The 3rd Leap Fairfield, Victoria, Australia
By 80degrees & EuDes on 29-Feb-12. Waypoint GC30M7F

Great to meet some of the names I've been reading in cache logs. Such a diverse and friendly group.Thank you so much for holding this event.

Hi All,
About to archive this. Only one attended log now missing from the 100 teams that attended (Coburg3058 - if anyone is in contact with this team please ask them to log). Could those who have the 3 TB's still listed in the inventory please log them.
Thanks once again to everyone who attended.
80degrees & EuDes

Only one log missing so time to archive.

Hi all, I am a little geocoin in the shape of a geocacher licence that SheTOSH from TeamTOSH.net brought with her to the 3rd Leap event. She is very embarrassed that she was so excited to bring me with her.....that she forgot to activate me first!!

So all of you that wrote my little code down to log me.....can.......NOW!!

(gl8kw7.....shhh!)

xxxx

(oh and thanks to mrs80 for retrieving me after SheTOSH promptly left me sitting on th "discover me" table)

Greetings All,

Thanks for making this event the largest Leap Day event in Australia - we had 100 teams attend and more than 130 people throughout the afternoon/evening.

(Also thank you to the weather gods for their kindness)

Special thanks to geostuff.com.au for their donation of 9 fantastic prizes.

Congratulations to Rabbitto for the FTF rights/ coin and pin.
Franklj for the Cake TB
and the many others who won the many other prizes on offer.

Now for the task of choosing the best logs. It was incredibly tough to identify the 10 best that we all agreed on.

Once we had the final 10 we allocated each log a number between 1 and 10 according to the order they were logged. The 10 finalists were:-
1. ssmc4 2. lemongum 3. Facitman 4. Scubacrazy666
5. stagetree 6. ahomburg 7. whyfarer 8. coley_babee
9. PrincessDiala 10. AmethystPig

The winner was determined by the first number between 1 and 10 from the Tattslotto Draw No. 3199 on Saturday March 17th(St Patrick's Day). That number was 4 so congratulations go to Scubacrazy666 who wins an unactivated BYO Pencil Geocoin.

One last special prize is an unactivated Event Coin inscribed with the event name and the GC Code. This was awarded to the team travelling the furthest distance to attend - METHVIN (Vicki & Paul) from California USA.

Once again many thanks to all that supported this very special event.

80degrees (Alison & Jim) EuDes (Keith)

Great Party. I was not paying attention most of the time but from all of the laughing and talking, i would guess that everyone had fun and thats what counts. [^]

Report on Mrs 80's Broken Ankle - can report that today the plaster was removed. All is healing well and in a good position. Now into a boot for the next 4 weeks and allowed to put half weight on it andd take the boot off several times daily to exercise the foot.

Sorry we missed the event. I was realy looking forward to meeting some more cachers. Just couldn't fit it in. I didn't even have time to grab any caches at all for the day... so I will have to wait for the next one.

Great event, huge turn out, prizes aplenty.. awsome to catch up with old mates and meet new ones who were previously just ink on a page and 1's and 0's on a server.. I'd planned today to either log a whole bunch of caches, or just one.. I'd thought I'd only stay here a short time and make the most of the day. however I couldn't drag myself away.. Thanks 80 Degrees and EuDes for the event and unique pathtag/day combo.. woohoo.. P361 complete, find #2222 and 658 consecutive day's find.. Another event in 4 years??

This entry was edited by Spladem on Thursday, 15 March 2012 at 10:49:33 UTC.

Attended on my way home

Just a little bit of a detour in the wrong direction

Great event sorry I couldn't stay long

TFTE (thanks for the event)

Sorry for my late log in, wasn't aware that this is to be done. Thanks for a great evening, enjoyed meeting everyone and really appreciate all the work put into organising the event. Thanks again, Lisa.

Great event thanks, enjoyed rolling down the massive grassed hill nearby!!

Great event thanks, couldn't stop my brother from rolling down the large grassed hill nearby!!

Today ended up being a pretty big caching day with 22 finds including 5 multis and The 3rd Leap event but also saw me ending up in the south west side of Bacchus Marsh at 4:00am. It's funny sometimes where you can find yourself when you follow a trail of caches you havent done. The highlight of the afternoon / evening was the event but I was very happy to finally complete the multis which have been on my radar for a long time.

A fantastic event with one of the biggest turn outs i'd seen at any event. With great company, some prizes, a special edition pathtag and even a delicious commemorative cake, the afternoon couldn't have been better, even the rain held out until after the event had finished.

It was good to catch up and chat with many caching mates and it was great to finally meet some seasoned cachers like Maccamob and Squalid as well as other cachers whose names i'd seen in many a logbook.

Congratulations to all those who could finally got to sign off on their project 366, there were quite a few I met on the day. Well done to 80degrees and Eudes for a magnificently organised event, I'm sure it would have been the most attended event for the day.

Well done and I look forward to the next one in four years time.

With this day being my last to fill the calendar, LouiseAnn and I had planned to take the day off work and head out for a day of fun filled caching adventures. However, work had other ideas, and come Tuesday afternoon it was obvious that, thanks to the proverbial hitting the fan, I was going to have to come to the office for at least the morning. LouiseAnn was more fortunate and undeterred she headed out for a day of caching alone. I struggled through the day, trying to get done as quickly as possible but didn’t get out of the office until mid-afternoon. From there, it was a "quick" train trip home with a phone call to LouiseAnn to see where she was, miles away! We decided best to just meet at the event, I was designated caterer, as my trip there took me past Leo’s – the super market of yummy food evilness. Just before leaving a TB sticker was attached to my geomobile, for its first ever trip to an event. Straight to Leo’s stocked up on all the wrong food, and straight to the event, only a little bit late. Wondered down to the already in full swing party where I was greeted by many familiar faces and some new ones. As soon as I arrived I had a nametag sticker handed to me, then a path tag and then the all-important log book. Talk about organised! I signed the log and, finally, my calendar is full! Much frivolity, and many lamingtons (LouiseAnn and my traditional caching food) later we wondered off with danoz directly to the nearby traditional before heading home. Despite my chirp announcing to everyone that there was a new TB waiting to be discovered in the carpark, it seems no one noticed it. Oh well always next time. Thanks 80 degrees and EuDes for organising a wonderful afternoon’s event.

