Ambury Farm Lava Tubes (Auckland) Ambury Park, North Island, New Zealand
By J 'N' K on 06-Dec-08. Waypoint GC1JPE6

Found while walking around Ambury Park today. Thanks

Fivegk and I landed in Auckland at noon, rented a car, and cached the afternoon away. This is a super interesting spot!Loved the lava walls! Fav point from me. Answers submitted to CO.

I visited this interesting earth cache today with karen rinora. We made our observations and discussed the questions. Answers will be sent for the two of us. Thanks for bringing me by!

Found and answered while camping here over anniversary weekend. Fascinating area, loads of history and interesting geography. Answers sent. Photo doesn't have gps (my phone) in sorry, as I used it to take the pic. Tftc

Thanks for showing this interesting story. TFTC

Lava cave have a big trap near the entrance, so best not to enter. Really fascinating though. Thanks for the EC.

#57 Mr 8 thought they were great questions and him and miss 4 enjoyed tramping threw the grass. TFTC

Auckland University is in week 4 of semester 2 which means more writing and study, less walking and caching! However assignments were boring me and the weather isn’t *that* bad, so it’s time for some caching! I picked Ambury Regional park because there were a few caches around! I am armed w 3 pens (as I like to loose them), and a friend! It’s time to get muddy and grab some more smilies!

Thank you to all COs for placing and maintaining caches!

Very interesting indeed. Thanks.

We enjoyed the information in this Earthcache! Well done! It was interesting to imagine the volcanic activity so long ago. Thanks for the information and placement here!

Found it!

Finally got a good spell of weather which was a great opportunity to check out Ambury Regional Park. Didn't have time to get round all of the caches in the park today, so will be back soon to finish the remainder off!

TFTC -

**#17,094**
This one has been on the to-do list for many years!
Finally we make it out to the Lava fields.
Answers sent to CO, hopefully all good!
will add a photo shortly, Thanks!

Have just sent the answers including my photo though the message function. Thanks for creating this interesting earth cache.

An extra long weekend and decided to head to Northland to go support the Black Ferns in their final group match against Scotland. Also wanted to head to the Treaty Grounds too. In between these tourist items, got some geocaching done. A wonderful weekend and loved the range of geocaches up here - will have to come back soon.

Heading south to the Airport on the way home, but can't pass some of these caches without stopping - a number of muggles meant I missed a few on the road this trip, but that's fine because means I can come back

Good area to get out and stretch, grab a few caches. Then pack the bag and head off home.

Always good to find an earthcache and wow, wouldn't expect to see this here.

Go the Black Ferns at the upcoming Semi - Finals!!!

Thanks heaps

Great place

Getting towards the end of the day and quite tired. Interesting place that we enjoyed researching

We had a lovely walk around the area today. This was our first time visiting here, so it was lovely to see what it 'Ambury farm' was all about.
Thanks for setting up this earthcache here

A photo of one of the lava flows

M24: international Geocaching day!A day to meet and explore with other cachers, and it was a fun experience!Got to find the certain caches in the area, and the Adventure Lab, and also this earthcache. Nice to read the facts about this little place, answered the questions, and a photo to go along with it. Thanks lumin298 for taking photo.TFTC.

A nice quick find. The day was great for wandering around and caching in the park. Thanks for placing your cache. Ms_KR and I are in Auckland Auckland for a break and we are exploring the region while we are based here. The weather was good today, which was great for the International geocaching Day event. There were other finds on the way to, and from and at the venue of course. Thanks to all CO's for publishing and maintaining their caches. Cheers.

Was out here on International Geocaching Day and met lots of other geocachers at the event. Loved walking around Ambury Park. Answers sent. Thanks

Answers with Karma Reprint. Thanks for all the information. I really enjoyed this second visit to the park. ( Might have been something to do with sausage and cake). A great walk around and lots to see. Tftc.

We attended the "International Geocaching Day" event in Auckland, then set off around the park finding geocaches. I'm quite interested in earthcaches, so was happy to check this one out beforehand and then to find the answers for it. It was a great day after all the recent rain - thanks for setting this one up

Up in Ambury Park for an Event so went round the park grabbing caches, Stopped by here to answer a question for Adv Lab so stayed a bit longer to gather the information for this Earth Cache.
Answers sent and the appropriate information tucked away in the bowels of my memory for future use.
Thank you for setting up.

