Christmas Tree (Porirua) Porirua East, North Island, New Zealand
By LeftyNZ on 09-Aug-09. Waypoint GC1WZ96

Yet another cache that needs maintenance, has unchecked DNFs and a CO nowhere to be seen.

No response from owner. If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact us (by email), and assuming it meets the current guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.

Had another thorough look for this. Seems like it's missing. Unless someone proves otherwise.

So I have several issues with this puzzle. The first one is that the tree is not presently lit. Fine, we can guess our way around that. So I picked a set of 12 possible colours and wrote a script to brute force a solution. There were 14 that met the criteria of number of letters and satifying the checksum. Then I noticed the hint explicitly excluded two. Now there are 4 solutions. I looked at them on Google Earth and most were feasible but only one was likely. This was "verified" by a spoiler in the logs. And for the record two of the colours that fit the solution are secondary colours and Cyan is the 3rd secondary in the additive system so I don't see why the description claims it's not a candidate based on being a shade of blue - it absolutely isn't. And one of the colours that worked is a darker shade of a secondary colour. So I don't know what the logic is.

So, off to GZ to root around. I've found my fair share of pill bottles in pohutukawa and any DNFs have always turned out to be missing. I couldn't find this. There are a few other pohutukawa in about a 20m radius so I checked out them but they didn't have the hiding place characteristics of the first.

Last issue is that CO has been inactive for 2 years. I will have one more look another day and if I can't find it I'll raise a NM and the reviewer will archive it in a month if there is no action taken to check it out.

I keep meaning to make a start on this cache but keep driving straight past the tree. When I remembered the last couple of evening passes I noticed the lights aren't on. I never noticed if they're only on at certain times of the year or whether it's just broken.

We just solved this at home in preparation for a trip through in October. I noticed that the original CO doesnt seem to be active anymore - last visited the site nearly 2years ago! Any chance of a local checking up on this one please? Thanks gracie7 + Mum

In vicinity today having worked out coords a few months ago. No luck with find though. Not been found since November. May need a CO check (or I am looking in wrong place). Will put on watch list.

Drove past one day and quickly noted down the colour of the lights. Got one colour wrong and the check sum still worked with it! But figured out what it was meant to be and the cache was a quick find at the GZ TFTC

Found with Wafflekitties! thanks for the cache!

#1207 Continuing both a caching streak and a daily multi streak so this one was perfect as we were in the area to pick up some tea. Sat in the car park and worked out the coords- didn't take too long and we were on our way. It was a bit drizzly out and my phone GPS was jumping about but we spotted the cache in the second place we looked. Well hidden! TFTC- neat idea and hide.

Solved on my way home tonight. Had to sit for a bit to watch and determine colours, but quick solve and find and a great night to admire the lights. TFTC

Solved at night a couple of weeks back (I actually got a colour wrong but the hint put me right) and out here today for the quick find. Initially thought cache was the much bigger object nestled in there.. TFTC!

Solved the puzzle some time ago and finally travelled to the final. Container quickly in hand. A nice spot. TFTC

Quick find this morning. I love the views from here TFTC

Been meaning to do this for a while. Great ideal and great view from final. TFTC

Left todays cache until dark and don't tend to have too much luck with a torch so I thought I'd try this one. Ate some fish & chips in the car while working out the co-ords then a nice easy find at the GZ. Great cache and you're right, beautiful views. Thanks for helping to keep my streak going - day 99!

Good puzzle , straight forward find with solved coordinates , Tftc My 100th Streak

.

7th Cache Found TNSL TFTC

Half done, but will need to return.

Have often admired this illuminated tree. Must admit used the at home method of deduction as well. Coords spot on and a few Canadian geese for company. TFTP

Keeping the spirit of the August challenge alive, we collected the info for this one the other night, then put the numbers together yesterday. Today swung by after the gym and collected the nicely hidden cache. Enjoyed this fun puzzle. TFTC

Solved this one from home, but happened to pass the christmas tree while we were in the area anyway, so was pleased to be able to confirm my calculations. No problem with the final at night. There's surprisingly few young muggles hanging about Porirua at night.
Left a pet rock - a gerbil. TFTC

Solved earlier in the week and collected this evening after a very short search. TFTC !

