Mangapapa Campsite (Wanganui) Kirikau, North Island, New Zealand
By dvdhyt on 12-Jan-13. Waypoint GC4489D

Great spot to camp, the last 2 people don't appear to be in the log, but it is missing a pen, maybe that is why. Sorry I don't have a spare one.

Continuing in a generally southward direction travelling the Te Araroa trail, this time in a canoe rather than walking, today embarking from whakahoro and camping the night at John Coull hut. Along the way we stopped off to check out camp grounds and other curiosities as an excuse to get out of said canoe and rest buttocks. This was the first of many of these rest breaks.While others were munching away I ducked off into the bushes and after about 5 minutes scratching around found the cache.Thanks go to the cache owner dvdhyt for going to the effort of hiding a cache along the mighty whanganui River, its made the day more fun and memorable.-- This log is trackable ! ---- Feel free to discover ---- Please mention, in which cache you've seen this code: ---- 3TABQX --

Found! Lots of searching, wouldn’t have found it without the hint. Beautiful place for lunch.

Tftc

A stop off here on our 5 day Whanganui Journey. Quick find and all good here as well

Had a good hunt around but no cache to be found. Suspect it's maybe been taken or its hidden under growth

The young young’s couldn’t find this one early this morning, trying hard not to wake others camping nearby. Found the thing in the hint but not the cache. Hmmmm.

Great campsite, but it got so busy with a group that everyone else felt completely crowded out. Plus some of the entries in the campsite book were making me nervous - someone capsized on arrival, got dry, then capsized trying to leave and lost a few things Located the cache after explaining to a family stationed nearby why I am heading into the bushes near their site. TFTC!!

Probably the favourite campsite of the trip for us. Enjoyed a refreshing swim after a long paddle. GPS was not playing ball, so the hint was great!
T4TC, M@

Found on day 2 of our Whanganui River Journey, day 65 of our TA thru-hike. This has been such a fun and relaxing section of the trail (even if we're not on official trail right now). Found cache quickly with the hint, but a lot of small roots have grown around it and it was a bit of a puzzle to extract!

Our second day on the river and we found this gem. Obviously the terrain was a bit more overgrown than when placed, however the description and the hint held true and we soon ended up with a cache in hand. Now back on the river... TFTC

Found during hiking 3000 km long Te Araroa trail. Long path from Cape Reinga to Bluff. This section was amazing 8 days on the river. Thank you for a nice cache on the trail

found while on a canoe trip down the wanganui river with my son

This one took some finding due to the numerous overgrowth and trees across the said ditch. My advice would be approaching from the DOC sign then heading up the ditch... However the massive flood to occur the day after we found this may have washed the cache away completely???

to efrodo all this smiles from America are I wishing you good time.luck

This has been a trip that has been planned for a few weeks with the prime objective to Jet Boat down the Wanganui River from Taumarunui to Pipiriki on the Saturday after a night long drive through the north Taranaki county side collecting caches. On only 1 hours [:o)] sleep we were ready to tackle the River journey.

A call went out weeks ago and within 24 hours we had our crew together consisting of HKCB, iammrwalker, kyb3r, kiwis69 11HPG11, mike-miss, aplenmilch80 & RWIMF signed the log as "Team Jet" being escorted by Taumarunui Canoe & Jet Boat Hire. What started off as a foggy morning turned out into a beautiful day with sunshine (but not too bright) and no wind or rain. A great winters day to be had by all.

Setting out from the base we were given a safety lecture about provisions on the boat (we had more PLB's [^] than the driver) but once this was done we set off. Along the way we were given a most excellent history of the river, both the happenings and the people that once, and in some cases, still occupied the farms along the banks of the Wanganui.

The second stop along the river and we were already glad to be traveling by Jet Boat. Knowing that the river sceanry was only going to get better was a bonus to what we were learning about. It was a fantastic day, helped by the good weather, good company and a sense of adventure. Thanks for getting us down here to make the most of it
Thanks for the placement, Thanks for the cache.

C&D hatched a plan to Jet Boat down the Wanganui River from Taumarunui to Pipiriki to collect some caches. Said yes before I really knew what I was signing up for & then belatedly realised it was pure mid-winter madness. But it was brilliant fun & an amazing trip, despite the cold, in great company. Fantastic scenery and wonderful place to visit. So glad I got to join in

The second stop along the river & the next lot jumped out to find the cache ... thanks for the placement and the incentive for a great adventure! TFTC

Got the call up from Cats&Dragons a couple of months prior, wanting to know if we were keen for a mission down the Wanganui river to grab a bunch of T5 caches. Without hesitation the answer was YES, not even knowing when or how...

