Tank Trap (Wellington) Pukerua Bay, North Island, New Zealand
By tmann421 on 18-Dec-12. Waypoint GC42J37

This is one of a series of caches I attempted during my solo trip to NZ on 18th-21st October, 2024. This opening (lengthy) paragraph is backstory about the trip; specific stuff about this particular cache, and info about photo/s (if attached) will be in the next paragraph. Several other caches were on a list to get but not found due to time constraints, legs hating me, changed plans; DNF's have not been logged, as most were only a very quick/cursory search before deciding to move on with the trip, and a fairer search may have turned up the desired finds. 30 caches were successfully found in New Zealand, from 15 different cache owners, with a maximum of 8 finds from same cache owner; find furthest from home was ~2,650km away in Taonui; a big thank you to all cache owners who put in the time and effort to place and maintain caches found. Due to busy schedule, logs may be delayed a fair bit before posting; I'm aiming to get through all logs by end of November 2024, noting that any mention of cache conditions are based on when I found them in October, and may no longer be accurate by the time the logs are posted. Day 1 of my trip saw me leaving home at the earliest time I've left home in probably 3 years, driven by partner (lilbassgirl) to Melbourne (Tullamarine) international airport, flying to Wellington (with motion sickness issues on the way due to turbulence), then grabbing some caches on the way to my NZ base at Paekakariki. Day 2 was a caching drive to Feilding and back; I'd intended to do the Paekakariki Escarpment track in the arvo, but given illness and dehydration from previous day, I decided against it, and instead spent more time/got more caches than I'd intended where I drove. Day 3 was taking photographs of a steam train (JA1271; with diesel DA1431 {wearing 345 on the sides} at the other end) run by Steam Incorporated from Paekakariki to Longburn, then driving ahead to Feilding to become a passenger on said train to Whanganui and back, with a few hours of lunch and photography, plus a cache/AdLab walk in Whanganui, and more train photos despite the increasing darkness returning from Feilding to Paekakariki. Day 4 saw me returning rental car to Wellington (with some caching/photography detours on the way), flying back to Melbourne (Tullamarine), luckily without motion sickness that time, and being picked up by my partner (lilbassgirl) again. A brilliant, unforgettable experience, and I can't wait to return to New Zealand again (but hopefully the motion sickness on planes can be avoided on future trips).Now, onto this particular cache:A nice, quick and easy find. Cache in good condition. Attached photo taken from the nearby Pukerua Bay lookout, and if you look closely enough you'll see the Tank Trap below the front of the train (but foliage and pixelation prevent this cache being seen, despite it being in the photo).

Tftc! Driving back from Porirua

Fabulous spot! Amazing what relics from last century are dotted around the place! I bet most people wouldn't know what they were looking at.Filled a gap in the log. Thanks for bringing me here. TFTC tmann421

Beautiful day to stop and look at Kapiti Island. This was a fab cache container! Thanks for giving a chance to stop and take in the scenery. TFTC.

Was fun! My 8 year old was stoked to find it.

A nice easy one, always good after DNF. TFTC.

Missed this one on our last trip to this area. We parked at the top and walked down. Thanks for pointing out this interesting feature. Nice hide too. TFTC

Got it on way home from Mana Island trip. Good hide. TFTC

Nice quick park and grab TFTC

These white cupboards along this road caught my attention as a child and into adulthood I have always wondered where the go and what they were for... the reality isn't quite as fun as my imagine told me, but leaning about the defenses for the Wellington region has been a bit of a whirlwind, i grew up without too much thought of the New Zealand before I came to be here so lots to catch up on and funnily enough this little hobby (as my mother calls it) is filling so many of the gaps

Tftc easy find on a windy day, out with geeves90

A family member was travelling down here today and I was able to hitch a ride. We stopped for the caches down this way as we travelled home (northwards).
This has a good pull off area and we were able to park close to the cache which I soon had in hand. It was returned as found and it is in good order. It's a nifty little hide.
It was interesting to learn a little about this aspect of early defences. I'd have never known otherwise. TFTC tmann421.

