Auckland Stash (Auckland) Patumahoe, North Island, New Zealand
By nz_etrex on 25-Jun-00. Waypoint GC4B

I made a special trip from Auckland to find the oldest cache in the region. After geocaching for over a year and finding hundreds of caches in numerous countries I expected that this humungous bucket would be a doddle. But it was not to n\be, even though I got new glasses last year. How could I not see such a big bucket. I will be back.

Those new glasses, ask for a refund. They're no good for reading either!

It is a real pity that this cache is gone. Would have been the oldest one I ever found. I was really looking forward to find it on my visit to NZ in a week. Would have been nice to keep it alive, maybe move it a bit to a more suitable environment or have it adopted by another cacher... But that's not my decision.

Just spotted the demise of this cache. Many thanks to the CO and their supporters for keeping it alive for so long. Finding it was one of the highlights of a caching trip for me back in late 2009.

As of 31st May 2015 this cache was archived

Details will be posted of where it has moved to once they are known

The landowner says thank you for the chocolates to whomever dropped them off

They have also posted the intact logbook to me.
The comments have been amazing to read.

Is it possible to keep this one going in another location close by? Pity to lose one of the oldest in NZ

Info about the cache here.
http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=332152

THIS CACHE IS NO LONGER HERE.
I went to pick up last night to be able to relocate and it was already gone. I'm in contact with owner about relocating and setting up new page with link to this page. If you by chance picked up the Cache please contact the CO or me. Thanks

Muggled after 15 years!

We had planned to attend the Ardmore airshow this weekend and it seemed an opportune time to visit and log this cache before it was archived.

I was with my sons and we traveled down the quiet lane, taking care not to be too much of a disturbance. Arriving at the cache location we commenced our search for what we thought could be a tricky hide....

As it happens it was quite a doddle!

TFTC and the opportunity to add my name to the logbook before it was retired.

This entry was edited by SplattyNZ on Sunday, 31 May 2015 at 04:19:32 UTC.

A real shame to see this go, glad I grabbed this as my 1000th.

Just thinking out loud, due to the historic status of this cache, could it be more suitable for it to be moved to another safer location, and if need be, have a local CO adopt it, if the family no longer wish to maintain?

Thanks for keeping this cache going for so long, the stories it could tell, thanks for the memories.

When we saw this one was going, we changed our long weekend plans and got overnight accommodation in Pukekohe. Spent Saturday collecting caches in the area, choosing to leave this one until the last day of the month.
Quick find, would have been a park and grab except we lingered, read a few past logs and took photos, including one of the TB we have at present with the bucket, to add to its adventures.
I do hope the bucket was collected by the guardians as we left them chocolates as a thank you! We do want to thank them for having so much patience, they must think we are all nuts!
We would love to see this one continue, but if it changes position, will it still be the same cache?

Having already found Kevin Anderson's original cache on International Geocaching Day 2014 it was always on my agenda to also grab this one. With imminent archiving about to come into play, I decided last week, today had to be the day. It's only 350 km and a 6.5 hour drive from New Plymouth to get this one cache, but did grab a few high FP others along the way. All good fun, but such a momentous geocache must be honoured! TFTC but such a shame

Heard this was going to be archived while I was on holiday in England so made it a priority on my first weekend back to pick it up after having it on my watchlist for far too long. It's a long way from Onehunga for just one cache, but when I pulled up, there was Phronimos & co who'd driven from New Plymouth enjoying their packed lunches! Made a quick find of this golden oldie. Exchanged photos with Phronimos and replaced. Such a shame to see it going. Everything seems fine in the area to me and I'd have thought a polite request on the cache page not to climb on the nearby equipment would suffice, but that's not my decision of course! Thanks for maintaining for so long. Did wonder if I'd be LTF, but I suspect there'll be some visitors on Sunday too! Would award a fav point but seeing as it's going tomorrow, I'll just say that it was a privilege to visit this one!

This entry was edited by @McArgister on Saturday, 30 May 2015 at 21:33:09 UTC.

