Kokotau Reserve (Wairarapa) Ponatahi, North Island, New Zealand
By Skindo on 06-Jul-10. Waypoint GC2BBRZ

I am archiving this cache since there's been no response from nor action by the cache owner within the time frame requested in a prior reviewer note.

Hi skindoThis geocache was brought to my attention as being in need of an owner maintenance visit and after my previous reviewer note, there has been no owner response. The cache owner needs to check on this cache ASAP and either replace it or archive it, after picking up any geo-litter. See the [maintenance section of the Geocache Listing Requirements/Guidelines](http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx#listingmaintenance).I've added this cache to my watchlist, and I will check back in four weeks to be sure that the maintenance has been done. In the meantime, I have temporarily disabled this listing. When the maintenance is completed, the owner can enable the listing by clicking on the link below the cache name to return it to active status.Whatever your intentions, please **post a note** here on the cache page (not email) to let us know that you are still active and maintaining the cache. If a month passes without seeing a response, then I'll assume that this listing should be archived.Please note, that if a cache is archived due to lack of owner maintenance, the cache is unable to be unarchived.RegardsTheCoddiwompler

No luck and a yucky area to search. Needs archiving

Nothing found, overgrown and rotting fleeces and rubbish all around

Awful area to search in, so many brambles and other stuff. Almost stepped on a rotting sheep, gave up after poking around for 10 minutes. Such a shame, so many weeds and rubbish in what should be a nice picnic spot.

Team MET are at it again!Mar1sa, EtherLord, and TwigNZ are attacking the Wairarapa, aiming to find the Nifty Swifty GeoArt series and as many other random+archived Skindo caches as we come across. The weather deities smiled on us with showers only staring at the last cache of the day. We struggled with our compasses refusing to settle at a logical location and the photos on previous finders' logs didn't help as much as we had hoped either.In the end, the hint in devynthomas' log saved the day and led mar1sa to the container.On to the next one!

Today I was out and about in the Wairarapa with my friends Mar1sa and Etherlord Clan, in an effort to do the entire Nifty Swifty geoart series in a day, plus any other caches we happened to be driving past such as this one. All logs were signed as Team MET (for Mar1sa, Etherlord and TwigNZ), even if 1 of our party may have found it previously.The forecast for our day in the Wairarapa had threatened to put a bit of a dampener on our day, but in the end we were rain-free and spent a deal deal of our time in sunshine. I apologise in advance for the generic C 'n' P logging, but by far the majority of these caches were found very quickly, usually by Mar1sa, exactly where one might expect them to be, and were replaced in the same manner. Anything contrary to this is mentioned below.I was very glad there were 3 of us here today, as had I been on my own I may have posted a DNF. Mar1sa made the find here, in a very overgrown spot about 10m away from where my phone was indicating. Otherwise no issues with the cache itself.Thanks for everything here.

Was in the area collecting car parts for our Nifty Swifty. Noted this sad face from 3 years ago and decided another visit was warranted. As the temperature was nearly 30 degrees had to start with a dip in the river before heading to GZ. Grateful that Yeti had recently found the cache as that was an incentive not to give up. The area is very overgrown so with sticks to clear or tap through the underground Mrs Rubbishparty finally struck gold. Thanks Skindo.

It's December, and to help me achieve one of my Geocaching goals I need to log 300+ caches this month, which means an average of ten a day. I started off well, but had a glitch in the middle which has left me behind on my target. As I leave home on a road trip to Hawkes Bay to see a band play, and then return to Wellington to see the same band play again for New Years Eve, I have only 108 left to find to meet my target. I have a list of caches to look for, and this was one of them. Took a bit of searching, but found it eventually, right where it was. --- Thanks to skindo for placing and maintaining this cache. I enjoy each and every cache I find, and it is only with Geocachers like this creating them and placing them out in the world that this wonderful game continues. [DGSc-Bulk] tagging to help me generate a list for GC30AD8 - DGSc Challenge

Is it meant to be like this?

