Road to Home 5(helensville) Helensville, North Island, New Zealand
By cs1111 on 06-Jan-13. Waypoint GC440X2

What a great camo! A nice quick find here. TFTC

First I was chased by the rooster that seems to be at home here. Then I was distracted by a rather large moth plant growing on the fence, and I didn't have any poison to deal with it. I sneaked down the fence side of the garden trying to spot something that might be out of place and suddenly the gps decided to count down some metres. I had seen something but due to the tree cover my phone insisted I still needed to go another 6m. I poked a few things before going back to the first thing I had spotted. It was the cache, in some camo I have wanted to use myself.I found an easier way back to the car, across a "bridge" over the mud. And was met at the car by the rooster which had chased me earlier.

Nice hide, TFTC

Thanks for getting me outside to play. A nice hide TFTCFind#137

Love the hiding spot good job

What awesome camo. Enjoying a weekend out this way, checking out the op shops and now heading to the beach.. Got here, looking around, there was something just a little out of place, took some investigation and then oh yeah. Follow the ants!

Clever hide! Definitely still there! Took a detour to find this cache while waiting for palm hot springs to open on a cold sunday. Beware of ants! Tftc

I searched and searched and searched even found some ants under a old railway sleeper I went over the other side of the fence through the blackberries got scratched bits and still couldn't find it I think it's time for a hint because this is my second time I've tried to find this and I really can't good hiding though and well done to those of you that have found it

Location blocked off by fences

Always wanted to stop here and grab this one. Finally stopped here today. Great camo!

Heading south along the Kaipara Highway with rattll after a week or so in Northland. Parked nearby for a hunt around GZ. We tried all the obvious hiding places, with no result. I noticed something unusual, though, which ultimately led us to the hiding spot. Log dry. Signed, and returned as found. Tftc!

Slowly making our way back towards Hamilton and the end of our couple of weeks 'Northland get away'.We're picking up some caches as we go (as you do).A quick stop and another 'smiley' bagged!Thanks for putting this nicely hidden cache here

Stopped off here to catch up with some long time friends nearby, and just had to take a look at this one.....something a wee bit different.....Fav.point deserved for this one......In the area today as we thought these caches looked a little lonely, and we had a carer for junior cacher .....it was time we got into some sunshine as we had been renovating a bedroom, taking up any spare hours....Left home at 8am (the wrong time as schools had just gone back after the anniversary weekend, and we hit traffic extending the trip to the park by half an hour.The cache is in good health...TFTC.

Found it! Didn't find it the first time but tried again and found it!

I looked everywhere but i could not find it!

didn't take much to spot this good hide.opened and greeted by ants .wondered how they all fitted in container.unable to sign log sheet.Needs to be replaced.TFTC

With Gap (of Fap and Gap) A busy day of work and caching Gaps work took us on a loop through rural north-west Auckland. While passing through Helensville, it surprised me that wed not cached here before. How has this oversight happened? I noticed this high favourite hide while passing. Gap pulled a U-turn and we were quickly on site.The cache seemed obvious, but also natural. Gap retrieved it and I got on with the business. A few knocks dislodged the nest of ants and their eggs. The logbook emerged and was useable, so no dramas with that. Yes, this hide deserves its fave points! Thanks cs1111. TFTC.

Couldnt find

Good cammo..... found cache but no log.
Stinky ants everywhere. Will supply photo on request

#14 fun find! Def full of ants and in need of replacement log. Bit boggy.

Grrrrrr

Great spot. This one was fun

Today I was on a mission as part of Team G0LD to Te Rau Puriri Regional Park on South Kaipara Head, to hopefully clear all the caches there and as many more as possible on the peninsula.

With the Te Rau Puriri mission successfully completed, it was on to the rest of the local caches despite the very hot day. Really glad for the aircon in the cache mobile in between caches.

Once at GZ, we made a relatively quick find in the most likely location, as I have a similar one at home in Whangarei. Still nicely done though and worth a FP. TFTC

Team G0LD (Geocachers: 0B80B8, Lis's crew and DaffyNZ) were on a mission today. The primary target was the cache rich Te Rau Puriri Regional Park at South Head. We were aiming to get our final mountain souvenir all done and dusted as well as filling an entire area on our maps with yellow smiles.

We couldn't resist a few quick grabs on the roadside on the way to and from the park. A quick find at gz as I'd seen a similar hide before. Very cool.