Nice multi. TFTC

Solved a few days ago, but left the final stage until daylight. Cache exactly where I expected it to be. TFTC.

A fun multi cache & quick find tftc

TFTC

Visited the tree one week, and then went to the final the next week.
Nice and easy at both places.
TFTC

Nice night cache. Got my calculations right first time, and found cache immediately at GZ.

TFTC

A torch at GZ helps if you want to complete this at night

TFTC

This entry was edited by Tum-E on Thursday, 17 May 2012 at 22:49:00 UTC.

Found this cache with skkiwigirl and her brother. It was a beautiful night to go out caching; warm and not a touch of wind. Good thing we came to double check my guess at the coordinates because we would have been WAY off! Getting to the cache itself was very easy and a nice quick find. TFTC!

Also, shouldn't this be a mystery cache instead of a multicache? I was expecting to find a cache near the tree because of it and was wandering around the parking lot... Just my opinion.

Found this cache with EightZero and my brother. TFTC!

Dropped off a Tatanka (Bison) pin, took nothing.

Cache #475 - nicely done, although had some difference on one of the colours - two choices, both same number of letters, but different results. Went to the more obvious of the two and bingo - cache in hand quickly. Dropped in a Pathtag. Did this with Violet Butterfly. TFTC!

Did this today with The Wandering Dragons. TFTC!

I was parked by GZ and looking at the tree reminded me that there was a mutli here.

Quickly got the require info and the solution worked out quickly. There were people in the structure by GZ with their means of transport that live inside placed all over the grass.

Thankfully it was a quick find in the dark today.

The clues are really important! After first failing to find cache found it after reading the hints and recalculating coordinates. Don't let the changing colours throw you!

Thanks for a great wee puzzle. Easy to spot at GZ, so tried to camo better to stop muggles. TFTC

log book sign See Taybee Log

start this on same time back and was in the area today so had to get it off the do list Jr taybee found it i was a bit slow get to GZ TFTC

We had gathered the info when doing some night caches a month or so back, but decided to leave the find for another day.
It was just as well, as I didn't check on the WP1 hint until later. We must be colour blind! So even though all the checks checked and balanced, we still had the wrong answer.
With correct co-ords, it was an easy find.
TFTC.

#2600. Goodto complete this one while back in the area today. Some rowing muggles were nearby, but Troodles managed to grab the cache without drawing too much attention to us. TFTC.

Found it - nice puzzle, nice views.
TFTC.

I'm annoyed with myself on this one. Drove past last night with the lights all ablaze but hadn't registered that I needed the info about the lights otherwise I would've taken a bit more notice. I had left it for tonight when I knew I wouldn't have a vehicle and could wander round the nearby caches. Despite it being pitch black the lights weren't on on my three visits - last one around 7.30. So i guess they are timed to come on later. I have to say it did look stunning all lit up.

Glad to complete this cache with a venture out for a find, after having solved 2 months earlier. SL TFTC

Joined up with Hurricane Luke team to come here this evening. Sorted out the colours pretty quickly although we did need the checksum to resolve one option with the colour names. Made a mistake in one digit when calculating the final location (although it still looked plausible) but picked this up a couple of minutes later when double-checking the arithmetic before leaving for GZ. Final was a quick find. Signed log, TFTC!

Find #542. The last find for the day, and our second night cache today. We had teamed up with agcnz to knock off this cache and Optical Maneuvers slightly south from here. Agcnz had a website printout which we lacked so he quickly and efficiency located where the final was placed - despite a minor hiccup, which put us very near to the final. A short drive and we soon arrived at the cache, and agcnz quickly spotted it and signed the log! Great views of the city from here, despite the wind! We had a bit of a chat and then soon called it a day (or night?). SL TFTC!

Had gathered the material for this assignment awhile ago and this afternoon dropped by to complete the paper. Mrs SAROC waited patiently in the car while the marks were checked, 100%, a solid pass.
The council were working in the area and cleaning up the place. Might be an idea to check the cache location in a couple of days to see if its still ok. TFTC

Quick find while out shopping, worked this one out a few weeks ago and finally had a chance to come this way. All dry and secure. TFTC.

