ZigZag (Manawatu) Kiwitea, North Island, New Zealand
By Skindo on 22-Dec-11. Waypoint GC39H3C

Rather interesting to get to.

Nice find on an old gravel track. Looks to be an old cache that is still going took a little to find but happy to have this one in the bag. Tftc

Why is it always the first cache of the day that your shoes and socks get wet just getting to the cache, spotted the cache from that side but was easier to get to from this side, tftc

No sign of this cache, even when taking into account the previous finders words on relocating it due to flooding

Better luck next time

#6 for the day. Container has clearly been in a flood but the logsheet is ok. Have relocated above the ground, but same location. TFTC

Verywet & muddy, glad I had my gummies on
SL
TFTC

Could've sworn I did *Prick of a cache* yesterday, but that one was misnamed.
With all the rain of late the road was a quagmire, the parking was very soggy with pools of water, and the cache was hiding under a *very lethal* box-thorn tree.
Fortunately I had my gummies in the SUV so only the third was a problem of sorts. Definitely a prick of a cache. But eventually got to sign the log. Day number 178 on my current streak of consecutive daily geocache finds. Six months is in sight. TFTC More like a Sine Wave than a Zig Zag (see photo)

Quick easy find, all good. We continued on to the end of the road to enjoy the peace and the view. TFTC

The aim today was to get as many Sheild caches as possible however as we were going right past a number of traditionals it seemed a waste not to get them. Thought I had done with the gravel roads but was mistaken. Still collected a smiley. Thanks.

Quick find today with TwigNZ after a walk up to Rangiwahia Hut to replace the container for Ruahine GC34F.

I had heard a lot about the beauty of the tramp to be had up to Rangiwahia Hut from friends who have done that walk previously, and had wondered about how I might manufacture a chance to go and experience it for myself. So when I heard that GC34F had been Muggled but that the cache had not been lost but was available to be replaced then I was delighted to volunteer to join up with PGCNZ to go and put it back in place.

Of course this meant that we would be able to do a few more searches along the long trip back from the tramp such as this one. Driving towards GZ, I was suddenly non-plussed by encountering a bend in the road that my map hadn't indicated. It then began to make sense when there was a switchback heading back the way I was expecting. I was hoping for a quick and easy find to boost my numbers as I was perilously close to not getting my personal goal of 50 finds for the month, but I needn't have worried as the cache was found after only a short search.

All was fine with the container and the log, which was quickly signed and then everything replaced exactly as found. Thanks for placing this cache here, and helping to make my day memorable.

Quite overgrown here but found it...TFTC

Zigzag indeed! We squelched across the bog to the dilapidated gate. Cheers skindo!

Gravel roads, long grass, reaching under a fence - must be a skindo cache!

They aren't kidding about watching out for farm vehicles, almost run off the road twice on the short trip down here. Quickly found, all safe and dry. TFTC

On our own mega weekend with Infoferret, Jude_E, and NosyNel - 2 North Islanders and 2 Mainlanders - what can we get up to? We have found all the Shield caches and now are collecting others. Signed as JENI. TFTC

TFTC. Found as part of Team JENI - whilst Ethness was turning the car around.

On a geocaching adventure with Infoferret, Nosynel and Ethness. Signed logs as J.E.N.I. Thank you for the cache.
#4008

We loved the real letterbox. Team JENI is on the loose in Manawatu. We are Jude E and Nosynel are up from Christchurch and have teamed up with the Wellington InfoFerret and Ethness.

Sadly there is no large event in New Zealand in 2019 but there are a few Mega events planned in Australia. I plan on going to the OzGeomuster in July. To find out more visit this site: https://www.ozgeomuster.com.au

If you can't make Aussie. New Zealand will have another large event in 2020 in Auckland. I will keep you posted in my logs.
Thanks for hiding this geocache.

Up for the Mega for the week, had a great day in the Bulls and the sunrounding areas many thanks to the cache placer's - Bitsprayer

I have set myself a goal to get the requirements for the mystery cache The well-rounded cacher challenge (Manawatu) This requires me to get 25 badges 5 of which need to be gemstone badges. So each time I go out caching weather it is by myself or with fellow cacher I will try to get a least one cache that will get me closer to my goal

Today's plan is to head out to Cheltenham on state highway 54 turning right doing a bit of a loop before joining back up with state highway 54 collecting caches along the way, which will help with a side mission of logging cached for the hidden creatures souvenir. and then I'll be heading back home in time to get to work.

