Tail of Two Brothers ( South Canterbury ) Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand
By Bitsprayer on 12-Mar-09. Waypoint GC1NK1F

Primo day for a little road trip over from chch, even managed to beat the buses. Grabbed a few caches in town then a short sharp hike up the hill and finally a (very quick) swim in the lake.Planned to head up to the observatory but was too late and gates shut. Then remembered seeing a cache on the map here so took a little detour down to the lake - so quiet and peaceful compared to its sister Tekapo. Nice easy multi and final not too far away. If I'm to nitpick though, the instructions could do with an edit where it says number of "letters with and E" to "words with an E"

Found - Mrs McMike2012 & I live full-time in our caravan travelling around NZ, visiting the places we want to visit & doing the things we want to do and fitting in a bit of Geocaching here & there we had been staying in mid-Canterbury enjoying some of the DoC Campsites but were now moving into the Mackenzie Country area needed to find a cache today, so we went for a drive out round the back of Tekapo to Lake Alexandrina with the intention of getting this Multi-Cache questions answered, co-ordinates sorted & off to find the Final the Final-Cache was an easy find, log-book signed, cache was returned as found were also pleased to add another 'smiley face' to the tally TFTC ... TN:LN:LS this was #6,524 for us!

Armed with jandals and a chilly bin, a couple of Aussies headed across the ditch for a 3-week tiki tour, exploring the beauty of New Zealand.DAY 17: Mt Cook and Lake Tekapo. A quick stop here to check out Lake Alexandria. We found the container but the lid was not closed. Once signed, we replaced with the lid closed properly, ready for the next finder.Thanks for showing us this special place by placing this cache, Bitsprayer tn koe~~

We started our beautiful journey through the South Island in Christchurch. Here we went on a big sightseeing tour and visited lots of caches. We then travelled via Lake Tapeko, Dansey Pass and Moeraki to Dunedin for the MEGA event. In Dunedin we visited the MEGA events and together with many other cachers we found many caches around Dunedin. A few days later, we travelled on through the Catlins to the southernmost part of Bluff. We then visited Te Anau and the tourist town of Queenstown. In Wanaka we went on another sightseeing tour until we reached the west coast via the Haast Pass. We hiked to Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier.We continued along the west coast up to Westport, stopping at various sights along the way. Richmond and Nelson, the sunniest cities, were also on our list.A few days later we reached the east coast again in the wine region of Picton and Blenheim.After a few days, we travelled back to Christchurch via Kaikoura.We visited many geological sites, completed many adventure cahes and found many caches along the way.We travelled almost 3500 km and had so many great experiences.Many thanks to all the ownersTeam sissifalke

Magical area to sit in camper & solve our puzzle - TFTC

Found with Gummi_Venus. I had a hunch about GZ as we drove up. Turns out I was close but not by enough. We quickly put together the coords and made the find. Then we went into town to have a look at the lake. My thatd be a great place for a cache wheels were turning. We met a friendly local out at the bach for the holiday weekend. He gave us all sorts of interesting local knowledge, having spent as much time as he could here for many years. This is quite a place. I seem to recall stopping nearby looking for a place to camp my first week in NZ in 2018. Never wouldve thought Id be back here years later as a local looking for caches.

Co-ordinates not correct

Wow, that wind! Struggled to open the truck door. Numbers obtained we doubted our co ordinates. But sure enough they were spot on. A wild windswept place today. Thanks for placing this cache & bringing us up here.

Great happy place fir me too

Thanks for placing this cache for us to enjoy. Walking around Mt John with team adinache finding a few caches. Thanks for the views and apologies for the super late log.

Sad plaque. Calculated the coordinates for the puzzle and headed to GZ. Soon found cache, signed and replaced. Drove to the end of the track to have a look at the lake holiday huts. The ducks were the only residents of the settlement the day we visited and were not impressed to have visitors. TFTC

Amazing views from this geocache on a beautiful cold but sunny day. Had got the cords a while ago but not been to retrieve the smile thanks

We visited Lake Alexandrina today, our first time in this area, and collected this multi on the way. The calculations were straightforward and the cache was a quick find, exactly where the coords led us. All good with the cache. TFTC Bitsprayer.

