2:2 Belvedere (Wairarapa) Carrington, North Island, New Zealand
By skindo on 12-Dec-12. Waypoint GC42ZH9

Nice to find today.

A lonely cache! I guess that is not surprising with these archived caches.

Teamed up with Etherlord and Ether Master from the Etherlord Clan and TwigNZ, for a raid in Skindo land. We arranged to meet in Masterton, swapped into one car and headed south. The aim was to get the 5 PWGTs south of here, and to collect Skindo's achived caches, especially puzzles, along the way. although we did get a few others as we were "just passing".
But time conspired against us. Or maybe it was skindo himself, as we only got 50 caches, and only as far south as Greytown. We have made a tentative plan to be back in a couple of months to to come back and work this area again.
All logs signed as TECATS - TwigNZ, Etherlord Clan and the Seagnoid.

Having been over here in the Wairarapa only a few weeks ago, I wasn't expecting to be here again so soon. But the chance to have a whole day out caching with friends was too good to miss. Between us we hatched a plan to get as many archived Skindo caches as we could, and any others we were going to be driving right past. My main roles today were as driver and searcher, whilst happily leaving the navigation to the others who were able to use their GPSRs and programs other than the official app to see the caches I couldn't.

My apologies for the generic logging, but anything notable will be commented upon. For convenience all logsheets today were signed TECATS (for TwigNZ, Etherlord Cland and The Seagnoid) regardless of whether any 1 of us may have already have found a cache on a previous trip.

This archived Trad was not one I had been previously aware of, but luckily for me the others knew of it and we were able to conduct a brief search to find it. Nice to get a lonely cache too, this one being 2 months shy of 2 years lonely. No issues with this one, so once the log was signed the whole thing was replaced as found.

Thanks for placing this cache.

It's Valentine's Day today.
What should a good Husband do?

* Spend it with his @WonderfulWifey?
* Or go away on a 'date' with two of her three other 'Husbands'?

The date won out (sorry darling!) and BoardGamesHusband, StaycationHusband, and RealHusband convened for an assault on archived Skindo caches in the Wairarapa (plus a couple of PWGT and other randoms thrown in for good measure).
To try to claw back some W.A.F. points, we did take SkyCraneKid (FKA. EtherMaster) along for the trip. Not sure if it was sufficient though...?

> log signed as TECatS (for TwigNZ, Etherlord Clan and the Seagnoid)

Thanks Skindo for all the caches you have placed, and growing this hobby in New Zealand!

I'm not able to maintain this cache.

????

Left a new log as well as the last one was starting to fall apart a little x

a quick find, now onto the next one, tftc

Thanks for the cache.

It is time to spend the day locating and signing off the rest of the "2 from 2" Level I series.

Only 9 to go.

Cheers for the cache.

Quick park and grab while in the area

Found with W.E.K.A.
Thanks.

A quick easy find with markhnz, as we collect a few more of this series. TFTC

A big mission over the hill today, focusing on Skindo's A to Z and 2 from 2 series caches, but picking up others along the way.

I wasn't sure whether I wanted to continue caching after having driven through a massive downpour and whether or not the grounds would be soaking but as I got closer to Carterton I saw that in some places it was still dry or just a very light dusting. I headed down here and got to the GZ just as it was starting to spit. I went out and grabbed the cache and returned to the car to do the formalities. Replaced and then headed on over to get the next one. TFTC

Exploring some quiet places in and near Carterton. Another 2.2 skindo cache ticked off, thanks!

Visited family in the Wairarapa today. The kids were quite keen to go for another geocahce hunt in the afternoon. Took us just over an hour to get ten park n grab caches in the Dalefield area, with the kids doing most of the finding.
*TFTC skindo #282*

Nice hiding

Found it.

Quick find.

Out for the afternoon finding a few caches around the Carterton/Greytown area.
TFTC

08:05. Not raining now, but wet grass so feet still damp! Cache quickly located and number recorded, Tftc.

