52 Cache Pickup - Nine of Hearts Ngaruawahia, North Island, New Zealand
By McCutchan Cache Clan on 20-Sep-11. Waypoint GC34EHG

Found it

Lid not on properly. Very wet. Tftc

Lol great fun, but starting to think people will think we are nuts

Biking trip with the kid in the bike trailer and a friend along for the ride.Cache attempt 6 for the dayTotal finds 6 out of 6 (total of 17 attempts this trip)Took a moment to find this one, as was looking at the wrong pole (Down side of leaving your phone attached to your bike. cant use it as a GPS to get accurate location, so have to try guess)Quick sign and replace, quick water break, then onto the next

Tftc

Passing through to Auckland and grabbing a few more of this series - apologies for the repetitive logging, many werent able to be signed with the condition of the cache container and log papers . Appreciate the trail and TFTC! Stealth required here with a nosey homeowner questioning our intentions!

Sadly, that Geocacher lied was soaked and unfortunately I dont have a knee replacements on board today. Thanks for the fun!

Went through this power trail today with JTP2001. It was a nice day for it - overcast, but not raining until the last few of the trail, and a pleasant temperature. I drove down from Auckland, he drove up from Hamilton, and we got going from Ngaruawahia northbound. A reasonable success rate without too many challenges, although there are still a few gaps to fill in another day. Thanks heaps to McCutchan Cache Clan for getting these organised and looking after them, this was a fairly enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. Note: we were unable to sign the log as it was too damp, so have attached a photo as proof. TFTC!

Completed the power trail with Bapboy1996 today, meeting 'halfway' between our respective cities. Had to miss a few on the trail due to muggles nearby, and some DNFs, which Bapboy has logged. It was a pretty successful day though, which ended on 50 caches thanks to some extras we found nearby too - this is about 2.5x my previous most in a day, and about the same as I've found in the last 8.5 years thanks to a bit of a hiatus. Was also the first time I had properly attempted a power trail so that was a fun adventure, I'll definitely bring snacks next time though. Logs are signed as Bapjtp, but some were quite damp and were unable to sign, though we attempted to dry these ones out where we could. The roadside could definitely do with a CITO at a few spots. TFTC McCutchan Cache Clan

Good

Too wet to sign

Water damage

Found this, amidst the rain and the wind! Brrrr. Thanks for the placement.

One of half a dozen this morning Busy road but able to get well off the road at most spots

Heading to Waiuku for an overnight stay so I decided to take the scenic route and pick off a number of these ‘cards’.

No luck here with this one.

Thanks McCutchan Cache Clan
#4557

Logged using Cachly.

Okay - definitely a bit tricky with the parking. Glad we are only planning a few today . Got this one. TFTC and for placing this series .

Headed down this way today with the intention of collecting the Pickup 52 trail of caches, and any others along the way....as am in need of some numbers for my goal for the year.....

Thank you to the CO's for cache placement, and bringing me to these locations.

Let the adventure begin......as I was travelling by car and by myself, I didn't attempt all caches in this series due to unsafe car parking/walking.....

TFTC and the series....

Very very wet so replaced with new log. TFTC

Replaced the log as it was very wet. Otherwise was a quick easy find here! TFTC

????????

Very wet

Found with my family gogoguises ??????

Thanks for the cache ?????? found with my mum and dad gogoguises.

Cache very wet. TFTC

TFTC

Tftc, easy park and grab

After fighting the brambles, found cache. Container wet but log ok

Another easy find however weather has found its way inside however the waterproof paper has held up & was easy to sign..

Stopped in Ngaruawahia today on my way to Auckland and picked up a few caches along this stretch. Used the bike but didn’t particularly enjoy the traffic whizzing past with next to no shoulder on the road to provide a little bit of ‘safety’ for a cyclist. Ran out of time after seven finds. Most were reasonably quick finds which was great! There’s more than one round post at this point, as I discovered! #4567. TFTC.

Need 50 caches today for a challenge so got the bike out to try these.

This is number 4. Muddy.

Quick find

Found yesterday, thanks

???

??

Easy

Been along time since this was found. But got it

TFTC

Log damp and hard to write on

Finally had the opportunity to collect this series. I missed some as my geo-eye was off and some of the parking was a bit precarious. I went on a road trip following the "Mega that wasn't" in Auckland over Labour weekend. TFTC.

TFTC.

Ren138 Geo Roady Birthday Part 2...
Been wanting to do this series for a while now and we've finally cleared our busy schedules to complete it.

Nice quick find, and we've downloaded the sheet for convenience.
Prickles are guarding it well

#️
#MRS.K

Another quick find with @kudz21 on a geo mish for a bday weekend.

