The lost symbol (Nelson/Marlborough) Endeavour Inlet, South Island, New Zealand
By jigsawnl on 06-Jun-10. Waypoint GC2A013

Solved as part of Master of Mystery #24, Lillehammer, Norway http://coord.info/GC5KKTH

Foun this one when visiting Tōtaranui 250. It was a hard climb to come there and as a surprise I found this cache.

Had solved this puzzle well over a year ago when it looked like I was going to get the opportunity to pay the area a visit. Unfortunately that trip fell through. Roll on a year and I've made it to the island.
Today is day one of a four day sea kayak trip starting at Ships Cove (Water Taxi brought the group out) and ending back in Picton on Monday. We had paddled over from Ships Cove to have a look around. While the rest of the group were up top I hunted around down below for this cache - bit like a weka. Found it after wandering about a bit, logging requirements completed, it was up the steps to check out the view. Returning back to the kayaks it was off to Cannibal Cove for the night.
Cheers for the cache, it was an extra bonus on this paddle.

Without a clue where to start, I had to get help deciphering this one from a friend in Canada, who sadly died late last year.
She loved a decent puzzle, the harder the better.
Apparently, this one was super easy.

After being dropped off on the wharf by our friends in their launch, we enjoyed our time amongst the birds and bush. Once we'd summited and enjoyed the views from the platform, the cache was soon in hand.

R.I.P Sheila

This is the 5 Trip to New Zealand. Is a great Country with a wonderfull People. TFTC

We are headed back to Picton from Portage so we could go on a boat ride. This was found with my wife on day five of our eight day holiday in Marlborough based at Picton.

Visiting the Island was on my Picton to do list, purely for the birds. I saw a juivenille saddle back very near gz.
JDScout and I are spending a week in Picton. We have spent this week exploring Marlborough and finding a few geocaches. Thanks jigsawnl for creating this hide. It was find 9510 for me.

======== NZ Mega 2021 ========
Planning for the NZ Mega 2021 event is well underway. It will be held in Auckland over Labour Weekend, October 2021

We managed to time our visit here with the e-ko tour's arrival. We quickly managed to walk ahead of them and made the find just as they were arriving at our location. The cicadas were almost deafening up here but unfortunately our heads were in the clouds for this visit. Lots of potential hiding places but luckily it didn't take us too long to find it. Tftc!

We were thinking our statistic for a monthly ftf was going to come to an end. We had noticed the caches out here published over a month ago. We assumed one of the locals would have swooped on them long ago.
We contacted the CO a week or so ago, just to find out about where to launch etc and got some helpful information. Then I did some research and discovered a web site that rates the boating conditions, and on the day we were considering going over to see if we could find them, the rating was one out of ten (one being the worst conditions). So these caches were promply put on the no not happening list and we found another possible ftf in Golden Bay.
So the campervan was packed up and off to Golden Bay we went, for what turned out to be a failed mini mission. We had an enjoyable day but it was just too dangerous to try to find that one.
Back home we went and pretty much resigned ourselves to not getting a ftf for December.
Then Christmas happened.
We were planning to go to the West Coast on Boxing Day for a few days with the intention of finding the TMGT caches.
On the offchance I looked at the boating conditions and saw that it was a four and a five around the area in question for this afternoon, so I just happened to mention this fact to GK on Christmas Day.
So plan 'B' was hatched. Boxing day morning we packed up the boat, rang Muzza221 and asked if he would like to join us on an adventure. They were keen, so we picked them up a couple of hours later.
We launched at Picton Marina, which has to be one of the best set up launching ramps we have ever used (highly impressed), and away we headed.
We passed a boat coming in and it certainly looked like one of the Blenheim cachers we have met before, only he was heading towards the marina as we were heading away from it. I had a bit of a cry to myself thinking that we had missed on the ftfs after all. We had a chat and decided to carry on anyway as there is a cache in this Sound that fills a gap on our D/T grid.
I was feeling a bit anxious about meeting a ferry, and of course within a short time we met the first one. Turned out to be absolutely nothing to worry about, hardly even a bump in the water as we crossed the wake.
It turned out the rating on the website should have been 10 out of 10 for today, as the conditions could not have been much better than what they were.
As this cache was nearby another one we were finding today we had a look for this one too. With four of us searching we could not find it, we looked high we looked low we thought we had looked everywhere. I had a look at my phone and I had cell phone reception so I phoned a friend, and with step by step instructions about where to find this one muzza221 spotted it. How on earth we had all missed it I do not know as we had all been withing centremeters of it. Sometimes you just can't see the wood for the trees.
Anyway, we are very pleased to have (eventually) found what should have been an easy find.
Thanks for the puzzle, the cache and the smiley

a great day out with gkmlb Learnt lots about geocaching from these guys and all sorts of things been a fantastic day on the water but still fund time for a spot of fishing and just great company thanks guys also been able to share a {FTF} with these guys on the 26-12-19 was cool

