The NeverEnding Story (Waitakere Ranges) Auckland, North Island, New Zealand
By evilno9 on 29-Sep-12. Waypoint GC3YB4E

This cache is on a track that is now officially closed by the council as per:

https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/environment/plants-animals/pests-weeds/Pages/protect-our-kauri-trees.aspx

Disabled for the duration of the Rahui placed by Te Kawerau a Maki. Further info here http://tekawerau.iwi.nz/

Finding the bench was a welcome relief after the climb to get there, but after a brief pause I darted into the trees to find the cache. It wasn't hard as it was just lying out in the open! My kids loved the size especially as there was swag to swap Now it was time to get the creative brain cells going to continue the story... hopefully the next cacher enjoys my bit TFTC!

Great idea for a cache. Wish we had more time to read the whole story but cold wind getting up. TFTC.

Out for a short walk between rain showers and snagged this awesome cache! Great spot for having a seat and contemplating what nonsense you can add to this story, great idea! Tftc

Found it quickly after the bench was spotted. TFTC!

Stopped to have a rest and let the GPS pick up where we were....hey what do you know a cache 15 meters away! Spotted the cache on approach and really loved the log book! TFTC

Found it where we thought was the most obvious place from the hint. Left our story. Modeled on our experience at the time we turned a tramping story into a slightly Mills and Boon short story. Managed to avoid it becoming too racy and thus the need for censorship. Would have loved to stop and read the story's but we were hot, very sweaty and the mosquitoes were eating one of us alive. Time to get out of here.

Love the cache idea!

Never ending search? Actually a pretty quick find. Everbody humming:

Rhymes that keep their secrets
Will unfold behind the clouds
And there upon a rainbow
Is the answer to a never ending story...

Left a smurf behind for cache protection.

Checked on this one today and cache wasn't where it used to be, but close enough to have been found with some liberal interpretation of the hint (always easy to say afterwards). Updated the hint to be more specific to its new place, all good otherwise.

Doing some cache maintenance together with evilno9 & KiwiLeon we also checked on this one. The cache moved a bit but is still there. As I am a very awful story writer and had so much Dutch influence at the time the story is continuing from the previous finder as:

....and a Dutch big running Bär kam aus dem Wald. Die Prinzessin war sehr verängstigt. Zum Glück war er (der Bär) sehr langsam (guess no marathon training lately) zwecks zu vielen Hackbällchen von IKEA.


I lost my trail here as I was suddenly craving the 1Euro Hotdogs from IKEA and missed out to sign my name or date under the story

No luck here today.

Found with bradgoldy ....Rainy day so we're wet and soggy so couldn't add to story. Great idea TFTC

Cool spot daughter found it. Tftc

Not very inspired but nice cache on the way. Thank you

Last find of the day on the Fletcher - Karamatura loop. I had a very pleasant afternoon out in the bush (including a dip in the stream). Only wrote 1 sentence for the story.

Nice find on a lovely day. Have left TB.

Found on a family stroll through the bush. Thanks!

We all thought this was a nice idea for a cache and enjoyed reading through the logbook. Tftc.

A quick find during a nice bushwalk. Thanks for the cache.

I had the day off work today and as it was a stunning day, I decided to head out West to do a few walks and pick up a few caches. Whilst doing the Karamatura Loop, I located this cache which, despite its size, took me a few minutes to find! Once I opened it up, I then had the realisation that I was going to have to do some impromptu story writing! So I came up with something random to continue the current story. I took a few photos of recent logs as I wasn't sure what had made it to the website - and I see not much, so here's the most recent pages anyway...

Thanks for the cache and the interesting concept! Thanks also for sending me on my way with the chorus of the Never Ending Story theme song playing on repeat in my head![xx(]

Also picked up a TB that wasn't listed in the cache.

Very clever idea for the story.
Nice walk and amazing area.
TFTC

Was pretty peeved not to find this-just didn't have my caching luck with me today

What a great cache idea. Interesting to read through the stories and continue them on. Cache was fully exposed so covered it over to hide it better. Dropped of TB to help them on their way.

Great idea. And as this was my 500th cache, I took the time to share the tale of a giant amorphous slimy creature that was taking over the world. Looking forward to coming back to see what has become of the hero of our story. Thanks for this.

All the stories were awesome! Quite a cool change from the normal Caches. Great walk too, the Huia area is my all time favourite!

I took the family on a bush walk (including my 3 year old daughter). Sadly, what I wrote in the book wasn't that inspirational! I couldn't stop to admire the view... I had to keep on moving along as I had run out of the lollies that I was using to bribe my daughter to keep walking!

Nice one

Came along this path in the failing light just before calling it day and going off to see family for New Years Eve.
Thx for the concept - and the clue!
TFTC

Decided that it was time to "get out of dodge" before I did something truly stupid so started to head back to the Auto. Of course, it would have been rude not to collect this cache on the way so I made my way to the bench and soon spotted the good sized cache. Cheers for the fun cache concept!