Cool design.
Straightforward.
Log nice and dry.

Cheers

Another very interesting cache with history. Many thanks for the cache tmann421.

Have driven past this rest area for years and never stopped. A great sunny view from here today. Muggles mum quickly spotted this one. Another cache to add to my monthly tally for the 'Wheel of Challenge'. TFTC

Day 11 on our holiday in New Zealand. Today we are in the area and surrounding area of Wellington, and then we go to Ruapehu. We also visited this tradi, found it, and signed the logbook.



***T4T$ - Many Thanks to tmann421 for hiding and maintaining of this cache s*** ️

Driving along the coast and had also some find.
Thanks.

Yay! Our first find of the day and what a gorgeous day! Yay for Transmission Gully and the lack of traffic on this road. Nice hide. Brilliant view of Kapiti and the massive hillside earthworks. Streak day #97. TFTC

Wanted to get just one cache on our way back from Porirua today. This one meant we had to head home via the coastal route instead of TG, but that wasn’t a problem. It's often very scenic this way, particularly between Pukerua Bay and Paekakariki. The cache itself was a quick find, and it was worth taking a photo of Kāpiti Island from that point. #5591. TFTC.

17.10.2022 12:30 Uhr GMT+11
Gesucht, gefunden, geloggt ...
DfdC DeSchmidt_n #5

TFTC
Nice easy find. Well designed
- NZBartletts

Nice place to stop now that it’s not so busy along here. No problems spotting and retrieving the cache and returning in breaks in the traffic. Thanks Tmann.

We managed to sort of park here although the entry and exit are quite rough. With the low traffic volume now we could go slowly. The cache hide was great and should stand the test of time here. Still can't believe how little traffic is passing! Thanks for the placement tmann421

Cache in good condition. A rare windless morning on the coast. Nice cache,thanks

Yippee the New transmission Highway must be taking a load of traffic.1 as it was very light flow here today ..a tad tight and rough to get in and out but done and dusted..thanks Tman421 for the tidy cache

Driver paused here for a cache I hadn’t claimed. Quick find after waiting for photo muggles. Interesting history, thanks tmann421!

Checked today - log and container in good condition.

Nice and easy find with the amazing KTG. Although the wind wants to blow us right over to Kāpiti. Lol. As always the C.O. has a phenomenal hiding ability. TFTC

TFTC. Nice quick find with . FP for the cool hide and the great view. KTG

Interesting piece of history, enjoying the views from along here. Nice quick find of the cache, last one for the day before I head back, TFTC

I've been meaning to get this one for ages, never had an opportunity to stop (or did, but missed it). Finally, returning home after dinner with family in Wellington, resolved to stop for a late night mission. Fortunately an easy find, as torch on phone got weaker. All good in cache. Tftc!

Nice quick park & grab on a nit so nice day

Thanks for the cache. That makes 72 this weekend

Stopped on our way north on a beautiful day. Kids loved learning about the tanks.

EJ found it

Passing by here today and after I stopped to grab the virtual one close by I thought I'd give this one a shot. A nice quick find here today with an amazing view. Traffic is crazy though. So the log book has been signed and the cache is nicely back in its spot all ready for the next geo-hunter. Thanks heaps for taking the time to set up this cache. I really appreciate your efforts in doing so. TFTC

Found it with the company of my Geobear

Found with Nutty Nora. Gorgeous views

Wow what an awesome view for the really unfit that can’t do the Parkakariki track!!! Great history. TFTC

Went to find this one after a good day around the bay. Driven past this one many times but never stopped. Thanks for the cache.

Great hide! Spotted from a distance.
Nice fresh wind at GZ too.
TFTC

Sneaky hide.

Nice view. TFTC.

Found while stretching our legs from Wellington to Foxton Beach.

A quick stop as we ventured further up the coast. Great wee cache! Fave point for the thought that went into it.

Nice place nice view. TFTC

Thanks tmann421 for placing this cache

Today there was no traffic behind me as I came down the hill so it was possible to park right next to GZ, thus shielding my activity from passing muggles...

