Was that a Toot or a Tweet? Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand
By MadCat9 on 17-Aug-13. Waypoint GC4JTBM

The plan that was hatched quite a while ago when the Dunedin Mega was announced to come over to the South Island has been done and dusted.I have only been to New Zealand twice before and I loved the South Island.So a chance to come back for a Mega was a no brainer for me.Everything was booked and I flew in the Saturday 2 weeks ago before after a bit of a delay.So Day 16 has arrived and it is the day I have to say goodbye to such a beautiful country with such a wide range of scenery.I have had such a great time and throughly my time over here.The people I met have along the way been so friendly and the Mega was very well organised.There is such a wide range of caches to do and I managed to find a couple and as Arne once said I will be back.Just a couple of multis to do as Im chasing them for a challenge back home.Parked the Geohirecar and off I went.This was a lovely stroll through these gardens with a few waypoints that were nice and simple to work out.Only had to avoid one path due to some minor flooding.I couldnt afford to to get dirty or muddy as I have to go through border control.Soon had the coords for the final and after aother short stroll from the last waypoint the cache was soon located and signed. A fav goes out to you for this enjoyable multi in a lovely spot.MadCat9 and Jude_E TFTMC.

Quite a relaxing and enjoyable multistage cache. I really enjoyed taking my time through the gardens. Ive lived in Ilam for the last 3 months and hadnt realized this was here! This made for an awesome Sunday afternoon adventure. Thanks for sharing!

This was a lot of fun! I havent walked around here since I lived in Ilam apartments, 6 years ago when I first came to NZ. Thanks for the well-constructed multi.

We came today as it is the weekend for parking and we need a multi today for a challenge we are attempting. What a lovely walk we thoroughly enjoyed. Lots of bird song which we always enjoy. Nice and quiet like it was just for us. Still some autumn colours around. Thanks for setting this up and the cache Jude_E.

Had a mix up with waypoints but got there in the end. TFTC

This was a very cool walk in an area that I haven't been in before.TFTC

Good cache. For the 2nd time we forgot a pen! Hopefully we will return to sign the log. Logbook was damp but signable. TftC. #10.

I found myself very close to this one so decided to complete it too. I thoroughly enjoyed my wander around these paths, trees and quite gorgeous gardens. Made my wish everytime I crossed a bridge. I mucked up the counting at one Wpt but managed to recognise one of the others as I made my way round so a bit lucky to have my name in the logbook. Have a favourite for a very pleasant wander round a place I had never visited before. TFTC # 20,706

A lovely stroll around the gardens. Thought I knew this area well, but now I know it even better! Lots of groundsfolk working around, but managed to ignore them and find the cache in the end. It was slightly wet on the inside but not too bad - emptied it out. Was a really lovely day in late spring, and many of the flowers were still blooming! Tftc!!!

Nice afternoon for a wander around the gardens here, and with a nice simple multi to ponder on also. Lots of lovely spring flowers popping out of the ground nearby. Thanks for the cache.

Made some silly mistakes entering coordinates, and probably walked a lot further than I should have, still got there in the end. Cache in good condition; TFTC

I have come back to find stages of this multi cache for years. Thanks for introducing me to many locations around the ilam gardens. Find #823

This has been on my radar for a long time since it's close to where I work but time, energy and parking had never aligned before today.

After finally admitting defeat to my consecutive days caching streak after approximately 295 days (about 8 months) I had several days off caching but decided to end my busy work week with a nice walk and finding a cache.

This was a very pleasant multi, even on a dull day- found all the info with ease, just had a little trouble calculating the final due to confusing my math symbols

Container was holding some water, which I emptied but log is still in reasonable condition due to being WITR paper.
I have given a fav point for a well thought out multi and well hidden cache
Thanks!

What an awesome multi.

Managed to solve all waypoints first time so very happy - and a quick find at the final location.

#7047

BMMR recommended this multi, when we met them doing the sculpture trail. Yes, heading there, we have the waypoint questions printed out! Must be amazing when the azaleas are out, and a lovely wander at this time of year. Discovered the mosque murders memorial and olive tree... poignant. The final was an easy find. Thanks for showing us this Christchurch gem!

