Swept Away ( North Otago ) Totara, South Island, New Zealand
By Bitsprayer on 25-Jul-10. Waypoint GC2C8WR

Not going to replace

Digger has been through cache to install new pole will have to replace the cache.

Bitsprayer

Tricky. There has been some digging done through here... perhaps the cache has been moved.

A quick park and grab while on my way to oamaru to get as many caches I can for points for the planatery Pursuit challenge. TFTC

found it

I had a goal to get to 2000 finds before the end of the year so a 2 day caching mission to Oamaru was in order. Mission accomplished and time to head home with a few stops along the way of course! Had just gotten an FTF on a newly published cache nearby so stopped here on my way back to Oamaru to get petrol. Had previously stopped here a few months ago but didn't look as it was raining so today since it was nice and dry it was time for a proper look. Goodness me what a mission!!! Big holes everywhere and I fell in more than one. Must admit this one actually scared me lol. Got to where I could actually see the cache and found a good spot to stop and reach. Carefully retrieved and quickly signed and replaced back in its hiding place. Ohhhhhh now to get back out TFTC

The (major road trip was about to begin) that was for the Oamaru Geofest trip in the company of HKCB and iammrwalker for a bit of a road trip across to the west coast, through Haast and in a roundabout way to Oamaru.

My trip stats were as follows: 617 caches (214 Puzzles), 3300kms, 500 litres of Petrol, 21 hours sleep, 100+hours caching time. THe weather was wonderful and apart from about a 6hour period on the sunday we had fine weather all the way and feel that we made a bit of a hole in the region.

Firstly thanks to all the CO's that put in the effort to to set up these caches and to all the CO's whose caches we did not find this trip, well we are already planning our next trip.
We worked hard at getting specific caches (especially the Geo Art around christchurch and hence our concentration on this area for the preliminary 24 hours. So after a couple of running repairs to the rental vehicle (fuses not working) we were off knowing that all ports could be charged and that sleep was for the weak.

Sorry about the copy and paste logs but that is what tends to happen with a number run of this size. What a day this was going to be and a chance to have a good look around the area. It was amazing to wake up after having afull nights sleep and not have that sand in the eyes feeling and sore back from sleeping in the back of a car. Starting the day off working our way along the coast, followed by a spot of inland caching before making it back to Oamaru for a bite to eat followed by a bit more caching.

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Did you know that planning has started for a Mega Event in Wellington in 2018? Check out the details on the [WENZ Website](https://sites.google.com/site/wenzgeo2018/home) or visit the event's page on [FaceBook](https://www.facebook.com/groups/590545297801072/) and don't forget to log your attendance on the [WENZ Event Page](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC78NMQ_wenz-event-2018-wellington?guid=23f451a2-08ac-4374-883f-ed6814687147/)

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Came down this way from the North for the Oamaru Geofest, and decided to add a few more days to the weekend trip and turn it into a bit of a Mega mission, starting 5pm on Wednesday 18th and finishing 3pm Monday 23rd! Teaming up with Cats&Dragons for the first 24 hours then with Iammrwalker joining the team for the remainder.
Just a few of the stats for the trip were:
- 700 caches found, including 270+ puzzles (thanks to the Christchurch Geoart)
- 3300 km's driven, using over 500L of fuel $$$
- Just over 20 hours of sleep (about 4 per day on average), and about 100 hours of caching time.
Certainly a Mega Trip!

Day 5: With a good nights sleep for the first time this trip, we were up early and out the door for another full days caching. The goal for today was to cache our way down to the Moeraki Boulders and then see where the next cache lead us. One thing we were looking out for today was caches which hadn't been found in a long time.

Sorry about the cut and past logs, but that seems to happen with cache runs of this size!

I found this Geocache on a Geocaching mega mission along with Cats&Dragons and HKCB. With only just over three and half thousand Geocache finds I was very much the over achiever in training. We were in the South Island to support the Oamaru Geofest event, hunt down some Jasmar and D/T harder to find Geocaches, lonely caches (those not found in more than 6 months), virtuals and try and meet some milestone numbers. We signed the logs HIC, an abbreviation of our respective Geocaching names, (H)KCB, (I)ammrwalker and (C)ats&dragons. A huge thanks to all the CO’s who placed and maintain the Geocaches we found.

