Pop's Top Spot (Nelson/Marlborough) Moetapu Bay, South Island, New Zealand
By geopopnz on 09-Feb-11. Waypoint GC2NJY0

The time has come to say goodbye. Thank you for the fun and informations for the past 15 years. geopops NZ signing out

I have been working further out in the sounds this week and today is my day off. So a loop of Moetapu bay it is. This was number 6 along the way. All good here.

This is an excellent opportunity to have a walk with my daughters - Siddles and non geocacher Pip - TFTC

Found out walking with family

Yay I made it... was a bit of a struggle for me - feel a bit out of practice. Pleased to get here though before the phone ran out of power...sitting on 7% - enough for me to read the hint. Then I tried to take a picture and the screen went black. So was hoping that nothing was going to go wrong on the descent....
Great track - and a good test of fitness for most people.
TFTC geopopnz

Found with NZDi. With only two days left of my Labour/Marlborough Anniversary break left, and today being the only one with a decent weather forecast, we decided to go on a geocaching mission. There are not many patches of Marlborough left for me to turn into smileys, but the Moetapu/Mt Cawte area was one that was a sea of green. So today it was our mission to turn it yellow.

Last night I ran a Pocket Query on the area, did some research, asked a previous finder the finer details of a tricky looking multi and prepared a few caches to replace some that have been DNF'd recently, as well as place one of my own should the occasion arise. It seems I didn't prepare enough unfortunately.

This morning I did a quick trip to the supermarket to get enough food to sustain us through our adventure and then we were in the geomobile making our way in this direction.
After starting the day with a find on the Kenepuru Road, we turned onto the Moetapu Bay Road for the main course.

The company I work for owns a holiday home in the Kenepuru Sound and for the past 25 or so years we have managed to holiday in the area, but this is the first time I've ventured down this road.

The terrain had pretty much levelled off with the slight undulation after the white pine cache, so it only took another 15 minutes to get here. We read the sign and our thanks go out to the Outward Bound students who spent 2000 hours building the track, then we found the cache in the exact place the hint said it would be. We were pretty disappointed with the view, so decided to head back to the picnic tables to have our lunch.

TFTC geopopnz

Found with Kiwimykl, refer to his log for details.

TFTC geopopnz

Auch hier bin ich auf meiner Neuseelandrundreise lang gekommen und ich danke allen Owner für Ihre Mühe.

With Xmas over lets go exploring - Its Moetapu today.
Its a walk up the hill and finally I enter the native bush. Love walking through the native trees. Finding some old friends along the way. Will introduce you to them soon. Reach the top for an easy find. Then miss the path down and go bush bashing for a while before becoming reaquainted with the track. Its a steep decline back to the road. Cheers

I had two goals today, first an FTF by kayak which was achieved then this cache as I need caches with altitude gains for the DGSc challenge. I tend to not read cache descriptions and previous logs until I log the cache. If I had we may not have attempted this one. I'd had a brief look at the track on the topo map, it looked a little steep but doable for both Nanzie and I. Poor Nanzie must have been wondering where I was taking her, she did well to get as far as she did but gave up and decided to sit in the sun to wait for me still 1 km from the cache. I took off to do that as quick as possible forgetting her cell phone in my pack so i couldn't call her to let her know that if she went another 200 meters she would have a stunning view with picnic tables to wait for me. If I'd had the track on my gps we would have seen that she'd covered the hardest part and that last km was so much easier, she would have made it. Hindsight is a fine thing, needless to say only one signature made it into the log book, which was slightly damp but still writable. Thanks for an enjoyable but exhausting walk geopopnz

#6546

Yip. I was the driver but I'm not really all that good at weather forecasting. I'm a bit of a stick your head out the window, if it gets wet it's raining sort of person. - - - But outdated as it is, this method seems to impress the other two members of the SIS team - - - and so far I've had a pretty good success rate. So when the discussion was happening about the weather and the uphill trek, I said "let's do it."
What an awesome walk. It is cool now to look at the geocaching.com map which emphasises that the track does a lot of climbing to start with and then goes for about a kilometre along a ridge.
Some of the views into the distance were not all that detailed but the mist / cloud came and went adding a surreal touch to the landscape. Loved the walk. Very grateful to the Outward Bounders who completed it. Worried a little as we ascended that the descent might be slippery in places but had no problems at all.
And the rain. Yes, it did set in just as we arrived back at the car so I guess my reputation is intact.
Thanks so much for showing us this beautiful place .