Thanks for the history and the inventive caches!

Walking up hill, good to stop.

Located this one during a cache raid of Wellington chasing TMTG caches. No problem with the find. TFTC.

Nice container and nice hide and also great history. Cheers

So many muggles about but thankfully a quick find.

First find of the day. I'm slowly getting cache-eyed so spotted it fairly quickly. Great little container! Thanks for hiding and maintaining it for us!

Quick find great views and history to boot what more do you want. SL TFTC

Found on our way home from Pukerua Bay, parked at lookout and walked down for a quick find in a nice hide, found the information on the cache page very interesting, my boys were very interested in it and it's something I don't think we would have learnt if it wasn't for this cache, adding a favourite point. TFTC

Replaced the hide and added new logsheet - old one was still pretty good. Co-ord check - 3m so all good

Cache still findable, at co-ords and in good condition - will replace holder next time I am in the area but was only about 200mm above ground level anyway.

Found thanks, as per previous log could do with an update. Cheers.

This geocacher reported that there is a problem with this cache.

I was walking along the beach so it took a while to figure out how to get to this! I ended up walking quite a bit further along the road than I hoped. An interesting story; this road was a dependable transport bottleneck back then (and is still a bottleneck today - for another year or so).

The cache was in excellent condition except it was on the ground - the bit of the structure that was holding it has broken off.

Found on my trip north enjoying the caches

A quick find! Found a house nearby that we saw getting built on grand designs a few years back. TFTC

On our 24th day in New Zealand we travelled from Wellington up north to New Plymouth. On this route we had a number of geocaches on our bucket list, old ones we need for Jasmer Challenge and some challenge caches which are very valuable for our 81-matrix. And then there were many others to break up this long journey for us. Unfortunately there were a number of DNF's for us here on this route, also because we just did not have the time to search very long, and with others we just had to pass by because there was a lot of traffic today. But we had another great day and enjoyed also the nice weather. This was our first stop. We enjoyed the great view. Then we searched for the box and had it in our hands after a short search.
TFTC and greetings from Switzerland

Very good.
Spent the morning grubbing through undergrowth (fruitlessly), so nice clean hit & run is good.
Thanks

Parked up for a nice scenic viewpoint. Really nice in the warm weather. The cache was quickly found. TFTC.

Nice view from up here. Good hide =)

Found at 09:15 - #8293 - on a 5 week trip in New Zealand

TFTC

Nice view out to Kāpiti Island from here - quite windy and rough seas today though. Nice little hiding spot. TFTC.

Today we made a trip from Wellington via Hawera to Ngaere, just short before Stratford, thereby visiting many new sightseeing locations and looking for caches, too. On this trip we searched, found and logged a lot of caches. The weather was between good and not so good all day long, colder in the morning but it got warmer in the afternoon. Clouds were our compagnions the whole trip.
Almost no muggels observed us as they had other things to do than observing harmless geocachers.

Thanks to tmann421 for showing us this location and for the fun we had at Tank Trap (Wellington). The search we had here today didn't take too much time.

Greetings from Germany and hope to see you soon in the forest.

TFTC says H_M_A @ 25. Oktober 2018 @ 08:43 Uhr @ [#12122](https://coord.info/GC42J37)

A quick find, returning from Mega. On our way to Turangi..

We stopped here on our way from the Interislander to Waikanae. A shame the other half of the tank trap has gone. A lovely view of Kapiti Island from here.

Day 2 of my road trip for WENZ Mega. Flew up from Invercargill to Wellington yesterday and will end the day in Wanganui.
With Pukerua Bay having been home for a few years I had to stop for one. Great view down to the beach where we had a least one Guy Fawkes party with the kids and other families.
As with other places I've visited, I didn't know what this concrete buttress was for - think I assumed it was for stabilising the hill.
I initially thought it was midi. G, but stopped it from a different angle.
Thanks for the smilie tmann421.
2274 15 October 2018 09:12

I need to locate and sign off three caches today for a personal challenge.

This is the first for today.

Cheers for the cache.

Found today with TwigNZ and Etherlord Clan, TFTC Tmann421.