I arrived in Christchurch late Thursday evening having left straight from work and was picked up by my intrepid companions in our four wheel drive rental to find they had already grabbed about 270 finds in the previous twenty four hours. I wonder if the rental company would have still let us have it had they known we would travel 3300km in it before returning it four days later? Our trip took us to Greymouth via Arthurs pass, Ngahere, down the west coast to Haast across to Hawea, Cromwell, Twizel, Aoraki Mt Cook, Tekapo, onto the east coast up to Oamaru and back up to Christchurch via Akaroa and countless diversions and small towns along the way. We slept in the car for the first two nights, grabbing some shut eye between cache finds, taking turns to drive. We rented a small place in Oamaru for the other two nights and appreciated a bed to sleep in and a hot shower. It was an amazing trip, in which I discovered the South Island has some of the most incredible scenery in the world.

Thanks for the history lesson would never have guessed this area could flood so badly.

The 4th of our 6 Day Adventure to and around Oamaru for [Oamaru Geofest 2017](https://coord.info/GC6M2V0).
Today included an early morning CITO, observing the Steampunk competition, a lunchtime Event and of course fitting in some geocaching between the wind and the spit which then later turned to rain.
It had now started raining again so we are heading back to the venue via some PnGs. Jumped out of the car looked in the logical place and it wasnt there. Nope, not going under today so left it for another trip. Thanks anyway.

Nice.. simple cache but of course we all expect it to be somewhere else closer to road... still had me barking up the wrong tree until happened to look up from bellow in the right spot:-)

This was a quick find, slowed by making my way through the long wet grass that hid the undulations of the underlying terrain.

Grass very long and I sank down into it, not helped by me going in the wrong direction to start with. After I found it the grass got the better of me and I fell in it. TFTC

Too overgrown

This morning started out with CITO in Dunedin and then headed up to the Oamaru CITO with Eve07. Great fun day out with good haul of caches and rubbish

Tftc

Nice cache. TFTC with heyhaynz

TFTC found with JHay0112

nice quick find tftc

Bit of a bush bash to get to this one but not wet fortunately. A nice break on our way North. Busy road! TFTC

Mega trip to NZ with vipema, Veke68 and Katsukka, logged as TVVKFIN. We stopped here on our way back to CHCH from Mount Cargil. Thanks for the cache.

Long time dream came true and we could visit New Zealand. NZ Mega was our maingoal and we had time to find others too. We travelled together with Veke68, Katsukka and tanjuli (+husband) and had great time. We used TVVK Fin (that is tanjuli, vipema, Veke68 and Katsukka) in mostly logbooks to save space.

Thanks for the cache.

Greetings from Finland.

Day #6 geocaching in NZ in good company (=tanjuli + husband, vipema, Veke68 & Katsukka = TVVK-FIN in the logbooks, most of the time), today we headed to Dunedin and back to Christchurch again. Had a great time, enjoyed the mostly sunny day and found a lot of caches + saw so many interesting/beautiful places.

Thank you!!!!

Caching holiday in New Zealand with Tanjuli, Vipema and Katsukka continues and today nice trip from Christchurch to Dunedin and back. Lot of kilometers but many nice caches and of course couple of very old caches too.

We logged mostly only TVVK-FIN to save space in the logbook.

Thanks!!

Quick find on the way home from a family holiday in Dunedin. TFTC.

... another quick easy find. Thanks again Bitsprayer!!

Found. Tftc

Such a small river

Thanks to all the owners of the geocaches that we found today on our way to Moeraki and Oamaru.
TFTC and greetings from Belgium.

Wow I drive past this river several times a week and never knew the history - thankyou.
Grass very long so wear some good shoes.

