Good Days Paddling 1 (Nelson/Marlborough) Waikawa, South Island, New Zealand
By teamteapot on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GC2DQ1Q

Found during our tour in New Zealand

TFTC found with Phoenix finder TFTC

Paddled out of Waikawa Bay this morning for a day paddle to Kumutoto Bay and back picking up a few caches on the way. This was our first stop. I'm pleased I had a friend with me to take care of my kayak while I searched for the cache. I approached it from the wrong direction and made it a bit more difficult than it needed to be but my friend spotted a likely spot and pointed out what was the best way to get there which I couldn't see from where I was. Very pleased she didn't have her camera today or there would have been some very undignified photos. Thanks for a fun cache worthy of a favourite. Thanks teamteapot

#9645

Awesome adventure over here in the dingy from Waikawa marina with theroamingreliever. Picked some mussels while here for dinner. Crazy fun cache. Favourite from me. Making memories. Tftc

Kai Kelamoku's family has a boat here. We took the dinghy over to the island on an afternoon trip. Was wicked. Cache was all good. There were some crumbling rocks around. Tftc

The plan for today was a bit of boating on Queen Charlotte with a couple of non-caching workmates and see what happens. Great day for it - Admiral Baldwin is a fan of winter boating as the conditions can be quite benign, if a little chilly. And no complaints today, it was like glass on the way out. So after watching Team NZ go round the America's Cup course without touching the water, we headed off to Waikawa to get a bit of that foiling carry-on. Our skipper was another workmate, Commodore Smart and off we hopped into his inflatable. We were off across the Sound to a spot of a disused gold mine, something that has had the fascination of the Admiral for a few months and that he has researched the history of. He set out a little earlier by kayak, but when we got there we pretty much rendezvoused (if that is a word) spot on. The Commodore was prepared for some scuba diving to look for an underwater platform, but that turned out to be a red herring. So we clambered up and explored this very cool place, marvelling at the history of it and the work that has gone into it. Before the wake of a ferry could smash our transport against the rocks, we popped on round the corner to see a mate of the Admiral. Here we went up his property onto crown land to see the top of the vertical shafts that we had seen from inside the mine, as well as the site of the rock crusher, funicular rail and an old Maori pa site. There was apparently an old orchard up here, but we saw no evidence, as expected.
On the way back to Waikawa the Commodore kindly manoeuvred into this cache, and we could spot the hiding place about 20 metres out. A quick leap of faith then a find and sign - one that would be very risky in my little boat, and off we went again. TFTC teamteapot, all good here.

Watched my kids find lol. Dive, swim, score. Great fun.

Found with no phone as it got wet somehow tftc

I was out on the sounds sailing for a friend's birthday. I convinced them to stop by here on our way and we rowed from the boat to the island to make a quick find. TFTC!

Out and about in the boat, so picked this up while the wind was still. Quick and easy

Nice geocache and good hiding spot PS Don't need pen or pencil

GH6710 kindly asked the Seagnoid and I if we wanted to go out and find a few caches, we could hardly turn that down. With 1cat.lovernz and cool ball in toe as well, we headed out. A beautiful calm Autumn morning. We headed out to Bluemine Island first, then driftwood bay, and they kindly stopped so I could grab this one too. The highlight was seeing a large pod of dolphins (even before the Tory Channel entrance) on the way out. A neat little place on a beautiful calm Autumn Marlborough day. TFTC.

I stayed on the boat, but log was signed for me, I watched Mum find it. Nice little Island. Mum wanted to kayak out, but me and my sister complained. A boat was much better. We saw dolphins just past here, they were awesome! TFTC

I stayed in the boat, dieseldebbienz signed for us. I did not want to Kayak out here, so pleased we could use a boat. TFTC.

Today is 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. Our boat arrived at this, our first cache, just at dawn - as the sun poked its head over the hills. Its going to be a hot day! We then toddled for ages, including two circuits of the island at pretty much idle speed, waiting for the other boat to arrive.
I dropped off the side to collect the cache -oops, too deep! An easy find, then clamber back on the boat.
With me are capperz, gh6710, bumandworker, NZDi, Raisonpig, nightowl and kiwimykl. However most of this group had already found this cache, so only the leftover names were added.
I did a GPS trace of our trip - see attached! An awesome trip, saw weka, robins, saddlebacks, bellbirds, Spirit of New Zealand. And some awesome views!