Went with mum, dad,lobster and Bonnie the dog and had a great time.

Great party!

So - what’s it like attending an event in ’foreign’ territory? It’s a bit like crashing the party of a friend of a friend – if you don’t dive right in or have something in common with the crowd, you’re likely to spend the evening in a corner of the kitchen nursing a beer.

So there I was, leaning against the allegorical fridge with metaphorical beer in hand (they make a damn fine brew in Metaphoria), when I was approached by a friendly face enquiring about my caching name (curious? - for the long and short of it, check out my log for GC1W21X ‘What’s with all the funny names??’ on June 25 ’11). Soon the conversation turned to all things caching, and not long afterwards I was into the swing of things – thanks Mary from maccamob for dragging this wallflower out into the sun for a while. [8)]

This was the one occasion that I didn’t feel like a complete gimp crawling around a public area looking for caches – stealth was completely out the window as the rush was on to find and log the selection of hides placed for the event (though with the cache-kids throwing themselves into the hunt, there wasn’t much the rest of us had to do but stand back, watch and wait), and then there was the ever-growing collection of trackables to discover - I still haven’t logged them all! All this, good company - and cake too!!

Thanks to 80degrees and EuDes for organising this event – the location was great and the weather kind (spare a thought for those attending the Canberra leap year event on a hillside in the rain – which is probably where I would have been otherwise![xx(]). I’m looking forward to my next trip down south and hopefully the chance to run into more of the Melbourne mob ‘in the wild’.

After been the first person to express my intentions of attending this event, I am now one of the last people to log that I attended this event.

Finished work at 5:00PM, picked up girlfriend Di from her work and made our way to this event.
The event was in full swing when we arrived. We signed in and introduced Di to some of my caching friends as this was her first event.

This event was well organised with event caches of different levels of difficulty placed around the area. We were wondering why there were people always walking over to the stump and the tree so we went over and Di and I found 4 of the event caches, but were unsuccessful in winning any prizes. Thanks to GeoStuff.com.au for the prizes they were an added bonus.

Thank You to the organisers and all the cachers that attended this event and made it such a success.

This entry was edited by Toy Car on Wednesday, 07 March 2012 at 11:19:43 UTC.

Attended this event with the company of Clogwog

My first event! I was great, went here with Gozanators and donidoode. Thanks to 80 degrees for the event. Well organised and heaps of fun. Thanks.

Now, I'm sure other brides would have a million-and-one things to do in the week prior to their wedding.
Not this one!
Her most important appointments that week included:
1) Finding a cache on Leap Day,
2) Attending "The 3rd Leap" event! Defiantly not to be missed!!
[Oh and I suppose, 3) Picking up "the dress" [:p]..]

WHOO HOOO! I'm on my way to filling in my calendar! Still some way to go though!

Some TB's came to visit, and I grabbed a couple off lochb to take to NZ with us soon.

I hope that Mrs 80degrees ankle heals quickly, I'm sure the boots are not fun from Coley's experiences.

My thanks to 80degrees & EuDes for hosting this spectacular event, with cache games, cake and keepsakes (pathtags), and to all the attendee's for their company this evening. (So many names logging their attendance I didn't get a chance to speak with. )

We will be there and looking forward to filling another day on our calendar.

Will try to make it. Should be there at the start but not sure how long I can stick around.

Inching my way there...

Yay! 366.
It feels like we've been waiting a very long time to fill in the last date on the caching calendar, and now it's been done. It's a good feeling.
Can't think of a nicer way to do it either, than to attend an event with our geocaching friends. We also enjoyed meeting a few new faces, and some visitors from the USA. There were lots of prizes, a cake, and some special pathtags for the event. Thanks for the tag we really like it. There was a great turn-out, and we stayed nearly till the end, it was getting dark anyway. Thanks for a well-organised and enjoyable event.

This entry was edited by squalid on Wednesday, 29 February 2012 at 12:01:40 UTC.

At the event now and it's great to see so many of us here.

Leapt into this one. Good to catch up with a few old and a few new faces for me. Kids were happy, dog was happy, I was happy. Might find a few more caches tonight to celebrate the day. Thanks for organising the event and so close to home.

Arrive @1740 #1206
Well it took me ages to get here from work but was glad to finally make it. The traffic off the Eastern was insane...
Many thanks to 80degrees & EuDes for hosting the event and the cake was really nice too.
Great to catch up with fellow cachers once again as well as meet some new ones.
TFTE 80degrees & EuDes once again and thanks for the path tag.

This marks cache number 1650 for us.
A mile stone in itself for only 5 years of part time caching.
The traffic through the city was mad. Being a country boy I wasn't expecting a log jam!
It was great to catch up with so many cachers (old and new) and exchange stories.
I wish I had some more time to chat with everyone but I am sure to catch up with you at the mega event. Thanks to 80degrees and Eudees for the great afternoon/evening.
And, wow, what a cake. Great pathtag as well!
Thanks again to everyone involved. See you at a cache somewhere.
Keep on cachin'


This entry was edited by Riddell on Wednesday, 29 February 2012 at 12:27:27 UTC.

After surviving the clueless muggle traffic to get here (dontchaknow there's a event on?!?!) I arrived at GZ to a mass of cachers hobnobbing, networking and exchanging caching stories. After tracking down the log sheet, I said g'day to a few caching friends, swapped some pathtags, paid off some caching puzzle debts with hints to some tricky ones and eventually got to scour the trackables pile for new ones to add to the "collection", dropping off a few I picked up in the previous weeks and a couple of my former Leapfrogs turned travelbugs. Alas, I missed meeting up with geo_jas who had kindly rescued a couple of my Leapfrogs from out west, I arrived later than I'd have liked, and had to leave before the end but what a wonderful event. I also missed meeting some other geocachers (in some cases for the second or third time...) Oh well - when's the next event?! Thanks 80degrees and EuDes.

