Big Black Bucket at the Blue Lake (Rotorua) Lake Okareka, North Island, New Zealand
By fanfan-77 on 12-Sep-11. Waypoint GC3426B

Cache in good order. Lovely little bush walk. Tftc

Great!

Amazing treasures !

Out walking after Suffer half Ironman

What a wonderful hike. I really enjoyed the mood in the early morning. TFTC pots64

Sveppi and I are up in Rotorua for our annual visit and I take the time to perform maintenance on a couple of my caches. We decided to stay at the Top10 and I visited the cache late-afternoon on a week day. It was hot and sunny, the lake levels were very high and there were plenty of birds singing in the bush. It's still a lovely walk. I dried the cache, replaced all the contents including the logbook and included another container to try and help keep it dry. The container is in good condition and should not leak. Please make sure the lid is clicked hard so that water and moisture can't get in.

We had travelled down from Auckland and stopped off in Rotorua for a couple of days. Thanks to,the precise hint we soon found the cache. Log was too wet to sign. We left a new log and bag. TFTC

What a great spot for a large cache. We didn’t have reception so I couldn’t look up the hint but Mr Pinocchio quickly found it. TFTC

Another nice walk & quick find. Nice to have a big cache.

Thanks to hint didn’t take long to find. A little wet inside. But log still able to be signed. Tftc

TFTC

Easy to find, hard to get the lid off the container. Still damp inside.

After a walk up to the letterbox cache, it was back to the main track, and continuing around to find this one.
No problems finding the nice sized container.
I removed all of the sticks that were in it.
Thanks for setting this up

Decided to go for two large caches in the neighbourhood before the well earned glass of wine end of day. The only difficulty was to find the access from the campsite to the walking track. From there I could follow it, and found after a short search the big bucket.
The content was a bit wet, but one of the logbooks was ok. On tour, and sadly already the second last day for us in New Zealand, we can’t accept the challenge to replace one of the micros.
Thank you for the cache
NathanS05

Found where our gps said it would be, but sodden. Log book soaked through. Put in a new log on top of some branches to keep it off the bottom. Lid perhaps was not clipped down hard enough, this container will be weatherproof if the lid is on tight. Great cache on this interesting short walk, gotta love NZ bush walks, tftc.

Awesome find with the kids! Notebook was soaked so will look at going back in and replacing notebook with new one!. Also beware as trail has a few slips and trees down due the crazy weather we have had.

oops actually left the bear tb in nearby large cache gc625mv not here.

Found this in April 2021. Finally managed to put out a large cache as part of the response to the challenge. Responsible Dog Owners? GC9TBW7

Love the walk in this forest. Called by here to drop off a large travel bug companion. Cache dry and safe. Love these big ones. Collected small tb to move on its travels.

Nice walk and cool find

It took us few minutes to locate. A little moisture inside, but not too bad. TFTC

Lovely walk listening to the different birds.
TFTC

The title says it all.

TFTC fanfan-77

*** Out on our MEGA Roadtrip with Wilbywarrior. Who says this can only happen when the MEGA is actually held?! Greetings from Dunedin, caching friends
# 304 ***

Easy find with the help of the hint. It could be our first large cache of the roadtrip. Logbook damp but writable.

Malinkaly and I planned a road trip to go to the MEGA but Covid has postponed the event again. We decided to continue on with our planned journey making adjustments as we go with the ever-changing travel restrictions.
Greetings from Dunedin!
Thanks for the cache, fanfan-77
#2549

Nice family walk with Miss 6 excitedly discovering this one. TFTC

Visiting Rotorua (from Wellington) for a few days and grabbing a few caches while I'm here. This was one of them.

A beautiful walk up to here through some interesting bush. Nice big cache, awesome.

Found it after listening to the birds, or attempting to with 2 small children ️TFTC

Stayed the night in Rotorua and have lots of spare time to cache. Going up to the Blue lake for a swim this afternoon as it’s such a stunning day. Afterwards collected a few nearby caches. Enjoyed the walk and no problems finding the cache. Have only just read the challenge so will bear it in mind and plan to make my next hide a large. Will let you know.
Watch the Duck boat which is always fascinating as it transitions from land to water and back. Thanks for the smiley.

What a nice track. Never new this wax here. Lots of bird life singing away today. Many Thanks for bringing me here. Cheers

Tyftc

This was my last full day in Rotorua after caching with friends yesterday. I concentrated on a few that required some hiking which was out of the question with one of the friends.
This cache is hard to miss. TFTC.

Lovely walk. Thank you for the adventure

Nice find once I followed the hint! Log is a bit damp but still writeable. TFTC.

