Barking up the Wrong Tree? (Canterbury) Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand
By justmeg on 22-Mar-13. Waypoint GC43TJ8

Cache is gone so I'm archiving to open up the spot for a new geocache

We solved this back in 2016 with some assistance from the CO, and finally had the opportunity to search for the cache today. Unfortunately we had no joy with the find, not helped by the phone app having difficulty getting a fix on GZ. Mrs nzk found a likely looking piece of camo but no cache. We will keep this on the watchlist and return for another look if the CO or another finder confirms it’s still there.

Needed a second/third pair of eyes, realising this could be a bit trickier than when first laid. Mr Coconuts3 came up with the deteriorating cache but immediate container is fine and placed very carefully back where it belongs. Very interesting puzzle and a learning curve on barks. needed a wee bit of help to get the final word sorted. TFTC

Came out with busy paws to try and find a couple of puzzle caches solved. We got to GZ and the three of us dived in to search possibilities. Then Mr C said "this what you looking for" wow so happy. We both signed and Mr C carefully put cache back in camo and replaced.
Enjoyed researching this interesting puzzle, some very interesting learning done.
Thanks for the work gone into this puzzle and the cache justmeg.

Had a fair idea what I would be looking for for the final. However, spent 20 mins looking and tried to think outside the square a bit, with no luck. Would be grateful for a CO check that I'm either going blind, or it's gone.After reading CB's log I gather it's not quite as it was, and as there is a load of metal piping plonked around the GZ area, I really wonder - - - ?

Lockdown is now level two so I'm enabling my caches again. Please use hand sanitiser thanks.

Due to NZ being in lockdown for EVERYONE, tourist or resident alike, ALL logs will be deleted until the lockdown period is over and this cache has ben enabled again. Stay home, be safe people.

Wasting some time I managed to score this one. Took a while and read the logs then came up with the hide. Log is dry and cache is no longer a bit of the hint. So be nice to it so it can keep in play.
Thank you for bringing me to this area justmeg and for placing and maintaining Barking up the Wrong Tree? (Canterbury) geocache from Mr Cuddly Brick
Found on this awesome day the 26 February 2020.
Cache number # 2341
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This puzzle was solved before I left Brissy and I located the cache today, on way back into town after the breakfast event A difficult puzzle that I enlisted help from my cuz’ kiwi wife, and at the last hurdle Hinemoana also

I didn’t locate this cache yesterday on the first pass, even ‘tho I was in exactly the right spot. It required a bigger stick to unearth the camo which is disintegrating. The cache is no longer held in place but can be tucked underneath. Just happy to have a smiley here after all the work that went into the

TFTC justmeg

Disappointed not to find this given the complexity of the puzzle

Taking the long way to the hospital on a reasonably pleasant afternoon to search for a few caches. Far out, I needed so much help with this one!! Both the puzzle and the final... Located eventually, perfect timing too, just before the game finished and everyone started walking past. The outer container is worse for wear and the inner one is slipping out - I am surprised there were together when I located it. TFTC!!

This was heading towards being the bane of my life as I knew it was there from TipsyTui who had double checked for me but I still didn't find it. I asked Nosynel to come with me and be another pair of eyes and it helped. I spotted it this time. Great camo. The puzzle was a good challenge too! Thankyou!
#2852

Checked on cache today on a walk past gz. All good and ready to be found!

A tricky puzzle, I struggled for a while with the first step until I happened to glance at the cache page on my pc and noticed something that I hadn't seen on my tablet which helped me to get started. And then I had a few issues at the end but eventually I managed to get the correct coordinates after a bit of rework.

Took junior cacher for a bike ride today and we picked this up en route. Great hide and in good nick considering it hasn't been found for 16 months!! Oh and I just noticed that this brings up find number 700 for me - woohoo ! Tftc and +1 FP.

It's still in place

Out for a few caches on the first day of the New Year.

Really enjoyed the puzzle (had the whole family involved, including a final steer in the right direction from the CO) and was looking forward to collecting this epic cache.

