Mercury Bay Museum Mystery (Whitianga Coromandel) Ferry Landing, North Island, New Zealand
By bkj97 on 18-Jan-10. Waypoint GC233ZN

Got the answers to this one a couple of days ago. Went to what we thought was GZ but couldnt find the cache. Checked my coords with the C.O. to discover that one of our answers was incorrect which meant we were a considerable distance from actual GZ. Went to the correct spot today and the cache was a reasonably quick find. The container is good and mine is the second entry on a new logsheet. #7047. TFTC.

After solving the puzzle we located the spot and cache. Museum is well worth a visit too. Thank you.

Unfortunately my relative that maintained this cache for me is no longer with us. As I am unlikely to visit whitianga in the foreseeable future. If the next potential finder can put a replacement container at gz I will not have to archive the cache.

On holiday in NEW ZEALAND Here we spent some time to find out the values. Nice Museum!Next day we searched for the Cache and saw, private ground:-(Ok, looks like the coordinates were wrong. I detected tue error and Owner confirmed it.Today back at correct coordinates - but either the Cache has been gone or we were too blind.Kindly we nevertheless have rotten lig permission by the friendly Owner. Mihihex59# 5965 #discover me 0WJX5W

spent 6 great weeks in New Zealand with my The start was a bit bumpy (Cyclone Gabrielle) but then it got better and better. We travelled to both islands and discovered a lot. We photographed and filmed many beautiful things, but most of it stayed in our hearts.
Almost everywhere we stopped, a cache was already waiting for us. Most of the caches are well maintained and easy to find.

With mostly very nice weather, we saw a lot of this impressive island. In many places, caches were waiting for us, which were sometimes easy and sometimes difficult to find. This cache was also included and was successfully signed

We puzzled a lot in advance and the tours were well prepared
So this box was also well found.

now I have another on my personal cache card.

many thanks to [^] **bkj97** [^] for the effort and the cache and greetings from Germany

TFTF

**Geistercacher**
#34309

Back for a second attempt to find the final. Was quickly in Phil's hands. Don't know why we couldn't find it last time! SL TFTC

Lots of rain today but still caching.
Thanks
First I was not sure if the coordinates are OK but was a fast find.
A point from me

We were up at Cooks Beach in February and I
Solved this multi but didn’t have time to pick it up. We’re currently staying at Tairua and have come up to Whitianga for the day - great chance to pick it up! A lovely walk along here, TFTC

Staying in Whitianga for a few days before heading down to Rotorua.
Sadly the museum was closed this afternoon, but having eaten at the Blue Lagoon the night before, knew where to come to today. Interesting history. Calculated the coords and realised it was closer to where we were staying.
Wandered out from the Sovereign Pier to a lovely spot albeit raining. No problem finding the cache. Thanks for setting

Tftc. Was a fun morning learning all the history at this location and traveling to the actual cache, coordinates take you about 5mins away.
For the final cache find, we followed the description guidance to find a parking spot and pick up the cache easily.
Cheers, Jessie and Alex

Caching around Whitianga before tea.

A quick find after solving the multi (and correcting the Rehead’s numbers!)

#7025

after finding all of the answers and managing to get the coordinates the coordinates for leading me into a swamp, and it said it was under a tree and so I went into a swamp and got all muddy after me thinking to myself, I don’t think a geocache would survive in here, so I ended up turning back and messaging the C.O who gave me the correct coordinates
easy and fun cache tftc

Staying in Whitianga for a long weekend and doing some caches while we are here. Thanks to the cache owner for placing this cache.

Mrs B messed up on the solving and we ended up in the wrong place but walking right by the cache. Some number crunching and a new more likely location to search. Lots of likely hiding places but Mrs B redeemed herself. Mrs 4 Mr 0 so far for the day.

Neat hiding spot. Thanks for bringing us hear and to the museum. TFTC

Out for another drive today with xsaveya and watcache, this time in the opposite direction. Weather not as good as yesterday but didn't get poured on so that's a plus.

Got the answers to the questions fairly quickly at the museum today. While waiting for our lunch to be ready at the nearby Cafe. Then off to gz we went.

Quick easy find here today. TFTC

Out for another drive today with emiliyah and watcache, this time in the opposite direction. Weather not as good as yesterday but didn't get poured on so that's a plus.

Got the answers to the questions fairly quickly at the museum today. While waiting for our lunch to be ready at the nearby Cafe. Then off to gz we went.

Quick easy find here today. TFTC

Out for another drive today with emiliyah and xsaveya, this time in the opposite direction. Weather not as good as yesterday but didn't get poured on so that's a plus.