Like so many have previously said Pop's Top Spot has been on many a day's caching list or it's been winking in the distance and teasing as I've passed on my somewhere else. The weather forecast looked ok and so today was finally going to be the day. However the rain came and went as we drove over and completed the other caches on today's list. In the nice dry car at the bottom I was completely ambivalent whether we went or it was once again left for another day as I didn't fancy a long walk in the rain. Actually if I'd been by myself I would've easily come up with several reasons not to do it. However one little comment from Sidewaze and we were off - that's all it took. So glad we did it. It is a lovely walk, even though it is consistently up! We did get a few glimpses of what the views would've been like on another day. The wet bush has its own beauty though and was quite spectacular as the clouds/mist rolled in and out. Thanks so much for luring us up here today geopopnz - so, so pleased that I finally made the effort . TFTC # 10,672

More than once this cache was on the hit list - but life, time, other caches meant it was left for another trip. Last night Mrs SoBad had a message - was she free today for a SIS trip with this cache as the walk part. The forecast looked OKish. We drove over the hill in rain - and it was not really that dry as we found all the other caches on the flat near by that had appeared since the last SoBad team trip. Then the three of us sat at the parking spot and pondered. We could cope without the views, but would we be soaked. The driver's comment tipped the balance and we got out of the car and put on our packs. The only wet on the way up came from inside - until Mrs Sobad popped the jackets in her pack. We had caught up a lot on the news in the car - a bit less was caught up on the way up Mt Cawte - we did need to watch our feet on the wet track. On the way up, Mrs SoBad was admiring the CO for taking a large cache up here, but didn't comment out loud. So when she was following the GPS at the top and saw a small container lying on the grass she was not sure what is was. A closer look, a check with the others.... Oh. So after all the time she had looked at the listing she had forgotten it was a small. The lid was cracked, but the contents fine and the cache was replaced in the obvious spot she then saw near by. A slight bit of drizzle on the last 300m to the car but we were so happy with the weather overall. We did lack the views, but it was a comfortable temperature for the walk up and down.
Thanks. Too long in the finding but well worth the wait. A favourite of course.

Well this was the main objective of my outing today. This cache has been on my to do list for ages so today I took time out to make it so. I managed just under 2 hours car to car. It's a great track that certainly deserves more (non-muggle) visits. Seems to be pretty well maintained and an interesting plaque at the top too. Zero'd in on the cache after a short search. TFTC, Biggles.

This cache was today's main focus - a chance for Jojo and I to sweat out some of the toxins that may have got into the system on New Years Eve. And it didn't disappoint. First half is consistently up, giving you the impression that you have beaten it quickly. But it is a little longer than expected to the actual cache. The good news is the cache is all good, so the walk was not in vain. And we did it in good time too. FP for the view, and another little nook of Marlborough we hadn't been to before. Thanks Geopopnz.

With a long time target of Pops top spot on my radar and a calm weekend of Winter weather looking good for a couple of finds I headed out this way on my own. nightowl19 was having a lie in and mrs capperz was at work for the morning. Oh, and there was a newly listed multi cache to find too whilst in the area which I managed to be first to find too.
Parked at the noted co-ordinates and headed up the track at 0910. After putting my name in the visitors book, a good place for a cache? I headed up the Mount with flask of tea, fleece woolly hat and a sweat-on! After stopping briefly to admire, and photograph, the various views I arrived at G Z at 1005. Time for a tea and a nut bar before the knee jarring trip back down. A lovely well formed track and not too hard had me back at the start at 1055 so under 2 hours round trip was pleasing.
An F P for bringing me up here, such a beautiful area and views ro die for. Photos on later
T F T C geopopnz

[green] What a day! First I decide to go to the sounds, mainly to do two caches that I had missed earlier, and place one while I was out that way, Then I find I hav a corrupted load in my GPS, I can navigate, but a description or hint causes it to lock up. Luckily I have my cellphone, so I load all the caches that I might do into that, then half the time leave it in the car (which is okay, usually I don't need a hint, but reading the description is often nice). I expected the trip to up to Titirangi to be mostly dirt road and long distances, but was rather surprised at how far the seal went, and how far Titirangi isn't, really. Not that I got there. I tossed up staying the night and continuing Sunday, but decided not. Saved for another day.

So I was in the car at 6:30 am, found two caches and placed one by 10:30. And this cache was one of the reasons, driving all the way out here just to do this one cache that the Taybees and I had missed earlier. In fact, I went right to the end of the road, thinking it started from there. Seemed like I had reached he top but, like the description says, no. There was still a kilometre to go! I was only half way! Some great views from the three seats along the way. It might have been a hot day, and I'm sweating like mad, but it gets a favourite. And a path tag and an emerald! And photos.