Beautiful morning for a multi. Got serenaded by a bellbird at waypoint #1, so lovely. A bit of confusion at some points, mainly due to people not listening and then trying to overcomplicate the counting... Doh! GPS all over the place, hint was helpful. Tftc!

This was our first geocache and we really enjoyed it! Lovely place to explore for our first one and met the fantail at the Bridge too!

Out and about in Christchurch.

Another multi in my bag. Didn't hear a thing.

Cheers for the cache.

A nice walk through the gardens on a windy day! All of the numbers were found without much trouble and a quick find at final! TFTC!

Found after finishing off some uni work today. WP3 took me longer than expected. Kept getting a checksum that.was off by one. Got there in the end! Tftc

17:05
Did the waypoints 1-2-3 some time back but calculating the Wp4 proved to be too much for me.
I had read the plaque wrong (it didn't help that the question had ambiguity to it, which the new CO has corrected since )
So my inital Wp4 still took me to a plausible location in the park but there were no brick structures nearby.

Today I was testing out my new ride and came to the recalculated Wp4, and lo and behold, there was a brick thing.

A quick data entry to get the final coords, and then just a (st)roll to the final. All good there!

OUT - Papageitaucher Moja TB

Kia ora! Paldies!
TFTC, MadCat9, adopted by Jude_E!
#9172

Chilly blustery cay so the area was fairly quiet. We enjoyed this multi iand the checksums at each stage was a bonus. i also enjoyed the location and appreciated the gardens and plantings - Most inspiring! Fav point from me.
I left a tb.

Well, after a walk around these wonderful gardens and collecting all these numbers we found the cache with an excellent hint. We didn't need the hints for the individual waypoints. We love the way the CO guided us all around the gardens and we were here at the perfect time of the year.

All the rhododendrons were flowering and some of the azaleas. The winter roses were also gorgeous in so many colours. Our favourites were green and deep purple. Our favourite rhododendrons were the red ones and we love the way many have had time to grow into trees. So spectacular!! and inspiring for our own gardens. We are giving this geocache a favourite for its location, its ease of following, the straightforward instructions but also the checksum so that you know at every stage that you have the right numbers. Well Done!!

During our walk, we found a lovely spot with a seat that was sheltered from the cool breeze so we returned there for our picnic lunch. There are some amazing large ducks and even saw ducklings. A perfect day on so many levels. Thank you.

A pleasant walk finding the various waypoints and the final was a quick find. I really needed this pleasant walk today and apart from the rugby playing nearby it was quite peaceful

Removed old wet logbook, rusty badge and a couple of others with rusting metal. Replaced with waterproof log. Took TB.

killing time before uni starts great little multi. Log book is damp

8 January 2022 14:24. Made this way, way harder than it should have been. Firstly, muggles near what I thought was stage 1, so I had to go away and come back again. Turned out they would not have been a problem... Secondly, I was having problems seeing my phone screen in the bright sunlight, so I didn't notice the word ROWS in one of the stage 2 questions, so no wonder things didn't make sense! Eventually the penny dropped and I was able to find stage 3. Stage 4 required a little guesswork as to circumferences, but again I was saved by the checksum. The final was eventually located, (and it is amazing how many other bushes I could imagine being the hint item), and I signed the log with a huge sense of relief! TFTC Jude, appreciate your keeping this going.

Second attempt at finding this cache, enjoyed the walk through the gardens and learning more about the area. TFTC

Our first multi-cache! Very fun, cheers

The building is pretty neat to walk around if one ever gets the chance.

After finding the cache we spent another hour exploring the corners of this garden and the uni proper.

I was forced to finish work early (what a shame, still paid for the full day!) so thought I'd get some geocaches. After finishing up what I needed to do for tomorrows trip up to Marlborough Tasman, I didn't have as much time as I hoped.. Anyway, the title got my attention, I was thinking this could be some type of chirp cache.. it wasn't but it looked like a fun one to do. Arriving at the first waypoint, I was pleasently surprised about the location, well worth a wander through... the flowers are looking nice!