Found the answers fairly quickly at the museum today 2hile waiting for lunch to be ready. Then went off to gz.

Quick easy find here today. TFTC

I had to redo my coordinates as I messed up one of the numbers on my first try. Cache was were I had checked but not looked hard enough because of my error. Waited for the rain to stop and went off to find. Easy peas. TFTC

We visited the museum last night and got some reasonable coordinates. Off this morning on our bike ride and discovered that there was no way to access the final. Messaged the CO with our result to discover that we’d transposed two digits. Thanks bkj for being so responsive. We drove back after lunch to realise that we’d been within a metre of the hide while on our ride. Thanks for an enjoyable Multi. Love where the final is. Quite remarkable.
TFTC

Found with toby84

Was the FTF this cache some 12 years ago, and I was able to bring my wife, Reny90, to this place and let her find it. This brought back some memories. Thanks for bring us out here again

Couldn’t find this one yesterday so contacted the CO. Replaced today with permission. No longer a sistema or under a rock.

Malinkaly and I planned a road trip to go to the MEGA but Covid has postponed the event again. We decided to continue on with our planned journey making adjustments as we go with the ever-changing travel restrictions.
Greetings from Dunedin!
Thanks for the cache, bkj97
#2520

Back today, and with the owners permission placed a replacement cache and signed the fresh logbook. Guessing the high muggle, especially little ones, area sadly makes caches go missing easily.

Please be really stealthy and rehide well!

TFTC bkj97

*** Out on our MEGA Roadtrip with Wilbywarrior. Who says this can only happen when the MEGA is actually held?! Greetings from Dunedin, caching friends
#281 ***

Solved and double checked the puzzle at the museum. Sadly it was closed already as it looks like a nice little museum. Off to the cache site. Found beautiful branches all along but no cache. pretty cool spot though!

TFTC bkj97

*** Out on our MEGA Roadtrip with Wilbywarrior. Who says this can only happen when the MEGA is actually held?! Greetings from Dunedin, caching friends
#265 ***

Enjoyed a visit to the museum. Afterwards collected the necessary information and got some coordinates that looked promising. GZ fitted with the hint description but sadly we were unable to find this tricky hide.

Must have something wrong with our numbers as we can’t mKe the final make sense. Will be back to have another go some other time.

Yay! Second time looking for this one out with doge. Wasn’t expecting to actually find it so came back a third time with pen and trinket to trade. Tftc

Found everything at the museum without any trouble. That took me to the track with the entrance by the blue light pole and then to a promising looking spot on the track. Plenty of tree branch but couldn't find a stone or a cache.

Took a bit of walking back and forth and looking a little dodgy outside the museum but found it in the end

I think fate was against me on this one. A few numbers I struggled to find and then GPS was jumping round at the final. Being unsure if I had the correct co coordinates there were too many options and we had to abandon to go feed kids. Maybe next time we are up in the coromandel we can have another go.

Damn!
The dragon and I got here and found some of the plaques had gone missing but did not see that the CO had updated the cache description just 4 days ago! Bugger!

Thanks to sarahbee20 for pointing out one of the signs had gone. Questions for X and Y now amended.

One of the signs removed, cache description may need updating!

Quite a secret little area.
We met 3 local boys coming along the path.
They were soooooo muddy... what will mum say!

Unexpected long weekend! Off to Coromandel then...Did my numbers band I was surprised GZ is far away from here. Well no problems with the car
When arrived at final spot wasn't sure if it's the right spot
Soon entrance to walkway was found and replaced container too! TFTC

Found this no trouble. A bit further away from the museum than we expected so spent some time checking and rechecking our answer before setting off to find. All good. Thanks.

Thanks to Antnich for placing a new container. My cache maintainer is no longer available so it was appreciated. Next premium member might like to pop a small systema to protect the mint tin. I will upgrade when next in the area. Now a premium member cache only.

We were sad not to have found this the other day, as we enjoy a good historical multi! So extra good to be able to log a find today, as we are heading north to continue the TMGT quest! TFTC

Will get this one checked out.

At the request of the CO an eclipse tin has been placed at the hint location as the former cache had been muggled. Hopefully the cache will be re-enabled soon!

Now that there is a new container the log can be signed! Nice informative exhibits outside the museum enabled accurate coordinates to be obtained.

Sadly, we looked twice here today and could not locate the cache.

We checked this one twice today, and can be as near certain as possible that it’s missing.

Mini McArgister helped me solve this so it felt only right to bring her along to attempt the final, surprisingly far away, but in a nice spot. Unfortunately we were not able to spot anything that matched the hint or any cache today. Have attempted a PAF since and FMZ has confirmed we were looking in the right place. Doesn’t mean it’s not there, but if it is, it’s too well hidden for us!