Found on a trip back north, have been looking at these for awhile. Only got a few of them as it is hard as the road was busy stopping and starting

Found it. A house owner come out asking what we were doing.

Gps played up a bit here - quick find once it settled. TFTC

Such a fun day caching with SarahB20 and sharing turns to find the hides along this series along a route I'd never traveled before. Tftc

Kathykaches and I have been looking at this trail for a while and finally today we managed to complete it. It was a great day of parking and grabbing, running out of petrol, driving to Huntly for a top up of fuel, then back to caching, lots and lots of caches We had 5 DNF's for the day, so only managed to find 47 of the 52 on the power trail. Of course we had to find 3 others to make it up to 50, a new record for one day for both of us. Mostly signed as SB20 + KK. Thanks so much for placing all of these caches and maintaining them. Sorry for the copy and paste! * wet log*

The school holidays are here and NosyNel and I are on a road trip north - to the far north. Today is a numbers run and for me, time to complete this series that I started in January 2015. TFTC and series. Signed NNES.

***======== NZ Mega 2020 ========](http://nzmega.com)***

Planning for the [NZ Mega 2020](http://nzmega.com) event is well underway. It will be held in Auckland over Labour Weekend, 23 to 26 October 2020. It's going to be a massive celebration of geocaching:

* 20 years of geocaching worldwide.
* 20 years since New Zealand had the very first geocache hidden outside of USA.
* And it's 2020 - all the 20s!

Talk to your geo-friends and start planning to be part of [this event](http://nzmega.com) - you won't want to miss it!

Day Two of our 11 day binge trip we are signing as NNES.

Yay school holidays! Time for a road trip with my friend Ethness. I flew from Christchurch to Wellington. The idea is to drive up to the top of the North Island and back. We planned the trip ages ago.

Thanks McCutchan Cache Clan for placing this geocache 7687 find for me.

Sadly there was no large event in New Zealand in 2019 but there are a few Mega events planned in Australia. New Zealand will have another large event in 2020 in Auckland. 
======== NZ Mega 2020 ========
Planning for the NZ Mega 2020 event is well underway. It will be held in Auckland over Labour Weekend, 23 to 26 October 2020. Thanks for hiding this geocache.

Found while visiting from the South Island. A great way to fill in some time before headinh to Akld to fly out late this evening. Thanks to all the cache owners.

Phone took me off track a bit but manged to find. Last one for me in this series. Will be back

Wow looks like i missed logging 15 of these caches when we did them on 8/7/18. Logging now.
Tftc

Have done some of the series before so just getting a few more

A nice clear geotrail to this one. TFTC.

#586. Headed out to gather a few caches at lunch time on a very nice Autumn afternoon.

I'm not sure if I'm too keen to progress the trail much more unless I want to build up numbers some time. Quick hops and marginal parking safety... not really my scene. Be stopping here for now.

Dodged a bit of blackberry in making my find, be careful. This log also wet, managed to leave a mark. TFTH.

On a mission for the Cache Carnival challenge. Trying to make as many finds as possible this morning, This series was tailor made for this purpose. Tftc

Found on our mission to find as many caches as possible for "Cache Carnival". A little hard to reach due to the fast growing blackberry bushes... Log also soaking wet. I fear the containers won't make it through winter. Found together with Pyphant and Greenkiwikids and signed as"Team Piraten". Tftc

Take care of the blackberry bushes...

....../. )
.....'. /
---'. (_____
T.F.T.C.._ ((___)
........... ((____)
..........((____)
---.____((__)

Down from Northland for the weekend along with Lis's Crew and DaffyNZ, with the challenge to get 200+ caches in one day and set some personal records. All logs signed as Team G0LD ( Geocachers 0B8, Lis & Daffy )

After arriving in Hamilton on Friday evening, we grabbed a few caches and then Saturday was the main event. With some good planning and teamwork, we managed 214 caches for the day.

Today was time to head home, but we had to make the trip really worthwhile and get some more on the way. This trail looked appealing and although it was drizzling at the start of the day, we charged into it anyway, continuing our good teamwork from yesterday. Part way through, the drizzle stopped, the sun came out and it got really hot again.

A few more DNFs on this trail than yesterday, but still a neat series that added good numbers to our weekend tally. Apologies for cut & paste logs, but no time to make notes about the individual caches on the day, especially with the damp conditions. TFTC

Out for the weekend with Team Gold (Go 0B80B8, Liz's Crew, DaffyNZ). Thought we would look at this series on our way home. Thanks for the challenge.

I'm down from Okaihau in the Far North with 0B80B8 and DaffyNZ on a three day caching mission. We aimed to get the Kiwi puzzles, the NZ series and The Eyes Have It series in one day. Not a feat for the faint hearted geocacher. 