I became THE SEAGULL ELIMINATOR when a muggle walked by.

Solved the puzzle a few nights ago and completed the find this evening. TFTC

5455 Our Wellington nemesis cache… glad to finally sign this one off. TFTC.

Checked on the cache today, it's still nice and snug in it's little hidey hole.

Oh Christmas tree,
Oh Christmas tree,
How pretty are your branches,
With limbs aglow but not in pink,
You really have made me think,
Oh Christmas tree,
Oh Christmas tree,
How pretty are your branches.

Quickly calculated the new GZ after the cache was reinstated but didn't have time to open its new present till tonight. Thanks LeftyNZ.

Okay, I've made a few changes to this cache as identified below.
1) The container is now a micro (pill container) instead of the original 200ml sistema.
2) The cache is now a 2 stage (instead of a 3 stage). You now derive the final directly from the tree lights.
3) The final has moved a couple of metres from the original location.
4) I have updated the description and hints to reflect the final location.

kjwx, you will need to recalculate your final again sorry. The light colours are the same so it will just be a matter of deriving a new final.

I've cracked the whip and the elves are busy making another present as the current one seems to be in the hands of a naughty little muggle.

Couldn't find the presents Santa had left under the tree.
Will contact owner about my concerns regarding a possible visit by the grinch.

Having helped Bkj97 to find many of his caches since May 2009 I thought it was time that Bcj97 (previous name) should evolve and register my finds to date as Little Blue Hen. Why is it that I find and he blunders around? He must start believing the feminine intuition ( and girl's eyes) Nice day to nab this one.TFTC

Christmas morning, lack of sleep due to reindeer on the roof and just time for a quick call by the co-ords after solving puzzle a couple of nights previously.Failed as usual to read the full details but thankfully the eagle eyes of Bcj97 were on hand to sort me out and find the cache while I blundered around like a decapitated christmas turkey. TFTC TNLN SL Nice day to nail the 300th cache. Cheers.

Nice views from the final cache site on a beautiful evening of caching! TNLN and thanks for a nice cache.

Found with mergaltroid. Nice enough night (patches of rain) so decided to get through some of the night caches. TFTC

Had heaps of fun with the Emvy_us team doing this one last night (just as well one of us knows our colours ) and, after wandering down a path that no person appears to have wandered down for a very long time, we found GZ at a spot which made sense. Waiiti20 was initially 'barking up the wrong tree' , much to Emvy_us's delight, but paperwork was eventually able to be completed. TFTC, a lot of was work has been done in putting this one together.

No worries with this one, as Waiiti20 on the job tonight. Colourblindness on EU's part just added more fun to the find. Everything is still definitely in place, and another fun night-time cache from the Lefty team. Dropped off GC. TFTC

Unfortunately Yeetrees has put you wrong YuGeo4. The cache has moved to a different tree since Yeetrees had found it (and it is still there) - see the maintenance log 13 Sep. I guess the new location is more difficult to muggle during the day.

DNF
Worked out the final co-ordinates the night before... didn’t fancy a night time visit, so planned a visit early in the morning with Yeetrees. Lucked out... it seems the cache and the glints have both been muggled. Thanks for the fun while it lasted.

Finally found it.. Didn't read the cache description, so tried it once during the day and tonight came back, and found it quick and easily...
Thanks for the cache.. Took GC to move on..

Thanks for such quick maintenance. Found with the crew today in the new location. Very enjoyable and somewhat harder than expected (especially for the colour-blind!!) cache. Took nothing, left Geocacher licence GC. TFTC and the effort to set this up.

Found with tmann421, Firefox142 and Hugo the dog. Thanks for checking this one - we had fun on a wet Saturday night trying to decipher the cache, ended up in the wrong place (or was it?) then were stopped by the police while we were scrambling around with our torches. Tmann421 spent a good 10 minutes explaining to the police what we were doing - I could see the face of the copper in the passenger seat, and it very definitely said "let's get out of here". Tmann421 had not finished, however, and showed the police his GPS and how it worked, then got Firefox142 to go back to the truck and bring the cache notes. It was so comical and I almost thought tmann421 was going to ask if the police would give us a hand! No find that night, but the entertainment value alone was worth the missing cache. Went back and found the cache - thanks for so much fun!

