VHF on Swampy (Otago) Upper Waitati, South Island, New Zealand
By drawp on 12-Aug-11. Waypoint GC321X5

Replaced

Drained water out and signed the replacement log. Thanks Emma

Hadn't planned on getting this cache today, however a helicopter perched nearby caught my attention and so we decided to carry on to this! A stunning day for a long walk. Found as part of the Ramblers Reward Challenge.

Logbook completely saturated. Left a clean piece of paper with my name for complete-ness, but that probably won't last long!

Easy find on a lovely midwinter day, almost at the turn around point of my walk from Leith Saddle. I am counting this towards my Ramblers Reward Challenge for GC2XBA7 (it's no. 1)

The logbook is sodden and virtually unusable

Just on sunset here. Can see for kilometers and kilometers.

Parked at the locked gate on Rollinson's road and walked from there. Left the car at 2pm and I knew sunset at 5:30 would be a challenge as I was going to do Home Guard and 200 Burns. Home Guard first and 200 Burns second. Plus all the trads along the way. Made it back to the gravel road way up just after 5:30 so had to walk down in the dark.

A quick find!

Turnaround time. Got to head back down. Took 3hrs to get here. Hopefully faster going back.

We left this cache out on our last trip up here, so it's been sitting there waiting for a smiley for some time. After the Steve Amies track today, it seemed a good opportunity to go further and grab this. I agree with the previous log, it's a bit like an old movie set up there, probably a black and white movie even, and particularly with the fog drifting in and making everything more difficult to see today. Thanks for placing this.

A day adventure up Silverstream. After walking down and back up the Rain Gauge Spur Track I decided to carry on up to Swampy for a look even tho it was a little foggy. Not much of a view but still very warm. A nice quick find here TFTC

Have you played the computer game Fallout 3? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_3)

In that game, you are navigating a vast wasteland consisting of plains, shrubs, gravel, debris, trying to find your way to nowhere in particular, just trying to survive. Sporadically, you encounter a building or dwelling constructed from solid brick (no windows, cast steel doors) or metal slabs.

Walking along this part of the Swampy ridge, navigating from one building to another, that is exactly how I felt. Yet again, I was a dweller from Vault 22; navigating through a shrubbery scenery without a specific purpose, hoping to find a tin or a piece of tupperware or even some Sugarbombs.

Except... except this time, it wasn't a game !

(insert dramatic dun-dun-dunnnnn tune here)

Walking up from SH1 it took about 1 and a half hours walking time to get to this cache. I had a look at the hint. Saw there were two hint objects but thought I would check the one with the old banana peel next to it. Cacher banana peel perhaps? Or not. Anyhow the cache did happen to be there. Thanks

Found. Log book nice and dry. Great views!! Came up from Mountain Road.

It was time for a bit of a walk initially to the Swampy Spur transmitter to see how I would manage the walk as it has been quite a while since I have done any sort of exercise. I'm blaming the previous two weeks of lousy weather. It wasn't until I pressed "Find next closest" that I noticed this and another two caches up her on the flat.

This was the last one for the day and time to head back down the track to the cachemobile. On the way I saw three MTBers and had a good chat with the two DOC workers I met up at the lookout. All up it was a 12.5km trek taking a total of 5 hours 41 minutes of which 3 hours 10 minutes were with me moving. It is great what the GPS can tell you.

Cheers for the cache.

Good Friday. Can't understand why Boone else is up here today

Nice day 4 run

Found it during OTMC's Sunday day trip. Very nice weather.

Lunch in the shelter of the building. What a great walk with our friends weka.

A quick easy find with The Bohemian, back on holiday from the UK, before stopping for lunch in the lee of the nearby building. TFTC

Found it with swollibman on our 3 days silver peaks hike, with good weather and some nice caches. Thanks for the cache.

Found with M@tea during our great weekend out tramping/Geocaching around the Silver Peaks. Thanks everyone for placing the quality caches in this area and providing us with much enjoyment during a beautiful spring weekend.

A great wee find for my caching buddy while I was searching elsewhere. Not much of a day but great to be out in the hills for a bit of exercise TFTC

PC Sniff was trusting his GPS and looking on one side of the cattle-stop. I took a gamble and checked the other side out. To my delight it was me who laid hands on it first. Thanks for placing this cache so far from civilization as to give an excuse for a significantly long walk on this grey Dunedin day.

A nice run up and over Swampy, and a quick cache find as a bonus! Thanks!

The housing of the VHF equipment here on Swampy seems to be suffering from rust. The cache however, was snuggly hiding in its retreat some distant from the building.

Fine day for a long walk, been on the list for a long time and now I have bagged the Swampy caches.
TFTC #557

Came up the Burns Track, collecting caches along the way, will return to the car via Rustlers Ridge. Found with Aoraki Sheep.

A nice day on Swampy and even nicer finding a cache. Found with debsnz

TFTC Run into a walking group as i was heading down track all late 60s early 70s going like the clappers
up hill i might add, meet them again as i came out of the scrub at bush bash was asked if i was mapping told them what i was up to they were very intrested ( also a lot fitter than i)

Sweet spot for this one! Cheers

TFTC

Finally getting around to logging... I did this as part of the MEGA trip organised by KiwiChris (thanks!). TFTC.

