Pareraho Pa Site (Wellington) Lower Hutt, North Island, New Zealand
By orsome4some on 20-Aug-12. Waypoint GC3V3EJ

Found after a good climb up from the bottom end of Major Drive through Speedy's Reserve via the Governor Grey track This route is definitely not for the faint hearted - one false step and the landing zone is in the creek maybe 30m or more below Later as we approached Hill Rd we discovered a laminated map of the Reserve and noted that this is a secondary route and a much more friendly track (Community? Track from memory) is available This goes directly to the pa site and avoids the steep dropoffs to the creekThe location of the pa site does not offer a decent view but I bet the pa occupants had the foliage well hacked backI've given this one a FP as recognition for bringing us to this wonderful patch of bushThanks Oresome4some

I didnt know about Speedys Gully until I went searching for this cache. The walk took me through beautiful bush and the stream crossings were quite easy. Lovely to walk with the sound of flowing water. I was very interested in the information about the Pareraho Pa. We are so lucky to have this on our doorstep. Thank you.

This patch of bush is truly a best kept secret, and even after exploring here a bit, we'd never been to this Pa before. Thank you for the cache, which brought us here! Mr 7 very pleased to find it himself!

I was in the area early this morning and had a bit of free time, so decided to explore this terrific track a little.This was my first stop and was a quick find and all in good order.Thanks very much for the cache.

Found together with Sigi, TFTC

Found with Tim, this place is amazing! Tftc

Never been to Speedy's Reserve before and thoroughly enjoyed the walk. Beautiful scenery and lots of interesting/surprising things to see along the way. The cache was a quick find. TFTC

Hmm, I’ve collected the upper 3 caches… do I carry on over the contour lines or leave a cache unfound? Well the rain was holding off, so on I went! Quick find though hint object was on the sad side. Carried on to the crest — commanding view indeed. Thanks for bringing me to this historical spot orsome4some. Round trip from Hill Road took me 75 minutes and 225 m climbing.

Found this one on my round in the Speedy reserve. Had to search quite a bit but if jumping coordinates. I have been in this reserve once before but did forget that it is quite adventurous stream crossings, walking along little cliffs was good fun today. TFTC. Sherlock Hood.

Found it. Loved this walk so much, thank you.

I need four caches today so headed up this track for two of them, then cycled over to Taita Cemetery for two more. Love the walk up here, with it's narrow cliff-hugging track. I walked past the cache and on up to the pa site (as near as I could guess, it looks like the path carries on beyond). Interesting to see how small the land area is here - but then a pa is not a kianga, so maybe they didn't need much space. And of course, they would have made use of the slopes - it is so much harder to fight uphill. Came back down hunting for the cache - ah - it's a dead tree now. Nice and dry inside, I was surprised. Gets a favourite.
I am also interested to read the comments about Belmont railway station. I never knew Belmont even existed! I looked up my standard reference: yep, opened in 1875, closed in 1954. I will have to put in a cache to celebrate. If I can fit one in, that is.

1158 kice find tonight with Belmont venturers. TFTC

Super adventure up this valley! Came here when the kids were little but don’t remember much - except for some magnificent punga ( yet to see today)
Many thanks for the placement. All good here, although the puahou has seen better days.
Terrific history lesson today!

Love the trail and the view this cache helped us get! Cheers

(# 6564). A trip up to the hills by Belmont to grab some caches mainly from the top of Hill Road to the bottom via the Speedy's track. Did the return on a nice warm day starting at the top and ending back where I started. Pleased there was a stream right by the end of my trek as I splashed water all over me in order to cool off. It was very refreshing. A quick find given the hint. Everything in order. Thanks for bringing me here.

Thanks for the awesome walk

Pog champ

Quick find with the botanical hint, all good inside TFTc!