The first of several caches we located as we meandered our way from Tekapo to Twizel today. Good little ‘puzzle’ to work out, and then pleasing that it wasn’t a great distance to walk to pick up the goods! #6021. TFTC.

Found all answers quickly, thanks to Bitsprayer who confirmed and corrected one number. Today we could find the container easily in a nice environment.
Without geocaching we would have never gotten here. That's why we love it. Therefore we leave a FP here. TftC.

Found with Three Sharpe. So beautiful here.

Found with TwoSharpe. First cache found for the holiday. TFTC

With rustynz, thanks for bringing us here

Love doing multis, so made the detour to gz. Calculated some numbers, no check sum, but I was checking rebel98 numbers. Thankfully cgeo has offline maps, so with info updated I was soon walking to the cache.

Happy to be signing the log, a sad history, thanks

Got the details but will do the signing on the next trip stunning views on a beautiful day. No signal here.

Exploring new ground around Tekapo and discovered this.
Found with ice Diva
TftC

What a lovely spot! Found with Conbat. TFTC!

Just tried going up Mt John but its a no go by road as closed Mon-Wed. So have to take to long way up. But we are here so lets see what else we can snag. Gathered the info for this multi and its off over there to capture this one and leave our calling card. Cheers. Lovely clear views up the valley today.

Day 3 - Wednesday 22 December - Lake Pukaki to Timaru, Ashburton. We cached around Tekapo this morning. Mt John road was closed so walked up from the lake. Then headed to Timaru for some TMGT and PWGT. Left aafter dinner to spend the night in Ashburton

The Seagnoid, Zara, Toby and I are of on another Geo adventure this time to Mt Cook for 5 days. Met up with Bullertrout and Bro on the way down. Lake Pukaki was fine but Mt Cook was wet and wild with the Hooker Valley being closed due to high winds, so did not stay long. We went exploring Tekapo, Timaru and a round trip to Lake Coleridge. Short trip and very tiring but awesome.

Another case of interesting grammer or spelling in a cache title. Makes writing logs that much harder. But here goes...

Yesterday Taybeedragon and I whirr at Mt Cork. We planned two stay there too nights but there was a howling Gayle up there, and it was raining. And cloudy. The Hook Her Valley was closed with a big gait across the bridge. Many other tracks were outright dodgy. Aorangi had bean removed for cleaning and they say it will bee a couple of days before it is dried out thoroughly enough too bee returned. We can't wait that long. So at the end of won day wee had done all the walking we could do and left, forfeiting both knight's accommodation. Wee spent the knight in Tekapo. So I have at last bean two Mt Cook but still have yet to sea Aorangi.

Arrgh! Enough of that!

Today it is sunny, light winds. It's still a howling gale at the top of Roto Pukaki though. We headed into town early to get the urban caches before the muggles made things awkward. Then headed to the top of Mt John. Which was aborted quickly as the road is closed Monday to Wednesday. Mildly annoying. So we are heading back into town to walk up, but first a stop by this cache.

I thought I had been clever and worked out the final at home. But same as the previous finder I had made a stupid mistake in my counting and ended up in the grass and tussock in the rain searching several hint items. Ok back to the plaque which I had luckily spotted on the way in as there was no reception and the GPS had the changed coordinates in it. Took a photo and back to the car out of the rain to see where I had gone wrong - derrrrr! Then off to the reworked final. The cache was very brittle and when I was putting the top back on my fingers went right through it. Another trip back to the car for a new container - that should keep it going for another fair few years. Decided to flag the walk around the top of Mt John and leave it for a much nicer day. TFTC # 17,818

It is so peaceful here. Just loving the whole area but Lake Alexandrina is very special. So sad to come across this memorial and wonder how it happened. Soon had the coordinates for the final and headed off to find the cache. Almost couldn't reach in to it but got there! TFTC.

