Knuckle Hill (Nelson / Marlborough) Rakopi, South Island, New Zealand
By bumandworker on 24-Oct-09. Waypoint GC209W1

Quick find with the hint. Beautiful view! TFTC!

En balade dans le secteur cache trouvé MPLC

Found on 6 weeks long holiday. Last person was there more than 1 year ago. Merry Christmas!

Arrived at the carpark at 3.30 pm and assembled the mountain bike to help cut down on the time involved. Pushed but mainly rode to track intersection and was greeted by half a dozen goats. Left the bike and continued on foot to the summit. Like the previous 2 visitors I zeroed in on the same rock (GPS @ 1m), piece of wood but no cache. Spent 20 min searching and no luck. Had the gear for yet another replacement which was placed with CO's permission. Held in place with rocks so will not move. Will see how this goes. Climbed back to the trig and the GPS indicated GZ to be 19m East so happy with correct placement.

TFTC bumandworker

A long way up there is rewarded with a beautiful 360 degrees view. Waoouu.
Not so much waoouu with the cache. Like the previous cache I am sure I was a the right place. Under the stone was just a piece of wood. A picture from a cacher with more luck than I, made it clear to me that I found the right stone: the view from there was the same.

Was disappointing getting to the top after a good hours walk and not locating the cache. Was blowing so hard at the top we had to be very careful near the edge. I found GZ and a flat rock as per hint....was a good shelf with a decent space for a cache underneath.... I did find a piece of wood in the gap but no systema as per last replacement log and photo.
Views at the top were spectacular - was worth the walk even without making the find.

Today we did the Knuckle Hill track. There was a lot of rain the day before so the track was quite boggy. Once at the top the view was great. The junior found the cache by himself. We were prepared with a new box, logbook and a zip lock bag. Hope this one lasts for another five years. TFTC

Planning on going there in a few days. Will try tro bring a replacement.

Tent the night in the carpark. Now at the top after running/walking up this morning. A little clouding but some good views or the inlet with the tide out. Once at GZ I had a long look. I could not find. Then head back to the trig and looked under the rocks there. It was there. And not on a good state. Log is soaked and container a little beat up. Sadly I didn't bring any replacement stuff. I left as is under the trig and hope the next person can do some repair work for it.

Really great views. No Deer !

Stunning view!

Found this cache without knowing.

There was a nice view from the top of Knuckle Hill!

Thank you for the cache!

A great walk up here! Very windy. Cache wet but able to log our visit

Thanks for the cache. It was nice place to visit.

Wanting to make the most of the Summer Solstice's long daylight hours, I reached the GZ by 8am and perched atop of the cache to eat breakfast while enjoying the view

Thanks for bringing me up here b&w!



** Logged as part of the Ramblers Reward Challenge GC2XBA7 **

Kaituna track will be closed in June for 1080 drop. Will reopen once track is checked. Look for signage.

We had a great walk through the Kaituna track to the Rockville end. Knuckle hill was amazing. A beautiful calm day. Mob of well fed goats up there. Thanks for the cache (and the dry new log). Tupaia

Had a couple of hours spare in the late afternoon today and Mrs agcnz was happy to sit in the car and read a book while I headed up the hill for this one. Set off at 16:45 and made it to the top in just on 1 hour. Cache was located very quickly, however there was about half a centimetre of water in the container and the logbook was so sodden that it was very difficult to write in it. I didn't have time to dry it but I did have some spare goodies in my backpack so I have now replaced the logbook with a waterproof "Rite-in-the-Rain" book and a new heavy plastic ziplock bag for it. I have left the old logbook there - interestingly the bag was airtight when sealed so I'm not sure how the water got in. Put all the cache details on the cover of the new logbook, signed it and all back together again. This cache really needs a better container, ones of this sort are pretty bad at keeping water out. Off back down to the car again, made it in 50 minutes and saw a couple of goats on the way. Thanks for the cache and the excuse for a great walk, this is what caching is about for me and this one will go down as a favourite.

TFTC!