Not our day! DNF

What an adventure to this cache and back. Really enjoyed the bush and the stream and the picnic site lower down looked very inviting in the sunshine. After finding the ache we carried on past the pa site along the “20 minute” route back down to the entrance. Well that was hairy, more of a goat track and so steep! It took us a lot longer than 20 minutes and I wouldn’t recommend it! All part of the adventure though. TFTC

I wasn't quite sure what kind of walk I was in for coming up here but it turned out to be one of the best tracks I've been on (not the track itself, but where it goes). This was my first stop of the day which took a couple of minutes to navigate to the correct place. I looked in a few wrong places before spotting the cache on the other side of track from where I was looking. TFTC.

My last walk for the day was a foray up Speedy's Reserve. Another place I've never visited before - and to be honest it blew me away! The geography - while on one hand it's very similar to a lot of the terrain around Belmont - is also so steep and canyon-y, and the bush is far more mature than other Belmont bush (just a pity about the infestations of tradescantia lower down and climbing asparagus further up!) I had a quick wander through the pa site, along to the end of the knife-sharp ridge, and couldn't help think what a perfect site it would have been. Great views through the trees too!

I found the cache exposed and wedged between a couple of branches. I returned it as I found it, though reading the cache page afterwards I suspect it had been found by muggles and left by them like that. I hope it survives as I left it ok!

Thanks Orsome4some.

Only had a couple hours to spare today so decided to do the Speedy's Reserve track, having never done it before despite living in Lower Hutt for 40 years. A quick find today and cache nice and dry. Certainly a good defensive location.

After grabbing the cache Speedy's at the start of the reserve, our desire for a bit more adventure took us further along the track. We had fun crossing the stream and then decided we might as well keep going to find this cache. After a decent walk (and passing a natural beehive in some of the rockface) we got to the GZ and with the GPS wavering we promptly walked straight past the cache only for our youngest geokid to spot it. Thanks for bringing us up a walk that we didn't know about and learning a bit of history along the way!

Not an easy one to access especially if you
Don’t like heights! Easy to find though!

Walked up from Speedys Reserve entrance. Easy to find once you have defied death on an Indiana Jones hike up a gorge. Fantastic walk but be sure your not scared of heights and your balance is spot on

Cool

The box had a little water in it. But the log book was basically dry. Lovely hidden spot. Tftc

Tim and I came for a walk to this location in the afternoon. We bought Dexter the Border Collie with us. Both Tim and Dexter had a great time playing in the stream.

The cache is in good condition. All nice and dry.

Thank you for an enjoyable walk.

Cherrys Rule

Thanks for the cache. Cheers

After 5 months with no finds this cache was very naturally camouflaged indeed. But after fooling the hint for a photo I tracked it down. Thanks and the cache is still dry.

Found while on walk up from speedys creek

Certainly an adventure heading up the track, I was glad when it turned in towards the saddle, and hoped that the rest of the track was not so precipitous. Another quick find once I took a breather, although I got caught up with that nasty plant with the seeds that cling on to fabric, fur, and hairy skin. TFTC

Enjoyed today,s walk. This is a real gem for the Wellington Region. TFTC.

Yay

Loved the walk, thank you for bringing us here Cache in good condition. Now time to make our way but up the hill to the car..

Lovely walk with Wafflekitties, TFTC

#592. A spectacular path following the stream up the valley. The track meanders below a series of bluffs and at times becomes a very narrow goat track that seemed more terrain 4 than T3 to me. A good head for heights is an advantage. Certainly pleased I wore my gumboots today and you have to pay attention to your footing at times. The pa site is well worth the visit with some nice forest cover along the route. Cache was very quickly found with a good hint. TFTC

Nice one

Nice walk. Been in hutt my whole life and never been here. Ain't geocaching great. Easy find thanks.

Easy find not very -camouflaged though

#6194. Picked a nice sunny day to stop by Major Drive and have a little exploration upstream from Speedys Reserve. Managed to cross the streams without getting the feet wet. A slow and steady walk up to this interesting pa site. Quick find. The cache was in good condition. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log. Thanks for the cache.

Decided to get the three caches located up here and made a last minute decision to put on my old tramping boots given the rain last night - turns out that was a good decision!

