Castle of Dreams re-visited (Auckland) Birkdale, North Island, New Zealand
By G-2 on 14-May-11. Waypoint GC2K1H7

Lost count of how many times I've replaced

Visited here again today, with Harsha of harisree. Totally dnfed it again. She totally dnfed it hardcore as well. Couldn't have dnfed it any more than we dnfed it today! Will be back.

No joy for us here today unfortunately despite us pursuing a couple of ideas based on what we thought the hint might mean. Saw the log mentions of tools but there didn't seem to be any that I could see. Most perplexing but oh well, it's a difficulty five so that's to be expected. Will try again another time for sure and did enjoy the view of the castle, most impressive!

Visiting family on the Shore with rebel98, made a detour to come and "dream" a little. The gates all closed today, had to stretch for a peak, and then looked through the mail box

Nice place to view, wonder what it looks like inside TFTC.

Lovely crisp day to use my temporary visitors permit to visit the North Shore, grounds look like they have been tidied up and even had the Range Rover parked by the door. Wish I had someone to build me something like that. Great hide.

Very cleverly hidden! A favourite point from me. A shame the gates were closed, so I couldn't see the castle clearly - it looks fascinating!

Out for a Saturday afternoon caching mission with the young Gadgets getting a few more nearer home. Nice castle. Very smart hide. Gets a fav. Tftc.

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)... We have finally reached the last act of our current license challenge... We need to find four more high difficulty caches to complete Endorsement HD. After five months, this is becoming a burden... We have lots of alternatives should plan A, B, C, and D fail...

One of our original plans failed, so we were forced to look for one more high difficulty cache. We chose this one, because it was located in a suburb we needed to fill a space for another challenge... What is a castle doing in a neighbourhood like this...? The gates were open and security seemed quite lax... We read the description, took note of the CO, and had a feeling he'd hide the cache in a most devious place... Our hunch was correct. A quick find on this one brings the curtain down on our current license challenge. TFTC.

We have been doing a part in our licence challenge which seemed to be taking for ever. Higher value D caches and today we were sure we will have it knocked off but not without travelling a few kilometres up the country.

1.40pm - As gate was open we could look inside the section, would be great to have a look inside the building. Bit of a sneaky hide by owner, specially with such a huge stone wall. SLTFTC

Always cool to drive past here nice to grab a cache this time (used to live in this area) a quick find. Now onto the next. Last day if our 3 day road trip from Hawkes bay to Auckland and back. Great few days to grab a number of caches. Tftc

Have a couple like this hides so that is why I found it at first sight
Great hide!!
Tftc and the story
Greetings from Spain

Out for the day with garball and merlot47, drove this way as garball knew there was a cache by the castle and garball had an idea of it's placement despite merlot47 being dubious and then finding it in exactly that spot. And now I get the hint!! Thanks for the hide G-2, I had not seen the castle before despite garball living in the area some years ago.
#387

Out caching with casaba3 and merlot47 in a relaxed way (not the numbers but the quality and company) after dropping GAR off at a training day. Picking up a random selection of caches, some I'd been meaning to do for ages, others just because, and as I haven't cached in this area before there was plenty up for grabs. This cache I had eyed up as a possiblity as the D5/T5 challenge in the Geocaching Road Trip last year but we never made it this way. I often find myself thanking the CO for bringing us to a spot I never knew was there, this time I definitely know the spot because I walked passed many a time when we live right around the corner - but that was back in the 90s. It was lovely to come back for a find here. Wondered if it could be in that spot.... yep, merlot48, though dubious at first, found it right there. Thanks for another of your awesome hides G--2!

Thanks - I've been watching this cache, waiting for you to reenable it.
I live nearby, and have often wondered what the story was behind this impressive place - gets a favourite point from me!

all ok

all good

Home for repair.

Case gone only indicator small piece of paper with a couple of names

Holidays in New Zealand! We have been looking forward to them for years. We had lots of time to prepare ourselves for a great trip. As geocachers, we also picked out a number of great caches. Armed with a "to-do list" and accidental encounters we were lucky to log many caches. Thank you for placing them and keeping the game go on!

Not that hard, a quick find

This was found number 6734

Fast find, strange castle

Found something that was clearly out of place... but what do I do with it? God only knows...

Something round alright! Think outside the wall!

Found it with Team FIN [janahola, kapeka, laalaa & temyllyl]

We had fun with caching few weeks here in New Zealand. Lots of geocaches and many sort of them too. We saw awesome places, weather was pretty good all the time and people were friendly and polite. Caches were pretty similar like in our home country. Of course there were some exeptions. Nice and really scenary country!

