Takaka Hill Tomo (Earthcache) Upper Takaka, South Island, New Zealand
By beltfamily on 01-Jan-11. Waypoint GC2KMGW

What a great walk here! Very nice to combine the 2 earth caches, to get a complete picture of what is going on here in the mountain. Answers sent to CO. Tftc for placing this cache here! Here's my son at one of the tomo signs.

We did the loop walk in October and just sent the answers. This is one of my favourite walks in the region as it has so many different parts. The scenery changes after every corner, rocky with wide views, thick forest with giant snails, the part with all the sinkholes etc.
It's a great walk and the caches are an added bonus.

#18312 @1430
In Nelson for some relative's birthdays. Working remotely most of the week, but took today off to cache. My eldest grandson and I went for a drive to Takaka and back (from Stoke) to grab a few challenges, do some walks, and top up my 1.5/1.5 find numbers. 38 caches all up including 5 labs. An enjoyable walk visiting this earthcache and then some trads. Answers submitted. TFTC.

Great and quite interesting cache - nice walk. Did it twice this week. Today with the kids.
TFTC Simone & Jochen

Enjoyed the loop walk and visiting this Tomo. Answers sent to the CO by Tregearp for both of us - photo to come. Thanks beltfamily for the cache.

Enjoyed doing the two loops of the Takaka Hill walkway track with SJT_NZ, this was heading back to the car, answers sent through to CO

Such unusual terrain but a great walk around the Takaka Hill Walkway. Answers sent to CO. Thanks for the earth cache.

A very interesting walk across amazing landscapes. Easy to stumble and injure yourself here though.

Walking on Takaka Hill track we were interested in these geological features. Answers sent to CO. TFTC

Between the two of us we counted up quite a few tomo. It depends which direction you walk this of course. Fun walk and I like karst landscapes anyway, TFTC Belt Family.

Next and last stop for the weekend is the Takaka walkway. This is an enjoyable walk for the most part. Some good changes of vegetation and track, the only downside being the intrusion of gorse on some parts. But other than that, all good. We finished this and headed back to Blenheim with 80+ cache finds under our belts and 50+km of track left behind our boots. A good weekend. Thanks all COs.

Always good to get an Earthcache and this was the only one for me this weekend. All good here and learnt a bit and admired the depth of some of those tomos. Answers sent as required. T F T C

Day 2 began nice and early. A tin of beans for brekky and a cup of tea and on the road around 0700, a lie-in compared to yesterday. Started off at Milnethorpe and pretty much cleared the lot in 3 hours. Then to Pupu springs for the Virtual and finished off at Takaka Hill, after a diversion to Abel Tasman lookout. Phew, quite a day and still back in time for mrs capperz to get home.

A long weekend trip to Takaka with mrs capperz away too meant an early start on Saturday, over the hill(s) and a night at the backpackers before another full on day Sunday and home in time for takeaway pizza. A few caches to pump the numbers along, some great scenery and good company with ricardinho.nz in the co-pilots chair. Over 80 caches found and some awesome photos taken and a 30km plus day on Sat, followed by a 20km plus day on Sunday.

We are over from the UK visiting my partners family and this walk was recommended to us by my partners brother and it had the bonus of a cache series! We only decided to complete the earthcache at the last minute so needed to recall some information of this walk but answers have been sent to the owners and we thank them for placing this great series in this fantastic location and for the additional information. Dean & Deb. Sykessquad.

Am letzten Tag auf der Südinsel haben wir noch einen Ausflug hierher unternommen. Wir haben sehr schöne erholsame Orte entdeckt.

Die Aufgaben dür den EC haben ermittelt (hoffentlich richtig).

TFTC

Grüße aus Germany
Orientexpress

These were cool to track down, fascinating to learn more about, and an adventure to investigate but keep safe too!
TFTC & the fun to find it

We were looking for somewhere to take my 82 year old dad for a wee walk - I googled this walk and it said it was 'easy'. Off we went and it was a little bit more then easy when his balance is not what it used to be. Anyway we just plodded along taking our time as we enjoyed being here checking our the landscape. It was so nice to hear the birds as we wandered through the bush. Thanks beltfamily for setting up this earth cache, required information has been sent to the CO.