Christmas Eve Adventure! Big Black Bucket! Wet As! Dried it out as much as we could with some paper towel! Thanks!

Found it

Found 02/11/20 cool cache

Lovely walk up the track,easy find cache in good nick. tftc.

Nice easy walk great size thanks

Awesome find thanks. Lived here all my life and never even walked this track. Glad to find this after 2 fails with other caches. Left a golf ball.

Awesone find thanks.

Did not find this one.
How can you not find a "Large" cache?
Not even Mrs GodfreyH could find this.
Found the clues described in the hint and the nearby notice telling us about Tawa trees and the birds that frequent the area, but no cache.
Got well lost trying to get out of the woods

GodfreyH

Cool and quiet up here away from the madness below.

Lovely walk and pleased to find the bucket. Contents a bit damp. Miss 5 had fun choosing something to swap. Tftc.

THe geofamily decided to flaunt the laws of gravity and general sanity and do a death walk among the redwoods. As can be imagined from my last sentence I wasnt keen to go so I was looking for credible alternatives... and this little trail stood out a mile.

Several Large caches plus a great D/T combo.


Bucket found in good order.... love old school buckets!

Found by the bounty geo hunters on 3/1/20 forgot to log online nice walk to get it

That's a cool one log a bit damp

I’m staying at the nearby camp so it would almost be a crime not to pick up the surrounding caches This was easily spotted thanks to the hint. The kids were very excited to find such a big cache was swag to swap! We also heard Kereru flying around but unfortunately didn’t see them, TFTC!

So nice to see a nice big cache! Lovely quiet walk and a quick find. Took TB. TFTC

Logging tb

Find number 6121. Find number 6120. I looked at the weather forecast and it said it was to improve so I decided to come over for the day. The rain got worse and after only 5 caches I decided to go home where it was warm and dry. After 1 in the rain I made my way to this one. Used the hint to ensure it was a quick find. Thank you for the placement.

Found as a part of a previous group TanjackMüley, now WanderingSparrow. Now I'm continuing on my own. TFTC

Quickly found this one. Cache is a tad worn and damp. Dropped tb. Thanks for the cache.

Found this cache ages back but forgot to log it...no phone coverage....a nice walk / climb to GZ and managed to locate the container fairly quickly..thanks for bringing me to a new area????

Great to have such a large cache. Initially I passed the way in, then couldn't access the hint for some reason. Backtracked and yay the hint. Thanks for bringing us here fanfa-77

Thanks for the little walk

In Rotorua for Easter with Jag50 with the aim to put a smiley face on as many caches as we can. Couldn’t miss this big black bucket! Lots of loot too

In Rotorua with Merlot58 for Easter. Quick stop here and the black bucket was quickly located with the hint

Very enjoyable walk with family. Birds out and lots noise. A nice place for a cache. Thanks for bringing me here. I recommend this walk.

Great find. Nice big cache. Even a resting stop too. Well placed. We came out here at night. Nice at night. Here the Moreporks out cooing. Cicades aswell. Love it. Thumbs up.

Out for a geocache hunt and found all 3 in this area. Great for kids. Swapped out some groovy little trinkets. Kids stoked.

After cycling some of the Te Ara Ahi trail today we returned to base for a refreshing swim in the lake and some afternoon tea.
I then came for a walk up into this beautiful reserve. A really nice piece of bush.
I do like large containers and do wish that mine weren't all either small or micro.
The best I can do is maybe upgrade one or two from micro to small. The hides can't take anything bigger.
TFTC

We found this one on a stroll around the woods. Even though it was a clear hint, we still needed some time before we could spot the huge spot. Thank you very much for the cache and luring us up here. Greetings from Switzerland.

I came out to this area yesterday with my sister and we had a look for the cache that is further down the track. It was a nice walk in the afternoon.

In fact, it was so nice, she suggested we come back this morning to have a look for the other two caches that are in the same vicinity.

We parked at the same spot as yesterday and walked up the same track, but this time we kept going to seek out the next cache.

Is was a bit cold when we started, but the climb soon warmed things up a bit. The hint was very helpful when we got to GZ and the cache was soon spotted. Its great to see a cache of this size after all the mint tins I see in Wellington! It gets a FP from me for the size and the location!

The cache is in good condition. All nice and dry. I took a TB.