Well, Cats&Dragons has a reputation for well planned epic missions and this was no exception. Turned out that the plan was the middle of winter via jet boat with a great bunch of geocachers.

We headed down to Taumarunui the day before, taking a leisurely 7 hour drive from Auckland picking up 20+ geocaches on the way. A good nights sleep meant we were well prepared for todays upcoming mission.

An early start and a quick stop of coffee and snacks before heading to the start of todays adventures. We all came well prepared with warm clothing and emergency gear.

Our second stop for today and a couple of the team jumped out to take care of this one. A quick find here and signed as "Team Jet". TFTC!!

Kiwis69, 11hpg11 and I arrived the night before at the national park to be well rested for today’s phenomenal jetboat adventure organised by C&D. Rested we made our way this morning to the cafe to get treated with a hot coffee and to meet up with the crew of "Team JetBoat". Collectively we made our way to the starting point to sign our lives away. I was glad that I was wearing 3 layers of pants, 5 layers of tops, a balaclava mask and ski glasses when this midwinter madness started . We were seated in the jetboat and driven down to the water. We started surrounded by some fog which turned soon into a cold sunny winter day.

Next one on our list is the Mangapapa Campsite. Again, being at the front (tried to trade the seat with no luck, but hey you y'all missed out on a direct view flyiing through the landscape ) I jumped out as to find this one as well. The steps were very slippery and it was not easy to get up to GZ. Huffing and puffing we made the find after a while and signed the log TFTC

An exciting adventure a long time in the planning. THanks to Cats&Dragons for doing the leg work and booking a boat. We soon had the boat filled with willing and eager geocachers. Our Team today consisted of C&D, Alpenmilch80, Kiwis69, Kyb3r, Iammrwalker, HKCB, RWIMF, Mike-Miss and myself and we signed logs as Team Jet. Our Jet boat guide was a great guy and gave us lots of interesting historical information about the area.

Decided to jump out and have a search for this one to give the legs a stretch. It was at this point I realised how hard it was to walk when you are wearing about 500 layers of clothes. I felt like a Michelin man trying to make my way up the steps but I managed to huff my way up to the camp site and after rereading the hint we soon found GZ and had the cache in hand.

I found this geocache in the company of a bunch of Hamilton and Auckland Geocachers. We were together thanks to Cats&Dragons who had organised another one of his infamous Geocaching ‘missions’. The goal was to pick up a bunch of T5 caches along the Wanganui river via speedboat. HKCB, Kyb3r and I met at his place after work on Friday night and headed out into the night taking the kind of detours only an overachieving Geocacher can appreciate on our way to Tamaranui where we met up with the rest of the group early the next morning. Once the fog had cleared, we were blessed with a brisk clear winter’s day. I have been lucky enough to have been down the river BC (Before Caching) but that was a far more sedate affair compared to this fantastic trip. A huge thanks to the Speedboat company who were so accommodating for us and to Cats&Dragons for the great idea and fantastic organization.

Our second stop, the exit point was pretty slippery but managed to clamber up to GZ safely. Thanks for providing us with the motivation to go on such a great trip.

This trip down the Whanganui River has been something I've wanted to do ever since I saw the caches along here years ago. Today was finally the day, along with 9 others to tackle this mighty river, however we did pick a sightly easier mode of transport that has a lot more ponies than a paddle.

After a bit of an all nighter to take the long way to the start point, the lack of sleep wasn't dampening our spirits as we geared up for the day, with multiple layers, hats and gloves. A small delay in our initial start time was needed to for the morning fog to lift before we hit the river. The first half of the day entailed learning a little about the river, and stopping at a few campsites along the way, before having lunch at John Coull hut, then heading a bit further down the river to stretch the legs at the bridge to nowhere, before making the last run to Pipiriki via a couple more caches of course.

This trip was amazing and we couldn't of asked for nicer weather for mid winter. A big thanks to the Ronnie and co. for looking after us on this trip, I would highly recommend them to anyone else wishing to jet boat down this river. We signed the logs as "Team Jetboat", thanks for the placements so we could do this trip.

Glad I stayed in the boat for this one as it looked like hard work getting up to the campsite in all that gear. However it wasn't long until they had all returned with smilies on their faces, so the rest of the cavalry wasn't needed to hunt out this cache.

