Heaphy Start (Nelson/Marlborough) Bainham, South Island, New Zealand
By magpiy on 11-Oct-09. Waypoint GC1ZQZ2

This cache:Quick find thanks to clear hint. Great to start the adventure off with a nice geocache This trip:Planned to ride the Heaphy a few weeks ago but cancelled that because of huge downpour. Last chance this week before riding is banned for the summer. Weather was great this time! Track in good condition to ride, never too steep. Very much enjoyed the varying landscapes and views. Of course tried to find all caches along the way, which worked out! Even an FTF for a bonus cache. Ended up back at the car after 50 hours, 2 nights in a hut and a 'double Heaphy' out and back: so good!

Lovely wee bush walk from the road end. Great one for kids.

Great find. Thanks.

The cache log doesnt seem to have been signed recently, unless we found an old cache! Dates back to 2012, last entry 2019. Were lucky today as the weather is great! Heres to an awesome walk!

What a glorious day to be starting the Heaphy track! Easy find

On bike tour with Tuatara Tours.Spotted by our Guide Tim.Good cache

Nice find to start off our heaphy walk. Glad to see the sun out after the rain we had last night. Thanks

Nice hide. Found on a beautiful January day

Kids ran the first bit to check out the hut and start of the track. Found this on their journey.

Found on a great day out with family. Grandson #4 is an expert

TFTC

Thanks! Lovely day in the Aorere valley today for a school holiday picnic.

We walked just a part of the awesome Heaphy Track and enjoyed the fantastic landscape.The cache was found quickly, it's in perfect condition. Thanks!

Spending the night at Brown Hut before we start the track tomorrow. Short walk up the track after dinner to grab the cache. TFTC

4 days on the heaphy great start to grab this cache tftc

Bright and early find as we began the track. TFTC!

Day of Heaphy

Found with Madcow2 and Mumandme. Five amazing days on the Heaphy track. This was day one. Didn't take long to find this one. Woohoo on our way. TFTC

Found with madcow2 and victoriousone with a wet start to our Heaphy Track tramp - tftc

I enjoyed the short walk from the carpark to here after quite a few park and grabs. Several cars in the carpark but I didn’t see anyone else. The Heaphy is on my wish list to do one day. TFTC magpiy # 17,111

Dad was pretty keen to make this find on the Heaphy Track - and he did!

TFTC magpiy!

# 708

We stayed the night at Brown Hut before starting the Heaphy Track, and collected this in the morning, just after sunrise unencumbered by pack. It took a little effort until we realised that it was 5m off the track at the end of the bridge rather than 5m up the track. TFTC!

Went for a short walk along the Heaphy Track to get this one.TFTC.

They walked faster than expected. Luckily I was half an hour early.
I am being taxi Mum for my son and daughter in law for the Heaphy Track and finding a few geocaches. Today's pick up day. I have until 2pm to geocache until my heart's content. I stayed in Takaka today and will drive over the hill with the kids to Nelson. Thanks magpiy for creating this hide. It was find 9692 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

First cache on the Heaphy. Hopefully we will find all the others in the next four days. TFTC

Day one on the Heaphy, turned out to be a great tramp with awesome weather. A few caches as an added bonus. Lovely swimming hole beneath the bridge.

With a few days off work coinciding with a small window of fine weather we decided to take the caravan away for a few days to see if we needed to do anything before the Christmas break. Headed over the hill to Collingwood and found a nice, but windy, place to stay. Once we were set up we headed out for a drive and decided to take the journey up to the start of the Heaphy Track.

The rain still hadn't returned and Andy said it's only 600 odd meters to the next cache so we masy as well do it. By the time we got to Brown Hut the rain was coming down again, so we hurried on to find and sign the cache and then headed back to the car. A lot seems to have changed in the 25 years since I was last here, yet there is still a lot the same. tftc

#3662: Heaphy Smiley!
I came to this one with DieMannschaft on our Great Walk Adventure.
In the end, we were able to find them all. What an amazing walk!! Rain today, but that's not stopping us!
SL/TFTC!

Together with 8ManAfter, I walked the Heaphy Track. We checked on all caches on the track and eventually found them all. On our way to the Perry Saddle Hut, this was our first cache after staying the night before in Collingwood. TFTC

Good find at start of 5-day Heaphy tramp. Tftc.

