Just another Rose (Waikato) Hamilton East, North Island, New Zealand
By Butterfly_Lady on 18-Feb-09. Waypoint GC1MVYT

Sadly it is time for this one to go. After being in place for almost 14 years, and 537 finds. The gardeners do a fantastic job maintaining this wonderful exhibit, but the changes in staff have meant our little secret hide has suffered just too often recently.

It is an aim of ours to support older listings, enabling cachers to put their name against those who started and ran our hobby in the early years. We researched options for moving this hide to somewhere close enough to retain the name and listing, but alas there is no obvious, but less intensively gardened spot nearby.

We have a spare container, so perhaps a similar hide will emerge in the area in memory of the Rose some time soon.

Sadly .... checked yesterday and the cache is no longer in place. Again.
Disappointed as we originally had the support of the gardeners here.... but time has moved on, staff have changed and we must consider whether to continue with this one.

Lots of fresh mulch here, so the cache looks to be buried, which is against the guidelines.
Scraped a lot of the garden bed in a vain effort to unearth it, but without success. Didnt feel good digging away in the garden bed - felt very conspicuous and was waiting to be told off for disturbing it. Gave up after 10 mins.

Couldn’t find it will have to come back another day

.

TFTC haven't seen any like this one ere
enjoying the hunt cheers

As french we had a hard time understanding the hint. For us the GPS point was not on the right garden. But still we managed to found it. TFTC

The disturbance is complete, a new cache installed exactly the same as before, in the spot described in the hint.

Ready for Rose enthusiasts to find!

Checked out the cache, and there has been some mechanical disturbance that needs rectifying. The solution is influenced by others, so the cache will be off-line for a while.

Our first DNF, but are sure it's not there, very open garden today...

Once again a did not find, it after the hint from the cache owner.

We had an idea as to what we were looking for but unfortunately had no luck today.
After an initial try we messaged the CO who kindly gave us a nudge in the right direction and after a walk around the lake we returned for another go.
Unfortunately after an extensive search we still came up empty handed.
This is a beautiful spot and we loved looking at all the flowers. We look forward to returning next time we are in the area.

A couple of weeks back had noticed the 18th @ 18 event being held in Hamilton on a public holiday and thought it would be a good excuse to head down for the day. We (Mr NZTravellers, NZIceman and I) started a little later than planned due to new local publications which needed the ‘patch defending’. After a quick coffee at home we set off.

It was starting to get dark and I had seen from the logs this may be tricky but we were keen for a quick peek. Only spent a few minutes before deciding to leave it and return another time.

I'm not shy to log second DNF here. Used hint and so. Well maybe third time lucky huh?

Another owner cache check, and it is all in order. In one way finding this one is more difficult at this time of year with the new mulch applied, in another it is much easier as the roses are flowering, and the cache page has a photo of the rose so you know which area it is in.

Please read the hint and see more details on where to look. If you are going to log a did not find, please mention if you decided not to read the hint, so we don’t need to check the cache.

Note this is a 2.5 difficulty also, so not meant to be a ‘walk up and grab’, but note also it has been found by 535 people in its life.

Did not find. Spent a good 20 minutes looking for it.

Maybe under the mulch?

Could not find. Has been recently been mulched

Gardeners add mulch to the beautiful rose gardens every early spring.
Cache is usually GL, but with mulch, may hide more

Read all the hints and amongst the mulch the search felt impossible. Can we get a check that its in place?

Garden beds have a new layer of thick mulch, so could be buried a bit. Will try again another time of year.

Quick stop by on the way past in between rain
Had a good look but wasn't sure where it could have been with no bushes.
But just as I was about to give up something caught my eye.
Bit of a hard time getting it free but once I did I was sure it was the cache.
Opened it up and there was the log
Quick sign and replace and on my way

We turned the sad face into a smiley face. Great find loved the location. Photo won't show to much obvious clues

Found with help from rossmcg156. Well hidden good hide

Found with GTT4 where Mr GTT4 drew blood in the effort to find it. Mr Ross only found it after I read back to the co extra hints. So pleased to be not amongst the 10% of dnfs

Found it after 20 minute search slightly buried with leaves, good find!