When Cats & Dragons suggested Jet boating down the Wanganui river, it took me about 30 seconds thought to be able to say "sure!", next question being "when?" "middle of winter was the reply - we can get a discount" came the reply. Obviously a few swear words went through my head at this time, before I started working through logistics, although all I said was "ok, I'm in!". And in I was. What a cool group of people we had with us as we did this adventure! I'd been working over in the Naki the previous few days, so meet the group in a local café in Taumarunui before we all headed for the Jet Boating company.

Travelling down the river in winter? Happy to be wearing thermals and my rain coat as a wind barrier As we reached this cache it was time for the next group to jump out of the jet boat and do the search. And then we were off again.

Really liking that we are doing a 5 day kayak in one by going by Jetboat!

Found it during our 3 day Wanganui Journey. We started this first day with lovely weather and nice paddling hours. Of course we couldn't go past a cache without an attempt. Box wasn't really hidden, I put it back according to the hint.
TFTC!

The big journey is going on. After Thailand, we get to New Zealand. directly on the second day (still a bit jet lagged) we've been put in canoe on the river. With some other boots we started. Since I'd like to have this cache, we stopped here. It was our look, because heavy rain shower came down. I could find this cache (it is fine) and we stayed more or less dry.

TFTC

On a three day kyaking trip with tregearP and sjt_nz we got to the landing gear spot and it was not an easy place to exit getting in and out of these things takes a bit of practice.

A quick find with Jojo&Dobby (well sans Dobby as its a National Park) and TregearP thanks to the description. Cunningly placed as this location was muggle central during what we have been told is the busiest day of the year on the river, yet it is not far from a great photo spot and easy to disappear into the bush unobserved and be nicely concealed to complete formalities.

All in good order, TNLNSL, TFTC.

A challenging landing, first of a 3 day kayak & cache jolly with SJT_NZ & Jojo&dobby, TFTC

Found it with "FrenchSuperTrampNiko" on our travel around NZ:)
TFTC!

Needed the hint big time. Paddling the river with friends and family. TFTC

606 2nd campsite on our Whanganui Paddle. Cache all good.

It seems I forgot to log this cache, which we - Silli1310 and me - found during our trip at the Wanganui River. We choose the stressfree tour and paddle 4 days along the river. Met a lot of people and two geocachers from Germany too. Especially the canyon and the bridge to nowhere were quite amazing. At the last time we enjoyed the rapids. It was a funny time on the river. Thanks a lot for the cache.

We started the "Great Walk" Wanganui today in Whakahoro. Because we wanted to find some caches during the 3 days, we had to search for all of them at the river... this was the first one and we found it.

Nearly didn't stop to find this one... Because of the description saying it was disabled... Only the call of nature really made us do so... But pleased we did because the cache is safe and sound and in really good nick...
Thanks for the cache...

Second night here. Nice weather all 5 days. TFTC

Found it on our journey at the Whanganui River it was a great experience to be out in the jungle for three days just we the kanu some caches and a lot of Rapid's thanks for placing the cache

This one we could also easy found on our canou trip. We grounded yesterday, but today we are try, and the weather is great

Found with MAKESHlFT, on the 5 day trip from Cherry grove to Pipiriki. Our second night along this river paddle, turned up in the pouring rain, had a good time finding this one in the wet and then taking shelter in the food shelter with the rats and 6 other lads along for a reunion. TFTC, enjoyed watching one of the lads launching the kayak off the shelf into the river to get moving to our next port of call.

Once we had finally made it up the slippery steps in the persistent rain, with bruised bums and not much dry stuff, it was a relief to have an easy find on this one. And the sun was even shining the next day. Tftc.

On our first kayakday easily found. TFTC

Cache found with my friend rock_dassie during our canoe trip on the Whaganui river.

Found on Christmas during the Whanganui Journey
Thank you!

no trade

liberatus_ from Austria!
#81
#1776

Found it with Kaikawaka, whilst paddling from Taumaranui to Pipiriki. Reviewing my photos made me realise that I had forgot to log all the caches for the trip! Thanks for the Geo-distraction ;0)

Another easy find with the help of the hint. We had the campsite to ourselves, and were pleased to be well away from roads now that we'd passed Whakahoro. Thanks for the cache.

