Hellfire Pass (Canterbury) Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand
By Sandfly tucker & bo&bronnie on 13-Jan-10. Waypoint GC22RRJ

#4,063: Stewart Island Smiley!I came to this one with shockington on our walk along these nice tracks.This was quite the search! We first tried to access the direct way, but it got a little dangerous close to the edge. The gorse is pretty out of control, but we were able to find a path through it to arrive at the hint objects.All in good shape, and I dropped a trackable I've been carrying for a LONG time.SL/TFTC!!

tftc. found w 8manafter

Mum and Dad helped with this one and we found the cache after a nice walk. Beautiful location and thank goodness it survived the fires

Found this on a family walk up the hill. Thanks for the help on the puzzle Mum and Dad

Found with ivss_xx. He had this one solved and we were in the area so we stopped off. A bit of a bush bash and some previous photos helped guide us. We found the spot where lytteltonwitch had hilariously traipsed through the gorse and we made our approach. In true ivss fashion, we just had to go through the thick of it - moth to a flame, he is with gorse. Spotted the cache not long after. Good hide. Enjoyed chasing it down.

18:59 FITW ObnoxiousSpaceCatHaven't been to Steward Island, but definitely want to go some time in the next couple of years!Somehow I had missed this mystery before and only noticed on the map recently, as there are very few unfound cache on the Port Hills remaining for me. Had a look at the brochure and procured some good numbers. Finding the cache was a bit of a mission. First, same as BP&LW we found a very fitting place, exactly as described in the hint, hiding a perfect hidey hole. But no cache. Then I had a look at the ouchy looking pic with LytteltonWitch in it, and we found where that actually happened. Then went through the ouchies ourselves and soon enough got another place, fitting the hint, and cocealing the cache container. Contents are getting a bit wet but the logbook was still quite good and dry.Kia ora! Paldies! Thanks for the cache, Sandfly tucker & bo&bronnie!#10043

Well, what a memorable event that was!! I needed to do a maintenance run on one of my caches on a similar track, also needed a puzzle cache today for the challenge. LW was also wanting one and hadn't got my trad, so off we went spur of moment stuff. The weather was a bit iffy but actually improved as we got closer - thanks heavens, You wouldn't want to do this in wet or rain. No probs getting to a very scenic GZ then the fun started. A REALLY classic answer to the hint was thoroughly examined with no joy BUT it was a few metres out. Looked around and tried a few other places and saw another hint spot. The fun started there, GORSE. Just had to do it, much complaining and whingeing from LW who was told to get a grip! came out the other side and YES could see a cache as per hint, but needed the trusty walk pole to push it towards LW to grab. PHEW gotcha!! Much smiling and congratulating went on. 2 very happy ladies signed a log and replaced the lonely cache for the next person. TFTC, the journey and the fun. Back through that gorse Aw stop yer moaning.

Can’t remember when I solved it and it was possibly on my old GPS. I recently found one of my old notebooks which I had been using for solving puzzles. Finding the cache was an adventure. We found a suitable couple of rocks that matched the hint but had no luck. After several minutes exploring we found another couple of rocks that had potential but how do we get to them. In the end there was no choice except to battle the gorse and we were rewarded with finding the cache. I was very pleased that I was wearing fairly thick trousers but I was still going going ouch, ouch and more ouches. Great views from here. I was on Stewart Island about 5 years ago and I enjoyed my stay there.

Solved several months ago. Today finaly got of my chuff and came up here.

Over 30 years ago I went to Stewart Island for a 3 day scout camp. We made bivys in the bush at a remote cove. Was a brilliant time.

It is ever so much easier to find a cache if you start in the right place! I didn't realize for a long time that I wasn't. A friend kindly checked my coordinates. One crucial one was 1 digit out so I was looking on the wrong side of the road. Duh! That sorted I ambled along a track I had been on earlier in the day until a junction, then folllowed my nose to the hide. Last few finders have used Book 2 as Book 1 is too wet to write in. Thanks for the interesting puzzle. I haven't been to Stewart Island since 1975 and then it was only for a few hours. The brochure will encourage me to head there soon. Cheers!
#6946

I was initially looking in a place that might've fit the hint but was not having much luck. So I went a little further down and spotted a more likely looking place. Thanks

Found with Ilmari the Red on an extend walk in the Hills. Our coordinates were good and the cache was retrieved in short order. Marvellous views. TFTC Sandfly tucker!

