Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft. Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand
By P&P on the Central Plateau. on 06-Jan-13. Waypoint GC43Y0T

Fun find with rustynz, gate locked. Cool hide, thanks

Freezing up here! But the cache and awesome views make up for that! Cant believe how high we are. FP for the hide and location. TFTC

On the access road today with 2Bulbars, Nice quick find here with a great hint.Thanks for the placement and the smiley

Submitted via Garmin Live Geocaching

Found on a family holiday day walk to Rangipo hut. The cache was a nice quick find near the start of our walk (from the 2wd carpark). Quite surprised to see we weren't the only finders today, TFTC

No aliens here today. Found on a road trip up here today. Great to have so many caches on this road - thanks for the placement

Find #756Found while walking Te Araroa - new Zealands long pathway from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Thank you to all the cache owners who place and maintain these caches, and thank you to all the people who help me and others on the way. Some logs signed as LBB to save space.Walking up to Whangaehu hut today (a detour from RTM which is a detour from TA) we stopped here for a break and I walked off to grab this cache. An amazing spot and very creative hide. Favourite point for the cache, which is in excellent condition

After a great weekend time to head home. Great to get some more smiles.
Jeez nearly got blown away.

I am logging using the Cachly app template so please excuse generic logging along the way. It’s just my way of keeping track, but I do genuinely thank each and every one of you cache owners for taking the time and energy to place these caches. Many Thanks for bringing me here. Cheers.

Heading south today and was not in a rush. As I was using my work 4WD I thought, why not! Came up here to enjoy the spectacular view and thought I might as well see if there are caches up here. What do you know, it 45m away!
A short search revealed the alien rock hiding the cache.
Added a fav point for the whacky cache page and location.
Thanks for placing a cache here.
TFTC

Such a fantastic cache! Nice quick find but wonderfully camouflaged! Thanks very much

I have looked at this one a few times on the map and seeing as today I have a red beast I thought I would have a lot of fun and this this lot of caches up here. I think after this one I will leave the others for a better day. TFTC

That was hard to get out of the car because of the wind! Nice cache! Favo!

Haven't found one in a container like this for a while. Deserves a FP. TFTC

Thanks Punga and Paua for placing this cache

I had another even spookier extra terrestrial feeling as I searched for this one in the dark. Eventually made contact and passed on my message of peace and love.

Log nice and dry
TNLNSL TFTC

I didn't have to telepath far to get this cache! Instead I was with FMZ in his 4wd to arrive here. Other occupants of interplanetary craft were rustynz and tramyard. Together us specimens of this planet came together to find this cache. Me and Ark didn't find this straight away, in fact I had the boulder in hand but never looked further than that. So we enlisted the far superior abilities of rusty who had visited this cache from another galaxy of hers. She showed us where we were going wrong.

Then we ventured further up hill in the 4wd so Boney Bruce and FMZ could place a cache under a huge rock!

Visited this spot with boneybruce, FMZ, Gorby and rustynz during day tour around Mt. Ruapiehu while staying in Turangi for summer holidays in actually winter conditions.
Great hide!
Previous Finder help us!
TFTC

Awesome cache, amazing view

Sadly the last one, because the nearby gate was locked. Fast found but almost blown away. TFTC

One of the nicest caches I've done so far in NZ. I obeyed the sign and hiked up from the 2wd car park. Could've driven, considering the road is much better than the first bit between the highway and the ford, but this way I had more time soaking in the great views. Only downside, with the van up here I could've enjoyed a cup of coffee while logging the cache TFTC + fav. point!

Myself and two of the kids spent the weekend in Ohakune caching came home today and decided to do the caches up here. Quick find here cache in good condition.
Tftc.

Nicely camoed - our second as we make up our way up the mountain

On a caching adventure, got the 4wd to the top

Time to admire the view and take some pictures. Then it was a gentle stroll to GZ, oh where, oh where, oh where can it be?

Well it was right there all safe and snug. Log is all good here. Thanks Punga and Paua for the clever hide.

Great container. Great view, found while doing the ROF.

TFTC

Tricky hide. Picked it up several times before we got it. Find 5 on family dot day

Called in here on the way to Takino lodge, great camo so a fav point awarded. Loved the view of Ngarauhoe from here

Really cool cache and well I placed. Gets a favorite from me.

Found it on the way up the mountain

Love this spot! Nice find after a day trip skiing!

On our trip to NZ we didn't plan to visit the north Island so I hadn't put Geocaches on my GPS device. Luckily I met a cacher in Rangipo hut, who described my this one, so I could find it without the GPS.
Found this one on the last and long day from Rangipo hut back to Whakapapa Village on the Round the Mountain Track.
Thanks for this nicely made cache.

Amazing location, excellent hint, and a great container. Thanks for bringing me here!

