Pass (Nelson/Marlborough) Portage, South Island, New Zealand
By Kiwi-Nomad on 20-Mar-09. Waypoint GC1NYFY

Nah. Big bush bash, but no luck today.

During our two-month trip through New Zealand and Australia, we arrived in Picton yesterday. We returned our rental car and took the water taxi to the Portage in Marlborough Sounds.Once we have crossed by water taxi, there is still some time to visit a few caches. This cache was found.**kiwi-nomad**, thanks for the cache.

We are currently on a eight week holiday which is mostly spent in New Zealand and Australia. However, the first three days were spent in Signapore as a nice break from an otherwise long flight. Yesterday we drove from Greymouth to Picton. This afternoon we took the water taxi to Portage. After arriving by water taxi we walked to the hotel. Once checked in we had a nice stroll in the vicinity of our hotel and along the beach. Since it is nice weather we really enjoy being outside and explore the beauty of this place.We also went looking for this cache. Since it had not been found for quite some time we had our doubts if we would be able to find it. After some looking around we spotted the concrete pipe and after that the cache was quickly found in good order. Thank you very much for this cache.

DNF couldnt locate hint

No luck today, also there is no concrete pipe anymore.

Nice walk to the gap from Portage Hotel, but suspect this might have been lost in floods due to much erosion and collapse being visible.

I think I have looked for this before. This time found in the first place I looked. TFTC

Spend a bit of time looking, will come back

Gorgeous spot to be taken to this spot

TFTC. What a beautiful spot. Very pleased that your cache bought me here

Made sense once we found it. Nice spot

Beautiful spot

TFTC! Cool little spot

I have looked at this one previously but the water was a bit high then. Almost bang on low tide so a dry walk all the way to the cache, down to the water and then back up again. Well it would have been dry apart from the rain. A minutes search and there it is, as per the hint.

Took ages but we found it in the end. We were so close but far away! TFTC
~The crazy Gs

I tried to find this cache during a beautiful day driving in this beautiful area of the Sounds. The spot is wonderful - however unfortunately I could not find the cache. Oh well...

Had tried this awhile ago but too muck water. No problem today as the water has run away and its a non-island. So this one is snagged and tagged with dry feet. Cheers. Hey theres a track so followed it for awhile. Ended up at a house. May go further but the track quality deteriorates and I have no phone today. Maybe explore more another day.

So with Mt Cawte behind, its time to explore further down these sounds. Lovely day to be out and about.

As we were moored up nearby for the night it seemed to make sense to give this one a go despite 2 recent DNFs. GPS took around 10 min to settle down but despite this still no luck. Had the cache been made of toilet paper there would have been an instant find anywhere we chose to look .... gotta love those freedom campers ...... anyway after checking previous logs it seemed the coords were extremely accurate and so it proved after the 4th sweep of the area although the hint object was much harder to spot than expected. Removed the chocolate someone had left to discourage vermin along with some energy drink cans from the surrounds. Log almost full so stuck in a spare waterproof log to save the co the trouble.

Couldn't find the cache.

Bugger. A magnificent spot but couldn't see the hint item anywhere

Awesome!

Tricky spot!
Left a peg who leaves chocolate!

Have driven past before and contemplated how to get there. Have read logs detailing kayak trips from nearby beaches, but today we pulled up, and Capperz pointed to the track that took us straight there. What a great spot. Quick find while a fisherman nearby tried his luck with at least three rods I could see. Regretting not having a canoe today. Water is like glass, clear skies, some T5s further up this road would be ripe for the picking today. TFTC and beautiful spot K-N.

Out for an explore in the “shiny”. Can’t do them all, but thought we would bag a few caches on the way. Dropped off ‘purple duck’ as mission is to be dropped at caches starting with “P’. Lovely spot. Quite windy today with NW blowing!

Our first geocaching in new zealand!!! Thanks

What an awesome location

Super spot. An unknown treasure, I bet. Enjoyed the walk, the views and the discovery. Tftc

Very cool location. Tftc

Fabulous place. Walked around from Nikau so 1/2 hour vs 3 days. Took awhile to hone in but iPhone surprisingly accurate. NINO TFTC

Mrs W went for an adventure with Maike of maikenkids late evening, sans children. A real treat! Third stop of only a handful but a glorious setting to explore. Love, love, love this spot. Totally blown away. We visited again this morning to show the children and to clear some rubbish off the beach. Truly glorious. +1 from us for sure.

Found with Mrs TWNZ. As per her log, we were completely entranced with this spot and so, the next day, were the kids.

End of Day 3 on the Queen Charlotte Track and after a beer it was off to complete this cache. Once GZ was established it was a quick find with the hint. TFTC Kiwi-Nomad

Mr HG went looking for this one as the bikers arrived before the walkers on day 3 of the track. Thanks MuzzaL53 for use of your GPS. TFTC

Walking the Queen Charlotte. TFTC

Tricky find this one Beautiful spot, tftc!

