Waikawa Walkabout (Tararua Forest Park) Manakau, North Island, New Zealand
By LeftyNZ on 04-Jan-10. Waypoint GC22PE2

This was my first visit to this area and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was glad that I decided to leave my car at the first gate and walk in - it's a nice walk and only took 25 minutes. The gravel road is clear until 130m from the end but it's pretty narrow with some steep drop-offs to one side and at least one place which would have taken out the sump of my car.This cache was a quick find but unfortunately is in something of a sorry state. It was full of water and it wasn't possible to sign the log. I have attached a photo.Thanks very much for the cache.

This geocacher reported that the container is damaged.

Exploring a new area that's not far from home. Cache is a bit wet.

Sveppi and I had a mishmash of plans for that anniversary weekend and we tried to juggle a few things to include a night and day in the hills looking for deer. As we had a team lunch in Waikanae this was the closest access to the Tararuas.
The cache description is truly out of date as the road to the carpark has been blocked by a slip for a very, very long time. The walk in from the end of the tar seal was pretty straightforward though. The valley was wet, and so was the cache, as has been reported by previous cachers. Unable to sign log.

Had a long weekend off work and all day to get from Wellington up to Tauramanui so decided that I would take time to pop into Manakau on my way up to see if I could finally get the required 1000 day old cache for GSELs ‘The 1000 Day Challenge (Wellington)’. These have been slim picking around the Hutt Valley so looking a field I spied two caches up in Manakau that had not been visited for over 1000 days. So with an early start I headed out to the valley, following the directions given by most of the caches. At the first gate I pull my trusty little hatchback up and noted the two orange cones in front. On further inspection someone had written a note saying that 100m up it was only passable by foot. Ha fools, while I was not going to risk my aluminium sumped car on that, I did have a plan B. After a few minutes my mountain bike was assembled and I quickly whizzed down the trail. To note, it is all free of blockages, but its not car friendly and only a small four wheel drive that you don’t mind getting scuffed up by the returning vegetation. At the last carpark the trail ends with a substantial slip, which while its clear its been there for sometime, it was a little too precarious for me to take the bike further. Hence it was off on foot from there. I was supposed to hit Picnic Oasis (Tararua Forest Park) first (being 1051 days since last found), but since I ambled past it I grabbed Waikawa Walkabout (Tararua Forest Park), no worries there all good and dry. Next I zipped around the mostly benched track to the old mill and my main prize Picnic Oasis (Tararua Forest Park). When I got to the clearing however the long grass was full of tracks, some heading off in the area of the cache, a very ominous sign indeed. After a little search around the cache was found soon found and it appeared to be too lightly covered in foliage. Upon closer inspection the cache log was soaked up there was a newish looking scrap of white paper in there. As it was soaked with no visible ink left I had no way of knowing if I had been beaten to the punch or not. Still, I left my piece of replacement waterproof logsheet in a new bag (I’d read the previous log about the water issue) and decided that having come all this way I wasn’t going to risk coming home to find someone had logged this cache. So I looked at my watch, figured I had a few more hours and decided to hoof it up the hill to Tormented tree (Manakau- Manawatu), another cache that had not been found for over a 1000 days (1113 days to be exact). After doubling back and crossing the river I found myself following an easy up hill trail that opened up into large grass patches with a faint farm trail to follow. Again I saw that it had been used recently and as I plodded the 1.7km up the hill I was thinking again that I was too late. Eventually the tree was spotted (very obvious) and I made a start at my rummage through the GZ. As luck would have it the cache was found, but had it been found recently. I peeled open the log book.. and yes it was blank! My toil for the last few hours had not been in vane, I clearly had found my cache over a 1000 days old. Well with that revelation, I signed the cache, took the required photos and jogged euphorically down the hill (note watch the pig ruts). I clambered around the slip, re-found my bike that was still there and made it back to my car. Great now I have to drive for four hours, but who cares.

parked at the first gate and walked up to this cache, cache was quickly found, I had a look at the river and it was definitely able to be crossed today (mostly knee-deep but came up to the bottom of my shorts at one point), although very fast flowing and would be difficult for small children, I had a quick look over the other side of the river and the other track is easy to find but unfortunately I didn't have time to investigate further today, the cache is very damp, the original log book is sodden and even the most recently added bit of paper was damp, I added my own scrap of paper, saw a cute little mouse on my way back to the car

Yes this one was half full of water... so the log was too soggy to sign.
I added a strip of paper as temporary log and wrapped it up well but really it needs a waterproof log for this area.
Thanks for the cache!

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

I've been looking for an excuse to start to attempt some of my local caches that have a harder terrain rating, so having bought some new hiking boots last weekend I thought I'd break them in with a weekend of tramping. Yesterday I manages about 15km, and today I had less time so only managed about 7 or 8km, but managed to get up this little valley to make a start on the 6 caches I still need to find.