Went for a walk on Christmas Day along the crater rim, enjoying the view and getting caches.

Hellfire Pass: With the right coordinates mostly worked through by Trifolia Argentea we made an approach. It was a bit of a stumble down to this one, but a quick find.

Out on a walk with daughter and granddaughter, what a gorgeous afternoon! Beautiful spot! By the time we got home I worked out that the muggles were some people I met in the Hungarian club, and we even exchanged phone numbers... so I texted her and we had a good laugh about it as she was also wondering where she has seen me before... TFTC!!

07/08/2019 4:16:00 PM
9081
Preferably needed to find at least 4 caches today if I want to one day reach my goal of filling in the calendar 4 times over - so met up with mum, and we came for a drive to find the ones out this way - a great day for a walk! Plus, the toddler loves walks, and the hills is pretty much the only spot where we both have unfound caches close-ish to each other! And we ended up with 6 finds total too! Woohoo!

Some muggles were nearby! Luckily we were out of sight! Quite a few spots searched, but just had to keep following the GPS!

TFTC!!

A cold blustery day up in the hills but worth it for the views from this GZ. Had to scramble around and push through some gorse to get to the caches hiding place but it was a quick find once I got there.
Log book 1 is very damp but I managed to write my name. TFTC.

I can now confirm, although it's in the name, this one was untouched by fire.
Water is another story though.
A gorgeous day led to a desire for a walk to my cache of the day (day 90 of my latest streak). Although this isn't a long walk it's rewarded with fantastic views on a day like this.
I got to within about 30m of GZ and saw some hint items. I put my phone away and hared off to them but no joy. Got my phone out; still 20m to go. There're some! Off I go; 12m. Hmm. Let's follow the GPS shall we? I get the count down to 3m and "oh look" - hint items that actually fully fit the hint.
It was then an easy find. The cache was upside down so had a bit of water inside it so I used my new towel to dry the lid, the container, the pencil, rub the mould off the rubber ducky, and dry the two plastic bags. Strangely the bag for logbook 2 wasn't sealed properly yet the book was dry; the bag for book 1 *was* sealed but the book is soaked. The pencil had been inside the bag so may have perforated it a bit. The silica packets were all a sodden mess - they'd done their best but just couldn't cope.
I've had to remove the silica packets (maybe next to find could bring more), and logbook one is still wet even after its time in the sun, but everything else is now dry and the cache is back in place, lid side up.
495 days (1 year 4 months 10 days) since last found.
TFTC
Find # 3148

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Should be OK, now the smoke has cleared, but you will have to wait till they open the area again.

Probably burnt, It may take a while to confirm

Lovely day today, went for a run and found some caches. Glorious views. Thanks to all cache owners for taking the time to place and maintain your caches. BJ25.

It was good to see the blue sky and sun after a few wet days so we headed to the Port Hills for some walking and of course a few geocaches as well. It seemed that half of Chch had a similar idea and there were walkers, joggers, cyclists and boy racer types in abundance.
StreetWalker had found this cache over six years ago so I thought it was about time I signed the log book as well. Found the last bit off track a little unnerving so was a bit slower than SW arriving at GZ and he had the cache in hand by the time I caught up with him. Great views here. TFTC.

A year and 12 days unloved! Worked out the figures more or less and thought I might have to bash around a bit to find it, but went straight to it - and then left my walking pole behind, only realising when I was almost back to the car.......grrrr. Anyway a really nice puzzle, thanks! A FP for sure....

Questions modified to reflect the New look less info pamphlet

Doc have changed their pamphlet, I will need to re work things

We found this with purdiepurdie while in this area for a journey along Kennedy's Bush Track. What an incredible view from here! A favourite from us. TFTC

TFTC. Out for a refreshing wander along Kennedys Bush Track with flobberworm!.
This puzzle came to my attention and I remembered I had solved it a long time ago - in fact the page of workings had a scribbled note at the top saying "Not accessible due to earthquakes." Heck how did I forget about this?
Anyway today was the day and it was absolutely stunning up here today, beautiful views of sea.
A favourite vote from me.
Thanks Sandfly tucker and bo&bronnie for placing the cache.

TFTC. Out for a refreshing wander along Kennedys Bush Track with flobberworm!.
This puzzle came to my attention and I remembered I had solved it a long time ago - in fact the page of workings had a scribbled note at the top saying "Not accessible due to earthquakes." Heck how did I forget about this?
Anyway today was the day and it was absolutely stunning up here today, beautiful views of sea.
A favourite vote from me.
Thanks Sandfly tucker and bo&bronnie for placing the cache.