Some time this morning to discover the south of Auckland. A few specific caches are guiding my trip and this one is quite special as it's a very old one. No problem to find it and it's in perfect condition. The surroundings are very quiet and really nice. TFTC

Our good friends SteedandPeel made us aware of the iminant archiving of this historialy significant Geocache, we had been aware of it and had planned to make the journey north to find it but figured we had plenty of time....I mean its been there for 15 years if it was going to get muggled it would have been by now right? Its a bit sad that its time is comming to an end. We very nearly booked accomodation in Auckland and planned our whole holiday weekend around getting this cache but decided to keep to our original plans and instead undertake a the three hour round trip night mission to ensure our name was on the log before it was gone for good. The journey felt a little like a pilgramage of sorts. A huge thanks to the CO and family for keeping the cache alive for so long, the many visitors and favorite points are a testament to your dedication.

We've just heard about this one and that it is being archived, so we have changed our tentative long weekend plans to come up your way. Do you know when exactly it will go? We might do it on Saturday, but if Sunday was to be its last day, then we would do it on that auspicious day.

Late night pass by collecting my daughter from Uni for the long weekend. A special trip to grab before the 2nd oldest cache in NZ passes. Thanks for 15 years. Onemouse + 2mouse

This entry was edited by onemouse on Wednesday, 27 May 2015 at 21:58:21 UTC.

My 700th cache! I had to make a special trip and come and pick this one up before it was archived as it's a part of history. I was a little disappointed that the 'stash' had already been removed as I would love to have seen just what was in this! Nevermind, I got a smiley face on my map instead.

I had to enlist the help of merlot58 for this cache before it was archived as I couldn't get up to Auckland so the newest member of the Davidson Clan went along with merlot58 to sign the log.

Found ... I had this down on my watch list & was planning on doing it as my 1,000 cache on 25/06/15 ... still had few caches to do between now & then but that was the challenge I had set ... it also being the 15th Anniversay of the placement of the cache ... would have been quite a good series of milestones ... but sadly, with it due to be archived, there was no way I was going to miss out on doing the 2nd oldest cache in NZ ... so Mrs McMike2012 & I made a special trip out to do it today ... luckily for us, we arrived between showers ... easily located, signed & replaced ... TN:LN:SL ... TFTC ... #936 for us.

We had already found the oldest cache in NZ (Wellington) and when we heard that the oldest cache in Auckland was about to be archived we simply could not ignore the opportunity to sign the log book. On the most miserable weather wise Auckland day after all the kids sports had been cancelled we decided to head out for the trip. Thanks for bringing us here and Tftc

22/05/15 12:47 Find #1589
The oldest cache we have found. Made a special trip from JAFA land to nab this one before it goes. TFTC!!!!

It would be a real shame to lose a cache with a history almost all the way back to the beginning of geocaching. Surely there is someone in its vicinity who could 'adopt' it and keep it enabled. If I wasn't 600km away, I'd do it myself!

I have visited this cache 3 times since 2013, with rebel98, urbangypsynz and Gorby. It is sad to see that it is to be archived. Thank you for maintaining all this time.

As I wrote then, when I was planning our adventure down South, I did not realise its age, until I looked at the GC number when I was logging from home.

We last visited 3 weeks ago, a night mission on our way to Rave in the Cave, a diversion to this old cache just after dinner at Pukekohe. No lights on from any of the neighbours

Good memories and a large hide. What I want to know, who is going to claim the bake beans?

I'm sorry to see that this cache is being archived. We are traveling from the USA to NZ on June 25 and spending 4 weeks in NZ. I was planning on grabbing Auckland Stash soon after we landed. If there is anyway to extend the life of Auckland Stash until June 30, I would really appreciate it. It was one of the top caches on our geocaching list for our time in NZ. I know you have to set some deadline for this to happen but was hoping you might extend it by a month.