Today is one of the regular Adventure sports club (including Geocaching as a sport) day ot by boat in the Marlborough Sounds. Launching out of Picton Harbour at 0700, or thereabouts, we set sail for a few cache sites. Headed off and grabbed a grand total of six T5 caches, visited Motuara Island for the fantastic wildlife that abounds there and had a great day in some really good company. Team cachers were GH6710, Kiwimykl, Raisinpig, Nightowl19, bumandworker, nzdi and of course the Seagnoid. We signed some or most logs as Team RNZAF plus 2 or similar. Really hot today and got to see some really cool things; Hector's dolphins, saddlebacks, robins, penguins, fish, Spirit of New Zealand sailing ship and so much more!
First up a stop off here where the team were waiting for us, the second boat of cachers
T F T C teamteapot

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 first just on sunrise.

TFTC teamteapot

Thanks to our skippers incredible boat skills we were able to hop of the boat within 2m of GZ. After scrambling around on the rocks, we came back the start and had the cache in hand. TFTC and thanks for bringing us out here

Yay..... A few guys organised an afternoon scallop dive and I was invited along as "Boatman" and to complete my T5 Geocaching road trip for the last souvenir.
Was a very wet morning - but the guys in the wetsuits didn't care - apparently was supposed to clear by lunchtime. Still raining when we arrived at GZ - and kiwimykl jumped off the boat and retrieved the cache - logging both our names quickly to avoid the log getting too wet.
Thanks to both kiwimykl and GH6710 for inviting me - and more thanks will be given when I scoff some scallops tomorrow.
TFTC teamteapot

Today I got to enjoy both my passion (SCUBA Diving) and my obsession (Geocaching)as the RNZAF Base Woodbourne Dive Club organised a scallop dive on the Queen Charlotte Sound. As the trip organiser is also a geocacher (GH6710) a couple of us asked to take a slight diversion to this cache to enable us to qualify for the T5 or D5 souvenir of the 2015 Geocaching Road Trip.

As I was kitted out in my wetsuit, I made the leap off the boat to grab the cache for both myself and Raisinpig, however thanks to the boat skills of GH6710, I barely got my feet wet. It was still raining slightly despite an improving forecast, so I quickly signed the log on both our behalf and returned it as found.

TFTC teamteapot we were thinking of getting your other T5 cache at the same time, but you never know when it might come in handy (maybe for the 2016 Geocaching Road Trip Challenge)

A stunning day and quick boat trip in my dinghy to find this cache. Great location. TFTC

Caching with sulibats. This cache was really special, being our first kajak-cache. Tftc

Went ashore at high tide and with low winds. Beautiful place. TFTC.

Anchored the boat nearby and went for a swim ashore....mind the sharp rocks! Easy find and log is dry but not many entries.

Tried to get boat close to island but current strong and risked getting us beached. So one of us jumped in and swam from boat to land in true survivor style. Cache easily found, to the delight of us still on board boat. Cache in good condition, and put back where it was found...

I was the swimmer. Very cold water but just a short swim from boat to rocks. Glad i kept my shoes on, those rocks are very sharp.

Forgot to log this one
Found with the aid of two watercraft!

Found with Madiecacher
TFTC

Not just good.....perfect. So calm, able to get cache with dry feet and not a hint of a scratch on the f/glass multisport boat. wow. And water so clear. Should have sorted more time and fitness for number two ....in these conditions. Nice one Mark.

Not an easy landing, luckily seas were glassy calm - however an incoming ferry had me scrambling to get back to the kayak before it washed away...

It was quite hard to get this one. It was not possible to stop right next to the GZ. So I had a nice walk on the shoreline.

TFTC

STF. Finally made it out here and was able to pick up the new one on Allport Island at the same time. Bit of a mission crossing the sound as the wind came up again. These islands cop a lot of wind so care must be taken crossing the sound as it can be a lot windier than where you start from and conditions can change quickly. Had a fun return, got chased by Interislander Ferry and joined the kayaks finishing the Queen Charlotte Challenge Race for the last bit home. Another good adventure in the sounds. TFTC

Well, i was going to head out to this later in the week but the weather cleared late morning so off i went,
still quite choppy, thought i timed the ferries but no, had to wait while Bluebridge motored thru. Cache stood out from the water but getting to it while trying to preserve my glass kayak took abit of good timing. Great cache. FTF & TFTC.

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