I've driven past this a few times now with out having the time to go for it. Today Kiwi Explorer and I made the time and effort to climb the hill. My first time up and his 3rd. We were rewarded with pretty well perfect conditions. Although it started to cloud over on the way up there was no wind and the views were great. Pretty muddy on parts of the final ascent but mostly able to avoid wet feet. Took a little while to search out the cache but used the clue and there it was. TFTC, Biggles.

Much harder getting up here for a 3rd visit. Too much sitting on the proverbial all week. Thanks for the walk - again.

Enjoyed the walk, had a stunning day for it - calm and sunny. Great views.

Well, we were in the area so we really had to do it. Cloud down on the tops so no view. Got some glimpses of the possibilities from halfway up. I guess that we will now have to return on a fine day.
Were entertained by a couple of young Billy Goats rutting on the path ahead. Once we had had enough of the spectacle we pushed them on to find a herd of over a dozen goats waiting for them further up the track.
TFTC

We Would have liked this one to have been #400 but it turned out to be #399 , what a great walk with a view back down the west coast and over to Farewell Spit loved the place TFTC

Mr B had his weekend planned: easy, no long walks or climbs, and no people with him to force the pace or set objectives he didn't want to agree to. And then Mr KE emailed him and spun some sad story about having been abandoned by his very best geocaching friend. What do you do? Answer: compromise! Mr KE and I had a ball this weekend, and after breaking up camp at Anatori and dealing to the drive-by on the way, we arrived at the Knuckle Hill car park. Truth be told, I was in no mood for anything that required effort. Recent pressures at home required a quiet outing for the weekend. Well, that went out the window when Mr KE marched me up Knuckle Hill. It looks like WAY MORE than 2 hours up when you drive up to it, but it appears we managed in about 1 hr 20 minutes. (On DOC's web site, it is rated at 1hr 20m) We were certainly down in 45 mins. Never admitted it to Mr KE, but hated the walk up - didn't want to be here, and then - suddenly, the summit didn't seem too far away after all! My surly mood turned, and I was quite happy to be up there - thanks to Mr KE for whom this was his 2nd sojourn up here. After the formalities, and a quick TXT home, I took a number of photos and it was time to get on with the rest of the day. On the way down we met a lot of mountain runners and other trampers. One of them met us, looked at me and said... "Chunky?". "Beg your pardon?", I replied. "You're not Chunkie?". "No", I said, even more confused. "Ah", he said, and his companions said cryptically that all would be revealed if we read the DOC tramping intentions book at the start of the track (we hadn't signed in). So we set off to find out what that was all about. When we got there we read the entry: "Name:" - Chunky and Blue. "From:" - Christchurch. "Intentions:" - Sex.

TFTC. Great walk, great views, and thanks to the other trampers, a great laugh at the end. Not sure if Mr KE appreciated me calling him Bluey for the rest of the trip...

EDIT: updated walking times.


[This entry was edited by beltfamily on Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 1:13:44 AM.]

Decided to do one last cache before we return to Christchurch and determined this one would be the most rewarding/challenging in the time available. Great little hike to the windy summit. Dropped of the JPL Xmas TB and headed back. Round trip time from Parapara, 3 hours 40 mins. TFTC and all your other interesting caches.

Found along with Mr KE, wish I had taken the mountain bike as it would have been a great ride down

An enjoyable walk with my Dad. We passed at least 10 others on the way up and 2 more were waiting at the trig when we arrived. Great views at the top which took us just on 60 minutes to reach, happy with that. To say it was windy would be an understatement, we could barely stand up straight. However, gz was much more pleasant so we sat and signed the log then headed back to the car. TFTC.

2ndTF. A great little walk, I especially enjoyed the last section up through the tussock grass. Not much of a view this morning due to low cloud. But I found what I came for and enjoyed the exercise. Just on 2 hours 10 minutes total without pushing it. My kind of cache thanks for the placement. TNLN SL 0730hrTFTC

FTF Interesting track and some great views, was spitting a bit at the start but nice blue skys when I got closer to the top it was very windy as some black clouds came in from the west didn't stay too long at the top as hard to stand up but did enjoy the view and by the time I got back to the car its was hot and sunny again, a great walk thanks for taking me up their..

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