Lil' Stu's 10th Birthday Cache - Rainbow(Nlsn/Mlb) Rainbow, South Island, New Zealand
By Biggles and Lil' Stu on 08-Aug-10. Waypoint GC2D1GJ

Lil' Stu / Flying Phoenix is 22 now so this cache has had its day.

No luck for me on this one despite a good search at all the hint objects.

Taking advantage of the open ski field road this week and grabbing a few caches down the hill on the way back. All in good condition. Thanks for the cache.

Paddle chick and I went to get a few caches up around the Rainbow Ski Field and down the valley a nice easy find I also picked up a trackable. Thanks Biggles Lil' Stu

We were heading to Lake Argyle for the night, along with tonyb12 and muzza221. The plan was to do some trout fishing in the teeny tiny tinny. But first we had to find a cache for today. We had a look at the map and decided to come and have a look for this cache. We were just quietly heading up the valley when we found ourselves in the middle of an army exercise, there were people with guns all around. We had not seen any signs to warn us that this is going on, which we thought was a bit strange. So not sure what they thought of a white campervan and trailer heading up the valley. We made a quick find at GZ amongst the bumble bees. The cache and log are in perfect condition, signed the log, left a trackable and returned as we had found it. Then we had to make our way back through the army. We would not have gone up there had we known that they were using the area. But we did see two signs as we were returning back down the valley, The first was wedged into a fence informing the people approaching from the ski field end and the other was face down in the grass by the entrance to Dip Flat, maybe that was the sign we should have been able to see on our way up the valley.
Anyway, we got through without incident and mad our way into the wind at Lake Argyle.
Thanks for placing this cache and thank you for the smiley

Found while checking stoat traps. TFTC.

Found with Kiwimykl on a drive through the Rainbow, refer to his log for details.

TFTC Biggles NZ

Found with NZDi near the start of our drive through the Rainbow to Hanmer Springs. We have had the two days between Waitangi Day and the weekend booked as leave since the end of last year with no real plan to do anything, but a week ago I checked the bookings for the company holiday home in Hammer Springs and saw it was free today and tomorrow. After a quick word with NZDi, it was booked and I began researching a geocaching trip. In a moment of inspiration I thought about going through the Rainbow Road to give NZDi's new geomobile a real test. Although all the warnings say you need a high ground clearance 4WD and the Sportage is a bit of a soft roader, I still thought it would have the goods to do the job, and it did although I had to use 4WD on one occasion for 50m.

As we didn't know how long caching would hold us up on the trip, we considered bypassing the caches up to six mile stream as we could come back and do them any time. In the end we decided to do them all and we still arrived in Hanmer Springs before we were allowed to check in.

This was our seventh find on our trip through the Rainbow and was a QEF PnG.

TFTC Biggles & Lil' Stu

found while exploring with Bullertrout

Haven't been up this valley for along time. I think I might have tried to get this cache ages ago. This time it was a quick find with Kiwi Nomad

On a road trip to lake Tennyson and beyond with the kids.
After a couple of great nights at the lake it was time to tackle the rainbow road. Nice and easy stroll to gz . Tftc

We had spent a georgous 3 days up the lee creek as well as venturing up into the mountains & staying at lee creek hut. The rain had gone by the time I had driven down to here so I was able to get a bonus cache & the first one for the day. Find #487

Out and about exploring with Hubby and a wee picnic for lunch. Passed this one on the way up the road - as there was a Ute parked nearby. On the way back realised there was no one around so made a quick find.
TFTC Biggles and Lil' Stu

Toby, The Seagnoid and I are off on another adventure - Wairau, Rainbow Station to Hanmer Springs and back. Its been on my bucket list for ages and today is the day!! Woke at 5am to rain so we delayed for a couple of hours and decided to go, go. Should be a breeze - but I forgot geocaching gets you no where fast - so this became an extremely long day. We left St Arnaud at 9.30 and home after midnight!! But still loved it.
An easy find here at Little Stus cache. Cheers

Happy Birthday Stu. Tftc

Found it. Tftc

Probably the last one to collect as we need to get on up to Connors Creek, and theres the 6 Mile Ford to get through! TFTC

Back almost five years after a DNF here to turn that blue sad face into a smiling one. One car in the carpark but no sign of anyone. That Lil' Stu has grown into a lovely young man - his parents need to take a lot of the credit for that - well done. TFTC #9818

Working up at Rainbow for my third season now! Never knew this was here but as the staff bus gets up earlier than public was an easy grab!

It was like Grand Central Station here today, everyone heading for the skifield - - - except me. Everyone seemed intent on what they were doing so I sauntered over to the cache site and made like it was completely normal to find then circumnavigate a particular rock, bend over for a while, then wander back to the car and drive off again. I'm glad Stu had a great birthday. - - - I see he's about to have yet another one. TFTC .