Amazing find on New Years morning! What an amazing view. Tftc

After an enjoyable weekend in Palmy we are heading home today. Fanfan-77 decides she wants to explore this road as we plan a tramp to the hut one day. Question is how far can our little car make it? Sunny and dry we head in and pick up the caches along the way. A bit of a steep climb to here but we made it no problem. We find sign and return the cache (nice camo) before stopping to have some lunch. It’s gone a bit colder and we can see the clouds dropping. Down we go… just as the rain arrives and makes it a wet drive out. Bagsy not my turn to wash the car. Cool location. TFTC +FP

Well I'm glad we made it to the top! THe views are amazing (even if the mountains are mostly under clouds), and I didn't know these were here! The Desert Road looks so small from here! We have a quick explore around, I locate GZ and find the cache quickly, not quite by chance but almost. I noticed something that didn't quite fit here, picked it up with one hand to show sveppi. I knew it probably had something to do with the cache, but it wasn't quite what I expected. another well crafted P&P hide, thanks for taking us all the way up here. Slow going up the hill but a lot of fun. We had luch up here to enjoy even more of the view and watched rain clouds travel up the desert from the South. We jumped in the car just in time and drove down in sometimes torrential rain. TFTC +Fav

Travel Bugi visiting from Canada.

A quick find and a marvellous spot. Made it up here in the 4wd Suzuki with no issues, had to take some photos. TFTC

Got a message last night from a mate, who wanted to show kids the snow for the first time. I was keen to get out and go for a trip, last time I played in the snow, I was probably 15. Anyway, we made a snowman, had a couple of snowball fights and just chilled and enjoyed the views. Mountain was looking pretty sharp too. We took my mates 2WD Navara and it made it up here just fine.

Showed the muggles the ropes on geocaching with this cache, and they sort of understood what I've been doing since talking about geocaching. Cache was nicely done! I didn't realise but at the same time, another friend was walking over the Tongariro crossing. Good for him. I believe this is also now my highest cache

TFTC Punga and Paua, the cache was found in good order Signed, sealed and returned to GZ. 1 find of 1 today, making this find #1333

The views are 'out of this world'. TFTC!

On the way home from Wellington we were rewarded with sunny weather after a very wet Wellington. Richard wanted to come up here for a look - I wasn't sure at the beginning but very glad we did - superb views. TFTC

Almost snowed in.

Nice quick find on way home from working bee at TASC. Nice spot, no Martians today. TFTC

What a day!! The views were super impressive. Tftc

Found it in freezing winds and the cold rain while doing the round the mountain track. Great intuitive cache, tftc

Found together with 49tiger and Nils.

Found Geocacher from Luxembourg with sanpa254

Spectacular views! Thanks!

Quick drive-by on our way to the Whangaehu hut - signed as team FOT.
Park just before the gate (closed), but our packs managed to get a ride up la bit further up the track.
Still a quiet patch for 2 Degrees users here.
TFTC

A quick drive by cache on the way to Tukino - and Whangaehu Hut, almost the last 'easy' cache of the day. Weather looking fantastic, great views of the mountains all the way in. Signed with Alpenmilch80, Evilno9, Greenblat, Kiwileon and Slieschke, signed with our team name of F.O.T to save room on the logs.

I had been here once before but muggles prevented me finding this one. Was glad to swoop in today and finally knock this one off. Thanks for the cache.

Found on the F.O.T- Road Trip together with slieschke, evilno9, Greenblat, KiwiLeon and 11hpg11
P&G on our way to the Whangaehu hut enjoying our 4WDs on the way up. The little black dead spider on the cache got me for a brief moment. TFTC

Being a geek and in the industry the only thing that impresses me with this place is - where do they get the power from? Didn't see any solar panels and no diesel rumbling - Geothermal???
Anyway a great view and another group find with team FOT - T4TC

Getting higher and higher with team FOT (slieschke, alpenmilch80, Greenblat, KiwiLeon and 11hpg11) and found ourselves at a pretty cool spot for this one. Good to see someone get a fright at GZ too, helps keep everyone on their toes TFTC

Very nice cache in this deserted place Our last cache before resting at Rangipo Hut on our track around Ruapehu. TFTC

#7279. Another glorious day to explore the Tongariro National Park further. This time on this side of the mountain. What a wonderful landscape, with great views of all three mountains of the Park, and expansive vistas to the east. The installation was all quiet when we arrived. Quick find. Nice hide. The cache was in excellent condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

| = = = = = T h a n k s _ f o r _ t h e _ c a c h e = = = = = |

Found it quickly. Great hide. Now we have a ride down with the mountainbike. Thanks

Sorry i was 'put down ' on wrong landing site. I have fixed I hope .

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What an awesome log entry! You've made our day! Glad you all enjoyed it so much.