Nine days to do some caching for the price of four leave days - who could complain about that! I found a quirky place to stay near Motueka, and decided to base myself there to cache in the wider area. I had a few on my hit list, and ended up finding a great variety of different caches on the trip.
Day seven - the weather was promised to be a bit less stable compared to the previous days, so I picked a shorter walk just in case. Except for a few occasions of spitting, I remained dry! Great fun counting/observing the tomos on the way out, thanks heaps for making me notice!! TFTC!!

This was our last stop on an anti clockwise loop walk. Answers will be emailed and photo uploaded shortly.
TFTC.

It's always a good idea to stay on the tracks in tomo country. Tomos are a nightmare for any ground dwelling animal. A treasure though though for those studying a timeline in a variety of disciplines. Thank you beltfamily

One of the geocaches that we did during a trip to New Zealand as part of our Lions Tour Holiday. TFTC.

Almost finished the loop track, temperature is dropping, as is the sun, time to get back to the car. Answers will be emailed shortly.

Came down the track from the car-park side I didn't even know their where Tomo on this side of the road but do now, found them OK as well as some snails and toad-still a interesting place to explore, and a favorite from me

Found on the trip from Nelson to Collingwood, as time was against me and it was a very hot day without too much water I walked from the 4wd track to gz and back. Very interesting topic, something I had not heard of before. Thanks for another great earthcache.

We walked the whole track this morning in an anti-clockwise direction so this was pretty much the last cache we came across, we counted all the Tomos along the way and between the two of us estimated the size of each one. Answers emailed in as requested. TFTC

Time to leave Takaka and predictably that morning Huey finally gave us a fine day... so nice views driving back over Takaka Hill. Had this earthcache printed out - a perfect short walk to stretch out legs and see a bit of the karst country. Makes you think twice about wandering off the track!

Its Souvenir Hunt Earth Cache Day- Road trip to Takaka via St Arnaud with the Seagnoid! Hey What! Lets Go.
This was an interesting place to visit. I would not like to venture down any of these holes. Tried to message CO17/10 with Q&A but do not know if message was received. Please contact me if it did not go through. Still trying to get my head around all this tech stuff. Cheer and thanks for bringing me here.

Today is Go-Find-A-Souvenir day! But rather than head to either of the available earth caches in Blenheim, TaybeeDragon and I decided to to visit the great green fields of Nelson and Takaka and turn a small patch of it yellow.

Mission accomplished!

While the plan was to go to this earth cache it was not to do the whole track. But we did anyway. Yep, there sure are a lot of holes in the ground! Makes me want to go caving, some of these holes are worth checking out with a bit of rope and a headlight. Alas, all my caving kit is up north

Gets a favourite as do most caches with decent write ups (which pretty much means all earth caches!)

Nice walk, interesting stuff! As my gps is my Iphone (and camera), I made a picture with my subglasses instead

We walked into this cache after coming back down from finding caches higher up the hill. Although we have experienced tomos before, it was interesting to see a small range of different sized ones. TFTC

I really enjoyed the geology lesson for this earthcache and then i really enjoyed going out and walking the trail and seeing the tomos for real. This is fascinating stuff. I have sent the answers off to the cache owner.
Many TFTC

We had a bit if a walk around on the rough track. Plenty of limestone out crops and a variety of Tomo. Amazing to see some some close to the track. Answers sent TFTEC

It's been many years since we had been to Golden Bay, and a long weekend seemed an ideal time to reacquaint ourselves with the area (and find a few caches as well ).
We didn't meet anyone else while walking on this track, though did spot a few people on the 4wd road. Maybe only geocachers walk this track, though we thought we saw hoof prints at certain points. Certainly not an easy walk, but at this time of year, we were largely spared the mud.
Found the whole idea of tomos pretty worrying and made sure I didn't deviate one cm from the track! Thanks for an interesting earth cache in an interesting landscape. Answers sent. TFTC.