Hint: Wall Of Roots

4 June 2023 13:24 TFTC Skindo for placing this cache, number 12663 for me. Armed with gauntlets, I finally felt equal to the task before me .... Recheck of previous spots indicated by my phone again proved fruitless, so I moved further up, eventually BFG dragged something from his memory banks, and the cache (in pretty good nick for its age, tftc!)

Very overgrown and have to get back on the road

Very overgrown, not for us.

Nice quite spot, did not mind the longish pricklish search! TFTC!!

No luck today

grass very long and wet here.
plus lots of rubbish.
we zeroed in on co.ords and after searching for a while found cache in good order.
TFTC

With (Mr) Davidson Clan and Gap (of Fap and Gap)… On a boy’s weekend roadtrip south. We’re relocating down the road today. So our base camp shifts to Carterton for the night…

This one was a real challenge. With darkness and no obvious markers, we had to rely on our wits and hope for the best. Fortunately, the coords were pretty good and a scratch around resulted in a find… Despite the ‘No Dumping’ sign, there was plenty of rubbish in here. Thanks Skindo and TFTC.

FapnGap and Squirel Nutcase and I have come away for the long weekend caching. Nice quick find here today cache is in good condition. Thanks for hiding the cache.

Very wet lond grass and shar thorns. Also a rotting deer lay nearby as well as a wasp nest I almost stepped on so no I did not find this one.

Stayed a night in Greytown, been to Cape Palliser on this very hot day. Found cache deep down in hole. Signed log and put container in a safe place. Thanks skindo for the cache.

Stayed the night in Martinborough and now heading home collecting some caches. Sadly no cache found however did have a quick refreshing swim.

Hunted and hunted, read some logs and hunted again. Just too sneaky for us today

Took a short search before I found the sneaky spot. Another cache where haydn.seek has mistakenly logged a DNF as a find (there was nothing between mar1sa and GLAD-NZ in the log). Thanks for another skindo!

Cache found by B after short search. TFTC Skindo!

Away for a couple of days hunting caches with tmann421.
Grass very overgrown and wet here thismorning.
Cach soon located and stamped tm/ww NZ
TFTC

Nice cache

I was on my way to Martinborough when I spied this one on my GPS so I just had to stop to locate and sign it off, which I did.

The cache is still in good condition.

Cheers for the cache.

Finally. Nearly three years since my last attempt. Seems i have honed my geosenses a bit. Its nowhere near the last place i looked. Cache remains in good order. Tftc.

Was in the area and thought I would have a look for this cache even after such a long time of no finds and three DNFs logged.
Coords took to the edge of overgrown area. I looked about to see where I would place a cache, walked up to the area, a quick search and soon had in hand.
Yippee, and in good condition.
GLAD to have this find as I think qualifies as a lonely cache as over 12 months since last logged?
Thanks to CO for placing.

Very overgrown. Couldn't get to gz.

Not to be today

We headed off to the Wairarapa today on a caching expedition - the terrific trio of haydn.seek, PJMacNZ and geodatum. Primarily we aimed to sign in for all the 100 and 250 per month Challenge series, but, of course, would collect as much else as we could along the way. We checked out about 75 caches and had very few failures. We left home at 6.30 am and returned at 9.30 pm. The weather was good - sunny and warm, if a little chilly in windy spots, and dry underfoot. We were good company and our team worked together efficiently. So, in all, a very successful day.

Well, this was one of the few disappointments of the day. Fortunately we didn't entirely waste time here, because we ate our lunch between two attempts at finding the cache.
The reserve is in a sorry state - seriously neglected and unkempt. There was no hint to help with locating GZ and the co-ords on all three GPSrs just pointed us into the same great bank of long thick grass and rampant weeds like convolvulus tangled throughout. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. It really does need a hint to narrow things down.