One day I will get to Stewert Island but as it stands only got as far as Bluff and that was a good 3 decades ago on a schoolboy rugby trip. Had solved the puzzle a fair few years ago but still had the solved coordinates in my pile of papers and on clean up had put them into gsak and hence were on the GPS for today's walk up the track. Was so glad to find the cache nice and snug where the gps pointed. Thanks for the puzzle and cache.

Sevren busy looking for the cache while I was resting.

Found on a glorious afternoon and remembering my visit to Stewart Island but didn't get as far as Hellfire. I landed on Mason Bay beach and tramped back to Oban. Still a great trip many years ago. Thanks for making Hellire Pass closer to home. Sandflies yes plenty on the Island. The cache was nice and dry. TFTH

Before I left home (Sweden) I had solved this one with a little help from CO.
I wanted to pick up my grandsons TB, which was in the cache, and bring it back to him in Sweden.

Today I started early with driving instructions from Sandfly tucker. I was almost alone in the streets and everything went well until I was about to turn onto Dyers Pass Rd. A sign DETOUR led me another way.

I followed the signs but thought it strange that the streets were so narrow and suddenly there was no street at all only a house way up high. After some trouble I could turn around and find the right way again and connect to Dyers Pass Rd. From then everything went well and I soon parked the car at the suggested spot.

I walked along the trail and admired the fantastic view. The sheep looked at me but found me harmless and went on with their business. I found the cache without problems. Sadly my grandsons TB had left the box and is travelling around New Zealand.

Still I'm glad I came to this wonderful peaceful place and it's a pity I couldn't walk along the trails some more.

On my way back down, the road was loaded with cyclists. I wonder if it was some competition or just a fun thing to do on a Sunday.

Thank you Warren for a fine adveture which deserves a favourite point.

Finally, a chance to stop by and pick this one up. A few glimpses of the panaorama below as the cloud / fog was starting to break up. That tramp is on the todo list, one day. Cheers.

Cheers and thanks for the hide

My wife and I are going to New Zealand soon and will visit the Christchurch area December 6-7.
Our grandsons TB "Legobit Sweden Flag Tag" is for the moment placed in this cache.
Elias wanted me to bring the TB back to Sweden again.
I would appreciate if visitors could let it stay where it is until I grab it or tell you otherwise.
Lars/lipk

6209. Solved the puzzle at the weekend and was up here early this morning to pick up the cache. There was thick mist all over Christchurch but it was very sunny up here. When I got to GZ I groaned as I had walked right by here last week! Lovely view today. Left two travel bugs to enjoy the view, and to encourage more visitors. We have been to Stewart Island but not to Hellfire Pass, and not geocaching. Thanks. Rodney.

This entry was edited by Sallies on Saturday, 13 September 2014 at 05:51:43 UTC.

Was an incredible day to be out and running on the Port Hills so I did 27km of them. Mrs TwoSharpe and I solved this last week. Mr TwoSharpe had the pleasure of doing the NW Circuit of Rakiura in the mid 1990's, remember Hellfire Pass well as we saw whales out to see from the top of the sand dune.

Would love to revisit one day down there. Great cache idea, Cheers.

Coordinates changed from:
S 43° 37.000 E 172° 37.000

Coordinates changed to:
S 43° 37.034 E 172° 36.495

Distance from original: 2232.6 feet or 680.5 meters.
Shifting virtual start to shuffle out from under another icon.
Cheers,
Zero Gravitas

Thought to make #4000 something special, so solved the puzzle a while ago. And as we do not have the time to make it to Stewart Island (that would be the perfect location for celebrating this milestone!) we used the next best we could find close to home. SO a Stewart Island themed cache and thanks to the confirmation of the coordinates by the CO we knew that it would be a successful experience.
A bit sad that this great cache does not see too many visitors, maybe because the coordinates are hidden by another mystery cache at the same location?
Anyway - done for us and thanks for the information and the feeling to be at a special place.

Been solved for a while, and today is the day to collect. Co-ords spot on. Thanks for the hide.

Not Stewy but fun to get outdoos on a glorious morning. Great spot. Made it much harder for myself by following bearing, but more fun. Especially through the gorse. TFTC, lovely views.

This entry was edited by TheWanglers on Saturday, 21 July 2012 at 00:10:41 UTC.