We arrived in Hamilton on Friday evening grabbed a few caches and had dinner in the lovely Hamilton gardens. We then set off to grab a few more caches.

On Saturday with careful planning we managed to get a massive 214 caches. We worked really well as Team GOLD and had a great day.

Today we're heading home caching along the way. I started this trail back in 2016 on my way to the Turangi Mega. We had started at the wrong end and today I was keen to finish it off. It was drizzling at the start of the day. The team in the car were on signing duties to protect the logs from damage. Soon the sun was out again making my job much nicer.

Thanks for the series

Whilst staying in Hamilton, I decided after not doing well with the caches locally to make the trip up here to complete the caches that I didn't have time for yesterday. Todays caches were not so good, as the majority were quite badly soaked, and I ended up with quite a few DNFs. Still, it was nice to have a drive in the countryside and add a few more finds. TFTC.

Wet log book

Found with NZFlossy

Out on a road trip with NZBiscuit collecting this series and catching up as it has been awhile since we have been out caching together. The weather was not the best and I was the runner while NZBiscuit handled the driving like a pro as a lot of the parking was in hard places. We had a lot of fun and thank the CO for the series. Some of the containers are broken and have wet logs while some others are all good. It wasn't the day to do maintenance as everything I touched go very wet. TFTC

Doing well so far.

Nice park n grab - tftc

I was quite keen to complete the current Hidden Creatures souvenir challenge and so I thought that I would focus my attention on this series. So I came down from Auckland to begin just as the sun was coming up. I was in absolutely no hurry at all and just enjoyed the experience. Over all I found most of the caches with only three DNF’s. I also met Team BOPnJAM in the process which was cool. It was quite adventurous at times with the traffic and trying to find places to park… but I got there safely in the end. Some of the log books were also too mushy to sign. So thank you McCutchan Cache Clan for taking the time to set up this series. I really appreciate your efforts in doing so ?

The blackberry makes a great guardian lol soon had cache signed..cache all good tftc

The dreaded blackberry guardian here - I can see I will be spending time later digging thorns out of my hands!! Thanks for the cache McCutchan Cache Clan

Out for a day's caching with Team BOPnJam. Most were quick easy finds and a little bit of maintenance. This was a card game I never found enjoyable, but this was a better way to play the game. Thanks for bringing us over this way.

We had some extra time today and thought this power series would be a nice trip down memory lane for us. Thanks for some easy to find caches, but you do need to watch the traffic on a Sunday afternoon.

A plan was made with Team BOP to come to Huntly and do some serious caching for the Hidden Creatures souvenirs. 52 Pickup was a good place to start and we signed BOPnJAM to save space on the log. Most were nice easy finds so thanks for the series.

We made up a team BOPnJAM with a group of cachers from the BOP (McJandals, TNxPro, Philip Perry, FrogyBeCaching and Davidson Clan) and Merlot58 to complete this 52 cache pickup series and to earn some some of the Hidden Creatures souvenirs. Great weather and great company and a lot of fun - TFTS

Out with team BOPnJAM today to knock off the long anticipated 52.
This series didnt quite win our hearts, but we aced it and managed to score the full deck with a little maintenance on the way. It sure was a good way to clock up a large number of caches in quick succession and were were glad to have completed it.
Thanks for the series MCCC.

With Hidden Creature souvenirs up for grabs. A plan was hatched with our Westie buddies. We were all ready for a stormy rainy day but the weather gods were good to us today with no rain until getting home at 10pm. A great numbers trail with many of these caches needing maintenance, we will definitely have to restock caching kits as many log sheets were mush and unsignable!!. Still a fun day was had by all and many thanks McC for giving us a reason to come here. Please excuse my cut and paste logs in advance due to numbers. Cheers

Sunday trip on the bikes to complete 52 Cache Pickup - Waikato's power trail. Great company of Janno216. We just had one DNF today. Plesant day - great wetaher for cycling and joy! Thanks for placements. We had great time along Waikato river.

Some time ago tramyard and me already thought about doing this 52 Cache Pickup Trail. Today we both were free and it didn't rain so we made our way to Ngaruawahia (what a name !), prepered our bikes and started our journey.

All the Caches were fairly hidden and very easy to find. A couple of them were really wet so we were not able to sign the logbook. We only had one DNF, so we were done after three hours and made our way to the Bonus Cache after a nice lunch breake.

After this tour we had still time to find some local Caches.


We had great fun finding all These Caches!

Thank you McCutchan for hiding all of These!