Easy find. tftc

Well, that's a lot of tall dry grass!
TFTC.

After spending most of my Christmas break in the diy, it was time to dedicate a full day to caching. The weather was looking prefect for a trip to greytown so I headed off bright and early to try and collect as many as I could.

Decided to head to the back rounds between greytown and Carterton for the afternoon. Another quick find here. On to the next one. TFTC

Dipping TBs through we had with us

Found

Quick grab - all good here TFTC

Quick walk & grab TFTC.

Well Skindo, this had us looking a bit (making assumptions instead of following the GPS), but when we stopped just following our noses, it was nice and straight forward. TFTC (with Maiz.Man today)

Didn't find this one today but will come back for another look

A great day for a winters drive. TFTC

TFTC

Touring around the area after visiting local schools and so i usually try to locate 1-2 caches each visit to the area. This was straight forward, quickly located, signed and returned. Thank you for the cache and another smiley face.

Enthusiasm got the better of me and I spent several minutes searching the wrong post. I checked the hint and realised my mistake. Quick find and on to the next. Thanks for the cache

Another quick park and grab. Thanks for the cache.

i need to invest in an actual gps because my phone's one is off.

TFTC

All quiet around here quick find tftc

another day of caching the wairarapa with zz6000 but at a slower pace today.

Easy find, gave it a bit of TLC.

Quick find with Wafflekitties, TFTC

Quick easy find

Fun finding our first few holiday caches. TFTC

#1493. Every once in a while there is a day of madness. Today was that day. To complete an Auckland based challenge cache (GC3QY6Q), I needed to visit 50 caches in a single calendar day. But I couldn't use any power trails. Each cache had to be at least 1 km apart. So I spent several nights planning out a route around the Wairarapa that would allow me to achieve this target plus enough spares to cover for the DNF's. I managed to get around all 50 caches (only needing to use a torch for the last one) and was home by 10pm. Apologies for this generic log. This was cache No.45 of the day. Had to hobble back and forth across the bridge twice (seem to have twisted my knee some stage today). Once to find the cache and second time to grab camera to record the code. Cache was easily found in a place that has been used a few times today. Signed log and returned as found. TFTC

Quick find.



Final count today is 43. Wb-jnr and I headed off on a half day to the Wairarapa after doing some chores around home. We ended up being just under nine hours cache to cache, however escaped trouble when we got home by stopping for a bottle of wine. I was cautioned that it worked this time but not to expect it to work every time

We had a great day and loved the significant differences between this and some of our recent full day caching adventures whilst in Ireland earlier this month. We always enjoy local caching with the following (which have been contrary to some of our Ireland experiences):
- Almost all of the caches we attempted were actually there! Couldn't believe how many in Ireland needed maintenance or at the very least checking. Some days we planned on getting 40 which should have been easy, however came home with only half as many smilies. I think the best day was 24!
- The co-ords are pretty accurate. If you get to Ireland, expect some of the coords to be 20m out - frequently.
- On a couple of caches here I found some prickly stuff. The amount of caches in Ireland where you wish you had leather gloves and sleeves was incredible. Not to mention even a gentle brush against the nettle causes a stinging sensation for a couple of hours - just in time for another brush

All in all, a really lovely day caching back near home. Beautiful weather and a great day of caching company with my son. Thanks to all the cache owners

This entry was edited by wb1116 on Monday, 26 October 2015 at 06:44:22 UTC.

Log is rather damp and may need replacing, TFTC

Another one of this series we've been meaning to pick up for a while now. We've missed doing your caching trails skindo! Nice to be back here picking up a few more of your caches.
Left a pet rock -a koala. TFTC skindo

Found on a cool winters day. TFTC.

