Thompsons Track #80 (Canterbury) Rakaia, South Island, New Zealand
By Old Boots! on 25-Jun-12. Waypoint GC3P9HT

Found, removed

Time to go

All good for this one, if you would like a more detailed description of my finds today, check out #1.
The highlight of the day for me was finding the previous logged ‘cacher’ in one of them was someone who had accidentally found it while pruning trees. They signed it and left it there, nice.
Thanks the Wanglers for all these hides and maintaining them. Random FPs awarded throughout the series, but I will need to come back another time to finish it.

Found on a day trip from ChCh to Timaru to visit a couple of people (and get a few caches). TFTC

On the road from Geraldine to Christchurch and decided to get a few caches along the way.

TFTC.

TFTC quick find today

I'm in Christchurch with my wife who is undergoing surgery in Christchurch Hospital and what better way to take my mind on what's happening to her than to go geocaching. I was actually down here with her about a month ago for a similar operation and it was then doing the Thompsons Track crossed my mind. I passed on it then, but when I mentioned it to a fellow cacher back home, he said to get in fast as the CO is about to archive them due to the high maintenance burden. I wonder if he has considered adopting them out. Accordingly, I don't intend to moan about soggy or full logs, broken containers, missing caches etc, as I'm sure the CO knows already. I am also going to unashamedly post copy and paste logs because it is a power trail and they are not going to be spectacular caches. However I will make a comment specific to the cache where I deem it appropriate and I see that should be to about 20% of the finds. After my second DNF on a cache that already had previous DNF's, I decided to drive straight past any that already had more than one DNF. As I result I only recorded one fresh DNF on 70.2. There is a brand new power pole at GZ and I would say the cache has gone the same way as the old pole. My logs were dated 6/10/19 or similar and signed with my full cache name or KM where space of a soggy log made it hard to write. There were a few soggy logs that my log was more of an etching rather than an inscription and there were a few logs that were full and I scribed a shortened version of the date and my caching name on a suitably sized area of the log that was free. As I was caching solo it probably took a lot longer than a team effort would. I picked up my first cache about 7.20am and the last around 2.00pm. A caching buddy from back in Blenheim is in Adelaide at the moment and intends to attempt 800 finds in a day. Well good on him I say.

I lucked out with the weather as it was a beautiful Canterbury blue sky day and the predicted wind didn't pick up too bad. My geomobile was NO102 Actual registration plate number, not a vanity plate, a 1987 Blue Toyota Starlet with 42,000 original kms on the clock and a 1000cc engine that couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding so I was never going to win any races. I also had to be careful there were no other cars in view when I pulled back onto the road. I did all the caches from east to west and managed to park on the left hand side of the road for all but one. I can't say I had any real difficulty with any of the caches thanks to in the most, good coordinates and excellent hints. The average time for the caches was about 5m 30s and the longest I would have spent searching for a cache would have been no more than 5 min apart from a couple that would have been less than 10 min. Most of the time would have been spent getting the log out of the zip-lock bag, signing the log, putting it back and replacing the cache as found, then getting back to the geomobile which was only a few steps away, selecting the next cache, checking its size, hint and previous finds and driving to the next location.

My thanks go out to the CO for making the effort in placing these caches and maintaining them for so long. It also goes out to my fellow cachers who have provided replacement logs where necessary.

TFTC Old Boots

Wow what a day, packed a picnic and off we went. Our aim was to do all of Thompson's Track and get home whenever. As Mr C had hurt his wrist I drove to Rakaia then his job was to drive and park and me to get out and find. This is our biggest day ever with a result of 70 of the 80 found yeh!.Thanks for this cache Old Boots!.

TFTC

Container , logbook ... Going next...