Yoooo. Looked for it the first time 3 days ago couldn’t find it. Been bothering me ever since! Had to get my sis in to help. Very well hidden. Got pricked once or twice too! Ah well all part of the adventure thanks for this one

Not gonna lie, this one was a real challenge for my partner and I. We probably spent an hour and a half looking for the cache once we realised where GZ was. We hunted around and around, and I must say for two relatively onto it people this cache was a lot harder to find than expected. The cache container was excellent and the camo was hardcore- definitely completely hidden. It was an awesome caching experience, although rather muddy after the rain. Thanks so much for the cache, favourite point awarded.

Unfortunately we couldn't find. It was getting to dark to search. Will come back another day to search.

Found after a good mucking in!

Found, few prickles later

Decided I'd had enough of being pricked...maybe another time. Searched for ages but got to smell lots of beautiful roses.

Looked for this one several times without success. Came today with geopup while waiting for a friend who has an appointment at the hospital. Not intending to geocache so had no pen, wouldn't you know it.... there it was hidden in plain sight. Took a photo of the log (attached). Hope this is sufficient evidence. TFTC.

Adding myself to the 10% DNF team. Too tough for me, a few options and circled 3 in particular but nothing likely sighted

Never knew this park existed, its impressive! Very busy today but no problems near gz. Took us a long time jumping garden to garden but we went back to the first place we tried. Took us a long time and it was very well hidden. There was no log in the bison so added a waterproof page we had on hand. Awesome cache!

Had several tries at this one but no joy again today. Beautiful rose gardens none the less

Man o man. We spent one evening with a friend. And then another morning. We were convinced that the cache had gone (even though everyone else had thought the same, yes yes).

Then contacted Butterfly and she was really nice and checked the cache over night. Yes it was still there.

Then third trial. Round and round the bed of roses. By then we knew what we were looking for. Finally. I could have sworn we had dug and combed through and cleared the same place several times, but then it was just there. Ha.

As a bonus, here my wildest theory (totally not true). The 'rose by any other name' appears in Romeo and Juliet -- so I was looking for a rose called Montague (totally ignoring my GPS for a while). Yea, well. Never mind.

Thank you for the cache and the maintenance and the help.

Found it at last!

Nice hide thanx

Great hide

Not going to lie, think this is the third time we’ve searched for this cache! Roses recently pruned & pea straw nearly decomposed certainly improved our prospects. Very clever little cache. Thanks!

Back again checking after receiving a message from an unsuccessful searcher – and confirmed it is in place as listed. We have expanded the hint a little to help..

This is a good time of year to search – check the photo in this page, and match the rose beds.

A reminder.
Cache name. GL.
Camouflaged.
Gardeners know it is there...
But sometimes they need to mulch the roses.

No luck couldn’t find it

Came here to find this before I started the AL. Pretty sure I had the right area, correct colour unnamed rose? Coordinates pretty consistent, but gave up after 15 minutes.

Not sure if this is my 3rd or 4th attempt. After my last time I was up from Palmy I had an idea of what it could be so thought it would be a more straight forward the next time. Well, we're back for Christmas and after reading the CO's log we thought we'd attempt this again. We had the area to ourselves for a good 30mins, despite how busy the playground was, but we just couldn't fisn the elusive find. At least it was a nice sunny spot for the kids to eat their ice creams!

Could be anywhere

IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE FINDING THIS CACHE, AND SCANNING LOG - LOOK AT THIS ONE.
Checked out the cache today after the DNF logs, and it is exactly where it should be, and as placed 11 years ago.
Someone a while back said they thought it was 'below ground'. We can't see why anyone thought that, it has never been found below ground on any of our checks.
It is a rose though, and all types of rose must be grounded to be useful.
Once a year the good gardeners mulch the roses in spring. This makes most roses thrive, for others it just adds to the cammo. It does not stop the rose from being a rose though, sitting there for for you to use a bit of imagination.
The waypoint is pretty accurate, if you have a real GPSr, trust it.
Sadly the name sign for the bed disappeared some years ago, without being replaced, so that does not provide a way of a giving direct hint (but this statement should help).
At this time of year look for a bed with lovely light red/orange roses showing.

This is meant to be trickle, but nothing in the description is wrong...

Enjoy the hunt.

Called here this afternoon and had a bit of a look but it’s exactly as Flowerydaze said, and I gave up for the same reasons.

