Menzies Ford (Manawatu) Feilding, North Island, New Zealand
By spudnz on 23-Apr-13. Waypoint GC4AEYM

An afternoon trip north for Dad and the kids BBQ and a few caches.Quick find & extraction of this lonely cache with my Swiss TotT

Thanks spudnz for the tricky puzzle... it was nice to take a walk here today with Phil and get this signed
Thanks also to watcache for his maintenance and replacement log.
This hide style is so cool I'm awarding it a favourite point
TNLNSL TFTC +FP

I enjoyed the puzzle. The sequence is one I am familiar with. Found the cache and had the tool I suspected was needed. No problems with cache. TFTC

A day trip up to the Manawatu today to keep the numbers ticking over. Located the cache ok and had what was needed as well. TFTC

It's been an interesting day of geocaching today, complete with three 'failed to be fast enough' to be first to find, one successful first to find, four did not finds, twenty two successful finds, multiple 'can I help you's as I was searching, and a dead car battery with the rescue coming from a fellow Geocacher (it is so much easier to tell someone where you are stranded when you only have to give a GC code).

This was my eleventh cache of the day, and the scene of my car failure. The cache puzzle I had solved some time ago, and so called by on a whim to collect this as I drove past. I'm kinda glad I did as it meant I was parked safely in the ample available car park. I went off with my pal Philip (actually a suitable substitute was used) and signed the cache log, all good there.

On returning to my car however, I got the 'tic-tic-tic' of death as I tried to start it. A few phone calls later, and I was ready for a two hour wait for the roadside rescue person to turn up, when I got a timely message from TwigNZ, who it turned out was in the area only 20 minutes away. Geocacher to the rescue (not the first time), and I was straight off to Repco for a new battery (ok, we did actually stop for one cache along the way, but I left the car running).

Thanks to the CO for placing and maintaining this cache.

I enjoy each and every cache I find, and it is only with CO's placing them and taking care of them that this wonderful game continues.

visited this guy a couple of weeks ago as we were passing and one of phillps close cousins had wandered off and the lid was compromised so have sorted a replacement and added a new log.

Came here wiith watcache as he had been out this way doing maintenance on some of his other cachers so he worked out what he needed to fix this one.

Having had a brilliant day yesterday ushering in Daylight Saving for this year, I had today off work to be able to attend an event in Palmy and also to go out and find a reasonable number of caches to fulfill my personal goal of finding X caches every single month. I've pretty much cached out my immediate locale so I'm having to go further and further afield to find caches, so found myself in Feilding for a few hours.

This cache had me flummoxed for quite a while. I just couldn't see how to solve it. And then I was at a social gathering and was talking about this strange looking code and a muggle took one look at it and said "oh I know what that is", and suddenly my path to a solution was clear.

No issues at all finding this one at GZ. I was also feeling pleased with myself that I had read the hint and was going to be ably assisted by Philip, only to find that Phil's assistance is no longer needed at GZ. No issues with the log, which was signed and everything replaced as found.

Thanks for placing this cache. I have to give it a FP simply for the simple elegance of the puzzle, and that I leaned something form it

Spotted from a decent way out and a pretty quick extraction, sign and return job completed.

Nice easy find. Quite a clever hide. TFTC!

Good job we’d seen one similar recently as it made it easier to spot. Nice little area and nice to have somewhere to park after a few busy narrow back country roads! TFTC

Took a little time to get the spot and with the help of a trusted tool scored the log thanks for the placement and TFTC

An earlier visit failed to find the cache as the co-ords plonked me out in the middle of the field. Once back home I reread the logs and info and returned with the hint item and quickly located the cache. The log was soon signed and cap replaced. Tftc and puzzle.

With KR. Ooh ants! Tftc

A nice quick find thanks. An ant colony has taken over the container!!

Ms_KR and I are on our annual pilgrimage to Auckland for a family Christmas. Today we cruised around the Manawatu.

Thanks to all CO's for publishing and maintaining their caches. Cheers.

