None Shall Pass! (Nelson/Marlborough) Rainbow, South Island, New Zealand
By 360 Degrees NZ on 01-Jan-12. Waypoint GC3A21E

After a day hiking yesterday, today was a leg rest day caching by car along the Rainbow road. Can't say I noticed an aroma with this cache, TFTC!

I passed! rainbow complete

Found on way back from Tennyson...road busy Today but no problems retrieving cache... Thanx4tc

Today was Bumblebees day to clear the Rainbow road as far as the old hut (the next one down the way). This is an area we call Dippus Flattus because of the camp near the river. I have crawled through a bit of this area in the early 90's. Easy find here before heading to the hut. Can't believe how busy this road is. At least half a dozen more 4wds passed by while I was stopped.

No issues passing today, and a relatively quick find! TFTC!!

I headed up the stream a ways to find a good crossing but gave up and made my way across shoeless. Then the cache was luckily found fairly quickly.
To get back across the stream I headed upstream a little and stumbled upon some friends who had used 'a precarious log' to cross. I found said log but with no one to video me falling and laugh I decided to find a shallow spot to go shoeless again. The water is very cold.
T F T C 360 Degrees NZ.

Today was a souvenir day so I formed a mission to find a few caches.
The mission ended up being about 7km and involved to river crossings (shoes off to keep them dry) in a very very cold river. And a scramble up a hill that wasn't meant for climbing up.
Ultimately though it was pretty fun.

We did pass and took a little look beyond the unlocked gate but then realising there were no caches up that way turned around and retreated. Well, here we found an empty container, no lid, no log, but as it's position seemed to fit in exactly with the hint, replaced it. - - We placed the "original" in the new container for proof. Hope that's OK? Thanks for placing a cache here .

Some of the good ones get past this point. Good to have a positive outlook from current Rainbow Station owners, tftc

A bit of rock hopping across the river to keep the feet dry then a quick find of the cache. Obeyed the instructions and didn't pass. Turned around here and headed back down the valley. Thanks for the cache.

Paddle chick and I went to get a few caches up around the Rainbow Ski Field and down the valley .We crossed the river to get a cache futher up the track on the way back we crossed the river in a different place to get another one .When we got back to the car we realised we had missed this one so back across the river again .I was pleased this was a nice easy find . Thanks 360 Degrees NZ

Found with Kiwimykl on a drive through the Rainbow, refer to his log for details.

TFTC 360 Degrees NZ

Found with NZDi near the start of our drive through the Rainbow to Hanmer Springs. We have had the two days between Waitangi Day and the weekend booked as leave since the end of last year with no real plan to do anything, but a week ago I checked the bookings for the company holiday home in Hammer Springs and saw it was free today and tomorrow. After a quick word with NZDi, it was booked and I began researching a geocaching trip. In a moment of inspiration I thought about going through the Rainbow Road to give NZDi's new geomobile a real test. Although all the warnings say you need a high ground clearance 4WD and the Sportage is a bit of a soft roader, I still thought it would have the goods to do the job, and it did although I had to use 4WD on one occasion for 50m.

As we didn't know how long caching would hold us up on the trip, we considered bypassing the caches up to six mile stream as we could come back and do them any time. In the end we decided to do them all and we still arrived in Hanmer Springs before we were allowed to check in.

The ford we had to cross before we got to here was the first real test of NZDi's new geomobile and she passed the driving duties onto me to negotiate it. After carefully checking it out I hopped into the drivers seat and considered putting it in 4WD, but decided not to. As it turned out there was no need.

As for the cache, the gate wasn't locked, but by the sound of it, it will be on Sunday, so the cache was a QEF PnG as per the hint, then NZDi took over the driving duties again, while I navigated.

TFTC 360 Degrees NZ

found while exploring with Bullertrout its been a few years since I have been up here

Found on a nice day up here with Kiwi Nomad

On a road trip to lake Tennyson and beyond with the kids.
After a couple of great nights at the lake it was time to tackle the rainbow road.
After a walk to the old hut I sent one of the kids to grab this while I parked up at the ford unfortunately he didn't find it until I walked up the hill tftc

Out and about exploring with Hubby and a wee picnic for lunch. Hubby stayed with the car on the other side of the ford. I got my feet wet (Freezing) and then wandered up the road to this one. Gate is shut so just as well we didn't want to go much further. Cache found and logged. Then we had a stop for lunch with the bugs by the river. Very quick break.
TFTC 360 degrees NZ