Our GPS brought us to a rose bed and we noted a previous comment that the cache is below ground now. The rose beds have recently been covered with a thick layer of manure/pea straw mix so I wasn't prepared to go poking through that. Disappointed.

Found with help 20 8 20 09.30

A helping hint was needed for this one

Checked out today, and still in place, exactly at the correct spot. Think of possible multiple meanings of the cache title.

2nd day playing couldn't find this one

Oh it's a tricky one. Not the first time I've been here to locate thr sneaky hide and even with 15mins with no muggles in sight we still couldn't find it. I'll need to use the brains of my muggle partner to help with this one. At least the kids had fun at the playground!!

No luck today with the grandees

Sorry. We could not make it today. Even with previous finders it was hard and we left this spot without yellow smile. Well , maybe another time.

Baffling - thought I knew what this would be but no luck.

Checked it out, all present and correct, exactly at the waypoint.

No joy here but beautiful roses and none of them shakperean. Lol.

We have gone down to Alert 3 in our Covid-19 lockdown, and Geocaching is now allowed, so time to re-enable the caches.

DISABLING THIS CACHE TO DISCOURAGE HUNTING DURING THE COVID-19 LOCK-DOWN. NEW LOGS AFTER TODAY MAY BE DELETED. THE CACHE WILL BE BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

This is a difficult cache.
The name of the rose is in the picture, if you know how to find it, but at GZ, the label is no longer there.
You are looking for a different type of rose (not all roses flower!)
Please think beyond....

I took a short walk to get some exercise and looked for this cache. I knew what to look for, but it was not found. Maybe someone could mention the name of the rose where the cache is hidden. And don't just say, "Look at the cache name". TFTC.

I went around looking for a long time once I got to GZ but still no luck. Third DNF for me today which is a real stinker.

After reviewing the recent logs, we thought it was worth another maintenance trip to follow up yesterdays experience. This time we were on our Provincial Holiday day, so the gardner is less likely to be around.

We had the place to ourselves, so looked around with more energy, and found two caches!

The cache we spotted yesterday proved to be the origonal that we replaced in Nov last year..and the Nov replacement was nearby. The origonal had been stuck in by someone, so we freed it up, removed the Nov replacement, and now one cache is ready for your to seek.

Do note the difficulty on this cache. It is NOT a box. You need to think about the cache name

Checked the cache, and it is in place correctly. There was a gardner very close, so a detailed inspection was not possible - but it is there for you to find.

We are confused by the comment in one log about caches "not being given the waypoint" - this cache is exactly at the listed waypoint,, it is just a bit tricky to recognise - hence the high-ish difficulty rating.

Couldn’t find this one, and had to give up because it was too hot in the middle of the day. My GPS seemed to be playing up also, which didn’t help. Gardens were spectacular!!

Haven't quite got the hang of this "finding the cache without being given the exact coordinates" sort of shindig, so no luck for me today

After a curious sequence of Did Not Find, followed by a find, then more DNFs, we messaged the finder a couple of times to see where the cache may have crept to. We had already confirmed the cache was not where it was meant to be, but that is not unusual...
With no reply, we have to give up and assume it is gone, so a replacement cache went in at the correct spot today.
There may be two caches there now, if you find two, please put them together and include the info in your log.

Had a look around, couldn't find anything. Pretty sure we found the right rose bed.

Looked through the logs and are pretty sure we had the right bed and possibly theory about what we were looking for but no luck.

Couldn’t find! Had a look around and did some digging but nothing! Will try another day

Too much pea straw on the gardens and muggles sitting on a bench above the gardens so I didn't do any digging. Left it for another day.

Dnf the gardens had been dug up and new wood but down so not sure if it's still here

After a dnf we had a play at the park miss 10 found it after some digging now its below ground

At our second visit we found the well hidden cache...greetings from Belgium

A second attempt to find this cache after a visit last year. This time i found the cache quickly. Can't believe i mist it last year! Thanks for hiding!

A place I’ve visited many times before. A nice refuge on a winters day. Love the hiding place. It was not where we expected to find it, but the description was 100% correct.

OK, you asked for a story - I'm traveling in my motorhome and spent 5 nights house sitting in Hamilton. Today was the only chance that I got to go geo caching, and this was only cache that I looked for. It was a miserable cold wet grey day, and there was nobody else in this semi hidden rose garden, tucked on the side of the Domain and secreted behind hedges. It's just as well there was No-one around, as I Wandered in decreasing circles while my device tried to get a satellite lock through the cloud cover. I finally pinned it down to one particular feature, and circled that before finally spotting the hide.