A few students around, but I had no issues at the waypoints, and made for a quick find once I worked out where the final GZ was. Thanks for this, was well worth doing! Fav point for the hidden little gem in the city.

Great Cache!

We enjoyed our walk around, this is a beautiful place. Probably even better in Spring. We were doing good, until we messed up the last way point numbers. It was just because English is our second language, and we didn't different first and last name properly. With the CO help, we got the cords right and could finish this walk and hide. Both container and logbook were in good condition. Thanks for the cache.

Nice walk through Ilam Gardens. TFTC found with B.

Nice little tour around the gardens. Easy find.

Nice wee adventure to kick off the uni year. TFTC

Thank you!! Fun cache ️️ love these gardens, they are so nice to walk through.

The cache wording has been updated due to the original plaque going missing and the new one being slightly different. There should be no difficulty finding wp4 now. Cache was checked also.

Found

I found this one without doing the Multi. Well to be fair I went to all of the waypoints after I found the cache just for completeness. That spot just seemed the perfect place for a cache and I knew there was one hidden around here somewhere so I just put my hand in and there it was! Nice gardens, I walk around here reasonably often. Thanks

Was that a Toot or a Tweet? was transferred from MadCat9 to user Jude_E

Couldn't find waypoint 3. Found a likely candidate using the hint, but the plaque was missing (can see where it was).

Tftc

Nice little multi, done between rain showers. Thanks

Found at last. My coordinates were a bit off and I had been stubbornly coming back to the same spot a few times but not finding it. This time I had low expectations and was a bit more relaxed, and widened the search considerably and found a likely hint object. Bingo. At last. Easter holidays a good time for caching around here. Thanks to all cache owners for taking the time to place and maintain your caches. Team Broadbent (signed TB on micros). Find # 2087

Fun little multi around the gardens, only sight mishap on identifying coords for final stage but quickly realised with help from hint.

Visited this cache again and took the TB. Will travel to China then Japan tomorrow, gonna find a new home to for the TB there.

#0005
The design of puzzle and layout of the WPs are great. My FF on a multi cache. Thought MC means several caches in one place but seems like I'm wrong. Actually beside of the Uni Club it's first time I step into the woods on the side of the Ilam field, although I walk by that place everyday to school. I like the calculation and replacing numbers with digits as well. Nice design! The first three was easy as long as I got to the spot I immediately know what I'm looking for expect the forth one, as it took sometime for me to decide which tree is >5m and which ones are btw 2-5m. Got them wrong first, but corrected later. DO CHECK SUM, for anyone reading this. It's really important. Once the coords are corrected I headed to the final WP right after and after a brief search I was "Aha!", found it! TFTC!

PS: The seal of the container seems all good but there was some water leaking into it. Some of the swags are wet. The zipper bag for the logbook might have been damaged due to ages? Logbook is wet, might need a dry and a replacement for the zipbag. (Didn't carry any replacement with me then)

TFTC. A very nice family friendly cash!

Nice gardens to wander about.

A quick and easy find once I had wandered around the gardens a wee bit. Perect weather, not too hot, not too rainy.. Thanks

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

That was fun, thanks!

TFTC in a great spot.

Found together with Schlotte on a nice Father's day walk through Ilam gardens (despite the weather). Thanks for guiding us to the place!
TFTC Yaws

4 of found this on a cool winters afternoon. The puzzles were fun (though the last one was quite tricky..). Made for an enjoyable excursion, thanks!

(The container was very wet.)

Full log to come

I had collected the information over a couple of days and was saving this for a dot day as it was in walking distance to my Student accomodation while I was here. A nice place for a multi shame I am not here when the flowers are in bloom. I actually accidentally stumbled across one waypoint (well I hoped it was anyway) and did my calculation based on that, I was happy to find the container and no my detective work was spot on. Took the opportunity to drop of a "painted rock" that had come with me all the way from Taranaki, which is like geocaching but for kids and I had been searching for somewhere decent to drop it and this seemed like a great spot.