I solved this one in a hurry on Friday morning as I had been offered a boat tour of some of the islands near Meretoto leaving early on Saturday morning.
The CO had asked me earlier in the year to check on the state of the cache; it is clean and dry and in great shape.
Thank you for the puzzle and the cache, I hope a lot more people come and find it in the future.

signed he physical log, will register find when have solved the puzzle

I hadn't thought about this cache for a long time. I had solved the puzzle seemingly ages ago and it wasn't really on our list for today, but with a change of plans it was time to now have a look. I could see the puzzle had changed slightly, but I hoped the final location hadn't as what I had loaded was where I was heading. Needn't have worried. I raced up the track ahead of Jo and Russ while they tested their camera capabilities on the local bird life. Highlight for me was seeing a saddleback a few metres away which flew off before I could get the phone out. In the end a quick find at GZ, and it was all signed before the others arrived. The cache and log are both in great shape. Credit to whoever had maintained this one. TFTC jigsawnl.

Our day went something like this. Jo and I arrived at Picton at 0800 hours for a rendezvous with mates Andy and Russell. The plan was a trip to Blumine Island for a bit of photography and caching interspersed around a barbeque lunch on the beach.
All went to plan early on. The water was like glass and the wind absent - something that continued right through the day - and we made good time. On arrival we ran a line to shore while Andy and I headed out to drop the anchor, necessary as the tide was going out. Things went a bit pear-shaped here. The anchor dropped and the line immediately disintegrated. Fortunately enough of the rope was floating on the surface that we could retrieve the anchor, but as we tension tested the rope on shore, and it split regularly, we could see we had a problem. So a quick discussion, and plan B was implemented. Motuara Island then, for the bird life. Then Ship Cove for lunch, and a few bays on the way home along along the northern coast for a few caches and a walk. All up a great day. No further issues, good company and chat and plans hatched for future trips, TFTC to all COs.

T F T C. T F T C. T F T C. T F T C.
---This log is trackable!
-- Feel free to discover.
-- Please mention in which cache you've seen this code:
-- AR9ZB7

I recreated the puzzle because the original wasn't available anymore on the original host. It might look slightly different and you won't be able to reuse your original solution. The coordinates are unchanged.

Had an awesome time checking out the island in question and enjoying a beautiful day in the Sound. Thanks heaps!

Found and dried out. I've replaced the log with a bagged dry one. I'll keep an eye on it and replace with waterproof paper next time I'm out. Birds are best when flying solo.

We found this, though not anywhere where we suspected it to be. On the ground, not in a specific place or spot. Log book saturated which was a big dissapoibtment after solving, trekking and searching for it. We logged as best as we could on wet paper (travelled with JHobbins) and then stashed it in a spot that's not where it should be, but we were unsure where that was.


(In bottom of a hollow tree near base of platform on Eastern side.)

Found It, awesome spot with great views! TFTC!

Pretty sure cache isn't in original location and is unfortunately water logged

Solved the puzzle a while ago and kayaked to Blumine Island at Easter, we had hoped to paddle further out but the wind didn't allow that so with the school holidays approaching I thought it would be fun to bring 9 year old Sir Belac out here as he fundraised $1000 last year for a school Pride challenge to sponsor a Rowi kiwi chick which he named Waitakiri who is currently living on Motuara Island. A bit of a grunt up here but well worth it. Great views, and we got to see lots of birdlife including 4 little blue penguins. Thanks for a great cache in an awesome location.

#4602

Quick find by paddle chick. Awesome Island, saw some penguins TFTC

Teamed up with the regular work caching crew, and a couple of other familiar cachers for a boat trip on the Queen Charlotte sound. Picton to Motuara Island and back.
This was my first cache of the day, after dropping some of the others off on shore to pick up a few along the way that I had already found. Great view from up here, a definate FP from me for the puzzle and the cache. T F T C

A few days ago:
I was told of an upcoming geocaching trip to get it, so I thought I better solve it. I have no idea of the name for this font, and I didn't think to use google's image search to find it, so I just went back to first principles and solved it by pattern matching. Had it sussed in about 5 minutes. Nice!

