Katie's Nightmare (Otago) Leith Valley, South Island, New Zealand
By katie w on 25-Apr-09. Waypoint GC1QJ12

I didn't solve this as intended.. but I did do it on my own. Worked backwards from the hint. Got the green tick, and off I went. I think I walked straight past this when I was trying to get to a cache around here not so long ago.. what a day that was!I couldn't work out how the trail would get me west of the cache, so I just went straight up! Very steep in places! The cache was all good, contents were completely dry! Went down a bit of a different route that was easier, but still certainly not a trail. That's enough bush bashing for awhile, I have a couple of unsolved puzzles in the area but I'll come back to them later!

I don’t think I solved this one has I have no notes on the puzzle. Maybe I got the coords from a trade of answers?
Made my way to the trail head waypoint and couldn’t spot the trail! I ended up taking a beeline straight to the cache from the east. Once at GZ I soon found the cache and thought there were a couple of track options but they seemed to go nowhere. Finally found the track when I was nearly back at the main trail. It, of course, led me straight to the trail head waypoint! When searching for the trail look to the right, not left which I thought was clearer and so missed the actual track. Cache all good.
Thanks for the cache, katie w
#3674

I solved the puzzle fairly easily - a surprise for me as I sometimes struggle with puzzles. Came here from the other Katiew mystery cache in this area - a bit of a downhill bash, partly open but steep and partly crown fern. Great to find the cache right on the coordinates. Thanks for the challenge and the discovery of an area I have never been before.

Third times the charm for this one. Tried twice before without success (over a period of years!). First time didn't find the trailhead, so bushbashing straight up and back. Second time found the trailhead and followed the path, but GPSr was pointing everywhere.
This time found the path again, but missed the point to go directly to the cache. So some bushbashing downhill. Found a clearing that we're sure we'd seen before and followed it along, only to discover we had gone way past the cache, so more sliding down hill back towards the cache. Another check and found we were now lower than the cache, so bushgbashing up again. After a quick stop with the witches, a newer GPS had us parked right over the cache. Found for the first time (excluding CO maintenance) in 1,777 days (a new record for us!). Kia ora for the cache.

Track reopened.

Access restriction because of fire

Visited today to check on status of the container since its a while since it was last found- all good.

This has to be one of the more enjoyable caches that I have scored for some time - why is it that there are so many high quality caches around Dunedin??!! The puzzle was really good, I solved that shortly after the cache was published, but because of the type of terrain and the amount of time involved in getting to the cache I have not until now had the opportunity to go there when on visits to Dunedin. However today I had set aside a whole morning so decided to go walking and score this and some of the other puzzle finals in the area. No problems getting as far as the recommended trailhead, but the side track was a bit obscured in places, I suspect the vegetation has grown a bit since 2009. So I ended up doing quite a bit of bush bashing to get to GZ. Once there I thought it would be a quick find (after all how could I miss a 10 litre bucket?) but I didn't bank on the heavy undergrowth of crown fern in the area. After a while searching unsuccessfully I was on the point of phoning a previous finder when I spotted an older log that put me on the right track, and a quick find followed in a spot only a few metres away from where I first started looking. A very well-stocked container too! Signed log, thanks for a memorable cache and it's well worth a favourite point.

For us this one was a bit of a nightmare. The puzzle has been in the 'too hard' basket for sometime and despite looking at it occassionally, I'd not gotten any closer to solving - that is until one day I decided that the proper research was required and despite some heavy going, eventually some co-ords revealed themselves and even better, we got a tick from the geochecker! That was a few months ago and as we were nearby (only 160m away! I told Aoraki who rolled his eyes but followed me off into the bush). Well being nearby is quite different to actually getting to GZ. Yes we did come from above and did follow some pink tape but it wasn't much of a track. We did reach the bushman's abode, and we did wonder who would ever find this place. Cache was eventually located and that was when we realised we'd lost our pen (if you find a pen somewhere in the bush - it's ours) but that was only one of our problems. Once at GZ, you have to find your way back. Aoraki thought he had found a short cut (who wants to go back up??) so we bashed our way through the bush until we eventually found the track again where we happily followed it back to the car. This is one of those caches that you think with all that work, 'one smiley isn't enough! Found with AorakiSheep.

We took the opportunity of a sunny day after a week of rain to get out and stretch the legs. We got as close we were going to get when debsnz dived off into the bush and reluctantly I followed. At GZ we spent longer than we should have looking but it was an interesting site. How did the CO ever find this place? After finding the cache, we had a vote and deciding that we didn't want to go back up, we went East and down and across and though and . . . . . I did begin to wonder what dad would say if we rung to say we were lost. That was until we came across the track and then with a sigh of relief we made quick time back to the car. Found with debsnz

Yay! Have been wanting to do this one for a while, and finally solved the puzzle with a nudge from the CO. Then the wait for the right weather to go and find the cache. We joined those that did the uphill bush bash option, were delighted to find the cache, then realised it was getting late, dark, and we still had to find the way back. Great puzzle, and fun cache, thanks Katie!