Unfortunately, despite searching high and low, could not locate it! (;-)

We will be back!

A tough puzzle with an awesome final. I came to the park on my second and final day in Christchurch after a full day of wine tours. I spent a bit of time working out the answer to this puzzle so that I could make the find while visiting the city. I walked through the park on a rainy Tuesday and searched for this bad boy with tons of muggles nearby. I made the find and snapped a pic. Loved this and the lessons within!

Solved this one in preparation for the NZ Mega Hagley Park walk which I couldn't make, but with its high FP count deserved a special visit, so here we are... 4/5ths of Team Naki. A relatively quick find but involved all of us searching. Individually we signed the log, and on to the next one. We're actually supposed to be on our way to a Lab cache but now we're distracted. Very Nice puzzle... TFTP TFTC Have a FP

We joined a walk through the park with a bunch of people from the Mega and a generic log was made on behalf of us all. Much fun was had by everyone, and Hagley Park was an amazing spot to explore. Thanks for placing and maintaining this geocache for us to find.

parislaura, Team jacob and I flew to New Zealand for the 2015 Mega.
Never having been out of Australia before, this was a very exciting trip for me
Today was a busy day with caching commencing at 10:58am and ending at 1:30am the following morning with 71 finds, 1 Mega event attended and 5 DNFs to keep me on my toes

Please excuse the template logs however I am trying to keep an eye on my numbers to help keep track of a milestone and am therefore hurriedly logging tonight to help with this.
Please know that I am loving Christchurch, caching here and the variety of cache hides that we have found

On a walk with fellow geocachers and finding caches as we wander through this beautiful area

TNLN. SL. TFTC justmeg

Out with the mega team walking the park.

After solving this one before we left Mandurah, WA for the Mega, it was very satisfying to replace the question mark with a smilie, found while on the Hagley Park mega walk. Needed a bit of help to solve this puzzle which was very educational - and it was actually finally solved after the find.
Many thanks for the puzzle and the cache justmeg.

Found with urch on a mega walk in Hagley Park. I really enjoyed visiting this area, but there is still so much more to see, so will have to return again. TFTC - and the beautiful trees.

Enjoyed this puzzle. Found today with a group of cachers here for the Christchurch Mega event. We had fun walking through this beautiful park. Logged a group name Hagley Mega Walk. TFTC and puzzle

Found as part of the group 'Hagley Mega Walk' during the NZMEGA15. A nice walk around the park. It was enjoyable exploring many different areas today. Didn't get around to solving this one but at least someone in the group had the co-ordinates.

Found on a afternoon walk around Hagley Park with a group of cachers lead by 2wombles. To save time and log paper, we signed log as 'Hagley Mega Walk'. Thanks for the cache.

Found while on the Hagley Mega Walk, nice to tick another one off that I had solved for this trip. TFTC

# 871 - In Christchurch for the Mega with Triciac2 and Rhyssa6. We joined the Hagley Park walk (3 caches late ) and found this one, which was signed on behalf of all of us in the group: Hagley Mega Walk.

Thanks for bringing us to this beautiful park, justmeg

Signed as part of the Hagley Park Mega Walk.
Over from Queensland, Australia with TriciaC2 and Dutchie1950 for the mega. We'd signed up to do this walk as a great way to see some of the sights in Hagley Park and the Botanical Gardens.

Figured out the first part of the puzzle fairly easily then started going in circles. I got a small hint from someone in the group that let me know my circles were at least on the right track.

Nice camo container.

Found while out on the Hagley mega walk. Good fun thanks.

Over for the Mega. Caching with Dutchie1950 and Rhyssa6, all of us from Queensland. Found caches today with the Hadley Mega Walkers, and meeting lovely people, TFTC

Mega find as part of the Hagley Mega walk

Definitely barked up the wrong tree. Found it eventually. Found with the Hagley Mega Walk. TFTC such a nice park.

After a good search we got it many thanks

Mega maintenance run today. I checked on this today and found it nice and dry. Please ensure you put it back very well camoed so it stays in place.

