Three Steps to Heaven (Nelson/Marlborough) Tadmor, South Island, New Zealand
By Biggles (Mr and Mrs) on 13-Mar-10. Waypoint GC24Z6G

What a lovely church. Tftc

More church and cemetery caches. This might just be my favourite church up the valley. TFTC

was there with Mr @micropenus

A Portuguese, an Italian and an Aussie found on a rainy day

Quick find during a lunch time pullover, tftc!

A bonus cache find while passing and popped in to see where my ancestors are buried.

SH6 was closed due to a slip, so I had to take a big detour to get to this cache. Once I parked, I was happy to see a clear path to GZ without any orange cones. TFTC.

Nice and easy catch after finishing harvest at hop farm. Cheers to Oldhams.

Quick easy find. TFTC

Found with NZDi. Our extended whanau including Nannie (NZDi), Poppa (Kiwimykl), son, daughter-in-law and three grand daughters, daughter, son-in-law and grandson (KiwiNate2020) were camping at Quinney's Bush camp ground which is an annual pilgrimage we have been doing for seven years now. Something that started when we only had one grand daughter. This is a family holiday, so geocaching is strictly limited. We did the Spooners Tunnel Adventure Lab cache the other day during a family outing, but today NZDi and I have set aside a morning of geocaching without the rest of the family. Of course, being our seventh year camping in the area, means we have to go further afield to find greenies with pretty much everything between Wai-iti and Tapawera already converted to yellow. It was originally our intention to head up the Tadmor Valley towards Glenhope and see how far we could get in half a day, but during my research, I discovered a Challenge cache we both qualified for in the Motueka Valley, so with that as our main target we headed in that direction.

This was our eleventh find of the morning and it was not our intention to come up this road, but after caching for an hour and a half along the Motueka Highway getting eight caches out of nine searched for, we didn't realise it would only take 10 minutes to get back to Tapawera. So we had a bit of time up our sleeve so came along here for a quick and dirty half dozen.

This is our second church cache of the morning and was a QEF PnG.

TFTC Mr & Mrs Biggles

Found with Kiwimykl, refer to his log for details.

TFTC Biggles (Mr and Mrs)

Cool find and got to visit an old friend from school while there

So 2021 is drawing to a close and I’m within a nano cache of this being my best caching year to date. There’s still a bit of work to do yet though so run out to Tadmor way is on the cards….

The first of a couple of previous DNFs put to right this afternoon. The log suggests it was here all along but my search several years back completely missed it then.

A pleasing quick find whilst Mellow scampered around.

Thanks BigglesNZ
#3680

Logged using Cachly.

We are enjoying exploring your little corner of the world and getting a few smileys as we go. We couldn't do the schoolyard because sheep and fawns were in there and we didn't want to disturb them. This is a really well maintained building. Easy find. TFTC

RIP Vince

What a well maintained ex-church. Cheers

First one in ages, relocating a car and thought we would stop here and at the old school house further up the road cool place cheers for the cache

Quick find here, cache in good shape. There are now plenty more out this way for me to get today. Nice little church, the grounds seem well looked after. TFTC Biggles.

Driving home from Brightwater today, my only goal was to get home to Blenheim for a physio appointment at 4.30. So I decided to go inland, and a slightly different route to the other week. Kohatu, Tapawera and Glenhope were on the radar - don’t think I have ever been to the last one, and Tapawera maybe just the once. So a cruisy drive and not the last one on this route - those that looked like a bit of a trek or that had muggles nearby can wait for next time. Caches found were all in good shape. Thanks all COs.

Quick n easy find. Cache all good.

LOvely old church. Cache in good condition (thanks previous finder). TFTC

Found while caching with ABL973. Thanks Biggles (Mr and Mrs)

Another nice looking old country church and a cache! A quick find but the cache was full of water and some sort of slime. Got rid of the mucky bits, cleaned the container and since we were gonna be here for about 30 minutes I dried the logbook out on the radiator top hose before doing the signing duties. I put the logbook into a new ziplock bag and rehid the cache hopefully so that it maybe a bit more resistant to rain. Thanks Biggles (Mr and Mrs).