We had a great day out on International Geocaching Day, met lots of other geocachers. Also buzzybb & I contributed to the world record by getting just over 80 caches each today. Answers sent.

Did this one some time ago, but back walking the family around and showing the younger Mr B about lava tubes. Was a good day for it.

Exploring Ambury with GeohoundandI again because for the first time this school holiday it isn't raining. The caves are fascinating, today they were full of water but no idea if it is rain water or the tide has come this far up.

Glad the weather is calmer this morning than yesterday - nice morning for a walk to find this one - interesting history - tftc

A day out at Ambury farm to catch up on new caches in the area, grabbed this also on our travels. TFTC

Great day out for a walk, did this earth cache along the way. Thanks for bringing us here.

Always great to complete an Earthcache and learn a bit more about the geology of an area. Thanks for the effort of creating this cache. Answers have been submitted to CO.

Been here a few times but always forgot to send answers to CO! Remembered today (albeit the next morning). An interesting park and lots of caches to be found

Out with my homeschool group today with the aim of exploring this lava tube, I've been to ambury farm many times but never to here and it's worth the visit. LOVED the write up on this cache, so much interesting info and it was nice to be able to pass it onto the kids, a great place to explore, thanks for the cache, fav from me!

This was the very last cache I found today with RafaJaw. After our two successful FTFs, we had just enough energy left for a bit of Earthcaching before catching the bus home. This was a nice and easy Earthcache, true to its D/T rating, and I've sent my answers to the CO.

A really good cache page for this one, and I enjoyed reading about the formation of these lava tubes! I really like walking around Ambury Regional Park, but had no idea there were significant archaeological sites here, so it was interesting to find that out, too. Thank you so much for setting it up and providing a nice end to an afternoon well spent

After gaining 2 very lucky FTF's with lumin around Ambury regional park, we gave it one final push to grab earthcache's which we both really enjoy due to our interests in geography and geology! Enjoyed learning about some of the archaeology here and the cool lava flows ; )

This earthcache will allow me to qualify for a challenge cache - GC2RH6C, so thanks very much for setting this up J 'N' K! Answers sent to CO

Off to catch the bus now as this was the final cache of the day. 30 total finds for me :O And day 18 of my new caching streak !

Really needed a change of scenery from the four walls of home so Mini McArgister agreed to an outing. We got two ad-labs, a trad, found one DOC Kiwi Guardians post, reported an injured lamb and of course found this earthcache. Answers sent and photo attached. Thanks for setting up this volcanic cache!

#818 A nice informative and easy cache, highlighting some geological features that one would simply bypass. There were some muggles sitting at the cave opening, but that was no deterrent thankfully. TFTC

A day out with Keylev to stretch the legs. Nice windy day!

Was a good day to be out, though windy. Did rain so that's a plus. Photo with Keylev below.

Out for a little walk with B4Dawn for the first time in aaaages! Extremely windy out here today but lucky for us no rain.

Took in the sights here, found the answers, took a photo and we were on our way again.

Thanks for the cache.

Nice earthcache, will send answers when I get home

Didn’t understand the clue

Awesome spot, sending answers soon!

Spend a nice few hours in ambury park this morning, though it was rather humid, so we weren’t sure we’d get the loop finished before it started raining! Luckily we persevered, and feel justified in a nice lunch out next.

Girlguides

Tui guides #2

Lovely spot on a beautiful day tftc

Did this earthcache with kiwitrecker1 today, amazing weather to explore the park! Thanks for all the great information not only related to the lava tubes but also around the history of the use of the area.Answers sent, TFTC!!

This morning was a perfect day to visit. The sheep turds weren't too sloppy to cycle over and the ground was also nice and firm. Another added bonus was the overcast conditions because there was no tree cover to escape the sun. We had a lovely morning out in this area. Tftec

Only Kiwis would build their biggest city on an active volcanic field and the area around here really shows evidence of that past. Thanks for bringing me out here. TFTC.