Thank you

Cherrys Rule

Great cache, great clues

#1160
I have come over from Aus for a week of work in Putaruru and this is one of the caches I have found now in NZ.
This one was found on Sunday afternoon after I was told to come to green and Blue lakes for a drive. On the way I looked at map and found 3 interesting caches on a walking trail so decided to go up for a look.
After finding the first cache on this trail I moved on up to the gz for this one a short search soon had the cache in hand with good clues. It is nice to find a large cache don't see many of them in the wild, so I may have to put one out when I get back home.
Thanks to fanfan-77 for this cache

In Rotorua for the Div II Swimming Championships with one of the Jr. Cachers and a great opportunity to grab some caches. With all swims complete this afternoon it was time to target some specific caches, especially those that would get the most points towards the Planetary Pursuit souvenirs. On the way back from the letterbox cache further up the track and glad that the Garmin GPS works well under tree cover as it went straight to this one. Great to see a big cache in the bush and we have plans for our own once empty of the current contents, TNLNSL. TFTC fanfan-77.

Nice to find a large geocache every now and then I haven't placed any caches yet but will definitely think about placing a BIG one when I do. Thanks for the lovely walk through the bush after a busy day of work... was exactly what I needed.

Certainly one of the bigger caches that I have found, hope lots of people take up the challenge to make more larger caches, don't have any myself yet but will endeavour to place one myself. TFTC

Tftc. Definately one of the largest ones I've seen in a wee while, and filled with a great variety of items for young cachers. Unfortunately my two youngest juniors weren't with me for this outing. But it was nice to find one so large for a change.

Was having trouble with C:geo freezing on me today, but we got in the vicinity, and with the help of the hint it was an easy find.

I've got plans to place a large one near my home sometime soon, watch this space!

Again a 2nd find as 1st found this cache when caching with ex-partner before I had a geocaching profile. Still needed to use the hint again this time haha. Nice big cache, will made sure I place a big cache of my own soon. TFTC

A couple of years ago or so I was in Rotorua seeing the family, and came out to visit this cache. Could not find it. A big black bucket? Couldn't find it? Really?
So this cache has been annoying the hell out of me.This year, not only am I in Rotorua to see the family, but I came out here to the VERY busy Blue Lake, to see my other family, who are holidaying here from Wellington. Okay, they are actually in town playing mini-golf, so I went for another walk in the bush to fill in time waiting for their return. This time the cache was an easy find. And like it says, big black bucket. Lots of interesting toys, but rather damp though. The log is okay for now.
I come from Marlborough where a micro or the smaller size of small seems to be the preferred size for a bush cache. The locals are impressed when I lug an ammo can in for 3 hours. I'm with the CO here - in the bush, larger is better.
Many thanks for a better than average cache, Added a favourite. Also plotted the route, and will add it to the maps when I get home.

Merry Christmas and a cachey New Year from the Seagnoid!

I'm travelling around NZ for 7 weeks, using geocaching as my tour-guide. Today my plan was to drive towards East Cape, so I stocked up with groceries and checked out from the guesthouse. I was just gonna go quickly up to the virtual cache at MtNgongo. The naturetrail was so beautiful, and it had many nice caches, so it took a bit longer than expected. When I got back to the car, I was so hungry, never knowing when the next warm meal would be, so I decided to drive back to Rotorua and have lunch there. Then I got on the internet and got a bit restless, have I really seen everything in Rotorua? No, I have to quickly check out the green and blue lake. And have a look at the buried village. Then I saw the 3 interesting caches in the forest behind the blue lake, 2 large buckets and a nice d/t-combo. I'll just quickly run up there before I drive. Well, as usual, nothing is as quick as expected when finding geocaches, so by the time I got back to Rotorua, it was already evening. I checked in again at the guesthouse, and the woman who runs it had a good laugh. Well, at least I had a good day geocaching in Rotorua, finding 12 caches and actually 6 different cachetypes.

About this cache:
It's not often I find large caches, and in this forest it was 2!!! Of course I had to check it out. Altough there were no maps of trails in this area on my phone, it was easy to find the trail. The cache was quickly found thanks to the good hint. Nice big bucket, tftc, greetings from Norway

Great place and a lovely walk with the kids

Been around this loop before when my daughter was really little. All grown up now and on a different mission. Found cache quickly. It's little damp inside. Logbook fine. Seemed a little empty for its size so left a few things behind. Tftc

Hmmm...Big Black Bucket. Does exactly what it says on the tin. I'm sorry I didn't have any large swaps with me today but TFTC anyway.

Wandered along the track to find the two caches in there. A very pleasant walk. After locating the first one, carried on to try my luck with this one! The hint was very useful in ensuring a relatively quick find. #1499. TFTC.

