Balls Up (Canterbury) Te Awaparahi, South Island, New Zealand
By StreetWalkerNZ and Troodles on 01-Nov-09. Waypoint GC1ZYA8

The cache has been disabled for a few months (since the Feb 22 quake), and with the collapse of the station post the Jun 13 after shocks, there is no hope of re-establishing it in the near future. If I was still in Chch I would place one nearby, but as I'm not I'll archive this cache and open up the space for somebody else. If somebody wants to use the info in the original cache listing in a new lisitng they are most welcome to.

Today it was announced that the station was so baldy damaged that it would have to be demolishsed (though salvage of some elements might be possible). Disabling for now (will probably have to archive).

Having a short stop over in Lyttleton, had to hire a cab to take Geowife and I around to a few caches.

After earth quake this time piece was "out of action" but the cache was in good order.

Left GazMag PathTag

Tks ..... StreetWalkerNZ ..... GazMag

#577

Thanks for the history lesson and cache.

Great surroundings - pity was closed through mag 7.1 earthquake. Found it though.

Visited site together with Scribe - man is this place damaged. Took a photo of some muggle tourists for them so they would go. Found cache with ease - good clues. May need to think about relocating slightly to stay clear of EQ hazards?

#336 - Our 3rd find in our 2nd Banks Peninsula cache raid from Wellington. What a lovely & intricate location - so sad to see it ruined by the earthquake, hopefully they'll get it back up and running again. Good placement as it's not in the exclusion zone. Found in a strong breeze with a sunny view overlooking the noisy Lyttelton docks. One of the better finds today. SL TFTC.

During our 4 weeks holiday in the southern island of NZ we did not only find an exiting countryside and wildlife. The many caches brought us sometimes to places we didn´t expect or planned to go to.
Thank you very much for this. Greetings from Germany.

Quick visit on tour coach. Just enough time to find cache. T4TC

Luckily this was placed out of reach of the earthquake, sneaky find to avoid the many muggles close at hand, TFTC

#557
Nice place. While logging a cruiseship arrived. Nice views.
Thanks for the cache.

A shame that this is out of action due to the earthquake. A nice hide.

Several muggles when I arrived, so had to get the camera activated. VERY cunning hide that proved difficult for my hand to grab. TFTC.

Nice afternoon out, had to make like I watching the ships as a muggle moved away - TFTH

too bad that the station is closed due to the earthquake.
but you can still enjoy the small garden and the view

TFTC

Never been here before. Wonderful location and history. Never fear - you can still safely grab this without breaking any safety restrictions placed since the earthquake.

Lovely spot to visit, found the cache quickly, nice hiding spot

Badjelly found on a beautiful day

I just managed to get this without jumping fences. Thanks for bringing me here. I've only lived hereabouts for more than half a century! Hatas

A nice find on my way around the area today, first time over the hill for caching.

TFTC

We managed to get to this although the area is closed and padlocked due to building damage. First gate wasn't locked, but it had a lock there. Great views and history. TFTC!!!

Again, an opportunity to discover places we had not visited. Well worth the climb, and a clever cache. TFTC

Was with square-route (and others). We had a great morning geocaching in Lyttelton. I am quite new to this so was pretty pleased with myself to have spotted the cache.

We got there before the gates were unlocked and only then read the note about when the place was open. Fortunately the curator(?) came just as we were leaving to find another cache.
The cache itself is easy to find. It is easily seen, and yet it blends in to appear as if it is something else.
TFTC Streetwalker

Doing a bit of caching with Guwapo's cache friendly Ninong before catching a flight home later today. Did a cache next to the Melbourne Timeball Station a few days ago so was keen to do this one as well but no luck with both of us looking. Found what we think was the other container but no berocca tubes present - just a snail!!

Great spot. Haven't been up here for years. TFTC.

Had the place to myself today. Admired the views and the structure here. Missed the ball dropping by about an hour. TFTC, Biggles.

Another quick find. Bit of a 'Mexican stand-off' with some other visitors "are they, or aren't they" then kapow! we struck.
TFTC!

Simple and easy to find. Took a pathtag coin. TFTC

what a tremendous view ! tftc

Arrived in time to see the Ball drop and then missed it looking where I was putting my feet. All was quiet I guess I was expecting a bit of fuss. Lots of muggles on the seen but easy enough to retrieve log and replace the cache undectected. TFTC

Quick find as was lying in open.