And we're off!

Day one on the Heaphy Track and my first end-to-end Great Walk.

No sooner started than it was time to stop here and look for my first cache on the trail.

A wee bit of searching but turned up the goods before too long.

Thanks magpiy
#2995

Thought while we were out and about exploring, Salisbury falls definitely worth a visit we decided to come take a look at the start of the Heaphy. A nice we walk into this cache on the rainy afternoon. Tftc

Nice wee bridge

All good to go

Last find on the walk. Nice straight forward find in a lovely spot. Tftc

After a 9 hr drive from Geraldine we finally made it to the brown river carpark . We unloaded the gear into.an empty hut (for the moment) and had a stroll to the bridge to search for this one plenty of hints to choose from but I soon located it... A lot easy to cache without a huge pack on your back and one less to do tomorrow cache all good ..

A nice bridge here - the entire track is bridged now so passable in most weathers. Now we start to climb.

Quick find at the start of the hike. Tftc
Sorry for very late log

Replacement cache in place all goodto go

Time to take a trip over to check this cache and repair if we can

This geocacher reported that there is a problem with this cache.

Found with fanfan-77 on the start of our 5 day great walk TFTC

17 years in NZ and my first Great Walk. Doing it over 5 days, extra time to take it all in. Day one, stayed at Brown Hut last night for an early start. A cache early in the piece, but this one took some finding. It's not where the hint indicates, which is a bit unsettling at first. No other hint objects nearby so started looking somewhere else and spotted. Not far from GZ, but think this one has crept, might need a check.

As per below, cache might need to check location, or hint changed to match new location.

Great bridge ! Took us a little while to find the cache. Others have commented that it is now under small rocks and behind a small plant quite near the track and this was a good hint. TFTC

TFTC. ️

Found after a bit of searching around, Anzac day, on the way out from the MOW Mackay Downs hut.

I was out doing the Heaphy Track over 4 days and stopped to look for this cache at the start of my hike. Had a look in a few places, but couldn't spot the cache. Decided not to spend too long searching, as I had a long day ahead of me.

Found Cache after a look around. Cache seems to be have been moved it it behind plant now under Rocks. Cache is in Good Condition TFTC

Whilst stopping on the swing-bridge near GZ, we spied a very large eel down in the shallows of the river. The search at GZ was rather difficult with our full backpacks with gear to spend 4 days on the Heaphy trail. Like previous finders, we checked out the bigger rocks before checking out some of the other rocks closer to the trail. After a short search the cache was found and we were off UP the trail.

On my last full day in Collingwood I decided to venture out towards the Heaphy Track signing off the caches out that way.

Like the previous visitors this took longer than it should have. I searched a lot of big rocks before going back to the first one and there it was behind something behind the rock.

Cheers for the cache.

Or end, Last of the great walks done. A quickish find at the end but probably a bit tired after the days walk so started with a wider search area and then zeroed in on the GZ. To the car and home to a shower, TFTC

For TregearP and me this was Heaphy End.

Took longer than it should have to find, but find it we did, and all in good order.

A nice finish to the track, thanks for the cache.

Found on a lovely autumn day such a nice place to walk around. TFTC.

The start of an adventure for us!!!! Tramping the Heaphy! Hopefully, us flatlanders who are not used to any elevation changes, will be able to do this!!!! And get some geocaches along the way! A beautiful, sunny, warm day to start us off. We found this one relatively quickly, however did have to pretend to be doing a photo shoot, as there were a few muggles that kept passing! Thanks!

Day five of our Abel Tasman & Heaphy through hike. This is the first cache for us on the Heaphy. TFTC

Thanks for bringing us here and Thanks for the cache

This was both my start and end, went up to the highest point of Heaphy track and back

I've been here before for work but couldn't go for the cache. No problem today. Holymu made the find after interpreting the hint slightly different then I. Thank you magpiy

The car park was almost full with more arriving every few minutes, mostly with cycles. A young family with 3 girls had sped past us along the road and by the time we arrived after finding another cache the youngest aged about 10 was sent off about 15mins before the rest of the family, obviously no stranger to the track.
As we returned after finding this cache we passed many more setting out.
Thank you magpiy.