A serious geo caching day! Not so much about numbers but a dedicated pre planned set of caches covering a fairly large area and many of the caches were puzzle caches we had solved or had qualified for. . We travelled 400km, found about 70 caches and were out on the trail for 15hours, so it was a big serious day.
We left about 6.30am from Palmerston North and travelled thro to Masterton where were picked up out first puzzle cache. And then travelled down the back road towards martinborough locating the 100 and 250 caches for a month -our main objective!. We stopped at Kokotau reserve for a late morning tea cum lunch but the cache here eluded us even with three searchers and a double look before and again after lunch. We replaced several skindo caches along the route with either new containers or water proof logs as so often they were soaking wet. We side tracked up several side roads for caches and we visited Stonehenge on the way. and then headed into Martinborough to initally look for the cache in the town square which had stumped geodatum earlier. As always PJMacNZ solved the retrieval of this cache and we then headed to the pub for a much earned break and tea with Devonshire scones Yummy! We then continued on our way towards home locating other caches in Martin borough and then on the back route up to Greytown to locate the Cobblestone museum cache which I have searched for on numerous occasions. PJM was able to find the Virtual cache there which was a plus for him. By the time we left Masterton it was starting to darken so we gave away the idea of locating the newer Eketahuna caches. They will wait for another day!.
It was a great day and combined effort by all three of us. Thank you to my partners and the Cos for these caches. Lots of smiley faces and project GC points to boot!!

A good day out,but didn't find the cache,found lunch though!Watched a jet boat race through which was an extra bonus.Will return another day for this one.

Finally had a day to come down and tick off some caches, it rained off and on and the weather rather chilly but still an enjoyable day out, thank you again skindo for bringing me out to these back roads, car is dirty as anything and hubby noticed even as daylight fading.
Kaleb made most of the finds and many caches have had the log book replaced not long ago and are in good order. - big puddles here

Heading home to Palmerston North via Skindoland - the back country. Except I think I my tank is running low, so I am heading into Carterton for some petrol. Stopped off here to find that Cyclone Cook has had some effect after all. The river has flooded over the banks, although is still no where near the cache (photo). Dropped in a path tag.

Found. Easy. Tftc. Kahutiatirangi doesn't look hard enough... if he needs a hand I'm happy to help... by the way there's a pencil in the cache so no excuses about not having a pen please

Eluded me.

On a trip to Wairarapa today to make a dent in collecting some of the 100 Wairarapa puzzles I've solved over winter. Left home relatively early to collect as many of the puzzles and other cache types that I passed. Lovely day in the Wairarapa today.

Quickly located the cache in its hidey spot. TFTC

This was a bit of a muddy and smelly place today but I found the cache easily enough.

A couple of fishermen having a feast but were really interested abd keen to join up. Took a wee bit of finding. Very muddy. Tftc.

Quick easy find. TFTC.

Ground in area was a bit soggy and the grass in quite long but spotted cache quite quickly TFTC

Nice hide. Something had died lots of flies tftc

Found it after a little hunt. Another odd message left in the logbook - presumably muggles are on to this one too. TFTC

GPS took us to an unlikely spot. No hint. Very overgrown. Blackberries. Not our favorite skindo find!! Tftc

#1488. Every once in a while there is a day of madness. Today was that day. To complete an Auckland based challenge cache (GC3QY6Q), I needed to visit 50 caches in a single calendar day. But I couldn't use any power trails. Each cache had to be at least 1 km apart. So I spent several nights planning out a route around the Wairarapa that would allow me to achieve this target plus enough spares to cover for the DNF's. I managed to get around all 50 caches (only needing to use a torch for the last one) and was home by 10pm. Apologies for this generic log. This was cache No.40 of the day. Followed the GPS and it lead me to the cache. Noted the sign about hidden cameras operating here. Wonder how many geocachers they detect in action. Logbook was dry. TFTC

GZ was a little bit marred by rubbish dumped nearby and there was a very strange message in the log book written by a muggle yesterday. Made us not want to linger too long which is a bit of a shame. TFTC

A nice quick find on my way home tonight.

TFTC

Bit muddy today, found it

Tftc

This entry was edited by peniknz on Friday, 03 April 2015 at 05:51:09 UTC.