Day 28 and all is going well on my Te Araroa adventure from cape reinga to bluff.
To day we left down town Auckland at 6am and will end our day at the 33 km mark around the airport somewhere.
And luckily for me i had a 5 min break to learn about this earth cache so with the needed info I continued on my way .
Loging with permission
Great earth cache thank you
Living life one foot steep at a time as i walk from cape reinga to bluff and caching my way home as I walk the
Te Araroa and discover the hidden treasures new Zealand has to offer.
From the beach of the north to the forest and lakes of the south
Blùff here i come
Thanks for the hide

tftc

Another great earthcache by the CO! Nice to stop and notice along the way, thanks for making us look at the tube! TFTC!!

Great activity TFTC

Learned a lot on this Earthcache!

Amazing to think what is underneath us sometimes.

Thanks for the Earthcache!

Had an awesome day wandering Ambury Park, feeding lambs and of course geocaching! Been here when I was a kid but cool finding out about these caves! Thanks for this awesome earth cache in a beautiful location. TFTC

Was in area last week for an Adventure Lab nearby so did this interesting earthcache too.
Thanks...

I came out here early this morning to do the local Adventure Lab as part of my contact-less caching during Level 3 and had to stop here and do this cache as well. I have sent the requisite info to the CO and enjoyed the walk around here this morning.

Always nice to squeeze in a cheeky Earthcache whilst out and about, today I managed two! A nice walk around the perimeter for a short distance and enjoyed seeing this cave and matching to the cache description, nice one. EC answers have been sent, pic to follow.

As part of our ongoing relocation from Blenheim to Auckland it's time to collect the cat from Auckland airport after his luxury (means expensive) flight from the beautiful South. That meant I had to be at the cargo shed to collect him and I made sure I was there in plenty of time. And so I decided to participate in the Ambury Farm Lab caches, and any collateral additionals (there were some). A fine day weather-wise after the house pack arrived yesterday and being allocated rooms or the garage down the road meant I needed a break, and took one.

#1118. On a ramble to complete the Ambury Farm walk Adventure Lab, GB Leader, tramyard and I couldn't pass up this Earthcache.

Will email the CO with the data required, and claim the smiley. Interesting place. Intriguing history.

Tftc J'N'K.

Found and logged with permission

Another day and another assault on the South Auckland area.
Just seems to be a never ending task here with with new caches coming out on a regular basis.
Today caching with Squirrel Nutcase, eyespy ben and abcd4. All caches today logged as HRP (Huntly, Rotorua, & Papamoa)
Hopefully this area will now have a lot more smillie faces. Great effort today.

Great walk around the park
Last one here
Nice wee earthcache

With ABCDF4, eyespyben, and Gap (of Fap and Gap)... We signed logs with our team handle: Team HRP (Huntly, Rotorua, Papamoa). Our plan was hastily decided upon - to focus on South-West Auckland...

“I like the Mangere Watercare Wastewater Treatment Plant,” said nobody, ever... But it’s been an amazing place for caching over the years. We’ve not ventured this far along the Coastal Walkway before, so the sights we are seeing are new... We did another nearby EarthCache at the Mangere Lagoon, and it was great to see how this one related. The accompanying signage and some latter reading helped us to understand how this formation came about. An interesting lesson - Thanks J ‘N’ K and TFTEC.

Back on the road again wioth Squirrel Nutcase,Fap&Gap and EyespyBen
We signed the Log as HRP team
Great walk around the park
Thanks to the CO for the placements

I was able to walk to this earthcache from my new "preparing for level 4 lock-down" location in Mangere (while waiting to find flights home). The park here is a splendid area for getting out for some exercise and with the added bonus of some interesting geology. I soon discovered this lava tube entrance, its outflow location and the relevant signage - and on my later walks in Ambury Park I was able to discover several more lava tubes, the entrances to some of which have been blocked to stop livestock falling in! Answers are on their way by email - with my thanks for setting this earthcache.

#207

Nice , found this here as we had just found the ‘Robot Launch Pad’ cache close to this.