Lets give this another go, at your own risk, of course.

All good - Glad to knock this one off. I have been running
past this one many times and didn't even know it was there.
Did loop down to 'High as a Kite' with ecfam. TNLNSL TFTC.

Use at your own risk, just dont have your arm under the rock during an after shock [B)]

Back to Square one again http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/3591999g-shaking.html Someone can probably consider themselves lucky they were not under the bluffs below this cache when that last aftershock hit. It probabaly rattled a few more rocks down.

Safe as - did a round trip run from Worsleys car park, down Faulkners to High as a kite and up the grunt to the road and onto hellfire. TFTC

Still not sure about this one, it is probably safe, but if there was another aftershock while someone had their arm under rocks there could be problems. Unfortunatly no one is going to ring a bell and say the shocks are all over

I really appreciated this puzzle - completed a while ago. I long to do the tramp around Stewart Island some time. Didn't realise this was disabled when I planned which caches to get today. No problems accessing and finding the cache today. TFTC.

Things are settling down so thought I'd go up and give this one a looksee. All good at GZ. No problems, quite safe. Bit muddy and wet from snow melt and still a bit of snow on the tops but cache quickly found - safe'n'sound. Excellent views. Thanks for the interesting & informative puzzle. Mrs Gaters has tramped Stewart Island - her most memorable moment was spotting & photographing a kiwi, during the day, on the tops....TFTC.

Keep well away for a few weeks

Bin thar
Dun that
enjoyed the recollection

6189 Thanks for an interesting puzzle and the virtual tour around Stewart Island, hope to visit one day, a great spot with awesome views, many thanks for the cache.

Hi you guys, I solved the coords some time ago, but only just got a moment to go for the cache today. It was a typical Rakiura day up there, with mist ripping over the ridge - no mud in sight though. I can assure you that the cache survived the earthquake very well. The objects it sits between have not moved, and the spot is still quite safe to approach. However, on the nearby high point, a number of heavy boulders have been thrown out of the ground hollows they sat in, and ended up maybe a metre away!! I would not like to have been at that point when the main shock struck - with 2-ton boulders in mid-air!! It's really worth a look.
Cheers and many thanks from Grandalf(1853)

My first attempt at solving the puzzle put me in the middle of a gorse bush. So after checking my figures I spotted where I went wrong and soon had the cache in hand. TFTC TNLN

Thanks for an interesting tour around Stewart Island. Hope to get there "one day" and see it for ourselves. Looks like a beautiful and rugged place, much like the cache site.

After all the history on this cache I thought it was about time I did the homework and come up with the right coordinates. So sat down last night and retrieved the required information. After a quick check on google earth today to see where the newly discovered coordinates would put me, and being happy with the result and sure the area looked good I was off to do some exploring.When I was approaching the GZ I was certain this was the right spot and within a few moments this familiar looking cache was firmly in my hands again. A great spot to be and with great views on this lovely day. I sat just above the GZ for about an hour or so just admiring the views and enjoying the sun. So a very big thank you Sandfly Tucker for all the hard work that you have put into getting this cache up and running again and in such a lovely spot. A job well done and very much appreciated.. Cheers Bo

#1238 (6/6 on a 30 degree nor west day on which I did some non-Troodle friendly caches while she was at the Ellerslie Flower Show). Solved the puzzle a while ago, and was (pretty much) passing today en route back from Orton Bradley Park. Was a bit footsore after a fair bit of hill climbing on a hot day, so made my way slowly to GZ. Got to within 30m or so on track, and then had to wade through long grasses full of those nasty seed ball things that explode all over your socks (if Troodles hadn't been at the garden show I could have asked her what they were). Cache wasn't too hard to find. Troodles and I were in Invercargill a few weeks ago, and toyed with the idea of popping over to Steward Island for the day, but we didn't have time in the end.

Altered question G a little.

I enjoyed my 'tour' of Stewart Island as I did the maths for the cache. One of the values gave me a little mind-blowing grief as the data given had no time values so I had to revert to a "best guess". Turned out the guess was pretty good for the cache was found right at my GZ. - The Traveller TB. Thanks for the cache. One of these days I must travel down there and see the place for myself.

One of my regrets living in Southland for 10 years is never getting across the straight to Rakiura; it's that sea sick thing that put me off. Thanks for setting up this cache. Some great photos of your trip albeit a little muddy. Took coin for a trip to the mountains; a place ST may well know. Cheers.

Published

TB and coin