Arrived at the park just as a couple of classes of school kids arrived for some sports event, thought I might have to flag this one today, but then managed a sneaky retrieval, and quick departure, all good. TFTC

A tricky puzzle but got there in the end with the help of warfi. Thanks for the challenge.

Another puzzle I looked at a few times before getting an idea of what to do. Very pleased when it was solved- and today we went looking for it. Had us a little stumped for a bit- until, like others, we found part of the clue. Still took us a while- as it is very well hidden. thanks justmeg

FINALLY!! It has taken me nearly a year since I first started working on this puzzle to find the cache. A challenge, but a rewarding one indeed.

A really clever puzzle which proved harder than I initially expected. I needed a nudge from the CO to make it over the final hurdle and I finally got to GZ mid last year. Unfortunately a night time search at the end of a long evening's caching left me empty handed.

Tonight I was on another night time mission with fellow Wellingtonian and my usual geo-partner in crime Kjwx tonight. The main aim of our excursion was for me to show her some of the sights and caching highlights of central Christchurch, as I am a regular visitor for work, while it has been many years since she's been here.

I hoped that two eyes would be better than one and I was proved right when Kjwx spotted a crucial hint object just as I was about to give up searching, and the cleverly-hidden cache was soon in hand.

TFTC

Spent some time on this puzzle looking for the right info but everything eventually fell into place. Have had the cache on the radar a few times but each time I passed it seemed the park was bursting with muggles. Finally tonight all seemed clear and the hunt began. Was a bit puzzled at hint item (was remembering hint from memory) but just let geosenses kick in and soon found a likely spot and with Chelzea's direction soon had cache in hand. Glad to finally get the smiley for this one. TFTC

See Sevren's log.
Found with him tftc

Mrs Sobad enjoyed the puzzle - so was disappointed with a DNF last time. Today we were back - and things were looking grim. We both wandered around looking at hint items without success. One area seemed likely but it was not to be. SoBad then escaped the wind - Mrs was more determined. She then realised she was also stupid - she had forgotten the hint was more detailed than her memory. So it had to be here. Again it was only her determination that kept her going - which overcame more stupidity. She was so sure she would find the cache container here... that she nearly didn't recheck there. Where the cache was.
Nice to get a smiley for this one at last. This would probably have been the last attempt - we still have a large number of unfound solved puzzles in Christchurch that can move up the list for next visit here.
Thanks.

Found with the help of twosharpes puzzle skills. Clever hide. TFTC

Finally!!!! Have been doing this one for nearly a year. Mr Sharpe found the trees but then came to a stop. Then after having a chat with the CO owner at an event found out we were on the right path but still came to a blank hmmmmm then late last night, it all clicked, however, had a couple that just didn't fit, so a quick email and a nudge in the right direction and finally a green tick!!!! Yes!!!! After the CITO event, a quick dash to the final and the cleverly hidden cache was found. Thanks so much for this puzzle, learnt quite a bit and enjoyed it.

Accompanied TwoSharpe et al to this after the find today.
Nice hide and the boys soon had it in hand.
Log book was signed on my behalf, but no smilie until I've cracked the puzzle. Got soo far a while ago, and back on it now. Can see what to do (and could before...) but not getting suitable answers.

I barked up the wrong tree trying to find this one. My attempt at solving was going really well apart from a couple of answers that just didn't want to fit. Should have used a thesaurus but while chatting to the CO about another puzzle I got the nudge I was on the right track but just needed to reword things a bit.
Though about it and it fell into place.
First attempt at finding the hide failed and it was bitterly cold and despite being sure I was in the right area and knowing it was difficult I thought I had searched well but obviously not. Tonight armed with extra knowledge due to muggling the CO out on a maintenance mission for a nearby cache, I made the quick find and are glad this puzzle gets me another souvenir. Thanks. I'll give it a fav for a well thought out multi-step puzzle and nice hide.