Found this cache on our way from dunedin via maoraki rocks to Twizel Thanks too all cache owners that put up a lot of caches on our way and that they take care of it enough Thanks a lot and greetings from czech republic

Found this cache on our way from dunedin via maoraki rocks to Twizel Thanks too all cache owners that put up a lot of caches on our way and that they take care of it enough Thanks a lot and greetings from czech republic

Found on way north

This one was a bit of a mission and probably deserves a higher terrain. Struggled through the grass that concealed dips and hummocks to where I first thought the cache would be but no luck there. Spotted another likely spot and managed to find a rough path to come up trumps. Did manage to trip over once and completely disappear from Chelzea's view. All good in the end and a bit of a laugh to boot. TFTC

Found with Sevren. See his log tftc

Grass is not too long if you are determined or stupid. We were both as we walked further than we should have in. Interesting history which is why we stopped.
Thanks.

Tried to find this but grass is to long to get to it

T4TC:)

TFC enjoying the story history and caching 3 in 15 minutes!

TFTC

Found with Hinemoana on our way up to Christchurch.
TFTC

water was no issue today here, but the long grass managed to hide a few drops quite nicely TFTC!

Found with Chosen1978 on way home. TFTC

Weren't swept away thank goodness, managed to dodge traffic to sign log with granville86a

After looking around the graves in Oamaru Cemetery this one was a must-do on our way home. The stream had got pretty high during the Great Flood of June 2013, too... NZ History Killer Storm: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/page/killer-storm-sweeps-country NZ Disasters and Tragedies http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sooty/february1868.html

Parked up and walked back, Box of Tricks played up a bit at GZ, but I saw the container sticking out of the hide. Once all done I replaced and cammed it up a bit better. The sentry was asleep as well!
TFTC

10/03/2013 5:27:00 PM
2511
I had gone to visit mum for the weekend, and had planned on an early leaving from Dunedin to get as many caches as possible on the way back. Mum travelled with in their car as far as Palmy, so that we could spend the afternoon caching around here instead, and then I could leave the rest of the way after, which is where I found this cache.

This one was a bit of a mission in the sence of traversing through the thick grass!! And at verious points I had people who were passengers in cars going past giving me judgemental looks. I was not going bathroom! I swear!!

Anyways, I searched around what I thought was GZ, till I spotted something a wee bit more likely which did yield my prize

TFTC!!

Found it together with Team Autoværn on our New Zealand tour back in 2013.
DK

I know this log is very late!!
But on the holliday the internet connection not was very well, so i would have done it when i got home. but i have been so busy!!
So now i am looking at my GPS, and se the caches i missed to log
thanks for this cache

Found it, tftc.

TFTC.

Second visit and found it. Nice hide! TFTC

TFTC

TFTC

Wondered where the GPS was taking us but all became obvious at GZ. Found with Aoraki Sheep.

Nearly got lost in the head high grass and pleased to make it back to the car safely Found with debsnz

Big day caching from Dunedin to Kurow and return. 15th for day #157 TFTC

found it ground is very rough

Attempted this one before and failed miserably, second time lucky! Had someone toot at us while we were finding the log, I suspect someone in the know. TFTC!

Let RuruNZ go fetch this one while I took in the sights. This area is also another one where I have rellies who farmed the land in the early days. She found it after a couple of minutes and then we were on our way.

Wandered our way through the paths in the long grass - hard to imagine a flood big enough to take houses away with this mild looking stream - amazing what water can do !!!! thanks for the park and grab cache

A small stream it may be but never under estimate the power of water!!!! Mind you it is hard to believe how many times bigger the flow had to get to cause so much trouble and sweep away houses. Wondering where the 2nd installment Wont be here to find or see it so will have to wait till the next trip TFTC

Found with kiwicampnut after Mega.
First spotted a likely looking decoy in a usual place, but too far from coords so looked further. Caching instinct took over and soon had it in hand.
must have been a good flood!
Thanks
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[blue][size=1]This log was posted with CacheSense for Android - [url=https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nz.barees.android.cachesensedemo]CacheSense at Google Play[/url][/size][/blue]

Found my way back to Dunedin returning from a day trip to Oamaru. TFTC

Another find on our way home to Christchurch

Found on the way home. Helps to look in the right place Old Boots. TFTC

As I pulled up, I noticed someone looking for something on the other side of the road at the other end. They must have realised I was was also geocaching and raced over. We both signed the log and headed off in opposite directions. Found as part of our NZ Mega 2012 geocache trip.