Down in the area for a caching week.
Enjoying finding all your caches and the area.
TFTC

In Martinborough for the fair and a chance to grab a couple of caches on the way home. A nice quick find by Jr. Cacher #2 before jumping back in the car to carry on our way. TFTC.

Up early and away for a long distance caching day. This was our first stop. TFTC.

First find of the day. Convolvulus abounds in this spot. TFTC

We called in here to check out the reserve as a potential freedom camping spot, as we had discovered that it is one of several allowed by the Carterton District Council. Nice sheltered spot by the river, but I wouldn't stay there if rain was forecast: lots of evidence of flood waters getting up this high. Still, the cache was fine, though I had to search 3 candidate objects around GZ before hitting the correct one with the cache hidden from view. TNLN TFTC.

Quick find out on a quite Sunday drive to get sum previously solved puzzle caches. TFTC

TFTC

Tranquil. TFTC.

Lovely spot on a quiet, sunny day. TFTC.

The rain started as we parked the car. A very unusual man was sitting in his vehicle which I had to pass to get to the cache... so glad I was not alone. t4tc

A big caching day which started with Dawn Service in Masterton and ended with a night cache. Approx 80 caches in total while on the road with Pagenz. Thanks to all who placed caches for us to find.

One of the few trads we picked up among a mega puzzle collecting day. TFTC

There was a car there when we arrived, but no sign of any muggles, so found the cache & passed someone else coming in as we headed out.
Left a pet rock - a cat. TFTC

Finding caches on way to catch the ferry. Today was a nice find day.

Cache # 1,658 - A couple days of caching in the Wairarapa that really stretched my geocaching skills, as the upload to my GPS had partially failed, and I only had coordinates and names – no hints, no descriptions, no logs! This one, fortunately, was a quick find with Violet Butterfly and Astro Hunter. TNLNSL. No sign of the trackable that is supposed to be in the cache. TFTC!

Found today with The Wandering Dragons and Astro Hunter. Thanks!

Cache # 620

Found today with Violet Butterfly and Wandering Dragons. Thank you!

Cache # 45

Managed to wangle most of a weekend in the Wairarapa. Knew it was coming up for a while so had put in a bit of an effort solving some puzzles. Had a great couple of days and wound up with about 300 finds. Hardly scratched the surface really - I'll be back!

First one of the day

First for the night

tb

Headed down to Wellington for a fly-down-drive-back-caching weekend with mike-miss and Lostcourse - basically a caching binge drive back to Auckland, caching under the moniker "Team F.M.L." We headed out of Wellington as quickly as possible to get some serious caching done in the Wairarapa and Hawkes Bay before heading back to Auckland. Apologies for the copy/paste log, but we found >310 caches in 36 hours and for many it's hard to remember specific details. We headed through a bunch of interesting winding back roads and saw a lot of beautiful sights and historic spots. We shared the driving and stopped for about an hour to catch some shut eye in Pongaroa before continuing, caching all the way. Saturday was my biggest caching day ever, and this Feb, after just the first 36 hours, is already my biggest month ever. TFTC!!!

Took the first flight down to Wellington on Saturday for a fly-down-drive-back-caching weekend with mike-miss and FMZ - basically a caching raid across the North Island.Team FML! for the win! We headed out of Wellington making a beeline for the Wairarapa and Hawkes Bay before venturing back to Auckland. We headed through a bunch of interesting winding back roads and saw a lot of beautiful sights and historic spots that only geocaching could have bought us too. We shared the duties around and took a few micro naps when ever prudent. Saturday was my biggest caching day ever, and this February, is easily my biggest month ever.

Cache was found in the obvious spot in quick order. Good to see a regular sized cache. Cheers for the showing us this lovely spot!

Headed out on the first flight to Wellington Saturday morning with FMZ and Lostcourse. Relocating a vehicle back to Auckland meant we had a big caching road trip ahead of us...! We headed back through the Wairarapa towards Napier, clocking up the numbers through skindo land. Sorry for the copy/paste log as its now all abit of a blur having cached for 36 hours with only a few short naps in between. Enjoyed the drive through these rough and winding gravel roads and saw alot of interesting sights.

