Hihikiwi Track (Waikato) Mangati, North Island, New Zealand
By cashkids on 09-Jan-10. Waypoint GC22VFD

Our first find of the day as we prepared to tackle the Hihikiwi track. Found with Spudge. TFTC

First find of the day while on our way to the Hihikiwi lookout (and hopefully hut/summit). Found after a few minutes of searching.

Find #750Found while walking Te Araroa - new Zealands long pathway from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Thank you to all the cache owners who place and maintain these caches, and thank you to all the people who help me and others on the way. Some logs signed as LBB to save space.Luckily found this one straight away thanks to an excellent hint. Lovely to see the end after hours of rain and mud. Signed the log which was slightly damp, unavoidable in this forest it seems and then went to wash the mud out of my soul

Found it in quinella company today - he had already found it 13 years ago when we lived in the Waikato - cantabs now . Tftc and thank goodness we were nearly finished the track tftc

Nice area. Called in after work, easy find but a long ways out here. Tftc

Out this way for a drive
Nice easy find

Out this way with EyespyBen for a drive
Nice easy find
Still nice and dry

I was way up the stairs and past this one before I realised that I was past it, so collected this one on the way out. When I checked the co-ordinates I couldn't find it, but following the hint helped. My co-ordinates were quite a bit out.... Great spot, TFTC

Took about 20 min to find due to having to keep finding cell phone reception to get the hints. Found and log is damp but not wet. Container is still in good condition

Out for a trip around the waikato...nice hide...TFTC

It's 7° @ 11:38am on a cool sunny day here in rural Waikato and what a lovely day for a drive. This is a road I haven't driven before and what a beauty. Gravel surface, very few cars and a couple of caches to be found and signed. Woohoo I love shift work which enables me to find gems like this area and have them all to myself.
When I'm more organised I will head up the track to the summit of Pirongia but will leave it until the weather is warmer and the track is less wet.

I saved this one for the way home. Got back here six hours after leaving - went to summit and had a few snack/drone/caching breaks along the way. .
Muggle friend got his hands on it while I was on other side of tree. Thanks for clear hint .

Been on Pirongia many times but never on this track so was good to finally do it today.
Cache found no problems.
TFTC

Up in the area with the intention of going up the mountain. Unfortunately it was over cast and damp so i elected for some of the fringe caches instead.

This one was in very good condition. Also relatively easy to get to. I'm surprised it has been so long since the last find.

Cheers

On a night mission with 11hpg11, Greenblat and KiwiLean up on Pirongia’s muddy tracks. After parking the car we prepared ourselves for the tramp up to the hut. Quick stop for me to find this one with everybody watching and waiting. TFTC

Came down to do a recce for a tramping club trip next month so grabbed caches along the way. Verdict is that there is very little parking at this track entrance. TFTC

Found it with "FrenchSuperTrampNiko" on our walking Te Araroa trail
TFTC!

1168 Have walked this track both before and after its development. This was before geocaching so it was back today just to collect the cache.

Found together with KiwiLeon, VictorTokaanu, 11hpg11, Evilno9, & PaulTaps. Started off walking at about 7:30pm after the drive down from Auckland, kebab and far-too-many chips at Te Awamutu, and doing some strategic car placement for our traverse.

It was a clear still night and cold enough to freeze the flute off a Patupaiarehe so we did shudder and shiver at first before getting a sweat going when we were further up the ridge. With batteries fresh in the headtorches the cache was illuminated after a short search and we were on our way again. T4TC

Out for another night adventure with GreenblAt, TucanoVic, Paultaps, 11HPG11 and Evilno9.
First cache on our way to the Pahautea hut.
TFTC

A night time mission was planned, we were heading up to Pahautea Hut for a sleep before tackling more of the mountain. This was the first cache of the night, found after a bit of car juggling and dodging a few bunnies on the awesome road out here.

Spent a little while searching, adjusting head torches, checking GPS's, making sure carkeys were safe and secure before making the find and heading off up the mountain. An appropriate track to do tonight as it was a little cold when we stopped which cause some shivering and shuddering. A new track for me and it wasn't too bad... Just the normal Pirongia mud and the endless ups and downs.

Found in the company of Greenblat, Kiwileon, Paultaps, Evil No 9 and TucanoVic.

Another night mission with the usual crew (plus a young straggler) and another great day (night) out on Pirongia.

Pretty cold as we set off, so plenty of shivering to be done, and we weren't quite yet warmed up when we hit this one. Took a bit of scratching around but soon enough we had the cache, plugged in the next one and continued to gain some elevation. Good start to the night - TFTC

#558 Found on day 39 of Te Araroa. Found a couple of items matching the clue but found the correct on in the end. Caches is bone dry inside!

GPS spot on even under the tree cover. Lovely way to spend the afternoon. TFTC

First cache on the mountain for the day. A group of us heading to the summit but me being the only geocacher had to introduce them to the game and get them to help me find them. Took TB.

Much better weather today than when we were last here on 25th August and too wet and cold to think about stopping. Just like ozzawazza we also had intended to search for caches and also noticed the trampling and other signs of invasion by cattle. Fortunately they did not disturb the cache which we found with the great help of the clues as our little GPS is not sensitive enough to operate under this amount of canopy. TFTC

It started as a nice day with a group of fellow trampers and I thought I'll do the caches on the way back, but perhaps the mess we saw at the start was an indication of the walk and day ahead. Cattle had rampaged thru the area, churned the ground to mud (more than usual) and deposited call signs. They had even used the steps. Eventually their damage reduced but there was still shit 1km into the bush. Maybe the farmer didn't recover all his animals. On we tramped then the rain came, and later the cold southerly hit all plans to look for caches cancelled, it was more important to get out get dry and get warm.

Beautiful area! Will come back to do the whole track.