Tftc

Out visiting a friend in the local area and bagged a couple of caches, an easy find and all in good order, TFTC

Quick find, tftc

Have driven past here lots of times so today decided to get it

Lovely little country church yard.

Staying at MITM. Out for ride. Tft

Staying at the Music in the Mountains Caravan Rally. After lunch I decided that all my afternoon caching would via air conditioned cachemobile. Needed it too as the air temp in the Tadmor Valley was registering 31C. Phew. All caches found were made as quick as possible to get out of the heat. TFTC Mr & Mrs Biggles

Thanks, Biggles (Mr and Mrs) for placing & maintaining this cache.
I was heading out towards Tadmor on a mini "road trip"; I enjoy caches at country churches & cemeteries - so this one was a "must".
Quickly located & log signed.

We had tried this once before and had no luck. After seeing that it had been 'refound' and as we were in the area, another attempt was made and this one quickly successful. Love the 'log' left by the builder who said he found the cache under the building whilst re-piling. tftc

Coordinates changed from:
S 41° 26.079 E 172° 45.595

Coordinates changed to:
S 41° 26.061 E 172° 45.605

Distance from original: 118.6 feet or 36.2 meters.

Original cache back in action as per Tufty's log.

I decided to do some caching today starting in Tapawera and heading out towards Glenhope.

I didn't find the new cache as the area has been cleaned up a bit. I talked with the next door farmer and he mentioned that he new where the cache is if I couldn't find it. As it was I had to ask him and he showed me that it was tucked under the church just inside the underneath access doorway. This is the original cache.

I signed the log and have now placed it under the steps at the side of the building. My coordinates for the new position are S 41 26.061 E 172 45.605. I told the farmer where I had placed it. He also told me that the locals had banded together and purchased the church from the Anglicans and are doing it up.

Cheers for the cache.

Had a look and found a gnome in GZ area. Like others have said, we had no luck also.

I searched for ages finally PC came to give me hand still couldn't find it.BigglesNZ.

Had a very good look around but no luck. Looked around every possible spot we could think of in he near area. Did find this cute little guy though. Love this church, been here many times with my Nan who lives near by

Coordinates changed from:
S 41° 26.065 E 172° 45.605

Coordinates changed to:
S 41° 26.079 E 172° 45.595

Distance from original: 96.4 feet or 29.4 meters.
Looks like the 'Three Steps' have been repaired or renewed. The original cache has gone. I have replaced it with a micro a little way from the church building.

I made it to the foot of the Three Steps, but could not ascend further.

I took a good look around, but with no success.

What a beautiful spot! Luckily a quick find as we were watching out for our mates in the GODzone race.

Stopped off on a drive thru to Kaka, it was found by the workmen ( muggles ) who made a comment and replaced the cache. we collected a trackable from here. TFTC.

Today is a day to try out a few caches on a road less travelled. We were aiming for a puzzle cache at Pangeweka valley and picking up any caches along the way. From Riwaka we headed down West Bank across the Motueka river, down to Tapawera to pick up a few caches before turning west.
We came to this lovely church. What a lovely ride down here and what a fab building. The cache was well hidden by the new building repairs but a handy new facility is keeping the cache safe. Thanks for the cache BigglesNZ. Left a trackable for the people who follow.

A lovely sunny day

This was a very special cache to me. I really enjoyed it. Was weird an abbonded chapel. Cool hide! Tftc!

Nice little church. It must be getting some use as it's being repaired.. The access to the cache was a little.. tricky (the replacement of the boards need a little.. 'adjustment', but with a little 'love' it was no problem getting to it. Nice that the cache had been left in place after the repairs

I left a TB here.

Found at 02:13 PM - #5896

TFTC

A most enjoyable day on the road, I went to some places I’ve never been to before, and revisited some I hadn't been to for a while. The weather played its part as well with a fine day. 50+ caches along the way, so all in all a super day all round. Took a wee while to find as it wasn't quite where I expected it to be, but it wasn't too far away. Lovely spot.

