Ratapiko Lakeside Ramble (Taranaki) Ratapiko, North Island, New Zealand
By Manaia on 01-Mar-11. Waypoint GC2PZJ8

Found, great clue, so peaceful

Tftf, lovely place, lid needs attention

Found while waiting for the sunrise TFTC

My son got married at a venue across the lake last year, I said Ooo look there’s a cache down the road close by. I was told under NO circumstances by my daughter in-law to be was I too just nip out to look for it at her wedding.

Nice spot to stop & stretch the legs. Short search & cache was located. Tftc

Looks like a good place to have a swim but no time today. Found & signed.

Found 1

All found, third one down

Cool spot. Awesome lake. TFTC.

on way to waitara decided to take the long way and pick up some caches out this way,easy find and cache in good condition.the lake is beutiful nice place for a summer swim but not today bit windy and cold no one around today.

out with grandad geocaching to grab this cache in the country.

I used to spend a week or so in Ratapiko every summer holidays when I was at school so this geocaching trip brought back memories of peaceful times away from urban areas. I would have loved to have had a ramble around the area but it was raining very heavily when we arrived and showed no sign of letting up.

With the weather being the way it was, I was grateful for the very helpful hint. Also, great work by the geodatum team in carrying our remedial work which should last a long time.

We've come out for a day at the lake with friends who have a boat. Hubby and girls having lots of fun on wake boards and biscuits. Nice n quiet this morning with only 2 other groups oft here. This afternoon there are a lot more boats, jet skis, and kayaks here.
I snuck away for a quick walk to grab this cache. TFTC

We are on a ten day road trip to Taranaki, The Forgotten Highway, Taumaranui, Ohakune and back home to Palmy. Along the way will be sightseeing, short mountain walks, museum visits, a rail cart journey and, of course, geocaching. Day 4 - we’re now based in Stratford for four days and will make trips out from here.

This was our last day in Stratford for tomorrow we head along the Forgotten World Highway. This cache was our must-do today as we needed it to complete finding a cache that had been hidden on every day of the year - just one date, the first of March, had eluded us. We’d long ago completed the other part of the challenge of finding a cache on every day of the year.
We enjoyed the attractive countryside on the drive out to the lovely Lake Ratipiko. We were pleased to have been brought here. The weather was fine thank goodness after last night’s prolonged heavy rain, but there was still a very chilly wind so we didn’t linger.
The cache was easily enough located but it was in an extremely bad state, essentially a plastic bag of sodden, disintegrating mess! The only thing still surviving was a 200 ml sistema. So we extracted that and placed in it a fresh waterproof log sheet inside a pill bottle. We have since disposed of the rest of the contents in the rubbish. Hopefully now the cache will be good for some time yet. Thanks for bringing us here Manaia.

Teamed up with Cats&Dragons, for an overnight mission down the West Coast focusing in and around Hawera. It's been awhile since we've done a trip like this and it was great to be out finding caches again. We left Hamilton at 7pm Friday night and returned midnight Saturday, with only a few hours of sleep needed we managed 116 finds for the trip. A big thanks to all the cache owners for their placements.

Got here just on dark, thought this was going to be a tricky find from the hint, but that didn't turn out to be so. Thanks for bringing us here.

Found but contents are very wet and unable to sign,

Good easy find

My kids attend the school just down the road so on an early pickup we thought we would come find the geocache. We weren't hopeful as it hadn't been found in a while. But it's still there. The snails had made a home of it and the log book has turned to paper mache. We couldn't sign the log but will come back soon and replace the log.

Quick find. Log a little damp. Tftc

Found with GPetone on a HVTC cycling trip from Stratford to New Plymouth via back roads. A lovely spot. TFTC

A nice little lake hiding in the Taranaki countryside. Wrapped cache in another plastic bag but log damp.
Found with Patandjohn while on Patandjohn.'s HVTC cycle trip.
TFTC

Found it. Might need bit of maintenance

Sweet spot. TFTC

On my way to New Plymouth and thought i'd detour up to the chemical weapons factory. In doing so i also targeted the other realitively nearby caches such as this one.
Straight forward find with the hint.
Thanks for bringing me out here, another scenic spot discovered.

Found with Trayc.g, logging now as I have my own account. TFTC

Our first one of the day, heading to Tarata to grab a few more. Have done some sea biscuiting on this lake in the past so brought some funny memories back. Thanks for bringing me back here! TFTC

Hadn't been in our original plan to find this cache today, but we were in the area already and had plenty of time, so we backtracked and drove to the lake. The sun had come out and there were a few people on the lake. Parked the car and walked to GZ and cache found. Cool little spot.

Left tb behind

Been awhile since I was last out here, decided to have lunch at the lake, abit choppy today, but someone had just been out on their boat, tftc Manaia

Found it

A quick park and grab while out with Geo-dog. Tftc. The lake looked amazing today!

Very wet

Favourite family spot in summer

Easy find

Last one out this way time to head home

Found on a round trip via North Taranaki with Gnome62. Haven't been out here for such a long time. Lake seemed a bit quite and then realised it was duck shooting season so found the cache and moved off as fast as we could, was getting toward dark and time for the guns to come out again. Left a diamond. Thanks for the cache.

