CANZ: Waikato Pirongia, North Island, New Zealand
By Butterfly_lady and Radionut50 on 14-Jul-12. Waypoint GC3MRH6

I thought this was going to be a bit of a scramble but fortunately the cache was soon spotted. T4tC Butterfly_lady and Radionut50,Civvnr&MissTreadlightly....(UK) -/-Geocaching.com finds so far 12271

Thanks , a bit harder but found it in the end

Quick find on the way home from a gym comp in Hamilton. Tftc

Found it, thanks

The tree is looking abit dead. Thanks

Excited to find my 1st one, pencil no good so write. Thanks

Very easy find on a Sunday afternoon. Hint very clear!

Thanks for the placement thanks fir the smiley slipped down the bank. Tftc

Good fine

I remember visiting this area for one of the tour caches a couple also years ago; fact I can see where I walked. That day was nearly as hot as today is. I have no idea why I didnt find this cache then, but I am now happy to have another in the series.Day 2 of The Wellington Anniversary Weekend tour with Mr-Mcgoo, Itchyfeet2020, TwigNZ. We are targeting specific caches -oldies, puzzles we have solved and ones with a D/T of 2.5+/2.5+ for the [GC30AD8](http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC30AD8) DGSC Challenge (West Coast) challenge. Of course, there will be days of laughter, no doubt at my expense .During our time here, all found caches were signed as MINT, regardless of whether 2, 3 or all 4 of us have found it previously, or with individual names for Challenge Caches according to whomever was claiming the find.Kia ora rawa atu for the cache Butterfly_Lady.

Having taken yesterday off as leave, and with Monday being Wellington Anniversary, I am making the most of a 4-day weekend by spending it with friends in the Waikato in order to try to target a few specific caches up here and otherwise boost my numbers for January. Our crew consists of Mr-Mcgoo, Itchyfeet2020, NZ_B and myself TwigNZ, and so to save space on logs we simply signed our finds today with either MINT or Team MINT depending on log size.Today involved a great deal of driving to a lot of beautiful places which make me want to come back and spend a lot more time at. One of the joys of geocaching for me is that I get to see places that I wouldn't have thought to visit otherwise, but often you just get a 'taste' of a place because you're rushing off to get another cache somewhere.That was the case a couple of years ago when I came to Pirongia whilst on holiday with my son. Here I am again, but this time with friends. We stopped here today just to look for this cache, as the CANZ series is one of those things that we have all been working on over the years to a lesser or greater extent.Making the find was no problem. I'm not sure why there are 2 containers, but the contents are fine and it wasn't long before we had entered our team name into the log and taken note of the code before the whole thing was replaced as found.Thanks for setting this one up.

(# 8636) As it is a long weekend in Wellington I took a caching jaunt up to the Waikato and Bay of Plenty with TwigNZ, NZ_B and Itchyfeet2020. Stayed in Tokoroa which was the centre of the caching universe for this weekend. Day 2 was going to Te Awamutu, Mt Pirongia and Hamilton. We went to the location and had a quick find.Logs were either signed MINT (being our initials) or Mr-Mcgoo.Thanks Butterfly_Lady for bringing me here.

came looking for this cache with flossieteacake after trying to find some in pirongia forest. flossiteacake made the find as i tried to avoid making my allergies any worse. TFTC

After a bit of a caching session in the forest we came into Pirongia with the hope of completing the AdLab but for some reason my phone decided that it hadn't got the energy to load anything that complicated. Instead we came to find a couple of trads before heading home.A quick find. I went down the bank whilst GeohoundandI stayed out of the grass (we forgot to pick up antihistamines this morning and she attracts every biting thing there is). Like previous cachers have said, we too found both of the caches, so we signed both of the log books.

Rattll and I are staying in Pirongia tonight, heavy showers coming through. We took advantage of a break in the rain to go for a walk. This is a cache that I've been targeting, trying to pick up as many of the CANZ series as I can. An easy approach to GZ, a bit of a hunt through long wet grass, then cache in hand. Recorded the code number, signed the log, returned as...what's this? A second container sitting underneath the first! Two cache containers?! Might ask the CO to sort this one out. All good inside both containers. Tftc!

My turn to scramble down the bank, to find 2 identical containers. So we gave both of them a sign, also found a bug in here and since we'd left a bigger one earlier decided to help this one along TFTC

Found the cache quickly and took some time to taker in the view and look around the site. Found two cache containers as reported by a prior logger. Signed both for luck and returned as they were found. TFTC

Heading home from an overnighter at Pirongia, detouring for a few more caches on the way.My continuing history tour of Pirongia was teaching me more as I went along.Another magnificent site surrounded with history. And an additional CANZ cache to boot.I found TWO containers in the vicinity, I signed both an left a TB in one.Thanks again Butterfly_Lady#4779

One of the must have caches for this Hamilton trip. Quick find, then we wandered the redoubt. TFTC Butterfly_Lady!

