Zealandia Power Trail Cache #26 Aro Valley, North Island, New Zealand
By taybee on 25-Sep-11. Waypoint GC2ZDFK

Nice quick hind here. Log still holding up fine. Tftc!

This was one of two in this trail I didn't manage to find when I did the rest in 2017! After a hiatus, I'm back to avenge these two. Walked straight to it and found immediately! Was surprised how invisible it was from one angle of the hint object, must've really been gorse covered all those years ago. TFTC.

Please see note by daughter ,mar1sa, thanks for the cache

We were looking at doing the crossing but weather was not in our favor so had these on the list to do at some stage myself hubby and dad, fantastic walk even if it was blowing a gail, as an added bonus the tunnels were open so we also went through, thabks for the placement and bringing us here.

It seemed a little busier on this side of the trail, with more bikers and more kaka. Lovely hearing the kaka and seeing them flying around. Didn't take long to find the cache, TFTC

Trouve ! / Found it ! Cela faisait un moment que je regardais pour faire cette belle srie qui m'intresse fortement pour ses cotations et ses autres raret. Mais mes comptences en anglais, l'aspect "une par une" et les nombreux DNF de la serie me laisse dubitatif.Jeudi, jour d'event. Je touche deux mots l'organisateur sur mon projet. Il me dit de contacter directement le propritaire, ce que je fais.Vendredi, bonne nouvelle, taybee junior doit faire une maintenance sur la srie et me propose de l'accompagner. Le rendez-vous est pris le lendemain matin.Samedi. Nous parcourons donc la srie ensemble avec taybee nz, remplaant les botes, les logbooks et les indices en fonction de nos dcouvertes. C'est ainsi que toute la srie sera boucle en une journe. Les paysages sont magnifiques, la balade assez intense sur le dbut et plus tranquille pour la suite, les spots sympa et la mto tait chaude mais agrable.Merci l'owner pour sa gentillesse, son fils pour l'accompagnement et tous les geocacheurs locaux forts sympathiques.I've been looking for a while to do this beautiful series which interests me greatly for its prices and other rarities. But my English skills, the "one by one" aspect and the numerous DNFs in the series leave me doubtful.Thursday, event day. I would like to say a few words to the organizer about my project. He tells me to contact the owner directly, which I do.Friday, good news, Taybee Junior has to do maintenance on the series and offers me to accompany him. The appointment is made the next morning.Saturday. So we go through the series together with taybee nz, replacing boxes, logbooks and hint based on our discoveries. This is how the entire series will be completed in one day. The landscapes are magnificent, the ride quite intense at the beginning and quieter for the rest, the spots nice and the weather was hot but pleasant.Thanks to the owner for his kindness, to his son for the support and to all the very friendly local geocachers.4270me cache trouve.Merci taybee pour la cache 4270th cache found.Thank you taybee for the cache

removing maintenance icon

Bwahahahahhaha..... five year old DNF....AVENGED!!!

Seems I was looking at the big obvious stump and not the other one nearby!

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Aquilus1 & I decided to take a short & sweet trip over the ditch to Wellington for the weekend. Flights were cheap, and we found a deal on the accommodation which is normally really expensive in Wellington.

We had a windy landing, and if anything the wind picked up a little... but that was it! The rest of the weekend was a little overcast then sunny, but the much vaunted 'wind' that I had talked up did not eventuate.

By some dumb luck, there was actually an event happening not that long after our landing...we just needed to get dinner first. Well, we read reviews and went to the best place.....and then waited 45 minutes! Though, once we arrived it seems we hadn't missed much. It was an interesting event and we heard a lot of cool stories. Very happy that we met everyone (and for me, who had attended a Wellington event almost 5 years previously....meet everyone again!)

The Shepherd arms was cheap as chips, but actually a very nice little hotel, loved all the sheep portraits they had upstairs.

So a few days travelling around the Hutt Valley and Red Rock coastal Wellington, taking Aquilus1 to the Year 2000 cache by Kevin, I think we found every virtual not on the top of a remote mountain or secret tin shed. Aquilus1 came in very handy to actually find the containers of the few caches that had them....she had the only pen!!!

What was most interesting was our hotel was actually on a clearway....one where they move cars blocking it. A clearway is understood by us, as we occasionally see them in Sydney....but we didnt see the sign. So we check out and get onto the street....and our car is nowhere to be seen....cue freakout!!! Funnily enough we heard a car alarm and joked it could be our rental.....in hindsight I think it was! But, after some panic we got onto a cheerful kiwi who told us the car had simply been moved further up the road....but we had been ticketed.....again, my heart sank. However, NZ only gives little slaps on the wrist for traffic fines as compared to Aussie! Trust me peeps, we would have been up for $1000 in Oz..... but it was a mere $130 NZD! Almost cheaper than parking!

Found a little way from where expected but happy to spot it tucked away.

Although I've heard much about Wellington I hadn't till now had the opportunity to visit, so it was great that I was able to come on a four day caching trip and experience it myself. An added bonus was that I would have the opportunity to go to GC46, my last of the NZ 2000 caches I needed to find... yes, needed!

Having the company of GreyHams was definitely a big plus (as always!), not only does he plan these trips, drive and navigate, this trip he was also my tour guide! Lots of pointing out the highlights, and the many things I had heard about I could finally see and experience for myself.