So this was the second stop for my day, and the third cache I was aiming for. Even though the weather was good and there had been no major rain for a while, I decided to park up at the end of the road and walk the two and a half kms to the picnic area, even though I could have driven nearer to it along the track. I was a bit surprised to find a bloody great landslip had taken the path away only a few hundred metres short of the start of the Bush loop track. I'm not sure how old it is, but it appears to have happened some time ago.
I clambered over the slip, and continued down to the camping area. The dunny is still there, but the picnic table has gone, and only the concrete remains of the BBQ hearth. I suspect that the area see little use now because of the slip.

The walk down to GZ itself was nice and easy, and I was soon at the sign. The Hint wasn't entirely accurate, but spotted the cache only a metre or so from where I had been looking. However, once I had found the container, it turned out to be completely full of water. Everything inside was buggered. The original log was mush. The temporary replacement log put in by a previous finder was also soaking wet. Many of the SWAG items were ruined/rusty. I have taken a couple of photos to show you the extent of the damage, and as proof of the find.
I tipped out the water and then replaced the container in it's hiding spot exactly as found on the basis that it is beyond repair but I didn't have a replacement I could leave in its stead.

In light of your query regarding the crossing of the stream, I would say that a crossing would be relatively easy at the right time of the year. The water today wasn't that deep or fast, and I have taken a couple of photos to show you.

Thank you for placing your cache, and giving me the opportunity to discover a new location.

Cache contents completely soaked and ruined. Suggest a complete replacement of container and contents. I could do this for you if you wish as I intend to go back there sometime in the next month or so.

Sign at road head says closed. You can walk from there though. Slip is 200m from car park. Fairly big but can be crossed safely. The log is very wet so needs replacing.

Easy find with the excellent clues. A nice walk but it wasn't easy to climb across the big slip - I wouldn't do it without assistance.

#1563 Soggy wet and soggy. Dried as best I could. Left a receipt as a new log sheet - sorry it is all I had for this lonely cache

312 days since the last find - yet another lonely cache out in these parts. Thanks for the smilie

#6282. A little drive along North Manakau Road into a seldom visited entrance to the Tararua Forest Park. It was interesting to see that we had now travelled from Manawatu-Wanganui back into the Wellington Region. The parking area was empty, so it was all quiet. We did not see the picnic table at the start, and decided to continue the walkabout to this location after completing the Jungle Loop. The river was still quite high despite the dry weather we had lately. Found the cache after a short search. Cache was half full of water, but the bagged logs were relatively dry. Tried to dry the contents in the sun a bit. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log. Thanks for the cache.

After finding the other cache in the area, we headed off to this one in rather heavy rain. Fortunately it was a quick find. The rain was rather localised because it was sunny back out nearer the coast. #586. TFTC.

Fun cache.
Found with Grandma and Grandad.
TFTC

Found with W.E.K.A.
TFTC

We drove right through to the parking waypoint, with no problem in our AWD car, with only one short section to be navigated very slowly. Then a short walk with our granddaughters to a quick easy find. We put a new dry log in the cache to replace the soggy original one. TFTC

As with previous finds cache was soaking wet, I will come back next week and replace container and log book as CO has been absent for months. Will look into adopting these caches so they can be maintained if CO is no longer active.

Quick find at GZ today.
Stream up to Mt Thompson didnt look to bad to cross today but had other caches lined up so bypassed it.
Next time tho.

Found the cache pretty easily. It had about 10mm of water in the bottom. We dried it out but the log was too wet to write on. The stream was pretty low and almost crossable with dry feet.

Lots of fun. Walked past this place and never realised what was hiding nearby.

Urgently needs drying out and log book replaced.

No problems finding this cache at the end of doing the Mt Thompson loop track with 28 Wednesday trampers from the Manawatu Tramping and Skiing Club. The cache is full of water so could not do more than half scratch our names. Tried to dry it out by no time to give it the time it needs. Hope to do the others in this area sometime. TFTC.

Another nice quick find in an interesting spot, I didn't realise you could access Mt Thompson from here. Logbook quite damp, I only just managed to mark my mark in it.

TFTC

Good cache find on walk around today.

TFTC - Have walked past here before and had no idea it was here! Nice easy find

Been up here once before and I just reviewed my log for the Jungle Loop cache. To my surprise it was 1 year and 1 day since my last visit.

A short walk from the car park and an easy find from memory, as I forgot to download the cache file to my phone before I went bush.

The cache was pretty wet, probably partly due to the length of time between logs. This is a great spot to visit and I'm amazed that I was the first to log since April 2012!. Dried it out as best I could and covered it up a bit better in its hidey hole. I was going to leave a TB, but the lack of visitors put me off.