36 hours, 1,200km, & 315 finds made for an epic adventure! Many thanks for the cache and the perfect excuse to make a weekend of it!

Quick find and got away from the carcasses. TFTC.

tftc

The grass is really quite long and it appears that someone is dumping animal carcasses here, so not a great environment. Dodged around the mess, pegged the nose and pulled the cache from its hide. Not mucking about, was on my way again quick with plenty of fresh air coming in the windows. TFTC

Found with yetiballer on a nice Saturday avo. Woohoo

Found with mrsid on a nice day. Park is overgrown and unfortunately someone is dumping dead calves... tftc

20/10/2013 1:40:00 PM
3253
My mega NZ MEGA 2013 Trip!! Split into two halves - first, the journey up, and then the second half was the actual MEGA time.

This was the first half. I ended up deciding that the best way to travel up for the MEGA was by doing a rental relocation. Jucy had FAR too many cars in Chch that needed going to Auckland, and so with the pick of the crop I went for the 4WD... naturally, being a cacher, I knew this would come in handy!
They paid the vehicle on the ferry, paid the insurance, and gave me a free tank of gas as well as 5 days to get up to Auckland! What more could you want?!!
This was my 86th cache of the trip.

Today, the aim was numbers. I was aiming to beat my mum's best of 102 caches in a day mainly.
Started at 6am, since I'd camped out near a cache, and ended up back near the same location to sleep again at 10.30pm. Phew it was a long day, but I didn't even have any caffine and still managed the day easily!! Ended up with 119 caches at the end of it!! Hehehe. And all by myself doing all the caching and driving and log signing!

TFTC!!

It's still there !!!

The cache is there ! I was going past so went in to see if I could find it. Managed to retrieve with only a little difficulty - my advice to others would be to "go left" and "be brave" ! It took some courage to get my hands on the cache, but it turned out to be nice and safe and dry. I am claiming this one as part of the "lonely cache challenge" - TFTC !

Cache has gone, I will replace soon

No joy here today.

Had a look but can only report that same comments as the earlier visitor.

Struggled here. Had a good look - suspect not here. Place very messy where we were looking.

#4348. After a couple of DNFs we weren't confident, especially given the overgrown nature of GZ and the lack of a hint. However, we kept on keeping on, and eventually persistence paid off, when I put my hand on the well hidden cache. TFTC.

Both GPSrs pointed close to a place where people have been dumping their garden rubbish, so we looked further afield. Growth has been rampant round here and we unearthed a middle sized stump which had been covered in weeds and creepers. But it didn't hide the cache. So looked even further afield, and it was StreetWalker who turned up the well-hidden cache (watch out for broken glass in the vicinity).
As the environs may put some people off searching here, I'd recommend adding a hint.
TFTC.

It's a mess there at the moment with rubbish and dead sheep and very high water through it recently. Found a likely spot but full of broken glass.

This site is turning into a rubbish dump. A lot of damage with intense stock grazing around GZ. Needs checking.

Drove past this lttle reserve the other day on our way to Martinborough. Decided the track was a bit rough to take the caravan down, so today when we visited Stonehenge finding this cache was on our to do list. Looks like a lot of water has filled this reserve recently and thnkfully the cache was nice and dry. TFTC.

Pulled off the road and into the Kokotau Reserve. A very nice place for a break from driving or to do a spot of fishing. Really liked the hide here - nicely done and gets a favourite point. Thanks.

# 4638

Almost missed this one until I took a better look. Just out of sight of the fisherman changing at his vehicle. TFTC #2840

Fairly easy find once I had waited for a muggle to finish her smoko break. TFTC

Well hidden. tftc

Poked around a while before finding this one (came to it from the wrong direction) Nice to get out and about even if it is a cold winter's day. TFTC

7336 A quick park and grab at the Kokotau Reserve, TFTC.

Found and log signed.

Bitsprayer