I solved this ages ago...I remember it tsking quite a while to figue out and solve..but I enjoy maths so was eager to solve...today's mission was to complete the task...but oh no Philip did not have the answer...its been philliped too many times even other types were reluctant to assist ..finally the log was obtained and signed thanks for the puzzle cache spudnz

Wow another place worthy of a cache. The actual cache hide is great, but the screws are very rusty. I really enjoyed the puzzle a I love numbers and maths. Thanks for the puzzle and cache spudnz

A very nice place

Found at 7 September 2020 6:44 am.

I'm on a two-day geocaching roadtrip, logging my finds as I go (where possible). Will expand when I get home. TFTC

Slow cross country journey to Whanganui for work. Caching today in Ashhurst and on to Fielding. Solved by Mrs Rubbishparty. The advantages of being married to a maths teacher. Quick find. Thanks

Hunting some caches after the event in PN today.
Container quickly located and log signed tm/ww NZ

Menzies Ford (Manawatu) was transferred from spudnz to user watcache

Having found one cache today to keep my streak going, and one DNF; I still need another geocache to achieve my goal of at least 3 finds throughout the year for the 366 day grid.
Having solved this one "years ago", time to convert it. All good here. TFTC

Spent a bit of time on the puzzle but got there in the end. First attempt at GZ was thwarted by muggles but another visit and no one! Quick find on arrival. TFTC.

What a lovely spot for a swim, a family was enjoying themselves down in the river. Cheers, the ants were all over it.

**12,349**
Noticed a solved puzzle on the map so made sure to add it to the tally on our way home.
What a cool cache container, Phillip seems not to be needed anymore.
The family of ants were a little upset that i open up the container, scurrying away as i signed the log.
Nice wee park near GZ, a guy was enjoying a beer or 2 as his dogs happily ran around and came over and said hi.

This puzzle was solved a long time ago in the hope that it would be found "one day". That day turned out to be today. Thanks for the puzzle and the cache .

We were driving along and I spotted this solved puzzle on the map so we came to find it. The ants have moved in and weren't too happy about being disturbed.... and I was still swatting them off my arm as we were driving away. TFTC # 14,922

I had solved this some time ago and today , as i had an anointment in Feilding i thought i would visit this puzzle cache and a couple of others i had also solve. There were a couple of camper vans enjoying the spot to have there lunch at the nearest table but they were so engrossed with their picnic they did not seem to notice me.
Thank you for this cache and another smiley face.

Out for a day's caching around the backblocks of the Manawatu, mainly picking up the SHIELD series and a few other nearby caches. A total of 7 hours 15min to find the SHIELD series and a few others in between.

All in all, a great day out with SAROC and Yeetrees.
TFTC spudnz

Today was “SHIELD” day. Yeetrees, -gonefishing- and I were heading up to attempt the SHIELD series of caches on the back roads of Manawatu. It was an early start (5.35am) out of Wellington. After over 7 hours of caching we achieved the series plus a few more. My personal tally for the day – 117 finds. Thankyou to all the CO’s of the caches found.
Apologies for the generic logging.

A FP given here as the cache is name is a family name. Cache quickly spotted, had the eye in from doing 100+ caches today

Had a few solved puzzles to pick up on the way home so planned our route home to optimize which ones we could pick up. Always good to pick up a solved puzzle so thanks for the cache placement

Found 4.30pm
Day one of our Manawatu Road Trip.
Decided to aim for caches we had missed on our last 2 trips.
Caches spread over a large area but managed to get most of our target.
Sorry but as our cache collect was big, paste and copy had to be our option.
Thanks to the CO's for all these cache placements. SLTFTC

A couple of days with Squirrel nutcase and FapandGap our mission to get a few caches i think we succeeded . Tired once home though as usual when I venture out with these guys.
Tftc

With Gap (of Fap and Gap), and Mr Davidson (Davidson clan)... The weather was much improved, and it looked like we were heading for a cracker day. Our cache planning took on a bit of form as we spied a rather large 'S.H.I.E.L.D' on the horizon... We decided to skirt around the geoart today, and visit any hides still on the geomap. All logs were signed with our first name initial - BGH...