TFTC
# 1580 August 30, 2019 17:04

Found on the way home TFTC

On a road trip south, enjoying the day and pic up some caches. TFTC

Greetings from Austria  
Die_Asseln

A planned geocaching trip with specific targets in mind.
1: The final 2 caches to fill my D/T grid
2: The last 5 caches available (all in the South Island) to meet the NZ Jasmer challenge GC4R9Z6
3: Get as many caches as possible in a day (Solo)
I had no timetable and only a vague route (Christchurch - Dunedin- Invercargill). So after 20 days of sleeping in my tent/car I arrived home having traveled 4500km and visited some interesting places. Met some great people. I had found over 650 caches. That was a lot of park. Jump out out. Find cache sign and return. Then on to the next. All this done by myself. Also attended an event and had 2 FTF
Mission 1 and 2 were achieved and I had a best day of 153 caches. All this done by myself.
Day 7 Chch to Rakaia 153 caches found. My big day of caching. This was the second part. After setting up my tent at the camp ground I set off and gathered as many as I could before it got too dark. Thank you for the placement.

Nice and quick one for me, tftc

Yebo OldBoots!

We are on the southern island for business and leisure and that leisure part includes geocaching, of course

Found well

Tftc

The road has been freshly sealed...gate to think how much tax payers money that cost lol thanks Old Boots..new log added old one full

This was found out in the open. Replaced log and positioned to cover better. Thanks for the cache Old Boots!

On a roll

On a mission to get 800 before the end of the year, this is 772, tftc

I found some of the caches in this series in October last year but the rest have been sitting patiently waiting for my attention for a very long time. Today was the day to pay a visit and enjoy the veritable feast of geocaching along this route. Thanks so much for hiding these caches.

Had the whole day to travel from Chch to Dunedin today so I was allowed to have a caching splurge!! No trouble finding this but log is full. Found a little space to sign but log needs to be replaced. Thanks (6th find of the day) TFTC

Found with nissan 65. Flew in yesterday from sydney for a short holiday. Hoping to see as much as i can on the south island and pick up caches along the way . Thanku for the cache

Day 2 of our trip to New Zealand with cullum68 thanks for the cache

On my way back to Dunedin after cleaning up some of the Fresh Breath ones west of Chch. Decided to go as far as I could along here before it got dark.

On a mission with BCD along Thompsons Track to get numbers for the Hidden Creatures. TFTC

Found it

Quick find TFTC

Quick grab on the way to Tekapo. Drizzly. Cold. Thanks to all cache owners for taking the time to place and maintain your caches. BJ25. Find # 1710

Many thanks to all the COs who helped make our geocaching holiday a great success
We left home early April and returned 21 May 2018. We toured from our home base up to a wedding in North Taranaki then carried on heading south right down through wellington and on down the west coast and back up via the eastern side of the alps some times going around in circles. Our aim was to get as many smiley faces on the puzzle caches that we had solved but of course stopping for many traditionals, multies and others as we went. some time we biked the bike trails or walked but mostly by campervan. we enjoyed the quite back country roads, many of them were metal but we just travelled along slowly going from cache to cache. Most caches were in good condition and I will remark if we thought it needs maintence etc.

Some months ago we started from CH and worked our way out collecting caches on the same side of the road. This time we started at Mayfield and worked our way back.

Caching for the day with peter007; we had had a couple of sorties down the Track previously & had hoped to finish it today - however there is a section closed for road works which was a bit of a glitch.
Thanks, Old Boots, for placing these and TW for maintaining them.
This is it - last cache of the day ! A favourite for the series.

Tftc

Dun

Lol

#3

Good find with 2 peas in a pod

A few caches before heading back to Australia tonight.
TFTC

TFTC

Been wanting to do this track for a while. Quick and easy find . Thanks for the hide

Tftc

On holiday in ChCh (Ashburton) for the weekend with darkangel so we decided to join the local Ashburton ianfr on what turned out to be an 11 hour adventure through Thompson's Track and around town, in an attempt to collect 100 caches in a day. We'd all always wanted to do it, and we saw a perfect opportunity to try. What we got to around 80 before we hit a brick wall and soon could only log DNF's, but thankfully and eventually, we hit the milestone in the end (104 in the end!). Signed all logs today as Team DIM.
#5. Nice and quick find. TFTC.

An epic day out with darkangel10151 and MikefNZ on a mission to find 100 cache in a day, Pleased to say that made it
Signed "Team DIM"

Team DIM nice and easy tftc

??

