Haurangi (Wellington) Lower Hutt, North Island, New Zealand
By The Wandering Dragons on 27-Dec-12. Waypoint GC43CP5

The last two searchers could not find it, and it was always difficult anyway. I am in no shape to visit and maintain at the moment, so clearing the space in case someone else wants it.

TwigNZ and I hunted for this cache on the way up, we hunted for it on the way back. No luck. Not even a clue as to where its hide might be.

Labour Day 2022, and the Seagnoid and I have decided that the best way to celebrate the establishment of an 8-hour working day was to take our day off from having to work 8 hours and go for a 20Km 10 hour tramping trip up the Orongorongo Valley instead.

And a grand day out it was, filled with river crossings (numerous, but then a friend of mine always says that dry feet are over-rated!), trips and falls (still nursing the cuts, abrasions and bruises from those), archived caches and me getting my 6,000th cache!

Hmmm, we ended up spending quite some time looking for this cache. Firstly on the way to Papatahi Hut, and then on the way back. Our phones had us in quite a reasonable location, with quite a few giants to choose from. Suffice to say that each of those those was searched numerous times, before we expanded our search. All without success.

It's interesting to read previous logs, some saying that the co-ords were accurate and others saying they were out by double digits of metres. That just meant that we had no clue whether we were in the right place or not. Hopefully I'll get another chance for another search in the future.

As New Zealand is at COVID-19 Level 4, one must be safe if geocaching. I am not disabling my caches, as this could be a good opportunity for local people to start a new hobby. However if you are going caching during the lockdown, please follow these common sense suggestions:
*Use gloves when touching commonly touched items
*Only walk to the cache from your home - if it is too far away, save it for another time
*Keep your social distance - probably best to cache alone
*More than ever, be aware of muggles and leave a cache rather than cause suspicion that could see you get into trouble
*I will accept dated photos of the cache/log rather than a signature during both Level 3 and Level 4

Stay safe

Took quite a bit of finding. Lots of hint objects and well a U turn in the track had us barking up the wrong tree for a while!! TFTC

Sunday, coming back from our camping trip at the head of the Orongorongo valley. After walking up the river yesterday, I suggest to sveppi we walk down the track today, to get a feel for the place, find new camping spots, and check out the huts on the way.
This cache took some finding. My GPS has been playing up with accuracy these last couple of trips. The track near GZ takes a U shape, with my GPS always pointing about 20-25m into the bush. With the hint I knew I didn't have to search all that deep, but still... followed the track until the GPS said 17m, and there was what appeared to be several geo-trails... searched a lot of big trees, sveppi coming up to help, but I couldn't find so I eventually gave up and came back down to the track.
Sveppi stayed in quite deep for a while so I walked back and forth to see if the GPS would settle. I saw 2 new potential suspects so gave them a go, and finally located the little container, with the GPS still pointing 15m away and a good 10-12m from where I was looking previously.

Nice quick find thanks to the excellent coords and hint. Took the family in for an overnight adventure at Haurangi Hut. Lovely spot and we were lucky to have fine weather. This cache was a slight detour between the hut and the river. Thanks for bringing us here!

Looked for this one back in June 2013 when it had disappeared. Nice to be back here again staying at Haurangi. A quick find this time round after a hot walk in. tftc

Found at the start of a 20km tramp with a couple of scouts doing some badge-work. From here we headed up the Whakanui Track and around to McKerrow, back down to the river then out to the carpark. Were able to make good time because of the excellent mud-free conditions. TFTC.

#9156. Went for another long hike in the Rimutaka Forest Park today. Met a couple of trail runners at the car park. They were heading up to the Whakanui Creek. Managed to meet them on their way back on the Orongorongo River after our short detour to visit Location 4 of the Our Backyard...Orongorongo Valley multi-cache. The tracks and the river were otherwise all quiet during the visit.

Managed to find the entrance to the Big Bend Track from the river at the Whakanui Creek confluence. The track was pretty muddy in places, but otherwise offered a good alternative to the river route which we had always taken when we previously came up to explore the Orongorongo Valley. Found after a short search. The cache was in good condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log (after Bijouxtoo).

Thanks for the placement and for bringing us to this site, and …

.T h a n k s. .f o r. .t h e. .c a c h e.
.M a u r u u r u. .k o e. .n u i. .a t u. .h o k i. .t e. .k e t e r o k i.

Checked on this one on the way by today. All is good with the cache!

On the way to the hut we found this cache

** .... JoshThePirate**

Quick find after staying in the gut the previous night. Thanks for placing the cache.

Found with nettlewolf. Tftc

Staying at haurangi Hut with axelford and detoured for this quick find before heading back to the carpark.

On the way to our hut stay we stopped here and the cache was quickly found

----------
**+-++-++-++-++-++-++-+ TNLNBFP +-++-++-++-++-++-++-+**
Cache.Mike

Didn´t take us long to find this one after methodically searching each likely spot. The cache was exposed and looks as though a critter has had a go at the container. The log wasn´t protected inside so we replaced it back inside a fresh snap lok bag to hopefully preserve it for longer.