What a beautiful spot on a glorious autumn day with the golden trees along the water front. A very silly elementary mistake with the numbers which first took us in the wrong direction to a rock field, where a widened search proved fruitless... but we wanted to walk further check out the waterfront anyway! Once we had climbed back to the plaque the mistake was spotted, and the very obvious hide location immediately spotted, and log signed. TFTC!

We are camped at Tekapo and left our cat Coco guarding motorhome lol. Off we went in Suzy to explore.
What a sad story, hope the two brothers were having fun.
Thanks for bringing us here, the multi and the cache Bitsprayer.

An interesting multi.

A nice easy multi. Poor boys. JDSCOUT and I are having a campervan holiday in Fairlie. Jude_E is staying nearby too. We decided to go out to Tekapo today. Thanks Bitsprayer for creating this hide. It was find 9772 for me.

======== NZ Mega 2021 ========
Planning for the NZ Mega 2021 event is well underway. It will be held in Auckland over Labour Weekend, October 2021

I remember this tragic accident. It seemed so unlikely on such a wee lake. It's good to stop and remember people. So sad for their families. Thanks for the multi.
#6710

Was down here a few years ago to see the lake. Quite busy. Cloudy day but wonderful landscapes. Thanks.

Down from New Plymouth so missed the road in to this because of the gate across the entrance got it sorted and made way to sad plaque made the calculation and trotted off to the final Coming from up north we don’t get sky’s like this so took some photos thanks bitsprayer lovely wee lake

A New Years Day caching mission as we walked around Lake Tekapo and the Mount John Observatory.

A quick find.

#6437

Found with StreetWalkerNZ on day one of our southerrrn geocaching trip.
This was another multi I had solved at home, so we decided to make the short detour to Lake Alexandrina and look for the cache. Just one place it could be and there it was. Even though the container is missing a clip on one side, the contents are in good dry condition due to the hiding spot. A sad tale indeed of two brothers. Thanks, Bitsprayer.

#18771. Placing this cache is a nice way to mark this sad event. We'd driven out of the rain at Burkes Pass, and just had a cold southerly to contend with on the short walk to GZ. TFTC.

After starting our honeymoon down in Queenstown a couple of days ago, we drove up to Tekapo yesterday to do some exploring up this way too. We had a good sleep in, found some breakfast at our hotel and it was then time to check out the area and grab the local caches.We had plans to drive up to check out Mt John Observatory but noticed the road up was shut on Wednesdays (and it looked like a big walk!), but then spotted this guy off in the other direction so decided we'd give it a go.Thanks for the nice easy multi and giving us the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the area, even with the sad story.Found with Loz47

After starting our honeymoon down in Queenstown a couple of days ago, we drove up to Tekapo yesterday to do some exploring up this way too. We had a good sleep in, found some breakfast at our hotel and it was then time to check out the area and grab the local caches.

We had plans to drive up to check out Mt John Observatory but noticed the road up was shut on Wednesdays (and it looked like a big walk!), but then spotted this guy off in the other direction so decided we'd give it a go.

Thanks for the nice easy multi and giving us the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the area, even with the sad story.

Found ok after reading a few logs for one answer now missing off the plaque. My first guess at that digit had me getting wet feet so clearly wasn’t correct! Thanks

Awesome spot on a beautiful NE windy Day. TFTC

Tftc

Thanks a Lot! That’s a very nice spot

Age 63 and 62
Drowned 22/2/1992
Both from Switzerland

An enjoyable weekend enjoying the scenic McKenzie area, and finding some great caches along the way. A slight miscalculation resulted in some extra looking and walking - but got there eventually. TFTC

There is a gate on the main road!?!!

Thanks for bringing up this cache!

