was looking for! Found about 6.30pm at start of a 10 cache Pararaha circuit (over two days).

Found thanks to the eagle eyed Miss Parsnips; TFTC

Found with my friends walking pole.
Thanks

Thanks for the cache, had a bit of a job finding it, but beautiful spot.

Took me little while to find it even though I was standig right next to it!!! Took the Hummer4U TRavel Bug and left the 8-ball Travel Bug

Hummer4U TB in, nothing but footprints out. A very nice walk. Cheers!

WARNING - We were very close to cache and disturbed in-ground wasp nest. 3 members are party were stung so gave up, be careful if looking for Cache. Nest logged with local council

Last find of the day with AstonMarty and took a bit of gentle prodding to come across the cache. Very nicely hidden and glad we paid attention to the clue. TFTC

Last find with evilno9, was at the end of a long trek so brains turned to putty! Thank goodness for clue which made a lot of sense!!! Nice way to finish the day. Great success

Very good hide. It took me some time and I thought I had already looked there but found in the end right where it should be

Somebody once posted on one of My caches there isn't a sweeter sound than your walking stick making contact with a well hidden ammo can.

Another find while out with the usual suspects. Enjoyed the trek along the dunes to get here.

TFTC

Out with GreenblAt, FMZ, TWS, Gadget-Tron and OGP.
Came from Olin timbertrek down the Parahah gorge and back along the coast.
Great walk. Thanks fro bringing us here.
Took the white Jeep TB.
TFTC

GPS took us pretty much to were we should be. Took a fair bit of searching before OGP's walking stick struck a metal box. Music to our ears. TFTC

Out with GreenblAt, FMZ, kiwi Leon, Gadget-Tron and OGP.
Came from Olin timbertrek down the Parahah gorge and back along the coast.
Great walk. Thanks fro bringing us here.

TFTC

GC drop, likes long walks

Re-visit with the rest of the exhausted Pararaha mob.

I had 8 excited Scouts looking for this cache, but either the GPS had been really thrown by the cliffs, or it has moved as we couldn't find any sign of it! Hopefully it was due to our lack of searching ability and the cache hasn't gone walkies!

Found by the wife after I walked straight past it... GPS signal trown off a bit by the cliffs... TFTC

Out for family walk in the Pararaha Valley and a bit of GPS mapping for the Open Street Map project. Dropped off TB that I've had too long.
Cache is clean and dry.

Number 4 on a loop around Zion Hill and Karekare today, super muddy but fun day out. Cache was not obvious but the clue could not be any more direct. Cheers!

The first of Kapt Undies and my cache hunts enroute around the Waitak circuit wasn't too encouraging. Spent ages here looking all over the place. Signal was pointing us up the bank, but knew it can't be up there. Thoroughly checked out the possible places that the clue suggested as well.
No penguin prints today, but a nice stroll along the beach thanks. Love this rugged coastline!

Noting the last log, since I was out this way today I thought I'd go do a neighbourly thing and check on it.
All was happy, well and in order, still in its spot, though no GCs in evidence here whatsoever, so maybe mark NZ Fern GC as missing.
Thanks again for a most novel spot of interest!

Searched the area high and low (especially because we wanted to have our #700 on tofska's cache), but to no avail. Not sure what the specific location in the hint meant, but there were several of them and we looked at all of them. We hope that we were just blind. This is a great spot and we would definitely love to come back in the evening hours to watch the little ones pass by.

Very hot today with the sun radiating off the black sand. Saw all sorts of footprints in the sand but were fairly sure that we could identify the penguin prints.
Would love to visit when the penguins come up the beach.
Many thanks

Quick find while in the area. Nice walk, TFTC

Our first cache for 2009 - nice walk along the beach before the sand got too hot.
+Thai coin
TFTC

10:15 Well what a great day we all had, I meet up with the Team from YuGeo4 at the KareKare car park for a milestone walk for our good friends.

The car park was full of trampers planning tramps, comparing pole sizes etc. At one point they asked me if I was part of their group. But I advised them I was part of the Squishy Boot patrol and was waiting for the rest of my team.

The team from YuGeo4 turned up soon after, with sad news that one of their team was sick at home. Which was a shame, Margaret was also sick, so we were both a member down today. But we put a brave face on things and heading to the hills with our Bacon sandwiches.

After a little walk on the sand, we came across the first cache of the day “Little Blue†didn’t see any penguins today, but did see lots of sign of Rabbits.

The cache is quite close to the J Pike one, but wow what a walk that would be. I think a Helicopter would be more appreciated.

My GPS did bounce around for me, must have been the large cliffs, but it did settle down and I had 6 metres at the cache site.

Thanks for the cache Nick and Fiona, now onto another one of your caches Tunnel Point.

Took: Ladybug Geocoin #2

(1974)
Didn’t spot any penguins, and the cache took a wee while before it revealed itself. Cliffs were playing havoc with the gps reception. Happy to report the ANT problem is no more. Swapped some coins.
IN: Ladybug Geocoin #2
OUT: Carbon is forever (CoalCoin)
OUT: WDD 2007 Commemorative Geocoin
SL, TFTC

Popped in to check on the ant situation, Good clean up job M@. gave it a quick sqirt of fly spray in case there were any straglers left.

Enjoying a good long loop walk from Lone Kauri Rd, going up the Pararaha stream, through to Karekare, and back along the Mt Zion tracks so I can tick those off , and logging caches along the way.
This cache was chock full of ants, believe it or not! I wonder if they were born in there!? Got rid of them the best I could.
T4TC Sp8s - M@