Have to say I was impressed with what awaited and just loved my visit with all it had to offer, such a scenic and interesting location. We were lucky that the day we arrived there was an event we could attend. It was great to meet the local cachers and share stories of caching adventures both local and abroad over dinner.

We worked around the weather a bit as it was forecast for rain, it did but usually only when driving or overnight so that was nice! Day 2 saw us driving out to lower and upper Hutt, and the Hutt River featured greatly along our travels! Staying close to the car as it rained worked nicely and GC46 was ticked of early... I understand it can be windy but it was often calm so I'm not sure if I missed out or got lucky!

So impressed by the greenery, the hills with perched houses and the spectacular harbor views. A walk out along the red rocks track to 'Devils Gate' was a highlight, we saw a seal and finally I saw my first ever bumblebees! Honorable mention to our car that wasn't where we left it overnight... bit of a concern until we found out it was just moved up the road a little!

Many thanks to all the CO's for your caches that help guide us around, we had a select list of caches for the short time we had, so if your cache made our list it had a quality we were needing, thank you!

Not doing as well as I started out! Back again but nope! Will put it on my watch list

Another one that hasn't been found in a long, long time. Lots of recent replanting on the slope suggests that it may have been found and disposed of. I certainly can't find it after twenty minutes of looking.

This geocacher reported that the cache might be missing.

Having this cache on my watchlist meant that I was alerted to Bennett24 being able to achieve something I was unable to on several visits. Great work on their part. I returned today and was able to quickly find the container now it is no longer buried. I was surprised it is a large as it is and wondered how I didn't manage to found it. The container is rather mis-shapen but I was able to easily remove the lid and replace it.

I am really pleased to have finally found all the caches in the series, particularly as I seem to be one of few who solved all the puzzles.

The Series:
We have had this series in our sights for a while now and it was a good reason to plan a trip to Wellington. After setting aside a weekend to make the trip we then went about solving the series earlier this year and after about a week of gradually figuring it out and had coordinates for all but 2 of the caches. Fortunately, we know a couple of past finders and they confirmed the numbers for all but 1 of them was correct, and with a small fine tuning which gave a better location for the related cache we had a spreadsheet full of the required information and some pretty good locations for the 2 we couldn’t confirm as well.

We planned our trip a month ago, but due to several things we had to postpone which was fortunate as we also went into lockdown again that weekend. We had decided that we wouldn’t have time to get the whole series so decided just to do the second half (18-30). While reading about the track we had noticed that mountain bikers could use it as well, so we hired e-bikes to give them a go and set off by way of the cable car to Zealandia. Nice quick ride to get there and enjoyed the power assistance up the hills but found the start of the track doing the series in reverse was not bike friendly so had to take them back down to the visitor centre and then set off on foot.

After trouble finding #30 and quite a while at #29 (see logs for those caches) we arrived at the area for #28 where we found good road access for the bikes. Back on foot to Zealandia we had lunch at the café before getting back on the bikes to begin the quest the far end – slightly overshooting and made it to #17. Altogether we found 10 caches, DNF’d 3 caches and replaced 1 cache with permission.

This Cache:
This was the best find of the day (although I was very pleased finding #28 too), after spending quite a few minutes looking around the suspected target at GZ, we both spread the search and looked over a few other items in the area. We were wondering what to do and I went back to the initial place and sudden noticed a piece of plastic (about the size of a 20c piece) in the ground. Dug around a little bit and yes, was the lid of a container. Soon after pulled the almost buried container from the ground. Cache is still in great condition and placed back behind the stump, TFTC. (Note: will add picture of the hole later)

Like #25 i leveraged all advice from activity logs but it just got to hot in the blazing sun to continue searching. Unlike 25 i had more optimism in finding this one but it wasnt to be. Like others my co-ords are inside the fence but searched outside as per all prior advice. No such luck for me today. Will return.

Just as number 38 is preventing me form completing the Kiwi Geo Trail, number 26 is getting in my way of this one. With a high degree of determination, I set out this morning (deliberately choosing a poor day in terms of weather to limit muggle interference) to search everything and taking into account every bit of information I could extract from earlier logs. It wasn't to be though despite spending 20 to 30 minutes looking. It does seem to me that this cache has become more difficult to find as time has progressed.

Man this was well hidden and it took me a while to find it. I had a significant coord error of around 12m so my GPS was not helping to get to the right place. A fair few hint objects and I think I searched them all before finally noticing something. TFTC.

# 1452 Team GST (Gr33nslime, Stardust 718 and TwigNZ) joined forces again today to take on the Zelandia Power Trail.

What a lovely track, a little bit of steepness but mostly just a nice meander around the sanctuary, enjoying the company, the views, and the beautiful song birds. I saw a saddleback, a robin and a kaka, which were all pretty special.

Pretty happy with the condition of the caches, most had some cool toys in them which took me back to my childhood (1995 mcdonalds toys!) and we only had to replace two of the logs. All up 28 of the 30 caches found and 6 hours car to car. Cheers taybee for this adventure..

Pretty happy that I was able to find this one for the team (after being a bit slack with the puzzle solving) After having three sets of eyes look over this hint item, i came back for my second pass and there it was. Hard to see because it was black, but still there!