Vielen Dank fürs legen und pflegen und beste Grüße aus Leipzig!
Thanks for hiding and many greetings from Leipzig/Germany!

Found it. A great area to visit.
TFTC

Out doing a few caches with Aussie Pete and Kiwi Heather. First time I have been to this part of the lake. TFTC

Really enjoyed this cache. Quite moody and windy today. Thanks for placing.

Fun multi on a windy day. TFTC

4wd winter road. Will be back in summer

This was more difficult than expected. We stopped a first time and solved the coordinates. However, it was snowy, and we didn't have proper shoes to retrieve it. On our second stop we searched quite a while. After looking at the sign again, we found a mistake in our coordinates. Once corrected, it was an easy find. Breathtaking views. Thanks for the cache.

snow on the road driving in to lake McGregor. sun came out just enough to tempt us on the lakeside walk.still and peaceful on the lake. decent 90min walk to warm us up. thankfully was a simple solve and quick find once at gz. took a direct high cross country route back and rewarding views. big country delicate covering of snow. tftc

Out with Robynjst and Claireyc on a windy Easter Day tftc

TFTC out with nzref who flew down for a surprise visit

Worked out the co-ords but then wondered where this was taking us. Found what we were looking for though. tftc

Easy multi another nice spot thanks

Easy multi and final found once right rock located. TFTC

Never been here before. Had the kayak with me for a paddle, but way too windy today. Found the plaque and quickly obtained the numbers. Cache found after a short stroll. Container might need replacing soon. This one hasn't been found for a while. TFTC!

After we went for a little walk on the cliffs we found this Multi cache on the map. Very sad story but amazing view and no muggles.
The information were gathered quickly and we had an easy find.
Thanks for showing! Tftc

While out for a day in the area I finally managed to get this multi. If I had been in the other car.... no way.. but in my car gravel roads no probs. Cheers

The (major road trip was about to begin) that was for the Oamaru Geofest trip in the company of HKCB and iammrwalker for a bit of a road trip across to the west coast, through Haast and in a roundabout way to Oamaru.

My trip stats were as follows: 617 caches (214 Puzzles), 3300kms, 500 litres of Petrol, 21 hours sleep, 100+hours caching time. THe weather was wonderful and apart from about a 6hour period on the sunday we had fine weather all the way and feel that we made a bit of a hole in the region.

Firstly thanks to all the CO's that put in the effort to to set up these caches and to all the CO's whose caches we did not find this trip, well we are already planning our next trip.
We worked hard at getting specific caches (especially the Geo Art around christchurch and hence our concentration on this area for the preliminary 24 hours. So after a couple of running repairs to the rental vehicle (fuses not working) we were off knowing that all ports could be charged and that sleep was for the weak.

Sorry about the copy and paste logs but that is what tends to happen with a number run of this size.

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Did you know that planning has started for a Mega Event in Wellington in 2018? Check out the details on the [WENZ Website](https://sites.google.com/site/wenzgeo2018/home) or visit the event's page on [FaceBook](https://www.facebook.com/groups/590545297801072/) and don't forget to log your attendance on the [WENZ Event Page](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC78NMQ_wenz-event-2018-wellington?guid=23f451a2-08ac-4374-883f-ed6814687147/)

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Came down this way from the North for the Oamaru Geofest, and decided to add a few more days to the weekend trip and turn it into a bit of a Mega mission, starting 5pm on Wednesday 18th and finishing 3pm Monday 23rd! Teaming up with Cats&Dragons for the first 24 hours then with Iammrwalker joining the team for the remainder.
Just a few of the stats for the trip were:
- 700 caches found, including 270+ puzzles (thanks to the Christchurch Geoart)
- 3300 km's driven, using over 500L of fuel $$$
- Just over 20 hours of sleep (about 4 per day on average), and about 100 hours of caching time.
Certainly a Mega Trip!