I clocked up 4 months of daily geocache finds with the event today

And how lucky were we with the weather (it's raining now)?! Only some falling "naughty" termites/ants


NOT sent from my iPhone (I have a dumbphone, often switched off or left behind in my rucksack) - TFT3LE!

This entry was edited by quiet1_au on Wednesday, 29 February 2012 at 23:42:29 UTC.

Stopped off for some fish and chips in the park with the family before we wandered down to this fantastic event. Met some people, talked tech and had a great time.

Great to see so many cachers along for this one, grabbed 6 travel bugs from cars parked in the carpark!
Even though I couldn't stay long thanks for organising it.

R36

Today’s event was the second last cache for me today after my planned ‘small day of caching’ turned out to be a little larger than I planned. I had visited Woodend, visited and climbed Hanging Rock and walked around the top of Mt Masedon. I travelled back to town via a puzzle cache, and made it to the event, only an hour late. I am happy to be able to say I have achieved five different types of cache for today. I caught up with many cachers at the event, put some faces to some names and had some good chats.
Highlights of the event for me were the caches to hunt around the site for, the very special cake and obviously to be able to tick off the 29th of February from my calendar!
Thank-you very much to 80degrees (both halves of) and to EuDes for organising the event, the prizes and activities, I have a great time.

Wow what an amazing event today. Thanks a lot 80degrees and Eudees for the great afternoon/evening. I arrived with Irontoad fairly early to find that there were already significant numbers of cachers here. It was great to catch up with some known cachers and also to meet some "familiar" online cachers and some new cachers from near and far.

I reckon the prize for furthest to travel goes to Methven - enjoy the rest of your time in Australia. To everyone who has been incapacitated in some way I wish you a speedy recovery and may your healing be complete. We stayed until almost the end and then had to bid the company adieu as kmace was getting a bit weary.

Good luck everyone with the caching adventure as it continues into the next "between leap year" periods. I look forward to seeing many more logs in the future!

Thanks again 80degrees and Eudees for the great event.

This event had me salivating with anticipation ever since it was published. The location was very much on my home turf and I was rather hopeful that my nearby unknown cache could get a few visitors as a spin-off (one only so far as I write thanks to Sedgwick Dave).
Due to two things, work and street O (at 7pm in Wantirna South), I was never going to be at the event for long. Weeks ago I had chopped a couple of hours out of my afternoon schedule so I could attend. Yesterday I discovered that effort in this regard had been overwritten. Fortunately only one appointment had to be moved. Caching is the first priority!
My car has been leaking coolant. I booked it in for 1.30pm and while it was being checked I went for a walk over to Ruffey Lake Park to pick up two trads that I had not had an opportunity to find. I returned to the car service place after what seemd to me a good long while. I then waited until another good long while became a bad long while. 3.30pm went past. I was in Doncaster, work in Vermont was to start again at 5pm, and I could see my event attendance being squeezed out of existence. Finally at about 3.45pm the car was mine again although the car people really didn't want it back on the road. Sorry chaps, caching is the first priority!
I zipped over to Fairfield where the event was swinging into action. Pleasantries and pathtags were exchanged. I grabbed another cacher and street O person who needed a lift nearer home in Scoresby and sadly vamoosed, missing much what seems like it was a most cheerful solemnity.
Today despite the major distractions of cars, work and street O, I still feel that I managed to honestly adhere to my new dictum, "Caching is the first priority!".

Many thanks to Mr & Mrs 80degrees & EuDes for organising this great event, and for the special pathtag. Great to put names to alias and renew friendships. All the best for a speedy recovery Mrs 80d - forget the cache hunting, it's those pesky carparks that are tricky terrain. The huge attendance is a testament to the shared journey and friendships that caching has created in Melbourne, and from quite an eclectic group of individuals. Thanks again to the organisers for bringing us all together. Oh and I must fix the carbies on the GT so that it'll idle in traffic!!!

thanks 80degrees. good to put some faces to the names.

Arrived 6-55pm with diddysmum.

Great crowd when we got there. Met a lot of really friendly, enthusiastic and helpful people. Put a lot of faces to names as well.

Thanks Mr & Mrs 80degrees & EuDes for hosting this event and for the pathtag.

BTW, this is my 50 cache as well. WooHoo

17:15
What a huge gathering, a lot of geocachers taking advantage of a "special" day. It was our 2nd leap into this shelter - the first being a special birthday party nine years ago. We enjoyed the company but needed to head off to find some more caches to complete another one of our challenges.

Our appreciation goes to 80degrees & EuDes for creating this Eventand providing a special gift.
2589

Arrived at 6.55 pm with the sock man after our plans were almost scuttled by sleep defecit, traffic, a busy day, a (thankfully brief) migraine and me nearly losing all sense of time in Spotlight.
Thanks to Mr and Mrs 80 Degrees and EuDes for organising such a great event and for making it a central location. And especially for the pathtag (my first) and the yummy cake.
It was great to put more faces to names and have a laugh about our escapades; I love listening to everyone's stories seeing as I am still quite new to this lark. I am also looking forward even more to the Mega Event in Albury and spending time with this mad crowd.
Wishing a speedy recovery to Mrs 80. Thanks all for a fabulous event. [:X]

A grEat ChaNce To fIll Up oUr cAchIng CalEndArs! WaNdeRed OveR at AboUt 4.30 And The EveNt wAs sWinGinG inTo aCtiOn aLreAdy! ChAttEd wIth SomE olD frIenDs, mEt sOme New, FouNd a Few SneAky CacHes, DisCovEreD quIte A feW ‘diScoVerAblEs’ aNd aLl iN alL haD a gReaT tiMe. THanKs tO 80DegReeS anD EuDes For A thOroUghLy eNjoYabLe aNd wEll OrgAniSed EveNt!