Another awesome day's caching with Gr33nslime and Stardust718, with all logging signed as either GST or Team GST depending on size of logsheet.

I had never been around Zealandia Eco Sanctury before, and hadn't visited this area much apart from briefly visiting the Brooklyn Turbine by car shortly after initial construction almost 25 years ago, so wasn't sure what to expect. But the path was in pretty good condition, with just a few inclines of varying steepness to keep us on our toes. The weather looked like it was going to define our day initially, but in the end it was a beautiful Autumn day with a fresh southerly breeze to remind you that this was Wellington

Today's excursion was a few weeks in the making. With the current Cache Carnival event coming to a close, we had though to ensure that we all would get to the required 500 points, with around 400 available for this walk. A few evenings of puzzle solving in advance meant that most of today was spend simply searching for the caches. In the end we managed to find 28 out of the 30, plus a few others along the way, and we all ended the day having secured all 5 available Souvenirs.

Most of the caches we found after only a brief and straightforward search, although a small number of them proved tricky little blighters to spot! Mostly they were in good or acceptable condition, and we only had to replace 2 of the logsheets (this cache wasn't one of them) due to the existing one being pretty much mush! All in all a great way to spend a Saturday. Great exercise, great company, and great results.

Thank you for creating this series for us to enjoy.

#27 of 34 today

It was great to meet up with the rest of Team GST (Gr33nslime, stardust718 and TwigNZ) for another walk and caching trip. Our aim was to complete the Zealandia Power Trail. We had done a lot of prep work before going out and ended up with 26 of the 30 final co-ordinates pre-loaded. This saved some time on the trail but it still took us 6 hours to complete. 2 DNF's but we managed to complete the rest. Logged as GST.

Thanks to the cache owner who set up this trail and brought us to this location to walk and listen to the bird life. We replaced a few log sheets along the way but most were in good condition. A few very sneaky hides and it was good to have 3 pairs of experienced geocaching eyes searching at times.

#1679

Many clue items, no geocaches!

This one eluded us, looked for quite a while and extended our search area a lot but it was not meant to be today.

DNF. I had what I felt was a reasonable search of an item that could be the clue item, but it was deteriorating badly. I searched for another clue item and couldn't locate the cache elsewhere so returned to the obvious for a second look with no luck. GPS was putting me on the other side of the fence and about 6m further up the hill. Might need a check.

Without the code for #25 it was a case of trial and error with this one Luckily some of the possibilities were soon discounted and the solution turned up quite readily All present and correct here although I had to rely heavily on the hint because my instrument took me to a spot more than 10m away TFTC

I was on a bit of a mission today, had some time constraints which meant I only had 5 hours to complete as much of the power trail as possible. Got all the way around, had 2 DNF's though, so not fully successful on the series, but good enough for a half-days hike. Not many out on the perimeter today, maybe they were all inside as it was $2 entry fee day... Having made a DNF on the previous cache in the series, I was able to decifer what the clue should have been, and was able to make the next find. TFTC

Couldn't find this one as didn't have X from the previous cache, but have done some mathematical magic and worked out the coords for finding another time.

Daylight savings ended last night, and it's a stunning Wellington day on a long weekend. Hoping to finish the Zealandia Power Trail today. TFTC

Today has been a long time coming. I last tackled the Zealandia power trail six months ago but only got to #17 (which I DNF'd) before I ran out of time to get to the airport. Well, this time when I got called away for a last minute mission to Wellington, I made sure I would have enough time to get back up here again. That extra time was actually tomorrow, but the mission went so well that I finished before 4pm today and I felt I would have enough time to get up to these and at least knock a few off.... but of course I did much better than that, I had a few DNF's but these seemed to be for problematic hides so I am not alone!

So, I managed to get all the way from #30 to #17, avenge my DNF on that one (I was just a single pole off!!!) and find most of the rest. Last time I was out here with my Garmin, without interwebs... and I had not realised that some of these puzzles were complex and need to be solved offline, leading to a few surprises. I managed to find 12 ish, and this was enough data for me to able to grind out all the coordinates using a mix of logic, simultaneous equations and occasionally a bit of trial and error.... but, today, I had GZ calculated for all of this series....no field puzzles today! and this really sped things up a great deal.

So, all in all a spectacular day: avenge a DNF, grab a pile of high D/T combos which fills in another 2 or 3 slots on my grid.... and I got back to the hire car (I normally dont hire a car in Wellington, but did for this trip!!) before it got dark. Woot!

Thanks for placing and maintaining this series!

My "big walk" for my time in Wellington. Arrived about 7:30am and went around clockwise from the Sanctuary carpark. Back to the car just before noon with a good collection of finds. Thanks for the caches and the chance to see Zealandia - plenty of birdlife to observe.

Took a while here, but a previous log was very helpful.

Searching in the dark, after looking in many areas, and reading thru previous logs, knew this was going to be a tricky find. Again did battle with the gorse and blackberry, and after a very long time, I knew that it was time to walk away.

My first DNF in the series, its late, and I have a few more finds to hopefully make before I catch the bus! Reading the logs knew this was going to be tricky, so did not stress too much about leaving one behind. Next time!