The final should have been a relatively straight forward find, so I checked on it today. It appears to have been the victim of a citizens arrest for disturbing the peace. A new cache has been put in place at a different tree in the same vicinity - the firetacks have moved as well. Hopefully, the new cache should be easier to access at night and harder to muggle.

Had some problems with this one - yes we had one colour wrong initially and went to one of the "trick" cache sites. However thought we had it all right and found more firetacks and what seemed to be the right area. However no cache only police who wondered what we were doing with torches in the bushes. Used the "go into so much detail they will do anything to get away from my explaining about Geocaching cover" and they were soon driving away. Will try again after a re-think

took us a few visits. first color combo didnt quite work....would hate to be colour blind....got there quickly with a rethink and nice quiet still night view...+ lavalamp Gc and 1778GC to log at geocoins.com

Nice spot here, a light mist given bit of a glow by the city tonight.
It is quite difficult to get enough time to hide this cache properly, really need a lookout for all the traffic.
Left a handmade keyring, and swapped geocoins. TFTC

Dropped of a Travel Bug with a seaside theme.

#673. Great multi - well put together set-up. Quite tricky with some of the colours, but got to the likely WP2 and it was a quick find in the end.
- Paddington's Pilgrimage TB
+ Pathfinder1980 New Zealand Geocoin (wanting to go to Germany)
+ huhugrub pebble
TFTC.

I was a bit busy last night to dash out to attempt this one. Hey someone got to sew up my camo bags. Sorted out the colours, the calcs all looked good so off to WP2 I went. Shone the torch light around and thought ummm didn't see a twinkle, then I thought back to the other caches like this I've done, and on the next sweep bingo. Great idea well worked out lots of fun.TNLN SL 1935hr TFTC

What a dag!

I knew I would have to be quick for a shot at a FTF, so I took a shortcut. By memory, I recalled 5 colors of lights as I travelled home from work. 4 of them turned out to be correct, but my choice of 5 passed both the checksm and the required number of characters. The location looked promising on the map as well. Shot off at about 7:45 after a session at the gym to what I thought was WP2, (which by further co-incidence has a trail leading to it!) . Strange, nothing resembling the clue in sight... No glints either. Retraced my steps home and ate tea. Discussed the colors with significant other who suggested an alternative. Out the door (with her in tow this time) and arrived at the correct WP2 at 8:30 - 5 mins to late!

Big smile on the dial though...

Published

The Tawa brigade out in force tonight for an early Christmas present of a joint FTF on this rather well done multi, thoroughly enjoyable.
Took a second look, or three to work out the colours, didn't expect that. A really well done Christmas tree and a very pretty sight, what a great idea to have it there permanently.
The maths and tables all looked a bit daunting initially but turned out to be very logical and not as hard as it looked.
Many thanks for this well constructed and fun multi.

Yay - it's Christmas again... well it won't be long before the carols start up in the shopping malls again.
A joint FTF mission tonight with ADV and Yeetrees, using our collective wits to work our way through the observations and conversion into final coords. I've seen this tree heaps of times, but don't remember seeing it all lit up at night. A nice wee spot for the final too.
TFTC.

Vive La Tawa! A joint FTF (20:25) Whoopee!!!!! , saw this one come up this afternoon and decided that a joint effort was required to get this cache, so rang up ADV and gone fishing and a night raid was require, found WP1 without any issues as I keep seeing this tree 3 times a week and was thinking seriously about using it but could not come up with a use for it, I love this multi, very well put together, didn’t realise that the lights change colour until I really started looking at them, cool tree, after a bit of maths WP2 in sight off into the night we went, arrived at WP2 and as I was about to turn around caught a glint in the corner of my eye and realised that I might have just spotted the final location and a quick look revealed that I was correct, nice spot to hide a cache and great views of all the twinkles of the Wellington lights, COOL spot and cool multi, TFTC TNLNSL (834) also a FTF CRAZE Yeetrees came a visiting as well for a visit.

Dropped of TB.