Interesting history, lovely viewe of Pirongia. What's not to like? Found cache easily, signed and on my way. Thanks

We found this after an energetic time caching near Kawhia - decided to pick up a few extra caches on the way home. Lovely area and great views of Pirongia, TFTC

#3,940: Happy CANZ!Yay! I came to this one with cold_front and a muggle buddy. We had a short window to dash out and grab this one before our flight, so, of course, had to make the run! Found in short order.As I am the coordinator of this series, it always brings me GREAT JOY to see the spots the local caches have chosen for their CANZ hides. This one did not disappoint. Some heavy history here, and some good views. I grabbed the code, but still need quite a few to complete the North Island.SL/TFTC!!

#0356
My first CANZ experience. Found together w/ 8ManAfter. Quite straightforward.
After a whole day and successful mahi @Hamilton, we happily drove to this cache before heading to our flight back to CHC. Thanks 8ManAfter for doing the research in advance and added this extra cherry on top of our day trip. Yeah!
TFTC!

Found after a little bit of looking.

Heading home after a weekend getaway visiting New Plymouth. Nice late afternoon wander to stretch our legs before getting back on the road. Cache all good. SchmetterlingsKIDS Geocoin picked up. TFTC

My second cach found had lots of fun

Greetings from BC, Canada.

We are a family of 5 on vacation in New Zealand. Cachers in the family include BeesKnees34, SOB_4M, AlexBN16 and me. We have been enjoying the beautiful landscape and visiting some awesome locations.

Stopping along the way to grab some cool caches. We targeted high favourite, old caches, different cache types and some other caches along our routes.

I had missed finding this one yesterday, so today with SOB_4M and AlexBN16 we made the quick find.
Thanks Butterfly_Lady and Radionut50 for the fun cache!

Cache 3/3
Wife had a stall at the local markets, so had to keep the kid entertained for a few hours so took him out caching.

Cache wasn't where the hint described, quickly found however.
Took out and signed the log. then let the kid place the "Treasure coin" in the "Treasure box"

He helped place back where we found it, not sure if the correct place. and then back to the markets

TFTC! Coordinates led us straight there

Another top spot in the Waikato! TFTC

Tftc

With the Geotour coming to and end soon Yvettetb and I decided to go on a road trip to collect Tahi and Rua. Of course I had some puzzles at various places to collect and a few special types were added to the list too.

We didn't have a set plan for our second day so we just did as much as we could. The lettterboxes in the forest nearby were our first targets. Then Pirongia, and a detour out to Tupaia's map (a necessary PWGT cache). We then headed back to Te Awamutu to visit the beautiful Rose Gardens before finishing up in Arapunui for the night.

I am trying to collect this series but it's taking me a while as I don't often do geocaching trips. This trip I was very pleased that I managed to collect three more in the series. A quick find at gz, thanks

Our North Island Roadtrip from Whangarei to complete Tahi & Rua of the NZ Geotour - Day Two.

This was a short walk in the historic place and a quick find with lovely views of the river and surrounding area. Thanks for bringing me here. TFGC

TFTF

On Boxing Day

My son says "Great hiding place!"

I'm on a road trip to the far north, attempting to complete the PWGT Tahi Geotour.

This is day five, a soggy day driving from Whangarei to Te Kuiti and hopefully completing PWGT1.

Will expand on my logs, post photos, qualifying caches for challenges, etc. When I get home. TFTC

Two CANZ caches in two days? Almost unheard of (but not really). The rain is supposed to ease off this hour but it doesn't look it yet. Went to the wrong hint item at first until I checked my GPS.

30 October 2022 3:34 pm Find #5245

Good to tick off another CANZ cache. Thanks.

I was having trouble with details not loading properly on my phone today. Followed a black screen which highlighted my location and the location of the cache which got me close enough to be observant and see the trail in the grass that people had used to get to the cache. Then it wAs a quick scout around to find it. Inside of container a little wet but log inside an extra plastic bag was still dry.
Loved the discovery of a new historical location that ive never been to before and the view was stunning. Looks like theres a walk on the other side of the river that i might have to come back to soon if i can find where it begins.
Thankyou for the hide.

Nice an dry. Great log also dry. Awesome views.

Thanks ️

An interesting visit, as well as the information I quite liked the way the plaques were set so you have a good sense of what was located where. Cache located safe and well, thank you for placing one here.

Out for a day of geocaching around the Pirongia area today in the company of Merlot58 Jag50 and Nette1234.
Naturally we had to stop for this one!
Thanks for maintaining it.