Skip forward to today: The day that the Woodbourne air base's Adventure Sports Club decided to hit the water. Three boats - one full of walkers/runners for the Queen Charlotte track and two full of geocachers: myself, capperz, gh6710, bumandworker, NZDi, Raisonpig, nightowl and kiwimykl. We arrived at our first cache just on dawn and finished up about 3pm. Probably sunburnt. I'll know tomorrow.
Man, I love the wildlife on these protected islands! Saw weka, robins, saddlebacks, bellbirds, kakariki, even the Spirit of New Zealand and a pod of four Hector's dolphins on the way back. And some fantastic views! And a bunch of muggles also enjoying the place, but we managed to dodge them. +Fav for the awesome birdsong, and the relatively tame (unafraid) birdlife.

I did a GPS trace of our trip - see attached! An awesome trip of mostly T5 caches.

I was pretty chuffed to solve this March 2012.
So very excited to get here today with the airforce group and make the find.
Nice hide. Fantastic spot and view.
Thanks jigsawnl for the cache.

The RNZAF Base Woodbourne Adventure Sports Club, which my husband (Kiwimykl) is a member of the Geocaching Section, organized three boats to take us out on the sounds today. We took the opportunity to get a bunch of water access only T5 caches and this was the fourth of the day.

TFTC jigsawnl

Love the work that DOC are doing through these islands to protect the bird-life. It is truly amazing and on a nice day it is wonderful to sit and watch the birds. The robin is particularly friendly and almost inquisitive. Thanks for the puzzle, I've never done one of these before so this was something new. Even though the actual puzzle picture shown is now incorrect the cache was found with the aid of the clue. Looking forward to coming back again one day soon.

#913. I had a boat trip planned to the outer Marlborough Sounds today so last week I checked the puzzle caches in this area to see if any ended up in areas where I was planning to visit. This puzzle looked tricky at first but I soon saw a key to solving the code and had the coordinates worked out a short time later. Today I was able to visit this site and the cache was quickly found with accurate coordinates. A really beautiful part of New Zealand. Thanks for putting together the puzzle to give me another reason to visit this site.

I have now read through other logs and I am wondering if someone has placed another cache container at this site. It was found at the GZ according to my GPS and was a plastic screw top container labelled P.N.I.N.S. 2013. The logbook inside this cache container had been signed by some other recent cachers, but not all the cachers listed in the online log below. So I am guessing another cache container must still be hidden nearby. I thought this was the replacement cache mentioned in the updated description. But now unsure if its the true replacement cache or a container with a logbook left by another visitor. Too late to go back now and check for another container. TFTC

This entry was edited by GSEL on Monday, 01 June 2015 at 06:50:23 UTC.

Solved as part of Master of Mystery #24, Lillehammer, Norway
http://coord.info/GC5KKTH
I doubt there will be any opportunity to come to this part of the world to log this cache physically, but it was fun, anyway

Yet another trip was planned ages ago and names went in for a trip with Adventure sports club through the Marlborough Sounds for a days boat-based activities. Geocaching was quite a popular option and despite G H 6 7 1 0 being committed elsewhere for the day, the three remaining members of the Heaphy quartet and a ring-in called Dave made up the party of 5, including our boat pilot Lindsay, all aboard the skylark!
Setting sail at 0900 we encountered some bumpy wet stuff on the way out but the wind dropped after that and it was a pretty smooth ride for the remaining trips and traverses between land masses in the trusty 18 footer, kind of enjoy this type of caching. 6 months ago, no caches by boat, ever. Now, 3 trips and many found, nice. We even ended up towing a sailing boat with a broken motor, and no wind to move the sails, into Punga Cove, good stuff.
Third cache of the day by this C O and a great walk to get to the final. Beautiful views all around and even saw nesting Little penguins. Puzzle nice and easy to solve too and final was well hidden and not what I assumed. Trust G P S.
F P for this hide, it has all the elements of a great cache, thanks for the cache

TFTC. The old invisible force trick.

Today four members of the Geocaching section of the RNZAF Base Woodbourne Adventure Sports Club along with a tame muggle boat driver, took to the briny to access a bunch of boat only access geocaches in the Queen Charlotte Sound.

This was the fourth of nine caches logged today, most with high D or T ratings. I solved this puzzle some time ago and have been looking forward to the opportunity to get this cache since then. Once we were dropped off at the jetty, it only took 10 minutes to get to GZ despite what it says on the sign (must be all the training we did for the Heaphy Track last month). Surprisingly once we got to GZ, it wasn't a mad search for the cache, but we all went up the lookout to admire the amazing views for 5 minutes.