Good to be under the trees with it being warm. Mr & Mrs Beconaze and I completed this togeather, with me reading out the questions, Mr Beconaze in charge of maths, and Mrs Beconaze calling out the answers and double checking the maths (we may have made the odd mistake). Getting close to GZ, Mr Beconaze suggesting I read out the clue, and as he was closest - quickly found the cache. Now to walk back to where we are staying to head out for dinner

Just came back from Akaroa with friends and saw this multi not to far aware . Nice walk to this one with three of us. We made short work of this and soon had it all signed and replaced

Nice walk. No problem with any waypoints.

Found it on the only rainy day in months which made it much more fun.
Found together with Askarri.
TFTC!

13/11/2017 3:52:00 PM
8532
After work, - and well of course that means lets go caching time!!! So we decided to do a cache or two around the uni in this lovely weather.
And given the brother works at the uni, we called him to come join us. So him, mum & I, wondered around sorting this out.

This cache ended up being quite a tough one, as the coords were all over the place, and there was a lot of walking around in loops - and even between the 3 of us it was quite a struggle!!

In the end we got it, and with only just enough time to then get one more quick one before baby needed to be picked up from daycare!

TFTC!!

Early finish due to a physio appointment, and more time to cache! For this one and the next, we dragged the son along also, to get him some fresh air after the whole day in the office. Nice walk, TFTC!!

A second visit and a new understanding of * made all the difference to finding the smiley. A learning!

A nice walk through the gardens on a cold damp Sunday afternoon. Final was well hidden. TFTC

A nice afternoon to finally do this multi. These gardens are an asset to Christchurch. I used to live much closer to them than now and they were part of a regular walk I did. Thanks for bringing me back here.

Came back to finish this off after getting thwarted by muggles half way round on the previous attempt. Today it was quiet in the gardens and we had no trouble with the way points or final. Awesome multi, loved the questions and walk through here. Tipped some water out of cache, it was very damp. TFTC, favourite awarded.

I have no idea of how long I have been a member of, and going to the club, whilst aware that there was a cache lurking so nearby. I finally took the plunge, and went for a wander. After going back and forth several times, I finally had the cache in my hands - hopefully there not too much blood left on it - the mozzies at GZ are vicious, and opening and logging was a perfect opportunity for them to attack. I appreciated how well thought out the micro was too - although there was occasional ambiguous wording, the checksums alleviated any confusion. Thanks.

A beautiful day for a walk and lots of the flowers were still in bloom. We wandered around the waypoints and gathered all the necessary information to move on to the final. The cache was soon found and then we continued on our walk through the gardens. TFTC.

Loads of tooting and tweeting when I finally finished and got this multi this morning. This 1st day of November. Ahhhh this summer what will you bring?? Thank you MadCat9 for placing and maintaining Was that a Toot or a Tweet? geocache, from Mr Cuddly Brick Found on this awesome day the 1 November 2016, sweet cache number # 1516

Gave all likely hint objects a good going over

Checked on the cache today. It is still there but gps can vary a bit under tree cover. Try taking 2m off the south coords and 4m off the east if you have trouble. The hint object is very large and can't be missed.

Great cache - we were thoroughly enjoying our walk through the gardens answering the questions but got foiled at WP3 by muggles. The gardens were beautiful today, thanks for bringing us here! We will have to come back to complete this one.

I've probably walked through these gardens thousands of times and still I was finding parts I hadn't been yet. Lovely walk and a great challenge too

I had previously attempted this multi a few months ago, and go stuck at WP3... I can't remember how, or what went wrong back then, but today I had no issues finding all of the waypoints and the final. I didn't realise these walkways were even here! Going through them just after sunset was a bit interesting however, got quite dark amongst those trees quite quickly. TFTC (3142)

Been through this area dozens of times as a student, so was a helluva lotta fun going through as a multi. Nice work and nice hide!

A nice wee walk in the park after work. The failing light made finding the final a bit of a challenge, but the hint helped
TFTC

Anzac Day walk out in the sun. Had a great time in the leaves. Tftc

986, cool multi while out with my mate in chch, no TB in final TFTC

Chopping trees down couldn't get to Wp3

Checked on the cache today. Surrounding vegetation had grown since this cache was placed so now to avoid having to trample on the gardens I have relocated the cache a short distance away. The maths has been altered accordingly. Please cover up carefully.