I used to come here during holidays. Was great to come back and take Ellie for a walk! TFTC

Nice cache. One bag is very wet and brown. TFTC

Found it

Lovely afternoon - and a nice straightforward cache with a little twist. TFTC ☺

TFTC

Awesome view of the lake. Spent some time watching people on the lake. With pvmills and molldog

Gee that one stumped me! But a bit of perseverance and I got it! TFTC

Found

Found

We started the day off heading for the Huinga Tunnel cache but we never got there as we changed our mind and did a different loop
We put a dry log in and dried the container out

Found but extremely water damaged so couldn't write in log.

Found it but it was so wet and needs looking at asap

Found while out touring with the MX5 club. There was a pause between showers so the convoy of cars stopped at the lake. I found the cache then found I'd dropped my pen. I went back to the car for another pen then another quick walk back to sign the log. TFTC

On our way to the Taranaki for a few nights.

A nice cache in a nice spot

Tftc

Found it!

Did not know there was a camp ground here. What a stunning spot. No log book

Super cool spot!

Super cool spot!

Quick find today. Enjoyed looking for this, thanks.

I worked out here quite a few years ago at the school for a week. And knowing there was a geocache out here I often thought I should take a detour out along this road again and look for the cache.. Well it took about 5 years to actually get round to doing this, as I pass en route to or from New Plymouth visiting relations there. Both the lake and school are as I remembered and it was good to actually pick this one up.
Thank you for the cache.

Been here many, many years ago. Very popular here today, but everyone jet-skiing, biscuiting behind jet boat or kayaking - too busy to pay me any attention. Easy find. TFTC

I scouted this one out a few weeks ago but there were a few muggles around, so I thought Id save it for a week day. I got this one just before the rain came in so it was nice an quite with no one around. I had to dodge a passing truck so a dive into the scrub at the road side and the cache appeared. This is such a beautiful little lake which I had never visited until I was scouting this one out. TFTC

Day #1 of a 3 day road trip to the Taranaki.

Found on a night caching mission after dropping off gear at my accommodation in New Plymouth.

A quick find; this cache made for a nice lonely distance for a challenge cache I'm working on.

Thanks!

Bute lakes

Beautiful autumn colours by the Ratapiko Lakeside, thanks for showing us this lovely location.

This wasn't quite the intended route this evening but nice to be able to find a bonus cache near the lake.
Many thanks

Headed south with Zorgon for a bit of a trip through some backroads to find caches some distance from the next closest cache for a stage of the GCLS Challenge. After driving down after work from hamilton this was going to be one long evening.

Full dark by now and hadn't quite intended to end up here but all caches are a bonus. Cache was dry when we found it so no problems here

TFTC

Tftc the old log was very wet

After a weekend away took the long way home via the back roads in the Naki. A good clue led me straight to this one - nice spot. TFTC

Number one for the day. Took pet rock and left bottletop. SL TFTC.

A quick stop & grab.
No problem with the cache with it's new container & log book.
Left a pet rock - a rabbit. TFTC

Much better with the new container and logbook. tftc

This was such a disappointing cache. The container is totally unsuitable, the log book is a sopping wet lump of paper and the location is uninspiring and possibly even marginally dangerous. We were puzzled as to why the nearby boating lake wasn't the GZ instead.
We left a small Sistema container with a temporary log in a small zip-loc baggie.

Nice drive out and good location. Shame the cache was in such a bad state but thanks for bringing me to a pretty spot

Found it while traveling the back roads today... This cache is in a really bad state, it is wet and sodden...

This cache is in a really bad state, it is wet and sodden...

nice spot log book was very wet unable 2 sign

lots of people out on the lake. log needs maintenance

Nice easy find but shame about the log book. Was able to open the tin eventually but the log was unable to be signed.

A nice ride to the cache with ozlad and a lovely view of the lake from there. Enjoyed it! TFTC!

found it, cache looks very wet, we decided not to open it, tftc its been many years since i have been to ratapiko

Container rusty, broken and bent

Full of water and log completely soaked

Needs to be replaced.

Quick find but in bad condition. TFTC

[Nice part of NZ, not been around here before. Such a peaceful location.]

Cache was pretty exposed, I think some of the bush behind it has been chopped back. It was also covered in paint (they've obviously repainted the fence recently). [Still in good working order though!

TFTC!]

This entry was edited by rp252 on Sunday, 29 April 2012 at 08:48:13 UTC.

My 1000th cache! Celebrated this by having lunch by the lake at the reserve. Lovely place. TFTC

A rapid find on the way past today. There was water inside the cache container but the log is dry inside its sealed plastic bag. Very peaceful and picturesque spot. Signed log, TFTC.

Found this lake by accident a few years ago, lovely little spot. The house across the waters must have the most awesome outlook! TFTC!

Perfect day for a drive. TFTC

Very cold and windy here this morning TFTC Manaia

nice lake, unfortunatly closed for duck shooting, easy find with good clue, TFTC Cheers MM

Lovely wee lake, the reflection of the trees on the other side looked lovely today. Cheers Gav [8241]

Popped into this one on the way home TFTC

A nice lake, looks like it might be a good fishing spot. TFTC.

Decided to do this cache while I was doing some work in the Naki, found the cache quickly signed and admired the views before heading back on my way, thanks for bringing me here, TFTC TNLNSL (2804)

This entry was edited by Yeetrees on Friday, 11 March 2011 at 22:58:23 UTC.

Found with G_G_G. Quick stop before picking up Manaia and heading to Wanganui. TFTC bro!

Published