It wasn't long before the geocaching urge took over and the hunt was on. Once again capperz experience gained over 3600 caches showed through and he came up with a cleverly camouflaged cache. While searching for the cache a Robin approached us quite closely which made for a great photo opportunity. The log was soon out and sign by all and we were on our way again. On the way back down to the jetty we checked out one of the penguin enclosures and were surprised to find a pair inside.

I was surprised to see, that despite being placed almost 5 years ago, this cache only had five finds before today and it fully deserves the five favourite points, plus the one it is about to get from me.

TFTC jigsawnl

Great day out in the sounds on the Base Boat with Capperz, Kiwimykl and Tatts.
This was a great island - short uphill to fantastic lookout spots and great photo opportunities.
Looked past the cache several times - needed capperz and his experienced eyes.
Found a pair of little blue penguins in a nesting box and a fat robin that look a liking to us...great place to visit.
TFTC

Enjoying a fantastic 3-week summer road trip around the South Island with our kids: over 4000km under our belts, having started at Picton, headed south via scenic eastern & southern highways to Bluff, onto Fiordland, wound our way back up the West Coast with a final few days’ R&R in Blenheim before heading home. Fabulous journey so far with spectacular views everywhere we look; it’s been such an amazing holiday. Our muggle friends in Blenheim offered to take us out on their boat for a spot of fishing and a picnic somewhere in the Sounds - not a bad way to spend New Year's day!

Stopped off to explore Blumine island on our way up the Sounds &, after more than a few false starts, finally found the gun placement cache there. Had a spot of lunch at a nearby beach & then headed over here for more exploring. We moored & walked up the track, with the kids dashing off to investigate whether they could spot any birdlife. There were loads today: so amazing to see such a variety of birds at such close quarter! I'd solved the puzzle late on New Year's Eve just in case we were going to be close by but was a bit worried I might not have the correct GZ co-ords, having re-reading old logs that suggested GZ might have moved slightly ... I wasn't clear if I'd solved the old or new puzzle. But keen to have a look for the cache nonetheless!

Meandered our way to GZ &, from the hint about invisible forces, we were fairly certain about where to look. Nothing. Tried every nook & cranny - nothing. A bit of a re-think: followed the GPS rather than where the hint has us convinced it would be (had been thinking the GPS was simply a bit out under the tree cover) & bingo ... spotted the cache straight-away. Yeah! Another great adventure & an awesome area to explore plus a sweet puzzle cache - definitely a memorable 1st day of 2015! Happy New Year & TFTC!

Fantastic cache!!! love these out of the way caches and a puzzle one makes it even better. managed to persuade the family to visit this island so off in the boat we went. it was pretty windy but we manged to tie the boat up without any trouble. checking the penguin boxes on the walk up we were surprised to see so many nesting penguins!! great to see how close DOC allows you to get. made our way to GZ and started searching when i placed my hands on something different... got it!! not sure how i missed it, it was right in front of me. signed log and picked up TB. TFTC and great adventure. needs to be more of these around!

Just looked at the web page again after many years and noted that the cache had been shifted with new coordinate coding in the description. BUT, the PUZZLE photo linked below is that of the OLD puzzle!

Just realized that this is my 400st geocache! Freaking awesome.

Where to begin?
While doing the QCWW we stayed the last night @ school house bay where I lay in my tent that night checking out potential geocaches to find on our last few steps towards ship cove where the water taxi was supposed to take us back to picton. It was then when this riddle caught my attention. Also the reference to Dan Brown did so, for I have not finished reading a book in years. Just a few days before that trip I finished Digital Fortress by that particular author and hence for the first book in years. While my tramping mate was sleeping next to me in the tent I took a pen in desperation to solve the riddle and in lack of something to write on I used a tissue as my piece of paper which turned out to become my treasure map later. Once I saw where my discovered coordinates point to there was no need for a check. I knew I was right! ...
I also know that I will never ever make it there. I had a few hours spare time the next day before the water taxi picked my up and so I asked all the private boats in shouting distance if they would help my out, without luck. By the time we reached ship cove, I had no hope left to ever get my hands on this cache. Instead we met a nice old man volunteering for DOC who accidentally caught an eel and dropped his knife. After helping him out setting the eel free again and diving for his knife it was my turn to get lucky and the water taxi arrived 1 hour early that day. Thus we had enough time to stop at the island I was desperately longing to reach since last night. Within the given 30 min I could run towards GZ and back barely in time with only a few moments to enjoy the beauty of this special place which to be is now the first island I ever found a treasure on! It is also the first cache I reached by boat. Wow! This feels like an Indiana Jones movie only it is real! I dropped a TB in here to make it even more desirable for the next catcher to come here. Also I will put this one on my all time favorite geocaching experiences!!! Thank you soooo much for this wicked treasure!

