Try Fluke Gold Mine (Coromandel) Kuaotunu, North Island, New Zealand
By phantom_pacman on 07-Jan-11. Waypoint GC2M4BC

Accio 13:17:24A quick weekend in NZ - a quieter day today after much expended energy yesterday. Quick find heading around the peninsula with Stairman1.Thanks phantom_pacman for entertaining me at this location. *{Overall find #12326}*

Today we were searching near Whitianga during our trip through New Zealand. Seen challenging places and sometimes surprising things. Thank you very much to CO for making this cache available. With warm geocache greetings from the Netherlands

Such a cool location. Road busy with holiday traffic today. Didnt take long to find. Tftc

Found on a road trip. Soon located & signed.

Yay!

Found with stairman1. Another great cache. This one wasnt as scary as the last one. TFTC

Found with goldielover today. Wow that's another great cache site. Reasonably easy to navigate to. Parking easy heading down hill.Two magic caches. Should be visited more often.Easy favourite point againTFTC

Found with toby84 and coffeeJoel

Found reny90 and coffeejoel. Again, please be cautious of the busy road, interesting mine to explore, and surrounding area

After a very busy few weeks, we finally got back out to hunt. What a really cool spot for the cache! Just wishing I had brought the gumboots so we could explore deeper into the drive. Have left a TB to continue the dig. In our hurry to GZ we left our pen in the vehicle, will have to drop back in to sign log and adventure further.

A quick find. Remembered to bring the torch for this one. Cool location. Thanks for bringing us here.

Malinkaly and I planned a road trip to go to the MEGA but Covid has postponed the event again. We decided to continue on with our planned journey making adjustments as we go with the ever-changing travel restrictions.
Greetings from Dunedin!
Thanks for the cache, phantom_pacman
#2499

I was a bit suspicious of scrambling up the side of a fast highway... But Wilbywarrior said not to worry there's a Geotrail and no corpses. So off we went into the mines. Had to unseal the opening (sticky strong spiderwebs!) but got in safely. Struck gold with feet still dry and left a princess for the next dwarf to rescue.

TFTC phantom_pacman

*** Out on our MEGA Roadtrip with Wilbywarrior. Who says this can only happen when the MEGA is actually held?! Greetings from Dunedin, caching friends
#271 ***

I remember this hide from my previous visit in the area (Feb 2020) and I was a little bit confused about parking spot and I was running in circles. Road was busy with holiday traffic , etc. This time in winter months is a different situation and I was able to park my car nearby without any problems and I went to the mine. At the entrance there was a scenery from LOTR movie where Shelob`s spider web was blocking an entrance. So I had to clear a thick spider web before entering. I had torch with me so finding this cache was not so difficult.
Thanks for nice adventure!

Troopers mission, this was an awesome location. Tftc

Just had to stop by Try Fluke Mine. Quick find here but the container was a swimming pool. Emptied out contents and left a temp RITR log to help it along. cheers.

Day 7 - Christmas Eve Thursday 24 December - Whitianga - Matarangi and back to Whitianga. So lets go exploring!

The Seagnoid, Zara, Toby and I are off on another geocaching escape over Xmas, this time to the mighty Coromandel, then over to Opotiki and stop off at Rotorua to return home on 5 January. Had an fabulous time exploring many wonders of our country. Rounding up over 400 caches along the way, with a few LABS, 20 odd TMGTs, virtuals and lots of interesting earth caches to keep the mind busy. Watching the sun come up on New Years Day at Mt Maunganui was spectacular. Lots of walking and even more driving. But had an awesome time. Thanks to all COs who made this adventure so special.

I love mines - even though they are just simple horizontal drives into a cliff. Comes from I love caves. So this would have been an instant favourite, except that the CO used a non-waterproof container in a high humidity environment, and so the contents are VERY wet. WE installed a new florist's paper log and disposed of hte rusty contents.
I am surprised to see the mine here, right by the road. Do the locals even know about it?

Taybeedragon and I went on a tour of the Coromandel - one of the few places of New Zealand, especially of Te ika a Maui, that I have yet to explore throughly, and from there along the coast to Opotiki to see one of my many, many sisters. From 18 December to 5 January we found over 400 caches, including 12 adventure labs (60 caches), 20 or so TMGTs and a host of virtuals and earthcaches. And I hosted an event to see the sun come up on New Year's day - surprisingly popular given that it was at 5am. We climbed a lot of hills, saw some amazing beaches that were quite popular despite (or because of) the insane access to them, walk a lot of bush, entered and explored 8 gold mines and generally had an awesome time. However I am glad to be back, but now is the hard part, and I fear it will take just as long - logging!