After coming out to get this I can see the reason for the caches name a good lesson why not to follow Navman instruction to the letter

Thanks for the cache

Needed a cache for our final dot-day in June and given that there aren't too many caches left for us to find in the Manawatu decided to head out a little further this evening. This was the 'Plan B' in case the first cache tonight couldn't be found, however decided to call in here on the way back home anyway. The ground between the gravel road and GZ had been churned-up by a tractor or similar large vehicle so getting to the cache meant negotiating a maze of mud and puddles. Seems that the cache was dislodged from the hinted hiding spot at some stage and was found after a bit of a search a metre or so away. Managed to sign the damp logbook after drying it off a little and replaced the cache securely in the hinted location. TFTC.

I had some spare time while in town visiting some of the rellies, so I thought Id do a few of the easy drivebys in the area. I had a great day and grabbed a heap of caches. Lots of damp and wet caches, but not surprising given the weather. I did find some that had been replaced, but found the original nearby. Signed one or the other depending on which I found first. Thanks to all the CO's for a great day and apologies for the generic log.

TFTC

Time for another geocaching trip with my matey 2 Bulbars, having just lost our good geocaching buddy Priceless Time (Michael Price) we decided that the best thing we could do was a weekend out caching in his memory. RIP Priceless, our thoughts are with you on your caching journey. So, after a quick drive down from New Plymouth we got into the caches: on Day 1, first to the west of Bulls then to the East and South finally into Fielding for the night and a few urban caches. Day 2 work our way back north and east to the CITO at the Rangiwahia bush track. Then back out to civilisation and home. So for this one it’s mission accomplished, this one is a wrap.TFTC! Blenheim Bear
This log posted with CacheSense for Android!

On a weekend mission with Cats&Dragons, for a bit of a numbers run along the new trails around the Northern Manawatu area, and anything else along the way. As usual these types of trips mean maximizing caching time and minimizing sleep time. So with a 2am start time Saturday morning we left home and headed South, and not getting back home til 8.30pm Sunday night. Some numbers for the trip as I know we all like caching stats are:
* 1450km traveled.
* 286 caches found (192 on Saturday, 94 on Sunday) with only 3 DNF's
* 4 hours sleep
* With a 3 hour each way drive to the Caching area, so about 32 hours of caching in the 42 hours we were away at an average of nearly 9 caches per hour, this isn't including stopping for fuel and coffee!!!

So a huge thanks to all the CO's for the placements, and for the reason to see some more of our wonderful country, we saw some pretty amazing places. Sorry for the copy and paste logs. We signed the log books HKCD, or HKCBC&D.

Found once I looked from the right angle.

Out for a geocaching picnic day with the grandies, MissT10 and Master N. Plan was to wander along ZZ and Ridge Road picking up caches as we go - Now on our way back out. Stopped in the gate way and my turn to find the cache again. Was quickly spotted, TNLNSL and left as found. Thanks for the placement skindo.

Got it thanks

Found while away on a caching trip

Not easy turning a 7m Motor home however we found the cache which was very dirty as if had been in a flood TFTC

Another skindo gravel road. Quick grab and blasting back along the road. Tftc

#1879 As i was picked up just after 4am to head to the Manawatu I realised this was not going to be a dot day. This was an attempt to get 270 caches in one day. There are a couple of great circuits in the Manawatu that will help work toward this goal so thanks to the CO's that have placed them for our enjoyment.

Thanks also to my partner in geo crime and driver for the day Yetrees. Without an able driver an attempt such as this would be impracticable so thanks for enabling it.

Thanks to all the CO's for their contribution to my smilie tally.

