Cowshed Bay (Marlborough) Portage, South Island, New Zealand
By bumandworker on 29-Aug-12. Waypoint GC3VPV2

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Hi bumandworkerThis geocache was brought to my attention as being in need of an owner maintenance visit. The cache owner needs to check on this cache ASAP and either replace it or archive it, after picking up any geo-litter. See the [maintenance section of the Geocache Listing Requirements/Guidelines](http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx#listingmaintenance).I've added this cache to my watchlist, and I will check back in four weeks to be sure that the maintenance has been done. In the meantime, I have temporarily disabled this listing. When the maintenance is completed, the owner can enable the listing by clicking on the link below the cache name to return it to active status.Whatever your intentions, please **post a note** here on the cache page (not email) to let us know that you are still active and maintaining the cache. If a month passes without seeing a response, then I'll assume that this listing should be archived.Please note, that if a cache is archived due to lack of owner maintenance, the cache is unable to be unarchived.RegardsTheCoddiwompler

Searched and searched. This has not been found since January 2023

Once we have crossed by water taxi, there is still some time to visit a few caches. This cache was not found.

We are currently on a eight week holiday which is mostly spent in New Zealand and Australia. However, the first three days were spent in Signapore as a nice break from an otherwise long flight. Yesterday we drove from Greymouth to Picton. This afternoon we took the water taxi to Portage. Since the little transfer bus was full we decided to walk to the hotel instead of waiting for it to return. The weather is just fine and it is lovely to walk. Gave us a change to go looking for this cache. We had a thorough search but were not able to find the cache.

Most stones were not left unturned

Did not fine with master. Had some help too.

The cache was right next to our tents, like 1.5m So pointed and told the kids to go fetch and they did. Cheers

This is my last section of the South Island TA (NOBO from Bluff). I started on Jan11th and its almost finished. I am very spoilt too - that I'm finishing on this lovely track (feels like a footpath compared to what Ive experienced). A quick find here before putting my tent up and off to the local for a beer and hot chips!
TFTC B&W

Staying in a bach at Tara Bay for a few days with family. After our long eight hours out in the boat yesterday, part of the group went out again hoping for some snapper at first light, and the rest of us decided to sleep in for a bit. After waking up we walked from Tara Bay towards Portage to rendezvous with them for a coffee, enjoying the views the whole way and finding a handful of geocaches. A bit misty and overcast this morning - a nice contrast from the beating hot sun yesterday. Came out the same in the afternoon though, which ended up being a great time for a nap! Nice quiet road with it being blocked by a slip further back, but we were still surprised to see as many cars as we did. I didn't find the cache here unfortunately but I did manage to find a wasp nest right where I suspected the cache was. Had a bit of a look around anyway but then decided to promptly give up after getting stung.

Looked and looked. Eventually found it where someone else had looked already! Sorry no pen on us, so could not log.
Nice short walk from Portage Hotel, past the big road slip caused by heavy rains earlier in the year.
Very quiet here with the roads closed. Lots of tui and quail

Quick find to finish our day. Camping (in motorhome) for the night then home to Blenheim,tftc.

Straightforward find for Mr beconaze after he left Mrs beconaze to nurse her massive blister in her room

We are staying local and a bit of time to spare before the water taxi. Rain the last two days but a break in the weather so we went for it as only a few hundred meters away. Approached from upper track via road to toroa bay and followed our instincts when we got to camping area. On to it within a minute as paling5 spotted likely spot to search.
Cache/log in good condition and we liked niffty container.
Thanks to CO for placing and maintaining.
Glad to have another smiley.
FP for container, recycling ️

Not quite a pand g, but quiet wee spot!

TFTC. Found on a nice walk with C. Boyd.

Nice place to camp

Found before breakfast. Geoaddiction .

Finally a smiley face after a day of trying! The quiet side of the campsite, apart from the birds. Great spot. TFTC!

On return drive to Mistletoe Bay after drop off by E-ko tours at Torea Bay. Lots of hosts to check and glad that particular bay was vacant - actually they all were on this side of the road! Cache soon in hand though. Tftc

A wee drive on my day off and to tick off another Modern wonder, I called in here. Quite wet today but it's only water. Reading the heap of previous DNFs I didn't hold much hope so after a turnover of the area I too couldn't find anything so dropped in a replacement container as agreed with the CO. Only a micro though.