#8431. Our first visit to the walkway. A very interesting area. The most impressive Tomo I saw was one next to the 4WD track; a shaft just big enough for somebody to fall into, that seemed to go down for several metres at least. We found the walking track to be quite rough, with what looked like hoof prints contributing to this. Troodles submitted answers on behalf of both of us. TFTC.

My third complete circuit of the Takaka Hill walkway today, but the first time in a clockwise direction. This cache was the prime reason for our visit. We enjoyed counting tomo and studying them in detail. - - - Peering in to sort the shallow ones from the bottomless pits and comparing their diameters. The track was very muddy in places, courtesy of the resident cattle, but gorse has recently been trimmed so wasn't the hazard previous loggers have mentioned. It was a brilliant day to be out walking. Thanks for the Earthcache.
- Answers submitted by email.

A most enjoyable walk around the track with Tomo hunting along the way. Thanks for this challenge. The track was itself a bit of a challenge at times because cattle have found it an excellent way to get around the place - I kept expecting to see one (a steer) up-ended in a tomo, but no. What I did see was the hut with the remains of poor old Buttercup in a state of collapse, surely not vandals this high up? perhaps nature has taken its toll, or a steer lent on it...

enjoyed the bush walk
we were greeted by a bell bird, who stayed with us some of the way
very informative interesting earth cache
thank you for the earth cache and giving us a lot of fun

Enjoyed the walk and learning a bit about tomos. Certainly made me think about where I was putting my feet. I wasnt game to get any closer to the sign in my photo ... it was at the bottom of the tomo. Not a great place for a warning sign TFTC

#1974

Once off the vehicle track it looked like the trail would be exposed and hard on the knees. It was soon into lovely bush. Lots of birds. Even native orchids. Really enjoyed the tomo counting and have sent e to co. NINO TFTEC

The Cretan Runners took a walk around Takaka Hill and picked up some caches as we went. We really enjoyed the walk and the diverse landscape and terrain in this area. Thanks to the cache owners who have placed these caches for us to enjoy.
Oh no ! We were half way around the path and then realised that there was an earth cache and we had not realised - ok we are still going to give it a go! We took our photo near GZ and will finish our home work later. We visited the Riwaka resurgence last week and completed the earth cache there so it was great to see the area where the water starts it's path. TFTC.

#14 I actually enjoyed tomo hunting .. While some were huge and obvious I also spotted a number that could be easily overlooked, yet on careful investigation (with a walking stick while staying on track) were clearly deep holes .. All quite fascinating imho!

TFTC

Out doing the loop walk with Kiwi Grandad today. Good to have the geology lesson to accompany our wander in this interesting area. Best not to stray too far from the tracks around here (gulp). Thanks beltfamily for setting up this earth cache.

Had a lovely walk around the track, doing all the caches on it. Fun day out, even though it was a little overcast. Cheers Gav

Stopped here after a long day around Takaka and Pahora. Fog was settling in over the mountains as we made our way along the track. Emailed our answers. Really liked the explanation and the great diagram of the sinkhole formation. Thx for this Earth Cache. Visiting from Arizona, USA. We have sinkholes too.

What a great day out on Takaka Hill. Thanks for the caches.

#647, 13:05, nice karst landscape. I thought back to yougoslavian movies about Winnetou and native americans. I loved this movies when I was child. TFTC

Logging with permission.
We arrived at the parking space knowing it would be a damp visit as we were in cloud. Not an issue for this cache but it did prove a problem later – because of long wet grass. This did not stop us carrying on and doing the loop to pick up the 2 trads – which we also recommend even though we were rather wet at the end of it all.
Doing this earthcache reminded us of one we favourited in 2010 at Horcum Hole. It was a site we already knew about because we had been advised to visit it already. The Yorkshire man who told us about it said ‘a giant grabbed a ….. great handful of earth to throw at his wife, missed, and it formed a nearby …… great hill’. We are not sure why he felt the need to add that the story was apopthrocal. The cache told us the geology of the area – but also repeated the legend in less colourful language. For that one we had to estimate the depth - pleased it was not required for this cache, although we suspect the Yorkshire man would have an answer …… deep.
As usual with earthcaches, we had a good time and have learned a bit in the process. Thanks.