We arrived late on Friday, so headed straight for the hut and some sleep. As I am the only geocacher of the group I am up early this morning with my torch to hunt this one out. Took a bit of hunting even though the hint was obvious. Torch caching - never great (but fun though!) Back to the hut, breakfast, then back to the car to unload the bikes. We're cycling the Heaphy!

Furthest cache down the Aerore Valley for today's effort. Never been on the Heaphy track, so now I know where to start. Tftc

Grabbed this one when starting to Walk the Heaphy with my wife and one of our sons. Took me longer to find than it should have, chiefly because I am a literalist. We thoroughly enjoyed the track and the odd cache along the way.

TNLN. TFTC.

Great to have this one to get us started. We spotted hint object quickly but we were hampered mobility wise by the packs. Anyway we got there. What a gorgeous crossing.

I was fortunate enough to be able to squeeze an 11 day holiday out of two leave days!! I headed out west to find some caches, see some sights, and relax before the madness of the semester hits. The weather was unbelievably good, only a bit of a storm over Arthur's Pass on the first day, otherwise hot and sunny. I found a great variety of caches, drive by's, walks, hikes, even a power trail. Thank you to all the CO's for their great hides!!!
Not sure where I was going wrong here - I spotted the hint object quickly, but no amount of intense searching including digging lead me to the cache. i could not see any other suitable hiding spots, so eventually gave up

Warm still day with the river water as clear as a bell. Magic spot on a day like this. TFTC

Together with a80

Some month ago four people decided after some wine/beer at a pub quiz to tramp the Heaphy Track during the Christmas break. Plans were made and on the 24th was the day to start. We flew out from Karamea via airplane and were guided by our pilot Mit who explained us the whole trail from the air. Oh wow we need to walk all that!!! Arrived on the field next to the Hut and got picked up by the local farmer to transport us the last km to the hut. At the hut we got settled in. Afterwards two of the group decided to try to escape the sandflies finding the geocache. The Geocache was found in the open. We covered it better and moved on... Had clear sky and sun all the way and a great time . TFTC

Today I started my 5 day Heaphy Track. Backpack packed, huts booked,I started walking with a small group of nice people. All muggels

Thanks for cache
in/out: 1 czech crown/bookmark

All excited to start the Heaphy track. Picked up this one on the way. TFTC

Found it on our way to Lunch at the Beech. Good Spot. Would love to see the river in flood!

Great way to start a ride

Great place to visit. Hidden in cutty grass so be careful.

And just when you have got your pack all adjusted right and start walking you need to stop to find a cache. Not under the first rock I looked so dropped the pack to have a better look around. soon had it logged and explained what I was up to , to my non caching friends. They were not sure about all this but I told them not to panic if I dropped off the back of the group at times, I would catch them up! Even got them finding caches by the end of the walk.

And finally the much talked about trip for the Heaphy Track is underway. A few months ago the work sports committee decided this years adventure training trip would be New Zealand's longest of the Great walks; 78 kms from Collingwood end, emerging at Karamea somewhat older, more tired and wiser? We'll see.
Another day dawns and today is THE day we head onto the Track. But first, we need to get out of our accommodation and enjoy a hot shower for the last time for a few days at least, phew.
Onto the track and across the bridge and we're straight into finding caches. My group had only one cacher so I waited for the soon to be passing Kiwimykl and G H 6 7 1 0 and raisinpig and I also signed in.
T F T C magpiy

[Red] 17 Mar 15. After weeks of training our preparation is about to pay dividends and the company I work for is sending 19 of us to spend four days and three nights on the Heaphy Track as part of a Team Building/Leadership/Get to know each other exercise. We start the track on the 18th of March, but as four of us are Geocachers it would be a shame not to make the most of this opportunity to indulge in our obsession. Over today and the next four days Capperz, GH6710, Kiwimykl and Raisinpig will jointly, individually or any other combination search for and log caches during our travels. In most cases the actual logs will be signed by one of us with our individual GC names, but we may just use our initials being C, G, K and R.