Walked via Ripon Street, down Oxford St and up the Gaol Steps, took photos of the school and then followed the GPS to the cache site. Actually I didn't need the GPS as I am Lyttelton born and bred. Cache was a quick find which was good as I still had a third cache to find before dinner.

What an interesting place to spend some time watching the world go by TFTC

Nice hide - TFTC!

Scored while waiting for the ball to drop, just an hour too early!

Saw a similar installtion in Williamstown Vicotria last year. Love the contrast of visiting this site while holding a GPS. So similar yet so different.

Thanks for the cache.

This was such a fantastic location that it almost made up for not seeing the ball drop. We brought our lunch from the car to eat while we waited...and waited, then we contented ourselves with tracing the line of crater and watching tugs etc. Lovely spot, made all the better with a sneaky cache, well hidden. Thanks StreetWalkerNZ and Troodles!

Found in the company of Team McWindeLuneX7 while caching around Lytellton. Odd that the ball should drop at 1PM and not 12 noon as we had expected. We sort of figured the 1PM listing referred to Daylight Saving Time and 12 O'clock would be a good time to be there.As it was we enjoyed the sun while eating our sandwiches and waiting for nothing to happen. Which it did. Or didn't. Sigh. Thanks StreetwalkerNZ and Troodles - a good bit of local history.

3063. [font=Comic Sans Ms][green]Well it was a balls up as the ball stayed down. We waited for midday to come and go but no action so we then looked at the ball - it wasn't doing anything either. We chose this spot to have our lunch and get crinked necks as we patiently waited. Maybe the ball jiggler was sick today? Anyway, well worth the wait as the views were stunning.

TFTC and the puncture.[/green][font=Verdana]

This entry was edited by McPhan on Tuesday, 15 June 2010 at 19:59:22.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Seems like we were an hour early for the show, (now confirmed by the cache owner) but the spot was so good and weather kind, we sat and had lunch while waiting. Sorry we the ball drop, but thanks for bringing us here and for the cache, which was found by McPhan in pretty quick time.

The visit to this cache was a special event for me, as an uncle of mine worked as volunteer secretary to the Lyttelton Maritime Assn, during the many years of effort by lots of volunteer workers to bring the Timeball Stn to its present grand state. The LMA was wound up on completion, and the Timeball Stn passed to Historic Places Trust. My thanks to Volunteer Host (and Ball-Dropper) Bruce, for a special tour, and the chance to peruse lots of Uncles letters for the LMA. A great cache, thank you.

cool

The hardest part was the drive in. The GPS took us there from the town side. Not a good idea. Loved the view. Thank you.

Awesome view from up here. TFTC.

Tricky little container, nice walk.

Great spot to visit. TFTC

Great spot for a cache. Enjoyed going inside and watching the ball drop.

Great view and just in time to see the ball come down.

Quick Find tftc

Watched the ball drop then spent an hour or 2 inside. TFTC

(19) 2nd for the day, another great spot to wander.. Not many people about here at 10.30 so ended up finding it pretty easy.
SL.

[This entry was edited by Broganbranch on Saturday, April 17, 2010 at 12:55:29 AM.]

Nice easy find after visiting a favourite spot of mine.

A rather novel cache. Interesting spot with a nice, relevant, navigational context. Thanks for taking us to this spot.

Great place to visit on sunny calm afternoon. Great piece of history preserved. TFTC

Got here just in the nick of time. Parked on a lower road and had a quick sprint up the hill. Great views but unfortunately too late really to go in to the building. TFTC

Quick search to find. Busy geocaching day today. SL TFTC

Easy find. Enjoyed the history lesson. A well maintained site.
TFTC

Nice spot, first time up here.

Thanks Bitsprayer

Nice, quick find. Great view of the boats coming and going in Lyttelton Port. TFTC.

Very interesting place. A lot of interesting history. Thanks for the hide.

Nice/quick little hide on our trip to the intriquing ball tower.
tgth

Great to see the preservation of our maritime history. Also great views from GZ. A quick find. TFTC

We saw the ball drop at 1 PM, and to see where and how the Ball Timer lived was most interesting. TFTC

Easy find and a great lesson for the kids at the same time. TFTC

Did not miss the 1pm Fall of the Ball today. This was worth a visit. Thanks!

