Weta Motel (Nelson) Richmond, South Island, New Zealand
By bumandworker on 22-Jan-13. Waypoint GC44T1W

No my day. Will return another time.

Finally ... 4th time lucky. My first attempt back in 2014 I spent ages searching and all I found was a possum hanging from a trap, Id walked around the side of the tree and it was less than a meter from my face giving me a hell of a fright. Second time was a month later after a visit from the CO so I knew it was still there. I'd just found Big Timber which I'd also DNF'd on my first attempt so had high hopes but still nothing. Last year I came back with Nanzie and her geomut Rosie, Nanzie found the track too slippery so stopped about 150 meters back up the and waited for me. Today it was just Rosie and I, I'd contacted a previous finder who had given me a good hint so armed with that we walked straight up to the correct tree. Turns out it was the tree that I had focused my first 2 visits on closer to the creek than where the GPS was pointing last year which was further up the track. I am so pleased to finally get rid of that blue frown off the map. Thanks for placing the cache bumandworker

#11870

Found on Saturday 22 Jan.
Actually second visit to this cache. Came with my brother Team_Gaters the previous weekend. We took the “this doesn’t look like a proper track” track. Thankfully we all made it to GZ with no one falling down the side of the hill and breaking a bone. Didn’t log my visit…doh…so had to plan a return visit. Came back on the 22nd and followed the sensible “proper track”. Great adventure. TFTC.

Time for a wee family summers holiday; Kaikoura, Picton and Nelson.
After Kaikoura and Picton, time to head for Nelson. Staying with family and they were all keen for another walk up this track.....after knocking off 'Big Timber' a couple years ago I had this one in site as we DNFd it way back in 2015 when we approached the track from the top!
Certainly some work gone in to a new and improved track; kids disappointed not to be following the stream any more!.....approached final GZ the hard way following the trap line which starts just past Big Timber. Kids all enjoyed it, not sure that my sister did though! Having reached GZ a concerted search soon enough had the cache in hand. Yay. Not sure how it was missed it last time! SIs not keen to go back the way we had come so we followed the blue markers back out...and it was a well marked, easy path back....hmmm. Not sure why we didn't go that way in?! Ah well. At the creek crossing head up hill following the blue tags - if you keep on the low path you end up where we did & eventually following the trap line - which is fun, but the blue tags is an easy path to GZ! Nice to finally tick this one off. Thanks!

Andy went out for a bike ride this morning and when he got home he suggested that we go grab the Reservoir Creek caches this afternoon. Yeah right, I thought - go and get some 4/4 caches during the hottest part of the day. Anyway, being the dutiful caching partner that I am, we had an earlyish lunch, packed up our gear and headed to Richmond. It was hot just getting out of the car, but we headed off up the track, following signs and hoping we were going in the right direction.

After our success at Big Timber, we carried on up the track a wee bit to where it seemed to peter out. A scout around and a trap line was spotted so we started following that as it headed up the creek and in the general direction we wanted to go. Andy was well ahead of me as I have issues seeing in this type of terrain, but I saw bushes wavering ahead of me signalling where I needed to go. Eventually I heard Andy yelling instructions to make my way downhill to the creek and by the time I reached it he had been up the creek, found another track and come back to get me. A bit of a helping hand here and there and he soon got me up to the track. Ahh, this is easier going. We trudged on for a wee while, then Andy stopped and said 'around here somewhere'. We spread out and started checking anything that could be hiding a cache, knowing we could be looking a while due to the previous couple of logs. After only 15-20 minutes Andy called out that he had found it, buried well and truly under leaf litter, but he had dug deep. Log book signed and cache replaced almost as found - not quite so much leaf litter on top now. Time to head onward and upward. tftc

Second visit here today. Spent a good 25 minutes looking around the large Ngaio which seem to be a favourite for Wetas and then wider afield as the reception wasn't too flash.

If passing it would be worth checking but then again it might just be alluding me.