A busy day for this cacher today. On my list of things to do;
Visit Smash Palace (Horpito) and try and get two wheels for my caravan. Find some caches with unique (unfound by me) minutes of Southern degrees; S37 00, S38 25 etc (for a Manawatu Challenge cache requiring 400 of the blighters), find a few solved puzzles placed by COs whose user names begin with C, Q or Z and finally (a late addition on the spur of the moment) find the second oldest cache in N Z before it gets moved/archived. Mostly managed to achieve some or all of that and headed North for a few days in Auckland with work.
After all the F B talk decided to diivert off S H 1 and attempt this before it moves/is archived. A nice sized container and good hide. Usual story the minority spoiling it for the majority
Hope this cache stays, easily my oldest and top of my list now
T F T O C

Happy to sign this log, definitely the biggest cache I've seen. The beans were still in there! My cache buddy cleaned this out. tftc

Have picked up the beans etc will be back on the 1st of june to see if anything else has been left will then inform owner to archive it. Glad I got to visit this as only just started caching in feb. Tftc

At the end of May 2015 this cache will be removed

The cache owner has been living in London since 2002, and the family has been maintaining the cache for all to enjoy

Sadly the growing popularity is driving more traffic down the quiet country lane, and the stockyards (no longer used) could be dangerous to climb on

Can any visitors to the cache please remove all trackables and items before 31 May 2015 and send nz_etrex a message to let me know where they have gone

Please leave the logbook which will be collected and sent to me

Thank you all for your logs over the past 15 years!

Originally found with my partner Witchegurl.
Re-logging as speedhog62 so username is not in physical log.

TFTC!

Very happy to log this on geocaching's birthday (or there about). Well done to keep it going and in great condition for so long.

On our way to Auckland for a Grandson's 6th birthday, a meeting and

" A Geocaching Extrordinaire day. Special for a number of reasons.

1st: We managed to find the Bonus for the 52 Pick Up.

2nd: It's 15 Years of Geocaching celebration so we have earned our souvenir.

3rd: We found the only cache in Auckland placed in the Year 2000. This not only adds to our total finds but also qualify's us for nzkites's 15 Years of Geocaching Challenge. Yay. Another challenge under our belt.

Thanks nz etrex for an amazing cache. Fantastic that is has been there for so long. We left a TB because the cache was so special. Gets a FAV for longevity.

4th: We planned on getting the CANZ NI Semi Final.

This was find #1999.

Yaaah! The 2nd oldest cache in NZ, also being the oldest cache in Auckland. I was on my way to 'Rave in the Cave' 15 yrs of geocaching with some good friends rustynz and Rebel98. They had been to this cache way back in 9/2013, a long time time before I got into caching. While in Pukekohe for dinner (kebabs!) etc they bought me along to show me this huge cache. Couldn't really miss it! Thanks for keeping this one going.

A '15 Years of Geocaching' challenge cache popped up just outside of Tauranga (cheers nzkites) and required the finding of a cache placed in the year 2000! As there are only 2 in the North Island and the other is just outside of Wellington - this was the most practical choice. A road trip was called for and we were not disappointed. Amazing a cache of this size and age still up and running and some of the humorous contents gave me a smile as well (Oakes Baked Beans?!?! it's gotta be Watties ) Very happy to get this piece of NZ caching history, cheers nz etrex.

Gecko auf Reisen brought through for mileage, placed paint balls and bracelet - took non slip silicone tray.

A lovely day to find this cache, but it took a while because of a long detour due to a car accident -sad as two people died.

That's 4 found for the 'Old School Challenge - North Island (Wellington) GC325CX' cache; the second oldest still active geocache in the North Island.

I wasn't even first for Today haha

Easy find thanks!

Great to have found the 2nd oldest cache in NZ, with the Rellies who live nearby.

Great find and such an important cache being the oldest in Auckland. No TBs in here, log book was very dry and clean contents in bucket were a little damp loved the bake beans. TFTC. Fav point from me.