Quick find in the sun. Ground wet and slippery after yesterday's rain, but at least there's no snow yet.

Quick visit to the area on my way home from work. tftc

Found on our way back from Lake Tennyson, a nice easy find on a perfect day. TFTC

Cruising around Nelson area today, picking up caches

Tftc

A weekend trip to Nelson to attend the event then cache our way back to Blenheim via Brightwater, Wakefield and 88 Valley Road was hatched earlier in the week and with Pi Day kindly offering up not one, but two shiny souvenirs, it was agreed that we would head over the hill, again!
Saturday morning to the Event, sleep in the car Saturday night (for me, the Seagnoid would take his bivvy tent and sleeping bag) then a long and slow trip back to bag as many caches as possible. Somehow though, this was lost in communication and the Seagnoid kindly volunteered himself to be Joe le taxi on Saturday night so the whole thing was brought forward 24 hours. My G P S has packed a sad and won't work anymore so I was on borrowed equipment and hastily loaded a G S A K list of potential finds, and some solved puzzles, and off we set at about 5:30 from sunny Blenheim. Grabbed caches before it got too dark to keep going, and managed 6 by torch light which helps towards one of my missing M G S C attributes, yay, just the Events to go now to qualify. At last it's Pi day. Wake up after an uncomfortable and too warm, then warm enough, then too cold night.
On the road home, the long way round, via Brightwater, Wakefield and 88 Valley and St Arnaud.
Onto the last 3 caches of the trip, here along the Dip Flat valley. For some this is a horrid place, for others it's natural beauty surpasses all.
A quick and easy find here, cache marked by 2 incongruous sticks, left them in place
T F T C BigglesNZ

[green] Out with Capperz on the last part of our Friday / Saturday Pi Day caching extravaganza. Nelson, St Arnaud and now heading back home. Capperz has three left to find at the end of this road and I had a few more, so here we are.
Little Stu - FlyingPheonix now - I met at the Pi Day event. He's not 10 any more!

I'm spending a few days staying near here, and slowly picking up a few caches in the valley. Found the required rock among the rocks. All good, signed and returned. Nice cool and rainy day in the valley, also a lot less wasps around which makes it much more pleasant. Nice to have this little cluster of caches here to keep my streak going. Here's hoping it's a great ski season at Rainbow this year. Workers are currently doing some maintenance up on the field. TFTC

This entry was edited by GH6710 on Monday, 23 February 2015 at 04:14:13 UTC.

Making a foray into the Wairau Valley hydro scheme clearway. Territory previously untrod for us.
We trust Lil' Stu is continuing to enjoy many happy returns too. Nice one. Celebrating the important things in life. We celebrated when we found the cache - last one for the day, #20.
Cace find was straightforward. Cache in order, log signed. Safely re-hidden, just as found.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

The whole road and parking has changed since I was last up here in 1993, it's sealed now and much more car friendly. The cache was a quick find in the drizzle and then we wondered about the rental car folks looking at their maps - we wondered if they were planning to travel to Chch via this road. Found on a big day with Team Gators down to St Arnaud and up the Wairau, this was one of 139 smilies for me for the day signed as KMTG. Cheers.

In Richmond on a wee family holiday. Headed out for the day with KiwiMoose on a caching mission through St Arnaud and up the Waiau Valley- to save on the possibility of RSI we signed logs as KMTG.
A long fun day. 150 caches total. Nice one. Cheers.

11.05: Along the Rainbow Road to Hanmer Springs. Third time of going this way, so this already our second attempt at this cache. In December 2010 we refrained from having a closer look as this area was the storage for construction works with lots of material and muggles around. We didn't want to cause too much attention and decided not to search for this cache. Today due to good coordinates and coverage found without any problems. Only the weather could be better: almost no views at the moment.

Weather: overcast, low clouds, drizzle, 13°C;
Wheelchair: on the road/turning area only, about 40m remaining;
State: all good.

Thank you!
Oliver+Gabi

i found that the co ordinates werent exact but within a couple of meters read the clue for a better result tftc

TFTC. I am attempting to cache for 100 days in a row while also managing 250 caches per month total in my stats. So far I am at 36/100 and 174/250 for this month. Time will tell!!
I recently drove the Molesworth Rd and was delighted to discover this road today. I will go as far as my caching info allows and investigate this road further once I am home.
Really nice location for a cache.
Thanks BigglesNZ for placing the cache.
#3210

found on biking tour to Hanmer Springs, lovely day today, TFTC!

