Heaven in Purangi (Taranaki) Matau, North Island, New Zealand
By bayraider on 05-Nov-12. Waypoint GC40TTQ

One of the team was actually baptised in this church about 30 years ago, and many of their family grew up here and went to school nearby. One of them was even at the school house which still stands. If you go into the Church, some of their family are listed on the two plaques inside as well.We came here as a full team along with our muggle father/father in law. Only 1 of the team plus our muggle had been here before. Such a beautiful old church. Is in need of a bit of TLC, but stunning nonetheless. The trip out was fine - we took it slow and watched for potholes as there are a tonne out here. The cache was out in the open inside the church but due to the remoteness of this location, I highly doubt that it would ever be muggled. Plenty of people have signed the log, but not so many logged online, so I am wondering if it has almost become a bit of a default visitor book as well...Took a tonne of photos while we were here as we don't know when we can get out again. Also had a chat to the family living onsite as we have met them before.Giving this a fave just for the memories that it has brought back and for bringing us here. TFTC!

We came back to search again.
Great find.

We couldn't find this one

We never would have visited this historical garden setting unless we were geocaching. We walked in and the friendly owner said hello. We searched high and low outside the church as there was some temporary fencing across the doorway entrance and we thought we should not go inside. Disappointed we went back and asked the owner and he said, yes go inside. Pleased to find this generous sized container. Thanks bayraider for bringing us here.

A heavenly spot. Lovely day out for a drive in the country. I wonser how many have prayed in this cute wee church. Many thanks for the cache

Wow over a year since this has been found, everything good at GZ TFTC

tftc, really nice place, and nice people to chat to with an interesting story on the chapel

Lovely area. Nice old church. Tftc!

Mini road trip today to visit this cache and another. Met the lovely homeowner, found the cache quickly, signed the log. Thanks for bringing us to this lovely spot.

After completing the Purangi Kiwi Project cache we headed back down the road to this location. Wow what a cool property! Sad the owners weren’t about to show us around and tell me the history behind the GZ. All doors and windows were open but no one home. I did see their massive collection of walnuts drying in their conservatory though!! Also had a sneak peak in their hut accomodation and I was floored! Just beautiful! We are definitely coming here for a night one day soon. Great sized cache in a place where a lot of history has happened I bet. This deserves a FP TFTC

It had been over a year since this one had been found so we decided to head out here this morning. Such a long drive...I hope you don’t run out of bread or milk often as no shops for miles around. Passed 3 sets of dog trails and we finally arrived. Cool cache container. I really liked the hut too. TFTC

One a cache trip with 2 Bulbars, not done this dache and it turns out to be next to his cousins place, in we go, tea and biccys, a guided tour then down to caching business. What a great place and cache, well worth a fav. Mission accomplished, this one is a wrap.TFTC! Blenheim Bear
This log posted with CacheSense for Android!

Although it was a long drive into this cache, over roads which have clearly suffered in recent stormy weather, and been heavily gravelled in places, it was worth it to visit this interesting place. As we walked up the drive, the owner asked if we were geocachers, and told us to go on looking. Once we neared the coordinates, we had a good idea of where we wanted to go, but were somewhat deterred by the netting blocking out way. However the friendly owner reappeared and told us the netting was just to keep sheep off, so we were able to proceed to a fairly quick find, although we did investigate some other objects in he vicinity first. A favourite from us. TFTC

No luck here todayOn a tour of the Taranaki area. Nice to pick up some geocaches along the way.

What a lovely place and the lady here was lovely helpful and only to happy to show us around enjoyed this cache immensely definitly a favourite

Wow that was fantastic. Found on our trip to the outback. We got a personal tour of the old town. So much more than a geo cache. What a lovely lady, thank you. And thank you for the cache.

Wonderful! The property owners were extremely lovely and helpful. A fave point from me. Tftc

Was down in Wellington for a few days, and decided that I'd make an extra long weekend of it and transfer a rental car back to Auckland and cache along the way. Unfortunately for the rental agency that ment nearly tripling the km's they thought I'd put on it!

With the rental car company only giving me 48 hours to get the car to Auckland a little bit of planing was needed to maximise what I wanted to accomplish, and with only a few DNF's it turned out to be a very successful trip. So a big thanks to everyone who had placed caches along the way, and for showing me some great sight's along the way.

Day 2: Wanganui to Hawera and home via the Forgotten Highway.

Well this cache was a bit of a highlight for the trip. The way I approached the geocache meant I didn't seen the house, but saw a bit of a track heading up the hill and with the cache only about 100m away I thought that was the way to the cache. Wasn't sure what I was going to find at GZ and I was wonderfully surprised. Had a bit of a look around and couldn't find the cache, and on reading a few logs realised that the property owner likes to be informed of people of his property so headed down to the house to knock on the door. Meet the owner as he walked out of the garage holding a gun! A bit of a shock but I quick explained while I was there and he replied he was just about to head up to the church to shoot a rabbit for the dogs dinner. Lucky I went to say hi. I asked if I'd been searching in the right spot and they then put me on the right track.

Despite first appearances they turned out to be a very nice couple, and once I'd returned to the church the cache was quickly found. A fantastic cache placement.

We started the day off heading for the Huinga Tunnel cache but we never got there as we changed our mind and did a different loop
We turned up here and found my cousin owns the place many thanks

Found while driving through on a reccy for a cycle trip at Christmas. The access to the church is actually on private land . The owners are really really nice but they would appreciate being asked before cacher's enter their property. TFTC

Have been waiting a while to do this cache - timed my visit just right for new season's walnuts (delicious). What a lovely tranquil place, with birdsong and lovely people. A favourite for me. TFTC

On our way to the Taranaki for a few nights.