The first on our Whanganui river journey... We had a great weather today!
TFTC

Have been planning our trip down the Whanganui for months and as part of any holiday planning process, a look at local caches was done. When new caches appeared at each of the camp sites we were staying I couldnt believe my luck. As the time of the trip approached and they remained untouched. Would I get some FTF's. A couple of days before leaving home I checked again and was disappointed to see they had been found. Oh well its still a smiley for each anyway. 5 days on the river in sea kayaks with the Nelson Canoe Club was an awesome experience and finding the caches was an extra bonus. Thanks for taking the time to place them here

A video of our day on the river finding these great new caches can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Ew_99PpU8

A plan was put together to use a jet boat departing from Pipiriki and heading towards Taumarunui in an attempt to find the several new caches planted in the campsites along the way. The party consisted of myself (Ros of Rosmar) FMZ, Lostcourse, mitsimadman, Greenblat and CreedyNZ.
Once the jetboat found a spot to pull in, the party all headed towards GZ for a quick find. No other campers at this site today so our 3rd find on the trip was reasonably quick. TFTC.

Found together with FMZ, Rosmar, CreedyNZ, Lostcourse, Mitsimadman on our meandering cruise up the Whanganui River.

Had camped here about 14 years ago. Back then it had started raining heavily overnight and we got up in the dark to haul the canoes higher. Just as well we did as the river was almost up to the wooden steps in the morning. Another group hadn't moved their canoes which had then dissapeared. All good today though, in fact too little water in the river if anything. T4TC

I noted these new caches a few weeks back and suggested to FMZ that we go find them. I mean, talk about the perfect excuse to head down to Whanganui National Park. In conjunction with Mitsimadman we talked through the various options to reach each cache over a single weekend visit. Ultimately, because of the serene location we decided to follow Darryl Kerrigan "So much serenity" and charter a jet boat. Rosmar, Greenblat and CreedyNZ were soon added to the team.

FMZ allowed us to stop here on our way up the river, even though the FTF had already gone on this one, and there was still a FTF up for grabs! Personal growth? Anyway, I spotted this cache immediately on approach to GZ. I hope that it was only a water trench I was standing in to retrieve the cache... Cheers for this series of hides!

A few weeks ago, it was brought to my attention by Lostcourse that there were some unfound caches in campsites along the Whanganui River. Having been fascinated by the river and the national park ever since I did a study on it at school the year it was created, I was very keen to see if we could visit these caches. I've always wanted to kayak down the river, but couldn't find or justify the time to do it (probably 5 days to do it properly, all the way from Taumarunui), so we started to discuss other options.

We discussed using mitsimadman's boat for some of the caches, and other means of getting to others. It was a possibility, but not a good one as his boat was not ideally suited to such a river, and it still would have taken us 2+ days to complete. So then I started looking into guided motorised access, and came across a few enterprises that could potentially help us out - one of which was extremely helpful, and ultimately became our means of transport - a big-block Chev powered jetboat equipped with a 10mm steel plate hull to take on those pesky shallow rapids. Without the time available to take on these caches by canoe/kayak, a jetboat is definitely the (adrenalin filled) way to go here.

We put the invite out to some other typically adventurous souls and ended up with a keen group consisting of myself, Lostcourse, mitsimadman, rosmar, Greenblat and CreedyNZ.

The plan was to get in the boat at Pipiriki or Taumarunui and head one way along the river to pick up all of the cache finds, but this was changed to a Pipiriki-Poukaria and return, because of there not having been any rain for quite some time and the river being very low. Later we also found out that the Kururau Krusher race was on around Taumarunui anyway, so there would have a been a whole bunch of people on the river getting in our way!

... Continued from http://coord.info/GC448B3

After FTF success at Mangawaiiti, we continued on our jetboat trip up river, encountering more canoes and kayaks along the way. We had to put the foot down and go pretty quick up some of the rapids, which made for an exhilerating trip. Awesome trip.

We knew the FTF had gone on this cache, but opted to stop for it on the trip up the river instead of on the way back. Personal growth perhaps, but I think we all had some personal growth on this trip .

Another great cache and this one was spotted super quickly on arrival at the campsite. Another great cache along the river and another favourite. TFTC!!!

Continued on http://coord.info/GC4488H ...

The epic jet boat tour continues on and another great campsite, TFTC.

Third on our Whanganui River adventure with FMZ, Rosmar, GreenBlat, Lostcourse, Mitsimadman.

Fantastic day to be on the River.

No FTF honours for this one though.

TFTC

wow, a cache in the middle of nowhere - lunch braek at canoe tour down the whanganui river. I'm the first? #217

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