Enjoyed the walk up here to a spot I'd never been to or taken much notice of. GZ certainly lends itself to a pa site, and what a magnificent location! Thanks for bringing me here, and also for the informative cache page write-up, again this was some knowledge I wasn't aware of.

Thanks to geocaching, this is what it's about for me, and orsome4some for placing the cache here, #7323, a favourite.

Great walk

I can still be surprised by places I haven't visited before. TFTC

All in good order dobby and i have been enjoying the treck thanks FTC

Nice quick find while out with Just-Lookin.

We enjoyed the walk up to the cache - Just-Lookin knew it well having been here before
SL Thanks for the cache.

Checked out the weather at the beginning of the week and knew this was gonna be a great day to bunk off work. First stop was a maintenance check at the top of Boulder Hill in Belmont Regional Park and then onto the fun of finding some caches.

I enjoy these areas for caching, they are my favourite. A pocket jurrasic park in the middle of suburbia. From last cache it said 300 mtrs, so with time against me I thought it would be a quick find. Has to be the longest 300 mtrs of my geo-life . Was worth every minute though as the views were stunning and the sound of the stream and birds very calming. Came across two river crossings. On first I tried to avoid the inevitable of getting my feet wet and by the time I got to the second just walked through. Once at GZ it was a quick find and cache in good order. Had hoped to complete the other two caches further up the trail, but time was against me and had to get back home. Will come back soon to complete. Worth a fav for sure. Thanks for bringing me to this lovely reserve and TFTC orsome4some

Easy find, beautiful location!

All fired up and raring to go after our visit to the Petone event cache we decide upon a small group of caches in the Speedy's Reserve area as the afternoon's targets.
This is an interesting reserve, with some goat-track like trails in places. It pays to watch and concentrate in certain sections. But a great afternoon in some very pleasant native bush surrounds.
The cache was a straightforward find, with some water present. Did some drying, the log book OK, and duly signed. Cache then safely re-hidden.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

I decided that it was about time to finally get back up here for a walk this evening. The path seemed narrower and the drop offs bigger than I remembered from my last visit but the area is a great spot for a walk which I enjoyed very much. No problems with the find then it was back to the car in the gathering dusk. TFTC

Found thsi afternoon after a hot scramp up the gorge. Not at all suprized the area was used as a defensive pa. They could probably here as much as they could see in the valleys below. Cache is good condition. TFTC

Nice walk into here from Speedy's. Nearby Pa site is worth a look.

TFTC. Kudos to PTS and Melon who persuaded me to get wet feet for the sake of a smiley!

StreetWalker had found this cache when it was first published, and from the description, it sounded like it wouldn't be one I'd enjoy.
A "onesy" day for me, but not for SW and decided I'd try for this cache. He generously accompanied me (thank goodness as I would have wimped out without him). The track was as precipitous as anticipated, but it had been recently maintained and apart from a couple of hairy bits, was in good condition. Quite dry, surprisingly.
An amazing walk and final location, many thanks for the information and for this placement. It's one of those places I would never have visited without geocaching. TFTC.

Out for an after work walk.
Nice walk up to this spot.
Still light, so easy enough to find.
TFTC

Wonderful spot. TFTC

We walked in from speedy's and found the description very helpful as we made the crossings etc. the low water levels at present meant we were in no danger of wet feet either. Beautiful area, tftc

A quick find, TFTC

Found with The Wandering Dragons. TFTC

Cache #954 - a nice easy find, 4th of the day with Downunder Wanderer. It was nice to walk along an actual trail for this one, although we did want to know what the people who created that trail down from Hairy Legs were smoking at the time - one of the narrowest trails either of us have been on in a long time. TNLNSL. TFTC!

I like this park more and more.

Found after a stroll up the valley on a fine Wellington afternoon. TFTC

I always enjoyed caching in places I haven't visited before. I chose a very pleasant evening to attempt this cache. The track was in great order and I didn't get my feet wet at the stream crossings. My Oregon was in total agreement with the published co-ordinates and an instant find resulted. Thanks for encouraging me to check out this location.