Got to GZ and saw the sign with the info. Answered the questions and then did a little trek to answer another one.

Cache in good condition and nice to find while out on an adventure today

TFTC

*(Cache #5 of TeamCacheventures caching adventure today)*

Decided to spend some hours today collecting geocaches around the area. It was sunny and windy. TFTEC

We spent our first night in New Zealand at this nice spot. We were very tired but made a short walk and solved this interesting earth Cache.
Thnaks for this Cache.
MS Scout

Thank you for bringing us to a place we would otherwise not came to! TFTC

This is an awesome location! Thanks a lot for the earth cache!

Found on the way to other cache

Whilst having an overnight camp with the kids at Ambury Farm, we decided to go for a walk and get a couple of caches. On the way back, I thought some school holiday education and discover was in order, so we did the Earth cache. Thanks for putting this together, was fun!

11165
This morning we made the same stroll as I did yesterday evening, from our campsite at Ambury Park. I dropped a coin off in the traditional and we kept ourselves busy with this earthcache. Thanks for showing us this!

#1850
Great EC and nice walk on the ancient lava rocks .

We found the cache "Ambury Farm Lava Tubes (Auckland)" during our road trip through New Zealand. We started in December 2018 at Auckland and we'll travel with our campervan to the very south. The landscape and nature is overwhelming . It's always a lot of fun and a great adventure to go for this hobby in our vacation too . Thanks to the Owner "J 'N' K" who placed the cache and his maintenance in the future!!! 

At this place of the log, I would like to put all the best regards from Aalen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany in this cache as well [^].

Trades: In: - / Out: -
Rating: D 1.0 / T 1.5

TFTC
sephiroth99 / 30. Dezember 2018 19:40

**This was 1 of 8 caches that was found by me on the 19th of 19 days in New Zealand.**
**Which also was the 72nd of 75 days that my travels thru southeast Asia and Oceania would last.**

Unlike the wise sheep in the area, that laid down in the shadow under an big tree, I had to stay in the sunshine for the entire time that was walking around in the meadows. Luckily it was only an matter of walking a few hundreds of meters so I thought that I would be OK.

The lava tube was of an kind that I never has seen before. And then I have been inside those that where large enough to drive an bus trough and those so small that it just possible to crawl thru them.

The answers did I send via Message center on December 18th.

*During 19 days I traveled from Christchurch to Auckland in an SUV, that i also slept in during most of the nights. 5.956 km of driving did it take to visit the 351 caches that I have marked as found in c:geo.*

*Earthcaches was my main focus during the stay. And I manage to visit 106 of them. So New Zealand is right now the only country where earthcaches are my most found cache type .*

We'd been at Western Springs, enjoying seeing more than a dozen Royal Spoonbill roosting in the trees, but made a last-minute decision to come down to Ambury Regional Park after Mr RW spoke to another birder there and was told about the variety of shorebirds here. As it turns out, this probably isn't the best time to see most of them, but we enjoyed a short walk by the shore and definitely have it on our agenda for later on in Spring when more migrants will have turned up. Thank you for drawing our attention to the lava tubes - what a fascinating spot!

Very cool spot, thanks for bringing us here!

Nice spot right on the water. Too small for me to go in and no torch as well. We have really big lava tubes in my home state of Oregon. TFTEC!

We weren’t intending to stop at Ambury Farm for the night but our alternative let us down so we found ourselves camped us less than 180 metres from an EarthCache. After feeding the crook with her two offspring we wandered over to the lava tube. On tv I’ve seen some impressive ones in Hawaii but I’d never seen one in real life. I’ve emailed my answers to the EC owner so before it rains again it’s time to head black to the camper for a beer.

May 27, 201816:12:32 GMT+12 Find#6843

Here’s a synopsis of my caching journey so far:
I've been geocaching since January 2011
My longest caching streak is 366 consecutive days. I gave this streak up when it became a chore and I had to drive miles to get my daily cache.
My busiest caching day had 179 finds when I walked the SWALK series above Shoreham, Sussex, UK.
My most diverse day was 3rd August 2016 when I achieved 11 icons traveling up to the UK Mega – Wales.
I’m currently working towards my 3rd and 4th loops of the Difficulty / Terrain grid and only need 4 caches to complete both.
I've been First to Find a geocache on 385 occasions.