Day 4: With the lack of sleep starting to take a toll we finished Day 3 off early and got a few hours sleep before getting back to finding about 2am this morning. Todays mission was to find caches around Tekapo before heading South through the Mackenzine Country via Hakataramea Pass, and onto Dansey's pass before coming out on the coast and heading to Oamaru for the Geofest and caching around the area.

Enjoyed this little multi, no problems with the solve or the find.

Sorry about the cut and past logs, but that seems to happen with cache runs of this size!

I found this Geocache on a Geocaching mega mission along with Cats&Dragons and HKCB. With only just over three and half thousand Geocache finds I was very much the over achiever in training. We were in the South Island to support the Oamaru Geofest event, hunt down some Jasmar and D/T harder to find Geocaches, lonely caches (those not found in more than 6 months), virtuals and try and meet some milestone numbers. We signed the logs HIC, an abbreviation of our respective Geocaching names, (H)KCB, (I)ammrwalker and (C)ats&dragons. A huge thanks to all the CO’s who placed and maintain the Geocaches we found.

I arrived in Christchurch late Thursday evening having left straight from work and was picked up by my intrepid companions in our four wheel drive rental to find they had already grabbed about 270 finds in the previous twenty four hours. I wonder if the rental company would have still let us have it had they known we would travel 3300km in it before returning it four days later? Our trip took us to Greymouth via Arthurs pass, Ngahere, down the west coast to Haast across to Hawea, Cromwell, Twizel, Aoraki Mt Cook, Tekapo, onto the east coast up to Oamaru and back up to Christchurch via Akaroa and countless diversions and small towns along the way. We slept in the car for the first two nights, grabbing some shut eye between cache finds, taking turns to drive. We rented a small place in Oamaru for the other two nights and appreciated a bed to sleep in and a hot shower. It was an amazing trip, in which I discovered the South Island has some of the most incredible scenery in the world.

It was late by the time we got here and I was struggling to function, thankfully my two companions were able to do the sums. I managed to chip in by locating the hide.

can't believe we have not found this previously
all good

found all safe and secure no problem with team_macdonald tftc on a geoadventure to grab an earth cache

Didn't take long to work out the numbers and off we go. Nice find after caching up Mt John.
Tftc found with rayzr2

Access was by a gravel road that threatened to vibrate our meek Nissan to pieces. A latched gate at the start of the road had to be opened. Worried about entering till we saw muggles on tour who had entered earlier and were ahead along that road.

Reached the memorial and worked out the puzzle for the final coordinates. Thankfully, the cache was where it was supposed to be, and we quickly signed it before the midday sun could toast us to a crisp.

The lake lookout was off the busy tourist trail and enjoyably serene. Remote enough that we returned after dark for a spot of stargazing! TFTC!

On my way from Omarama to Geraldine today. Picked up two hitch hiking girls, made a stop to get some breakfast at Twizel, filled up the tank, dropped the two girls at Lake Pukaki and then started caching. After having another look at Lake Pukaki, I drove up to Mount John. Then I drove down here. As crowded as it was up at Mount John, so quiet and peaceful it is here. What a stunning view and really no one around. Did the maths, found the cache and then sticked around for a little longer. Just wow. Thanks for hiding!

It was nice to get off the busy road and go at a slower pace. Water definitely not inviting in a boat today. TFTC

Two days in Tekapo and some caches. Drove down to the lake and logged this along the way.
Thanks for the cache Bitsprayer
R

Found it! Tftc

On the way home after a long weekend in Twizel. A few detours here and there,,,,,,,

Another place that we have not been too. Sad about the brothers. Cache all good, and a quick find once I had the correct numbers. Cheers

Thanks to the CO's for the hides. Cheers.

Sad story in a wonderful place.
Thanks for the discovery.
Easy to find.
Fefe.adrien and I signed on the logbook with our team name : Lekiprokos.
Tftc

Ninalila and I spent the all day in Tekapo visiting the town, Mount John, Alexandrina lake...
It was cold but sunny so we enjoyed walking around and visiting this place and around.
We discovered really beautiful views on the mountains recovered by snow all around the blue lake, stunning !!!