Stopped by and picked up a TB while wandering between Speedy's and Belmont.

An enjoyable and interesting walk for the younger EU crew with grandad (Drawp). TFTC

What an interesting walk into GZ, a narrow steep track winding up to the cache site. Just started to rain as we located the cache but we decided to push on to the next caches. Thanks for bringing us here. TFTC

Wow! Having found Speedy's in a relatively, er, speedy fashion I set out up to this newer cache. Gorgeous location, and I particularly enjoyed the not-so-well-known aspect of the track. Very hairy going at times, so I definitely wouldn't bring little kids along. Once I reached the track intersection it became obvious where the Pa site would be. What a fantastic defensive position! Took me at least 20 hint objects before spotting the correct one on the way back. Thanks for bringing me here. Worth a favourite. TFTC

TFTC

[Completed the Orsome4some Speedys triple play today. Ignoring my own advice from Speedys...Above and Beyond, I eshewed the gumboots and used running shoes and thermal socks for the stream crossings, completing all 3 caches in about 1:45 (which included a lot of hunting time).

This one is on a narrow track, so +/-15m reception gave me a few options to choose from. I'd Googled the hint before leaving so had a clue what I was looking for, but still spent a lot of time hunting. Would suggest adding] not at ground level [to the hint].

[Finally found it, picking up a froggy Signal TB.

TFTC.]

This entry was edited by ZathrasH on Friday, 28 September 2012 at 21:34:51 UTC.

Found on a sweep around the Speedys-Hill Road loop. This is my favourite of the caches mainly due to the historical significance, but also the way the bush opens out and lets the sun stream in ... while giving a small glimpse of civilisation not so far away over the gully. Took the opportunity for a breather ... and rang the CO for a natter.

Thought the stands of Rewarewa are quite spectacular, and quite different to other patches of native bush around the region. Fantastic to see so many young trees thriving as well. Loved the narrow trail, and the thought of Maori travelling (or "war") parties useing this route in pre-colonial days.

TFTC!
dropped "Signal" TB.

#4078. It took a while for Speedy's Above and Beyond to be found, so I thought I'd head out at lunch time to see if an FTF was a possibility (I knew from my visit to Speedy's Above and Beyond that the track up to Pareraho Pa Site wasn't too slippery). Turned out boxhill had been there way before me, but I still had a nice lunchtime walk in a great area. I think I'll leave the other new caches in the area until the tracks are a bit less muddy. Interesting history. TFTC.

FTF at 06:57hr this morning. Having been up past here yesterday I knew there was the chance of knocking this off before work this morning. All quiet at the starting point which was a good sign as well. A “speedy” trip up the track and the cache was soon found thanks to a highly accurate set of coordinates. An interesting place to visit, another of those little “hidden gems” around the region. A well set up cache page with some informative history. Thanks very much for the FTF prize (hand sanitizer), my wife has been on at me about adding some of this to my geokit for sometime now.

This is a well placed series of caches, that I recommend to those folk who like to get out and about, and enjoy an outing in the bush that is just a little more challenging than most urban tracks.

SL TFTC

I was heading to Upper Hutt this afternoon and the weather had cleared so I allowed a bit of extra time to stop at the bottom entrance to Speedy's Reserve and head up the track to find this one. This was the second return trip up here in the last few days for me so it's becoming fairly familiar. A brisk 10-minute walk from the car had me close to the cache and it was a quick find with dead accurate coordinates. The plant described in the hint is not the species where the cache is located however (although there are a number of the hint species not far away). A very pleasant spot and probably a great place for a defensive fortification - I went on to have a look at the pa site but as indicated there was nothing visible. I love these sorts of caches up walking tracks, particularly interesting and varied tracks like this that are slightly more challenging than normal. We're very lucky to have such places so close to the centre of Wellington. Signed log, TFTC and it gets a favourite point.

Thanks, agcnz, for clarification on plant species. We have amended the hint accordingly.

Published