It is forecast to be a long day geocaching, hoping to make the 270 target. To be honest I'd be pretty happy with 200, however why not go for the Emerald badge (see project-gc.com)

On the map this is a straight road. Imagine my surprise with the actual - I guess hence the name of this cache. Tftc

Another find on the great north summer roadtrip with the Banians- a week of travel from Wellington to Auckland via Napier, Wairoa, that secluded road between Wairoa and Rotorua, and almost the Coromandel peninsula

Road and hide were muddier than would have been appreciated, but quick find nonetheless. Found a pen which I used all trip long, TFTC

Found on our road trip to Auckland for a wedding. Strict instructions not to use the handbrake for anything while on the gravel, especially turning. Found by Redants. SL TFTC.

We zigged and we zagged and after some cell phone trouble we got to the right spot thanks to a photo i had seen last night when checking out the cache page and the clue led us almost straight to the cache. My son swapped out a marble for a blockhead. Thanks for the nice and easy find - it was good one to ease the muggles into it today. Thanks for placing the cache.

Tftc never been down this road before

One of many finds during a 1288km weekend cache raid of the area. We enjoyed great weather, fun caches and we managed to fill a few boxes on some challenges we are working towards. There were certainly a lot of zigs and zags on the way to this one and then we had to continue on a little further to turn the geocamper around TFTC.

Tftc

Easy Park and grab. All is a bit dirty. cheers from casa del hince TFTC

Easy once i got gps coverage which took 20 mins.

A straight to for me today at a nice country location..TFTC!

All good here

Quick find on drive past heading to Taupo bike race
with Jax479. TFTC

Metal-art's trusty 4WD comes in handy on these gravel roads. Nice spot.

The map on my gps showed no zig zag, just a straight road so wondered why the gps was showing the cache was some distance from the road. All was revealed as we got closer. Quick find - tftc

Please bring your own pen - and gumboots! TFTC, #6889

Found on a >41 hour non-stop geo roadtrip from Wellington to Auckland via Cape Palliser and a whole bunch of skinny winding Wairarapa roads, in the esteemed company of slieschke, mike-miss and cretti. We picked up our rental car, dubbed the Idiot Box, and assumed our new identity as Team CRT, shortly after 8am at Wellington Airport and headed north.

We first headed to Porirua Harbour to take on the resident Kiwi geo art trail before heading over to the southern Wairarapa and Cape Palliser where we visited the light house at about midnight and tried our best to avoid seals while searching for a few caches along the southern most shore line of the North Island.

We headed up past Greytown and Carterton, focussing on caching areas west of SH2 this trip. There were some highlight caches, particularly around Carterton (I think) and some way up in the hills looking over the whole area from Masterton to Martinborough.

It was daylight again by the time we hit Masterton and we decided to hit fast forward and skip a planned area (will just have to come back again!) and shot through to Palmerston North where we got back into the swing of things.

We took the back-road up to Mangaweka, discovering some really fanstastic little places along the way, like a picnic area and waterfall way down in a canyon, and then we continued via Taihape, across and up through Owhango, to get some really old caches, and then north through Te Awamutu and back to Auckland to drop off the Idiot Box at the airport.

And of course, despite it then being after 1am on Monday morning, and raining kinda heavily, slieschke and I couldn't resist driving over to the North Shore for an FTF on a cache published earlier in the evening.

Thanks to all the cache owners along the way, even if we couldn't find your cache - all part of the adventure! Sorry for the copy/paste log, but just too many caches to remember *all* of them individually.

When this came up on the GPS, it just said "Zig Zag Man" so I was expecting some cool sign or monument... but it was just a zig zag, man... TFTC!!!

A plan was hatched for yet another extreme, fly down, drive back caching weekend from Wellington to Auckland. This time, Cretti and slieschke joined in on what turned out to be another epic road trip with myself and funkymunkyzone (our third trip this year).
We all met up at Wellington Saturday morning as i ended up being on an earlier flight to the rest of the crew. Jumped in our rental which happened to be a Ssangyong SUV this time round and headed straight to Porirua Harbour to hit the Kiwi GeoTrail. From there on, we zig zagged our way through Wiararapa to Cape Palliser, back up through Martinborough, Masterton, Ekatahuna, Pahiatua, Palmerston North, Taihape, Te Awamutu and back home to Auckland in the early hours of Monday morning.