Found it! Wow The biggest cache I've ever seen! Found it pretty quick. TNLN. TFTC

Well if you are going to go geocaching on your birthday, you really want special ones. A large container definetly counts as does a d/t (not here further down track). Funnily enough I picked up a large cache 1 year ago today on my birthday, I vividly remember knocking the container and watching it roll down a small hill, I was not impressed. But today's find was nice and easy. Tftv

Clambered around in the wrong direction for a while before discovering seat. Will find a new home for bug.

Thanks fanfan easy find left a trackable. Lovely walk

The B B B tried to hide but was soon uncovered. Had moved along another of the & Deadly Ducks on the South Island so couldn't resist taking "Pride" the duck and move it along. Plenty of room in the cache container for all sorts of unlikely trinkets. All good with this cache... **TFTC**

Found with the youngest cacher whilst exploring the nature trail. Always love to find caches this big! Thanks so much for bringing us here.

Nice big find.
TFTC

#3299. We have been on holiday up north and now stopping in Rotorua for a day to visit family. Had a short break away from the clan for the girls to paddle feet or swim at the Blue Lake and a chance for me to pick up the three caches in this reserve. Made my way up the track and soon reached the seat. From there it was a fairly straightforward walk to locate the cache. Nice to see a big cache. I do have several large caches of this size in Wellington and lately have been putting out quite a few ammo cans. But some places are simply best suited for small or micro hides to avoid muggles. Did find three trackables here (none were listed) and dropped one off today. Signed the logbook and replaced as found. Thanks for the (big) cache.

In rotorua for the Christmas season and we visited this cache today as there are a few caches along the way this was a must do as well as being a big container and we were after the letter box caches in this vicinity it was a shame to walk past this one ,on reaching ground zero we soon had cache in hand and signed and replaced as found thanks for the placement and the smiley here.tftc Happy new year.
(FTF) for 2017

Awesome another cache found. Beautiful Bush walk. A bit of a challenge but persistence paid off... can't miss it... it's a biggie. Tftc

Day three of my NZ geoadventure
Aiming for the good and the odd caches, large containers, earth caches and favorites.
A pleasant walk up here, protected from the chilly winds. Enjoyed the forest.
Thanks for placing this cache
R

After visiting the Buried Village nearby I stopped here to gather a couple caches. Most of the caches I have done in NZ so far have been pretty basic, no hiking involved, and minimal exposure to "bush" that hasn't been groomed so it was exciting to get out and do a little bit of a traditional bush walk and see how NZ caching is really done!

We love finding big caches. Nice little loop walk. We don't own any caches yet, but when we do, we want to do big caches too! TFTC

15/10/16 17:55 Dot Day and a gentle walk was called for. Knocked this off my bucket list... Thanks for this, Cheers, GC.

Nice walk in bush. Tftc

Out and about with Dillron. Great to find a BIG container
Cheers

With a new puzzle in Rotorua and several other previously solved puzzles under my belt I decided to make the trip down today. After joining up with DavidsonClan on a previous cache he kindly offered to help me out with some caches I needed for my GLCS. This cache I was confident of getting without a gps.... nope. Cheers again Bruce Soon found the cache not too far off the track, Cheers fanfan-77.

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115 cachers currently make up this [Closed](https://www.facebook.com/help/220336891328465#What-are-the-privacy-options-for-groups) group where we organise various geocaching events and excursions as well as share information and friendly banter. Please check us out if you're interested.**

A very wet bush walk eventually led us to this nice big cache. Thankfully we were dressed for the weather! TFTC fanfan-77. Regarding your challenge to place larger containers, we've just done a count-up of our hides and we have one large and six regulars, including a couple we adopted. We will keep your challenge in mind for future placements!

????

Big find

TYFC

A great afternoon in the area for me today. 100% success rate, incl 2 Earthcaches, 1 letterbox cache and 2 larges.
These large caches are getting quite rare and it was amazing to find two in the same area. I didn't even realise until I had found them, so a big smile on my face.
There were two women resting on the seat when I arrived so I read about the birds until the got uncomfortable and left. Found the cache with no trouble, took ages to get the lid off though, which I was soon to find out was common for these big buckets.
Cache in great condition. I rarely carry swag any more so took nothing and left nothing.
Made sure to put the lid back on properly and covered it up a bit.
Thanks fanfan-77, an awesome walk and a bonus large cache
Cheers

Edit - Just saw the challenge on the cache page, I am moving overseas next month so all my caches are being adopted but I promise I will hide a LARGE cache when I get to Melbourne, it's been something I've wanted to do since starting anyway.

We're visiting from Florida, USA. That was great fun. Thanks for placing the cache.

Did a short walk on this beautiful walkway after the rain had finished and found the bucket in good condition.
Thank you for the cache!