Greetings from Finland

FIN (laalaa, janahola, temyllyl, kapeka) holiday in New Zealand. Second day. We had fun.
Greetings from Finland.
Thanks for the cache.

Second day on our geo-roadtrip in New Zealand, and caching our way towards south. Logged using our group nickname FIN with janahola, laalaa and kapeka.

Todays mission was to do some powertrails north to Auckland, and then we started to head back to town and to our tonights motel.

On a geoholiday road tripping to Christchurch MEGA and around beautiful New Zealand. Our four people group (temyllyl, laalaa, kapeka and myself) from Finland used group tag FIN to log the caches.

D-stars tempted to drive to see this castle. It was getting dark when we arrived and we though it is impossible to find with flash lights. But when we arrived the cache was in no time in my hand! Very familiar hide in Finland. TFTC!

Welcome to MEGA Finland in 5-7 august 2016!

Driving past and Kiwi spots a castle. Scotty who has grown up with castles was relatively impressed with it. Suspected a geocache was hidden nearby so loaded up the GPS and a quick find by kiwiscot (with a little help from Kiwi). We would all like to have a little peek inside. TFTC and a 5 star difficulty to boot.

A rather interesting looking place!

#7003. Parked on Verbena Road for a short walk to admire the monument that is the castle. GZ was all quiet when we visited. Relatively quick find. The cache was in excellent condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

| = = = = = T h a n k s _ f o r _ t h e _ c a c h e = = = = = |

Cool castle tftc

Out to do some caching today with Lycurgon and Small Pooka to pick up the Road Trip Souvenirs TFTC, a quick find but quite clever, container is damaged, CO might want to check on it.

Out doing the road trip souvenirs with Reveurs and Small Pooka. We needed something with Difficulty 5. This sounded good. It was a quick find. We spent more time looking at the awesome castle then hunting for the cache. It is an amazing location with a cool story behind it. Wouldn't have know about it if not for this cache. TFTC.

Great cache...after thinking we knew what to look for we weren't quite right but after not letting the rain bet us we stuck around and it was found.

Wanted to find a D5 for the geocaching road trip and this sounded like a great one to come and try... What a cool castle and awesome story... Thought I had an idea of what I was looking for but the location suggested a re-think... Actually found it pretty quickly as the co-ords were spot on!
Thanks for the placement... Wouldn't have known this awesome castle existed otherwise

Very cool - who knew Auckland had it's own castle?! Very easy find as I'd quite recently done a similar cache by G-2's Bodyguard, though that one was only a D3.5...?

Tricky find

12:15 - #34

Yes found me a D5 for my Roadtrip Souvenir...
It took almost an hour to locate this one up and down the wall... Up high and down low and just in time too... The grounds-man has come to mow outside the wall...

Yes like all the previous Geocachers before me I agree, the castle is beautiful and I too did not know it was here... Also agree it was well camouflaged (note to self G-2's Bodyguard is a very tricky guy, I think I met Glyn at the last Auckland met)

Ahh, because I had such difficulty locating this I feel that no hints or give aways will be in this post...

My first for the, 1000 points challenge and another for the Bingo 3, I hope...

Thanks Glyn, TFTC e)

Nice easy find at the end of the day with the road not too busy and not many muggles walking around. What a great house! I would really love to live here . Tftc! D5 done for the roadtrip15 challenge, will try for a T5 tomorrow just to be an over achiever

Back again in need of a D5 for the souvenir. We'd been here a wee while back, but didn't really look very hard as the weather was kinda iffy. Thinking about it on the way over, we came up with the likely place and was successful. Surprised this was a D5, but not complaining, thanks Glyn

Out for the day with Vamber collecting a few caches on the Shore.

Headed to the right place to begin with and then spent ages looking everywhere else!

Finally returned to our original GZ and there it was!

Awesome "house" nearby! Maybe might be a bit expensive with the current Auckland property prices!

#4366

This entry was edited by KiwifruitsNZ on Sunday, 26 July 2015 at 00:20:14 UTC.

Out and about with KiwifruitsNZ in the Shore, gathering some cache finds for the day.

This hide was on the list of caches to target today, firstly, for our Geocaching Road Trip Souvenir, and secondly, to help us complete our GIO Licence requirements.

We initially had the right idea, just had trouble finding it, but we got there in the end! What an amazing property - someone was certainly living the dream! Thanks for the hide.