Quick find thanks

#1738

It must be sooooo cold up here in the winter. Pleased our visit was in the summer and couldn't be more enjoyable. TFTC

A quick find. TFTC

A quick find. TFTC

Found with wandercat. Beautiful Valley.Deserves to be better known. TFTC

A short drive up the skifield road, and a worrisome sight, as our GPS indicated the cache was in the middle of a pile of recently felled trees. Fortunately it turned out to be just to the side of the pile, so we were able to find it fairly easily. TFTC

Arrived about lunch and decided to knock this one off, have lunch then go for the other two. They breed big sandflies here. Plenty of places to search and after awhile used cachers instinct instead of the . TFTC

Quick find on a gorgeous easter arvo up the rainbow. This one took longer than it should have... Wasps everywhere! Tftc.

The after effects of rain stopped this being our 3000th cache. Hard to believe on a great morning drive for Mrs SoBad up the valley. No problems with any fords - only a couple had any water in them at all which is another sort of problem really. No problems with the cache either. So we got the smiley for cache number 3565 instead.
Thanks.

Quick find after completing the Wairau Valley Power Trail, All MTB Rainbow Rage riders well gone. TFTC

Thanks for resurrecting this. Back today to complete unfinished business. Lil' Stu is not so little any more. He has now blossomed into Flying Phoenix. Great to watch. Keep eating the vege and your Dad will soon be looking up to you
Stunning day down the valley today. A real joy to make the trek.
TFTC

Thanks, Lil'Stu - a great hide. I made this short detour as I was driving through the Rainbow - and after finding the cache I completely missed the turn off and was driving rapidly back north.... soon realised the error of my ways and I pushed on. TFTC.

Found on the way south to Hanmer today. All I needed to do was to identify the correct hint object and there was more than one of those. Signed log, TFTC

A beautiful day in the Rainbow valley, a quick find

An opportunistic tidy up trip today. We knew it would be a good one judging by the magnificent rainbow low over the horizon against a clear blue sky. We've never seen that before. There are worse things you can get for your birthday than your own personal cache. Thanks for the excuse for returning here once more after many years. FTC

We had to come to Tophouse this morning so decided to continue on up this road to find the caches up here. This was the last one to find up here before we headed for home again. A fairly quick find with perfect co-ords. TFTC.

A nice quick find in an area I hadn't visited before.

TFTC

Had morning working at the ski field so stopped to feed the sandflys, turn back a tourist following their GPS to Hanmer (!) and get the cache. TNLN TFTC

1st Cache for the day, after a nice day of skiing. Going on to find 3 more.

Cache replaced and all good to go.

Coordinates changed from:
S 41° 54.446 E 172° 54.799

Coordinates changed to:
S 41° 54.448 E 172° 54.798

Distance from original: 13.2 feet or 4 meters.

Only a few metres away from original placement...

Called by today to make the dnf. Pretty sure that I found the exact place as described. It ain't there so either needs replacing or archiving.
Happy 12th birthday Lil' Stu. Must have been last week.

It would be a shame to archive this one so I'll be up to place a replacement in the next 2 weeks.

Thought i was in the correct spot but it was well guarded by swarms of hungry sandflies!!! Another DNF for the day.

Had a real good go at this until I couldn't stand any more sandfly bites. I really can't believe its missing but couldn't find it. Only 159 sleeps Lil' Stu till this year's occasion. TFTC #3061

Grass up to our knees,bush lawyer everywhere could not find. Searched obvious spot but could not find.

A longer search, but no success. Let's wait for the next find..

Went skiing today, not on my birthday; but had fun anyway. Found this cache on the way down from the skifield while getting our chains off at Chain Hire; we were carrying our own chains though (Yay!). Will do Power to the People now. TNLN, TFTC.

Easy find. TFTC

Our last one up this valley.

Bitsprayer

Quick find, Mum found it!! and 500th find woohoo!!!! Had a great trip through Molesworth and Rainbow stations.
TFTC

good one
quick find
TFTC

Quick grab before turning back for the Rainbow to Hanmer. Had hoped to do the road up to the ski-field the day before but didn't know it was closed off season. TFTC

Easily found. TFTC.

Easy find, though grabbed from the wrong side first and got zapped by the spikey plant!

The last cache of my drive up the valley, and a nice quick find. Cheers Gav [7026]

quick find after a day skiïng. TFTC

no way anything but genuine 4wd was getting past Woolshed Ford today, heaps of water and piles of gravel after big rain o/n , What.......no birthday cake in the cache

A quick find with the cache owner while on a Friday night FTF run. Good to see you got out of the car to check that I had actually found it and signed the log, I might have just faked it otherwise. Good cache, thanks, and a belated happy birthday to Lil' Stu.

Happy Birthday Stu. Hope you got something better than Dad driving you all the way out there...
Can't stand to see a cache get no lov'in, so mission accomplished. Only 2nd time this far down this road. First time I continued on over the unsealed road and stuck my front axel on a rock! I guess things don't change much TFTC #CS#

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