Out for a caching adventure with Merlot, Supernanny and Nette to Pirongia. Once we made our way to this historic area, we soon had the cache in hand. Picked up the TB and will move it on. TFTC

The fog was starting to lift as we walked to this cache. No problems with the find here

Girls day out down in Pirongia.
A nice quiet spot overlooking the low lands.

It was lovely and quiet here today, so no muggle problems to worry about.
I left an alphabet stone.
Thanks for putting this here in this interesting spot

Found on a foggy morning while also completing the nearby multi cache. TFTC

Very foggy morning! Found with collins.katie whilst looking for a multi cache also here. Dropped off a travel bug that we found in Bluff!

Good one

Good find and a great place to have a picnic.

Nice easy find in an interesting place. Thanks.

The grass has died off a bit so the cache was easily found. Nice spot here with the sun shining.

We are in the North Island to try to finish the PWGT caches. While we are passi g we are also finding the CANZ caches. This is another nice easy fi d we can tick off the list. It is an absolutely stunning day with clear blue skies and hardly a breath of wind.
Thanks for placing this cache and thank you for the smiley

Cool

Was nearby for the geotour, so figured I should stop and check out the “original NZ tour”.

Took me far to long to find what was right in front of my eyes!

Thanks!

Unable to get close to GZ because two muggles were doing satans tango in the middle of the day on a historical site.

#13,007. We enjoyed visiting this interesting historic spot in Pirongia. GZ was all quiet at the time of our visit. Relatively quick find. The cache was in good condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.Thanks for the placement, and for bringing us to this site, and .T h a n k s. .f o r. .t h e. .c a c h e..M a u r u u r u. .k o e. .n u i. .a t u. .h o k i. .t e. .k e t e r o k i.

We are in Pirongia for the PWGT. been wandering around here fro ages trying to find our way to it. Well I can see where we need to be but not how from here. But Im here and so is this cache so just had to stop and tag it. Cheers

Day 2 - Friday 21 January - Taupo to Hamilton. With lots of side trips to gather PWGTs in the Waikato including Raglan at sunset. Meant to be in Auckland tonight but run out of time. So lets get exploring!

Zara, Toby and I are on our North Island expidition for a couple of weeks. Got The Seagnoid along for the first 4 days, heading to the Auckland Mega. PWGTs and TMGTs are on the radar for this trip. Lots of driving on gravel roads and visited lots of amazing places on our 6000km road trip snagging 200+ caches along the way. Visiting Cape Reinga, Bay of Islands, Gisborne and White Rock along our journey. Another awesome trip. Thanks to all CO's.

#10,531. I have been away on a ten day road trip which has taken me from Wellington to the Far North and back home to Wellington. Of course geocaching was a major focus of the trip and hence I have sheets of papers with the caches I visited to write up logs. I made a few brief notes to help me remember the majority. It was a long hot summer road trip and a memorable one as I have now completed the first geotour and made good inroads into the second tour.

Made my way to Pirongia and this CANZ cache was a priority. But when I parked the car I thought I have been here before. In fact I walked straight to the cache. I have no idea why I did not log it previously and what's more I could not recall the year I had even visited this site. I do remember it took me some time to find as it was buried under dense rank grass. This time it was out in the open beside the tree. What was most surprising was I could not find my signature in the logbook which has been there a while. Anyway signed it today, recorded the code and replaced the cache as found but added a bit of grass over top. Thanks Butterfly lady and Radionut50 for hiding this cache here. Unlike some recent finders I seem to be taking forever to gather up this series and still have more to find spread around the country.

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Up for the weekend, chasing mostly PWGT caches with Itchyfeet2020. Motivated by Itchyfeet2020 needing this one as her last in the series! Maybe this can be my first in the series? A lot of very long grass around at this time of the year, but Itchyfeet soon had it in hand.TFTC.

Whoo hoo. Last weekend on a Nelson PW trip I picked up my last SI CANZ. Today on a Waikato PW trip I have just found my last NI one! Bring on the semi's. Thank you for keeping this series going long enough for me to catch up. Absolutely lovin it . TFTC.

A beautiful day to get out for Geocaching in and around Pirongia. This one was found as listed on the page. Not to hard.

Thanks for hiding.

Where is it

Adam & Joel 21/7/21

Has been raining non stop for the whole past 5 days. Finally came out (still raining) and as I’m here it opens up. Bloody beautiful mate. Love this tour. Cheers

Nice views. TFTC

Another really cool historical site

Nice piece of history. Tftc

We walked across the grounds and wrongly assumed where this would be and yes it was a quick find when we decided to follow the GPS! Great to have another CANZ cache ticked off. TFTC # 17,080

Isis58 and I are on a mission over the long weekend to find as many TMGT and PWGT caches as possible with the occasional normal cache thrown in as time allows. This is one of only a couple of caches on the must find list that isnt a geotour. We would have found it a lot quicker if i hadnt just assumed where it would be and had looked at the GPS. You should never trust me to know which way to go just because I have a gps in my hand Thanks Butterfly_lady and Radionut50

#11236

Nice wander while we cruise around the PWs. Tftc

A nice quick find thanks.