A nice cache in a nice spot

Tftc

Awesome little adventure today on our bikes out to purangi and discovered this little gem, thanks for the adventure and introducing me to geocaching

Away with Vamber for the long weekend to see if we could complete some more requirements towards our GIO License, particularly securing some much needed lonely caches.

After a dam long drive up a windy gravel road, we finally reached GZ. We were greeted by the land owner who was kind enough to show us the way through her property and explain the various tracks/boundary lines. The cache itself was a quick find and then we were back on our way - heading for some much deserved dinner!

#3306

Today marked the beginning of our long weekend geo-cation with KiwifruitsNZ, seeing us chasing lonely caches for our geo-licence requirements, starting from the Waikato and finishing in Taranaki.

A brief conversation with the homeowner and some interesting information shared about her propety before she pointed us in the general direction of the hide. A lovely historical site, and a nice hide. Very fitting. Thanks for sharing!

Very appropriate cache title. Briefly met the lady of the house who was very welcoming but had other visitors so only chatted briefly. A lovely sunny Spring day. Well worth the visit. A favourite from me. tftc

Lovely historical site had a good look round until found,met the lovely people on the property many thanks for bringing us to a beautiful place.

Time for the walnuts so went out with Phronimos to make the pick up. The cache is delightful and a wonderful place to visit and with much history made my day TFTC

Called in with Juty Bug to pick up my previously ordered kilo of fresh walnuts (they're beautiful!), and for him to visit the GC. Dropped off Darwolf's Wolf Gone Geocaching TB. Still a lovely place to visit - even in the middle of Winter.

Took an afternoon drive with priceless time and headed into the back country... Had been wanting to get out to this one for a while... Potty there was nobody around as the place looked interesting and I'm sure has lots of stories...
Found the well stocked cache and signed the log... Thanks for bringing us out here

Took a late afternoon drive with Taranaki Guy to get this one. Been on our bucket list for awhile. Nice quiet spot. No body around. Found cache by following the clues. Used to farm up the Waitara river from here. Took TB. Dropped in tradable medallion. SL TFTC.

Thought I'd give it a go despite no mobile connection or GPS. All quite logical really, as I just kept going till something made sense. It'd be nearly 40 years since I was here looking after DOC Reserves in the vicinity, and had forgotten what had been here. What a lovely host Loralee was showing me around the nearby building and telling me some of the history. Ordered my kilo of walnuts! Great cache. Swapped Travel Bug Origins - US, as they get quite a few overseas visitors riding the cycle trail, and I thought that might help it on its journey and took Shaun. Also left 'token' and football KR. Gets a favourite from me.

This was a fun cache. Laying some of my Round the Mountain series caches and decided this was worth knocking off. Had a great yarn with Mrs GZ as she watered the vegetable garden and feed the chooks, and just as I was leaving Mr GZ arrived with his gun and a rabbit destined for a stew no doubt. Thus far they have met all visitors except Parliamentary.Service who called when they were out. Nice to see a nice big Ammo can. Left Shaun, and took the boyracer's car. TFTC Bayraider.

My first cache and a very memorable on two. Excellent hide and hint. No one home during my visit. TFTC

This was such a fun cache to do. We were sitting on 139 finds, and my wife wasn't happy with the number as it was all odd digits and had a thirteen in it, so I looked around for a cache we could do on a possibly rainy day to make the number up to 140.

This looked quite intriguing so I entered the coords into our car GPS and we set off on a Sunday drive, and what a nice drive it was. Rain threatened but didn't eventuate, and eventually we got to GZ, where we were stopped by a Taranaki gate. Out of the car, and it was then we discovered the Garmin was not in its pouch. We unclipped Karen from the car, where she had been mispronouncing Maori names in a nasal Australian whine, and took her along instead.

We were hoping to meet the property owners for a chat, but there didn't seem to be anyone around so we took the lack of forbidding signage as encouragement and entered the building where we soon had the cache. We left a 'Little Mermaid' CD and book and dropped off a Dodge Challenger and guard puppy travel bug and took a bag clip as they are always useful.

Loved this cache, a favourite point from us. Thanks very much.

Well we did as we were told and drove into the property! What a great place. Fortunately we learnt that we were permitted to enter the required building and soon had the cache in hand. Neat place. Had a great chat to owner and will definitely be back one day to do some of the nearby walks. Thanks very much for bringing us here.

I made a slight diversion on way to New Plymouth to take a look at this interesting sounding cache...I was not disappointed. I knew I was heading for New Plymouth this weekend and I checked up to see if there were any new caches in the area...just this one and still unfound 10 days after publishing, I did a bit of research so I had an idea of road condition and terrain. My slight diversion was a little longer than anticipated, but well worth it
It was interesting to see the well sites along the way and passed a few teams of workers fixing patches of road, but once you are out of oil industry area the road soon changes
I passed through a long narow tunnel and managed to avoid a van with horse-float on a winding narrow stretch.
I knew I was far away from any city when I came accross a kiwi warning sign not far from GZ
I was a bit aprehensive about driving up the driveway so I parked down the road, jumped a fence and walked up an old/new track. Imagine my suprise when I approached GZ to see a large family of muggles leaving the area, taking photos and having fun on a beautiful day in the country.
I poked and proded around once the muggles had left, but I didn't spot anything odd, I read the clue and thought, maybe....after a short and nervous search I found the well placed cache
Was that group muggles or cachers? I opened the log and it was blank Yay they were muggles and I managed to get the FTF

Thanks for the great detour and cool cache

This entry was edited by ishoot on Friday, 16 November 2012 at 18:34:57 UTC.

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