****This was our 200th cache!!!****

*every 3rd word was red too but the box didn't support it

This entry was edited by TeamTOSH.net on Thursday, 01 March 2012 at 10:16:01 UTC.

Our first event ever and hopefully not our last. Marvellous cake - tasted as good as it looked. Thanks 80degrees and EuDes.

Knowing that I needed a cache for my 366 calendar this one was always going to be a must do. I even managed to bring along a sort-of new cacher (elthamkiwi) to the event. Walking down the hill towards the rotunda you knew that something different was going on what with all the people suspiciously examining tables, trees, BBQ's and kicking at stumps .
It's always good to get together with like minded people and share a few good stories, and cake, and stories, and puzzle tips, and stories, and..... Geez, will you look at that! It's after eight and I'd better get home. Where did all the time go?

Cheers 80degrees and EuDes,thanks for the pathtags, the prizes, the fun and a great event.

Thanks 80degrees and Eudes for hosting this event. Made a quick visit at 16:15 to say hello and put a few faces to the logs I so often enjoy reading. This was my first event and I was sorry I could not stay longer. Hope to bring the boys next time.

adding some TB's to the event for miles

This was a day I have already filled in, but I was in the area anyway, and an event is hard to resist.
Really well organized turn, thanks to 80Degrees and Eudes. Btw, I hope your ankle fixes it self soon (must be a bugger having to do all terrain 1 caches!). Anyway you need to get better to finish the CCT series.
Good to see and chat with so many cachers.
Thanks, Robmc.

Well, this was an adventure. I cycled to the event and decided to do Matchbox on the way. It is near a large drain and I thought that it may be in there (it isn't) but I realised that there might be a shortcut to the event. I rode up the pipe as far as I could until the pipe got too small to ride. I thought that I was pretty close so decided to walk.

After a while I was stooped, and eventually was crawling, but was very close to the event. Sure enough, I got to a grate, and could hear people talking about caches! I called out "log me in", but no-one took any noticed. I waved and called but still no-one noticed. In the end I had to re-trace my steps.

Arriving at the event the surface way I went over to the grate but realised that it was just too far away. Several people asked me why I was looking down so wistfully over there but I didn't have the heart to tell them.

Many thanks to 80 degrees for all the effort in putting this together and helping us all fill in that Date on the calendar! And yes, it was my last one - I am now a "366er".

Naturally, Mary & David were there. We managed to get from the car park to the Event in 29 Leaps (or we could have if we were younger). For many of us, this was a must-do day and to attend an Event was the icing on the cake (figuratively and actually thanks to the Eudes family). Again like many of us, we can now go for Crackers' "Give Us This Day Our Daily Cache Challenge Vic." Special thanks to Jim and Alison for arranging everything, and for donating the lovely pathtag. Sorry to learn about Alison's caching injury, but at least you found the cache!

There are some interesting pieces of trivia associated with Leap Days:

The 29th February is also known as St Oswald's Day, after an Archbishop of York who died on Leap Day in 992.

Greeks consider it unlucky to be married in a Leap Year, and especially on a Leap Day.

The Keogh family in Ireland and UK have been recognised by the Guiness Book of Records as having 3 generations of Leaplings (father, son and granddaughter).

The Henriksen family of Norway have three siblings born on successive Leap Days (daughter Heidi in 1960 and sons Olav and Leif-Martin in 1964 and 1968 respectively).

Some prominent Leaplings include Gioacchino Rossini (the Italian composer of The Barber of Seville and William Tell), and one Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenberdorft Sr., Germany, who had a Christian name for every letter in the alphabet, the world's longest name officially used by a person.

The town of Anthony, Texas, has been declared as the Leap Capital of the World by the Texas and New Mexican Governors. People from all over the USA and overseas travel to Anthony for the parades, birthday dinners, and hot air balloon rides.

Trivia aside, it was great as usual to catch up with old friends and meet so many others for the first time. Don't think we've seen so many children at an Event before. This was our 101st GC Event (and 105th overall), and our 12,800th 'find'. Our thanks to 80degrees and Eudes.

29.02.2012 17:05
Find # 1469

I finished work early for the day and slowly headed towards the 3rd Leap event in Fairfield, but not before finding a few caches on the way.

Once again a fantastic event, one of the largest cacher gatherings I have seen in a while. As usual, there were many of the familiar faces around which it was great for a catchup, but I was also able to meet some names I had seen on my own cache pages as well and chat about various caches around the area.

Thanks must go to 80degrees and EuDes for their organising such a great event. Thanks also for the pathtag, the fantastic cake and the door prize that I won, even though I had left due to Basketball commitments.

On a plan to find 29 caches on the 29th, I started in town wanting an 80degrees cache to start and finish. I started off well, and after a call to the CO for a hint on Parliament Station, was able to tick that one off. But a winding tour through the Eastern Subs with 5 DNF's and a deadline to be back at work in Footscray by 6pm, I was 2 horrible caches short. Still, I'm a Maggie supporter, we're used to dissapointments.
Arrived at the event at 4, and tried so hard to say hello to so many cachers, but before I knew it, it was time to go.
Would someone send me a photo of the TB cake, sounded scrumptious.
My mouth was watering each time someone mentioned it.

To 80degrees and EuDes, a huge congrats for all the work and pre-planning involved to make this day special. And to J & A, despite the short-term handicap, you never wavered on your goal of making this the huge success it was.
Congrats to all who managed to tick the day off too, and to all the prize winners, certainly a great way to remember the day. Oh, and the pathtag, as BMc would say........Speeeeccciiiaaaallll

Picked up Probs (that's ProBleMatiKal to you) and wandered down the hill to a large gathering of people. Only been caching for around six months (two of them seriously) and never met any other cachers besides Probs, so I was very nervous. Not that I needed to be. Everyone was ultra friendly and by the end of the event I felt like I had made some new friends. The most enjoyable element of the event for me was putting faces to the usernames I had so often come across, and I get the feeling a few were excited to see who Paco was. Got to increase my TB total by 200 percent, and saw some completely different ones too. So, thanks 80degrees and EuDes for organising such a great event. To all my fellow cachers, thank you for making me feel welcome and a part of your warm, friendly and wonderful community. See you soon.