Having had success at Big Timber I had high hopes here but after an hour of searching what felt like every tree I had to admit defeat again. Now having reread every log I know the one I was sure had to be hiding the prize was wrong but still none the wiser where it could be. The CO has been twice since I last came here, I'm sure that the cache is still there just in that one place I didn't look. I will be back, may need a chat with the CO before then

checked cache

I made my way along the track from [Reservoir Waterfall](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC44T1K_reservoir-waterfall-nelson?guid=0409a17d-9c16-4781-a412-9e6f09b76aa9). Very glad the ropes were there to assure me I was on the track and to keep me from plummeting down the ravine. The footing was loose and along the track I slipped more than once. The GPS was a bit more reliable (+/-10 m). Using the hint, I searched the obvious location thoroughly, up and down, above, below, inside and out. No luck. I found the Weta Hotel (vacant) to make sure I was on the right track. I went back and searched again, but no luck.

On to [Big Timber](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC44T9K_big-timber-nelson).

Went on a big adventure with Wafflekitties and geo pups, had a blast thanks for the memories! TFTC.

(Sorry for late log)
Found while on a winter holiday with LCBuilder and our two geodogs. We spent 3 weeks travelling down the east coast and then up the west coast, setting our tent up at a different campsite each night. We didn't have any real plan, just went where the caches took us we saw a lot of awesome sights and will definitely have to come back one day as 3 weeks isn't really that long!
Finally made it to Sunny Nelson, definitely one of my favourite places.

This was one of our more memorable days, we spend the entire day up on these hills going from cache to cache. Beautiful day for it, we were all exhausted by the end (or even before the end), I don't think the dogs moved another muscle all night once we were home..

Continued upwards with SAFCman after finding "Big Timber" and eventually located a Weta Motel, which had a guest in residence. Problem was we eventually figured out that it wasn't the Weta Motel mentioned in the description!! After a regroup we decided to backtrack and pick up an earlier trail. Ten minutes later I spotted another Weta Motel and from there, SAFCman's phone app suggested we weren't too far away from the GZ. We spotted something which looked a possible location and after a brief circumnavigation came up trumps with another well deserved joint find and smilie. Worth a favourite purely for the adventure getting here!! Thanks once again BW!!

I couldn't find this when I last came up Reservoir Creek at the beginning of the year. With the cache recently replaced and found, I thought it was a great opportunity to have another go. A bit of rain overnight made the track a little slippery - wouldn't want to be coming down from the top, but going up was ok. Had no trouble following the track to here, though further up I lost it a few times and had to back track. There seem to be a lot more possum bait stations and traps around than last time.

The cache was a quick find today in the first place I looked. Cache in excellent condition.

I later came down the hill via the Elevator mountain bike track. When there were breaks in the cloud, I had great views over the creek and valley - really interesting to see from above where the track went. And the volume of the bird noise rising from the valley was quite astounding - really impressive!

#597
+FP. TFTC.

#9273. With the cache freshly replaced, I thought I'd take the chance to find it before we get much autumn rain (in case the terrain rating then goes up). After battling up the creek bed on Tuesday, I thought I'd try what looked like a track on the true left. That 'track' petered out about 100m short of GZ. The bush bash required wasn't too bad, though there was an interesting wee gully with a big log sitting in it. After getting over the log, I paused for a drink, and got a close up view of a curious weka. I picked up the real track at the weta motel, where there were a couple of a weta in residence. Once I got to GZ I was very pleased to find the cache in the first place I looked; many thanks for replacing it. I then followed the proper track downstream, which pretty soon crossed to the true right of the stream, and ended up getting back down to the bottom of the valley just past where I had crossed the stream and taken the wrong track. There is a track marker directing you up to the left; I should have taken more notice of it! TFTC.

Two active Weta in residence.
Hide still intact but no cache. GPS (60Cx) said 4m.
At 2m another tree is the replacement.

Thought I'd have an afternoon walk looking for a few caches in non-Troodle-friendly terrain. I missed the track somewhere, and was in the creek bed for the last coupld of hundred metres (that proved to be interesting in places). In hindsight, maybe I should have persevered with a track on the true left (we had a look at it recently, but it seemed to be going straight up the hillside). I had a decent search over quite a wide area but had no luck. Given the poor reception and steep terrain, a more explicit hint would be much appreciated! With no finds (and 4 DNFs) in over a year, it's probably worth an owner check.