Ms_KR and I are on a wee break to find some of the Northern PW GeoTour caches. Today we cruiised from Auckland to Hamilton today. Once we got over the Bombay Hills, the weather got drier.

Thanks to all CO's for publishing and maintaining their caches. Cheers.

I made the approach to this cache far mire difficult than it should have been...thats what happens when you listen to your partner nice easy find once at GZ and the the CANZ series of cache is getting smaller numbers recorded and on to the PWGT cache...thanks Butterfly lady and Radionut

A chance discussion with a fellow cacher earlier this week alerted me to this cache and position relative to the PWGT cache nearby. I didn't listen carefully enough though and ended up having to approach this cache from below making the terrain rating much higher than necessary! Just as well the find was straight forward. Another of the series and numbers retrieved. Thanks for the cache butterfly_lady and Radionut50.

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Took a bit of searching under the grass but we found it!

Nice easy walk to the cache from main road. Once again discovered some local history not otherwise would have found if not for caching. Thanks for placing this cache

Tftc nice short walk... doing caches in area. Nicely mowed lawn here lol

In the area collecting the new Pokai Whenua caches this was nearby so grab this as well. Quick find here tftc.

Up early this morning to carry on picking up the pwgt tour caches. Nice to pick this series up too. Nice quick find

Nice hide

Hard to find had to poke sticks threw the grass to try and hear a noise

Thanks for the hide - well hidden

Great place lots of history on my road trip to Otrahonga

A second attempt at this one and after checking closer to the hint item I heard the clunk of plastic box and all was good. Nice to get another in this series, we also got Hawkes Bay a few days later.

It's that time of year again when we try and get out there to celebrate our wedding anniversary, and my birthday the next day. This time we matched it up with a trip to Whanganui to see our daughter and the ever changing/developing granddaughter Kaiah. After the weekend with them we headed to Hawkes Bay for a 4 day stay in Havelock North which started off with rain but fined up nicely and finished the week well. A good break from home and plenty done and seen (as usual). Not huge numbers of finds but 22 adventure labs, the 4 TMGTs in Napier, a couple more CANZ caches and a few Virtuals as well as some other treats, T F T C to all COs.

Almost gave it but found it in the end, with the help of the hint

Found after a short search. Good views and an interesting history. TFTC

Second cache for the afternoon Pirongia trip. I had tried this one unsuccessfully a few years ago but today we had success just where it was supposed to be.

Ambiguous and overgrown

I was asked to join tramyard and Aiden29 for a L-O-N-G day of caching. I was keen as, haven’t done a big day of caching for quite some time. Up for grabs were 6 Adventure Labs and much later in the day we found out another Lab came out in Huntly, so we added that to the list. We did all the bonus caches that came with the labs and a few trads and mysteries that were in our path as well.

Had a fantastic day with good and lively company, we ate well at a sit down bakery in Pirongia and had dinner at a kebab shop in Huntly. I did not get home until 8:45pm after leaving home at 7:30am.

I had a DNF here not long ago, searched 2 trees (just in case) at that time, but today things are different, Aiden found this after a short search, nice to bag this CANZ number too.

I had spectacular DNF here by the end of 2017 during my campervan relocation trip from CHCH to AKL. Visited this spot again today with great company of Aiden29 and Gorby during great 7 x Adventure Lab Waikato geo trip. It took us a while but we managed to find it! Thanks!

I was invited out with tramyard and Gorby to do 6 adventure labs in Ngarawahia, Huntly and Hamilton. We found a few other caches along the way and ended up with a bonus adventure lab which was released while we were out and about.

Happened to visit the Pa site a few hundred metres away and we couldn't skip this cache seeing as we were so close by. We made our way to GZ and scoured the area. About to give up when I spied the cache hiding. Nice to get this one signed off as both the others had previous DNFs at this spot.

Checked this one out, and we can't find it either. This has happened before though, and after replacing we find 2 boxes later. Not everyone returns it to the spot they found it!
New 400ml box in place now.
The tree has died, so a new location will be needed soon, and there are not many simple options available.. Some thinking required.

Gave this a quick look while in the area. Everything is wet after the heavy rain, checked both trees, couldn't see anything.

We have gone down to Alert 3 in our Covid-19 lockdown, and Geocaching is now allowed, so time to re-enable the caches.

DISABLING THIS CACHE TO DISCOURAGE HUNTING DURING THE COVID-19 LOCK-DOWN. NEW LOGS AFTER TODAY MAY BE DELETED. THE CACHE WILL BE BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

TFTF

(kids find)

Surprised at how well mown this area is. Nice quick find. TFTC