Fort Galatea Tree Galatea, North Island, New Zealand
By Geckoh on 08-Dec-10. Waypoint GC2JK54

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Wow! Incredible with heaps of holes to challenge ones weta fear. Great cache and place to visit.

Funnily enough this one didn't show up on my phone when I was past this way last week, but when I checked today there it was! And what a cache....lots of choices, but I am not putting my hand in those deep holes.... but I can't see it in the others.... oh drat I will have too....deep breathe... NO cache ! Oh no another deep hole......hold my breathe and go for it...no, no, YES TFTC (I think)

Great Tree with many holes. Took a while but eventually found it.

After we were brave enough to putour hands in EVERY hole, we found the cache easily and fast. TFTC!

Mr bogamn was the only one brave enough for this one

Oops. Forgot our pen to sign the log, so will have to come back and brave the hole again!

Some great climbing trees for the school kids of days gone by. Lots of uninviting holes to explore to find the cache. Thankfully, due to some great GOS coordinates, it was hiding in the first one I tried. Mrs Tparty offered her usual level of support when it comes to putting ones hand in these kind of spaces. TFTC

This entry was edited by tparty on Friday, 03 January 2014 at 07:24:27 UTC.

No need to climb and have a fall like i did. A torch is no use to look in the hole. You need to be brave an put your hand in the hole!!!!!

Great new years day.

Sad that not more of the Fort remains, and more of effort has not been made to interpret the area a little better. TFTC

Barb's find. Didn't wanna stick her hand in the hole.

Tftc

Interesting tree. Not sure what to expect when i reached into the hole.

11836... Many thanks for the interesting history lesson, that sure is an awesome looking tree, TFTC.

Super cool macs. Thanks for bringing us to this area.

These tree's are very big, a good hide TFTC

Enjoyed the wander round this historic spot, even though there is not much to see now.

TFTC

Found it, after talking to a few people. TFTC

found it a few months back, forgot to log TFTF

What a fantastic old tree. The Italian Job was here....!

Both of us did 2 full circuits of this tree before finding the cache in its hidey hole where we had both looked more than once. TFTC

Started at one point and worked my way around, sending hubby in to reach into the bigger holes, eventually found 500mm before I got back to where I had started. TFTC

TB visit.
Thank you for counting on us to check your cache.
Cheers
nzkeo

Awesome that it is still there, thanks to the latest finders for doing us out of one more job to do.

Second time with GPS. Like others found first empty jar in a big hole and not happy with found had a further look and yay found it. There are many holes in this tree [:o)]
Cheers
nzkeko

What a fabulous, enormous old tree. We also saw the empty jar and decided that wasn't what we were looking for. Not enough camo. Nice hide, used a tool to dislodge the inhabitants before extracting cache container. Very interesting place. Mrs S did history at school, years ago, right up to School Certificate level,( remember that ) but NZ history did not appear to figure largely in the curriculum. There is so much we have learnt about our country since we started Geocaching. Thanks for taking us here Geckoh. TNLN. TFTC.

I too found an empty jar, but was pleased I made the walk, have passed this place many times, but never stopped.
Clear jar, with yellow lid.

Went to find. But all I could find was empty jar. May need looking at.

Will take a look next time we are passing although the empty jar does not sound like the cache, I see that jar has been found by previous cachers who did eventually find the actual cache!!

Lots of nice holes and a empty jar, but no cache! Next time for- Blenheim Bear

Kids were getting frustrated. Couldn't find it

Night caching along the Rangitaiki River. A little spooked to be at this location in darkness. However, came in with the sidekick for company and arrived at the tree. Circled slowly, following the trail of pokey sticks on the ground. Found a likely hole and the cache. What a neat hide, made all the more cunning with some extra camo. TFTC.

What a neat area and tree - lots of history - good hide TFTC

This is one of those really interesting places that we were lead to because we cache. What a great place to explore with NZ Skyliner. Great day for a walk & good information boards to tell us..how it was here, long ago. TFTC

What an amazing piece of history this reserve is. The DIMwits and I would never have known it was here if it wasn't for the cache, thank so much for bringing us here! Found the ex-peanut butter jar mentioned by the previous cacher, but decided to keep looking in the various nooks and cranies of the amazing tree. One of the holes was full of water, so Mr DIMwits got a wet arm, but we trusted the GPS, and found the cache neatly hidden in a nice dry hole! One for the favourites I think TFTC!

Poked in all the holes around the tree but no luck. The only thing found was an mt peanut butter jar with a yellow lid.

Well no luck for me on this one.
Poked in all holes and didn't find it.
Will have to come back, but its a long way.

#2550. Enjoyed visiting Fort Galatea. Found the well hidden cache on the second circling round. TNLNSL. TFTC.

Visiting friends in Murupara and introducing them to geocaching! Cool tree! Lots of places to put a cache, but we found it after a while! TFTC! Family DallasJr from Sweden

TFTC. All good

As a bit of a N.Z history buff, I have always wanted to visit Fort Galatea. Thanks for providing another reason to stop. I'll be back for a proper walk around in the near future. Thanks for another excellent cache Geckoh

This entry was edited by Me and B2 on Wednesday, 17 August 2011 at 23:48:45 UTC.

A slight detour after watching my grandson playing rugby at Murapara.
Go Taupo nui a Tia college.

TFTC

Lots of holes to poke ones hands into, thank goodness no creepy-crawlies in residence!

Interesting to see how much this tree has grown over the years while all the history has been going on around it --- part of the fence is embedded 2m up the trunk!!

Have stopped here before but always en route to somewhere else with no time to spare. This time it was 'now or never'. Quick find. There used to be another big info sign up near the road but its gone. TFTC.

3.15pm - Really struggled to retrieve cache from hole. SL,TFTC

Taped up the blisters sustained climbing Mt Taiwuau and set off to do the other caches in Galatea. Cool tree. Lots of choices for hides. Cache was a bit hard to retrieve, but in the first hole I looked. TFTC

DNF.....

GPS battery was failing .. got to about 15m from GZ ... and it died, had a few choices. Got there in the end

a break in the journey coming back from a camping trip. Found easily once arrived at the co-ordinates

Bigger area here than I thought. TFTC

TFTC

Seriously big trees with lots of nooks & crannies. For Lani. Thnks

Quick find on our way to go tramping in Whirinaki forest park.

Decided to take a back road from Taupo to Tauanga to find some of the caches in the area and glad we did as this was an interesting place to visit. Didn't take long before we had the cache in hand T4TC.

Finally allowed to stop here for these caches. On way home from New Year in Hawkes Bay - had to grit the teeth a bit to stick my hand in - tftc and all the info always meant to stop here and find out about the reserve.

First cache on our trip to Whakatane. Have been past here a couple of times BC and glad we stopped. Interesting history. THe area could do with a couple of sheep grazing the long grass. TFTC

Amazing trees. TFTC

Quick find....been in the gps for a while, must have deleted 1869....so will have to revisit....cheers Geckohs

Found once I had overcome a reluctance to put my hand into those holes!

Published

Nice easy find and great history of this place, wouldn't have know it was here. Thanks for the FTF. Thanks