Finally nabbed this one to complete the series, somehow this one caused us great difficulty in locating compared to the others. Quite busy today but had a clear stretch when SJT_NZ finally signaled the Found it whistle. All in good order, TFTC

Finally! This one had reached nemesis status having made probably nearing 10 different visits and even a steer from the CO. Like other have said coordinates appear to be on the other side of the fence, but walked up and down until where the distance was at a minimum, and sure enough there is a Hint object that appears as if had numerous aggressive searches.

TregearP and I searched around there, and then widened the search area, and then a bit further again until the Eureka moment. Almost in plain sight - once you are looking in the right place from the right angle. All in good condition - signed log and left a card for the Wellington Event New Zealand 2018.

Thanks for the cache, a FP for the relief of having this one off my Still to Find list, and also the series which is now complete.

Cache # 3,747 - A nice walk on a cold morning today. Took a while to locate the very well hidden cache. Similar to others I found the coordinates off by about 9 meters, with the GPS pointing inside the fence. All good at the cache. TNLNSL. TFTC!

Consecutive caching day # 1,452

I've been meaning to come back up here to look for this cache for quite a while. I came up 2 times before Christmas with no luck... and left feeling a bit frustrated about it.

It was such a nice day in Wellington today I made a spur of the moment decision to have another look. This time I put aside all my preconceived ideas and approached it like it was my first attempt. And guess what? When I stopped on the track I was within 1 metre of the cache and, even though I didn't find it straight away, I was in exactly the right spot.

The cache is in good condition. All nice and dry.

Thank you

Cherrys Rule

A quick find while trying to complete the second half of the trail that I started last summer. Please note the container is still there and nicely tucked away with some gorse cover and is reachable from the path. All in order. TFTC

Alas, I will not find all of them today. Searched for quite a while in the likely spots, but many of them look like they've been damaged (woodlice?) pretty recently. Based on recent logs, this one could be worth checking to see if still there. Will return at a future date to fulfil the series!

It seems strange that this cache seems to have been easy to find in its early days and it is only recently that DNFs have been recorded. I, too, was being directed to the wrong side of the fence but comments in previous logs led me to believe I was searching in the correct place. More importantly, they contained information on what not to do.

Between muggle interruptions, I had fairly thorough searches on both my outward and return trips. I will be pretty keen to return as this is the only one in the series I haven't found. Another cache for the watchlist.

Came back for another look today. Still no luck. Will have to leave it till next year now.

Thank you

Cherrys Rule

FOUND -TOYOTA CAR KEYS

I didn't find it but I did find a set of Toyota car keys sitting on one of the hint items.

Judging by the destruction of the hint items, I'm not the only who's been looking lately.

As noted by gasbottle, the coordinates I had pointed to the other side of the fence. I spent a good half hour searching with no luck. Will have to try again on another day.

Thank you

Cherrys Rule

The main plan for today was to tackle the Zealandia trail, plus depending on how the day went a small detour up to Hawkins hill. The day started a bit later than I first planned, and was dropped off at the Zealandia a little after 11am. I couldn't of asked for a better day for it as there wasn't a could in the sky, and the Wellington breeze meant it wasn't overly hot.

It turned out to be a very challenging day, with the hills, the tricky hides and the solving as you go, and with a little bit of luck all bar one of the caches attempted were found. I only got as far as #27 when I decided to call it a day about 7pm and come back in the morning once I had had a crack at the final puzzles back at the accommodation. At the end of the day the GPS read about 18kms traveled. A big thanks to Taybee for setting up such a great trail, and all the other CO's for their placements as well.

This cache took the longest to find with about 30mins of searching needed to spot the darn thing. Like others have mentioned the GPS was pointing me on the other side of the fence but when I did find the cache it was directly opposite where the GPS was pointing me. I think I checked every log/stump 40m of GZ numerous times before I found it, and in a spot I seemed to keep coming back too, however I just kept missing the bit that held the cache. So glad to eventually find this one.

My GPS seemed to think the coordinates were the other side of the fence so some hurried arithmetic was required to verify them. I think I had the right values but the GPS was adamant so I ignored it and searched the hint objects, of which there were several. After about ten minutes, plus interruptions for passing muggles, the cache was in hand and the log signed. TFTC

For more to go!

#2271 Out on a mission to collect the Zealandia Power Trail today with bijouxtoo and Paua Rangers. Picked the perfect day for it and we knocked them all off as well as a couple of traditionals for good measure. Thanks for all your efforts Taybee, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Another quick find

On the home straight now and heading downhill. TFTC!

Serene vista; cheers taybee.

Looked at a few of the objects before finding the cache. tftc

Gorse made some wins before this one was claimed. Nice to get to the end of this part of the series. TFTC

Out for a long caching weekend with KiwiExplorer and JoshThePirate We did a lot of good caches, odd caches and some of them were just caches
But most important, we had a lot of fun and the weather was brilliant all the time! [^] Thanks for all the caches

Today we did the Zealandia Trail and KE did all the pre-work. I was just the Waterboy and motivator The in field stuff was not as hard as expected, well beside the buring sun We managed to get all caches and all needed information to complete the trail - thanks for the fun day

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Cache.Mike

I have been meaning to have a go at this trail for a while and Cache.Mike and I may have attempted it last May if not for the rain that was forecast then. I expected the trail to be a challenge and potentially frustrating so came mentally prepared. Today was a beautiful Wellington day perfect for a walk with a gentle breeze and overcast start but eventually lots of sun.