We tried finding this cache when we were fairly new to caching and had no luck. We didn't log a dnf at the time just in case it was our inexperience. Seeing that it had been replaced we headed out today and made a quick find and ended our current drought. tftc

Toby, The Seagnoid and I are off on another adventure - Wairau, Rainbow Station to Hanmer Springs and back. Its been on my bucket list for ages and today is the day!! Woke at 5am to rain so we delayed for a couple of hours and decided to go, go. Should be a breeze - but I forgot geocaching gets you no where fast - so this became an extremely long day. We left St Arnaud at 9.30 and home after midnight!! But still loved it.
We searched and The Seagnoid confirmed its missing. We searched all the loose bark down the bank looking for the container to no avail. There has been a lot of water through here lately. So arranged another cache with waterproof log- now a small, tucked behind a rock . Cheers

This geocacher reported that the cache might be missing.

No evidence of wasps and no cache either.

Lots of bark down the bank. Area looks like it has been cleared. Cache may have been cleared with it. Tftc

Got the car across the ford and had a look for this one before heading on, but nothing found.

No finds for ages, area obviously cleared, needs checking.

Found the wasp nest but not the cache

No luck here, searched in likely spot given the hint but only a wasp nest. DNF

ok

A weekend trip to Nelson to attend the event then cache our way back to Blenheim via Brightwater, Wakefield and 88 Valley Road was hatched earlier in the week and with Pi Day kindly offering up not one, but two shiny souvenirs, it was agreed that we would head over the hill, again!
Saturday morning to the Event, sleep in the car Saturday night (for me, the Seagnoid would take his bivvy tent and sleeping bag) then a long and slow trip back to bag as many caches as possible. Somehow though, this was lost in communication and the Seagnoid kindly volunteered himself to be Joe le taxi on Saturday night so the whole thing was brought forward 24 hours. My G P S has packed a sad and won't work anymore so I was on borrowed equipment and hastily loaded a G S A K list of potential finds, and some solved puzzles, and off we set at about 5:30 from sunny Blenheim. Grabbed caches before it got too dark to keep going, and managed 6 by torch light which helps towards one of my missing M G S C attributes, yay, just the Events to go now to qualify. At last it's Pi day. Wake up after an uncomfortable and too warm, then warm enough, then too cold night.
On the road home, the long way round, via Brightwater, Wakefield and 88 Valley and St Arnaud.
A very Gandalf-esque cache title, wasn't sure if it was the river until we crossed. Decided on foot was best as this was the lucky last cache of the day and wet feet shouldn't be a problem. Ha. You should smell my car the next day, phew!!
No problems with the find, signed and replaced as found
T F T C 360 Degrees NZ

[green] Out with Capperz on the last part of our Friday / Saturday Pi Day caching extravaganza. Nelson, St Arnaud and now heading back home. Capperz has three left at the end of this road and I had a few more, so here we are, at the last cache for the trip. Decided to walk the river rather than drive across - nice to see some rivers still have water in them!

After many kilometers without any traffic (road from Island Pass was closed to motorised vehicles) this marked about the spot where I'd have to look for cars again... And the cache remembered me to do so

Thanks for showing me this location and the cache!
TNLN

Standard text:
Sorry for logging late...

This cache was visited by me either during the one month (February 2015) of hiking/tramping in NZ together with Bärgegumperli or in March/April 2015 while on a bicycle trip across NZ and AUS.
We/I enjoyed geocaching a lot.

Hiking
Hikes:
- Abel Tasman NP: Motueka, Kaiteriteri, Marahau, Inland Track, Separation Point, Coastal Track, Marahau.
- Nelson Lakes NP: St. Arnaud, Hopeless Hut, Travers Saddle, Blue Lake, Waiau Pass, Thompson Pass, D'Urville Valley, Lake Angelus, St. Arnaud.
- Arthur's Pass NP: Mt Brown Hut, Styx Valley, Browning Pass, Whitehorn Pass, Waimakariri Valley, Jordan Saddle, Hut Spur, Arthur's Pass, Mt Aicken
- Bridle Path
The weather conditions were great for tramping almost every single day. We enjoyed the beautiful landscape, the peace in some very remote areas and the many friendly people we met on our way or in the different huts.