A very clever hide, well thought out and a pleasant change from the standard containers. Thank you for your effort, and thanks for showing me the rose garden that I would have missed if there was not a cache in it

10/5/2019

Beautiful location. Great hide. Came for a walk with the family on a beautiful afternoon that followed a very foggy Waikato morning. TFTC

Nice hide...
TFTC
# 1100 April 20, 2019 17:33

This was the last milestone points for the CCE. Great hide. The roses smelt great. At least got time to smell the roses. Great sunset as well.

Great hide. A rose by any other name. Brilliant. Had us head scratching but we were in a garden of roses. What could go wrong? With a sprinkling of determination and grit we rose to the challenge.

Found it! Yay

Found by Blenheim Bear up in Hamilton for a hospital visit and picking up a few high ranking caches for the current challenge, a rose by any other name indeed, all good at gz. Thanks for the cache Blenheim Bear

Managed to grab this one last cache before hesding over to the lake nearby to catch the beautiful sunset. Cache is very obvious but hidden smartly. Was very happy to ne able to drop by here to see the locals enjoying their family time at the park, getting a splice of NZ local life!
TFTC and hello from Singapore!
#1228

We correctly deduced what we were looking for, and once our GPS settled, we soon spotted this nice little cache, which gets a favourite from us. TFTC

#6587. I have come up to Hamilton for several days for a work trip but have added some extra time to the trip to give me a chance to find some Hamilton caches. Haven't done much caching in Hamilton before and the map on the GPS is full of boxes. So its a case of finding one and looking for a nearby cache to go to next. Headed into the rose garden and started the search. Not sure what I was looking for but eventually spied something that needed closer inspection. Yes its the cache. Just then two muggles arrived to eat their ice-cream on the park bench. So took the cache away. Signed the logbook and slowly worked my way back and put the cache back where I found it. Thanks for hiding it here Butterfly_Lady. Nicely concealed cache.

Found it after a bit of a wait for muggles to walk past. Thanks

Not this time

Great find. Had me stumped at first, but really enjoyed that one.

Glad to knock this one off the DNF list, always suprises me just how close I got to it last time without seeing it. Lovely quiet morning at the lake. Tftc.

Found with Angela J after a walk round lake. TFTC

Have dirty hands. Happy first find of the year

Pretty sure I had the right spot via the co ordinates, the description and the satellite map, but no joy. Rummages around for quite a while. Will need to go back and have another look when I'm passing through again.

Cool cache but boy was that a challenging search! Unlike some other mentions, I had no idea what I was looking for so having searched through previous logs, plenty of mulch and multiple beds, as well as trying to find gz...I finally stumbled across it...very well camouflaged & buried!
It was a fun hunt though, and definitely worth it to see the cache, plus I got to sign a clean log sheet!! TFTC I shall now carry on walking around the lake

Checked the cache out today, and it was in place a usual - although it was obscured a bit - cleared around the hide, and all ready for the next search.

I'm sorry to say its another DNF. I've found a cache in a very similar situation before so armed with the hint plus cache name plus what it said in the description I thought it would be an easy find. 10 minutes of repeatedly beating backwards and forwards with no joy. Leads me to wonder whether a) the camo object has been removed or b) it has been covered by the copious amounts of pea straw mulch that surrounds all the roses in the rose beds, so is no longer visible. I didn't have my usual walking pole with me to prod around through all that mulch on the off chance that it would hit something that had been covered. Such is life.

JB, TT & I are on a day-trip to Hamilton to complete a Challenge qualification. And to retry a few DNFs from over the years. And finally, to grab some great caches to qualify for the Caching Connoisseur souvenir. We started the day turning a couple of DNFs into a smileys. One more DNF for the lads wanting to find the Hamilton TB Hotel & Spa.
Then onto the **Caching Connoisseur souvenir** hunt.
I had previously attempted this one with no result, so we were very hopeful - but after half an hour’s GZ’ding with three devices, six eyes and triangulating even - we admitted defeat.
This will now play on the lad’s consciousness but hopefully a lot less than the four years it’s played on mine.
**We will return**