Assisted Liftoff (Nelson/Marlborough) Howard, South Island, New Zealand
By bumandworker on 08-Jul-10. Waypoint GC2BEDA

Maintenance check. Container replaced. Thanks PaoloB72.

As promised, on my way back from a couple up Howard Valley, I dropped in a new container. More like a micro now than a small but it's all I had. All good to go again.

Should be able to replace container tomorrow

Made a quick stop here while on my way through to Murchison today, Container lid is broken and cache was full of water so replaced upside down, TFTC

I'm driving over to Blenheim for a few days of caching. I took the longer way around so I could get a few more caches. TFTC

Driving further from Blenheim via Nelson to Golden Bay & the Spit we took a loop via highway 1 to 63 and number 6, a nice tour through the country and so many caches. We stopped here and there with our muggle friends who were patient and just enjoyed our smiles when we found a cacheLike this one Tftc

Today I went from Lake Rotoroa to Lake Rotoiti.My mission: get up Moint Robert and catch some caches to get to 500.I thought it would take longer to do the loop. My navigation predicted 3,75h to do the loop, so I assumed it would take around 5h with findig the caches.It took me a bit more than 3,5h to find 12 of 18 caches.#510

Tftc very wet. Container is damaged.

Luckily there was very little traffic on the road today and we could pull up alongside the cache. I jumped out and grabbed the cache while Andy kept an eye out for traffic. Log signed and we were off again. tftc

#6477

Last time I was past here they where using the winch to launch

Tftc easy find. Cache is quite wet inside

Beaut day. TFTC

A quick find as we whizzed passed. TFTC

Thanks bumandworker for all your caches. Found on Deuces Wild - 2's Day. Heading to Blenheim for a cache on my D/T chart. Doing some caches along the way. TFTC

Quiet road which made grabbing this one on our way pass easy.TFTC

Found it on the way to Westport.
Thanks

Container was full of water, have emptied it and gave it a clean up

Cache very wet inside. Tftc

On a trip with Ruru_NZ to gather the tour caches needed or in my case not done yet. Should be able to knock them off on this trip.

Sounds a bit like me needing assisted lift off as I’ve done my knee again

Day 8 - Labour weekend extended road trip with Kiwicampnut - relocated to stay south of the ditch.
Pulled off a bit back to let some bikes past and wandered along to the cache. No action here today.
Thanks for the cache bumandworker
# 3067 23 October 2021 5:24 pm

#20113. I got out of the car and signed the log. While there a chap on the other side of the fence walked over to talk to me. I told him what I was up to, and he said if I hung round for a minute or two I'd see a glider launch. I went and got Troodles and we watched the glider taking off. A nice bonus! TFTC.

Found with StreetWalkerNZ as we made our way from St Arnaud to Owen River on yet another lovely autumn day.
We timed the finding of this cache perfectly as there was a glider waiting for a "lift". Wow, that was amazing how quickly it was flung into the air. Then watched the line detach from the glider and drift back to earth with the aid of a parachute. Brilliant. TFTC.

Nowhere to pull off but clear road so nipped out to find. Thanks for the placement bumandworker

Long straight road could be utilised as a landing strip...I guess it makes it easy to locate the airport so to speak thanks B&W

Great find with blunsdon. Thank you for the cache

Tyfc

First one on the loop road trip anticlockwise to Hanmer and return. Easy find, plenty of clear road to see, no cars or aircraft.

Having 3 nights away alone up here at the Lake - looking forward to plenty of walks on all the fantastic paths around here.
Today I'm heading up to Lake Rotoroa for a look and walk the tracks and a few caches along the main road as I go.
Had to park a wee way up and walk back... some of these caches along the main road don't have the best parking. All in good nick though.
TFTC B&W

Day 5 and last day of Nosynel's and my geotrip through the Molesworth and back through the Lewis. Nice to have my son's Toyota Hilux for this adventure. Today we are heading to Christchurch after staying the night in St Arnaud. Thanks for the cache.

The big Molesworth circuit is in progress. Today is day four of Jude _E and my geotour, our final day. Thanks to her kind son we have use of a Toyota Hilux, extremely helpful indeed. We stayed a night at St Arnaud last night.
There was no real goal for today apart from to get back in one piece and find some geocaches.

Sadly there is no large event in New Zealand in 2019 but there are a few Mega events planned in Australia. I plan on going to the OzGeomuster in July. To find out more visit this site: https://www.ozgeomuster.com.au

If you can't make Aussie. New Zealand will have another large event in 2020 in Auckland. I will keep you posted in my logs.
Thanks for hiding this geocache.