Cycling from Dunedin to Auckland
It is not my first tour with this [url=http://coord.info/TB4MQE4]bicycle[/url] ([url=http://www.geocaching.com/track/map_gm.aspx?ID=3901325]map with long loading time[/url]).
Places along the route: Dunedin, Otago Central Rail Trail, East Manuherikia track, Tekapo, Fairlie, Geraldine, Oxford, Waipara, Hanmer Springs, Jacks Pass, Island Saddle, Picton, Wellington, Homedale, Hutt River Trail, Masterton, Pongaroa, road near Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, Waipukurau, Fernhill, Taupo, Whakamaru, Tirau, Hauraki Rail Trail, Kawakawa Bay, Aukland.
After one month of perfect weather (see above) I finally got what I had to expect: Some rain... And sometimes stron headwinds. That the route was not flat at all meant usually that the landscape is great .
*

Cycling from Melbourne to Darwin
Places along the route: Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, Penshurst, Edenhope, Jervois Ferry, Sedan, Tanunda, Crystal Brook, Port Augusta, Coober Pedy, Uluru/Ayers Rock, The Olgas/Kata Tjuta, Mereenie Loop, Alice Springs, Karlu Karlu/Devil's Marbles, Litchfield NP, Mandorah, Darwin.
Along the coast the weather was often wet and cold. The small roads in Victoria and South Australia were very pleasant to ride despite a lot of headwind. This changed as soon as I reached the Stuart Hwy to sometimes strong tailwinds. That's why I had some "spare" time to ride a loop in the Red Centre. Further north
As in NZ i met some awesome people.
*

Guess what I did while waiting for a connecting plane in Perth?

Greetings from Switzerland / Gruess us dr Schwiiz

*There are a lot(!) of caches which I did not search while on the bicycle trip. The reasons are mainly:
1. Stopping slows if one wants to get somewhere, especially on bridges where no one wants to slow down a fully loaded touring bike. Yes, there were quite a few days with >200 km on the pushbike...
2. Riding or resting next to a loaded (recumbent) bike attracts in some areas so much attention that stealth mode is not possible.
3. On rare occasions I rode during the night. If I had to do that there was no time to search for caches anyway [:-(]
4. Some places I did really not consider worth stopping for a cache... Sorry.

Found this one while on vacation away from my home in Whangamata. TFTC

Gate is open and a fee payable to continue along this road at the moment. I met a guy on a bike with a very flat tyre, and a car on the other side of the Ford at the end of the road for them. Nice easy find. TFTC

Making a foray into the Wairau Valley hydro scheme clearway. Territory previously untrod for us.
Gate open but this was turn around point for us. Tempted to be back to attempt the track through to Hamner though.
Cace find was straightforward. Cache in order, log signed. Safely re-hidden, just as found.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

None shall pass eh? The gate was unlocked and no padlock to be found. TG left his shoes by the creek and I grabbed my gumboots for this one as the water was a bit too deep to jump over. Found on a big day with Team Gators down to St Arnaud and up the Wairau, this was one of 139 smilies for me for the day signed as KMTG. Cheers.

In Richmond on a wee family holiday. Headed out for the day with KiwiMoose on a caching mission through St Arnaud and up the Waiau Valley- to save on the possibility of RSI we signed logs as KMTG.
A long fun day. 150 caches total. Ford up a bit too high to drive - and I didn't fancy wet shoes yet (the day was still young) so I took the shoes off and wandered over barefoot, KM found his gumboots - and made the find and sign. Gate was unlocked so really - anyone could pass! Cheers.

11.40: Along the Rainbow Road to Hanmer Springs. The cache at the blue gate - and - we are allowed to pass! The first location where we had to use the key from Rainbow Station, second was at Hell's Gate. The ford some metres before the gate was a demanding one for our standard Landcruiser today (really much water in the creek), but we made. At cache and gate we had small talk to the crew of an oncoming 4WD. They may have laughed later on about our warning to the ford, as they were much better prepared then we were here. The cache itself was again a fast find in place whee we would have expected it, but muddy and slippery today.

Weather: overcast, low clouds, rain, 13°C;
Wheelchair: difficult, quite uneven road;
State: all good.

Thank you!
Oliver+Gabi

take some nice high gumboots the ford is quite washed out, once youre there its a nice easy find tftc

TFTC. I am attempting to cache for 100 days in a row while also managing 250 caches per month total in my stats. So far I am at 36/100 and 176/250 for this month. Time will tell!!
I recently drove the Molesworth Rd and was delighted to discover this road today. I will go as far as my caching info allows and investigate this road further once I am home.
Really nice location for a cache.
Thanks 360 Degrees NZ for placing the cache.
#3212

found on biking tour to Hanmer Springs, lovely day today, TFTC!