The mental arithmetic is getting harder as we get more tired bit so far we have avoided any silly mistakes and the finds keep coming.
Thanks taybee for the cache.

#9943

I had to look at a couple of hint objects without success when I found the correct one looking a little worse for wear - no problems with the cache, though! TFTC

1318 Last one in this corner of the trail. Will come back next year and finish the rest. Nice little hiding place. Habe just finished a similar trail up the Hakarimata range in the Waikato. Find a cache collect a code. Then find a puzzle cache. Makes me get out of my hotel room. Thanks.

Finial stage today. Looking forward to completing it. Really really enjoyed doing this series!

Was a bit confused by one of the puzzle numbers at first but then suddenly clicked. The final coordinates pointed to the other side of the fence but was in line with the cache so we found it reasonably quickly. I didn't quite understand the wording of the hint until I got to GZ. Turns out the hint was very clear.

Mrs B and I walked the entire Power Trail loop today, starting at 10:00 a.m. down at Zealandia and getting back around 4:20, in time for a cup of tea at the café. We met up with agcnz an hour after the start (still at cache #2) and he accompanied us for the rest of the journey.

Agree with GSEL that the co-ords point to the wrong side of the fence, so I ignored them and used cacher instinct. After a couple of minutes of searching in the general vicinity, climbing the bank as required, I spotted the nicely concealed cache. TFTC

There is always one and ZPTC26 is it. Well I came up again today and admired the fresh snow settled on the track above Highbury. Stunning clear views today and very crisp. Quite a few walkers out and about on a Monday as well. Mrs CoopsNZ had confirmed the coordinates l had calculated were correct and dropped a few hints as well. So up to the row of stumps once again and began the search. The GZ appeared to be on the other side of the fence which didn't help. But I gave each object a thorough looking over and searched all the ground near them. Nothing. I don't think this one will be solved by me unless someone literally points it out. Frustrating but still a lovely place to come to today.

I wasn't planning on going back to do the remaining Zealandia Power Trail caches the next day but with the fine weather continuing I thought why not. So back up to Highbury and along the track again. This one had me stumped - literally. I tried doing a range of maths on the formulas and kept coming up with places that didn't seem likely. Finally one arrangement looked more promising and I approached a likely hint object. But it was covered in large gooey looking orange fungi. I picked around but couldn't find any container. Will have to check this site again another time.

With DjaliDjinn as we close in on the end of the series.. Reasonably straightforward find.

The puzzle had me stumped but Yosser 9 was in the correct frame of mind to work out what was required. Tftc!

#238. Decided I needed to do another cache on the ZP Trail to keep up my "streak" before crazy weather hits town. Walked in from the top of Polhill reserve. As I walked down the fenceline, I had some of the hint objects in my sight, but as I looked at my phone, I realised I'd walked past straight past GZ and had to backtrack. The question was, which one? Clambering up, braving the gorse, I couldn't find the cache. Hmm, time to get down and re-evaluate. That's when I lost my balance and fell bottom down in the gorse. Ouch ouch, ouch - blood even! And wouldn't you know it, no need to climb up anyway. Easy(?) find in the end. Just painful. Tftc.

#126. Decided to do another one of this Power Trail with CoopsNZ and keep the streak up. She fell in the gorse - TFTC

Finally managed to arrange a work trip to Wellington that was more than a fly-in/fly-out … with a spare day up my sleeve, I was really keen to tackle this power trail but needed the weather to play nice … thankfully it did. I did as much pre-homework as possible, knowing I'd be alone and trying to complete the full trail. And threw in extra spare batteries plus hard copies of all the puzzles as back up, lest my muddled brain meant I was out here for hours on end. All the pre-work paid off thankfully, the weather was better than I expected, the trail was great and the scenery and the bird-life were fantastic. The route was considerably more sociable than I was expecting too: met quite a few dog-walkers & runners but the chattiest by far were the sanctuary volunteers clearing undergrowth along sections of the fence line. I learnt heaps about the area, the flora, the fauna, from them: each group I came upon seemed really keen for a chat (or at least a short break!) Sadly I live too far away to take up their offer of joining their ranks All in all, a great day out.

Good co-ords & good hint, no issues with this one - such a great trail! TFTC

#1163 Went further through these than expected today. Couldn't work out the coordinates for some reason so looked for where the cache might be - found relatively easily using the hint. TFTC

Last summer the idea was born to visit [Green]'New Zealand'[/Green], together with [url=http://coord.info/PR3NXJG][red]'MimiNemo'[/red][/url]
After some important decisions regarding the beginning of our trip, the flights, the general route and the car were made, the most important question was still unanswered: which caches can we visit during our tour [?]
To get an answer for this topic I was fetching almost every cache from both islands [8)][:X]
[url=http://coord.info/PR3NXJG][red]'MimiNemo'[/red][/url] and I love [Teal]'Geo-Arts'[/Teal]...so we added all these cache series to our wish list
After this decision was made this list was more than 300 puzzle caches long...unsolved puzzle caches
Two weeks before Christmas it was getting time to start solving all these mystery caches
Even with the different language I could find almost every solution
In the case I was not so successful I was contacting some of the CO's...and was always getting help from them...many thanks for this support [:X]