To save time and log space, we stamped the logs as "Team CRT" travelling in the idiot box for the weekend. Lots of laughs were had over our 1500km+ / 41 hour road trip which consisted mainly of narrow gravel roads, some of which had spectacular scenery and views. Sorry for the copy/paste logs as its now all abit of a blur having only a few short naps in between. Many thanks to all the cache owners who have placed caches for us to find on another epic little adventure. TFTC!

Found in the company of Cretti, funkymunkyzone and mike-miss on a crazy Wellington to Auckland road trip in the idiot box. We traveled via the Kiwi GeoTrail in Porirua, the Wairarapa including Cape Palliser, the Manawatu, and back to Auckland via the western side of the Central Plateau. Signed as Team CRT. Despite very little sleep the weekend was a blast!

A nice wee detour. Zig zag... man!

Thanks!

Team CRT - traveling in The IdiotBox - For the first time, I have joined in with the mad crew of: FunkyMonkeyZone, Slieschke and Mike-Miss in a mad 40 hr caching drive from Wellington back to Auckland.

We're into hour 31.

Find #890. Thanks for the cache. 31/08/2014 15:04

The cache contents, and most importantly the log, are very wet.

On the road again with Gap (of Fap and Gap). Up at the crack of dawn to travel down-country to an event in Kimbolton... The things we do for an August Souvenir.

On the map, this looked quite deceptive... My iPhone map showed a straight road, yet this one zig zagged as the cache name implied. We found the container quickly and it was quite damp inside. Tipped out a bit of water and tried to dry the contents as best as we could. TFTC.

This Sunday was designated a "Caching Day" due to an event and a CITO in Kimbolten, as well as some new caching and a nice little back country road power trail. With the 4WD loaded up with SpudNZ, Tommygun9, Myself and Baby Tommygun9 we headed off to complete a 50 cache day. During the day we partnered up with Firewoof and Adventure Collectors to become Team FASTA (some of the nano logs needed space saving). At one cache we met so many people it almost became "Team EVERYONE" and an impromptu event!
The SpudNZ mobile made this cache a park'n'grab while Baby Tommygun thought the bouncing around was super funny.
Thanks for another great cache skindo

Today's mission was a good one; 50 caches, getting my bronze CITO and FTF Addict badges, moving from bronze to silver in both the Mysterious Cacher and Social Cacher badges and going up a belt! And, probably most importantly, becoming part of team FASTA which, along our travels, took part in probably one of the largest unplanned cache convergences this region has ever seen.
Just got another cache with this name in Wanganui recently.
SpudNZ's 4WD made this an easier drive than my car would've.

Found this with Firewoof and we cached our way to Kimbolton for the Event and CITO. A quick find but like previous finders today we found the contents very wet. A cool place for a cache.

TFTC

Needed to do an event cache to get our August souvenir challenge. Problem was, where is an event cache close by. Mrs Fap found one 300km away in Kimbleton, there appeared to be nothing closer. Phoned Squirrel Nutcas who was a keen starter so Kimbolton it was. All this way so planned to pick up a few more on the way. Left Rotorua at 6am and back home by 8.30pm with 58 caches found, not a bad day at all.

10.55am - SLTFTC

another day caching over here , TFTC

Wow this was a mud pit!!! Log is dry but container is definitely not. Tried to access from wrong point to start with then re read the details and worked out where we went wrong. Tftc
Also there is no trackable here... not sure where it went?

Family reasons for being in the territory today, managing to squeeze in a few caches too.
Straightforward find; cache OK, log signed, safely re-hidden, just as found.
Enjoyed the zigging and zagging, and a quintessential northern Manawatu view from GZ.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

Easy find. Cache quite muddy. 8/2/2014

Came here on a weekend trip to the Manawatu. Found quickly although it was very muddy around GZ. Signed log, TFTC

Found with insanitynz on 8-1-14 TFTC

Easy find with SpriteNZ TFTC

A bit muddy, but an easy find.

Nice location, all the nearby cows were fairly preoccupied and I was able to make an unchallenged visit

Had a fun day chaching with helbaby7 TFTC

Easy find. Didnt see geocoin in there.

