One Of These Things Doesn't Look Like The Others Western Springs, North Island, New Zealand
By MagneticYellow on 07-Jun-11. Waypoint GC2XN9F

Was at Western Springs for the afternoon and noticed a sign that MOTAT have free entry for the month of June. Not having been for ages we went in for a look.
As I had the GPSr for the caches around the Springs we had stopped for a bite of afternoon tea at the cafe and I said 'wait what's this a cache just 15m away!'
Had a read of the details and went for a look, didn't find anything but then my food was ready.
Had a look as we left but still no luck..........now I see why !@!
Not sure how this stayed in the GPSr for so long as it shouldn't be showing in my PQ [?][?]

Anyway had a good look around MOTAT

Cheers M+S [:O)]

Hiding a cache in a commercial location is dodgy at best - locating it near the fenceline (so people come looking for it on the other side) is downright nasty.

E-mail sent to CO discussing commercial cache guidelines.

We picked this cache as a marker for our visit to NZ, and we will be visiting the establishment. As the cache description does not mention the place at all, what is commercial about it? I just would think as a help it shoud say placed with property owner permission, & to let folks know they will need to go inside. No point getting the knickers in a twist about it, and not every single cache needs to be found, stick it on your ignore list, or go when it is free, as for us, we'll be going in and paying the fee to have a look around. One of the things we love about geocaching in general is to find those quirky things that are highlighted by the locals when we are travelling.See ya all at the NZ Mega in Dunedin.
cheers
Gayle & Mark - Australia

we had the area to ourselves, and we could not locate this, but reading it appears to be well hidden, never mind another time perhaps
but we enjoyed motat , too much to do in one day

Sat down at lunch time and wondered if there was a cache anywhere near. Pulled out the phone, fired up the caching app and guess what, a cache just 11m away. Well one can't just let that one pass. A brief search before the food arrived didn't revel the hide, but a bit more thinking during and then it was quickly spotted afterwards. A clever hide. TFTC

Came to MOTAT to retrieve this cache. GPS battery died as we reached GZ, but eventually found by using the hint. TFTC

Grabbed this one while exploring MOTAT. TFTC

Yepp... my second DNF for today. Looks like you have to go into the motat (according to my GPS's at least) and I didn't had money on me. Will attempt this another time (with money).

Visited MOTAT today with the kids in the wet weather - easy find. TFTC

found it really quick had to be carefull lots of muggles

Tricky find

#2869. Was visiting MOTAT and thought "I wonder if there is a cache here" and sure enough there was. Spotted without too much trouble, and then carried it around for a bit while tracking down Troodles so she could find the log too. TFTC.

Enjoyed my first visit to MOTAT, it's well worth a visit, but we had other commitments so had to cut our visit short.
StreetWalker did the hard work in finding the cache, I just needed to sign the log.
TFTC.

Found on the second attempt without the aid of GPS, just a vague recollection that there was one here somewhere. Once I stopped looking too hard, easy peasy! TFTC

Nope I couldn't get over that fence and MOTAT was closed. Wasn't very clear that cache is inside grounds.

Visited MOTAT with WelshGirl77 and SquishyD and had a lovely day. However, when we attempted to locate the cache there was a private party using the area and we could not get close enough to locate the cache.

Nice easy cache on a freevfor aucklanders month. Tftc

Found in second go. TFTC
July 30, 2011 | 4:46 PM

3/4th of the team were visiting motat. Half the team detoured and located the cache. TFTC

15:50 Quick find. Last opportunity to get into MOTAT for free, so felt compelled to come after being on the wrong side of the fence yesterday. TFTC.

Obviously on the far side of the fence. The cache listing should be made clear that the cache is inside MOTAT.

My GPSr only had the last 4 logs so I did not know it was inside MOTAT.

Can I suggest the the Title of the cache be changed to;
One Of These Things Doesn't Look Like The Others (MOTAT)

The (Western Springs) is very misleading.