Well I wasn't expecting what was at GZ. Was almost expecting the witches to come to play when I got there. Took a few minutes to find I got there. I was standing there wondering it could and funnily enough I looked down and there it was beside my feet. Thanks

Yay! Got it this time! The weather did not look amazing this morning, but by the time I parked up, the rain had stopped. Walked up to the turnoff, and I FOUND THE SIDETRACK!!! I could clearly see what went wrong at the previous visit - I went around that first obstacle on the other side than intended, and then I had no chance of spotting the track... And what a great track it was! Could have vied for Great Walk status, serioucacherI was not sure about the accuracy of the GPS signal in the area, so I went off track about 96m from the cache, and followed the markers that kept appearing for most part... A much easier way to access gz I have to admit! It may still not have helped last time to actually find the cache, but I could have saved myself a few scratches. As previously, the GPS would have me quite far from the location of the cache, but thanks to the hints, I found it in the second place I looked!! Now to think that I have emerged from the bush only a few meters from here last time, possibly even looked at the correct hiding object!! I am indebted to the cache who lent me a hand with the puzzle, all those who provided hints about the hide, and the CO for a great experience(s)!! Not forgetting this one in a hurry!

Come and join us at the next New Zealand geocaching MEGA event!! Register now at http://www.nzmega2015.com to receive newsletter updates and be the first to know. Let us know you are coming by posting a 'will attend' at http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC587BC_nz-mega-christchurch-2015 It will be a great event, come and be a part of it!!

I have to admit that I needed help with the puzzle as there was just too much information... I was saving the cache for a suitable occasion, and pi day seemed so good for a mystery Found the start of the side track easily enough, but could not see any markers after the first couple. Apologies to the CO for wasting her track maintenance efforts, but it was easier for me to keep going up in the general direction than to try and see where I should be going. Got to gz eventually, and to spare you the details, after TWO AND A HALF HOURS of searching I eventually very reluctantly gave up... I believe the forest dwellers also had an opportunity to expand their vocabulary...Lesson learned: I am extremely stubborn. Plan for future: I'll be back. Hopefully no nightmares until then... Awesome place, good on the CO for discovering it and showing it to us

Come and join us at the next New Zealand geocaching MEGA event!! Register now at http://www.nzmega2015.com to receive newsletter updates and be the first to know. Let us know you are coming by posting a 'will attend' at http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC587BC_nz-mega-christchurch-2015 It will be a great event, come and be a part of it!!

Since there are 2 keen puzzlers working on this at the moment, I thought I'd better do a visit.
All good and dry and clean. Still hidden in the right place, too!
I know that they will also like the trail maintenance I've done.

BaldEd wanted this cache for a challenge cache up my way and I tagged along - don't ask me why. Well, he my bro. I needed to climb Flagstaff as well. So we decided to come in from the bottom to do this one only and then drive up to the Bullring to attack Flagstaff from there. We finally stumbled onto the cart track up the hill and then when we were above the cache it was a bushbash down the hill. BaldEd in the end phoned the CO while I had texted a friend. While we were both receiving our respective info I stumbled on the cache. Then it was a bushbash angling downwards towards the cart track. Neither of us wanted to go back up the hill. It was quite an adventure.

Cheers for the cache.

This was one of my major MUST FIND cache tasks that I set down for the MEGA weekend - the D/T rating being needed for an Auckland Challenge cache that I had all but completed. Tufty and I set out from the city end and although we attempted to follow the suggested 1st reference point we ended up bush bashing around a bit before stumbling on an old track that lead us to above the cache. We then deviated from the route and made a direct bee-line to the cache GZ. At GZ the ground cover was quite high and after searching all around the area we invoked the PAF option. The cache was then very quickly found. So well was it covered that I had missed touching it earlier by just a few millimeters! Rather than climb 30m vertically back up to join the track we took the downhill bush bash option to return to the main track. A round trip of just a tad of over 2 hours. A very satisfying puzzle. It gets a favourite from me.

Solved the puzzle when it was first published.
Found the cache after a bit of a search.
Interesting location.
Thanks.

This one was on the list for a long time... Then the day came to go and find it..
Towards ramble.

Wish the way and time down was the same as the way up!!!!

TFTC. SLB. TNLN.

This entry was edited by AdventureTharon on Sunday, 06 November 2011 at 08:31:37 UTC.