Congrulations on a great event. Excellent turn up including some overseas visitors who timed their trip for this event. A well chosen location giving the maxium opportunity for many teams to attend. Catered for the junior caches and the cake was a lovely touch. I arrived for the later time slot so I missed a couple of people I would have loved to catch up to. I took the advantage of calling on the more experienced caches for some knowledge. (Clues)
Not sure who you put in charge of the weather but that topped it of nicely. Thanks 80d's and Eudes for ALL the effort and thought that you put the event. You have our vote.

Mrs Iamapom (a perfectly valid member of the Iamapom team ) attended on our behalf, as Iamapom was working in Singapore on the 29th.
Singapore is a land totally free of 29th Feb event caches, and was too busy in the evening (and far too drunk too) to try and find a cache in Singapore. It was also hot as hell, and horribly humid. And I've done all the caches within walking distance of my hotel. So it was all too hard !
So Mrs Iamapom needed to attend on our behalf.
Glad to see that it all went so well. Hopefully the prizes went to good homes !
Thanks for the event !

Like many others, today was a must day for caching, and this event was the perfect way to fill the hole in my calendar - unfortunately it has many friends, so p366 is still a way off.

I made my way to the park from a new job in Richmond, which seemed to take inordinately long to travel the length of the Power/Denmark/Princess/Chandler streetway and arrived about 5:45. As (bad) luck would have it, my GPSr is my phone and today was the day that the change of service providers went through, so I couldn't use my geocaching tool to find the "cache". No matter, with cachesense in overdrive (and a lucky spotting of Coley Babee's Cache Mobile) I made it there.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a fantastic pathtag on arrival, and even more surprised to be given an 80degrees pathtag in return for one of mine given out at an event last year. I still think that there should be several in the 80degrees pathtag series, Celsius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin - however Alison was less than enthusiastic at my suggestion. I blame the hardships of her injury for this reaction to a perfectly reasonable observation.

I met up with AmethystPig (my cache-son, as BiggleBear pointed out) and it was good to talk all things caching with some I've met before and others I have not. There was cake, caches, conversations, competitions and captures (of trackables) - all the things that an event should have.

I had a great time and was amazed at the turnout. It was a well executed plan and you even managed to get the weather to hold off until the end.

Took nothing, left nothing, signed log and decided to kick on with AmethystPig for a few more caches (my GPSr was working by this stage).
Thanks for the event 80degrees and EuDes.

.... or if you prefer ...

Behold my entry
post-event competition
I've written haiku

A leap day event
happens once every four years
a must day to cache

This calendar space
for my project three six six
is empty no more

To travel from work
though the distance was not far
it took a long time

My GPSr
was out of action and so
did not get me there

While winging the drive
I spied Nicole in Germie
and followed her in

A pathtag was got
and another one as well
more units of temp.

"well met" my cache-son
cake, cache, talking, trackables
what a great event

Took and left nothing
made my mark on the log sheet
more caching with Pig

The caching event
80degrees and EuDes
I thank you for this

Having only been in Australia a few months (after finally leaving our quake ravaged home in Christchurch NZ) it was wonderful to be able to attend such a well organised event and meet new cachers. We were warmly welcomed into the "Melbourne Caching Community" and look forward to getting to know you all better as we (hopefully) find all your caches! Thanks for the friendly welcome, the excellent pathtag and for organising an event on a "special" day.

my first ever event cache!!! attended with gozanators and nedcj98, we decided to go find a cache nearby and then i found it and then i was told it was premium member only

A Great event
I think its success was good organising and good location.
Met some new characters and some now familiar folk. Several non humans made for a rounded event.

80degrees and Eudees
Summon geocachers to
event
horizon
cloudy but no rain

Thanks 80degrees! Broken ankle and all, the event went on, with bonus pathtags!

Good choice of location for me, giving a chance to exercise Shanks' Pony. We were fortunate in having a fine day, although some sunshine might have been nice. (Nobody's ever perfectly satisfied by the weather. )

A bravura performance, and thanks to all the other attendees too, for an event without cachers wouldn't be much of an event!

Ever since I received the confirmation that Melbourne will be my new home in 2012, there's been no turning back in looking forward to the 29th of February this Leap Year.

I've cached in at least 5 countries, but the context of this journey and preparations leading up to the moment where I was able to finally look across the road and lay my eyes upon the pretty pavillion as pictured in the photo is truly unparalleled. You could say that on a totally novel basis, being able to attend this was a 5/5 experience by itself! Getting my visa approved, my medical checkup done, moving here, settling in, shuffling my timetable around- even taking public transport here was a point of high anxiety for me- would I get there? Where would I end up if I didn't?

One of my favourite qualities of caching is that it always brings me to places and moments that become significant because of a cache. I am truly grateful to have been guided here by many helpful persons along the way and granted great hospitality and a happy welcome from Mr and Mrs 80 Degrees, EuDes, and the local cachers here. Without this occasion, without this event cache, and most of all, without awesome geocachers like yourselves, S 37° 47.120 E 145° 00.510 would have just been another pixel on the map..!

Now, as I ready myself to log my first caches found on this marvellous continent and shade that box on the 29th, I cannot help but look forward again to many more exciting and joyous adventures in the Land Down Under! Kudos for all the planning and effort put into the event! Happy Cachin' Always!

