Distance, Direction or Both? (Auckland) Alfriston, North Island, New Zealand
By fun2seek on 29-Nov-08. Waypoint GC1JGT4

As this cache has been out of action for too long, I'm archiving it to keep it from continually showing up in search lists, and to prevent it from blocking other cache placements. If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact us (by email), and assuming it meets the guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.

Regards,
Growly Bear
Geocaching.com Volunteer Reviewer.

3 years ?

I haven't checked the cache in ages and expected it to be a disaster. Wrong - cache is in good condition and still in its original position but a bit exposed. Log book is pretty damp, so I will fix that when I do my next few weekly Coffee News delivery runs in the area.

Sometimes a DNF is more exciting than an actual find... Being fully unfamiliar with the area, I approached GZ from the top and got to within 75m when I ran out of paths to follow. So I decided to bush bash down which proved to be no mean feat. Finally at GZ I rooted around in quite a few spots, some of which looked like very likely cache locations, but a cache was not forthcoming .
So reluctantly I tried to find a more conventional route back. Unfortunately I could not find a path to take me up the hill again and so I asked a local if I could just follow the bitumen and if that would take me back to the car. He replied with a resounding "Yes!" And if you follow the track it'll be a good shortcut as well. Now either something got lost in the translation or my navigating skills aren't what I think they were, as after about 20 minutes I found myself nearly at the M1. In the end I think it was about a 4km walk before i found the car.....

This cache has been on the "I must be able to work this one out" list and after some concentrated effort got some likely looking co-ords but no green tick on the old geochecker. Contacted Trout-fly who came up with some different co-ords, but they were still no good. Contacted the owner to figure out how close I was and after a bit of a twiddle here and there the green tick was a beautiful site. Wandered along to GZ today as we were in the area with Trout-fly and Josie and very pleased to report the cache is in great condition and nicely hidden. Many thanks to the owners for this cache and a huge favourite point from us. (Learnt a few skills along the way as well)

Out and about with Team Welsh and the caching buddy, Josie for a bit of a walk in the park. I had tried to solve this in the past but needed a nudge from TW to get the answer. Just tagged along with TW to make the find after they did all the work. Thanks.

I worked out this one a while ago but just hadn't gotten around to finding it. Easy find although it looks like some muggles had found it earlier as the contents were scattered over the ground with the lid off the container. The log book was damp but not soaked and looked in a reasonable condition so I think this happened only in the last day or two. I put everything back in the container and put the cache back to where I believe it came from. Did not look like anything significant was missing. TFTC.

Enjoyed solving this one & enjoyed the walk to the final, lovely spot. TFTPC

Found it using a combination of both, needed a nudge to work it out as I was using the wrong side of distance.

We spent a nice day walking about the gradens knocking off a few un-solved caches

T4TC

Solved!
Geochecker confirms second attempt was correct.
Now I need to find the time to pick it up...
TFTP

Well, had abit of trouble getting the geochecker to give me the green light. Knew i was close with my final set of coordinates but had to tweak them abit to get the tick. Decided to stop by this evening on my way home from work to make the find. Was very relieved to get this one done. Made a quick find at GZ - cache contents nice and dry. Dropped TB for moving along. TFTP&C! Really enjoyed solving this one!

Solved ages ago,took a few minutes to find at GZ. TFTC and puzzle.

In the area after work today, so thought I would finally complete this cache. Every few months a open this cache page up, and then solve the puzzle in rudimentary form--giving me a clear picture of the general area of the cache. But I could never be bothered converting that information into actual coords to plug into a GPS. Today, I again opened up the cache page and again located a general GZ. But since I was in the area I went for the find. Even without exact coords I figured the GPS would be of some aid to me. Indeed it was, after it settled down it was pretty much bang on the cache. Cheers for the puzzle and the cache!

Had to dredge up some distant education to nail this cache. Glad something remained in the dense grey matter to sort this puzzle out. TFTC and enjoyed the puzzle.

Solved this one a long time ago and due to the high number of new caches in the area it made a nice morning out. Quick find but hard to retrieve . Nice hide.TFTC.

Had worked out the FINAL quite sometime ago using Google Earth but Geochecker kept displaying red instead of that joyous green colour. Having re-checked my calculations approx 5x I was in the area today and decided to give it a crack. Once the co-ords were plugged into the GPS a quick find was made. My co-ords were spot on and took me within a couple of metres of the cache. Loved the working out required for this one. Took TB. TFTC.

Started working on the coords last night. Now I know how an artillery man feels when he is trying to get the range of his target. Anyway, got the target this afternoon. Will probably do a search for the cache on Thursday. Thanks for an interesting exercise.

I solved the puzzle using the combination method - distance, direction and luck - finally getting the geochecker to agree with me. Finding it on the ground was fairly easy with the help of a kiwi TB, which I left in the cache as it seems a good place for it to hide a while before further travels.