Brownie joined in on the hunt as well.

Cheers and TFTC

Took longer than I should have to find this one!! Lovely little church but it does need some TLC. Thanks Biggles!!

After spending the long weekend in Murchison, it was time to head home, so we took the scenic route . The morning started with heavy mist, but soon lifted and turned into a beautiful sunny day.
After a short detour to Matariki, we were back on the "main" road again. Sadly, a rather neglected wee church especially with the missing spire/steeple. We quite often have trouble with these sorts of hides, so consulted the hint for guidance.
Unfortunately, we took the first word in the hint rather too literally and came up empty handed (ignoring the rusty tins, broken bottles and bits of wood we unearthed). The bull bellowing and pawi9ng the ground in the neighbouring paddock also put us off our game. StreetWalker then moved his search area slightly and soon had the cache in hand. Luckily the ground was bone dry . TFTC.

#9136. We got a little bit too fixated on the steps to heaven. Eventually I searched slightly further away and found the cache straight away. TFTC.

A good hide and another nice find for Just-Lookin & I on a south island trip.

Very good co-ords and hint.
SL TFTC

Holidaying at the top of the South Island with tmann421. Many thanks to all the CO's for making this a memorable trip.

Nice find here.

TFTC

A plan was hatched to try and grab a number of caches, in excess of 120 if possible. I had already found a load between Renwick and St Arnaud but consulting the map around St Arnaud area showed some semi power trail drive by caching opportunities. Fellow Manawatu cacher the Seagnoid was asked if he was interested and a resounding yes was the answer. So the car was fuelled up at very early o'clock and provisions for munching were also loaded. An 0630 start was the plan and the day came to its conclusion around 2130 after approx. 15 hours of driving and caching.
Outcome was a very successful figure in excess of 130 caches which constitutes best day ever (for both of us), best week, month and year too. Over 500kms driven today and man I feel tired but need to make a start logging the finds, and DNFs. Thanks to all the C Os involved in making our day such a great one. Nearly all caches were well maintained, interesting and accurately plotted. There were bellbirds, beech trees, pies and water, sealed roads, gravel tracks, no sandflies (thankfully), rivers and bridges and creeks and bridges and streams and bridges and much conversation about all things caching
A great day out in good company and all made possible by the efforts of the hiders.
T F T C to all the cache owners. We mostly signed as C/S or Capp/Seag or other combos
Nice old church with interesting wiring outside

[green] Capperz called me up saying he wanted to get his ruby Busy Cacher badge, and try for 120 caches in a day. I said YES PLEASEE!!, as I too had tried this once before but only achieved 103 before night defeated me and Edvern in Auckland last year. A successful day, with over 130 caches found in 14.5 hours and 500km. Also tiring - I went to bed as soon as I got home, despite it not being dark yet (yes, we could have cached some more, but the next objective is 180 caches, and there was no way we would have achieved that!). Alas, I had to leave all the planning to Capperz, and he produced a great little plan, listing all the target caches (and more) with which way to turn at next intersection after a cache - a great way to plan a back road travel.
The day was cool, cloudy, with a little drizzle. Perfect caching weather - the weather kept most of the muggles away from the muggle areas.
Thanks to all the COs for a great day out exploring the back roads of the Marlborough region!
Logs signed as CS or occasionally as CapSeag.
I love these old back country churches. And I also love old dilapidated houses, which this is almost. Photo attached. All it really needs is a sand down, a coat of paint, a new steeple, and replace that broken window. Interestingly, there is another church, further along to the west, that looks even older and also in need of some care. Does nobody care around here?