I have been wanting to complete this for some time and I had a meeting at the nearby facility so today was the day. Although it was crisp the sunshine made the most of the bright flowers. Stunning spot there was even some evidence of future work on Rhodos with some propagation in evidence. A great walk and a stunning spot for a smilie. Found cache rather exposed and gave it a good cover up.

i had been wanting to do this cache for a while but hadn't found the time. today, i did! took a bit longer than half an hour because of taking photos and enjoying nature. as much as i love the cache, i feel it should be moved because you are having to go off the footpath and into the garden which isn't ideal. it would be better where you don't have to trample on beautiful plants to reach the cache. thank you for the find.

Very nice gardens, the sequence of stages gave us a nice walk tour around. Cache was exposed when found, tried to improve cover with very limited success. Thanks for the cache!

We enjoyed this multi, although we were a bit too early for the azaleas. So we have to come back and enjoy again this hidden treasure. We were surprised that hardly any water was in the river. But well done and a great multi. TFTC

Found it! Super multi and a fun trek around the park! Thanks for the effort.6

When I decided to visit the University of Canterbury for the first time to do some caching by night, I wasn't expecting this delightful spot. As I approached the first waypoint, I recalled watching Heavenly Creatures in 1994 and recognized the house as being the home of Juliet Hulme's family when her father was rector of Canterbury College.

Although the azaleas weren't in bloom (and it was dark!) I also recognized scenes from the movie filmed in these beautiful gardens.
Thank you for the most unexpected pleasure! I love exploring new places.

I had to fight an eight legged guardian to get to the cache, but I made it out alive. TFTC!

6 of 6 today. Had a very nice walk in the park - it may not be spring, but Autumn also has its beauty!

There was no fantail and there were no flowers, but it was a pleasant stroll around this part of the campus.
+ a marble, - nothing.

Though not the best time of the year we had a nice walk in the gardens and easily found our way to the final point. We left our calling card and swapped a leopard for a cat... Thanks for the cache.

Was such a nice day today that we decided that a walk through the bush with the newest womble was a good idea. Area was pretty much deserted which let use solve each waypoint without any issues. Very pleasant area, but we were too late to see all the spring blooms. Will come back an explore later in the year. Thanks for the cache.

Great multi and the rhododendrons were looking fabulous under the big trees. This park is a hidden gem. Left a geocoin to continue its travels

What a glorious day to toodle around and visit this spot. I was out with LaVista and we wandered around just enjoying the scenery. We met the groundsman who gave us some really interesting background to the area plus a few other anecdotes from his career. It just added to our morning's experience and was so enjoyable we'll probably be repeating our wander again soon, although not the finding of this cache because we found it this time . Absolutely stunning

Ilam Homestead holds special memories, lived nearby while children were young so knew that around Labour Weekend was great time to visit. Also been to Staff Club/Homestead for various functions and watched many cricket games at adjacent Ilam Fields.

This morning the garden was in full grandeur & all aflutter with tweets, toots & even cock-a-doodle-doodles ! Great to have a chat with the friendly gardener. Justmeg & I leisurely tottled along admiring the beautiful plants in between WPs, sometimes forgetting we were supposed to be looking out for the next WP ! Thanks for the checksums, came in useful on more than one occasion, otherwise we might still be wandering around.

.

Nice little multi. TFTC

Lovely and colourful at the moment

This was a lot of fun on a sunny day with twosharpe. Easy to find all the WP although we did need to ask a lovely young couple if we could take a photo of a plaque on the seat where they were sitting. I hope we didn't disturb anything romantic! Thanks for bringing us here.

Really enjoyed doing this multi with VictoriousOne. Have never explored this area much, and I think I now need to watch Heavenly Creatures again. Hope we didn't disturb the couple too much and ruin their moment

What a lovely garden away from the traffic. Lot of people out this lovely spring afternoon. Sadly a bit early I guess for the Rhodos to flower. Found the clues without much trouble, and onwards to the final WP. Stumbled around a bit looking for the right spot and the GPS was overly accurate under the tree canopy. Nice.