Nowt.

Bugger.

Spent a good half hour looking but no luck for us.

Nachdem ich hier genächtigt hatte, wollte ich noch den Cache suchen. Doch der wer nicht aufzufinden. Die Steine beim Zeltplatz waren alle ohne Cache bestückt und so zog ich ohne Fund weiter...

3 of us spent 20 mins looking in what we thought was the obvious place given the hint but no luck

An interesting camping spot

As we are camped here we had to find this one. Not quite as easy as suggested- not a quick grab for us anyway as ploughing through the bush was required until we spotted something a little different. Well hidden- thanks.

Found it. A very cool camp area. Tftc

Great camping find! Tftc

Its a great day for a drive with a friend -so lets explore Portage today!!
Snagged and tagged along our way. Cheers

Found on a long weekend down this way

Mrs SoBad was aware of the T rating so scrambled up. SoBad just checked something he suspected and got there in an easier way. We both converged on the cache from different directions for a nice quick find. No need to use any of the facilities here as we were close to our booked room for the night. Just one more cache to look for first.
Thanks.

Walking the Queen Charlotte. TFTC

Found on our summer holiday trip. Just as well this was a quick an easy find - the cicadas in the area were super loud that day... TFTC and greetings from Dunedin.

I was camping in Cowshed Bay today. I can see that some people would prefer to camp by the lake, but I preferred to put my tent as high up the slope as possible: This way, once I had packed everything up in the morning, I would have a few meters less of a climb back to the Queen Charlotte Track . Unfortunately, that cunning plan did not work out: I packed, I put on my backpack... and only then remembered about the cache. I had to go down to the cache, climb to GZ and then pass the place where my tent had stood. Sure, I could have taken my backpack off for that maneuver but I was too lazy to do it, so I ended up doing the whole detour with my heavy backpack on .

TFTC

Found with relative ease this one!

Rule for today: Always wait for the GPS to settle!
Walked further than we had to before returning to GZ.
Love the setup here.
TFTC

Good one, nice spot. Found while driving back from Nopera to Blenheim. Can't go all the way out to the kenepuru sounds and not pick up the geocaches along the road. TFTC

Easy find.
TFTC

NZDi and I booked a holiday home in Broughton Bay for six days for a family holiday to get over the madness that is Christmas. Our daughter and her partner and our son and his wife and our granddaughter were all present for some of the time and as such the focus was on family rather than caching.

However we still managed to find time to get 25 caches along with three DNFs (Grrr) in the time we were away without impacting too much on the family focus of the break.

Today is day five of our holiday and we are having a dedicated caching day with the main aim being to see the views from Mount Stokes and get some of those further out caches.

As cachers are aware, caching is a time consuming past-time and our plans for the day were curtailed when we had to abandon the mission to head back for dinner. After dinner, the last of our visitors left, so we headed back to pick up the last five caches we had targeted for today.

I had checked the GPS as we drove by here earlier in the day, so I knew which side of the road to head to. From where we parked the car, we followed the GPS past the toilet block to where it looked like we needed to do a short bush-bash. Looking around for another access point, we noticed a likely one behind the cooking shelter. Unfortunately it was occupied and the window provided a direct view to where we needed to go, so we headed back to do the bush-bash, which wasn't too difficult. We could see the cooking shelter from GZ, so were glad we didn't take that option.

TFTC B&W

Found with Kiwimykl, refer to his log for details.

TFTC B&W

[green] What a day! First I decide to go to the sounds, mainly to do two caches that I had missed earlier, and place one while I was out that way, Then I find I have a corrupted load in my GPS, I can navigate, but a description or hint causes it to lock up. Luckily I have my cellphone, so I load all the caches that I might do into that, then half the time leave it in the car (which is okay, usually I don't need a hint, but reading the description is often nice). I expected the trip to up to Titirangi to be mostly dirt road and long distances, but was rather surprised at how far the seal went, and how far Titirangi isn't, really. Not that I got there. I tossed up staying the night and continuing Sunday, but decided not. Saved for another day.