A quick find today on a beautiful warm winters day. TFTC

Log book a bit damp but ok. Tftc

Found after a small bike down the road in head wind it was a tough little ride, thankful it wasn't sunny as I am burnt for year day. Tftc paracord Keychain added

Another quick one

Quick find while on a caching trip in the area
Enjoying finding all the caches
TFTC

Quick find with a sit down lol. Log is a bit soggy. With mini dragon tftc

Quick find today while geocaching in the area, TFTC

A morning for dog walkers - a muggle plus canine playing in the stream when I arrived. Kept going, returned ten minutes later, all clear. Easy find - similar to the others in the series! TFTC.

Thanks for another smiley.

#88 I see Skindo is trying some variation in hiding places

Tftc. Quick find.

Log quite wet and could do with replacing.

Found with tmann421 and Just-Lookin on a sunny day of caching in the Wairarapa. TFTC

Spent the weekend in the Wairararapa collecting caches and finishing on the Sunday with a hike up to Blue Range Hutt from Kiriwhakapapa. Great weather and a great weekend where I teamed up with tmann421 and Princess-Emily. Lots of fun and enjoyed the variety of caches in the area.

Another of the series found quickly.

TFTC

Found this today with Nic-jay. Thank you!

Cache # 203

Found on a day trip to the Wairarapa with Wandering Dragons, Violet Butterfly and Astro Hunter.
Number 21 for the day and my last. A nice quick find once I worked out what side of the road I had to be on. TFTC

Easy find, but forgot to note the clue!

There was a van full of people parked right at the GZ on my first drive by. An hour later it was all mine

Found on a >41 hour non-stop geo roadtrip from Wellington to Auckland via Cape Palliser and a whole bunch of skinny winding Wairarapa roads, in the esteemed company of slieschke, mike-miss and cretti. We picked up our rental car, dubbed the Idiot Box, and assumed our new identity as Team CRT, shortly after 8am at Wellington Airport and headed north.

We first headed to Porirua Harbour to take on the resident Kiwi geo art trail before heading over to the southern Wairarapa and Cape Palliser where we visited the light house at about midnight and tried our best to avoid seals while searching for a few caches along the southern most shore line of the North Island.

We headed up past Greytown and Carterton, focussing on caching areas west of SH2 this trip. There were some highlight caches, particularly around Carterton (I think) and some way up in the hills looking over the whole area from Masterton to Martinborough.

It was daylight again by the time we hit Masterton and we decided to hit fast forward and skip a planned area (will just have to come back again!) and shot through to Palmerston North where we got back into the swing of things.

We took the back-road up to Mangaweka, discovering some really fanstastic little places along the way, like a picnic area and waterfall way down in a canyon, and then we continued via Taihape, across and up through Owhango, to get some really old caches, and then north through Te Awamutu and back to Auckland to drop off the Idiot Box at the airport.

And of course, despite it then being after 1am on Monday morning, and raining kinda heavily, slieschke and I couldn't resist driving over to the North Shore for an FTF on a cache published earlier in the evening.

Thanks to all the cache owners along the way, even if we couldn't find your cache - all part of the adventure! Sorry for the copy/paste log, but just too many caches to remember *all* of them individually. TFTC!!!

A plan was hatched for yet another extreme, fly down, drive back caching weekend from Wellington to Auckland. This time, Cretti and slieschke joined in on what turned out to be another epic road trip with myself and funkymunkyzone (our third trip this year).
We all met up at Wellington Saturday morning as i ended up being on an earlier flight to the rest of the crew. Jumped in our rental which happened to be a Ssangyong SUV this time round and headed straight to Porirua Harbour to hit the Kiwi GeoTrail. From there on, we zig zagged our way through Wiararapa to Cape Palliser, back up through Martinborough, Masterton, Ekatahuna, Pahiatua, Palmerston North, Taihape, Te Awamutu and back home to Auckland in the early hours of Monday morning.