On a circuit in the Karamatura catchment and needing some regular sized caches for the Geo Licence challenge so this was ideal. TFTC

It's great to find a large cache and a good sized log (story!) book. T4TC - M@

Great idea for a cache! On a hike today with my daughter to pick up some of the recent rearby caches in the Waitaks. It was a brilliant, high-viz day. She started to dictate a poem to me and we wrote a cursory start into the logbook, but she wasn't satisfied and couldn't let it go. So she borrows my pen and used her hand as paper to finish the work all while hiking back down to the carpark! Fave point for the experience.

Photos to come. Cheers for the cache

Here is her continuation:

The Never Ending story (continued)

The bags were found,
the bags were looted.

The Swedish meatballs,
had been eaten.
For, the only evidence was a few crumbs,
and so by that, their life had been beaten.

After our grieving farewells,
we trekked and we trekked,
till our feet grew tired,
so very tired.

And then in one great momentum,
we appeared into the sunlight,
out of the dark unknown,
and into the world,
as we know.

Detta uttalande från netball team "Vi promenader längs skogsstigen, hoppa tillsammans skrattar och plocka vilda blommor. Vi var alla blir lite svettig, så vi slutade med den lilla bron och tog några av våra kläder av. Just då två leriga troll föll ut från träden. vi sprang naturligtvis så fort vi kunde och aldrig hittat cachen"
T4TC

Out bush bashing with GB today when we noticed that the track to this cache was easier to reach from the Fletcher track if we took the more direct route instead of going down and then up.
Ran into a group of the Swedish Netball team when we reach the track but the disappeared screaming all in different directions when they saw us.
Off to the cache, had lunch and continued out day.
TFTC

having spent the night just down the road from here, I needed to do at least a small walk before heading home, even if it was the start of the first rainfall we've had in quite awhile! Tried to protect the log book as best I could, but it did get dripped on a little, sorry. Love the idea of this cache, may have to borrow it! TFTC

Classic movie.

Nice artwork.

TNLNSL, the people on the seat thought we were mad strolling through the bush behind them, story picture to come

##Number 1200##

Had taken the leave for mega-event which started today, and due to some reasons I won't be going so decided to make the most of the day collecting some caches.

Was saving this one for my next milestone as it was a new idea and I decided to make the most of this by taking almost 11km return hike by myself. Parked at Mt Donald McLean Road and walked Donald McLean track. Went past the closed track which brought some good memories (wonderful walk by CCC last year). It seemed quite easy in the beginning but the Fletcher Track was bit harder as I had been walking the Long Bay Park earlier today.

Once at the seat, it was a relieve to make it finally! Wohoo but again it was just half way as I had to go back the same way with the left over energy I had in me. The sun was setting in the horizon so I knew I had to hurry back because I did not want to be in the bushes by myself in the dark...

Luckily the rain all cleared up but the tracks were still wet and muddy and the cool breeze kept me cooler while heading back so it was nice.

Awesome idea for the cache and cheers for giving my an opportunity for the hike to get it as well. Definitely worth for my milestone!

TFTC mate

Wow, nice big box here. Continued the story on a bit.
Well, after 11 years caching (almost to the day), I reach 1000 caches. Not the fastest cacher, but plenty of fun over the years.

Thanks for the cache!

Had been out this way on the day this and others were published, with 10cc, but we decided to get the park n grabs but leave this one at the time. So come the weekend, I decided it was worth a nice fresh early morning Saturday walk. Unfortunately some poor organisation on my part meant our little walking party was not as big as it should have been (sorry Snakelion), and it was just up to rosmar and I to head up the hill to kick off the story, may it never end! It was still pretty dark when we arrived nearby to GZ, where we paused to get our breaths back on the seat provided. Misunderstanding what to do next, we spent a couple of minutes looking in all the wrong places before I took a perpendicular route and came across the cache straight away, still in the dark, with the end of my walking pole. We retreated to the bench to log and muse over the beginning of the neverending story (if it never ends, can it have ever have begun?) Anyway, our start to the story is attached as a photo. Joint FTF with rosmar (sorry again, Snakelion!) - FTF #1261 TFTC!!!

A plan to attempt this FTF was put in place despite the poor weather forcast expected during our attempt. We arrived at the parking area and were surprised at the number of vehicles already there. Did any of these belong to a cacher???. Commenced our trek up the hill passing through the boundy of Fantasia. The track was reasonable dry despite the rain and we negotiated the Swamps of Sadness without any problems. Once at GZ we commenced our search initially looking in all the wrong places. However the force of "The Nothing" was not powerful enough to prevent us from locating the cache container. Joint FTF with FMZ . We both signed the log book adding our words of wisdom to the story the will never end. TFTC.

Cool idea... +1 fave

After a couple of chores, some cache maintenance and one find, decided the weather wasn't that bad and a trip out here was worthwhile. Arrived as a large number of campers were packing up and filling there cars, they obviously didn't like the look of the weather, but I threw my raincoat in my pack and hit the trail. There is a good bit of climbing up to the cache site so there were more than a few beads of sweat on my brow when I arrived, but managed to home straight in on the cache. Sat and added to the story, thanks for providing the seat.

TFTC

Thanks to today's visitors for starting the story off exactly as I'd hoped it would go (and congrats to rosmar and FMZ on the FTF). The online version is up to date and waiting for the next instalment!

Published