The EtherClan are invading [@TwigNZ](http://coord.info/PRPHK6E)'s castle for the weekend with the aim of heading south to chase a World Turtle.
The first priority was pure numbers to count towards the souvenirs of the current promotion, and the second was a lonely (puzzle) cache that hadn't been found in 1000+ days.
With the puzzle solved, we set off on Saturday morning with Priority 2 set as the start of Priority 1.

We're caching our way back north now, but we had an offshoot to the beach which caused the wheels fell off our P1 mission when EtherMaster6 asked if he could play for a bit.
It turned into a lot longer than a bit and it looks like the World Turtle souvenir is swimming out to sea without us, but the memories that the boys made skimming stones into the waves and searching for Mermaid's Purses are more important

The weather is starting to turn on us now and we were thankful that this was a fairly quick P&G.

Thanks for bringing us here.
I never knew what these were!

Walked down from the upper stopping area just to be safe. A nice find, all safe and dry here. TFTC

Interesting history. Thanks

I run for Hutt Valley Harriers and today we are competing in the Universities Relay at QEII Apark near McKays Crossing. I decided to find a cache while I was on my way up there. I had this one in mind and it was convenient to stop today... so I did.

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

Thank you

Cherrys Rule

Auf dem Weg von Wellington nach New Plymouth sammelten wir die Dosen am Wegesrand ein. Diese konnten wir gut finden. Danke fürs Legen.

I te ara mai i Poneke ki New Plymouth, ka kohikohia e matou nga tira i te ara. Ka kitea e tatou enei pai. Mauruuru koe mo te whakatakoto.

A little walk and managed to find the pull off. Overcast day but got a shot of the island, thanks for history lesson. TFTC

A little walk and managed to find the pull off. Overcast day but got a shot of the island, thanks for history lesson. TFTC

Another spot I've driven past plenty of times and not even noticed. Thank you for the history and the excuse to stop and learn.
Thanks

I started today sitting on 198 finds, knowing full well that I wanted something memorable for my 200th. I was also due to fly up to Auckland from Paraparaumu this afternoon, and had been eyeing up a particular Puzzle Cache that I had taken a shine to, but before I could get to that I had to take a quick trip down to Porirua so thought I would get my 199th and looked for something I could get quickly as I was passing through on my way to the airport.
This was the perfect Cache for that. Good description and Hint, leading to a quick find, and a great write up on the history of the location to boot.
Signed the log and replaced as found, and TFTC

I haven't been caching for a month as life has gotten in the way, so I decided last night that the weather was looking great and that a caching trip down to the Pauatahanui inlet to continue searching for the Kiwi Geotrail caches was in order. I solved most of these over a year ago, so this trip is well overdue. Left Feilding bright and early, stopped in Levin for breakfast and made it to my first cache still early in the day.

Finished picking up a lot of the kiwi geotrail and there’s time for a few more caches as I head for home. A quick find here and I love the historic story about this site. Tftc

Have driven past multiple times but usually during day and with heaps of traffic. Tonight coming back to Raumati quite late so took the chance and pulled in. Darkness added to the hunt but straight forward find. Great views even with the little moonlight with the sea below and the outline of Kapiti island and of the coast. Thanks for the cache.

A nice and easy park and grab on my way home to Pram. Interesting to read up about the history. Thanks for info! TFTC

#4165. I had to pick up some stuff from a friends house in Pukerua Bay on Saturday so decided to grab a few caches while up in the area. I have seen the Tank Trap cache on my GPS previously but always ended up going past the place to pull off the road. Today I drove more slowly and snuck into the parking zone. The cache was a nice quick find. Haven't seen many of this type of cache container and attachment in New Zealand previously. They were a common type in Europe when I visited there last April. Signed the log and returned the cache where found. Thanks for the cache tmann421.

Easy drive by after walking the k9 pbh's sl tftc

A nice brazen hide, I'd never be brave enough to pull off. Definitely nice and easy and appreciated that on this rather damp and cool evening. On my way home to Auckland from Wellington having flown down straight after work to pick up a car I'd just bought. TFTC!!!