Find number 6261. Another day with Boges in the Coromandel. Our mission was to do a circuit to clear the area (again) for him and for me to grab a few extras on the way. The museum was being visited by a bunch of kids so it was all about timing in grabbing this one. Thank you for the placement.

Did this with FMZ, gorby, rebel and rusty. Love seeing old historic stuff like this (like me). Thanks!

After grabbing some TMGT caches in town, we were heading back south towards Tauranga, and so we headed off to find the final of this one, having visited the starting coords earlier. Fairly quick find here too. TFTC!!!

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A trip was planned to go and get the Coromandel Geotour caches (and somehow the Tauranga ones were also added….). Went in my car, since it's likes the metal road (and no one else wanted to take their cars), was with rustynz and Rebel98 and FMZ for a very long day that got me to bed about 3am. And I had to work the next day...

Two of our team have done this cache, Initially I had a little help with it and so I had the correct co-ords. But rusty joined me and FMZ to sign this one in. But I did the find anyway.

Log later

After being to the Tuia Matauranga roadshow I was off to locate and sign off a few of the local caches.

I had gathered all the info before all the activities started down at the waterfront.

Cheers for the cache.

Enjoying a lovely sunny day in Whitianga, had fun solving this cache and then taking a nice walk to locate it.

Great cache, up in whitianga for the afternoon and had fun solving this one. Nice walk and view, love the trees. Thanks

Found after visiting the museum yesterday. Got co-it’s looking reasonable so set off this morning to the GZ. The cache was located quickly. That is a huge branch! TFTM

collected the necessary information last night. nice to read up the history. followed the hints near gz and all made sense. quiet spot today. quickly signed and replaced. tftc

On my first work visit to Whitianga, it was an overnight stay here and I had time in the evening to clear the area of traditionals and always meant to get back to this one. It never worked out that way though, but luckily I was sent back up here for another small job. This time it wasnt an overnight trip, so I had even less time for caching as had to drive up from Tauranga, do the job, and get back within 12hours. (Work H&S policy).
Luckily, collecting the info for the cache coord, was a quick job and it was a straight forward find too. I always like reading about the history of an area and this is a great way to do it.
TFTC.

Good follow on from "A game of trivia with an Irish twist". Easy stroll to the final with cache in good order. TFTC.

We had fun going around collecting the clues to the final, it had been a hot day, I did the sums and final looked in a likely position. It was with great delight when we found the final - Gotta love multis - Thanks Gorby for the inspiration to do this one

TFTC

A beautiful spot ty for bringing us here

Summer holidays with the family but today was set a side for me and geocaching. I took my eldest with me setting off from Tairua around 7am - weather was stunning, almost a little too hot but it was an awesome day - no DNFs.
We enjoyed the history lessons here and soon had a set of coords that looked good. We didn't find the parking spot described but found another spot just as good to access from. Then the fun began and it became clear one (or more) of my coords were wrong. Confident though we were in the right area we continued on and eventually found the cache using the description. My coords were 77m out haha. Funny thing is this wasn't the first time I've done this on one of your caches - I've had a bit of fun in Turangi also Cheers bkj97, TFTC

On our 39th day in New Zealand we stayed around Whitianga and it's lovely beaches. Besides enjoying the sea we also looked for some caches.
When exploring the town we came across this multi cache. The answers were after some running back and forth. But eventually we had all the answers together. We figured out the final coords and were surprised and unsure, whether our result would really be correct. So we took pictures from all the plates and went to the final location. Where we were seemed really strange and we could also not find a way to GZ. So we went back to our motel and went over the questions once again. We came up with the same result and started reading the logs. Seems we were at the right place and we got an idea where to park after reading the listing once again. This time now it was a nice walk in a beautiful location and also the box we could easily find. Great cache but still strange for us that GZ is so far away from original cache listing coords.
TFTC and greetings from Switzerland

Nochmals ein heisser Tag. Wir fuhren den Strand entlang und pickten einige Caches aus ihrem Versteck.
Dies war unser Letzter am heutigen Tag. Zwischen den einzelnen Fragen wechselten wir immer wieder die Tafeln. Als wir alles hatten waren die Finalkoordinaten rasch im GPS verewigt und wir brachen auf, um den GZ aufzusuchen. Am Fluss entlang wanderten Box. Nach einigen Minuten war sie unseren Händen und es wurde geloggt. TFTC

Today we had our third day in Coromandel, thereby visiting many other locations on the east coast of the Coromandel peninsula and looking for caches, too. On this trip we searched, found and logged a lot of caches. The weather was good all day long with only partly a little bit rainy.
Almost no muggels observed us as they had other things to do than observing harmless geocachers.