We found this cache on our three week camper van round tour of the South Island of New Zealand.

After we spend most of the day kayaking in the stunning coves ans bays of the Abel tasman National Park, we wanted to conclude the day with travelling up to the Golden bay and also collect some nice caches on the way.

We found this earthcache to be particularly interesting since we are also interested in caves and speleo activities. We were really tempted to go down one of the Tomos to see whats in there...however we did not have any speleo equipment with us. The karst formations along the trail are also very nice.


Thanks for the cache
Tasaio
TEAM DRAGONSLAYER
Together with da_miche

(Up front: sorry for the late log, I am still catching up from the trip to New Zealand! Additionally, I did not realise we could log straight away after Tasaio has sent the answers...)

This day saw us going from some very impressive kayaking on the ocean (where we got to smell lots of New Zealand Fur Seals) to the Northern part of the Abel Tasman National Park. The Earthcaches along the way caught our interest, also because we like to get all mudded up in some karst holes... Pity we did not bring the gear, the bigger ones sure would have been fun to squeeze ourselves down...

But even staying on the surface, this cache was a very nice distraction from the drive along the serpentines. Quite nice to try to catch all the wholes on the way. A bit sad that some of them had filled up over time - I wonder if they still take water...

I hope the answers that Tasaio sent are ok.

Thank you very much for this cache and greetings from the other end of the world (i.e. Germany),
da_miche
on NZ South Island Tour with Tasaio of Team Dragonslayer.

Called by on our way over the hill for the annual Golden Bay Bridge tournament. Have been here several times. In fact it seems that we go walking on this track every second year. More TOMO signs seem to have appeared since our last foray.
Thanks for the tour and the cache.

Logged with permission.

We completed this walkway this afternoon and we were looking forward to the Tomo. They were an interesting piece of geography to view. Thanks heaps will have photo uploaded tonight. Thanks heaps for the cache.

Logged with permission

6789 Logged with permission.

Enjoyed our journey of discovery through the lands of Tomo…. Loved the fascinating geology of the area. Many thanks for a very interesting earthcache.

Really nice location and walk along the track. Enjoyed looking at and for the Tomo. Added to my favourites. Thanks for making my visit to this area worthwhile.

We enjoyed our walk along the track through the incredible landscape of the Takaka Hill, counting Tomo as we went. We found the counting a little bit subjective - some very obvious and signposted, some obvious but not signposted and some we had to stop and think was that a partially filled Tomo or just a surface depression. Made us really try to study the landscape. We made sure we didn't stray from the path after seeing a couple of seemingly bottomless holes! Thanks for placing this earthcache. We would never have known to go there without it.

# 2645

Stretch0 and I went for a wander on the track we have been before but was nice going the other way round this time - continued on to the walkway cache and headed back through the link track that we havent walked before - enjoyed the walk and counting and looking for tomo's on the way have emailed cache owner with our answers thanks for the earthcache always enjoy them

Wandered this walkway before but not in this direction. The directions for the cache were straightforward and i enjoyed looking at the Tomo's and counting how many we saw. This whole landscape in this area always amazes me and have the been here for four trips already and i can see I will return again soon TFTC

email sent to cache owner.Nice walk on a walkway with a few caches now,great landscape and views in places.600th cache for me and a nice place to do it.TFTC Daughter had my camera at Pony club so had to use my cell phone for the photo

Email sent to cache owner. Weather cleared up really nicely today for an early morning walk along the walkway. Hope I've interpreted the questions right this time... Neat spot and my first time on this part of the track.

Logging with permission. This is a great walkway, thanks to Beltfamily for collating all the info on it.

Another great earthcache thanks beltfamily. I feel so very very lucky with this one. Yesterday afternoon I headed off to do the Takaka Walkway caches but when I got to Ruby Bay decided I didn't really have enough time so decided to leave then for today - then this morning this one popped up. hopefully my counting will stack up. A great start to a thoroughly enjoyable day. TFTC #1751

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