Gap spied this puzzle while scouring the geomap. We tried to solve it and cleared the first step. But our maths wasn't advanced enough to progress beyond. We decided to have a look around and see what we could see. We split up and went in separate directions. That's odd... TFTP and TFTC.

On a caching trip to the Manawatu as I had to get out and get some fresh air after being in the office all week. Started off in Ashhurst and made my way west to Feilding. A quick find in a nicely created container. TFTC

(find # 4193)

Managed to solve this cache a while back and had it on my list to find, today was the day that I needed a cache while I was in the area and I knew approximately where it was as I had driven pass here a few times while in the area picking up a few other caches.

Arriving near GZ, I managed to finding a parking spot under some trees as it was very hot and I wanted some shade for the car while I made my way to GZ. The walk to GZ was quite nice with the heat from the mid afternoon sun, as I near GZ I soon spotted the cache and was about to use my trusty tool when I noticed that the parts were rusted and entry to the log was a lot easier than I thought would be.

Managed to retrieve the logbook and signed it, then replaced it back as found, thanks for placing this cache here and for bringing me to this spot and for the nice puzzle, TFTC TNLNSL (12835)

Solved puzzle some time ago,, found while in Feilding on Sunday morning. Thanks spudnz for this puzzle cache

We often drive past Menzies Ford during our trips away in Barnaby, as this is a favourite route for us to get from home near Upper Hutt to join SH1 at Vinegar Hill, going via the Rimutaka Hill and Woodville. We can't stand the dredafully boring section of SH1 from Plimmerton to Sanson, especially the oh-so-slow bit through Paraparaumu and Waikanae and the Akatarawa Road is far too narrow to make traversing it in Barnaby anything but a highly stressful journey. We'd never stopped here though. On a few recent trips we'd seen work going on at the nearby rest area and had decided we'd stop off here for our lunch break on our way home today. Having stopped I checked out to see if there was a cache here. Well, there was a Mystery cache symbol showing nearby so it seemed a good chance that the final would be nearby as well: too good a place NOT to have a cache, so obviously we needed to solve the puzzle over lunch. Oh good, a maths puzzle, I like them.

Well, it wasn't like any 'next entry in the sequence' puzzle I've done before, that's for sure. We spent a while mulling over a few options that didn't work and I just couldn't see the pattern. But then I mused out loud to Mrs B that it looked like it had to be either 'A' or 'B' and as the words left my mouth I realised that idea 'B' just might work. It is always exciting when your guess pans out and we had verified that I was right in about 30 seconds and another minute later had the next three entries in the sequence written down. Then it required some number crunching. Mrs B was both surprised and annoyed to discover that the calculator on her 'smart' phone wasn't equipped with a memory function, so we switched to the one on my iPad to work out all the numbers (the right base to use was pretty obvious) and do the divisions. After plugging the resulting co-ordinates into the Garmin they seemed so likely to be right that we never bothered to use Geocheck, I just headed off on foot to get to GZ. On my way I also guessed what the hint would be referring to, and given what previous log entries had said I'd come equipped with my Swiss Army knife. However, at GZ I quickly found that getting into the cache to extract the log no longer needs an implement of any kind, though obviously it once did. The cache itself is a nice bit of camo, have seen a few like this on our travels. Log is nice and dry too.

Then it was back to Barnaby. Mrs B had finished washing up and we headed on our way. Many thanks spudnz for an enjoyable lunchtime challenge, giving this one a FP for puzzle as well as the hide.

Having just run the Map compare tool with Scoria I have discovered that there were a few caches that we found on our outings that for some reason I failed to log on the day.

28-Jan-17 headed over to fielding with Scoria for some afternoon caching. Picked up “Who you going to call”, “Hitchmans corner”, “Heading out of Fielding”, then while heading back home “Ohakea Plane Spotters” and “Historic Putiki”.