Cheers

Quick find on the way up the hill. Track very dry (so far)!

I was finally able to return to the neighbourhood to pick this one up after walking past it with dead GPS batteries (and dead tired legs) some months back. Good spot for a cache. I like all the green. Heaps of space here for goodies. The cache is in good condition.

Clifton Suspension Bridge TB out. Have I seen this one before back in Auckland? Well, let’s take you back north for a bit.

Was enjoying a lovely and lazy Saturday afternoon drive on one of my favourite picturesque roads when the cache popped into view on the GPS, so naturally I had to stop and search! My GPS really, really hated the foliage cover though, so I was thankful for the clue. Although there were a surprising number of items that kind of matched it! Eventually though, cache was in hand. Dropped off the 'Clifton Suspension Bridge' geocoin. TFTC!

Took a bit longer than a few weeks to get back to it (almost a year as the monkey accompanying pointed out when he realised he was there for the last attempt too) but I got back round and found it. Compared to the long search last time I found it instantly and moved on up the mountain. TFTC

Sun was rising as I passed this morning on the way to the Cone but decided to leave the cache until the return trip. Was very glad of the helpful hint, coz everything about me was tired by the time I got back to this point. A lovely spot. Cache has survived winter well, TFTC

Found this one just as the sun began to rise. Got an early start to head up to The cone. Great size cache and in good condition. Thanks cashkids.

Decided to once again to tackle this mountain so had time and went for this one the before starting the climb. As it was still dark when I got there to the GZ in the light of the torch it all looked pretty much the same, Spooky, however after a bit of a fossic around soon had it in hand. As I came back of the Mountain the area looked very nice with the babbling broock beside it, TFTC

Walked right past this one the other day (25/2) intending to pick it up on my way back out of the woods but my iPhone/gps batteries were dead. Recharged phone back at the car park but then my legs needed recharged. They levied a protest at the thought of going back up hill after 19 km of swamp stomping the Pirongia trails.

TFTC. Nice spot of bush. A bit muddy today.

All good! checked today,updated to make a bit easier to find

First attempt of the trip and ended as a did not find. Spent 30mins looking but couldn't find anything. Not sure if I actually understood the hint right or not so will head back sometime in the next few weeks for another look.

Went for the quinella approach, and spotted the hint item from the main track. Quick find.
+ a marble and Junat's badge, - nothing.

Found this a long time ago, updating finds, not sure of current status

TFTC

Bugger!
Neglected to have a look for this one at the start of the day (due to be heading up the Hihikiwi to the hut and out via Cochran Road), thinking that we would have plenty of time to have a hunt upon returning to pick up the car at the end of the day.
However... got tied up with a Search and Rescue job at the top of the mountain (no one from our party thank goodness) for some 3 hours, and by the time we got back here it was at least 7:00 pm.
Gave a half hearted look for the cache, but the combination of really shite satellite reception, mud, cold, wet, dark, fatigue, and seemingly a million trees that all have 'four into one' meant that the prospect of a good search for the cache was just not high on the priority list.
May be back...

With the satellites messing with me this morning, I came back for this one on the way down after bagging Hihikiwi. Coverage not much better second time around so I ended up doing a little gentle bush bashing to find GZ. The clue had me a bit confused (I counted 5), but telling me it was above the river was a good help thanks. I counted 42 stairs down to the carpark from where the old track rejoined the new.
What's with this 'moderately undulating'??!! After a good half hour of slogging up and down on the way back 'down' to the earlier lookout, I found I was actually 15m higher than where I started at GZ! And in the process had climbed an additional 230m of ascent! With understatement like that, you'd make great climbers
That combined with the somewhat soft conditions underfoot made this a most enjoyable trip - love it!

Found while sending Mr Geckoh off on his mountain climbing mission. Thank goodness I didnt have to go any higher! The views were fantastic, might suggest to Mr Mellee that we go up the mountain from this side next time. TFTC

Decided to drive the long way home after work Turned the GPSr on at the bottom of the steps and found that the batteries had died. No problem just put in the spare set. Nooooo - they were dead too. I had a fair idea where GZ was after the last visit so proceeded up the stairs anyway and left them using the advice in Quinella's log. Cache found quickly in a place I looked last time but the perfectly coloured camo bag must have done the trick then of making the cache "invisible".
Great views over Kawhia harbour on the drive back in the early evening sun and also had a perfect view of the massive towering cumulonimbus clouds over Hamilton and Cambridge with the classic anvil shaped tops to them. The whole Waikato basin was turning black. No wonder we got a good lightning storm later! What a pity I didn't have the camera.
Many thanks

Stopped at the start of the gravel to drop off Zorgon junior who was keen for the third time today to cycle down a BIG hill. Carried on up to the cache site. The GPS struggled to get a good signal and after 10 min hunting decided to give up as I didn't want my daughter to be waiting too long. Have just read Quinella's log which might have been useful.
Next time. Thanks

This was a liitle tricky in the evening gloom and tree cover.
I reckon turn right after the 9th set of steps!! so take your pick!
Actually found without clue so cache notes and co-ords pretty good!
(Now reading the clue it may have saved a little time).
Another track to try sometime...tempt me with a cache at the hut!
Or maybe I should place one......

I could be wrong but I think this might have been known as the 4b track which is an area I hunted in the late 70s. Did in jandals which is a 1st for a Pirongia cache TFTC

This one is not as easy as it looks. Due to tree cover and lots of trees !!
Suggest at least a 1.5-2 difficulty rating.
However Co-ords are not too bad- I got around 6 mtrs accuracy here
Might be easier to goto the bottom of the 3rd set of steps & turn right. Be prepared to get muddy feet.
4 ftf this am at 0925 FTF #151



[This entry was edited by psychrn on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 6:39:45 PM.]

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