WE LOVED IT .. Everything !! ,from the people mover and the Nissan bluebird bypassing the large skeleton (Animal I think tho could have been alien )Girls screaming ...,then thru the fast flowing ford.. still screaming ... towards the magnificent Mountains covered in snow . Along the road past the don't go off track into the soft sand sign . Take their word for it . DON'T GO EVEN 1/2 a meter OFF TRACK because you will be out pushing .. and don't let the car behind you follow or they will be pushing as well.We love d it . it is safe and spectacular . Anyone with half an hour spare and a car load of kids should go and find this cache if the aliens don't take you away . It is something none of them will forget . NZ IS WONDERFUL>

Found this cache but forgot to log it. So here we are. Second time lucky, a good find. And its just so stunning up there.
TFTC

Sadly we could not find this one, will return and try again another day.

Found it YAY LFTC

With new alien pods appearing all over this side of the mountain (their muggle guardian claims its a scientific experiment on global warming - mmmm, yeah right), we thought we'd better check out the alien transmitters on our way home today from a fantastic Easter w'end based at Tukino ski lodge. Checked the obvious spots at GZ & soon came up with the goods, great little hide, TFTC

Nice position and great hide - 3mouse and 4mouse scramble for quite some time to spot the "craft".

Found while walking the 'Around Ruapehu' track. Day 2 from Waihohonu hut to Rangipo hut, a good excuse for a rest from the undulating desert terrain! Fantastic viewpoint. Great cache camo! TFTC.

Cool place to find while exploring the area. No aliens here day. Tftc

Walked here with LCBuilder from the previous cache "The Carpark" in the mist, could barely see 50meters ahead of ourselves so happy to finally make it to a different landmark than just straight gravel road! Quick find at the location TFTC

Didnt take to much to hunt down this one

Cache 23 of 42 - Out with Tommygun9 & Spudnz on an afternoon excursion to the mountains. Got to experience a lot of different climates on today's adventure.. Rain, hail, sun, wind and even a bit of snow thrown in for good measure! From sun to a blizzard! by the time we reached here the snow was think, and the wind was gusting. Managed to locate the cache and headed back to the safety of the car to sign the log book. TG9 then volunteered his services to placing the cache back into where it had came from. This task proved eventful with tommy struggling through the blizzard with cache in hand (s) and disappearing into the rocky wilderness. Luckily we didnt have to call search and rescue as tommy managed to return safely back to the car unharmed but covered in snow. Cheers FTC!

Off on an afternoon geocaching mission with tommygun9 and hunterhillson. It was truly a 'four seasons in one day' excursion. It started with heavy hail followed by a torrential rain, driving wind and eerily quiet snow falling on the desert road. The sun even made an appearance on occasions. We found between 25 to 45 caches each and finished with an unlikely first to find back in my hometown.
I wasn't sure if my truck would make it up this far. The snow was starting to get deep in places (4-5 inches at my guess), but we managed. I made an unintended hand-brake like turn at the top. Probably due to my diff lock being in. A full on blizzard was raging when we attempted to find the cache. Surprisingly, it didn't take too long to locate. My greatest fear was that the cache was small enough to be buried in the snow somewhere and that we would have to dig in every nook and cranny to try and locate it. Tommygun9 found the cache and we headed back to the safety of the car to sign the log. Tommygun9 braved the elements to replace the cache before a very slow and controlled decent. A FP for the hide plus the adventures in the snow. Will add photos soon. Thanks for the cache and the smiley.

The snow was now quite heavy and getting deep in places. SpudNZ made a tighter than intended turn at the parking area because the snow wanted him to and we braved ourselves for the outside blizzard - and of course got our cameras ready. Stepping out of the geomobile the snow was above ankle deep and the mandatory photos were taken before heading over to the agreed upon likely hide area. Very quick and rough searching yielded a quick result and we headed back to the car's shelter with cache in hand.
While SpudNZ signed the log I carefully placed the snow that had come in with us back on the cache, which was now sitting on my lap. Log signing and replacing took approx three minutes however in this blizzard that was enough time for our footsteps to disapeer.
As I ran back to replace the cache I realized how funny this would look to anyone watching as I ran in heavy snow carrying the cache (which is funnier if you know what the cache looks like) in shorts and sneakers. When I placed the cache down I started concealing it in the snow before realizing mother nature was offering to take of this for me and I should get back to the car while it was still visible and before I lose a toe to frost bite.
SpudNZ then took some time to get his car ready and we headed back down through the snow toward the sunny Desert Road.
FP the the well made hide and the hilarity in the heavy snow.

On a quest with Gap (of Fap and Gap) to find and log three Earthcaches to complete a GIO License Challenge, and to pick up as many caches along the way. Today, we headed south to Turangi and Tongariro National Park...

The view out over the desert was outstanding from up here... And ground zone was quite special too. What is this place? The iPhone camera got a real workout. While I was getting carried away snapping photos happily, Gap was busily searching for the cache. I must say, I approve of the camouflage used on this one... TFTC.