A little tricky. Be careful of the thorns

A MEGA Adventure

Both Nova Lightning and myself had set ourselves caching targets that we were hoping to meet in time for the NZMEGA in a few weeks. So with a plan in progress and fuel in the tank away we set.
Departed home at 6pm Friday, returned home 3.30pm Monday, 7 hours sleep approx 470 caches and a great adventure.

Thanks to all those that have placed caches especially Skindo as I think we gave his caches a bit of a nudge

Thanks for a great weekend of Caching and Bull.

Mega Weekend

It all started about a month ago when Cats&Dragons brought up the idea of heading down the line to collect 350+ caches. We both had targets that we wanted to meet before attending the NZ Mega. Plans and locations were drawn up and puzzles were begun to be solved. It took me a while to get my head around a few of the puzzles and with the help of a cacher I was soon on a roll.

The weekend finally came and we departed Hamilton at 6pm on a Friday night. 3days, 2,000km, & 11hrs sleep, later 472 caches collected. Thanks to all those who's caches I found especially Skindo with a huge number laid.

Mega Weekend

It all started about a month ago when Cats&Dragons brought up the idea of heading down the line to collect 350+ caches. We both had targets that we wanted to meet before attending the NZ Mega. Plans and locations were drawn up and puzzles were begun to be solved. It took me a while to get my head around a few of the puzzles and with the help of a cacher I was soon on a roll.

The weekend finally came and we departed Hamilton at 6pm on a Friday night. 3days, 2,000km, & 11hrs sleep, later 472 caches collected. Thanks to all those who's caches I found especially Skindo with a huge number laid.

Quick find. Thanks for the cache.

A nice quick find after dinner

TFTC

A quick find while Spud Jr was asleep in the car. The cache was out in the open so I placed it back under cover after signing the log. TFTC Dropped off The Gold Ingot Traveller.

All 4 of us searched high and low, but nothing found!

Cache quite damp inside, I tipped out a little water, but logbook was quite dry thanks to the plastic bag.

TFTC

It was dark by the time we got here, however the cache was quickly in hand. Found with Crystal Fairy. TFTC

Quick and easy find. T4TC. Did with buttels

10473…

Zig Zagged our way to this one and then on our way south, bumped into Yeetrees Zig Zagging his way north to "In a Nutshell", TFTC.

Replaced wet logbook

Found it but log book wet, dry enough to write on

Not sure why this is a good spot to be honest, but found it all the same. Cache seals full of dirt causing water to get in. Cleaned it out a bit and hid a bit more under cover so it should be ok until we get decent rain. Log dry enough to write on. TFTC. P.S Did not see Geo coin.

bag ripped and log book wet - tried to dry it out without much luck

this needs work the log was wet and the bag ripped, I tried to dry out as much as can but the log book needs a new bag.

4996. The map on my GPSr didn't show a zig zag road, but the track log definitely does. GZ was a nice shady spot so we had our sammies before continuing south. TFTC.

That was pretty tame compared to some gravel roads and zig-zags we have travelled.
TFTC.

Zig then zag and there it was. No tb suspect previous visitor not yet logged visit.

I must be going senile in my old age. Another unlogged cache, this one nearly a year overdue. Oh well.
TFTC Skindo

Passing by with TB to drop
+ Rosetta Stone GC

Straightforward find. No activity in the area today except for noisy ducks in the nearby pond. TFTC

I wouldn't describe myself as a gravel road aficionado but I have done a lot of such driving in pursuit of other skindo caches. I hadn't done much walking today so I decided to park my car once I found a safe turning place within easy walking distance. I could have sworn that hill wasn't that steep when I walked down it.

Found it today My gps wanted to take me else .......... Thanks

A straightforward find around the zig zag, which wasn’t on our map, but we’ll get that updated. TFTC

TFTC. Wet under foot

Getting to the end of our caching weekend list - Mr RiffRaff would've loved to have done the ZigZag in his RX7 - without Mrs RiffRaff doing a 'Garfield' on the passenger window (Ha ha) but he had to make do with the station wagon.

- medallion
+ large blue flat marble
SL TFTC

The contents were a little wet.

A quick park and grab.
Thanks.

TFTC, Quick and easy to do. +TB

This entry was edited by we_are_wallies on Sunday, 22 July 2012 at 07:30:27 UTC.