Thanks to bkj97 for showing us this location and for the fun we had at Mercury Bay Museum Mystery (Whitianga Coromandel). The search we had here today didn't take too much time.
The given Tasks could be solved and the coords of the final were fast determined. For the good all-in-all Cache we leave a favorite!

Greetings from Germany and hope to see you soon in the forest.

TFTC says H_M_A @ 12. November 2018 @ 12:45 Uhr @ [#12443](https://coord.info/GC233ZN)

Fantastic location. Tftc. Fränkies

Solved while waiting for the museum to open. TFTC

200ml sistema in place with two pill container logs inside (sign either one).
When accessing gz keep clear of private property as boundaries have been extended by adjacent owners onto accessible area and lack of fences maybe confusing.

Will be in Whitianga next weekend so will upgrade container.

Collected the information for the upon arrival to Whitianga, as it was showing up as the most central cache. Fascinating reading about the history of the place, what it used to be, and how life used to be. You wouldn't have guessed it was like that if you look at it now. Had a non cacher with me, so I quickly skimmed the signs, took photos of them, and went back to our accommodation. When I was figuring out the doors, I realised I was missing one... Had to leave early morning to collect the info, and then the cache. The replacement cache is in good order, but may not be suitable for the location due to its miniscule size. Cool little area. Didn't have a pen, but happy to send a photo of the cache if requested by CO. TFTC, greetings from Auckland.

I solved this back in 2016 but at the correct co- ordinates was unable to find the cache ...contacted the CO and it was replaced....by the time I returned to find it the cache was missing again ...the CO had given me permission to drop in a container if I had one ...by that time I had moved on. 6 months on I am back and it’s missing again ......but This Time I was ready and had a container with a replacement log just Incase ....So we have a new container and log under a small rock and under......at the solved co ords.... thanks bkj97 I can clearly remember this cache and I am pleased to put a smilie on ...and going by the number of watchers ...so will some others ...great cache and the final is in a great place as well ...its good to see older caches hanging in there

This is our third visit to gz and the third time it has been missing. It's almost as if someone is purposely taking this cache. The actual multi is really enjoyable and worth the effort to keep it going. With this in mind we came prepared. There is now a much smaller cache placed at gz. I am not a fan of cachers taking it upon themselves to place a new cache container at gz when they can't find the cache but in this instance the CO had already given permission at an earlier time. Hopefully this one will last longer. Thanks for the multi bkj97.

I don't think the cache is still there. Co-ords quickly calculated from info; there is a stone at GZ but no cache,

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

Last day in Whitianga. Popped back to see if I was being stupid. Found tree, found rock, no I wasn’t being stupid, no cache in rock. So either cache is no longer there or I am in completely the wrong place!

Worked out the coordinates yesterday and had time today to come along and try to find this cache. Found the tree, found a rock, but didn’t find the cache. Beginning to wonder if I have been stupid. Should I have looked more closely at the rock?

on our journey through neeseeland we visited many beautiful places,
Here, too, we were able to log into the logbook. Thank you for the lay and the many greetings from Germany from the team stierwade

Answered the questions on the 21st but saved it for today when we knew we would be in the final area. Lovely walk to GZ and loved the unusual tree in the area. No problems in locating the final and replaced as found. TFTC

After an amazing walk from Whitianga to Cooks Beach in the morning, I had another lazy walk through the nice town of Whitianga this evening.

After finding some traditional caches on the way, I came to my actual aim this day - the final of this multi. We calculated the coordinates the day before and were surprised about the distance to the final leading us to the other side of the town. As we had a reservation for a boat trip we couldn't make the way immediately. Today, I had some spare time and walked to this nice and totally different spot of the city. Fortunately, the replacement logbook was still there. So, it could be signed quickly; tftc

Today we collected the required information and made a nice walk to the final, passing beautiful spots. At the final we found everything except the container. Then we saw in the former logs that they had the same experience. So we left some paper in a little plastic bag which can serve as logbook until the owner can make a maintenance. We have informed the owner about it and got his approval for it.
Thank you very much for it and also for placing the cache at such an interesting spot.

Pretty trick...

Container was missing. But 'The Crow' has placed a plastic bag with log sheet.

Good puzzle.

This is the second time here and it seems both times it has gone awol. A shame though as a good multi. Not sure when we will be back.

Staying in Whitianga for a couple of days and exploring the local area. Work happening around the museum and it is currently fenced off. Still managed to get all the required info for the multi. Only one of the answers was out of bounds but we managed to figure it out.