A slightly problematic find. Nice to see it is off the track!

A nice clear clue made this a nice quick find on our little detour, part of a 2 month road trip round NZ! TFTC!

A quick find en route to Portage with our kids and maikenkids. A lovely spot here. Opened cache in the presence of the local Weka who was most intrigued. TFTC. Picked up TB.

Joined by a friendly weka

#10226. This part of the campsite was deserted when we pulled in a bit after 9 (there were some campers across the road). I followed my GPSr to GZ and found the cache after a short search. I couldn't see Troodles (whose Oregon seemed to be having a slow start to the day) and had to call her over to where I was. TFTC.

We have driven past here a few times as it is close to our accommodation so about time we stopped to have a look around as well as look for the cache.
StreetWalker headed in one direction while my GPSr told me to head in another. Once at my GZ, there seemed a lot of possible hiding places, so checked on the hint. Hmmm, still heaps of hiding places. Searched in a few locations, then heard SW yell from over yonder that he had the cache. Luckily there were no muggles in this part of the campsite . And the Oregon did improve as the day warmed up. TFTC.

Another dnf!
A bunch of British having breakfast in the shelter so didn't look everywhere, but no luck.

Another cache I had to skip.

Found this cache on a day out at some bays. The sun was shining and we were getting sunburnt... Nevertheless we had an awesome time caching & sightseeing. Found this cache with capperz, refer to his log for more detail etc. Thanks for placing this cache, T F T C

Yay, it's Earthcache day and souvenir as a reward. That is unless you're greedy capperz who's already done most of the Earth Caches around and would need an epic day out just to gain some electronic bling. Oh well, a trip to Kenepuru Sounds it is and try and push my total along to 4500 so only 4 caches to get there. Weather dawned bright, clear and hot and nightowl19 was along for the trip though Tally the geo dog was left at home as a few P n Gs were planned and a few diverse walkways with assorted dogs allowed rules.
Into the Sounds for the rest of the trip and plenty of wonderful scenery to behold and remind us of how great our backyard really is
Nice easy find here and replaced as found
T F T C b&w

Finally got to GZ after 30 Wellington Girls'High students camping near by had cleared the GZ area. TFTC

Wellington Girls collage students in area but managed to locate it while they were else where

This camping ground has changed a bit since last time I was here. New Years eve, 1978/79 if I recall correctly. We camped on the edge of the gravel round against the bank in our drunken stupor. Very flash now. Sealed road. Flash loos and a lot more camping platforms. I immediately put this on my list of possible overnight places to stay tonight. That is until I discovered the Kenepuru Head camping ground later on in the day. That was my favourite.
TFTC

A nice quick find once the GPS settled on the location. TFTC

We had a short stop here. Also a good & new DOC place.

T4t$

13.00: Round trip in the Marlborough Sounds. No cows in the shed or around - but a short and sharp climb up to the cache. Due to DoCs mowers was the place not that calm as the ones before, but beautiful and worth the visit anyway!

Weather: haze clouds, windy, 23°C;
Wheelchair: at the camping area only, about 30m remaining;
State: all good.

Thank you!
Oliver+Gabi

Last day on the QCT.
Yesterday I came down to PortageBay for overnight.
So this morning beforef goinfre up Back to the track I came hère to Find a well hidden cache!!!
TFTH
NewDeer

Another quick find for us.

Got the tent up then had a quick find. Tried last time I passed through here but there were a lot of muggles around and the GPS was jumping around, today it knew exactly what direction to go TFTC

#2442

Nee centrum hiding place! Tftc

Thanks for the cache. It was nice place to visit.

Gosh I remember camping here with my folks and siblings many years ago. Dad brought his trailer sailer which we couldn't launch on the old ramp at Portage and it rained the whole time we were here. I did get out for a snorkel but that was the highlight of a wet weekend. I vividly remember spending all day stuck on the yacht reading my book while the rest of the family were stuck in two pup tents;the bonus was I had the food. The toilets and kitchen have had a significant upgrade since then. They even have places to hang solar showers in the loos and toilets that flush! (uploaded a photo of the kitchen) The cache was a fun and easy find and I took the easy way in rather than the direct way. +1 for the memories and the area.
Thanks bumandworker for the cache.