Decided to take the tour of Motat on this nothing to do afternoon with dedicaching as she needs her walk exercise for the up comming month

Did that and ticked this cache off the list. Nice hide. Thank you for bringing us here

TFTC MagneticYellow

Took my walk while enjoying this beautiful place...and snakelion manage to find the cache while at it...Nice hide

TFTC MagneticYellow

It's years since I last visited MOTAT, so took advantage of the free entry and had a good look around, with the cache as a bonus of course.

TFTC

7014 Found during a lunch date with Mrs YuGeo at Cropper House... soon spotted the odd one out, nice hot chips and cache hide... enjoyed our wander around Motat, especially the static steam engine display, awesome. Many thanks for bringing us back.

Quick find with Willbuild. Too small for any Geocoins or Travel bugs.

Found during the Free Entry phase.

TNLNSL

T4TC

Quick find while out with Zork for the afternoon. Will come back one day.

Hi Curglaff

I'm sure you know the ins and out of these things far better than I do, but I placed the cache after being inspired by the one which has been placed at Auckland Zoo. (Although mine isn't as complex.. I thought I'd start simple)
I assumed that the Zoo would fall under the same sort of category as MOTAT so it would be fine.

I also noted the $ symbol which can be listed as one of the attributes which I have ticked (although MOTAT is currently free and often has "free months" for different parts of Auckland, so didn't think paying for a cache would be an issue.)

Punga and Paua noted that other places do have costs to find the cache (GC21VP1 Lady Knox Geyser Adult $32.50
GC1VJ7B Karori Gold Rush Adult $18.50) which I'm sure is also relevant.

If my cache is in breach, then does this jeopardize the placement of these too?

Thanks

Does it still count when the cache is disabled? Motat was free today so no entry fee woes for us. We were there, the cache was there and now the Pastamaker signature is there!

TFTC

I got this one just before it was made unavaliable...lets hope I can log it.
Got in with the free entry, and never realised motat was so cool!! Will be back later in the month to visit again when I have more time!!
Neat idea to make to museum free.
And I think its a neat as cache!!
TFTC!!

Why the fuss? It's not the first paying cache.
GC21VP1 Lady Knox Geyser Adult $32.50
GC1VJ7B Karori Gold Rush Adult $18.50

Making unavailable while I sort out the entry fee issue.

Pretty rotten weather today so figured it was the perfect day for a quick (free ) visit to Motat at lunchtime. Discussions about paying to visit a cache aside, the hide is good - slightly out of the way and nicely camouflaged. Thankfully, because I didn't have much time, I spotted it straight away. Opened it up to be greeted by a blank logbook - FTF #756 . To be fair, on the $ issue, there is a $ attribute there for a reason, and we don't need to do every cache... So thanks, MagneticYellow, and congratulations on your first hide. TFTC!!!

What happens when June free month ends, you will need to pay to find the cache?

Congrats funkymunkyzone

I was on the road heading towards this and just minutes away when it was published, but I too decided that $14 wasn't worth it for an FTF. Funny though, if I had, and some others below had also, then I suspect there would have been some sore $14 STF, TTF, etc...

For those who are worried about the entry fee, the site is currently in the middle of June free month hence the big banner out the front. (Please, don't all rush at once )
In regards to the location, I have gained permission from Site Management and the cache has been approved.
Happy hunting!

Didn't read the attributes correctly, and didn't realise it was on the paid side of the fence. Looks like a nice out of the way spot to visit when you are there, but I can now say neither Rosmar nor myself valued a FTF at $14. Not sure what that says about us!

This entry was edited by Boy4Life on Wednesday, 08 June 2011 at 04:47:21 UTC.

I dropped in on the way home and did the same thing. I got close to the fence and thought it must be one of those...but then I saw Boy4Life had made a note about the other side of the fence...$14 for a FTF not me either (I don't earn enough). I will pick it up next time we make a family visit.

Just curious if the land owner has given permission for the cache? Is it an issue?

Arrived at GZ at the same time as Boy4life and we both came to the same conclusion that the cache must be on the MOTAT side of the fence. The attributes seem to confirm this assumption. Felt that the entry fee for a FTF was a bit step. I suspect that this maybe private property.

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