Third DNF on this track today! As recommended, used the hint; there was only one obvious big tree in the vicinity of where the GPSr was pointing, but according to Marchwood's log this isn't the right one. Found nothing in any of the other trees I searched .

In Richmond for a wee family holiday. Was planning on coming up here yesterday but heavy rain prevented that! Today dawned lovely, and our last day in Richmond before heading home to Christchurch, so we decided to leave Nana and grandand in charge of the wee dudes and head up the hill early. Decided on the steep direct route up! Having gained the LookOut we then looked for a way down....and we choose Reservoir creek. Not sure that that was a wise choice, lots of rain yesterday made it very wet and slippery. Took a couple goes to get the right elevation to gain entrance, once found we headed down the "track" - Searched and searched & tried to make sense of the hint & logs but couldn't find the cache. GPSwas circling & there are a lotof trees - big and small. Weta motel occupied - cool. Another day perhaps - although the track was pretty knarley. Cheers.

Found the weta motel but GPS was useless with accuracy 20-50 meters. I'll be back to try again

Straight forward enough and close to where the gps led me.

Site had not been visited for 10 months, but all is well.

Weta motel was well occupied - interesting, but not inclined to join them!

TFTC

I've had a few goes at this cach due to the poor gps cover in the end lots of searching worked.The weta motel was put up a few years ago when we started the trap line.

A good trip up here, with one of the local geocachers who maintains this trapline.
[The wire netting is to protect a red rata growing up the tree]

Coming down the hill we had to pass Papa tree and Mama tree before the GPS finally took us to teenage tree where we made the find. Interesting contraption of wire netting around Papa tree. Couldn't work out what it was trying to accomplish. Must have walked right past the Hotel. Never saw it. Could have done with a pint by now too.
TFTC

Not the first place I looked or the second but got thier in the end

Found without too much hunting but depended on the hint not our GPS which was swinging around all over the place.

Several possibilities with this cache as our GPS wouldn't settle. Didn't take too long to find cache at the second chosen spot.

Sadly i have to log the 1st DNF! Found the motel but looked for ages in so many spots and decided to give up. Found what i thought the hint was referring to but there was nothing there. Great location though, absolutely love the palms around here!!!!

Very very very relieved to find this one eventually. I was all over the place with this one. Not sure if I spotted the weta hotel or not but I did find a desiccated possum attached to a trap on a tree. Running out of alternatives I finally struck the cache. TFTC, Biggles.

motel well labelled...you will know it when you see it.

no weta's around today
good one
thank you for the cache.

Well we found the weta motel no trouble and the one resident was still in there. Enjoyed that aspect of the trip. As for finding the cache that was an exercise in utter frustration. It was only the motivation of not wanting to have to come back here that meant we searched every spot matching the hint in a 30m radius. Finally Mr KE struck the right one. Phew.

#6670

The hint made total sense - once the cache was found. At that stage Mrs SoBad's GPS also decided that GZ was there - having decided it was in all sorts of other places first. She was some m from the site when the welcome call was heard. Pleased that the SIS was out for this one.
Neat afternoon scrambling along - although the terrain was about to be lifted.
Thanks.

What a wonderful walk!!!! Not the kind I would find myself on were there not caches for the finding - but its amazing what you can do when there are prizes on offer. We spent some time taking the hint rather too literally, but, well, we got there in the end, and then reflected on exactly what the hint was referring to. TFTC Oh and, we never did find the weta hide, but having nailed the primary focus of our search, we decided to move on.

Disappointed not to find the weta hotel so I could have a look as I like those sort of things. And I did backtrack looking for it (mainly to give another idea where to search for the cache) but in the end the "got it" call distracted me and then we continued onwards and upwards. TFTC #4475

Finally I found one!! Though there was a bit of searching on the wrong tree first!! TFTC

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