I managed to escape the boss (not an easy task some days) and take my first leap at my first event cache and what a great event it was. Being relatively new to caching, my first find being on 6 Jan 2012, I still have most squares to knock off but at least 29 Feb has been leapt. Got to GZ a bit late at 6:45pm but there were still a lot of familiar names there - I didn't know many faces, of course. I couldn't believe how many teams were there (I think I was #95). It was handy to get some hints from those more experienced and discuss some difficult hides with their owners.

A mouse TB (which originated from Austria) also had a visit to mark the occasion. Thanks to Mr & Mrs 80degrees and EuDes for organising the event and for the special pathtag and the incredible TB cake. I'm glad to hear Mrs 80 is on the mend. Obviously EuDes enjoyed the event so I 'discovered' - see attached photo. See you all at the next leap!

Well we decided that we should do a cache on the 29th and this one was the one. Headed off straight after arriving home from work and after getting changed out of our work clothes. We had to make a quick stop in Frankganistan olong the way, survived, and continued to drive to the event. On arrival and after having to park across the road with the female soccer team we made our way down the hill to the event. Great to catch up with all and sundry again and meet a few more cachers. Thanks to 80degrees and EuDes for a fantastic event. Al so thanks for the pathtag.

Thanks to 80degrees and Eudes for organising this event, and hi to those who I met and had a chat with The unique pathtag was a nice idea so another thanks to the organisers for creating those as well.

Well, what can I say? As a co-organiser of the event, I must say that this was a truly sensational experience right from the word go . It was fantastic to see the 'will attends' coming in and in the end, we might even crack triple figures, and that would be an amazing feat in itself .

It was terrific to catch up with many teams I hadn't met before, including one team from California who had altered their trip to NZ and Australia to attend and another team all the way from Singapore . I'm only sorry I didn't get around to say g'day to everyone so apologies to those I missed (and I know I missed a few teams [8)]).

The weather was very kind to us, with it being on the best day of the week as it turned out , and it was so good to see the youngsters enjoying themselves as well as we 'oldies' (thanks in no small part due to the games that the 80s devised ).

So, many thanks to 80degrees for helping organise this one, many thanks to Mrs EuDes for the cake (which turned out better than even I was expecting ) and many thanks to all who were able to come along and make this such a special event . And congratulations to all those who have finally knocked that nasty little '29 February' hole off your list .

Took lots of great memories, Left impressions (all good I hope , SL and a few of our 'usual' travellers had a visit to mark the occasion. Many, many thanks 80degrees .

Had to do this one, which meant I had to make a dash towards the city on Eastlink from my new workplace in Scoresby!!

I arrived to an already large crowd of cachers gathered under a shelter I can only describe as perfect for an event like this!

Surprised with a special 29th Pathtag from Mrs 80degrees, I went on the hunt for the special caches that had been hidden around the area!!

After catching up with old caching friends and meeting some new, it was time to head on home and grab some food before getting some sleep for the next day of work.

A great event, thanks to 80degrees and EuDes for organising the mini mega (had to be over 100 people surely??)

This was one event I didnt want to miss, we had to wait for our builder ( who is renovating our en-suite so Kathy can have a better shower) to finish for the day but we made it ok and had a good time catching up with friends and even made some new ones, we left a bit early because it was getting a bit tiring for Kathy which was good because we got home before it got too dark, Thanks to 80Degrees and EuDes for hosting the event...

What a great turn out. We were fortunate enough to have filled this date in 4 years ago before we had even thought of filling the calendar in. It now seems like there are many more with a full calendar. The weather was kind and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves we know we did. As always it’s great catching up with old friends and meeting a lot of teams we had not met before, and there were quite a few here, good to see the game growing. We wish to thank 80 degrees & EuDes for setting up the event and for putting the extra effort into it. We even won a prize for standing near a rock. Another thank you to Geo Stuff for donating the great prizes

I came I saw I Leaped. Well not quite. Bit fat to be leaping now. Thankfully I ignored the opportunity for leap frog. I reckon the other person would not have appreciated it. As there was already kids rolling down the hill, decided their was enough human trip hazards.

Admired the cake as did my insides and met a lot of people who I had not seen at other events.

All in all a great time was had.

Thankyou to the organisers.

Paul the Hippy.

Wow what a great event! I arrived with Paco at about 6:20pm. This was my first ever event and I loved meeting other cachers and putting names and faces to the tags I read in the logs. There were so many people there that I didn't get to speak to, but will see at the next meet I'm sure. The cake was a real highlight for me, so well done and with an edible tracking bug on top as well! I left 3 coins and a TB, and discovered sooo many! Thank you Eudes and 80Degrees.

Went with Nedcj98 and Donidoode. Had a heap of fun at this awesome event. Now I have a massive backlog of frogs and gnomes and TBs and GC to log and send to 80d, and Nedcj and donidoode. Got Souvenir from this event.
Came and got pathtag and then found the cache near here. Heard from the Solomons that there were 4 caches around the place. We found all of them within half an hour. A majority of the time was spent logging TBs and GCs at the table and looking at the awesome cake. I think we had talked to quite a few of cachers by the time we left. Thanks to 80degrees for the pathtags and event. Iamapom and 80degrees for the cache, Left 2 TBs Took nothing, left before event was over.
Now I have got to log me some gnomes and Travel Bugs.

Wow!! What a day. The weather was mild and dry – the best day of the week. Although we were disappointed that some cachers were unable to make it we were blown away by the turnout. The log sheet reflects that 100 teams were present at sometime during the afternoon or evening. Visits for some were long for others fleeting we had visitors from as far as California and Singapore and several from interstate. Along with EuDes we now wait to read all the logs. Look forward to announcing all prize winners in the next few weeks. A great way to fill in such a special day.

PS Thanks EuDes for the push up the hill!!

I had been looking forward to this day for some time. It had been marked on the calendar as soon as I knew about it. It didn’t disappoint.

My first caching event was very enjoyable although quite daunting. It was an opportunity too good to be missed. The friendly atmoshphere made it easy to be able to put a face to many of the names that I have seen in my travels.