To save time and log space, we stamped the logs as "Team CRT" travelling in the idiot box for the weekend. Lots of laughs were had over our 1500km+ / 41 hour road trip which consisted mainly of narrow gravel roads, some of which had spectacular scenery and views. Sorry for the copy/paste logs as its now all abit of a blur having only a few short naps in between. Many thanks to all the cache owners who have placed caches for us to find on another epic little adventure. TFTC!

Found in the company of Cretti, funkymunkyzone and mike-miss on a crazy Wellington to Auckland road trip in the idiot box. We traveled via the Kiwi GeoTrail in Porirua, the Wairarapa including Cape Palliser, the Manawatu, and back to Auckland via the western side of the Central Plateau. Signed as Team CRT. Despite very little sleep the weekend was a blast!

Thanks!

Team CRT - traveling in The IdiotBox - For the first time, I have joined in with the mad crew of: FunkyMonkeyZone, Slieschke and Mike-Miss in a mad 40 hr caching drive from Wellington back to Auckland.

We're into hour 21.

Find #830. Thanks for the cache. 31/08/2014 6:48

Quite fitting that this one should be my 200th find, as skindo has supplied many of my finds locally. thanks skindo. Signed the log on a wet day out.

Easy find, thanks

Nice spot again. TFTC.

A quick find using the hint. TFTC !

Filled the kids up with chocolate and left them with mum. Then off on my own Easter hunt. Tftc

Find #1878. A great day in Carterton on the bike exploring the out-lying roads and picking up caches along the way. Quick find and replace. SL TFTC

A second visit for us as the area was a little inaccessible last time we passed by. This time we found the cache and noted the code which we promptly forgot! Not to worry, the third visit will be fun too. Tftc

Managed to wangle most of a weekend in the Wairarapa. Knew it was coming up for a while so had put in a bit of an effort solving some puzzles. Had a great couple of days and wound up with about 300 finds. Hardly scratched the surface really - I'll be back!

Getting a few of these in the series now, time I take a closer look at the next level. TFTC, #6263

Tftc

Oh look at that

Grass is long

Another day caching in Wairarapa after last evening's Carrington Park Finnish Event. Thanks for the cache.

Nice, quick and easy find. TFTC Greetings from Finland.

Today we saw many wonderful places and we found many good cache.
Greeting from Finland
TFTC

last day of christmas break so decided to head over the hill and have a big geocaching day in the Wairarapa ahead of the Finnish Carrington Park event. Great day of caching around the back roads, and seeing parts of this area we've never been to before.

TFTC

with CaligulaNZ

Quickly found on a great day exploring southern Wairarapa in the sun (mostly), with Tan1aNZ.

TFTC!

The storm is passing over the Wairarapa and Wellington Airport is closed (last I heard) to domestic flights. So what do I do? Go geocaching. Got a bit wet, but too bad. TFTC Skindo.

Chasing 2's in skindoland, last for us today TFTC.

Quick find in the rain on the way home from Masterton. The river is getting closer and closer! NINO TFTC

Found with Paua. TFTC.

Cache # 1,378 - super fast find today with Violet Butterfly. TNLNSL. TFTC!

Found with The Wandering Dragons today. Thanks!

Cache # 507

Another quick park and grab on a beautiful sunny afternoon. TFTC !

Went to look for a lot of solved puzzlecaches in the area so we only made it from Marsterton to Featherston.

Logged as RAD together with renelm and aedk.

TFTC

Difool - #1308 - 2013-11-04@14:25 NZDT

No problems here either

Found at 14:25 - #4462 - together with aedk and Difool - logged as RAD to save space and time

TFTC

Found with renelm and Difool, logged as RAD to save log space, time and trees.

I am not much of a logwriter, so see renelms, and possibly Difools, log for details.

TFTC!

Windy, but straightforward.
TFTC skindo

5690. Out on a geocaching day around Carterton with Iris's sister Raewyn. This was cache number fifteen. We used to own a cache here some years ago. A quick and easy find. Thanks for the cache. Rodney and Iris with Raewyn.

Found today with Sallies on tour of Carterton.