Made our way to the final this morning. Soon found the hint location and a stone but no cache. Lovely spot and some fantastic old trees which Kiwiscot had fun climbing. Hopefully next time......

New container and logbook in place.

May well be awol so have disabled until GZ checked.

Having a lovely day in Whitianga.... waiting for hubby to view the gem of a museum. Lovely GC... a bit of an advincha. TFTC.

We got one number wrong at first which put GC in water lol. Then read it properly. Then had to convince my friend that the waypoint on the map CO has put in was not final point. I eventually got her to go where I knew it was lol. Then we played mini golf on the way back to where we were staying (I won he he he) tftc

Did not find it

196 Got the answers to this cache at the museum while sipping on an award winning shake from the cafe a couple of buildings along the road. Kids were pretty good at finding the answers for me and reading out the signs. I have been in the museum years ago. It was fascinating spent heaps of time looking at things. This time closing time was not far away. Took answers home and hubby put them into his computer. I have no gps on holiday and no data left on my phone. Whoops. We are out the district by quite some distance. Think we know which co-ord could be wrong. So line up co-ord line and it looks very promising know the area a little and prior logs sound reassuring. Took dog for a wander and was daunted until I saw something that would have been a great cache place. Bingo. How do you manage to find such cool spots to hide a cache. I have been in the vicinity before yet not known this spot existed. TFTC

Early evening Mr P and I thought we still had mental ability to tackle a multi... well blow me down if we didn't get it in one. A happy pair we were. Thanks for the history and FP from us.

With the annual work fishing trip on this afternoon in Coromandel town, I thought I'd make a full day of it and head over first thing and make it a bit of a caching trip too. So I was out the door about 5.30am, with a general plan to find caches around the Whitianga and Kouatunu areas before heading over to Coromandel Town for the fishing trip.

This multi has bugged me for a few years now. I usually spend a weekend or two in Whitianga most years, but Geocaching is very low on the agenda, with diving taking up most of the spare time. So I have been near this Museum numerous times when launching the boat and it just taunts me every time I look over to it. To make matters worse was I had gathered the answers to this multi a few years ago, but didn't have time to get to final, and have since then lost the coords.

Today however if this multi took me the rest of the day, I wasn't leaving till it was completed. Managed to re-gather the answers much quicker than last time, and as I roughly knew where abouts the coords should be putting me, I knew I had the right set first go. Once near GZ, I quickly spotted the access point once the GPS was reading zero, I quickly spotted where the cache was hiding. A neat multi and one I'm glad I have finally found.

Yay! We normally don't have a lot of luck with multi caches but today, success! Awesome spot! A favourite point from us.

Enjoyed doing the cache and finding all the answers at the museum. We put the Co ords in and soon we had the cache in our hands! TFTC

We had stopped at the Museum earlier in the day and got the information to calculate the where-abouts of the cache. Getting to be late afternoon by the time we made the walk to GZ and we were pleased to make a quick find. Thanks for showing us the Museum and the interesting spot for the final.

Needed to make this one before we pulled out of Whitianga. Had a false start the day earlier. Unbeknownst to us we had cycled right past the cache hide, but with our numbers not exactly as they needed to be.
Happy to be back here this morning, on a very quiet Queens Birthday Monday, to make a straightforward find on the cache.
All in order here; log signed, then cache safely re-hidden just as found.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

Took two goes at the numbers, but got there in the end, TFTC

Initially it looked like we were being sent on to private land, but after further searching found a walkway entrance. By a blue pole lol.

We arrived here yesterday evening and I got some time to walk around. So I came to the museum and got the information. But where is it? So far? Today I took the family and we had a stop near the final. To walk there is for an European incredible. Is it open for public? Seames to be.
Thanks for this event.

When looking for the answers at the museum a gentleman who worked there came out and asked if I was doing 'one of those treasure hunt things'. He had obviously spoken to a few people doing this cache before! So I told him all about it and he was pretty fascinated! He also convinced me to go into the museum once I had got all the answers too! A vey quaint and interesting place!

Once I put in the coordinates and driven to the location it didn't look quite right... So I went back over the questions and realised I had read one of them wrong! Good job I could remember the full answer to make the amendment! Much better location pin this time and parked up next to the blue lamppost. Very cool location!! Thanks for taking me around the museum and to this cool spot for this cache

I am here with 7 colleagues from all over the US, Australia, and New Zealand and it actually is a work event. When we first got here, 2 of us stopped by the museum to explore and gather clues. But today we were done with the work stuff and I had time to go to the calculated location and find the finale. This was fun and gets a favorite point from me. Thanks for the fun and greetings from the US!

Yes