Papa's out caching with Adventure Tharon and this was on today's list. After bumping in to the CO on the descent from Flagstaff we received a couple of extra hints on where to leave the track. That still left about 130 metres of bush bashing up the hill which was not an easy task. Moved ahead of Team AT as the big fella was finding the uphill tough going. Got to the GZ and then had a good look around while waiting on my fellow cachers, thankfully there was quite good cell coverage - even 3G, so were able to keep in touch on their progress - it was only 130 metres after all. Resorted to one of Moneydorks famed finding methods and the cache was soon found, logged and replaced and a 20 minute wait for Team AT. Then the fun started watching big AT standing right beside it for nearly five minutes before the eureka moment. A much quicker descent down the hill. I wouldn't say it was a nightmare but I will sleep easy knowing I don't have to go and look for that one again. Maraming Salamat!

Ramble #7

Bitsprayer did the codebreaking and I joined him on the hunt. We took the direct approach up from the McGouwn track after just having completed the Old Pineapple multi. The 130m direct did not sound too far. Great to get to GZ and find the "campsite" on the small flat section. Took a little while to locate the cache and found that I was sitting very near it whilst exploring a prospective hollow tree. Great cache. TFTC

Well this was fun, need help with the code, but what a great place for a cache, fun to get and fun to hunt down, and just as hard to get back to the track.

We were up here for 7 Hours today and found 7 caches this was the last.
Bitsprayer

After our failure to find this cache, in the fading light of dusk, when it was first published nearly two years ago, we finally plucked up the courage to revisit it today. This time, we managed to find the track leading up towards it, but still had to bush bash the last 80 metres or so. On arrival at "the campsite", as we had already been up the hill to find Old Pineapple and Nicols Miss Communication, and as we contemplated spending the mandatory hour looking for the cache, we decided to be polite and have some lunch with the witches who had a cauldron on the boil. After lunch, and the exchange of a few spells and potions, we headed off to find the cache. Those spells really work, and we found it in about five minutes, after our GPS had us walking right around it for the first four minutes. Despite the fact it's not really hidden, we're not surprised we didn't find it in the darkness on our previous visit. Emboldened by our new found skills, we then set out to contour cross country to You Fill Up My Senses - That's another story! TFTC

Puzzle was solved ages ago.
Wandered into GZ not following any track.
looked for quite a while, only to go back to where I started - how did I miss that?
Good to get this one done. TFTC.

TFTC SL another good one we were up in the snow and did it snow looked lovely, we found the sight after looking on the wrong side first then we were onto it, bush bashed our way into the thick of it and the GPS had us heading in the right direction, we came accross the camp sight where the rocks were and there were gobblins and witches dancing around the camp fire to keep warm having a jolly good time , what a great cache and a very large one at that TNLN a very well thought off cache lovely in the bush what a great enjoyable hike even though it started to snow heavly.

This entry was edited by poppy57 on Saturday, 18 September 2010 at 00:04:02.

Awesome up there today somehow it looked all so different in the daytime went up the wrong track at first but a good walk up that first track before I realised that snow was getting heavy so I thought I had better do some serious looking and return to the right track thanks to a lovely lady who gave some info on the name of the main track so up another track I went then decided to cut inward off the track as Mr g said go that way good climb 60 metre inward and up 50 and there it was the great campsight a nice place to camp for the night TFTC enjoyable walk It definately would be a better idea to come down from the top if you dont fancy slugging it upwards

Added geochecker to page to check cache coordinates.

Thought solving this puzzle was going to be a complete nightmare, but when I looked at it recently it wasn't so daunting so gave it a go. Part one was simple enough but part two took me a while to find the right section.

Off for a run this afternoon so decided to have a go at this one. Never really found the pathway, though at times I thought I had. GPSr was spot on, though I didn't realise it and walked straight past, drawn to the witches dancing round the campfire. Came to my senses soon after and followed the GPSr to the spot and there it was! A really interesting spot for the cache and the true caching experience on the walk in. Thanks Kathy - that was excellent!

This puzzle had me in despair for quite a while. The straightforward solution came up with the first letter promising but the rest nonsense, so I explored more and more arcane combinations of verse/line/word/character... without success. Katiew recommended trying the second one first; but here I had difficulty with each separate dash interfering with the counting. Finally resorted to the original information technology by printing the whole lot out, counting through with a highlighter and Abracadabra! Halfway there! Back to the raving raven, and discovered the gremlin lurking on line four. I had some one rapping at my chamber door, while katiew had someone rapping at hers. (Oh, that's what that cryptic hint means...) So make sure the raven hasn't been pecking at your poetry before you try this puzzle.

The final is in a magical spot- another triumph katiew! Have looked over the stream and wondered what was over here, but neither of us knew about this track- obviously an old farm road- where does it go- does it traverse across the hillside from here, or go up to the bushline? We didn't have time to explore further this afternoon, but there's been a geas placed upon us to explore further. Took the easy route dropping down from the track to the campsite as instructed, and before you could say "Accio" there was the cache. Thanks for an enjoyable cache Katiew.