Would be nice to see a track start waypoint added to this cache (yes, I know the coords are in the description, a provided waypoint is easier to navigate to) I also noticed that the track was missing off the maps, so I have added it, making it a little easier for others to find the start.

Nice hike up the hill. Amazing views! Lots of steps, and I can see what you mean by after thinking you've reached the top spot it goes on for quiet a bit longer! Book a little damp but still usable.Tftc

All sorted and cleaned up. New container/log so should be good now, for a while. Happy hunting, hunters.

cracks in box so no longer waterproof, full of water when we got there.

We were heading to a batch in the area for the weekend. We saw this lonely cache on the top of the mountain and decided it needed to be found. It was beautiful day as we started the climb. The views got better and better. The cache was easily found but is in need of repair. The lid is badly cracked and the cache was soaked. We dried it out as best we could and attempted to sign the log book. Thanks for the cache and the lovely day walk

Found with LuckySteaks, lovely day for a lovely walk up Mt Cawte. Cache very soggy and in need of maintenance.

Cool walk up to this one. Coords seemed to be out, but clue got us there! TFTC

Found this cache sort off by accident. A mate and I where going for a hunt without knowing about the track. About halfway up the hill carefully finding our way trough the bush we come across the track. We followed it uphill and near the top I take my gps out to look at the terrain map and see that we are less then a 100 meters away from a geocache. A quick walk to the top and found and signed the log. Unfortunley the geocache was the only thing we managed to find that day. And funny thing was that we parked less then 50 meters away from the beginning of this track not knowing about is. TFTC

Annual survey completed - all OK

We made the walk three of us, introducing geocaching to David, as this was his first cache found. The walk over the mountain was really nice, thanks for the hide.

Great...It was my really first one...Cheers...

found it with integersmirk and the penguins but forgot to log it on time.TFTC

We lost one member of the party 20min in to the walk, and then Sis and Nephew abandoned the trip 800m from GZ after they had done all the hard work. Easy find at the summit and a nice walk after some dawn paddling. Great to be out here thanks for the motivation tftc

Stunning walk, only takes 3 hours if you do the loop, which is worth doing. The walk is under bush, so quite ok to tackle this on a hot day. Beware of children and possum traps though - there are the old-fashioned ones that break fingers lying right beside the track; and one has a live possum in - very cruel way to die. I wonder who puts them here??

What a beautiful place - well worth the climb - incredible day and amazing views - "pinch me" moments! THANK YOU!!!

Great walk on a sunny morning. The view are well worth the climb. Perfect picnic spot if you have time to stop. TFTC

Another trail I would never have found without the cache at the top, thanks for putting it there. Went the steeper track down, which may be better suited in summer for people with grass contact allergies like me... The entry is 50 m back from the end of the public road, up the stairs.
The full loop including the road took me almost three hours, including the two caches at the road, but just going up and back the same route is much faster.

Pleasant walk after breakfast. OB have done great. Wonder if track is clearer now, as 1.5hr return no jogging. This is one every body can do. view from trig is worth it. The top "trig" made me smile. Great spot.

Great sunny day for a climb (400 meters). Track in good condition, thanks to Outward Bound students, who were doing track maintenance. Cache in good condition too (left a 1964 NZ Penny). Loved the walk along the bushy tops with Bellbirds, Tui's, Tomtits and Fantails for company.

Thanks for the co-ords for the track entry, might have been frustrating otherwise. Outward Bound students have done a great job, the look-out, on the way was a beauty. Did not try counting the steps!! Have always thought there should be a track up there, now a nice graded MTB trail right around the hill would be a good idea for the area. TFTC.

Great cache this. I guess you weren't a professional sales person Pop because you made it sound a lot worse than it is! The last k is a flat ridge walk! I did clear all the cob webs and picked up about 300g of hook grass seed on the way, so the next person is warned . Track has only been open for a just over 3 months and the gorse is fighting back. Great community initiative, I am very grateful. Thank you for bringing me here. Logging at the lookout and about to have some breakfast now. TFTC #CS#

EDIT: I think I signed the log as 22.2.11 - getting giddy with the ones and twos today! Also, to ensure people aren't put off, even (slow) Mr B managed to do this under 3 hours, so most of you should expect to be back at the car in about 2 hours.


This entry was edited by beltfamily on Friday, 11 February 2011 at 17:03:10.

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