This was a lovely little find in a surprising area. TFTC

On a big mission up to Nelson over Show Weekend with Purdiepurdie, Karma Reprint and Team_Gaters we signed our cache finds as PKTT the 'power packet' but we called ourselves the 'G4'. We headed off on Friday morning at 4.30am and made our way to Nelson today. We drove heaps, laughed heaps, found heaps of caches and poke our noses here and there. It was a great day we didn't stop until about 9.30pm for a cuppa and relax and getting ready to do it all again tomorrow!
Quick one... onto the next. What an awesome spot. Lovely old church.

Thanks for the cache.
#2397
Cache 31 for 95 caches today
Cache 31 out of 192

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Visit the cache page and log a 'Will Attend' [url=http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC587BC_nz-mega-christchurch-2015]NZ MEGA CHCH 2015[/url]
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Canterbury Show Weekend so headed North to Nelson for a fun caching 3 day weekend with TheWanglers, Karma Reprint & Purdiepurdie......for speed, efficiency & to prevent RSI we signed our logs PKTT.
Nice wee spot & a lovely quaint wee church. Cheers.

TFTC. Out to play for the weekend with the destination of Nelson. Caching crew on board were Karma Reprint, Team_Gaters and TheWanglers, logged as PKTT for this trip. Gosh did we have fun looking for caches, most of which we found, in this very beautiful part of our country.

What a lovely location for a cache, and a church for that matter!
Thanks BigglesNZ for placing the cache.

07/10/2014 8:23:00 PM
4985
This was one of the most epic weeks ever, and definitely my most epic caching week ever.

Me and mum headed up on a holiday north to Nelson and very wider surrounds. In total during the trip, we found almost 500 caches! (470 odd I think, but final results are yet to be in! ) We covered about 3000 odd km I think too. Crazy! And had our absolute best caching day ever too at 160 found. Spend 9 days travelling, caching, and having the best time ever!!

So sorry about not so epic logs, as otherwise this would probably take me the rest of my life to log, especially with two big events to organise coming up! Eeek!!

Almost every single log we signed as 'Team Polak' to avoid needing to write out both usernames taking up space on logsheet - as well as precious caching time!! Haha.

This was it - one of the caches on our big day

Consec caching day # 702

TFTC!!

-------------------------------
For info on the next NZ mega, and to pre- register, go to:
www.nzmega2015.com

For the sake of sanity we set off with sonia26642 for a crazy geocaching trip, aiming to cache until we drop. The main destination was Nelson and the ‘surrounding’ area, but then we ended up covering a few miles in three northernmost regions, plus a few in Canterbury. We were signing/stamping the log as 'Team Polak' or ‘TP’ for the two of us on this trip to save logbook space. We found a lot of different caches, city ones, road side, park side, up a hill and on an island, and we enjoyed every single one of them. It was good to be a professional thingfinder for a few days!

Today was to be our biggest day. S planned the route to cover the most possible easy to get P&G’s but we ended up not limiting ourselves to only those. D2.5? Why not? Let the brain have a bit of fun! D3? I am sure we can get there quickly!

We had great fun and are grateful to all CO’s who placed caches for us to find, and help restore our sanity before returning to our other non-geocaching lives!!

Come and join us the next New Zealand geocaching MEGA event!! Register your interest now at www.nzmega2015.com to receive newsletter updates and be the first to know. It will be a great event, come and be a part of it!!

We seem to be visiting lots of churches and cemeteries lately; prompting much discussion of the meta-physical and the potentials of the after-life from Junior. I answer as best I can while he locates the cache in this beautiful, peaceful spot. Great to see this place is still well maintained. Thank you BigglesNZ!

Was in clear view as we approached - so signed the log and tucked it in behind tftc

Decided on the back road today, and managed to find some treasure on the way. Found on a lovely Queens Birthday Saturday driving from Hanmer to Nelson. Thanks for the hide.

nice old church and interisting graves good bit of history

Back for a second try now that the gardeners have done their thing. TFTC

My first time ever along this road on the way north to Motueka today. Spotted the cache as I walk towards it, so I hid it a bit better after signing the log. Thanks for the cache.