#1499, I needed a cache to bring me up to this figure as I had a nearby cache in mind for #1500.
Lovely afternoon for it and quite a quick find.
Good spot too to bring along a TB that likes to visit seas and oceans. Unfortunately the South Island was barely visible today.

The tide was a long way out.

TFTC.

Bit of a walk up the hill to get this one. All good here. TFTC

Quick walk down from the stopping area just up the hill. Luckily this is an easy find because the traffic is crawling and I'm sure people would take an interest in somebody acting suspiciously by the side of the road. Took some photos to divert attention. And because there's a great view! Never noticed the artifact before but it's quite significant. TFTC.

Thank you for sharing this history with us. A quick stop in our way home to Hawkes Bay after visiting Mana Island.

Dropped family members off at the airport, too wet for caching in Wellington, good along the coast. Second time here.Thanks for the cache.

An expedition with Mega intent. Cache #1 for the day. It was great to stop here and take in the view - - -as well as find the cache. - - - Now back to the Labour weekend traffic . TFTC .

The first find on our great caching adventure - and one with a neat bit of history too. Thanks for pointing that out as I've travelled up and down here many times without noticing it. TFTC #9210

Great view and interesting relic

TFTC
#368

I could see the tank trap feature off down the hill, but decided against a closer look. I always enjoy finding these bits of history dotted about.

TFTC

A quick park and grab in the way home. Thanks!

Easy find

Cool spot! Quickly found. Tftc.

I came over to New Zealand to meet my son, who was staying for nearly six months on the other side of the world. Our intension is, to travel now for 4 weeks through this fantastic land and visiting a lot of fine spots on both islands.
Met in Auckland, our first trip led us to the Far North with some spectacular locations. It was a lot of driving, but we think, it was worth the result.
The second part of our travelling route led us to the south. Going via Hamilton with some fine locations, Hobbiton was an absolutely must of our "unexpected journey" . Went then to Tauranga with a hard upclimb to Mt. Maunganui, visited Rotorua to see lot of vulcanic activities, have had a lot of fun with Zorbing and Claybird shooting and drove then to Taupa, to doing Skydiving.
Napier with it's beautiful Art Deco district and the great Aquarium was the next stop.
Final destination on the North Island was Wellington, were we visited some great places and met some friends from Germany.
After crossing Cook Strait now we followed the east side of the southern island down to the most southern point of New Zealand.
Blenheim with its wine yards, fantastic dolphin watching in Kaikoura, the story of earthquake in Christchurch, following the famous coastline down to Dunedin with its beautiful and interesting places as well as the nice city of Invercargill were our main spots on this part of our journey.
Being in the South, the way now went up on the west coast back to the north. Crossing the Fjordland with its famous landscapes we've reached Te Anau to do a private flight over Milford Sound, then spend in Queenstown some time with the most spectacular activities ever done (Canyon jumping and Shotover canyon jetriding were some unforgetable experiences!) the way led us to the glaciers, up to the nice town of Westport and further to Abel Tasman Park to doing an unbelievable hike trough the park and an outstanding kayak tour with seal and bird watching.
Nelson, Picton; Cook Strait was waiting again for us.
Then it was time to starting back to the north. But first of all we catched the oldest cache of NZ, one of the oldest in the word. That was a must before we took our way via Palmerston North, Whanganui, Oponake to New Plymouth with stops on beautiful places.
Due to bad weather in the mountains it was not possible to do the Tongariro Crossing, so we decided to go straight north to Hamilton and then further to the Coromandel peninsula, where we spent the Easter days. Wonderful days with wonderful weather and fantastic places.
All will come to an end, so this outstanding vacation. Droven back to Auckland, where we performed the revenge of our Drift Kart competition and took then the airplanes back home.
Of course, even if was is not our main activity during this holidays, we were looking for some caches, which are laying beside our route.
So this cache was one of those, we've picked up.
Many thanks to tmann421 for this fine cache and best greetings from Germany.
**Geovortex** & *Nilito*
# 6284