#8166

TFTC

Just 30 m from where we stayed the night in a camper. Not found on the first tme, had to com back in the morning

Staying at the Bay will on a trip around the Sounds. Just 70m from the bus. Great. TFTC

Busy campground. I stopped on the way to Titirangi Bay to find some muggles putting up a tent at what appeared to GZ so stopped on the way back 3 days later to find another set of muggles in the process of putting their tent up. Will return

Found after a short search on walk out from Portage. TFTC

We found this cache during our holiday in NZ. We would like to thank all cache owners for showing all beautiful places.

Early morning walk while Mrs C was still sleeping, managed to dodge the breakfasting tourists.
TFTC

Fast find on the way to the Backpackers!
TFTC

#1202

Tftc

Followed the road down to the bay, and the water, then looked at GPS.
After chatting with the DoC staff sweeping and cleaning the facilities, we followed the friendly weka to the cache location.
Sat and listened to the bird song for some time afterwards.

A quick find on a day's exploration in this lovely area. A very nicely placed cache, I enjoyed it. Signed log, TFTC

Nearby our campsite a very new and clean place. Our campervan was very close to the water, just awesome!

Quick easy find. Well back from the building work

was a bit worried with all the earth works and new building but found cache safely hidden out of the zone all good

Down at Portage for a couple of nights with my wonderful wife celebrating our 38th wedding anniversary. I can't believe she's put up with me that long! Today we did a lovely walk out to Black Rock and picked up a couple of caches on the way back (as you do on your wedding anniversary). Cache coordinates were spot on and a quick find was had. TFTC

2nd time so easy. Not sure why I missed previously. TFTC

As noted in the previous couple of logs, some interesting construction work going on here at the moment. Looks like some quite flash new facilities could be coming soon. Luckily no one working today so I was able to get to the cache without any problems. TFTC, Biggles.

Quick detour before we checked in to get this one. Some construction was happening nearby but its not disturbing the cache location. TFTC.

Good spot. Construction currently occurring in camp ground.

TFTC Lenenature

Quick found, quick log!

TFTC Geovi

This entry was edited by geovi on Thursday, 21 March 2013 at 20:59:49 UTC.

The 5. on our Queen Charlotte Track tour...
TFTC

This has to be the best cowshed I've ever experienced - even had musical accompaniment from the flutist camper. TFTC #4555

Another nice spot TFTC

First of the day on our way to Titirangi for a few days R'n'R with a group of friends. All the overnighters just packing up to get ready to leave. Probably wondered about four vehicles pouring in and out within minutes!!! TNLN. TFTC

We threw the tent in the car and headed to the Sounds for the night. We had decided to camp here but before we could even get the tent out of the car the sounds of the party already in progress changed our minds so instead we hunted for a cache then moved on to Picnic Bay for the night. TFTC.

With the forecast to good to be true off we went for a weekend camping at the Sounds. The plan was to camp here. Bottom camp was crowded and top camp was empty it seemed. Somehow a camper-van seemed to be leaving in a hurry and the driver was surprised that I waved him down. When I pointed out the frilly knickers on the outside mirror they were deemed dry by now and removed together with a sincere thank you. Selecting a spot then was no problem but coping with the party already in progress was. Bless the party goers. A spot at Picnic Bay, including a private access track to the beach, has been one of the top camping spots I've ever had. Not before locating the cache here though. TFTC

Was on the way. TFTC!
DH6AI

Stayed at Cowshed Bay DoC campground for a night, but it was quite crowded in the evening. So I decide to take this one as an "after breakfast cache".

TFTC

Morning stroll before QC track day 4 morning slog. Had to time this between busy time at nearby facility, as campground is packed.

Quick easy find despite the tree cover. Great little camp site would love to come and stay we geo juniors are a bit older. Thanks for the hide

TFTC
Gruß Frodo32

Surprised a weka, TFTC.

Tide was fairly low here when we visited - great views though - this is as far as we ventured along the windy coastal route before returning to Picton.

Found by TTJunior. Lovely spot for a swim. TFTC!

Quick find during our drive along the coast.

[green]TFTC FBBHaegar[/green]
[orange][size=1]#7,387 - 14:45[/size][/orange]