A shock to see Mrs. 80degrees in a wheelchair when I arrived and Mr 80degrees pushing the chair up the hill. Speedy recovery to you both!

It was a memorable event for me and the path tag finished it off. It will be cherished, displayed and talked about over the family table for some time.

It was a shame that I had to leave before the end of the event. I did however see the wonderful cake before heading off to negotiate the city traffic and beat Alan home.

Many accolades go to you for hosting this event, all the activities and time that you put into planning such a unique day.I had bee

Attended at 4.30pm and left reluctantly at around 6.45pm. We were actually scheduled to be at the leap year event near Lismore NSW, but certain events took over and we found ourselves still in Melbourne so of coarse we had to make it to this event with the anticipation of meeting our friends and maybe making new ones. Well with such a fantastic turn-out we met our expectations, but we were amazed how many cachers we just didn't get around to speak to. A very memorable and well organised event.
Thanks 80degrees

Lovely evening, location, friends old and new. Thanks 80degrees for organising this event including the give-aways and prizes. Plenty of discusion about difficult caches but no free hints (unfortunately!).

Attended by Facitman at 18:00
Having decided to try and complete my Geocaching Calendar this year I knew that a find on this day was a requirement. I had thought about attending this event when it was published but it wasn't until a few days ago that I realised that work, home and weather were all aligned and an attendance was on the cards.
I arrived just after 6:00 having 'enjoyed' the drive up Hoddle St.....How does anyone drive up this road every night! Madness!
Upon arrival I could see that it was a very well attended event and approaching the logging table I met up with caught@work and received my pathtag from 80degrees, what a great memento, so generous! And then swapped personal pathtags, bonus! Talked to a few others while logging some moveables before the prize drawing and more chats and an event cache find before a side trip to find the nearby gc.com cache.
Time had passed quickly so it was time to leave!
Thanks 80degrees and EuDes for a terrific event to celebrate this unique day. A magnificent turn out for a weeknight event! Maybe we should have more of them!

Wow, what a well-attended event! I didn't finish teaching until 4.30, then walked home, got the car, and drove to the event. The traffic from Hawthorn was absolutely terrible. Managed to get there after about 45 minutes.

It was great to catch up with those I knew already, and to meet new cachers I'd only heard about or been in email contact with.

Dropped off three travellers I picked up in Tasmania last week - gave them to PrincessDiala.

Looking forward to the Mega event now. TFTE, 80degrees and Eudes!

Attended 17:45 to 19:30 Approx.

Attended "the 3rd Leap" after my 3rd time leaping out of the car, after 2 false starts trying to find the right park, or section of park, I eventually made an appearance at this momentous occasion.

Was blown away by the amazing turnout. Great to see so many like minded people taking the time to stop, gather together and eat a travelbug!

And a couple of pathtags to keep Kazza1996 happy as well!

Thanks 80degrees & EuDes for an awesome event.

Glad made it to drop in for a short visit before go to work and found few caches around here and won a prize (huge bison!) Great to see you all.

Thanks heaps to 80degrees for the organisation and a pathtag.
Wish you Mrs 80degrees all the best with your ankle.
Thanks again

Sorry I missed it, work commitments got in the way. Reading the logs now, sounds like a big success!

Attended together with nadya on a bike ride from work. Enjoyed the event, met many people I know by the website.

By the numbers -

The cache name of this event, "The 3rd Leap" contains the number - 3

The number of geocaches that we have logged that contain the number 3 = 27 which equal to 3 x 3 x 3

The number of Leap Days that have occurred since we started geocaching = 3

The number of geocaching events that we have attended in this park = 3

The number of members of the Rabbitto team = 6. A number divisible by 3.

Four of the Rabbitto team attendend this cache event. The number of different places that we all variously came from today = 3.

The number of different times that we arrived also = 3.

The times that we arrived at were - 5:15pm, 6:15pm and 7:15pm. The number of instances of 15 = 3

Manipulating the times that we arrived by adding all of the hours to the minutes as in 5+15+6+15+7+15 to a sum of the multiplication of each of the hours and minutes as in (5x15)+(6+15)+(7+15) = 333

Those cache events on our list from this park were finds number 0611, 4291 and 4892. Multplying all of the digits together in each of those numbers (6x1x1) =6, (4x2x9x1) = 18, (4x8x9x2) = 144. All of those numbers are divisible by - 3

This was our 210th Wednesday find. A number divisible by 3.

This was our 90th cache find so far this year. A number divisible by 3.

This was our 12th cache find of caches placed in 2012. A number divisible by 3.

This was our 786th cache found between 20-30km from home. A number divisible by 3.

This was our 312th Rating 1/1 cache. A number divisible by 3.

This was our 4,779th cache in Australia. A number divisible by 3.

This was our 4,338th cache find in Victoria. A number divisible by 3.

We have now found caches on all 366 days of the year. A number divisible by 3.

The number of different years that we have found a geocache in = 9. A number divisible by 3.

This is now our 12th and final month that we have found a cache on every day. A number divisible by 3.

We have found geocaches by 951 geocaching teams. A number divisible by 3.

This was our 52nd event cache. A number divisible by 3.

The number of event caches attended so far this year = 3

The number of caches that we have found that were placed on the 29th Feb = 6. A number divisible by 3.

The number of geocaches that we have found this February was our 3rd higest February total of 9. Both of these numbers are divisible by 3.

Adding all of the ages of the four attending Rabbitto team together = 133

Amongst the many teams that attended we were extremely fortunate and grateful to be drawn for the FTF prize. (and thank you for the very nice and generous coin and pin). The number of times that we have won a FTF prize at an event = 3

The number of cache events since we won the last one = 3

The FTF coin was presented by 80Degrees for our 80th FTF at 6:35pm - 80 minutes since Rabbitto "D" arrived. Instances of 80 in the presentation of the coin = 3

Thanks for filling in that 366th and last last gap in our calendar from D, H, HA and A B-A

Well done to Eudes and 80degrees for organising a great event. Certainly was well attended and great fun to catch up with so many other cachers. Great work on the pathtags, and also the edible travelbug (photo in travelbug log). Unfortunately had to leave at 6pm for other commitments, but still found time to talk to plenty of people. I'm sure that more than a few completed their calendars at this event.
Well done again.