What an adventure. We drove for a while and thought we got lost. But cache found. Log sighed, picture taken. All as a part of "OLD SCHOOL CHALLENGE". TFTC

Big bucket

On our tour through New Zealand I visited many old caches. This one was as one of the oldest also on my list. It required a considerable detour from our way to Auckland. But I found this dinosaur of caches in really good condition. Thanks for keeping it alive.
TFTC #3167
Vroomfondel171

Last summer the idea was born to visit [Green]'New Zealand'[/Green], together with [url=http://coord.info/PR3NXJG][red]'MimiNemo'[/red][/url]
After some important decisions regarding the beginning of our trip, the flights, the general route and the car were made, the most important question was still unanswered: which caches can we visit during our tour [?]
To get an answer for this topic I was fetching almost every cache from both islands [8)][:X]
[url=http://coord.info/PR3NXJG][red]'MimiNemo'[/red][/url] and I love [Teal]'Geo-Arts'[/Teal]...so we added all these cache series to our wish list
After this decision was made this list was more than 300 puzzle caches long...unsolved puzzle caches
Two weeks before Christmas it was getting time to start solving all these mystery caches
Even with the different language I could find almost every solution
In the case I was not so successful I was contacting some of the CO's...and was always getting help from them...many thanks for this support [:X]

During the following weeks our cache list was growing and growing...meanwhile more than 1000 caches long...too long for a simple bookmark list from GC
Time to get our route and caches in sync...time to save the PQ's to our Garmins...time to start this holiday:

Chapter 24: [green]Thames[/green] to [red]Warkworth[/red]
After we could see the highlights of the [Navy]'Coromandel Peninsula'[/Navy] we had some caches with higher T-ratings and some older caches at our agenda [:X]

This very, very old cache was one of them

I would like to thank all the cache owners for showing us these great places and maintaining all these caches,
Dev46

Together with [url=http://coord.info/PR3BC8B][red]'Dev46'[/navy][/url][/red] I was on a 'sightseeing-tour' through lovely [Green]'New Zealand'[/Green]
During our great time we could see a lot of beautiful places and we also could find 'some' caches in the area...this was one them [:X]

Many thanks to all CO's for all these nice caches
MimiNemo

this one was a really cool find.

Number 1000! Wooo! It's taken a few years to get here, but nice to pass another milestone. Originally planned to make GC46 my 1000th, but a few issues got in my way given the 7s were on in Wellington a couple weekends ago meaning accomodation was booked out. Came up last weekend to get this, and ended up getting locked out of the car (door locks been an issue for a little while - it bit me in the ass) meaning I had to kick the window in (no cellphone reception - how convenient) after signing the log, definitely killed the mood a bit.

Nevertheless TFTC! Now I reached this milestone, I may need to place a cache in Hamilton as I mentioned before...

This entry was edited by Z-masterNZ on Sunday, 15 February 2015 at 03:10:18 UTC.

We love old caches and this was a good one - left Penguin traveller TB TFTC

Easy find. Ta

Took a lovely meandering countryside drive to find this oldie. For a very short period it will be our furthest find from home. J made friends with a small cow while D filled in the particulars. Dropped off a TB to start a journey.

We have been wanting to find this for ages and finally today was the day. Thanks for keeping this old girl going we enjoyed visiting the area. TFTC
There were no TB's in the cache.

This entry was edited by nzkites on Wednesday, 04 February 2015 at 15:51:43 UTC.

found quickly. no trackables

Wow this one is so old! Love exploring through everything

#361. The hardest thing about finding this cache was figuring out which rural roads to drive down to get there. Once at the GZ it was probably the easiest cache we have located. No need to climb over any fences. But great to see an icon cache from 2000 (one of 10 oldest in North Island). The cache was full of surprises and goodies. It had the most travelbugs we have ever scooped. Will liberate these at a host of caches over the next few weeks to set them on there way back home. We left behind one geocoin we found in Auckland. TFTC.

Took a TB (Lego Santa) to send on its way. Lived in this area for 21 years and never knew this road existed, thanks for taking us there.

Finding this old cache was a "must" on our travel in New Zealand. Pia had noticed, that it was published june 25th in 2000, and we didn`t have that year/month in our "cache-collection".

When we came to the place, it was no problem to locate the cache, and we could sign the logbook.

Thanks for maintaining this wonderful old cache. That deserves a favourite point [^].

We grabbed 2 TB`s, and insted we dropped 11 other TB`s. They are all in a TB-race with a special cache in Denmark as the goal. Please grab them and help them getting nearer this goal That would make the owners of the TB`s very happy .