A terrible piece of history, and such an innocent stream. Probably should not have crashed across to this cache as the grass was long and very wet. Shoes and jeans now very wet, but an interesting stop. TFTC

Reperio at 1135.

This was another of the many stops made today with Roostaman on the way from Timaru to Dunedin for the mega event, and looking down at the creek, it's hard to believe that it swelled enough to ruin two houses.

Gratias Bitsprayer.

Find # 4383 and a total of 113 today with Marcus Vitruvius on the 3rd day of our NZ Mega trip, on the way south from Timaru to Dunedin. Another nice cache and hide and a quick find then on the way again. TNLNSL TFTC Bitsprayer,
Roostaman.

This was one of 69 caches for the day along with bogonghazy enroute from Oamaru to Dunedin for NZ Mega. We had sunshine, rain, snow and wind throughout the day. But still got to enjoy a greats days caching. Thanks to the CO and greetings from Oz.

Found with Sully1 on our third day in this beautiful country.
Today we headed from Oamaru to Dunedin, enjoying even more of this scenery
and friendly Kiwis, and finding a great variety of clever and educational caches along the way.
Thanks again Bitsprayer, hard to imagine that loss and devastation nowadays.

#713
Another find on the way to the NZ Mega Event at Dunedin. Many thanks for the cache. TNLNSL

#1051
Geotooter and I had travelled to NZ from across the ditch to attend the NZ Mega Event down in Dunedin. After staying the night in Timaru we continued our journey south. We found it a bit tricky to find a place to pull off the road. Walking back to the cache location certainly required us to have our wits about us if we wnated to keep safe. I bet the passing traffic wondered what we were doing! Cache was discovered and log signed. We were soon on our way again. Thanks Bitsprayer.

GPS was all over the place. Out of time moved on.

What a sad story. Cache wasn't quite were Annie first anticipated, but was soon in hand after a trapse through the long grass. Thanks.

swept away by all the traffic, probably doing it after work not the best time of day

With all the rain lately this is an ideal time to log this cache, the river is up but i guess not as bad as the great flood of 1868.

This road was very busy when I was hunting with 3 boys. Found it though as I kept an eye on the team.

This entry was edited by My little story on Wednesday, 11 July 2012 at 09:34:53 UTC.

Hard to believe this quiet spot has such a tragic history. TFTC

On a caching trip with ingidayna to Oamaru and surrounds to get 1000 finds. TFTC

one of many to get 1000 caches TFTC found with wethreefourdices.

The only things getting swept away today were the two fluffyducks! They both ended up on the ground much to the delight of their grand-daughter Miss 10! The ground around the cache is rather bumpy! Thanks for the history lesson Bitsprayer.

This nondescript creek belies its tragic past. Bit of an effort to bag this one but after a few tumbles we made it back to our chariot. Did I say TFTC ... immmm maybe !

Good quick and easy find on the way through. TFTC

When the sun is shining on a lovely day its hard to believe the stream would rise high enough to flood. TFTC

I started wandering off in a different direction thinking I knew where I was going but when I finally started to follow the GPS I could see this cache sitting waiting for me in the distance. TFTC #3245

What a mission! The way I went was a T3!
Thank you for placing this cache.

Nice easy find heading south to Dunedin for business.

Visiting from the UK with my brother, second of the day on our way to Dunedin. Thanks for the hide.

Nice hide, TFTC.

on my bike for this one

TFTC

TFTC

Took a bit of finding this one but got there in the end. Thanks for the local history info TFTC.

#5963

Did not take too long to find, which is good as we are running out of time for 100 finds before midnight!

TNLN TFTC

Quickly found and signed on our way south, TFTC

Interesting story. TFTC.

Interesting bit of history here...thanks, as always...

11/30 for the day on an end of term caching trip. TFTC.