Location very visible from below as it was a good clear day today. Quick find and great views from here. SLTFTC

Had trouble closing the hatch of our space capsule as there were mighty solar polar winds ablowin... thankfully the cache shields are up to the challenge of this frontier . TFTC

Found it, TFTC. Spending Queens Birthday weekend in caravan at DOC Camp ground near Ohakune and having a geo caching long weekend around central North Island!!! Awesome day clear skys. Aliens had their lunch here, Like the way you hid the cache!!

This entry was edited by Outtatime on Monday, 02 June 2014 at 08:40:03 UTC.

It was terrible weather during day two of our RTM trek. Thanks to hint we did not have to linger long time and could continue to to warm embrace of heated hut
Deserves favorite for the design

Great place, great hide, great cache! Happy New Year! TFTC

On arround the mountain track. Great day. Great views. A neat hide. tftc

Up high and the nearby mountain started to make smoke signals. Most likely for us to get off the mountain. TFTC

Took abit of searching to find this one, could of been because of the freezing howling wind or the lack of a good gps.
But log was signed and photo taken then off in search of good snow for the tobogin.
After a good snowfall getting there definitely was half the fun.
TFTC

The old subaru (which is 4WD) handled the road superbly. We had an old Lada once and that I reckon could have made it as well ! Cache in excellent condition and a nice hide. Great views on a beautiful calm day. Had the whole area to ourselves (aliens excepted). Worth a favourite. Thanks for the detour. TFTCSL

No need for bkj97 to fire up the afterburners on the turbo to land at this one. T4TCSL

With Kaikawaka. A neat hide

The first of several caches found on our three day tramp around the mountain over Queen's Birthday. Snow on the ground made for slow travel and long days! Thanks for the cache - love these ones where some effort has been put in. And we hadn't read the description, so were quite surprised when the object we'd picked up turned out to be the cache.
Found with chucky3.

Nice to be caching out of the car again after 5 hours of walking.

TFTC

Always thought this looked a bit alien, so good title! Found after our long haul up the hill and back. Knees are protesting, but good to be back in the warmth of the car. Great views, and near our favourite RTM track. TFTC

Caching from the car seems Ok now. This country is great to visit again. TFTC

Was on my way home from the T42 MTB event an decided on getting a few caches. Didn't take long to locate as it was under the first alien rock I turned over, signed log then replaced. TFTC

Found on a really bad weather day - a challenge even though managed to park a couple of metres away. Great camo.

This one took a bit to find but got it in the end, on our way up the road end.

Found during a day tramp to Whangaehu hut organised by the Manawatu Tramping and Skiing Club. Just three of us in the group. We got our 2WD car up the gravel road as far as the Round the Mountain track and parked there. After having lunch at the hut we walked off track down to the round the mountain track and returned to our car and looked for the cache. We couldn't have had a better day - blue sky, sunshine and views forever with a cooling breeze. This is a fun, clever hide and nicely themed - my tramping companions enjoyed it too! Thanks P&P, and another favourite added.

Slightly belated logging off this find!! We had just had an enjoyable weekend caching in the company of FMZ and decided to take a slight detour off SH1 to find a few extra caches up this road/track. All was well until we came to the sign that advised that the road was not suitable for 2 wheel drive vehicles. The fact that we were in a 2 wheel drive campervan did not seem to faze FMZ who suggested we continue on as the cache was that far away!! (Note that this was not a rental van.) After a few hair raising moments we made it to our destination and luckily all other interplanetary craft had departed. After some seaching we found the well hidden cached. TFTC & the reason to make the detour. Favourite point from us.

Well we arrived in our interplanetary craft at the alien landing pad down the hill, and it was as if we were called up here. Luckily the campervan managed to get all the way up the hill, so saved us a walk that we didn't really have time for today anyway. Great views, but we were the only interplanetary craft being communitcated with, that we could see anyway. Plenty of others zooming terrestrially past many kms away in the distance, but all silent up here. Great camouflage for this cache. Today's earlier 4wd equipped visitor to the other cache didn't make it up here or didn't have any luck. Experienced in such transgalactic endeavours it was no problem for us. TFTC!!!

Found on the way up the hill.Road definitely 4WD in places, although quite busy today. TFTC.

Managed to get up here in my 2WD car, without too many issues. A great spot for a cache, thanks for bringing us here.

Had planned to do a trip here to do the "Wild Whangaehu" cache some time ago. I guess we just got really lucky that these two new caches came up in the same area, & hadn't been claimed yet. A real bonus for us.
Called in at the space station, to find no other space vehicles visiting at the time. Pretty cold & blustery here, but cache located quickly with the good hint, & a nice hide too! A second blank log sheet for us too!
Thanks for the cache & the FTF

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