??

Quick park and grab

Found it. Hope to get a few of Thompson's track done on way home tonight.
TFTC

Found today with BDP82. Thank you for the cache.

Found with LadyE

Tftc

Over from Australia to attend the Oamaru Geofeast. In Christcurch caching with Di Morgan and doing this series while in the area. Ran into a few other teams along the way.
Thanks TheWanglers for placing the cache for us to find.
6354

Well we are on our way back to Christchurch from a great weekend in Omaru attending the Geofest. we met some lovely people some we knew and some we didn't its been great seeing familiar faces along the travels all geocaching of course. Now to get the last few of the Thompson track series and head to our nights accommodation then its time to head for home tomorrow night. Thank you for placing this trail we have really enjoyed it, its got our numbers up for the weekend. aswell as seeing some lovely country side. TFTC

Oamaru -
Left Oamaru today heading for Christchurch, we cached with Happy Feet 1 during our time here.
We found caches in some amazing places, travelled along some great country roads.
Started the Thompson Track, planning of finishing this in the morning.
Thanks for placing this cache TheWanglers

Found as part of Team IE, TFTC! Almost finished now...

Making my way home after the Oamaru Geofest. Had wanted to do this track for a while now and today worked in perfectly. With sun and no wind it was a pleasant collect of this varied and interesting trail.

TFTC and the series.

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Did you know that planning has started for a Mega Event in Wellington in 2018? Check out the details on the [WENZ Website](https://sites.google.com/site/wenzgeo2018/home) or visit the event's page on [FaceBook](https://www.facebook.com/groups/590545297801072/) and don't forget to log your attendance on the [WENZ Event Page](https://www.geocaching.com/…/GC78NMQ_wenz-event-2018-wellin…)
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A quick find. Signed IE (Team Infoferret and EthNZ). TFTC

A fuller log posted in GC3NJDJ Thompson’s Track #1 (Canterbury).

Doing them all in one direction ,so this was our third.TFTC.

thanks for the placement, we have been loved travelling and visiting the roads of Christchurch and the many caches each CO has taken the time to place, thank you for taking the time to place and maintain them.

Tftc... there are 2 containers here...

Heading south for a family holiday. Took in a few caches along this road. TFTC

Had a goal of 50 caches today to go towards a challenge I am working on. This was a very easy and efficient way of finding 50 in a hurry. I really appreciate you setting up and looking after the trail. Thank you TheWanglers for the caches

replaced, not new hint

Ty

︎3913
Found with BarKrn and new player Gogin91.
Tftc !!

T

We couldn't find this one last time but GZ looks very different today and we grabbed it on our way past. Log signed as JeJe to save space. TFTC!

JD and I missed this one last time because the tree had been felled. Spotted it in a different type of tree. JD grabbed it and signed for us as Jeje. Tftc.

Stayed the night at the Blue Pub,Methven and we're on a mission to find 50 caches in on day! #19 TFTC

Three years and four months since we started we have finally finished Thompson's Track series! Thanks for the fun!

This was the last one for the night - one I missed last year. Yay! Its over! man I need proper sleep!


I'm on a 5 day caching trip in the south island. Have a few aims - right now its to up a few specific caches that I need to complete my grid for a challenge - and find some interesting caches on the way 1800km later I can say I've accomplished my aim! I started this series a year ago, and decided that I really must finish it on this trip. I have to admit I didn't plan to do it all at night time. All up took 4 hours work, with a 3 hour nap in the middle. If I started at 9pm ... well I'll let you work out what time I finished

Grabbed while passing. Not really a Christmas tree. TFTC

Wouldnt call it a Christmas tree when there were actual Christmas trees near but found it

With a free flight from AMEX to use up by the end of the month and no family trips to use it on, a days caching along Thompsons Track seemed like a good way to use it. Awesome sunny day and lots of different caches to find. Some logs were too wet to sign. Some DNFs as well. Thanks to the CO for a great power trail. Too many to do individual logs so one log for all. TFTCs.