2nd try, with help from CO, don't know how I did not find it the 1st time! Nice safe position. Tftc Blenheim Bear

humbug! Having solved the code I realised that we were about to go onto this particular island and looked forward to being the STF, but it was not to be. Having huffed my way to the obvious GZ I looked for about 1/2hrs for the cache to no avail. I will ask the CO for guidance and see what happens.

I really did want the D5 and I guess that's how it goes, too many expectations when too many variables are in play, that's Geocaching for you Blenheim Bear

Passed within about 100 metres of the cache today, but no chance for the skipper to stop unfortynately.

New container, slightly different location, updated geochecker and new and simplified puzzle.

Geocache unavailable until replaced by new container. Hopefully I can do this between 1/12/12 and 11/12/12.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Oh yay. cracked it....had to punt one part of southern though. Now....next time worker is here, must remember to have given her a gps. Thanks for the puzzle

Zowaar!

AARRRGH!!! I have actually been on the cache location prior to doing the QCWW, 5 - 9 March (Yes, we did finish the track.)
While still on the track, but only 2 days later when we had internet access again, newbie Jerm73 and I saw this mystery...., solved it quickly -as I have seen similar ones in my home country Netherlands-, and to my great dismay discovered that getting to location again would be impossible for the next couple of years....
[:(!][:(!][:(!]. Don't know why I missed it before, maybe the symbol got lost .

Yeah baby! Finally nutted it, thanks to Ben (non-cacher) for guidance when i floundered. Now to get fit for the paddle out there.
Cheers jigsawnl for another clever cache.

Nice One jigsawnl Quickly onto the translation, but it helps if one doesn't use the other ........ - otherwise you get gobbledygook!! Quick switch and all was revealed. On to Geocheck and the green tick was presented. Like others, have solved from afar so don't know when I'll be in the location to complete the paper work. Thanks for the puzzle and the mind gymnastics.

Congatulations team Idris, sorry for the late response. I will leave the cache active for the moment, but i,m afraid i wont be able to move the cache anytime soon. It,s not that i go there everyday. If another cachers moves it to another location on the island and post me the new coordinates i can update the Hint and the puzzle.

having read the book, I knew the code and working the puzzle out. proved not so difficult. Getting to the location made for a great adventure. Stopped at some other points of interest on the way and the team had a couple of swims also. Water was not warm but weather was fantastic. Location of cache was not to difficult. AAA real pleasure to do. Especially brought TB which we dropped off.

Really enjoyed this, however cache wasnot at the location but in some vegetation 2 metres away. We have put it in the correct location however you may have a future problem as it appears DOC staff found the cache and put it on the stairs, people appear to have used it like a visitors book. Some names in it but didn't appear to be any geocachers?? You may have to move it further from current location to prevent this problem reoccurring

Well done Team Idris - Very envious - we also have the co-ordinates The lost symbol ·GC2A013
S XX XX XXX E XXX XX.XXX Success! at Geochecker , but cant imagine when we are ever going to collect the cache ! Great Puzzle that fell quite quickly.

Great sitting out in the sun at home. Knew what I was looking at but to find the solution!!!!!!!! Ah ha - found it. Now if only I knew someone with a boat and a few hours to spend making the trip south. Oh well. Thanks jigsawnl for the puzzle. Must think about creating my own. Mmmmm

Solved from afar, enjoyed the puzzle despite the missing symbol.

Excellent. Not likely to visit in the near future but a cool puzzle, easily proved and on the square. Cheers, GC

(Oops - sorry, logged as a Find initially, but is really a note)

This entry was edited by GenCuster on Wednesday, 16 June 2010 at 02:55:00.

Solved from afar. We enjoyed the puzzle, but there are still a couple of slight errors with the code. One was obvious. The other took a bit of logical reasoning to get a co-ord geochecker approved of.

yes just had another look, I agree there is still a couple of errors in the code.

I updated the code again. Sorry for the supid mistakes, please tell me if it is correct as it is now, or not. Thanks for trying and informing me.

Looking Good

Yahoo, got the tick on the Geochecker, but I think there maybe some errors in the code for one of the co-ord sets. Have emailed owner.

code has been updated. Thanx Boxhill for your input.

Published

added attributes to listing.