Calculated the co-ords using both distance and direction, and managed to come up with an answer that geochecker agreed with. Found a central place to park, and had a nice walk to GZ, where we quickly spotted the hide. Had a laugh at the entry before Tanetops. It seems a muggle watched 3 cachers looking for something without success. When they left he came over to the area they were searching, and says he went straight to the cache. At least he rehid it safely.
Enjoyed the mental challenge of the puzzle. Thanks.

# 1608

Following some intense trigonometrical manipulation and divine inspiration we determined suitable co-ordinates. All that remained was to follow the right route.

Solved the clue weeks ago, only got around to getting out there now. Co-ords pretty spot on. The previous entry in the log was left by a dog owner whose dog uncovered the cache while chasing a rabbit. As I was leaving gz a rabbit broke from the underbrush and took off. I wonder if it was the same one? Took snake head, left glowing ball. TFTC

Solved this one last night. Visited GZ on the way to work and found the cache. TFTC. TNLNSL

On the due list for a long time.
Tried it on Monday with coords without a green tick (must have entered a wrong digit)
Was back today after plotting it again (more accurate) and with a green tick from Geochecker.
Nice area, will be back here with the family.
Took GC.
TFTC


Just realised it was my puzzle cache #100.
Nice one for a milestone like that.

[This entry was edited by KiwiLeon on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 8:16:38 PM.]

Long overdue cache find, its been on the list of caches to do many times, but got put off for one reason or another.

Of course with this sort of geometry theres always two places to look and yes we checked them both. Enjoyed our walks in the park though. Quick find when at the correct GZ.

TFTC, -TB, +geoslug

After being first to not-find it, over half a year ago, I decided to have another crack at it. It has long been the closest cache to my house I have not found.

Went back to the location I left off last time, re-did the calculations, worked it out as best I could, then stood shivering under a tree waiting for the rain to stop. When it didn't, I took a waypoint at my best guess, and headed through the flood back to home, and Geochecker. On my third attempt, Geochecker said, "Whoohoo! Yipee! uh-huh, uh-huh! w00t! Yeah, baby!". Back out later in the day, through the swamp - er - fields, and FOUND THE CACHE!!!!!! w00t indeed!

I started off thinking I was quite good at this sort of puzzle but could not get a 'sucess' on geochecker despite tring three different ways to get the answer.

Fairly confident I was on to the right spot at last, and we were nearby, so after playing round with some of the settings in the GPSr decided to give it a crack anyway. After sitting down and reading the cache page in the field, realised I had missed something fairly obvious was right onto it, and made a reasonably quick find. Totara park and particularly the 2 playgrounds are a favourite destination for our family.

Great puzzle and cool hiding spot and lesson learnt: READ the cache page!!!

Took eath-a-cahe coin & dropped Public Transport TB (yes you can catch a bus to Totara park)

Thanks Fun2Seeek for the puzzle and the cache.

Had a bit of trouble with the puzzle at first, second and third. Then on the fourth try the penny dropped, in fact two of them. Both of them direction-wise. Checked successfully with Geochecker.

Got to the GZ and the area was certainly rooted up. It looked as if a wild pig had been here and not supposedly environmentally-friendly cachers. Not a nice site.

The cache was very quickly in han and swapped Geocoins.

Cheers for the cache.

Gee, looks like an atom bomb has gone off at GZ and wiped all the vegetation away with it. Relatively quick find. Nice area. TFTC

In: DNF Troll Geocoin

TT was back after attending "search training school".
Had a job to do with the nearby Hospice and so applied the information learnt at "search training school" and bingo there it was warm and dry. A very sneaky hide - well done.
Nothing in or out.
TFTC
Cheers TT

Hooray! Nice puzzle. Always love puzzle caches!

+ Cobra
- Keyring

Also grabbed the TB and Geocoin while we were there, because we thought they'd been there for ages, but actually they hadn't!

TVMFTC!

[This entry was edited by Mr Tomato on Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 11:36:42 AM.]

Plotted this one on the GPS and came up with a likely spot - but a search today failed to return the required result. Mmmmmmmmmmm!!!! Got a bite from a weta as TT invaded it's home - ouch. Will need to rework the numbers or get some search practice before returning.
Nice park - Thanks Fun2seek
Cheers TT


[This entry was edited by Tramper Ted on Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 9:12:44 PM.]

(1989)
FTF @7:35PM
Quickly computed a likely solution on the night the cache was published, first opportunity this evening for us to test whether our theory was correct. Yep, found it in the first spot we looked, saw evidence of previous vigorous searching near GZ. So we didn’t look there. Co-ordinates were spot on for us. Well done Fun2seek on a cool puzzle and devious hide. WE LIKED!!![^] Many thanks.
Logged FTF Craze #1 for the mileage
Out Desdemona
In Key to the Cache TB
In WDD 2007 Commemorative Geocoin
SL, TFTC

First to DNF!

Using "both", I worked out what I thought was two possible locations. One site was easy to get to, in an open field - couldn't find anything. The other looked more likely, but I couldn't get to it without major bush-bashing, which I didn't have time for before work I also wasn't hugely confident of my calculations.

Will check my calculations and try again.

TB drop

Published