Overall it was a very hot day with temps 28-30°C. We only copped a few brief spats of rain and I found 49 caches. My souvenir well and truly achieved. Certainly a pretty lot of smiles too. Thanks for this neat hide

Couldn’t find it

Came down this way to gather a few caches. Pulled into the side road and parked up. Walked over to the cache. Saw what was needed as seen a few of these caches. A few ants were present but nothing to deter. However once the cache was opened had to tip out the huge black ball off ants before being able to extract the log. They were angry but nothing my boot couldn't handle . Signed and replaced the cache, minus the ants. TFTC

Had some luck

In the area caching again.
Came with the right tool this time.

DNF

Found

Went into the resource of this cache hide and no ants there today. Added my name onto a washed out part of the log book and all good here. The road to home series is a good series with some interesting hides thanks.

Another day closer to Christmas, and mrs capperz was keen for a trip to the xmas market at Kumeu. I, however, was not quite as enthusiastic. Our daughter Liv was keen to go with Mum which opened up a morning of potential opportunity, which I was not adverse to taking advantage of. I was keen to get some of the treasure on offer out Helensville way and so made up a PQ and headed off about 0830. Some nice scenery seen and a few caches found, T F T C all CO s.

Did not have tools to access.

Thank you

The ants are gone, however the paper/log list is full. Might need to replace if you are wanting to physically log it.

Found it!

In Auckland for work for a couple of days but with spare time today. I headed north and west to places I haven't been to for years, if ever. The weather was very unpredictable, generally blustery with showers getting blown in the wind too. I managed to stay fairly dry given the conditions. I managed to avoid the drain and get to GZ without any problems. Found the cache after a bit of a search but it's still full of ants as noted by previous loggers so not very pleasant at the moment. TFTC, Biggles.

Done

Have tried to find this in the past with no success. Today as the family was with me I stopped thinking four sets of eyes would spot it. What actually happened was Master 8 sat in the car sulking as he was refused an ice cream having just thrown a gumboot at his sister. Miss 7 sat in the car eating said ice cream. My husband said “I’ll wait in the car”. So I was left alone as usual to search for the cache. Full of ants as everyone else has discovered so left quickly as they STINK and were in the mood to chomp.

With kiwitien who was brave enough to take on the ants! Nice hide though... TFTC

Een cachebehuizing met veel mieren. TFTC

A search around the boundary edge soon revealed the cache. Great camo which almost fooled me. TFTC

TFTC

Nice one! Took few moments. TFTC FP awarded.

Looking for some quick finds after a ferry cruise in the area. It was not pleasant trying to open the cache because it a needed a firm grip and a fair amount of strength to open which was make all the harder by it also being an ants nest. TFTC.

Located the cache easily enough, but thanks to the ants living on (and laying eggs in) the cache, plus it being quite stiff, it was harder to get the cache itself. Eventually managed. Tftc

Out for some quick pick ups after a cruise tour of the Kaipara Harbour with Anastriel and Lycurgon, TFTC

Caching today with TheMexikiwi with the aim of getting up to Atiu Creek for a wander about in the sun but had time for a few caches on the way up first.

Started on the less vegetative side before going back and seeing that I needed to be elsewhere. Edged my way along until I saw something a little out of place and the cache (and its ants) were soon found.

Nicely done here - TFTC

Today we had a trip from Dargaville to Auckland, thereby visiting many locations near the road, and looking for caches, too. On this trip we searched, found and logged a lot of caches. The weather was good all day long with a lot of clouds, but it got better with smaller and less clouds in the afternoon.
Almost no muggels observed us as they had other things to do than observing harmless geocachers.

Thanks to 'cs1111' for showing us this location and for the fun we had at 'Road to Home 5(helensville)'. The search we had here today didn't take too much time.
The logbook is completely full!

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

TFTC says H_M_A @ 19. November 2018 @ 12:05 Uhr @ [#12565](https://coord.info/GC440X2)

We were in the area with Merlot, so stopped to grab this one. We saw the cache on our approach to GZ, but had difficulties in opening up the cache to extract the log. Initially we tried various methods to open the cache, but were unsuccessful. Ants have set up home in the cache and soon we had ants crawling all over us. We retreated to get some lunch and various TOTT from the car. We returned to GZ and with a small bit of brute force we were finally successful in signing ourselves in for this one.