Had a good look around but no luck.

Tftc

The tree has been cut down. Cache needs replacing and a whole new hint I'd say!

The tree looks like it has been recently cut down.

I'm afraid this Christmas tree has been felled It looked very fresh as well judging by the sap. No sign of the cache in the debris.

Díkeš R&J

We are visiting relatives in Christchurch and are from Canada. We started caching the Thompson track a few years ago but were unable to complete it at that time. Also There are many additions since then so we are back to complete it today. Thanks to those who put this trail together.

#2826 More to Follow

As we are limited in time on our way to Christchurch we could find only 3 caches of the track. We are leaving beautiful NZ soon but hope we can do some more of your series soon!
Thank you!

Got some cheap flights a few weeks ago so the plan was to come down for a big run in Ashburton to achieve the 120 in one day and get the gemstone. OMG! We started at the crack of dawn and finished in the dark. Foggy and cool but cleared by lunchtime. It should have been achieved much quicker. We had not really planned a route and detoured a bit. Some of this backfired as we ended up on some long gravel roads that had missing caches and was most disappointing. We got stuck for about an hour on a multi I specially wanted for qualifying for another cache which was frustrating. However, we made it - with a few to spare I believe - but are totally shattered. Too many to log individually so are doing the copy and paste. Many thanks to all who placed caches. What beautiful countryside and we love the fact we could pull over and park safely. Not keen on the many prickly pine trees so many were hidden under. The breeze only got up in the afternoon and it was a lovely warm breeze - not like Manawatu freezing winds even at this time of the year. More traffic on the roads than we expected and they fair motor along. Many thanks for the caches. It has made the whole trip worthwhile.

Out for the first time in a long time, picking up some caches around the Canterbury area. #3 for the day

I'm following someone! #3 for the day! Tftc

Catching up with Becsicasa and we planned to hit up the Thompsons Track. Borrowed my Dads car and we met up and Rakaia to begin.

Really enjoyed this series, it was nice to have a couple of easier park and grabs, and a couple that I found a little more challenging (because I'm apparently blind)

Thanks so much for the effort that went into doing this series of caches, I enjoyed my day.


TFTC TheWanglers, the cache was found in good order Signed, sealed and returned to GZ. 3 finds of 79 today, making this find #1438

Tftx

Yet another cache we DNF'd about 18 months ago.

Very happy to make this a smiley as this now sees ALL THE THOMPSON TRACK caches with smilies on them.

Thanks very much for placing and especially maintaining this awesome series.

This gets a favourite point as it was the last one and a nod to the complete series.

Thanks TheWranglers

Nice and easy

#13541. The decoration was quickly found. TFTC.

StreetWalker and I want to reach 3000 finds for the year - a record for us - but I was still 95 caches shy (SW needed 83) so we thought the 53 remaining Thompsons Track caches would get us well on the way to our target. We left Christchurch at about 7am, and by 11:30am we were heading to Ashburton for a well deserved coffee and, being gluttons for punishment, some more caches .
With 80 caches found, we were well pleased with our day, thanks to the COs for their cache placements.
Being Christmas Eve, the hide was fitting. TFTC.

Tftc

TFTC

Found on a run with Sarmeli16 on a roadtrip to Mt Cook, sorry for the copy and paste logs.

Quick find on the Thompsons Track run. Thanks from Grandalf(2466)

Found it with effe981

Found it with dave981!
TFTC

A quick find while out for a drive. Thanks.

Searched a while ago but it was getting dark so came back TFTC

We are traveling around New Zealand. We are so glad that we can discover this beautiful country. We enjoy it so much. This cache was found during our travel.

Thank you. Greetings from Czech Republic

Today's trip was supposed to clear out the area between Lincoln and Southbridge, but instead I ended up in Rakaia... well done me? Another redemption find on the track. TFTC (3114)

Todays challenge: the Thompson Track. I only have 7 DNF out of 80 boxes. Not bad
Thanks for the series and for maintaining it. Weather was horrible: snow, rain, mud and water. But nothing can stop a dedicated cacher
Rolofant