Such a magnificent view here. The sky was completely blue, a breeze kept the wind bag somewhat up and there was no cars for minutes at a time. Quick find.

Found at 16:47 - #8246 - on a 5 week trip in New Zealand

TFTC

I had parked my snail shell up in Murchison yesterday and noticed that there were a few caches on a back road to St Arnaud that I hadn't travelled.

Not mush wind for any sort of liftoff today.

Cheers for the cache.

On a week's walking and caching holiday with trifolia argentea we aimed for 100 caches. Thanks to all cache owners.

Driving to St Arnaud from Christchurch we picked up some drive by caches though we really cache to explore nature and history, not to increase our cache count. However, Park and grabs are good to break up long trips on windy roads (settling queasy stomachs). TFTC

It's been a long, hot day down at the Lakes and it's time to go home. The gliders have now been put to bed for the night after a good day's flying by all accounts.

A quick find in a logical hiding place was welcome.

Before departing, here's a bit of pop-trivia about the means of assisted liftoff:

* Assistance is provided by a 3.5l V8 truck engine mounted on a custom chassis
* There are two launch lines each capable of launching a glider within 10 seconds at speeds of up to 75 kph
* Each cable is around 1.7km long

#1843

The aircraft currently buzzing around doesn't need any assistance, but it is flying very low top dressing. Nice to see while getting the cache. TFTC

Quick find in the expected place, all good, TFTC B&W.
Today was the long drive home from Chch to Blenheim, and it would have been reasonably quick except for the cache stops along the way. Just targeted anything that looked likely between Hanmer and Wairau Valley township, so 24 in total. Thanks to all the cache owners.

Found all safe and secure original log book saturated tftc

Found the cache, nicely tucked into its little nest, while on our geocaching road trip honeymoon.

Nice spot for a leg stretch on our way between Hanmer Springs and Blenheim on a lovely sunny day. TFTC

Found

A quick find by Mr TFTC

Busy road but we were able to stop & retrieve this cache safely.
TFTC

The next short stop for a cache of this owner on my way back to Blenheim, thanks not only for this one, but also all the others you placed and i found.
Here i didn't need long, until my name was in the log.
My gratitude again to the owner for hiding this cache and keeping it alive and well

***No muggles were harmed while searching, finding and logging this cache...***

A quick find with Keewee. The cache is very wet. TFTC

Quick roadside stop to find with nicjay. Cache vertical wet. TFTC

Found on Team Walkers whirlwind trip to the West Coast ...

Spotted this from the car. Had to wait out a passing tractor and bingo! TFTC.

No activity here this morning...tftc

After some planning Shannonp1 and I got sorted for a mission into areas we hadn't been. Up to Hanmer through the Molesworth to Blenheim, down the Wairau valley to St Arnaud down the Shannandoa to Murchison and then home via the Lewis. 209 caches for the weekend and a pretty high success rate. Thanks to all the cache owners especially Bum and Worker and sorry for the cut and paste.

So a few weeks in the planning phase, me and Surveybase finally got out and about for a mission. Through Hanmer, up the Molesworth to Blenheim, across through St Arnaud, Murchison and then home. 209 caches for the weekend and a pretty high success rate. Thanks to all the cache owners and sorry for the cut and paste. Cheers.

No gliders today, would love to have seen them Quick find as described. TFTC

NZDi decided she wanted to go on a caching trip in the Nelson Lakes area today, so last night I ran a couple of pocket queries and saved the results into my GPSr... well at least I thought I did. Fortunately, I also saved them onto my c:geo mobile app so the day was not a total disaster.

I had decided to attempt the Porika Track in my shiny 4WD. Knowing the Lake Rotoroa side of the track was a bit dodgy, the plan was to cache up the Howared Valley side to the top, then go back down the same way and drive around to the Lake Rotoroa side and see how far we could get up before the track became too rutted.

On the drive up to the Lakes NZDi said she was looking forward to the walk... 'Truck the back up,' I said. 'Who said anything about a walk?'

'Aren't we going for a walk? said NZDi. 'Hmmm!' I think, 'Time for a tactical change of plans'

Which is why we ended up doing the SIS Powertrail up to Booth's Cottage followed by the first half of my original plan.

Having completed our mission for the day, it is now time to head home. We have got 24 caches on the Louis Creek and Porika Track geocaching trails so to satisfy NZDi's even number OCD issue, we are going to get another 6 QEF PnGs on the way home to make it up to a nice round 30 for the day. Although if we get permission from a CO to log a cache that we DNF'd and replaced it will stuff things up completely.