This one was a bonus as Scoria had already picked this one up a couple of weeks earlier and since we were at Hitchmans, we detoured down to grab this one at the same time.

Back dating the log to the find date to keep it above board. Sorry about the lateness of the logging.

Over in Fielding today to look at a horse. That being done, decided to tick off a couple more solved mysteries.
Pretty sure I've been at this location before but it doesn't feel quite right, are they all starting to look the same?

Anyway, I didn't understand the hint until I spotted the cache, then it became clear and i had the answer at hand.

Cheers

After walking the Tongariro Crossing with daughter and son-in-law and seeing them off on their next leg of the Te Araroa Trail, we are spending a few days caching in the Manawatu area. Having spent a second night in our camper at the Ashhurst Domain, we headed for Fielding today to find the multitude of puzzle caches that have been published there over the last couple of years.
An interesting maths puzzle that we managed to sort out without too much difficulty. Parked up at Menzies Ford and made the short walk to the cache, carrying our little toolkit. Quickly spied the camo, and with the help of our friend Philip we soon had the log in our hands. Nice camo, thanks for this one. Nice to know we could have overnighted here in our camper, but we still have a few more puzzle caches to find.

I had solved this one quite a long time ago and had been waiting for an opportunity to come here. Spotted the out of place object immediately. No problems accessing the log, I had my trusty swiss army knife in my pocket and that provided exactly what I needed. Signed log, TFTC

On road trip from HB. Needed a tool for this one so back to the car for just the right thing. TFTC

Worked out the puzzle and tried to collect cache yesterday but didn't have the required tool. Came back today with the tool to find the gate closed but it was a quick walk down to GZ and easy grab. TFTC

nice and easy find at ground zero all in good order, the puzzle tested my maths skills , sorted the first stage received a hint from a previous finder (thank-you) still took a bit to get my head around it. FTF for 2016. tftc

well solving the puzzle took quite a few months, the first part was done and then i was too chicken to message the placer for a clue - put i finally did and quickly got the help i needed. On arrival to GZ we looked around in the general area for a bit but once i saw the cache container i was pretty sure that was where he cache was as i have seen a hide like this once before. Quickly had log in hand. Thanks ever so much for the puzzle and placement.

#6505. A nice drive along the entire length of Colyton Road today. Had solved the interesting puzzle while spending the ANZAC Day weekend in the Manawatu. GZ was all quiet when we visited. Quick find. Very nice hide. The cache was in good condition. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log. Thanks for the puzzle and cache.

This was another good puzzle to solve. I had no idea what the hint meant until I arrived at ground zero. A walk back to my car was needed before I could complete my mission.

Very clever indeed. The puzzle eas incredibly hard. Deserves a favourite!

Solved a while back and in the region to be able to complete the paperwork. TFTC, #6881

Nice hide. Tftc.
Tricky code.

Checked on this cache after the events in Kimbolton. Replaced the log.

Today's mission was a good one; 50 caches, getting my bronze CITO and FTF Addict badges, moving from bronze to silver in both the Mysterious Cacher and Social Cacher badges and going up a belt! And, probably most importantly, becoming part of team FASTA which, along our travels, took part in probably one of the largest unplanned cache convergences this region has ever seen.
Having seen this one puzzle a few times with no idea of how to solve it I'd left it. Then it became a cache and I thought I should probably solve it... no joy. Then the CO was nice enough to drive us past it at the end of our mission so I thought I should probably solve it finally prior to logging it and found it to be kind of easier than expected while also a little tougher.

This was a bit of a tricky puzzle but with some help from the CO I had the co-ordinates and managed to make it almost a park and grab. Really cool hide, and I love puzzles which puzzle me

Hah, arrived at GZ and realised it was a very familiar location, checked the logbook and sure enough I had already found this one back on the 9 February I wonder how many more caches I have forgotten to log? probably in the thousands

Enjoyed the puzzle (both times) and the location (again), many thanks spudnz

I've had this one solved for a while and looking back at it now I can't remember how I managed to get the answer but there it is in my saved notes. The cache was quickly located, retrieval took a bit longer as I wasn't fully prepared. SL, TNLN. Plastic is a little cracked on one side.