With Gap (of Fap and Gap) and NZFlossy... We are chasing some TMGT caches today with the intention of visiting the Tuia Mātauranga Roadshow in Whitianga this afternoon...

Today’s mission also allowed us to visit other nearby caches... This hide was quite difficult to approach - we suspect the landscape has changed over time. Once we found the access point, the climb up to the drive shaft and the subsequent find were a breeze. Thanks phantom_pacman and TFTC.

Found 4pm
We decided we might make it up as far as Thames today to start on the Tuia Matauranga Geo Tour, guessing we will never complete all of these caches in New Zealand plus collect any other caches on the way.
Picked up Squirrel Nutcase and the NZ Flossy at Te Poi.
We made great progress and ended up in Whitianga where we decided to visit the Road Show here today. Great amount of New Zealand past history, could have spent a lot longer here but the place was packed and with time on our side we continued North. SLTFTC

Out for the day with Squirrel Nutcase and Gap collecting the TMGT caches and a few others. Raining a little at the start but the day got better and better. Thanks to all the COs - loved reading and learning about the history Good challenge to find the entrance but we got there with only slightly wet feet TFTC

First one of the day after a night in Whitianga. Doing a circuit of the coromandal and a bit of an adventure. Another mine you would pass and not know it was there. Wander to the end. No water in here today. Cache has no lid. Quite out in the open. A fav for the adventure. Tftc

Find number 2825. On my way north so a nice parking spot about 80 m away and walked down the road. Thankfully I was using my phone which had a torch. With that the cache was quickly found. Took it to better light for signing. On my way back to the car a driver checked to make sure I was ok and did not need help. Nice to see people still care. Thank you for the placement.

Decieded that today it was time for a bit of a road trip and the need to grab a few caches that were sitting in an out of the way location or three. So heading up here nice and early West of Coromandel Township for a few mainly along the roadside.
Very quickly located in the dark then onto the next.
Damm there's some ig old cave weta's in here

Thanks for the placement, thanks for the cache

WOW! Felt super sneaky and adventurous clambering up to get this one. Wondered what passersby thought we were up to . This is what caching is all about! Got the heebejeebees seeing the Weta though!

catching up on afew caches that got over looked on our coromandel trip from Matarangi to whitianga. Thanks for these caches.

Summer holidays with the family but today was set a side for me and geocaching. I took my eldest with me setting off from Tairua around 7am - weather was stunning, almost a little too hot but it was an awesome day - no DNFs.
Parking was the most difficult part of this one but thanks to the early morning the road was clear. We picked the most likely route to gz although it's all pretty overgrown. Very happy to have a quick find here as these old mines always make me feel a little nervous.
Cheers phantom pacman, TFTC

Bit of a buzz to find this one finally after looking at it a few years ago. Not far off road at all and not sign posted. Good track - once found - and not too difficult to find the cache - in good condition. TFTC

Great day for caching today and had been wanting to tick this one off for quite a while but not wanting to do it by myself, good thing Pinocchio59 came for the weekend. What a lovely place, wasn’t too keen on the weta jumping on me but an easy find after a scramble and took the two travel bugs with me as they seem to have been there for quite a while. TFTC we would never have known this mine was even there and cache was nice and dry.

This was a fun adventure...managed to find enough space to park the motorhome...then scurry up the bank...for some reason the Road was very busy probably Q .B.weekend ...the natural growth is beginning to cover the tunnel entrance but once you are in its all good...my head lamp on and in I go...oops upset some of the residence with the bright beam ..they scurried away soon had the log signed and then I looked up the roof was alive with cave weta's and the walls as well quite a great sight ...what great cache this is and I really enjoyed it and the challenge thanks phantom_pacman well done a worthy place for a cache

We parked the motor home precariously on the road and walked down to the entry. Up we went and in. Wow wow wow so cool to see all the wetas! They weren't overly happy to share their cave but didn't attack thank goodness. This was an amazing experience and totally unexpected. Thanks for bringing us here phantom_pacman

This one was cool! Always interesting to stop somewhere a bit different, thanks for bringing us here, TFTC!