Qef whilst out looking for a place to fish for the arvo...lovely spot! TFTC

Early morning stroll before our fourth leg of the QCT. Lovely location. Thanks kiwi-nomad

Almost gave up on this one as we searched for about 15mins. But after a bit of perseverance found the hint object. Well hidden this one! Wonderful views aswell. Thanks again to sea kayak adventures for bringing us around to this wonderful place!! Really enjoyed it

Unable to locate even though we used the hint and read the previous logs.

Perfect location and interesting hide!

Thanks

We like the way along this sound.
Thanks for this break.

NZDi and I booked a holiday home in Broughton Bay for six days for a family holiday to get over the madness that is Christmas. Our daughter and her partner and our son and his wife and our granddaughter were all present for some of the time and as such the focus was on family rather than caching.

However we still managed to find time to get 25 caches along with three DNFs (Grrr) in the time we were away without impacting too much on the family focus of the break.

Today is day five of our holiday and we are having a dedicated caching day with the main aim being to see the views from Mount Stokes and get some of those further out caches.

As cachers are aware, caching is a time consuming past-time and our plans for the day were curtailed when we had to abandon the mission to head back for dinner. After dinner, the last of our visitors left, so we headed back to pick up the last five caches we had targeted for today.

I had always wondered if this was an island or whether it was connected to the mainland, now I know. After we parked the car, we followed the arrow on c:geo down the wrong path and discovered the local freedom camper's toilet... yuk. Retracing our steps, we found the right (or should that be left) path which took us to GZ. Like so many other before us, we had trouble finding this one and with 10 FPs wee wondering if it was one of those clever caches this CO is renown for. After rereading the cache page, the hint, and previous logs, we found the cache and determined it was not the cache that attracted the FPs, but the location, and from our photo, we would have to agree and add another.

TFTC kiwi-nomad

Found with Kiwimykl, refer to his log for details.

TFTC kiwi-nomad

[green] What a day! First I decide to go to the sounds, mainly to do two caches that I had missed earlier, and place one while I was out that way, Then I find I hav a corrupted load in my GPS, I can navigate, but a description or hint causes it to lock up. Luckily I have my cellphone, so I load all the caches that I might do into that, then half the time leave it in the car (which is okay, usually I don't need a hint, but reading the description is often nice). I expected the trip to up to Titirangi to be mostly dirt road and long distances, but was rather surprised at how far the seal went, and how far Titirangi isn't, really. Not that I got there. I tossed up staying the night and continuing Sunday, but decided not. Saved for another day.

What an amazing place. (in other words... Favourite!) Took me forever to find the cache, including a walk back to the car to get my cellphone to read the hint. Then back again to read the logs. Eventually I gave up, this one is too hard for me, and I took two steps back to the car when I saw it! Nasty. You'd think such a thing would be easy to spot! Loved the beach! Photo.

#10216. We were leaving some of the caches along this part of the drive until tomorrow, but the tide was pretty low by the time we got here so we stopped to look for this one. Glad we did, as it was an interesting spot, and Troodles located the cache after a short search. TFTC.

I wondered if access to this cache was only at low tide, so we decided to look for this cache today rather than leaving it for tomorrow. But on getting down to the beach, looks like access may only be a problem at high tide. What a neat wee spot. We looked across the bay and spotted our accommodation on the side of the hill .
I liked the steps leading up to the "island". Cache didn't take too long to locate with the help of the hint as the co-ordinates were spot-on, though the hint object is well camoed.
Thanks for bringing me here and TFTC.

Another dnf - damn!

Found this cache on a day out at some bays. The sun was shining and we were getting sunburnt... Nevertheless we had an awesome time caching & sightseeing. Found this cache with capperz, refer to his log for more detail etc. Thanks for placing this cache, T F T C

Yay, it's Earthcache day and souvenir as a reward. That is unless you're greedy capperz who's already done most of the Earth Caches around and would need an epic day out just to gain some electronic bling. Oh well, a trip to Kenepuru Sounds it is and try and push my total along to 4500 so only 4 caches to get there. Weather dawned bright, clear and hot and nightowl19 was along for the trip though Tally the geo dog was left at home as a few P n Gs were planned and a few diverse walkways with assorted dogs allowed rules.
Into the Sounds for the rest of the trip and plenty of wonderful scenery to behold and remind us of how great our backyard really is
The siting of this cache has got to be the cache of the day, what a beaut spot. Missed it on the way past and took a while on the way back but got there in the end. Was doubting there was still a hint item here but found after about 15 minutes searching. nightowl19 gathered a couple of oysters, mmmmm
T F T C k-n

Biked over from Cowshed bay. A lovely spot with views through the pass to the north

We are glad we brought the camera, very nice hide. Our 200th find! TFTC

What a beautiful little spot, definitely worth a little walk or even wade if the tide is high. Mr 4 insisted on doing some rock climbing to reach the cache but the rest of us found a more sedate route. Thanks for a delightful cache.

Pass Marlborough Sounds 4 HubiRunner Germany t4tc

Easy find in a great location. Thanks for showing!