I came by this way after work, I had in mind doing several caches in this area but as I arrived here the heavens just opened up with heavy rain. I just made it in time to get this cache and take a foto of the castle while the gates were open and made a quick dash back to the car, thanks G for the cache.

Tftc! Found it first place i looked.

Looked all about, but nothing obvious

Could not locate

fixed

fixed and added TB

Found whilst out with keylev and laval.

Thanks for the cache.

Found whilst out with keylev and cragger.

Thanks for the cache.

Certainly didn't know there was a castle here - how awesome! Took a look around and couldn't spot the cache before having another idea and as soon as it moved I knew I was onto something and there it was.

Unfortunately log is really wet so couldn't sign properly and the camo was broken. Managed to temporarily fix it back into place and still keep the log attached but it really needs a little TLC.

Thanks for the cache and for bringing us here.

Home for repair

Went hunting with miss curlyrose12 to introduce her... But no luck! Try again later...

Today I joined forces with yorkshirekiwi83 and merlot58 for a few hours of caching over on the Shore. An interesting spot this - hadn't known of this castle before. Made a quick find of the nicely hidden cache here. TFTC!

[red] 2016 NZ Mega Event in Turangi... http://www.nzmega2016.nz

Went out with Vistra and Merlot58 for a couple of hours of caching, decided to continue to clear out the north shore and concentrate on a particular section, looks good getting the smilies around there.

I never knew there was a castle on the Shore, how cool is that. Required tools to get the cache out, but was a quick find. TFTC

[u][Teal]2016 Mega Event Labour weekend in Turangi visit [url=http://www.nzmega2016.nz/]New Zealand Mega 2016[/Url] [/Teal][u]

I went along for the ride with Vistra and Yorkshirekiwi83 who were continuing clearing out the Shore. As for me, it was my first time in this part of the city. Wow, I never knew there was a castle here. A nice hide and thankfully Vistra had just the right tool to access the log. TFTC

Took a little time to find cache but having thought the clues through logically quickly had cache in hand. TFTC

Yay !!!!! This was my Christmas Day wish come true ... to come to the amazing castle with the wonderful romantic story ,,,,with Ric ,,, and get a Glyn cache !!!
Thank you ! Done and dusted !!!!

A new place for me. Did not know of its existence. TFTC.

Very desappointed, I have found the castle although it is a private property and I could not get any closer

Used this awesome sunny Auckland day to clean up the north shore a little bit. Wow didn't know about the castle. Found the container easily but I had to get some tools from my car to get to the log. TFTC

tyfc. I lived in Verbena road while castle was built . yes years ago. I had horse grazing with the Castleton -Rieds. I knew th e folks who owned all the land from the Castle down to Eskdale .The castle grounds look very woe be gone a moment . Sad .

TYFC

Nice hide. Only found this because I found a similar one last week. Thanks for the cache

This one has eluded us for a long time. This time we used darkness and a torch to help. Laughed as we got there gates open, car in the outer driveway, another pulled in.. so we walked on a bit and then returned when the coast was clear. Took a wee moment to get at the cache, but we got there. Yay. One of the team has happy memories of working for Ron and Esme and can say that the inside of the castle is truely amazing as well. SL. TFTC.

First ever geo cache, and had no idea what we were looking for!

Cool hide. Glad that this cache was restored.

I too noticed that the plaque was damaged. Must have been vandals because it is now restored.

All go

Broken

I just can't catch a break here. Thought I'd have another attempt here on my way back from another cache, and arrived to find remnants of something, tool, I think, sitting poking out of the hole near the bottom of the hole. I'm sure I found that at GL last time. Add me to the DNFs again. One day I'll get this one. One day!

Found tool but not the cache.

Found tool no worries. Fairly sure how it could be used but mr was tall enough to scuttle first couple theories with sight alone. We stopped just before a guy with a ride on mower would have had us retreat when we saw that something had been attached nearby was missing leaving just the glue patch as evidence. Now after reading prior logs we don't think the glue patch was anything to do with the cache - will just have to stew and try again...

I always feel like I've accomplished something when I find a cache like this.

Enjoyed visiting the castle, thanks for the cache.

Hurrah, I have found a G-2 cache. There was dancing in the street. That's another 2 & 1/2 Dif stars off the total I need for a GLCS challenge. T4 placing a cache that I could find.