This puzzle took about 6 months to complete. It was an interesting journey and boy did I enjoy solving it. I had solved it for some time before I got the opportunity to search for it. Today was the day. First I went around looking blind. I had left my notebook in the car. I must have spent fifteen to twenty minutes doing the geocaching waltz. . Then I went back to the car ready to give up until I read what I had written in my little read book. . I decided to go straight back and found it within a minute. I loved the container. [:X]. Thanks for helping me get my vitamin d on an otherwise dreary day.

Glad the wetas werent out and about in there.

I dropped by the cache today to check that it was still there. I'm happy to report that it's exactly where it's meant to be. Log is nice and dry too. Happy caching.

Got mislead and then thought i was onto it but could not find the cache.

Actually a double DNF. A previous trip had us just walking away as the muggle factor was far too high. Fine today as we had a good look where we thought we should - with no success. PAF had us back for a 2nd check -equally unsuccessful. It may well still be there - but not where we looked.

I had a real "how did I miss THAT?" moment with this one. Sorry for sending you out on a pointless maintenance run. A very clever camo which was executed well. Considering the amount of rubbish in there (including a tv WITH remote) it needs to be that well hidden to last. TFTC

I dropped by the cache today to check that it was still in place.It's exactly where it should be and ready to be found. Happy caching

Blast. Puzzle solved but no joy locating the cache. I managed to pull a heap of rubbish out of the GZ but had now bags to remove it (& couldn't spot any bins nearby) so left it in a neat pile in plain view. Hopefully a City Care worker will spot it and remove it. Even after all that tidying and searching I still wasn't rewarded with a find

Solving this puzzle has certainly taught me a bit about New Zealand trees. (We are from the UK and have only been here for 4 years).
Thanks to Justmeg for marking my homework and offering advice. TFTC.

I dropped by today to make sure the cache hadn't blown away in the storm. I'm happy to say it's still in place and ready to be found

Had looked at this puzzle a few times over the months, and nothing really clicked. Decided I needed to get some more puzzle caches solved closer to work, so got stuck in. Then got stuck. A few nudges from CO and puzzle was eventually solved. Cache was an easy find this afternoon. Thanks for the puzzle and the cache.

Really enjoyed this puzzle although it took me awhile to get my head round the various steps. Fortunately met JustMeg at the event cache in the weekend and got 1 or 2 little pointers. Had the final puzzle solved quickly and then went looking for the cache this afternoon. Liked the camo, and the good quality container. A fav from me. TFTC

TFTC. I solved this lovely puzzle a wee while ago however every time a drove near GZ there were muggles galore. Not today no one around at 2pm on a weekday, but no GPS with me, I decided to have a quick look anyway.
Found it - nice job. This was a great puzzle from beginning to end.
A favorite vote from me.
Thanks justmeg for the great cache.

After cycling out to the end of the new southern motorway cycleway I returned to the city via Lincoln Rd. Whilst waiting for the lights to cross Moorhouse Ave, I realised that I was only 500m or so from this cache. Armed with the confirmed knowledge that the cache was actually in a place I had already searched 3 times before I decided that I would try for a 4th time. Yahoo! How did I miss it all those other times? Man's Look? Thanks for the cache justmeg.

Had a site meeting nearby and went after the cache after all checked and OK. GPS had me a few metres to the south but after a quick investigation ruled that out and zeroed in on the cache. Yet another clever puzzle and a clever container for JMG. Thanks for the puzzle and the hide.

Back with StreetWalker to have another go at this. Managed to find a much closer parking spot this time which was a good omen. Cache was in one of the spots I looked last time, but should have used more than eyesight to find as it was well camoed.
Many thanks to the CO for her help with this.
Enjoyed the puzzle and learnt a lot of interesting things. TFTC.

#5359. A puzzle that Troodles had already DNF'ed, so she was keen to go back for another go. Immediate find this time round. TFTC.

I've just checked on this and am thrilled to report it's safe and well and waiting to be found 24 April 2013

This was going to be my 5000th cache find, so most disappointed to DNF. Found something in keeping with the theme that would have made great camo, but was empty. Agree with Bald Ed that the area could do with a CITO.