A low car had been ahead of me earlier and obviously made it but i was happy to walk. Looks like my waterproof hiking boots aren't so waterproof. That's ok, its nice to cool down a little, very hot today TFTC

#1740

Today we did a lot of passing - passing over - passing through - passing around but did not pass this cache! Thanks for the placement

An interesting place. TFTC

A great spot, and a fun adventure. TFTC

We sure did pass! It was a fantastic drive through Rainbow Road today. TFTC

Found with wandercat. TFTC

We checked out the ford, and decided our AWD car would make it ok, and it did. We proceeded up to the locked gate, but took a while to find the well hidden cache, despite the detailed hint. The fact it hadn’t been found for over 7 months meant it was well covered. TFTC

Spent a wonderful day in the Rainbow with ajbenn. Left the motor home up by the ski field road and walked down the hill. Waded across the water and up the hill to the gate. GPS got us to the right end of the gate where we went around and around muttering, it must be here, it's the obvious place". Just at the point of giving up but decided to go over the ground one last time and bïngo...there it was. Very relieved to sign the log.

Quick find on a gorgeous easter arvo up the rainbow. Took a pit and crossed the river in my 2wheeldrive, made it, and gate was open for the season too. Parked up and made a mad dash. Tftc!

No desire to try to pass as this was always going to be the end of the road. In fact she stopped a couple of hundred metres short as Mrs SoBad in a small car was not going to take any chances as she had promised not to move any rocks today. Cache found quickly then back to splash across again. Not warm that water.
Thanks.

ll had passed MTB riders any way, Quick find TFTC.

I think plenty may have passed today as the gate was wide open. Rainbow Rage on today may explain that. Thanks 360 Degrees NZ for placing this cache.

#6821

A quick find on the way south to Hanmer today. Fortunately the gate was open and everyody could pass (well, as long as they could get across the nearby ford...). Signed log, TFTC

I kenw it was around that tree somewhere, helped when I put my reading glasses on and read the hint.

An opportunistic tidy up trip today. We knew it would be a good one judging by the magnificent rainbow low over the horizon against a clear blue sky. We've never seen that before. The ford was running to high for the car so the final approach to GZ was made on foot. The cache was easy spotted because it was a sandfly free zone [^] TFTC

We had to come to Tophouse this morning so decided to continue on up this road to find the caches up here. We decided the ford looked a bit deep to take the car through so paddled instead. It didn't take long to find the cache but didn't notice any aroma from the cache. Didn't notice any sandflies either though! Now, back across the ford to the car.... TFTC.

The gate itself seemed quite trashed, looks like someone wanted to pass but substituted brute force in the absence of the key. River was up a little bit today due to the rain and we were lucky to observe a Nissan 4WD tackle the crossing before us, to determine a good line. Found on our trip through from Hamner.

TFTC

snowing here today
good one
thank you for the cache

Great spot for a cache. Have passed here often, both by bike and by car. Thanks

Twenty years ago we cycled past here. Ms M fondly remembers taking her shoes and socks off for the first couple of fords before giving up by the third crossing. Today I just rang through the water pretending that if I was quick enough I wouldn't get wet feet. Fat chance.
TFTC

Quick find so no sandflies. TFTC.

A change to more suitable footwear and then a nice quick find. The aroma from the cache is great to keep those pesky sandflies at bay. TFTC #3063

Didn't need the GPS for this one, the hint is too good!

Found on a trip to lake Tennyson for a revlet to try his hand fly fishingt and camp the night.

Found this on a motorcycle trip south through the Rainbow. Didn't have a pen to update the log, but did take a photo. Thanks for the cache - The brief stop was a good chance for my boots to dry out a little after the stream crossing.

There was no Pen or pencil at this cache so we couldnt write in the log book and as we had had to walk across the ford we didn't go back. Suggest you take your own with you when you go to find it.

FTF A short detour on my way home to Nelson from Blenheim today. Had to stop just short of the last ford to let a few people through coming the other way. Well, none shall pass in winter or between the hours of 6pm and 7am but otherwise the road is open to those for whom the road tolls... Nicely hidden wee cache too. TFTC, Biggles.

Thanks for the cache.

Published