We signed the logbook with our team name : lekiprokos

Thank you for the cache and the discovery

What a fantastic view and a good multi tftc

Coming down from Mt John we took a little detour to enjoy the lake views.

Quick find near a surprise picnic spot. TFTC

Sad but enjoyed the cache. Great walk. TFTC!

Like these types of caches, thanks

A sad tale indeed... But a beautiful spot to stroll along the waterfront. Would be a great place to stay, no power boats allowed.

have had a couple of looks for this one finally found it today no trouble not sure how we missed it before , have camped a few times at this end of the lake very peaceful. tftc

A rather sad cache that comemorates the passing of two brothers.

Cheers for the cache.

#5813
[blue][size=1]On a holiday of a lifetime with Mr Crow (San Francisco, New Zealand and Sydney). On day 2 of a 5 day stay in a fabulous self-catering cottage a few minutes walk from the lake. Taking it easy today with some walking and caching. http://izziewhizzie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/blog-19-wednesday-4th-november-taking.html
[/blue]
1/6
Great multi and glad to visit Lake Alexandria. Also used the opportunity to call into the local riding centre - hoping to get Mr Crow on a horse
TFTC Bitsprayer

#6631
[blue][size=1]Our holiday of a lifetime. San Francisco, New Zealand, Sydney.
4/11 Holiday day 20, Caching day 17.
Lake Tekapo: Lake Tekapo Regional Park.[/size]

11:07 1/6
Another beautiful lake on a beautiful day and no one about. Great multi. I love this area.

[/blue]TFTC Bitsprayer

Took a detour here after heading up Mt John. Lovely quiet spot. Nice day after the high winds yesterday. Tftc

What a beautiful day at lake Alexandria with a great cache!

Found it after I remembered Lake has an E in it, silly me

Just had a look for more information. Google found very little... Thanks.

Travelling on New Zealand's roads, Geocaches like this one are always a good reason to leave our camper, walk for a bit and get some air. For this reason, we have really enjoyed looking for heaps of interesting Caches, sometimes in places that we wouldn't have found by ourselves. On our way we've met lots of friendly and welcoming people and the landscapes were breathtaking

If we then find the Geocache, like this one, that makes our awesome holiday here even better.
We would like to thank all owners of the Geocaches we found for their effort and for showing us those interesting spots.

This was really a nice multi and the mood in the early morning - ok 10:30 - was great. We leave a blue bow.

TFTC

Chilliesser

This multicache we made, because it sounds a short version. We found the plague and so we could collect all information easily. After a short search we could find the box. Thanks a lot for showing us this nice place on Lake Alexandrina.

We could find all the information near the road and after a little bit of searching we found the box as well. A beautiful place here! Thanks!

Nice easy find while on holiday at a nearby station.

Got necessary information and headed of for the hunt, lol, poor Granville86a we hunted for a while before we went back and reconfigured numbers and cache was in hand very quickly, brillant, TFTM

Found with Chosen1978. Got the maths done and then headed off to find final. No luck but then had a rethink and realised that we had got coordinates wrong so a re calculation done and cache soon found. Great spot but a sad reminder of what happened to the brothers. TFTC

Did the little puzzle and signed the log and then had a look at the batches at lake Alexandrina .photos

found on 10/07/2014 at 1:25:00 PM
First time into this lake, a quick find, and a short visit to the settlement.
Thanks for the cache Bitsprayer
Pipedream

Thanks for bringing us to this lovely spot. Found with debsnz

A sad memorial at a lovely spot. We were a bit unsure of the '4x4 only' sign at the entrance to the road but it wasn't bad at all - in fact, just like any other gravel road. Found with Aoraki Sheep.

Great spot. Lovely drive. Thanks for bring us out here.

Found with Hinemoana while on a trip around the South Island. Thank you for placing this cache.
TFTC