Geochecker said I had the correct coords, but nothing was visible there. I expended the search a little and treked from tree to tree still nada but an area sadly in need of a CITO event.

A very informative wee puzzle that was fun to work through. Came up with a few plausible options that fitted the crossword so had to work through them & eliminate them until I got the green tick. Hit GZ in the late afternoons sunshine. Had the place to myself....GPS was a bit wishy-washy so spent a while searching a wide(ish) area. Bit gross. All sorts of rubbish back there. Ended up Phoning TW to give me a more accurate GZ. Turned out to be a spot I had searched previously but hadn't delved 'deep' enough (not something I was willing to do at the time!)....previous finder had hidden it deep. Nice cache container. Left it a bit more exposed for the next person. Thanks for the informative fun puzzle and hide. Cheers.

This puzzle had me barking up quite a few trees and made me learn quite a bit. The CO sent her geomutt barking after me when I had strayed slightly off the path. Retraced my steps for a bit and found where I had gone wrong. Made a flying leap from one tree to another at the last and the geochecker helped my grip stay firm. Loved the cache container and it's camouflage! Another very well constructed puzzle from JustMeG.

On Puzzle clue A1 became A2 but as there was no A1 you all seem to have found it without a problem. Updated now though, sorry missed on the check.

I had hot tomatoes roasting in the oven and a fractious wee cachelet when this one was published. I didn't even have a look. With roasted tomato sauce in their preserving jars and the pasta sauce on the boil I sat down at about 4.30 and cottoned onto the theme and solution with one go!!! Great wee puzzle and very interesting. Ohh, I could shoot out and try for a FTF but we needed to feed the kids and try our new tomato sauce (lovely recipe from Pam the Jam from the Rivercottage TV series) and so we were off to get some fish n'chips and a play at the playground. We came home I got leave to go for a cache or two. I arrived at GZ and had an idea of what I was looking for. Had a bit of a look for quarter of an hour and finally had the cache in hand, great container! Great puzzle but alas I was pipped at the post by LV and only an hour earlier. I'm not complaining with 2TF. Now I'm off to see if I can get the FTF on the other puzzle just published. This one gets a favourite for theme, puzzle and cache container.
#953
Day 177 of the streak.

Hark! What new notifications do ! see?
JMG's gone crazy barking up some trees [xx(]
So on this puzzle cache I did embark
Sailed off on a good steady start
Should've been an easy walk in the park
But some clues kept me in the murky dark
With so many bits to piece & pull apart
Until finally ticked the Geocheck mark! [^]

On checking emails, I saw 2 new local puzzles published this afternoon so thought maybe I'd tackle the one that hadn't been solved yet. Progress was quite good but got stumped on some vital clues so took a break from it. When looked at it again, saw that there were already a couple of smilie geochecks. Anyway by the time I got the tick of success, thought it was in the dirrection of some other unfinished geocaching business so we'd go find the final.

We really didn't expect a FTF at 17:40 hours, so it was a really nice surprise. This gets a favourite for both puzzle & cache. Thanks justmeg for another great cache!

#2922 @1900
Beavering away at my desk when notifications came through for a couple of new puzzle caches. A welcome excuse to divert me from my work. Noticed someone else was attempting this one without success. It looked straightforward to start with so I got stuck in. Unbeknowest I had a couple of wrong answers and went off on a tangent (anagrams) trying to figure out the next step. Reviewed my previous answers saw the error of my ways and then powered ahead. Answered all but one so started guessing the final result based on google earth. After 5 fails on the geochecker, it was review time again. Made a change and then the missing answer fell into place. The geochecker smiled at me but I lacked transport. Back to work for a few hours. By the time transport arrived there were three smiley's, but no finds. I guessed there was no chance for a FTF, but with no finds for the last 4 days after 101 days in a row, I just had to get out ... cache found easily - very clever. 3TF. TFTC.

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