As it was such a nice day Jag50 and I headed to Helensville to get a few smileys. Our first attempts at gaining access to the log were unsuccessful, all we managed to do was upset the colony of ants that had taken up residence and they were soon crawling all over us. We decided to have lunch and return with some suitable tott and with sheer willing and a bit of brute force we were able to gain access. We replaced the wet log with a new one

Took a little while to work out how to open it, then I found that it had been turned into an ants nest. Knocked out as many as I could got absolutely covered in them in the process., and signed the log. The things we do TFTC

Needed a quick cache to feed the addiction. Got the idea pretty quickly but couldn't find the key to extracting the log and dismissed it. Returned after a fruitless search and this time met with success. Damp log unfortunately. Tftc

I started with searching a big obvious object, but I really didn't expect the cache to be there. It was just a wild shot as I was walking over.
I spotted something that probably should have been there, so I looked at it more carefully and found the cache. The log was a bit wet, but that is understandable. TFTC.

Took longer than should have. Clever hide.

Henderson - Mangawhai
Visiting family north of Auckland.
We stopped to find caches along the road, pulling up where we considered it safe.
Had to make a stop on the way to have a NZ famous Hokey Pokey ice cream.
We have a cache similar to this at home, always a good one. Favourite point given
Thanks for placing this cache cs1111

Parked right nearby, and hopped the small creek. Wasn't sure if I should or not, but closer investigation turned out to be the cache. Full of ants at the moment, but cheers for the clever hide,

Parked up and wandered across to take a look. Started on the wrong side initially but once I looked from the other side I saw something that looked a bit suspicious. Took a look up close and sure enough that looked like where a cache might be. Worked on it a bit and managed to extract the log without problem. Signed the log and replaced, all good here. No problems with ants or anything. Thanks for the cache.

Had previously found this cache but couldn't open it to get to the log. Saw that others had logged it so came back and quickly opened it and signed it as well. TFTC

One of unusual cache that I found. Indeed too many ants inside and lucky enough to use the bottom of the logbook to sign in because it is need new logbook. Interesting clever hide. TFTC

I knew I must be on the right track when I disturbed the ants! Clever hide! Log book is full. Thank you.

After caching around Kaukapakapa, time to gradually make my home, in a very roundabout way, via Hellensville. I pulled into here and wondered if the cache might be over 'there' sure enough, it was so that meant getting wet feet in my jandals getting to the cache. Didn't take me long to spot something out of place and soon had the cache in hand. Nice idea for a cache container cs1111. The log paper quite full, which I would have replaced if I had something appropriate. So since my pen refused to work on the wet paper, I scratched something that looked like Gorby. I have the foto I took of it if so required by the C.O. Funny now to see these gates go nowhere anymore. Must have been some kind of driveway where all the plants are now.

Nice find while touring around the area today.
Lots of ants around the cache. SL TFTC

I couldn't find it so along came husband and located it quickly. Pays to have another pair of eyes sometimes. Thank you. Great work.

#61 Coordinates were off but that became obvious pretty quickly. Tried a few spots with no luck. Went back to the suspect location and realised I had been doing it wrong! Clever hide, shouldn't have been as hard as I made it. TFTC!

Very good

Passing by this morning as I take the scenic route from A to B this morning. This one looked interesting so I stopped for a look. I parked up and made the short walk to GZ. The GPSr was pointing beyond the fence but I paid no mind as I spotted something of interest. Further inspection soon had the log sheet in had. Along with an explosion of ants. Nice effort on the camo here. Cheers for the cache placement!

Out and about caching instead of housework and gardening. Parked over the railway line and made the easy walk to gz. Noticed some fresh footprints in the muddy ditch and figured Lost Course had been here today as well (bumped into him at an earlier cache). Soon spotted something interesting. Kiwis stronger fingers came in use here. A big thanks to Lost Course for already removing the majority of the ants. TFTC

Fun find

Mr Patoto had a reunion in Makarau so made a 3 day weekend of it. I had planned to find 19 geocaches. Some on the way up and and rest on way back. #12. We had stopped on way up but as time was short couldn't look for long. Found an object that I thought might be but wasn't. On way home stopped again. Went around the back and found that there was no connection. Got Mr P to get it. Had to shake all the ants out. SL and he put back.

When back again and found it clever hide it was a bit Jammed and we had the wrong ant nest! They were every where

Could not find anywhere confused on how people were spotting it from the car?? We took about half an hour although found ant nest

Quick find thanks clever hide

Great hide, well done. TFTC

Soon had cache in hand. Thanks for the hide

Very nice hide. Spending a night nearby, so thought we'd do a spot of evening caching. Tftc

#10811. We stopped to find this one heading north. It didn't take me long to spot something "interesting" and the cache log was soon in hand. TFTC.

Today we are leaving Auckland after spending 3 weeks exploring and caching around the city and we are heading northwards, destination: Algies Bay.
We had passed this cache driving into Helensville from the north but as we were heading back this way after our whistle stop tour of the town, we decided the parking would be better from this direction. It didn't take StreetWalker long to track down the cache. Nice hide. Hard to sign the wet log book (even though it's write in the rain paper) so my signature is more gouged than written.
Just about lost a shoe in the muddy ditch on the way back. TFTC.