Staying at Whitianga for a week's R&R and looking for a few cache's here and there in between swimming and tramping. Took a little while to find the way to the cave entrance. Container was full of water so dried it out best we could. Look out for cave weta's! TFTC.

Very tricky parking around here but well worth the attempt. A great hidden mine site. Perhaps jandles were not the ideal footwear to negotiate the track to the entrance, but I made it without mishap. An easy find but needed a torch to do so. Swapped out two trackables. TFTC

#8694, 09:13,
During our holidays in Newzealand we searched some Caches.
I love Lost Places.
Thanks for placing and maintaining this box
arbor95
TB in

Together with arbor95 I am on a holiday tour in New Zealand.

We are two Germans, old friends since a long time. Together we visited a lot of other countries in the past, even before we started geocaching. [^]

For our trip we usually looking for some extraordinary caches.

Therefore we had mostly a lot of fun.

We hadn't updated our PQ and therefore we have been prepared. In the meantime the owner was at the GZ and there was no need of a new box anymore.

Thank You very much for this geocache and for showing the place , for the challenge and for the maintaining.

Greetings from tripleclaus to phantom_pacman.

I have finally maintained the cache. Apologies to those who looked in vain.

There is snow a small Sistema box with a new log book in a bag with a pen.

Still large wetas on the mine walls and still wet feet if you want to go to the end.

Happy hunting

Pacman

New cache

With the annual work fishing trip on this afternoon in Coromandel town, I thought I'd make a full day of it and head over first thing and make it a bit of a caching trip too. So I was out the door about 5.30am, with a general plan to find caches around the Whitianga and Kouatunu areas before heading over to Coromandel Town for the fishing trip.

What an awesome spot, this is what I love about Geocaching. Great locations and a bit of history to boot. Parked a up the hill from the mine and wandered down the road to the mine site. Spotted some steps cut into the bank which made access a lot easier. After reading the description I thought the cache was going to be a lot further in the mine, which meant I was going to get wet fet, however the hint put me right. No cache found though I did spot the log bag poking out from under a rock. Couldn't sign the log so took a photo instead, this cache is in some serious need of some TLC. It would be a shame to see this one archieved as it is such a neat placement.

found

found log on last legs

Well not really. Found the mine searched high and low, under biggish and little rocks to no avail. Will bring a replacement cache next time I'm in the area if no one else has in the meantime. Thanks

Found the GZ, but no cache, needs maintenance
Cheers from Polynesia
nzkeko

Great location and we make great elves, but no cache here. Needs maintenance please.

Tftc

This is much more my kind of GC, Thanx. Couldn't find container, only a page of the logsheet, so I signed that...did locate what looked like parts of a container lid!

Forgot to log at the time. On a geocaching weekend with my favourite geo buddies, we hope to get loads of caches this weekend. We've decided to sign the log sheet as - day trippers CNSZ in order to save space on the log sheets. Thanks to the cachers who hid these caches for us to find and make our weekend such fun.

Found only part of the log, no container after an intensive search.. and we found a lot of wetas as well. =)

great cache! we found it quite quickly. the lid was broken and in water. the cache itself looks ok, but changing a lid would be great to keep the cache dry. FP from us, we wouldn't know about gold mine... tftc!

A great diversion from that windy road. Cache was out in open so tucked it back out of sight. We did need to get our feet wet on this one.

This was an amazing location. I took the wrong path up and ended up with some scratches but found the tunnel eventually. No bats today but saw a funny spider under a rock. Forgot pen on bike. Online log only. TFTC

This one is a bit trickier to get to but worth the effort.

Wicked spot TFTC

Another interesting mine to visit. We found the track entrance, but a short distance up, misjudged where the track went, and followed the stream bed up instead. This led us to a worryingly deep vertical shaft. We then backtracked and managed to find the horizontal adit, and soon found the cache. Worth a favourite point. TFTC

Found it

We found in it in amongst the friendly Weta's!!!
TFTC from your neighbours at Matarangi we'll have to bring the kids next time instead of the dog (Breeze)

Cruising from Whitianga to Auckland. Was certainly not expecting this! Luckily the light of the GPS was bright enough. Thanks for the hide

Very exciting cache indeed. Hummmmm GOLD!. Managed to wedge park the Geonut far enough off the road.torch,GPS and up the bank I go alone to find a mine sharft. Heart pumping as to "will I or won't I do this one. Well it's right here and the adventure always over rules , so off I go entering this very dark mine sharft, but not before reading and re reading the hint.made my way along and so very lucky NO BATS to give me the willies. So very, very rapped to make the find, sign then head back to some daylight with out a hitch. Whew! I did it . Good on me and this type of cache is what it's all about thanks. Fun and adventure. Fav point form me.