We love the old churches, who seem to be in random places around the country. TFTC

makka pakka 2 went out today to see what he could find. TFTC. Had a lovely drive up the valley from Tapawera to Tadmore then went in to the Sherry River. I was all prepared to stop and do this cache but when I arrived they were busy gardening and mowing all around, but I will return - one of those caches that I will have to come back and get.

A nice find after dinner

TFTC

A quick easy find at a church which is looking a bit dilapidated, as we headed up the Glenhope to Tapawera Road. TFTC

A quaint old church. Obviously little used. TFTC

[blue]Day 4 of our 31 Days of Caching Challenge.[/blue] 25/40 for the day. It was still spitting, so out came the umbrellas as most caches along here today have been close enough to take back to the car to sign the log. A quick find and then back to the trail. Thanks for the cache

It amazes me that there are so many country churches around in the middle of no where or maybe these places where once very busy little towns. Tftc

Nice quiet spot

Out collecting the caches on this road. Quick find, nice peaceful spot. TFTC

#923

A cute spot. well kept.

Quick find on a blistering hot day. TFTC

[^]

TFTC!!!

Quick found church may not be in use but good to see graveyard still being looked after. Thanks.

On a trip up the valley today why not step up and aim for heaven? I love these old buildings and commend the local communities for looking after them. TFTC

We decided on a 'day in the country' today to find a few caches and enjoy the drive. I have been passed here several times but had not consciously noted this building until now. TFTC.

Mr Mum2jer was up this way in the log truck. Stopped for a quick find. TFTC.

Quick find after checking out the cemetary. TFTC

Found with hillbilly hicks. Funny to watch the littlies sprint to be the first to find (in our party) this cache
TFTC

Mini Hillbilly found this one... Nice night out with Walders

Love the song (we had to sing as we drove here) and loved the cache site. Blue sky, snow on the hills, a quiet little church - a caching treasure on a great Sunday and a neat way to finish the holidays. We had a B afternoon - belt,biggles and bumandworker of course. Thanks.

This is a very pretty area of the country and so was a pleasure to a-hunting. A quick find. Thanks. Hatas

Nice hiding place !!

A quick find after finding our fortune in the tadmore river.
TFTC

Funnily enough geocaching device had broken down on us, so we were forced to search areas where we felt it might be. Beedy eyed K, the middlest of the young cheetah cubs found first with her beedy eyes. Really good cache, well done.

Stopped to grab this one on a trip into the Wangapeka. A quick find and had a stroll around and see how like a lot of places it is growing!! It's ashame to see the church to be going into disrepair!, TFTC

Noticed there was a pocket of caches in this area - where we havent been before - started off last sunday to do them only to have our gps play up ( freezing etc) so we gave it away gps hiccups sorted this Sunday we decided to try our luck up here - thanks for taking us out there - didnt realise the hops where grown so prolifically out here signed log thanks for the cache

driven by several time, keep forgetting this one !!, I see it is still gaining residents

A quick find on our way out of the Wangapeka.
TFTC

Cache checked and all is well. Picked up TB to move on.

Good to brouse around some of these old churches. Easy find on way to Wangapeka.

A short stop on our way to .....err......Hanmer - don't ask you know what Mr KE is like when there is an FTF nearby.

Nice little church yard and I think someone played that song at our wedding - don't quote me on that though - it could have been called stairway to heaven. Anyway we found the cache no problem, thanks. -tb

Was heading up to do a trap line but didn't get past the Dart Ford. Was hoping to drop a travel bug in at Siberia, figured the scenery here was good enough so here it goes. Can always pick it up in a month with Woolley if it doesn't get shifted as go by most weeks.

Left Woolly here. Sheep in the next paddock. In a hurry today but will go for a photo next time I'm out here.

Organizing a Cub Scout Campfire 400 m from here tonight so popped in. Easy find and a good night for the cubs, loved running around in the full moon.

Two days caching and this is the only one I found GPS routing wanted to take me the direct way, but sign said "Dry Weather Road", so I beat a hasty retreat in the town car and came in via Tap instead. GPS spot on, as if it was needed! TFTC.