Defeated me today, despite the phone GPS reckoning I was within 2 meters. I blame a long day scrambling up and down hills for the brain fade....

Last one on my tour up Mt Mathews today. Easy find. TFTC. Sherlock hood.

Found with JackM, who we met while out tramping. TFTC.

Eventually!

Quick find which on a Cosgrove Gold survival course with our scouts. TFTC

Using the hut as a base camp for a Scout survival-camping weekend, with the scouts bivvying. Had a few spare moments late in the afternoon to rock along and make a reasonably quick find (at the second place we looked). Quite pleased to have collected this as I thought I may not get the chance for a cache while in the Orangaronga Valley on this trip.

TFTC!
with MetalArt & Mr Orsome4some

Had tramped to Haurangi Hut with Scouts.
While the Scouts were busy doing an exercise, the leaders slipped off and got the cache.
Had been a beautiful day for walking in here. The track seemed very dry despite last week's rain.
Had a play down at the river after caching, then back to the hut.
Started raining around dinner time, and got steadily worse from there.
It was still pouring when it came time to leave the next day.
Had quite a few extra streams to cross/walk along, on the way back.
An enjoyable tramp nonetheless.
TFTC

In at the hut for the night so found it nearby.
TFTC, TNLN

Stopped briefly here on a day walk with Yeetrees to Papatahi Hut and back. Found by Yeetrees after I missed it on the first pass. Signed log, TFTC

Found with a group of young women on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition. We didn't find it last time so were pleased to do so on this visit to the Valley. TFTC

Coming through today on my trip to Mt Matthews, so checking on my caches as well. All is fine with this.

Still puzzled by how the first cache disappeared, and did more searching, including down the hill to the cliff. Either it is a) completely buried under the brush, b) carried off by an animal (unlikely, but possible) or c) went over the edge and is someone near the creek below. In case anyone wanted to have a gander there, it appears you can get to the creek bed by going down the right side of the nearby bridge. Didn't have time or energy to do that, but may next time, as there are two geocoins in that missing cache container.

A lon walk to get this one. tftc

Pleased to say that we had success this time. Realised we had been searching in the wrong spot and that it was possible to get better co-ords by taking a different attack point! Hooray! Lovely day in the valley today. TFTC

second time lucky

Found it this time - although to be honest, it was actually found by the non-geocacher in our merry little party...and she insisted that, no, she was not now a convert . Oh well! A bittersweet 2TF for Orsome4some. TFTC

I think we are as astonished as the CO by how a cache could be muggled in a spot such as this. So, we were hot footing along the Orongorongo and Big Bend tracks to see if we could have a chance at the yet-to-be-claimed FTF. (It's along time since we logged a FTF, 18 January 2011 in fact, so we were keen to succeed here).
Arrived at GZ and got straight to work on a search. It certainly took much longer than we expected and there were several places that were possible given the GPSr indication and the clue.
Finally we came up with the goods. Advice to future cachers; if you are approaching from the south it pays to be circumspect and not march straight to a point so many metres from the track, as is indicated by the clue. Otherwise, follow the clue literally.
Cache in order, log signed; safely re-hidden, just as found.
As a matter of protocol I think a FTF should get a FP. So done.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

This entry was edited by Tararua Turtle on Friday, 03 January 2014 at 09:33:58 UTC.

Finally made it out to check on this cache. How a reasonably secured and very camouflaged cache can disappear is almost beyond me, but it is certainly gone. Have replaced with a smaller cache container in an even more secure location very close by. FTF is still open for the taking!

Coordinates changed from:
S 41° 19.701 E 174° 59.883

Coordinates changed to:
S 41° 19.704 E 174° 59.884

Distance from original: 18.8 feet or 5.7 meters.
Cache moved very slightly.

After a winter of illness and jut plain busy-ness, it looks like I will get out to check on this the first week or so of December.

Will get out and check this cache as soon as practical. It was very well hidden, and YeeTrees apparently found it (although didn't log it properly). Not likely to have disappeared on its own. Might take a while to get back out there.

Just adding our voices to the clamor! Poked around for quite a long time but it's either extremely well hidden, or gonesky! We're betting (hoping?) on the second.

Its a bit of a worry that no one has been able to find this cache for some time. Might pay to check please as its a long way to go!!!

Searched for a while here and as with previous cachers, it appeared to be the right place, but we were unable to find the cache.

We stay one night in the hut, it's great.
We are 10 people to search the cache, 2 times.

Despite a good search around, decided to give it away when we found a quite active wasp nest. We will try again, although we felt we were looking in the right place.

Thought we had found the right spot, but didn't find the cache so maybe not!

Found this cache today and decided to swap the trackables

Picked up
Dragon's End of the World GC (TB5FQMQ)

Dropped Off:
"Gemena, Congo (Dem. Rep.)" Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug
PT's Coin Festival 2010 Geocoin

Published

Dropping in the special geocoin that inaugurates this cache.