Great, thanks for showing this place. Thats what geocaching is about too. Fast found. TFTC

This is what geocaching is all about. Great cache.

We looked at doing this cache yesterday but emailed the cache owner for any extra details he could give us, which he did, thanks, and then we attempted it today (with GPS loaded this time).....and had success! We found it very exciting for several reasons that kept us on our toes. The parking area has had the seal raised by new roading and our low car being prone to bellying, we parked further down towards Kuaotunu on the left and walked back the several hundred metres being very careful on the narrow road. In retrospect we would try parking right at the GZ because it isn't too high there and there's just enough room for a car. Anyway, we found the gap and entered a short track, with a little bit of bush-bashing, but OK. Then there it was, the tunnel...wonderful! We found the cache with the good clues and a torch, and we looked as hard as we could for little bats but none about. A lazy blowfly buzzing in the sunshine at the entrance was just that. We think we saw a couple of very small cave wetas with the torch so that was great. There was no sign of any hole to fall in but we took our time and enjoyed this great experience!
Many thanks to locals and others who have brought us to some great places on this, our first trip up this way, and while celebrating our 42nd wedding anniversary with geocaching fun together.

Of course the one time I didn't have the little torch that hangs on my cache pack, so it was the blind leading the blind. A phone really gives very little light and Steed hadn't bought the torch app he had contemplated. Nevertheless, a surprisingly quick find which we literally stumbled upon. Luckily I did have a bat that had been looking for a suitable home for ages, so he's a happy chap now. Loved it, a fav.

One of the kids freaked out going into mine so didn't venture further. Can't wait to have another go

Found it together with Team Autoværn on our New Zealand tour back in 2013.
DK

I know this log is very late!!
But on the holliday the internet connection not was very well, so i would have done it when i got home. but i have been so busy, and have more than 500 caches from NZ to log!
So now i am looking at my GPS, and se the caches i missed to log
thanks for this cache Nice to see you contry

Awesome TFTC FTW. Will come one day for further exploration with a torch. Thought the buzzing noise was a big fly but you reckon it's a bat?

We too went too far up the hill. Didn't realise it was so close to the road. Another cool mine but no bats today. TFTC

Nice quick stop for the cache.
Enjoyed visiting the mine

Good find then on to the next cache while heading to Coromandel.

SL TFTC

On a Geocache mission from Coromandel to Whitianga and back. Where do you find these places. I have driven by this one many of times. The Coromandel range must be full of them. Good hints, but must be careful not to offend dwarves. This one gets a FAV from us.

9.35am. Turned this into a 5star terrain as I went too far up the hill. Past a shaft. Came back down and went a little sideways and soon spotted the mine. Quick find inside. A favourite point from us.
Thank you. David and Noeline.

great location.tftc. gets a f tick

#1,172, Hardest Part was finding the parking spot and the entrance to the trail. Son loved spotting a cave weta. Over-run GZ initially and stumbled across the vertical mine. Luckly son was looking out for mine holes and not sprinting along as per normal. TFTC

Loved this cache - Mr P and I had the torch in hand and our hearts in our boots but after crawling around inside of Asian temples I told myself I could do this, only bats.. bring it on! A favourite from us. t4tc

Found orginally as part of phasevisitor team, now created own account, re-logging as yorkshirekiwi83.

Spent the weekend in Whitianga and on Saturday we drove up to Matarangi exploring some new areas and picking up caches along the way.

A nice quick find once we entered the mine. Really enjoyed discovering this one - a favourite! TFTC!

Spent the weekend in Whitianga and on Saturday we drove up to Matarangi exploring some new areas and picking up caches along the way.

A nice quick find once we entered the mine. Really enjoyed discovering this one - a favourite! TFTC!

9500… What a awesome cache to mark our 9500th find… Amazed at how far the tunnel extends into the hill. Unfortunately we didn’t see any bats or cave wetas. Many thanks for sharing the location and its history, and a favourite from us.