Found this one in the early hours of this morning. Very easy find of the location but I made life difficult by following the instructions on the cache page which have changed. I loved the size of this cache and wish that i found more this size. Very good cache and highly impressive that it is still going after all these years. Signed log but didn't swap anything today.

Thanks for the cache.

Fence climb wasn't required for me. I hope the cache hasn't been moved from its intended location. Nice to find a cache that has been around for almost 15 years. Ultra large caches are great and get a favourite from me.

I was geocaching with Atapi. This was the number one of our list of sights to see in Auckland. A nice tranquil place. TFTC!

This was naturally one of our targets in Auckland and we headed directly here on the first possible moment. Always nice to find bits of geocaching history. TFTC and greetings from Finland!

TB in

Out and about in the area today, especially to visit this cache. We didn't realise until recently that there was such an old cache in Auckland. Quick find. +TB SL. TFTC.

Heading back to the North Shore from Hamilton, gave me a great opportunity to detour to find this cache. Working on a challenge that required me to find a cache that was published in 2000, thankfully this was in Auckland.
Did you ever think, when placing the cache, that it would become iconic and people 15 years later, would be excited to find it? TFTC

For this oldie we made a detour from Auckland to Thames. This one was on our list of caches we want to made during our holiday trip in New Zealand. We found them in the late afternoon. Cheers from Germany

Today hoped to find enough caches to reach 3300 finds. Falling short of goal today as we were beaten by the rain,dark and the number of repairs we have done.

7.55pm - This was on our radar to get today, helps to fill a blank in one of our challenges we are doing. SLTFTC

Gap (of Fap and Gap) and I are a long way from home... We are pushing into Franklin District today and looking for caches to put towards some Geocaching Challenges... We also hope to reach some personal milestones too...

The day turned out to be more of a rescue mission. So many caches we visited required maintenance or total replacement. The state of some caches and the frequency in which maintenance was carried out by us was quite alarming. Luckily, we came prepared.

We were pleased to find this oldie... This will happily go onto our JASMER Challenge list. It was interesting to see the cache contents for this one: a can of coke and baked beans. Thank you to whoever is keeping this maintained. TFTC.

This entry was edited by squirrel nutcase on Sunday, 21 December 2014 at 21:22:16 UTC.

On our way from Auckland to Coromandel, we have specially made a detour to find this cache.
Nice to see the original spirit of geocaching lives on here. TFTC

Last find on my NI trip. Just had to make the detour to find this piece of history. Very easy find - they sure did know how to make sizeable caches back in the day!

Found with stik-a-crane for on my birthday... had to pick up one cache to celebrate...
Plenty of treats here...

TFTC

We had been sitting on cache #399 for the past few days now and were trying to find a good cache to make it to 400 finds since 17/1/2014.
Today was also junior cachers birthday, and we were told of this old cache that was still going (this one) so it was decided to make this worthy of our 400th find.

TFTC.


Saw no sign of any trackables.....

When we arrived at the North Island, now 6 days ago we first visted the other oldie. And now it was time for this respectable old man. It was not hard to find the cache. After finding the cache we walked back to the car not far away from the cache. In our cv we were looking for a camp for the night and a man came to us and asked "are you lost?" When we told him that we were coming from the Netherlands an now were searching for a place for our cv he replied in dutch, that he could understand us a little because he left the Netherlands when he was 6 years old. And he was right, he understand us. He invited us to sleep in our cv on his land. And come to my home for a beer or a wine. So we did and we had a wonderful evening.
Regards, paroja from the Netherlands.
#8150, 16:30

Slight detour on way to Turangi to honour Auckland's oldest cache. Thanks forbkeeping this cache alive. TB taken

Was in the area with urbangypsynz who was visiting this old cache for the first time. Thought this would be a good place to leave Hüttenwerk Obereichstätt trackable as it has links to the Iron industry, and this cache hide is close to NZ steel at Glenbrook.

Driving past that close to an cache that old, I had to take the small detour on my way up north to find this cache!