During the following weeks our cache list was growing and growing...meanwhile more than 1000 caches long...too long for a simple bookmark list from GC
Time to get our route and caches in sync...time to save the PQ's to our Garmins...time to start this holiday:

Chapter 15: [red]Picton[/red] to [green]Wellington[/green]
This was a awful day for me with a happy end with the caches from this terrific [navy]Zealandia Power Trail[/navy] [:X]
My disaster: a really turbulent sea during our ferry trip
That was not my cup of tea
After the vessel finally landed at [green]Wellington[/green] harbor I was thanking god...this horror trip was over [8)]

Unfortunately the ferry arrived more than 2 hours too late
Therefore we were not sure if we can manage the caches of this series in the remaining 7hours
But in the end we could find all the 30 caches in less then 6hours

Solving the riddles and to estimate the missing values of the worksheet was really fun
Finally we had all the final coordinates...before we started our walk [:X]
So we could concentrate in searching for the caches and for this wonderful, but exhausting walk around Zealandia
With the given hints it was almost possible to find the caches within minutes

I would like to thank 'taybee' for this great cache series and for showing us this wonderful trail ,
Dev46

Together with [url=http://coord.info/PR3BC8B][red]'Dev46'[/navy][/url][/red] I was on a 'sightseeing-tour' through lovely [Green]'New Zealand'[/Green]
During our great time we could see a lot of beautiful places and we also could find 'some' caches in the area...this was one them [:X]

Many thanks to all CO's for all these nice caches
Dev46

I've been meaning to get down and do these caches for a while now. I choose a great Wellington day to do them, hardly a cloud in the sky. I really enjoyed the great views, the sound of the native birds and the variety of hides.

Thanks for a great series of caches taybee

"Today was the ""official Zealandia-day"" during my caching-tour through lovely NZ...
Solved the cool puzzles (as far as possible) at homebase (about 18.000 km West) ...
On the event yesterday I met the passionate owner taybee - and so was sure that the day was going to be good!
Hiked all around - up and down the fence - this took 7 hours including 4 other caches on the way. [:o)]
Had great fun and was happy to find them all!
This is how it should be on a trail [^]:
All caches in good condition [^]. All coords very good. [^] All hides very fair. All hints short, precise and helpfull [^].
This made my day! - Thanks & Chapeau, taybee! [:X] [:X]
Cheers from your raving German fan!
#26: Nice & easy Puzzle - But which stump? [?]

Had the day off today after working the weekend. Another stunning Wellington day so thought I would tackle Taybee’s Zealandia Power Trail. Twenty six found today (had found #1 a few months ago). One did not find, largely through my mistake and two did not look. Also one cache that had not been found since January. In addition three Boxhill caches found on way round and one TB. Plenty of birds all the way round with Tui, Bellbird, silver eye, Kereru, Quail, Blackbirds and sparrows. Had to wait to cache #27 before the first sighting of Kaka. Quick find at GZ today. Nearly got muggled by fellow walker. Number 24 of power trail today. Thanks for the series and TFTC.

We (myself and Capperz) set out from Palmy at 0530 to carry out this cool circle of caches. The weather was, as predicted, pretty awful however it actually made the going quite pleasant as we walked through cloud. Only a couple of times were we subjected to the strong gusts and driving drizzle. As we got to approx cache 25 the rain let up and out came Mr Sun to heat things up, only by cache 29 was I regretting not removing my jacket but witht the end in sight I wasn't stopping for anything!
All in all this is a very enjoyable and somewhat tough loop. Thanks for creating it taybee.

No need for the emergency number today, although I did think getting in the wake of an ambulance might be a good way to cut through traffic on the way home.

came up so today's trip was only attended by the resolute tommy gun 9 and capperz and a weather bomb was looming but no worry, the caching must go on. Leaving Palmy at 0 5 3 0 was the plan to avoid any heavy Welly traffic and the ploy was wise. It was quite difficult to ignore all those unfound caches between Palmy and Welly but needs must when a power trail and some decent terrain is involved. At the end of the day we'd stayed mostly dry and no mis haps to report, so a succesful trip all rond with good company.
The intrepid team of two tackled the mission in a (typically) logical way. One would do the finding and signing whilst the other (t g 9) would do the maths stuff. So the logs are a combilnation of capperz and either tommy gun 9 and/or T G 9 and/or incoherent scribble, depending on how finely balanced I was whilst wearing my non slip, banana soled jandals (might as well have been wearing!)
All the puzzles worked out well and even I contributed a couple before we arrived to get into it. All of the co ordibnates were accurate too which is essential and the hints helped on a couple of occasions.
A day that ranged from strong wind, to fine mist up in the clouds, a lunch break of a fish cake sandwich at half past trail (cache #15) finishing strongly in warm afternoon sun shine.
All up this trail took 5 hours or so and was thoroughly satisfying. Many thanks to the C O for the entire thing, nicely done.
T F T C taybee

Finally got round to cleaning up the last of the power trail. this point was where it got too dark on our last attempt. foolishly we used the last times calculated number which where wrong! oh well nice hiding spot for the cache TFTC and TFTP

Trying to clean up the last of the Zealandia Series before heading out to Makara in the morning to collect a few caches I've HAd my eye on for a while
wellington on a day like today is fantastic with great views and little wind