Out caching on the Shore with my clever son Tim (2FLYTim) and I loved the Castle. tim found the tool pretty quick and we figured how it was all meant to be instead of tossed around on the grass, so we sorted it. Then the cat appeared on the fence . . . . . All of a sudden Tim was like "Oh mum I know" and in a tick he had the cache in hand and the tool made sense and what a great hide!! TFTC and for bringing us here today.

Yaaay after 4th attempt we found it

Out with SethRaven today and I found the tool lying on the ground and all the bits were apart, mum put it back together and we started a search. then I had an Ah ha moment and I looked again and found the cache, used the tool and we signed the logbook. Great cache, very clever. Cool Castle (what we could see over the fence) can't say the same about the cat that appeared on the fence just behind us tho! TFTC

Been there 3 times still havent been able to find it. Owner please confirm it is still there and another hint would be helpfull.

Had to visit the castle as we were staying nearby. Tool was soon in hand which was good as it removed one possibility which would have required a different tool of huge capacity. After a long search and nearly losing the tool in various places I was forced to give up. Mostly this was because of the householder and family who stopped in their driveway to watch me. Mind you I'm sure I would have got away with it if the wife hadn't been sheltering from the torrential downpour under his tree. Just because someone is pulling apart your essential services is no reason to be suspicous

stumped after finding the tool, until sinautus had a breakthrough... nice find! and nice cache! t4tc!!

A very enjoyable cache. #180, 2013-04-11 at 20:53, TFTC

You cunning man... we were scratching our heads at GZ until we both realised where the cache was. We take our hats off to the Camo master. t4tc

Another disguise I absolutely love! Tool came in handy although I was guessing for a while how to use it!
MTFTC

Found tool on first visit..... Second visit found cache......TFTC

Looked all around but no sign of it and too many passing cars and runners out today

A tricky wee cache... Found it with mack Molly and wendythebean ...

pretty sure I found the tool, but not the cache..

Made my way down the road for my second find of the new year. Immediately had the implement in hand and a moment later was signing the log. Nice hide. Cheers for the cache!

Love it!! Very clever. We easily found the tool and with a bit of team work we located the cache soon after. This is definitely going in my geocaching memories album as a favourite. Well done I really enjoy your caches. TFTC.

Went to do the final inspection on our new house today, just before we close the deal and I thought we should find a nearby cache. This one seemed appropriate as this is the first house my partner and I have brought together, and the romantic story seemed to fit. I spotted the tool straight away, but like the others I had no idea what to do with it. We played around with a few things and then had to leave to go check out the house, just as we were walking to the car I said 'Oh did you check the....?' He said no and we both laughed, like a lot of others we had had it in our hands. After we did what we had to we drove back to the site and we were right...such a clever cache.

After that went off for a lovely meal at a local mediterranian restaurant, with good food and belly dancing. A nice and somewhat unplanned evening. #14.

Found the "tool" quite quickly, actually I thought that I had found the cache at first. But then what on earth do I do with this TOTT. It took quite a while to actually figure it out, but in a moment of desperation I tried something. Well I could see straight away how to use the tool. A very clever hide Glyn I don't know how you think these things up. The word devious comes to mind. Definitely a favourite.

Needs maintenance

After checking the area carefully we were finally successful- great cache!

This entry was edited by Ore69 on Saturday, 14 July 2012 at 06:50:56 UTC.

This entry was edited by Ore69 on Saturday, 14 July 2012 at 06:51:21 UTC.

Looked at it twice and still missed it till I regrouped and had another think about it

Great cammo and well placed cache by the master of disguise, reletively quick find TFTC

An easy peasy find!!! - not - I got a tip from the cache owner, found the tool straight away but then????
Thanks on less on my DNF list - hundreds more to go

TFTC and the fun

Neat castle and a nice piece of history. This was my second attempt. First time I found the TOTT but not the cache. Went home re-read the logs and realised where it must be. Returned today and...Bingo. Wow, no wonder I missed it last time. Awesome camo. TFTC.

Who knew there was a full-on castle on the shore?

Great story, awesome building, and the old Glyn camo doesn't disappoint either.

I, like other before me, had the container in my hand without realising I did.

Didn't find the tool though (have to admit I didn't look tooooo hard for it, had something on me that did the trick

TFTC

Continuing on our cache a day mission this one was on the close to home list for a quick visit after puppy school tonight. It was easy to loiter around with a puppy on a lead as a distraction. Great hide, log nice and dry TFTC.

Add me to the list, it seems (didn't see the last couple of DNFs while out in the field). Found the tool straight away, but couldn't spot the cache between the waves of walking muggles.