Solved the puzzle after heading down what appeared to be a blind alley but only revealed my total inability to count (I have obviously left it to the computer for too long!). A wee nudge from Katie put me right and I was soon in possession of the coordinates of the location of the coven. Took advantage of the cooler weather today to head out. Big mistake -- the rain last night had left the track (?) very slippery. Arrived at the clearing to see the needle on the GPSr making slow circles, so delved into the obvious spot, reaching ever further with no luck. Sat down and had a bite to eat and read the cache page on the PDA and realised that it could not be there as it just could not fit. Read the hint and decided that the distance was just too far to walk given the conditions, checked the GPS again which now indicated a few metres away, so headed off and heard a strange noise. Looked down and I had indeed almost stood on the cache. So, a bit longer than it should have all things considered, but a lot less than the hour that some have spent.

Thanks for an interesting puzzle, a chance to reread some of my favourite poems and a great (even if very wet) walk to a hitherto completely unknown part of the bush. Now to try to make sense of the bits of Katie's latest puzzle that I collected on the way there and back.

TNLN. TFTC.

Perhaps having the cache page with me might have sped things up but as I didn't I spent the statutory hour searching - most of that just trying to get reception. In the end it was so obvious that I'm still kicking myself. TFTC.

TFTC!! Found with babyfox54. Solved puzzle about a week ago, with a lil help. got co ord confirmation and then just needed to find a time to go grab this one. headed out today, reception was patchy, and defiantly didn't take the easiest route to GZ, got there in the end though. found hinted objects, wasnt sure what was meant by them in previous logs. found lots of promising spots near what I liked to call the campsite. walked up and down for about 20mins looking for clearings to try and get some reception from. No joy sat down at a particular hidey hole and thought that would be perfect for the cache why is it not there. and.... eureka! TFTC enjoyed the walk and the puzzle.

TFTC found with terman8or

Took two goes. Solved the puzzle OK and was pretty sure I was in the right place yesterday - there was the witches fire and the remnants of their camp! Spent most of the requisite hour and turned up nothing. Didn't have the cache page or hint with me so wandered home to look it up. Didn't shed a lot of extra light on the mystery - an e-mail from the owner, however, did. I must have been within inches of it.

Went back just on dark tonight and found it in literally 20s! I think the correct thing to say is "How blind can you be?"

Another fun cache and good excuse to go wandering in one of my favourite parts of town (twice!)

Thanks.

Changed format of, and added a hint.

Off I went coordinates locked in the GPS, had a fun time figuring out the puzzle, after having an “aha†moment the coordinates leaped off the page.
I struggled up hill trying to find the “trail†when I stumbled across a campfire scene, checking the GPS I realized I had arrived.
I looked and I looked going round and round in circles, and the longer I was there the more I could hear the witches calling DNF! DNF! After more than an hour and just when I thought the noise would overwhelm me I spotted the bucket! Blind you say! Well maybe!

Had a real fun time, Thanks Katie W.

+ Eli’s First Anniversary Geocoin

So here's the nightmare I had last night:

"I was leaving home with the coordinates of a four-star puzzle in my GPS, feeling smug for how easy it had been to crack the code. As usual I can't quite remember what happened, but I somehow found myself at a campfire scene, the GPS still in my hand, walking circles around some a rocks. And as I kept walking in circles that grew ever wider, a bonfire started glowing in the dark forest, witches dancing around it, screaming, yelling, "DNF! DNF!" with a mixture of pleasure and evil laughter..."

One and a half hours later, I suddenly woke up sweating, a large bucket in my hands. A beautiful forest fairy sitting on a rock nearby giggled as she asked "HOW BLIND CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE?" I blushed Quite blind, quite blind... In the meanwhile, a large frog jumped into my backpack holding a geocoin in her mouth, she croaked "I'm your FTF prize". Whatever that means...

Thanks Katie W for the fun

We could write an epistle about our "Nightmare" with this cache! We arrived back in Dunedin about 5.50pm, armed with the co-ordinates thanks to nzcoozer, after 3 weeks in the North Island and decided we would try for a FTF. We wandered up the track with our one small torch and failed to find the little track so climbed up the hill finding the track for a few metres then continuing to stumble up the hill. We arrived at the witches' campfire. No witches tonight fortunately. Sadly no cache for us either. We texted nzcoozer a few times to check if we had all the available information, to be told eventually, Eli had already found it. After fumbling around in the dark for more than an hour we stumbled and slipped our way back down the hill. It was sort of fun and we certainly earned our dinner.

Published

** Coordinates Changed From **
S 45° 50.000 E 170° 30.000
Distance From Old: 469.9 feet
Updating listed coords

Dropped in Geocoin.