Interesting place...took a wee while but soon spotted it...TFTC

Nice easy find TFTC

wow another cool mine TFTC forgot a torch thought

When we reached GZ we looked up with a torch to see some HUGE spiders that move so quickly, we moved as quick signing and replacing the cache! Are they normal?!?

Grabbing a few caches in the area while passing through on our 'how ever long it takes' NZ tour.

Thanks for setting this up.

TFTC

Mud & Kim

Seen no Bats, but the biggest Wetas i have ever seen. They were guarding the cache, i suppose i was their prey.. Great place, here is a FAV from me.

Amazing where geocaching takes you. Couldn't even see anything on that side of the road, let alone a mine and somewhere to hide a cache. Thanks for bringing us here. Quick find. TFTC

Amazing, really enjoyed seeing this and just wish I had my gumboots for an extended tour. My torch didn't even reach the end of the tunnel, and it's a pretty good torch.
TFTC

Much bigger than I expected, quick find.

TFTC

7/7 last one for the day.

found it!! quick find. recovered it a bit better. TFTC

took wrong turn up water fall and found a vertical mine shaft.
i recommend checking it out.
awesome mine. huge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
had fun.
thanks phantom pacman for an awesome cache.

.ventured right to the end. Knee deep water in places. On the way out i grabbed the cache. Amazing spot. 670

Found with bkj97. Great spot well hidden from passing traffic. Thanks for the experience. Luckily no bats or wetas today.T4TCSL

Would love to have had gumboots for a bit of exploration. Great spot. Worth a favourite.TFTCSL

Kids, mrs sigoli and I scrambled up and made a quick find. No bats today tftc

cool mine hard to get a car spot and you really need to be the height of a dwarf and you really need a torch

Now this cache was real challenge. A mental one. Avoyager is no lover of scary insects, so the thought of giant cave wetas and such sights was enough to make me hurry for this cache. Nerves jangling, torch beaming away, the mine was entered. Mind over creepy crawlie matter, torch beam stayed well pointed at the ground, was never going to shine it "up there". No wet feet, made the find quickly, signed the log book super quick, and then out of there ever fearful something had dropped from above. Back out into the world of daylight, faster than a fast thing but ever so delighted to have conquered the mine. TFTC. Gets a favourite as I have have driven past here many times and never known the mine was there.

Paint on cache had rubbed off otherwise in good condition. Paper still dry. re-camouflaged with black tape. Bottom of mine full of water but I got to cache with dry feet ok. Pictures coming. PAC

Fascinating place this - like a few of the other un-signposted I've bumped into on the Coromandel! Shafts like this really are everywhere. Only had the light of my phone to go by, which was barely enough to spot the cache, especially since all the black paint has rubbed off it now. Spooky still! TNLN TFTC Centuryson from Australia

Couldn't believe this fasinating mine was a very short walk...only a few metres from the road. It is amazing what is right under our noses. Didn't venture any further than the cache - maybe next time. Thank you for the experience & the cache.

14:30 Easy find after, but only after we parked in the right spot. We passed up the opportunity to get a F2F here during the summer, as we seemed to always have the kids in the car, but we finally got the opportunity to ticked this off the list. Top cache this one...really enjoyed it. Great history. TFTC.

Wasn't tempted to explore the mine further although I do like to check out mines, That cold water didn't look inviting. TFTC

A quick run down the road and in the bush we went. We soon spotted the mine opening and shrunk to the size of a dwarf to get the cache. After signing the logbook we went to put it back. We really shouldn't have shone towards the ceiling with our torches, because after seeing the huge weta's we almost didn't dare to put it back. Great place for a cache, really enjoyed the find!

TFTC!

After parking our campervan we walked a few meters downhill and disappeared into the bush to the mine. We found the cache quickly and afterwards we saw some really large weta's on the ceiling. After a quick replacement out of fear of being eaten we made a quick return into the daylight. Thanks for showing us this place, otherwise we would have never known about it.

TFTC!!

Lady Pinguin

We were passing by this cache so had to give it a go. Once we found a suitable place to park (we were going up the hill) we soon found the entrance to the mine. Surprising what is hidden in them there hills!! Entered the mine being very wary of the bats and soon found the cache. Logged our find and got out of there quickly. Thank you for showing us this piece of history.