This took me ages to find. Do you think I could find the hint item. Back and forth I went. Nearly gave up but then eventually there it was in the area that I had been searching in all along.
Tide low today thankfully.
I have stayed on a bach on this island once. Well round the far side. It was quite a grunt lugging our stuff in but well worth it when we got there.
TFTC

A beautiful day for a kayak and a nice quick find near a family of weka. TFTC

I couldn't believe looking at the hint. Here? Why? But really. It was there. Thanks for the cache on a nice place.

Enjoyed the afternoon here, swimming and relaxing. Great spot. TFTC

Our first trip up this way caching and this was the sixth cache of the day.TFTC.

Took a little while, but got there in the end. An interesting place, and as we saw today still being used, although for portage rather than sail through. I do not think the people who live on the 'island' would be very pleased. TFTC

Awesome place, only just replaced the container when a large group of tourists arrived. Peace and quiet gone and so was i. Thanks for bringing me here

#1661

Took an evening stroll from Portage hotel and found this great cache, definitely worth a fav.
TFTC

Great spot for a cache. Good chance to check out the water conditions before the Waitaria Bay Tri. Clever hunting by Daiz found this one.

Found it on our way into the sounds thanks for placing the cache

Found it and on the way back to the car I was able to see how a stingray was fished! [^]
TFTC

In: /
Out: TB

#1203

We found it on a short walk around portage. It is a very fine and lovely place.
TFTC ElMaJo from Germany

One of those caches that takes you to special places. Tide was reasonably low, so feet remained dry. Lingered for a while, marvelling at the nature of this evolving area. Thanks.

A quick find on the way back to Havelock from a day's exploration in this area. This was the first time I have been up this road, I lived in the Sounds as a child many decades ago but I don't think this road was there then. A very nice little bay and interesting geographic feature. Signed log, TFTC and it gets a favourite point.

Nice little walk after lunch at portage

Awesome location for a cache

Nearly had to pass on this one due to a guy squatting in the grass. Turned out to be a very interesting encounter. He is "semi-rerired" and lives in the 'big brown house" above and enjoys checking out who has visitied the cache from all over the world (which was exactly what he was doing). He has long family connections to the area including a relative named on the memorial on the hill. He told me that there used to be a bridge over here and that before it all silted up the mail boat used to pass through here. He has a photo of the bridge and the livestock farmed at that time. And then there were the stories about his dog which has led him to getting a GPS. Very interesting and picturesque spot which all adds up to a favourite. TFTC #4558

water was full of jellyfish today, we have never been here before so great opportunity to have a look around TFTC

We decided to throw the tent in the car and spend a night at the Sounds. We left this cache until we were on our way home this afternoon because there appeared to be too many people there yesterday. Today there was a young family fishing but we were still able to get to GZ, sign the log, and depart without being seen. Took TB. TFTC.

With the forecast to good to be true off we went for a weekend camping at the Sounds. Some were left for the return journey. Holymu decided we park then walk. A good decision. Despite muggles we persevered. TFTC

Found by different team members on subsequent days. Left travel bug. Great spot.

first find. Very excited! Great spot for family picnic.

Quick easy find. The furthest on our day trip. Thanks for the hide

TFTC
Gruß Frodo32

A lovely, quiet and interesting place. A quick find although the local birds seemed a bit put out with us ruining their peace.

Simply beautiful. Quick find for us. TFTC

This one took a little to find but yep got it.TFTC

Unfortunately i went there at high tide, so while climbing down to the "pass" to get to the other side there was lots of water, where i needed to place my feet. But a cacher is not afraid of wet feet so i managed to get over and found the cache.

TFTC

Zowaar! Great spot for a hide! Thanks very much, Simone

#509, found during my kiwi traveling. Log in may, because I was without net. TFTC

Great portage for kayaking.

Great spot! Took the kayaks through and onto Nikau Bay. TFTC

Found together with Chrissinator. TFTC!

We had a lazy day exploring the sounds with our car today and making some geocaches. We looked for this one awhile, but found it finally with the hint. Thanks

Replaced cache today as it had been found by some muggles and taken somewhere else. There is a little paratrooper inside now (Zerpo 1) and he would like to travel.

My first geocache! A beautiful day and a stunning area. Cache nicely tucked away. TNLN. TFTC.

Spring high tide today so Island indeed. No sweat for the ol fella.
Went for a run up to the top of the hill - wet wet wet

Found via boat. a nice journey with the boat TFTC

Had fun finding this with the kids. Gorgeous spot.

Was looking for some minutes and then there came this group of 10 kayaks on the other side of the gz so was not possible to get the cache.
Anyway an awesome spot - thanx for showing!

What an awesome spot. Took the car down the end of the little road and had lunch there. Very, very nice. TFTC.

A superb little cache.
Fantastic location - one of the most scenic spots we've stopped at.
We timed it right - didn't get wet feet!! TNLN. TFTC.

A nice spot, TFTC.

Lovely spot! One of the most pleasant caches, thanks

Another piece of paradise in our beautiful country. TFTC.

A beautiful place we would probably not have found if not for this cache. Thanks