Couldn't miss this opportunity to meet other cachers and log my first event cache. Congratulations to everyone with this milestone!

Like many others, I needed a cache on the 29th of February. So as a minimum, this was going to be THE cache. As it turned out, I went caching with Biggles Bear #1 and grabbed a few caches before capping it off with this event.

I was amazed at the number of people in attendance, and we were almost the last teams to add our names to the log at numbers 78 and 79. It was almost a mini-mega event. Clearly the date was important to many cachers. My thanks to 80 Degrees and Eudes for the excellent organisation, the prizes and the event.

Well what can you say about this event - attended by more than 80 teams such a great effort was put into this event by our wonderful hosts!!

I had such a busy day wasnt sure I was going to get there for a while and so glad I did!! Love catching up with old & new caching friends. Had a lovely stroll with Debbie - Mrs Earthbound Chief finding the temporary hides and another traditional closeby!

The cake was amazing and a great job done by Mrs EuDes!!!

Hope you get better Mrs80 - look forward to catching up soon

Thanks for a great afternoon of laughs and entertainment, a great new pathtag to add to my growing collection.

SL TFTE

Found @ 17:45

Much anticipated event, def lived up to my expectations! Massive turnout and many new faces to put to those faceless tags out there! Thoroughly enjoyed chatting to numerous cachers, some I'd know for two years now. Very great up to win a prize also.

Many thanks to 80degrees & Eudes & also geostuff.com for the time, effort & prizes on offer

Left a TB behind' discovered many!

[:o)]

Thanks for the great event 80degrees and EuDes. First event I have attended and unfortunately I couldn't stay long but was nice seeing and meeting other people in the community.
Was attempting to get to the 100 finds landmark but have fallen 1 short. Oh well, will have to go caching tomorrow

29/02/2012 19:35 The last blank day in the calendar!!! YAY this means I now have cached everyday of the calendar and it only took 14 months to do it!! This cache takes me to only a smidge over my 1000th and its where I picked up my 1000th Geo achievement coin set. Thanks Jim & Alison for collecting it from Carl (aka Geostuff). I was able to use my Garmin phone to activate the coin so it shall be dipped into this cache as well. Thanks also for the 29th Pathtag. Seeing as this is calendar day 366 for me I could, in theory stop caching (every day), I can now also log a smiley into the 366 day Calendar cache/challenge thingy (if I can find the listing again). I could in fact have a normal life like muggles........ NAH who am I kidding ?
TFTC 80degrees TNLN SL

Rabbito needs to go back to primary school. His ninth last fact listed in his log is incorrect! 52 is not divisible by 3, but maybe we can forgive him, because being the ninth last, 9 is divisible by 3, which gives 3.

Great to catch up with old friends and new.

Thanks 80degrees.

Attended @ 7:00pm, find # 1256

We weren't sure if we were going to make it to the evevnt or not, but have we had finished what we were doing at Mentone by 5:45pm, we decided to make our we to the event.
On the way we were held up in a lot of traffic and it took a lot longer to get here than we thought it was going to take.
Once here we were able to find a parking spot and strolled down the hill, well the kids rolled down the hill and made our way to the gathering where we joined in on some conversations, signed the log and not long after, listened to see who had won some prizes.
After that was done it was now time to head back home but not before picking up a few other close by caches.

Thanks to 80degrees & Eudes for hosting this event and bringing us to this area and for the pathtag.

Very sorry to have missed the event. Sadly we are "rained in" at Pambula, hope you guys had better weather than we did today.

Was able to drop in for a short visit with geoluce, great to catch up with some familiar and new faces. Thanks heaps to 80degrees for the organisation.

thankyou for a well organised event.
it was great to see and meet so many caches.
and talk about what we all love to do. CACHE!!!

my kids loved it too.
toys, and a fun game. with a prize at the end.
who doesnt love that.

its ashame we had to go early.

thanks again 80degrees[:x]

[:(!] Well everything has conspired to stop me ... the traditional murphys law struck...
so sorry guys really am disappointed not to have made it
maybe next time

I wasn't able to stay from long but I did manage to meet a few more people I've been "seeing" online. Great effort 80degrees in organizing a great event. I especially liked the cake.

First find for me for some time. What a great way to log that elusive day. Coolish day, slightly overcast, and I don't have to work till the evening, so off for a nice ride on my bike. Great to see so many I've met before, and some newer ones. Nice cake, got a photo of it, but because I left earlier so I could go to work, didn't get a piece of it. I guess that it is one of the few times that there will be a mass eat up of a trackable item. What a good fun day. Thanks 80degrees, and Eudes.

Well I must admit this was certainly a whirl wind trip.

I arrived but sadly had to leave and return to the office within about 15min.

Great to see an excellent turn out.

Once again it was good to see old and new faces.

I really appreciate the pathtag and thanks again to 80degrees and EuDes.

TFTE

39 of 41 caches for the leap day.
First 33 from the Woodlands 100 series, the rest on the way to 3rd Leap both in and around Fitzroy and Fairfield.
Thanks to everyone For The Cache's

This entry was edited by BernieH on Wednesday, 29 February 2012 at 09:26:36 UTC.

5/6 Members of the Solomonfamily converged on the event from different direcetion.

We always like catching up with familiar faces, meeting some new ones. As always great fun was to be had and activities well thought out - with some old and new tricks.

While Queen Jr cooked the snags, the princes rolled down the hill - but back in time to attempt to get the first bit of the magnificient cake (or try to).

Our thanks to 80degrees and EuDes - a lot of fun. Thanks too for the pathtag.

This entry was edited by solomonfamily on Wednesday, 29 February 2012 at 09:38:24 UTC.