And a QEF PnG it was.

TFTC B&W

P.S. Don't take my last log too personally, it was written with tongue-in-cheek as entertainment for fellow geocachers

Found with Kiwimykl on the way home from caching in the Nelson Lakes area, refer to his log for details.

TFTC B&W

I think I would be too afraid to go in a glider here. Too many mountains. Nice to have a cache though. TFTC.

Great series many thanks

checked, log book wet

thanks to Peltenaar who has left a water proof lok sheet

will grab and dry book next time

Quick find while taking the long way from St Arnaud to Nelson Airport. TFTC

Thanks to all the owners of the geocaches that we found today on our trip from Kawatiri Junction to St. Arnaud . The sights are beautiful all the way long!
TFTC and greetings from Belgium.

Found this on a beautiful day, together with Visa96. Kind regards from Denmark and Germany. TFTC

Signed in logbook as Visa96, but have created a new profile, since my old one was shared with a friend. Found in company with 'zliber' - TFTC

Found during a cycle tour. Sorry I didn't have a replacement log sheet for the wet one in the cache.

Day 3 of caching in and around St Arnaud/Nelson Lakes. Today mostly cachemobile, and some short walking.
This was #4 for the day.
Made a straightforward find. Cache in order, but log beyond redemption with moisture. Managed to sign just. Then safely re-hidden.
No gliding action around here today, assisted or otherwise.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

Bookmarked to check (see link on cache)....wet beyond redemption....but able to sign ??

If another cacher beats us here (we have many to check) and finds it truly stuffed...go ahead and replace the log....cheers
b&w

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
Too wet and mushy to sign

[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.
9 glider trailers lined up at the field! Log is sodden, was not able to sign it.

07/10/2014 4:36:00 PM
4953
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

There was nothing taking off today, but certainly no trouble in locating the cache.

Thanks for the cache

Lon runway. Tftc

Quick find TFT

Quick P & G
TFTC

Tftc!

Found it! But didn't see any liftoffs. Tftc!

Quick find on way to Lake Rotorua , waiting for lift off but were taking too long . TFTC

Quick find by torch light TFTC

#1722

TFTC - no glids today - just lots of bees!

An easy find on our way from Arthurs Pass towards Nelson Lakes. Tftc!

Found on a day trip between St Arnaud and Murchison. They are lining up for liftoff today. TFTC

Find #23 on a road-trip from Blenheim to Dunedin, through St Arnauds, Hamner Springs, Aoraki/ Mount Cook, and Christchurch. A nearby farm was moving its cattle beast over the road, so a good distraction for me to find the cache. TFTC

All quiet here today making for a straight forward find, TFTC, #5935

Quick and easy find. Happy New Year tftc

Looked up. Looked down. Signed log. TFTC .

A quick easy find, but no gliders around today. TFTC

Quick drive by. There was little other traffic today along Hwy 63. TFTC.

Bleak day no good for a glider ride

I enjoyed watching the winch at work as the glider took off. Its so much quicker than using a tow plane. TFTC

Easy find. TFTC

Thank you.

TFTC!

Today there were 9 gliders liend up for the "auto lift" Actually on closer insepcvtion the 'winch" is manned. Wow those gliders ascent steeply, then let go and the world awaits. TFTC and the entertainment.

Very limp today with no assistance on such a gorgeous spring afternoon. TFTC #5052

Found it during my way from Westport to Nelson Lakes.TFTC

No wind, and no one about. Lonely

TFTC. Out for a days caching around Nelson Lakes. This was the first stop of the day and provided our first Assisted Liftoff of the day.
Thanks bumandworker for placing the cache.

Not hard to find on our way to St Arnaud. The plane pilot must have been wondering what we were doing.

No wind to speak at all today the sock was just hanging there. TFTC

Found it between showers. Good to have a wee stretch. TFTC

A quick park and grab for another smiley. No action here this afternoon. TFTC.

[purple]Day 1 of our 5 day Easter caching roadtrip. Today we were heading from Greymouth to St Arnaud [/purple]
Nice quick find. Nothing happening here today just a bit of wind for a slight liftoff. I am sure the traffic would give more wind as there zoom pass very quickly. (photo added) Thanks for the cache

First of three finds on our way to Hanmer Springs after dropping Mr MTB off for the Rainbow rage. Nice quick find. TFTC.

Found on our way West - thanks for all them caches

65 finds in 5 or 6 hours