[Blue] 18 Mar 15. Well here we are at the start of the Heaphy Track, this is not the first time I've done the track, but the last time I departed from Takaka Airport and got dropped in by a RNZAF No. 3 Squadron Iroquois to the Perry Saddle Hut where we jumped out into thigh deep snow to start our adventure. This time I've got to do the 'hard yards' and do the 17.5km uphill slog which turns into a 24.1km mostly uphill slog after a 'small' diversion, but more about that later.

Having just bagged 'Aorere Lookout' this is the 'first' cache on the track. We had split into three groups and of course the geocachers were distributed in all three. Capperz got here first and had found the cache already so all we had to do was sign and move on. It's great to be on the track at last after so much preparation and anticipation.

TFTC magpiy

This entry was edited by Kiwimykl on Sunday, 22 March 2015 at 20:01:11 UTC.

After a couple of months preparation for the 4 day Heaphy track alongside 18 other work colleagues....
This was the first cache for me - found with Capperz, kiwimykl and GH6710
TFTC

Cache # 2 of our Heaphy Track trip. A nice walk up to the Perry Saddle hut today, with a diversion down to Shakespeare Flat for an extra cache on the way. Slightly damp and drizzly day, makes for nice walking though. Nice spot for a cache, on what is an excellent walk.
T F T C

Found this on a beautiful day, together with Visa96. Kind regards from Denmark and Germany. TFTC

Signed in logbook as Visa96, but have created a new profile, since my old one was shared with a friend. Found in company with 'zliber' - TFTC

A quick easy find after a short walk along the first part of the track. TFTC

A few years now since I walked the Heaphy but a great memory, and one of NZ's great walks without a doubt. Very nice to re-visit where we finally arrived way back when.

TFTC

Holidaying with tmann421 in the North of the South Island. Many thanks to all the Co's for making this such a memorable trip.

Nice find here.

TFTC

Fun day geocaching in the area with Just-Lookin

liked the hut and walk to here
Short search required, but soon had another good find.

SL (moved along a geocoin) TFTC

Found with Vydra20. TFTC

Happy Christmas! TFTC!

First NZ geocache. Dropped off a geocoin to track but couldn't log my find till today as we were on the Heaphy Track and then off down the "Wet Coast". Sorry for the folks that found the cache today if they were tring to log the geocoin. Don't try and eat this Oreo!

Gentle walk in the rain to brown hut so decided to go on and do the cache.tftc

This entry was edited by Nanzie on Tuesday, 21 October 2014 at 07:34:34 UTC.

We got to the carpark with the rain now falling steadily. We decided that seeing we'd driven this far we had to check out Brown Hut and grab the cache. Got completely soaked but it was actually quite pleasant TFTC

#2434

Was going to do a dnf was heading back and brother said let me have a look and he found it easily

This entry was edited by bullertrout on Sunday, 20 July 2014 at 06:43:10 UTC.

Everything that could go wrong went wrong, gps froze, phone played up, camera batteries reading, exhausted, tramping buddies had taken off ahead so decided to only to have a quick search from memory and then headed off to tramp the Heaphy and hopefully get ahead of the others so I could sort out gps ! Ah well , will have to come back someday.

We had had to turn back on our last trip along the road to the Heaphy Start so were keen to get to the end today. We also found a good spot for a cache at a place that fitted the hint but it was empty. As we intend to return with a picnic lunch to go a bit further next time we will watch. Enjoyed the short walk although it was rather damp underfoot.
Thanks.

Nice find, great being at the start of the tramp. TFTC

we will be over to do a cache check soon

KullerKeks90 and I saw a perfect place which although fits with the hint, but nothing was under or in it... We contacted the owner but didn't got a response. So maybe the cache was muggled and it should be deactivate or archive.

Took a moment or three. Predictably it was very near the first place I looked but - - - - "oh, you mean there!!!" I've done the Heaphy track twice before. Once to here, and once about the same distance from the other end . Now if I could just find someone who would carry my bag for me - - - . TFTC .

Found on a day's exploration around the region, letting the geocaches lead me to all the interesting places. Last time I was here was almost exactly 40 years ago when I walked the Heaphy Track starting from here. There's a lot of improvements happened since then!. The cache wasn't where I was expecting it to be but it was soon in hand. Signed log, TFTC

done the hephy track now to late

cache is in great condition