Thanks for keeping such an old cache alive,
greetings from Germany

MissPerfect*

Found together with Josephinchen. Thank you very much for the cache!

#1033

Found it together with SL_Wayne during our amazing holidays here in New Zealand.
It is very nice to find one of the oldest caches in New Zealand
Thanks so much for the cache!!

Found our first trackable! yee ha! I believe this is quite rare! Was not expecting to find a jeep in a cache

This entry was edited by 1dogdog2 on Tuesday, 11 November 2014 at 03:00:09 UTC.

Tftc

Couldn't pass up the chance to visit this grandfather of a cache. its awesome that a cache of this size has lasted this long.

We took a slight detour off our route to pick up this really old cache. Wow, what a size!! TFTC [5224]

We went out with friends that had not geocached before. It was supposed to be for the kids to find but oh no mum found first! The kids took out a batman,the gloves, and put in angry birds ,loom bands and a cow book mark thanks for this awesome cache

This entry was edited by NZTravellers on Sunday, 05 October 2014 at 08:53:54 UTC.

As I stopped to consider the climb, I found the cache without going over anything. XNSL. TFTC.

Nice and easy.

Easy find

Nice easy find, log signed and returned where we found it.

This entry was edited by pricefamilyNZ on Sunday, 07 September 2014 at 08:28:34 UTC.

I needed this cache to complete a challenge cache, which I required to complete my D/T grid.
So, an overnight stay in Auckland was planned into my NZ trip, just for this cache and two challenge caches. It was great to do an old style cache with so much history. TFTC

Quite glad it was a very easy find as I was not dressed for caching today....took the tb to move on : )

Found on a winters day after having lunch at the Butcher shop Café nice to see such a huge container the largest so far in my caching experience & one of the oldest

Good easy cache

This was on our list of caches to find when we left Australia. We have not found a year 2000 cache so we were keen to find this one.
We spent a nice morning travelling around the lovely green countryside, so different from OZ.
The cache was quickly found & the log book signed. We left a TB & also our pathtag.
A favourite point given for this old one.
Thankyou nz etrex for placing this cache, its good to see that it is still active after all this time.

I was in Pukekohe overnight. This cache has been in my todo list for quite a while.

I twisted my ankle last night which has made walking today incredibly difficult, but being so close it would have been very rude not to have come out to this one today.

It's great to visit one of the old relics very happy to have found this one.

Nice to see the beans are still there too. Legend.

Find #609. Thanks for the cache. 9/08/2014 11:29

This venerable cache was top on the Auckland to-do list! So it's getting towards dusk, parked at the end of a country road near Patumahoe... whoever lives in that farmhouse has their own patch of Paradise here ... old lichened stockyards, a lovely patch of bush behind... a few steps over the grass and THERE IS IS! Time to stand in the golden evening sunlight, savouring the moment [^]. Wonderful that this cache (stash!) has kept going over 14 years now.

A spot of weekend caching in Auckland. Nice one.
This was something of a pilgrimage cache for us. We stayed nearby on Saturday evening and were delighted to be able to make the visit on Sunday.
Cache in order; log signed, safely re-hidden.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

Dank meiner Freundin konnte ich den oldie loggen.
Tftc

This was a must do while out here. My oldest cache to date. Here's to many more

A drive-in with the motorhome - this was the final highlight of our NZ tour. Thanks for keeping up this cache for all these years. Feels really special to visit this one. In: Titleist 3. Out: -.

I was not even born when this cache was set up. Great to have the opportunity to visit such a rare "elderly one". Passed here on the way from Waiuku to Auckland, enjoyed to visit this famous cache from the very beginnings of our beloved hobby. Thanks for keeping up the stash. No trade.

Wow, my oldest find so far! Thanks for keeping this one going, TFTC

This has been on my to do list for sometime but have never come to the area to be able to do it.
Today I had my chance and headed off after the Paintball game around the corner to make this my next cache. Nice quick drive down some back roads and off to find this ancient cache. Glad to see its still in action. I found it odd that the lid wasn't the correct type, but I suppose it works well enough.