Found this one during our month long campervan/"Road trip" vacation in New Zealand. It was a wonderful experience driving around this beaurtiful country.

This one was found on a day driving from Koitiata to Raumati beach

Thanks to spudnz.

Our find # 11824

Found on 8-1-14 TFTC

arrived just before lunch thinking it would be quiet here on a weekday, but there were a couple of cars here & a motorcyclist turned up soon afterward. Seemed like a dodgy meeting between him & one of the cars
Found the cache easily, making sure we stayed out of sight of the muggles, & managed to complete the formalities & return it without any problems.
I can see why this would be a popular swimming place in the summer. TFTC

#6628. A Friday afternoon was a good time to do this cache. We had the place to ourselves and had no trouble finding the cache, it getting in to it. TFTC.

This cache ticks all the boxes, nice puzzle, nice location and a nice hide. We brought our tool with us and it didn't take long to track down and open.
Plastic is a little cracked, hope that it won't affect the hide. TFTC.

Nice quick find on location Im pretty thankful I read the comments tftc!

I got it after using scissors as I didn't have a screw driver

found it with a friend, used scissors to get it open, a very clever cache nicely disguised in something I would never have thought to look in.

Took three tries to finally get it, and once going over previous logs i realized i knew exactly where it was and had already looked and thought....no....so 3rd time lucky a reasonably quick sign of the log book after waiting for some muggles to leave. Definitely a favourite! Thanks

A MEGA Adventure

Both Nova Lightning and myself had set ourselves caching targets that we were hoping to meet in time for the NZMEGA in a few weeks. So with a plan in progress and fuel in the tank away we set.
Departed home at 6pm Friday, returned home 3.30pm Monday, 7 hours sleep approx 470 caches and a great adventure.

Thanks to all those that have placed caches especially Skindo as I think we gave his caches a bit of a nudge

Thanks for a great weekend of Caching and Bull.

Mega Weekend

It all started about a month ago when Cats&Dragons brought up the idea of heading down the line to collect 350+ caches. We both had targets that we wanted to meet before attending the NZ Mega. Plans and locations were drawn up and puzzles were begun to be solved. It took me a while to get my head around a few of the puzzles and with the help of a cacher I was soon on a roll.

The weekend finally came and we departed Hamilton at 6pm on a Friday night. 3days, 2,000km, & 11hrs sleep, later 472 caches collected. Thanks to all those who's caches I found especially Skindo with a huge number laid.

Nice quick find while out caching with TuisReturn.
Took a while for me to work out the puzzle for final location but good find once there.

SL TFTC

A good find with tmann421 while caching around the area.

TFTC

After a Gibbs style slap-to-the-base-of-the-head from tS and a little bit of excel work (because I was too lazy to work out each of the numbers individually), I finally got a green geocheck tick!
Yay!

Found with the Seagnoid who had solved this puzzle. I haven't yet but I offered to drive him from Palmy to collect another souvenir, which he agreed to.
We walked towards his green-ticked GZ and saw the mechanism peeking round the corner at us. Quick find, but I agree with AdvCol that mention should be made in the description that a tool should be required. I see that there is an attribute, but my GPSr doesn't download attributes... thankfully tS had a trusty Swiss Army knife on him.
-TB

I just can't get the puzzle to balance My South portion calculates to 8 digits with 20 decimal point digits (but I assume it should be only 3 whole digits?) and my East portion calculates to 6 digits (and 20 decimal point digits)
Further discussions with tS are required I think!

Busy day today, to Etherlord and I decided to tackle a close cache for the 18 August souvenir, and to extend my streak to 37 days!! Woo hoo! .
At GZ there were some kids practising skills on a little motorbike. They saw us but soon ignored us (I hope). However there were some spiked guardians at the cache and Etherlord ripped his nice jacket

I solved this puzzle many weeks ago and I was waiting patiently for the next time I was in the area to hunt down the cache and finally today was the day but it didn't go quite the way I planned.