Thanks J 'N' K for the geocache!

**The UK Mega is coming to Sussex in 2020 for the first time.
Join our [Facebook Group](https://www.facebook.com/SussexMega/) to keep up to date with developments.
Visit our [Website](https://www.mega2020.org.uk/) for more information and to get involved**

The second cache and my thorough volcano education already started This was an easy one, the data was quickly found and sent to the cache owner. Beautiful spot like most of New Zealand apparently.

Thank you for the cache!

--------

I arrived in New Zealand and after sleeping off the jetlag, I spent a day mostly geocaching around Auckland. Nice weather, though hot in the sun but chilly when the clouds covered it. Putting the coat on and off all the time ... Love the waterproof paper in film boxes and similar, it's not very common in Europe.

Ambury Farm's one of our family's favourite daytrip spots. Along with the wildlife, there are some great lava formations here - thanks for drawing or attention to them.

The kids crawled through it!

Out at the geocaching Christmas Event so decided to complete this earth cache while we were close by. After seeing the lava cave exhibition down at the viaduct basin last week we found this location very interesting. Thanks J 'N' K for bringing us to this great location. We learnt a lot and had fun doing it. Favourite from us.

Lovely place for walk. Full of birds and volcano history. Thank you for bringing me here.

Enjoyed walking round here today, loved the cave and lava and mangroves nearby.

Had some spare time this arvo so decided on a nice walk to gather a few stray caches, took the long way and really enjoyed the walk.

No one else about so I was able to get the required information with no problem

Had the best day out caching in ages with my dad Stevecoxnz
Loved the lava tunnels
Tftc.

Tftc. What an education this was. Was out with my son from Pricefamily6 today caching the area and this one was really neat. Loved the cave & followed the tube to the exit point.

What an interesting piece of geology. We have never seen a lava tube before and didn’t know this was here so really enjoyed learning about the history as we answered the questions.
Thanks for a fascinating and educational Earthcache.

Found this yesterday. A nice sunny walk around the park. A neat spot for this geocache! Thanks!

Cool spot! Lots of sheep around. Tftc! Will email answers later.

Answers verified, and am happy to log this cache. The earth ones are interesting, I think I'll try some more of them.
TFTC

What a wonderful park, staying in the campground and doing the caches around here. Interesting place and info, answers sent to CO, cheers

Beautiful park and interesting volcanic spot. Unfortunately today is my last day in New Zealand!

Sadly [B)] this is my last full day of 23 days in New Zealand on a geocaching holiday-trip covering Thailand, Australia and finally my beloved NZ .

Could New Zealand possibly have offered some better weather for this last day? No!
The Rangitoto-trip had to be cancelled due to heavy rain [B)] and instead I went to a dense cache-area in the south where I thought rain wouldn't matter so much .

The very wet catch of the day consisted of 29 traditionals , an awesome earth-cache and about 2 litres of water in my shoes, clothes and hair ...

After all these traditional caches on powertrails in the area today, I thought it would be a good idea to do something sense full .
So I learned about lava eruptions, the Ambury Regional Park and visited this interesting earth cache . This was my highlight of the day!
Thanks for the lesson learned and for guiding me to this awesome place. [:X]

Thanks to all owners involved [:X] [^] and special thanks to keylev and G-2's Bodyguard as the top-contributors to the finds today [:X] [:X]!
Cheers from Germany

Yes! We did the necessary work and got the cache. A lovely little puzzle. TFTC

Got our answers right. What an awesome natural feature! Thanks for the geology lesson. TFTC!!

I thought I would spend the day geocaching and wanted to get a mixture too. After roaming all over Ambury Park trying to find In Transit, I was keen to follow up with this interesting Earthcache. It was interesting, not too demanding and also able to grab a nearby traditional at the same time...ideal!

Good fun Earthcache, and kind of the CO to message back at such a busy time of year. Thanks for creating this and best wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy New Year from us.

Another group of blockhouse bay girl guides

Whoops never posted

Great little cache to do