TFTC

Find #1806. Second attempt at the ZPCT this time with some help. A blustery partly cloudy day with the wind building as the day advanced so we were eventually battling wind and dust storms on the trail. Managed to complete the circuit finding all but two caches in the seven hours, which included back tracking a couple of times, a spell for lunch at the Brooklyn Turbine and a kaka rescue (young bird was battling the wind outside the Sanctuary fence at the southern end – he looked injured. Rang through to Zealandia and they sent a ranger up to find him and return to the Sanctuary. Thankfully he wasn’t injured, just a bit blown about!). An enjoyable day and I’ll be glad to see a circle of smileys on the map. Thanks taybee for setting up the trail.
After not finding #25, we thought we were heading home but with a bit of mathematical genius on the part of the younger of the team, managed to work out a likely set of co-ordinates - but we'd walked past it so had to back track by 400+ metres. We were rewarded with a find . So we are a bit puzzled over the clue at #25 because the number we saw did not work.

The second "power trail" for KiwiFruitsNZ and Vamber on their epic journey through Wellington collecting caches. We knew we were investing a day to complete this challenging, but scenic, walk known as Zealandia. We had one aim - to secure all caches, no DNFs, have a few laughs in between hill climbs and survive the track! Pleased to say, that we succeeded on all four criteria - completing the track in circa 7 hours.

This cache formed part of the aforementioned epic journey!

#2257

Day Four of our big Wellington Geo-cation with KiwifruitsNZ saw us complete the Zealandia Power Trail. When this road trip was first mentioned, we soon knew that this trail would be part of this adventure! Having done most of the prep work back in Auckland, we were mostly prepared for this mentally and psychically demanding journey! We are happy to report that we managed to complete this whole journey in just over 7 hours (including a lunch stop at the Brooklyn Wind Turbine), and it was nowhere near as daunting as we imagined it to be! Thanks Taybee for a great trail, we thoroughly enjoyed it! Also a bonus is today's 100% find rate!

This cache was quickly secured - onto the next!

Baking hot part of the hill! A real difference from when I was up here last week.

I had posted a note a few days ago to see if anyone else wanted to join me on the trail and was very pleased when Taybee contacted me to say he wanted to do a maintenance run to replace all the logbooks.

After two days of miserable weather in Wellington the weather today couldn’t have been better. Blue sky, a nice mild temperature and light winds. Met up with Taybee, Mrs Taybee and Jr Taybee in the carpark and off we went. Mrs Taybee soon left us behind as she just wanted some exercise and she did the full loop in only 2.5 hours compared to 7 hours for the rest of us due to stops to find caches and do the calculations. It was quite helpful to have a personal geochecker standing next to me after completing each calc

Had a wonderful time on this trail. It is a perfect balance of mental (puzzles and calculations), physical (9 km walk including some challenging uphill sections), incredible views (360 degrees around Wellington + the snowy Kaikoura ranges in the South Island) and the birdlife (so many Tui’s and you don’t see Kaka’s flying around in the wild in many places). I loved seeing Jr Taybee’s youthful enthusiasm. He is one keen geocacher and has an amazing sense of where caches might be hidden. He hadn’t done the trail before except for the very first section but was finding the caches when I was still trying to dial up the hint on the GPS!

To cap off a perfect day we arrived back at the Taybee house to find hot scones and toasted sandwiches waiting for us. Thanks so much to the Taybee family for creating a great caching experience and making me feel so welcome!

The only negative part of the day was finding that some scoundrel had stolen the film canisters from approximately half of the caches. This compromises the weather proofness of the log. It was clearly a geocacher as the code number stickers had been peeled off the film canisters and restuck onto the inside lid of each cache. Most of them have been replaced now but he shouldn’t have had to.
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Saw a mountain biker go over one of the jumps nearby
Many thanks

Today was the day we chose to launch our assault on the Zealandia Power Trail. Having previously dipped our toes in the water - finding #1 and #2 as an exploratory study, #26 became the twenty-fourth find for the day.
Quick and easy find on this one.
Noted that we were following Zorgon - and we never caught up to him either.
A very pleasant day to be walking the fence. Our first experience of this trail.
Cache in order, log signed; safely re-hidden, just as found.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!
Now on to #27! Our hopes getting even higher now that we would make the clean sweep on this series.

Did a full Maintenance run today Team up with Zorgon for the day and Jr Taybee Start at 7.30pm and finish at 2.30 pm
Found Miss Film canister for log book replace for log book

Out Caching with Zorgon and a big thanks Zorgon for the walk and the Caches TFTC

Taybee had to Replace the Film canister witch have been stolen from the cache

The wider Gz seemed to have a number of possible hint objects but fortunately accurate coordinates narrowed things down for a quick find.

Another combination of guesswork and blundering got me to the general area - then worked my way along the likely options keeping an eye open.....and success! Then had a conversation with a Zealandia maintenance guy parked just a little further along repairing some welds in the top of the fence. Wouldn't like to drive a truck along some of this track! TFTC

This was a strange one. Having DNFed #25, I had to take a guess at value for 'x'. Only one value made sense, so it wasn't too difficult. I made the find fairly easily, but co-ordinates were quite far off. I can't really see any other calculations that would work, so I am a bit perplexed by this one. Nevermind, made the find.