The cache container was easily located but I couldn't get into it. What the @#$%? I re-read the description to find out if I was missing anything but couldn't find any extra info on how to get into the cache. I read the hint and now the CO decides to tell me I need a tool to get access to this cache.....information that would've been slightly useful a bit earlier......damn.

A bit puzzled and not wanting to leave without signing the log I tried everything and anything and to my surprise I had an unlikely tool.....my car keys......and after the first couple of keys not helping I soon struck gold with one of my little keys and I soon had one of the screws off. You beauty!

Unfortunately it didn't work on the other screw as it was a different type of screw (of course). Enter the most unlikely tool ever. I managed to unscrew the second screw by using my 4 1/2 year olds pink hairclip that she had left in the car.....I know, I'm just as amazed as you are that it actually worked!

Almost rolling around laughing that I managed to get into this cache with a key and a pink hairclip I signed the log and reflected on what was a truly bizarre caching adventure.

The CO might want to rethink about when they are telling cachers crucial information. Getting to GZ and realizing you need something that you have a million of at home but none with you to access this cache was a real disappointment, especially when you spend the time and energy working out the co ords in the first place and also knowing it will most likely be many weeks until I'm in this area again.

Luckily things worked out for me.......this time.

TFTP +FP

Had solved this puzzle shortly after it was published but hadn't had a chance to head out this way to visit the GZ. Not much company here in the winter, although a cockerel and two hens watched me come and go from a safe distance. Soon spotted the cache, but then realised that I didn't have the required tool with me. However by a stroke of good luck I did have another versatile device of Swiss origin that did the job. Interesting puzzle and cache, thanks spudnz!

A quick early morning find in the pouring rain TFTC spudnz

With some help from the CO, doing the puzzle, (thankz heapz!) and some more help from Mr Google, Rachel solved this one, ready for the RiffRaff Team to complete. Mrs RiffRaff had to ask Grandad RiffRaff if he'd seen Phillip, which he had - Phillip did indeed have the answer. Reminiscent of a Firewoof cache in Wangas. SL TFTC

Checked on the cache this afternoon. All seems OK. Dropped off Zoinks The Zany Zebra trackable.

My first puzzle cache solved all by myself! I am not Mathematically inclined, so anything involving numbers gets put to one side. Took me ages to be honest - got halfway through, then didn't know what to do with the numbers. But more studying of instructions and a hunt for an online tool, got me there in the end and feeling a bit chuffed when I got the green tick first time. A new spot for our family and a very cool cache indeed. TFTC I have given you one of my very last favourite points.

11314... Great spot for a cache, brought me mate Philip along to help us out. Cool puzzle, enjoyed the solve, TFTC.

Collected today on a caching expedition with edvern and this proved a good spot for our picnic lunch. Mrs g had solved the puzzle a while ago - good to have one within her capabilities! A clever hide - Phillip's help was definitely required. Earns a favourite. TFTC

Needed a nudge to solve the puzzle but a quick and accurate find followed
Thanks for another Feilding puzzle cache spudnz

Thanks to help from markhnz and marisaandkaleb we solved the puzzle and came to get it today -
Thanks for the puzzle cache

Great find in the morning with no muggles around with setucurist. Thanks for the cache

Published

FTF with W.E.K.A.
Had no problems with the puzzle. It was quite fun.
Spotted the cache straight away when we got to GZ.
It's good that the cache has the "special tool required" attribute, but maybe it should be mentioned in the cache description as well, otherwise I am sure some people will arrive unprepared.
Nice hide.
Thanks.

FTF with markhnz at 8.00 p.m. An interesting location to drive into in the dark. We hadn’t had time to read the attributes, but had read the hint, so were prepared for the type of cache, which was a quick easy find. We didn't need to worry about the puzzle, as markhnz had solved it before we even saw it, however we have done a similar one previously, so it would have been straightforward. TFTC