Step reconstruction work near the cache site, found cache container sitting in plain view on top of a structure a few meters from GZ. After logging my visit hid cache in area suggested by the clue that agreed with my GZ reading.

A bit busy this afternoon with the Diamond Princess cruise ship parked up below. A nice wee hide and a great spot to take photos of the harbour. TNLN Thanks.

Quite interesting. I have seen this station from afar many times and rather interesting to finally make the visit.
TFTC

Found it, but couldn't log it, because of the construction workers nearby. Very nice and interesting place for us GPS-users.
Thank you for showing!

Thanks for the cache.

#1615 A few years ago I looked unsuccessfully for another cache at this strange timepiece. This was an easy find even though there were a couple of guys carrying stones up the path to the building for some kind of restoration work. DS8300

Nice spot to visit, TFTC

We acually found it with out the GPS.But nearly lost it as it dropped out of its container.Luckilly my little fingers just squezzed through the fence.We added a small stick to the outside container to make it tighter so hopefully it wont do that for the next Cacher.A great view of the Cruise Ship Sea Princess in the harbour.TFTC.

I attracted more attention that I expected walking up to the area. People politely asked what kind of phone I was holding. Ironically, I would later pretend my Garmin 60Cx was a phone later in the day as cover for stopping near a cache. Fortunately, the flags were being raised nearby which attracted everyone's attention which allowed me to approach the cache site. Cheers StreetWalkerNZ!

Quiet and deserted streets on Xmas morning. Warm, sunny and peaceful day for caching.
Not a soul around. Gate locked, but cache within reach. Quick and easy retrieval.
Have seen a similar one in the suburbs.
TFTC and Merry Xmas.

[orange]Kia Ora.[/orange] Visited during our holiday trip to New Zealand.

Great place to hide a cache. The visit of the Time Ball is worth the money.

TFTC wessjan

found with Moneydork.

TFTC!!!

Seems to be my day for visiting sites used before for caches - this is the second. Actually got to see the time ball drop today at 1pm New Zealand Daylight Time - which equals midnight at Greenwich. Lovely view of the P&O cruise liner "Diamond Princess" moored at Lyttelton. Many visitors from the ship walking the grounds and visiting the Time Ball Station.

Very quick find, as some of the paint has come off the lid and looks quite white. Lovely view from here today! Cheers Gav [4739]

A quick find. Great spot.

nice that this poi has a cache

tftc
rieglerp

17.12.09 18:57 4th/day
Easy found.
Two guys from Austria (the heart of Europe)
TFTC

Easy find, just as described. TFTC.

If anywhere deserves a cache, it's here. Great building and history

Phew! EXTREMELY windy today! Had a little trouble with the lid. Couldn't seem to get it on properly. Have left as best we (me and Expat Tarheel) could get it.

The cache seemed to be about 5 metres south west of where it should have been. Nice spot!

Neat history about Ball drop stations. TFTF and History Lesson

I've tried to find the timeball station before a long time ago. Got horribly lost, don't know how, it's easy to find. Beautiful day with great views.

Cheers.

Went for a nice walk from Christine's house. Christine found it Nice town.

And we still haven't been here to watch the ball drop but the penny did and the cache was found easily.

GPS was out a bit on this one. Found after resorting to the clue.TFTC

First find of the day with Team Hot PJ. Unique container! TNLN, TFTC

First find on a lovely sunny afternoon of caching with Kalena 67. The Timeball is worth a visit - some wonderful unique new displays in the observation room.

Nice and quiet here today-not sure if it was the weather or Show day keeping people away. Made it a quick easy find for us so that was a bonus. TFTC

Plenty of muggles around had to use a bit of stealth lovely view of the harbour on a sunny day. TFTC

This place deserves a cache! And now it is here, thank you for placing it. An interesting place, but busy with the cruise ship in the harbour.

Nice walk up to an interesting place. TFTC.

Found after a bit of a hunt trying to avoid the muggles.What a lovely view.

3030. Well we had Stella out for the day and she enjoyed this cache. She stopped at the notice board and planned our route then checked it on the way back. We sat and admired the view as we saw the harbour from a different direction.


Thanks
Iris & Rodney & Stella