I decided about a week ago attempt this series in one go. I had a Wednesday off work and the weather forecast looked good. So I went about doing all the 'prep'. I managed to solve all the puzzles except #28. It appears I am not the only one to struggle with it. The big day arrived and the weather was bad - cold, wet and windy. I decided to go out anyway.



The weather made things pretty unpleasant. Everything got wet. I had the foresight to print off three copies of the worksheet and even with three they all ended up a soaked, tatty mess. At some points my hands were so cold I could barely open the cache containers, let alone write in the log books or enter the next coordinates into my phone.



Despite this, I managed to get to #28 with only 3 DNFs (#14, #18 & #25). At this point, the battery in my primary phone finally died. My secondary phone is much more difficult to use and the GPS isn't anywhere near as good. I knew from the previous logs that #28 could be found without the coordinates, but it would likely take some time. After about nine hours, I was too tired and had had enough so I skipped the last three. I will be back for them though. Overall, 24 finds + one extra traditional in one day is pretty good haul and certainly my best so far. Next I try something like this, I will wait for nicer weather! Many thanks to Taybee for putting this together - it must have taken a huge effort.

Nearly there! Getting exciting!

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Being down in Wellington a few times a year on Saturdays for church meetings I'd become quite familiar with the caches for this trail on the map. I finally made myself the opportunity to do the trail having taken the day off work and heading down a day early. Watched the first America's Cup race for the day in town (unfortunately NZ was not successful) and took my chances on the second being cancelled and grabbed a taxi to Zealandia to begin!

Despite the overcast weather and often being in the clouds it was a great day - the clouds did clear and I got some nice views on the second half. It must have been quite an effort to build such an animal proof fence and hopefully I'll get a chance another day to visit the other side of the it! The trail was great too (well, once I got into the groove); it was a good mix of exercise, searching and application of some brain power!

Thanks for very useful worksheet, my copy was nearly in tatters by the end of the day, and of course, thanks for the great trail!

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

Knowing that we were heading to Wellington to spend the weekend with family, we added a couple of extra days to the start of the weekend with the idea of completing the Zealandia Power Trail on one of those days. With a couple of storms in the weeks leading up to our weekend in Wellington, we were hoping that the weather would be in our favour for our hike around the Zealandia perimeter fence and thankfully it was - we had stunning weather for the entire walk!

Another quick find towards the end of the trail. TFTC!

Knowing that we were heading to Wellington to spend the weekend with family, we added a couple of extra days to the start of the weekend with the idea of completing the Zealandia Power Trail on one of those days. With a couple of storms in the weeks leading up to our weekend in Wellington, we were hoping that the weather would be in our favour for our hike around the Zealandia perimeter fence and thankfully it was - we had stunning weather for the entire walk!

Another quick find towards the end of the trail. TFTC!

No problems with this one - right where our GPSr said it would be. Always gratifying. TFTC

Thanks to Taybee for this very good game!
Today, we start the serie in Brooklyn. We didn't hunt #1 to #20. We begin by #23 and #21.
Kiwi can't fly but bike can fly!

I found this cache at 4:49pm. Another cache we had a few problems with. Turns out taybee has made this part of the puzzle, but it wasn't one we appreciated at this end of the day when we were getting tired. Turned out there were only two options and only one of these was on the track, so it wasn't too much trouble.

When I found out I was coming to visit the North Island of New Zealand, I started looking around for good caches to do whilst here. I noticed this series, as it does stick out on the map somewhat. I had a fairly quiet time at work leading up to my break, so I did as much work on solving the parts that I could and setting myself up a worksheet (in my own style) to assist us on the day. As we got closer and closer to attempting the series, my hip started to get sorer and sorer (I usually refer to myself as 'team cripple' for a reason). In the end I decided to give it a go, thankfully with the support of my very patient other half, who came along the long walk with me.

Thanks for the cache and the series taybee!! LouiseAnn - visiting from Melbourne

A quick find, TFTC

Pleased to find this cache at the co-ords we had worked out, we really weren't sure! Tftc

Well, MSP Phoenix say we found this at the co-ordinates we had calculated - we think we relied rather more on the hint than that! Oh well. TFTC.

Day 3 of our road trip to Auckland for Christmas. Theme for the day, miscalculations, and general muck ups. Managed to get to the end of the trail, certainly flagging at the end of the day with hot sunny weather. A quick find, and a lovely walk. Thanks for the hide

Having figured out approximately where we went wrong with the numbers by now (but not wanting to backtrack to the ones we missed!) we were able to calculate the coordinates for this one correctly. TFTC.

Took a bit longer to find this one, but got there eventually. TFTC

Searched several hint items before finding the correct one, but all good fun really. SL TFTC

Found the first half of the trail just on a year ago now, and finally made it back to complete the rest of them. Teamed up with TuisReturn on what turned out to be a great evening to do so, still sunny and warm after a perfect Wellington day. Really enjoyed the walk and the great views along the way, plus much easier doing the downhill part

Many thanks for the cache and the series.

Teamed up with ADV to walk the 2nd part of the Power Trail on an enjoyable Wellington night. 1st visit to this area and neat to be out collecting caches. Left a Pathtag TFTC

TFTC

TFTC