TNLN
TFTC

A little unnerving seeing a number of hunters with guns coming & going. Glad we were all wearing brightly coloured running clothes, & the caches were all nice & close to the tracks!
Came accross this one sooner than we expected.
A nice easy find. Left a pet rock - a big fish. TFTC

Easy find. stream at cache site quite low about a foot deep. could be easily crossed.

Found with Chucky3, who had the cache in hand while I was scrabbling in my pack for the hint! Thanks for the cache.

Easy find with @Kaikawaka on a lovely day TFTC

After completing Jungle Loop headed out on the track for this one. Always interesting to see that there must have been once a substantial road along here. Great day to be exploring. No problems with the find, although cache damp inside. TFTC

After doing the cache at the of the Jungle Loop track with -gonefishing- and agcnz we decided it was a good opportunity to go for a walk down the other track. As we were nearing GZ we noticed that all of a sudden that our GPSr loss our signals and then as we neared GZ I realised that we were at GZ as it made total sense. Found the cache quickly without any issues and signed and then returned it back to its hiding spot and covered it up so that it wont get muggled, thanks for bringing us to this lovely walkway, TFTC TNLNSL (3381)

Came here on a day's walking in the area with -gonefishing- and Yeetrees to deal to some unfound caches. Great company and a really enjoyable walk - we stopped for this one on the way to the two others upstream. A rapid find by Yeetrees despite having very few satellites in view and consequent very poor accuracy. We had actually considered using the track that starts here to walk up Mt Thompson but we're glad we didn't, the river was deep and fast and we would have got very wet. The alternative longer route that we used didn't get us wet at all. Signed log, TFTC and on to the others!

Out and about finding caches in the area with yeetrees and agcnz. Picked up this one on the way to the two others further on. The oregon seemed to struggle with the narrow valley and tree cover, telling me the cache was 30m further on, so I pulled out the trusty 60CSx which gave a far more sensible reading.
TFTC.

Stopped off and found this one on my way back from finding the other two caches up stream. TNLN SL TFTC

A quick find on my up to the other two caches further down on a nice night. Managed the gravel road to the car park in my non 4WD no problems, although it did seem to go on longer than expected! Would love to know what the 'Security Cameras' sign at the second gate is all about!? A really nice spot up here though, TFTC!

A quick find after an enjoyable little walk.
Thanks.

Very easy find #2 of the 4 we're after, this afternoon.

TFTC almost missed it as I was enjoying the walk and for a moment forgot the reason for being in the area.

# 305 T4TC Nice spot for a cache. Great day for caching

found this cache completly uncovered i think the wind has blowed the debry off so recovered with stones
- car
+ glass stone
+ empty bullet shell
TFTC

Another great cache. Nice & close to Jungle Loop.
TFTC

One hike, four caches - great! we really enjoyed the tour in this amazing landscape.

Cheers
Dschuko

Second find of the day. Very quick and easy find. TFTC.
- Wooden Shoe
+ Star Wars figurine

This was an easy find after doing 'Jungle Loop' TFTC

Jumpy gps, but hint soon clarified things. TFTC

Found with Emvy_us who was trying to tell me it was 30m up the track! One of a few found while in the area.

Found with Geodatum. As we approached this one we found a group of people doing exactly what the sign says - having a Sunday afternoon picnic. We had a chat with them and carried on to do the other two caches further up the track. All peaceful when we returned. The GPSr was really bouncing around, so we were glad to check the helpful hint and appreciated an easy find, nicely placed. The river would be very easy to cross today, the track up to Mt Thompson looks like a tempting walk for another day - that cache is still on the "to do" list. Thanks LeftyNZ for this most enjoyable series of caches in the bush. All up we spent about 2 1/2 hours getting them, taking our time, with photo stops. We also did not drive right into the final car park, stopping about 500m short (although as it turned out the road was in very good condition).

We walked into a group pf picnicing muggles at the GZ and had to move on to the other local caches. We got it with a bit of trouble on the way back as the GPS's were giving silly readings. Needed to look at the hint. All streams easily crossable. TFTC. Geodatum.

We were at cache and King had gone swimming...getting rid of mud from last one...quick find and a beaut walk...road in easy...even in a car I would suspect...a few potholes in last half but simple and ample room to park at end. Lunch and togs compulsory.

Quick find thanks. TNLNSL TFTC

3TF. Just beat Clippie to it.
Took small ball
Left Scooby Doo.
T4TC.

Second of the set -Boogie-O 1 and 2 on a wedding anniversary hike. Quick find, no swaps. TFTC.

FTF - very happy to be first. Found 6-30am in the rain. Nice walk in to cache area, cache found quickly. SL TFTC

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