A little while ago an idea was thrown about to head north for a final caching roadtrip for the year. So along with C&D a rough plan was formed with a certain few caches, a confluence point visit, an event to attend, and the rest of the plan was to be made up as we went along. A later start this morning, but we'd achieved most of what we had wanted to do yesterday so a nice crusiey day today. Heading home the along way via Helensville to grab a few more caches.

Was able to jump the drain without getting the feet wet, and started the hunt. Something instantly looked out of place and after a bit of investigation the cache was found. Some great camo here, thanks for the hide.

Clever hide. Quickly spotted but a bunch of very annoyed ants needed evicting. TFTC!

Didnt find unfortunately.

(1583)Had time to target some road side caches on my way home from the mountain bike park. TFTC

Tricky hide and took a bit of effort to extract but got there in the end. Tftc.

Had been wanting to look for this for a while as have done lots of cs1111 caches and somehow haven't got up here to this one .......quite a few are really awesome , and this was no exception !
Fortunately have seen a similar one down country , so spotted this from the parked car !
Def Favourite thanks !!!!!

My first did not find. The weather and muggles didnt help. Try again another time!

Clever wee cache - loved it. Reading other cachers logs helped.

After a successful coupla hours travelling up the road to and around Helensville, I was disappointed to finish with this DNF.

quick find while in the area, saw the cache as walking up to area.

While mrs anz was floundering around trying not to get feet wet and general bush bashing. ..mr took one look at a set of construction specifications and point out that ut was all wrong for the purpose. . mrs anz had already seen it but had taken at the intended face value;)... on opening such a swam of cacher ants burst forth that the log was promptly dropped and all present stood about untill the log was safe to pick up. (Mr still recovering from workplace aquired itchy bites wanted noithing to do with any insecet...even if ants are no fear..)

Couldn't find this one...not in the obvious places looking at the other history....am told this area flooded recently so possibly washed away.

A belated log from last weekend. We were up from New Plymouth for the weekend to go to the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular, do some caching and visit my wife's sister. This morning we visited the Westfield mall, and were on our way back to Parakai when sister-in-law wanted to do some more cache hunting. I think she may have been bitten by the bug.

This looked like a really interesting one, so I told the driver to pull over and my wife and I got out and walked 150 metres back up the road to investigate while the others did a u-turn and followed us in the car.

We soon spotted the most likely place for the hide, and my wife did some checking at ground level to confirm it. This is a first for us, we've not seen one of these used before. Log signed and replaced.

Thanks for the hide, worth a favourite for the cleverness.

Soon spotted the cache but was a little challenge to find where the log was. Needed the strongest member of our team to find it. Great cache - thanks

Slowly the time of our 3 month road trip in New Zealand comes to an end and we had to return our car. In order not to arrive too fast in the hectic city, we tried to be "outside" as long as possible. Such a small cache along the route was just what we needed, especially since the weather was perfect. Luckily we didn't have to search here for long, so that we were not kept from returning for too long.

On our [trip around the world](http://www.hoppundweg.piekar.de/) we came to New Zealand as well. We first visited the south Island, then we came to the north island. We searched many caches and found almost every cache we searched for . Thanks to all the owners of these caches. Now, 2 years later, we recognized, we will never be able to log every cache seperately... So: Sorry for this standard logtext and thanks for one of the caches, which accompanied us on our journey.

This was a nice find to start of the caching day. It gets a favourite from me as it is different to your ordinary traditional cache. Log very wet though. TFTC

GPS had us about 8m from the cache. Eventually found after looking back through the logs and putting us in the right spot. The cache area is now shared with a colony of ants. Just so the next cachers are prepared. TFTC.

Found by Mr on second look! So obvious lol.

Searched but no luck ;-( need a clue

Heading back into Northshore where we were staying on holiday from the South Island - we were doing a few caches along the road as traffic dictated - pulled over for this one - a clever hide but silmilar to a cacher we are used to down south so quickly found - log signed with a smile - thanks for the cache

Tiki touring and making a round about way back to our accomadation and enjoying seeing some areas i had driven many years ago This sort of hide has been done by some of my local cachers where i live so was of no surprise to us but still a great hide TFTC

Found after too much searching unrelated things! I've seen one of these hides before and all the hints were there that should have confirmed to me that was the hide, but I just didn't investigate the basics early enough on. Never mind, I managed to find it in the end!

Thanks!