Perhaps the easiest find on our mega outing with KiwiChris, although any cache is made easier with 10 experienced cachers in tow! TFTC - really enjoying the variety on this hike.

Down here for the mega event, and thanks to evilno9 was signed up to take part on this hike. Probably the best part of the weekend! Nothing like a good hike in some wild weather! Big thanks to Kiwichris for being a fantastic guide, and great to meet some new people.
Nearly reached the top at this stage, and with the weather holding, was become quite pleasant. nice quick find once arriving at GZ. TFTC

With the track all pretty easy up here we were making good time between finds and not long after seeing the UFO we found ourselves here ready to look for another cache. First had to pass a hunter and his dogs but they weren't too interested in us and we had GZ to ourselves. Another quick search and the cache was soon in hand. TFTC

#4220. The MEGA walkers had made good progress along the exposed ridgeline section (mud wasn't far away and that would slow us down), and everyone was enjoying greate views (especially to the north). TFTC.

Found as part of the group completing the NZ Mega event Swampy Circuit Trek led by KiwiChris with StreetWalkerNZ following behind ensuring we all kept together.

The group met up at our starting co-ordinates and then set off at 9am. There was a question as to how far we would get due to the uncertainty of the weather, however apart from having to shelter briefly from some light hail it turned out to be a rather nice day allowing us to complete the full circuit.

Cache number 8 found at 1130hrs. No problems with the find. TFTH.

As a part of the NZ Mega event a "tramp" was organised and led by KiwiChris to tackle the challenging Swampy Circuit.

We all met up at our starting co-ordinates (cheers for EvilNo9 for the lift) and then set off at 9am.

The weather was the only uncertainty about the day, but apart from a sharp hail storm, it was all perfect.

The terrain was the most challenging, with some long steep climbs and some pretty trecherous
downhill mud slides.

The walk was about 13 km, but felt more due to the terrain, but we completed it all within 6 hours,
with a break for lunch and stopping to find for 12 caches.

All in all a fantastic mini event, a big thank you to KiwiChris, with whom this activity would never
have come together. Took some fantastic photos on route.

Cache did not take to find with 10 active searchers !!!

TFTC.

This one didn't take long to find at all. It had become bitterly cold up here so the logbook was quickly signed so we could drop into warmer climes.

Found at 8:57 AM on 12/05/2012.

Been here a few times - even down to the uni buildings further down the track. Equipment is used for detection of lightening strikes worldwide! It has partner recievers all over the world - including the Antarctic.

TFTC drawp

Another nice n easy find.. HOTA

Came up the longer way -- along the Pipeline track, up Burns and then the Swampy Ridge track. Easy find in an obvious spot -- a nice change from the previous two.

Stopped and had a well-deserved lunch in the sun at the VHF station and then on to find 4 more caches.

TNLN. TFTC.

Decided to walk all the way out here first, and then do the remaining two Airways caches on the way back to the Bullring. Lovely view from here and I stopped and had lunch and aired my feet a bit. This was part of a 19km hike today, and was most enjoyable. Cheers Gav [10532] (chal:GC2XBA7)

Nice hike up, on a sunny afternoon. Also continued on to meet up with the Silver Peaks route. Great views today.

Now this one gave me more of a headache than it needed to! Great spot, definitely worth the walk - TFTC!

A jog along from 'Is that a FLYING SAUCER on Swampy' soon had this one found, then it was a long jog back down to the car at the locked gate on Swampy Road.
CITO'd some beer bottles at Road end.
Logging this towards Rambler's Reward.
TFTC

Awesome day for a walk up here. Came up the Burns track from the top of the Northern Motorway. Thanks.

Man, it was windy up here today! Not much to shelter behind at GZ either. TFTC

Walked up the access road. Been a few years since I came up that road and it was pleasantly surprising to find that it wasn't as steep or long as I remembered. Low cloud over Swampy this morning but visibility fine when in it. Had attempted this soon after the big snowfall but could only get as far as Rollinsons Road before the road became impassable. Ramble no. 1 for Rambler's Reward Challenge GC2XBA7

This entry was edited by U.N.C.L.E. on Friday, 23 September 2011 at 04:09:15 UTC.

Contemplated going up during the snow for the FTF a few weeks ago but glad I didn't now. Biked up from the locked gate went reasonably steady and got to GZ in about half an hour. I enjoyed the solitude and tranquility and an apple at GZ, nestled into a tussock I had both warmth and comfort! Picked up some pine cones on the return trip to town.

Ramble number 6.

Nothing in the cache so added a couple of muggle cards. + tb.

Amazing views right to the Kakanuis and Rock & Pillars. A good spot for lunch. We watched the smoke from a burnoff in the Strathtaieri spread across the Taieri Plains and then drift northwards to put a haze over the city.

These hills were a great lace to be today.-Bitsprayer

Nice easy find in one of my favourite spots. I didn't have what it took to go up there last Friday though.

TFTC. Icy trek on a lovely sunny morning.

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