Fun day out, thankfully with little rain, with cragger, laval and Dragon.Griffin collecting this series. We found all except 2, a few were quite wet so we dried as best as we could. I think we did them back to front but found ok parking in most spots so was no issue. Loved the document that you uploaded which we ticked off as we went.

Thanks for the caches.

I was out on a fabulous day caching with Keylev, Laval & Dragon.Griffin.

Thanks for the cache McCutchan Cache Clan.

thanks for the cache
picked up the TB

This was a series that myself and Keylev had wanted to do for a while. As it was the school holidays we made a plan to complete it today with Cragger and Laval as well. We did the series back to front which meant some parking spots were a little tight, especially with the amount of big trucks steaming along that road but we completed the series with two only DNFs. Unfortunately it was those two that had the codes we needed for the Joker Bonus. After a few tries with different coordinate scenarios we settled on one that was plausible and made our way there and soon had the cache in hand.

This was cache number 45 and a quick find , TFTC!

last full day in the Hamilton/Auckland area, awake at 5am so decided to wait for first light and head off and get some caches, on the way to visiting a friend in Tuakau via Auckland to attempt a few challenge caches that I qualified for awhile ago.
set off around 6am when the sun hadn't quite come up yet, but by the time i got to the first cache it was light enough to see what I was doing, headed towards Ngaruawahia first to get some petrol and then on to having a go at the 52 cards power trail.
All was well here, noticed that most of these caches had really good parking opportunities, only a few had a couple of interesting spots, lucky I had set off early enough where there was no traffic, until further in where more and more traffic came down this road. All caches were simple finds.
signed the log and replaced exactly where I found it. thanks for the cache.

Happy Easter

NZPatoto and I set off to find the Pack of Cards caches. 53 in total. We were going to bike but as I wasn't feeling 100% I offered to drive and NZPatoto did the finding. There were times we both did the hunting. Our road was very busy, with a cop car travelling south with lights flashing. SH1 heading south was at a crawl until lunchtime. Parking was interesting, would have been better in a 4x4. A few times I would drop NZPatoto and then find a park. I did manage to find 8 and there was 2 DNF. While we had lunch and a coffee we solved the Joker cache. #6 of 53 Found by NZPatoto. All good. TFTC

Nahkins and I set off to find the Pack of Cards caches. 53 in total. As Nahkins wasn't feeling a 100% she did the driving and I did the hunting. There were times we both did the hunting. Very busy road and not many places to park it was drop me then find a park. I found 42, Nahkins 9 and 2 DNF. While we had a cuppa we solved the Joker cache. #6. All good. TFTC

Bit prickly but fot ther3 in the end tftc

Totally missed this on first look but geowife to the rescue. Signed and returned.

Big write up in under the Ace of hearts. Thanks for keeping us caching all day

Nice trail and we had lots of fun... more details from me at the Ace of Hearts.

Just as I was putting the cache back I got muggled by the local in his van pulling up. He said I was the second person to stop here today so told him about caching etc. Hopefully he doesn't take offense at the cache near his place. TFTC

TFTC

Stopped at every cache along the trail, replaced log sheets and containers as needed, relocated 2 of them to better places. Trail is now 100% ready, happy cache hunting.

Check the drop box link in Ace of Hearts GC34EG3 for an updated spreadsheet that contains updated information for each cache.

Needs new log please

#5050. Had a short but enjoyable stay in Auckland. Now its time to head home to Wellington for Christmas. But first another mission. My DGSC bulk find challenge concludes on Boxing Day and by then I will be trying to find up to 200 caches to bring up 1500 qualifying finds this year. So have three full on days of caching ahead of me before I get back home. Today I am tackling some Waikato power trails and staying overnight in Te Aroha so I can visit the old timer cache 101 tomorrow morning. Time to do the 52 cache pick up series. Quite a lot seem to be missing unfortunately. After a while I got pretty picky about the pick-ups and only stopped for those with recent finds or not in the direct gaze of muggle houses. Still a good series to get the numbers up quickly. Managed to find 28 between 3pm and 7pm then time to head off to Te Aroha. Lucky last for the day and my 50th cache find today. My car GPS was telling me I had to leave right now to reach the campground in Te Aroha by my agreed check-in time. Thanks for the 52 Cache Pick-up series McCutchan Cache Clan. Favourite for the effort involved in putting out the series.

This was one of the better ones for parking the car. Not hard to find either so that was good. Container, like a few of these is a bit damaged, lid is no longer attached to the body. Letting in a bit of water too. TFTC.

Quick find all safe and sound but the hinges broke when I opened the lid.Apologies. Tftc

Nice quick find here in the late evening. Safe parking here too.

log later

Easy to find

Having an enjoyable trip along the river bank. Thanks for another one. Log is full.