Mega Event Puzzle (Auckland) Auckland, North Island, New Zealand
By kiwicouple on 24-Oct-13. Waypoint GC4QR4M

**21,912**Not sure why Mr Geckoh was having such a hard time locating this cache. Mrs Geckoh found it in the second place she looked, of course she did have to have a 'girls look' - glad to have this puzzle cache ticked off. TFTPC

I noticed last night that this cache had finally been replaced, so I solved the puzzle again in case the coordinates had changed slightly. This morning before visiting the big yellow supermarket I sneaked in here, following what might or might not have been a bit of a geotrail. After sticking my fingers in a couple of likely places and finding leaf litter and a spider (luckily nothing worse) I found a more likely spot and an obvious cache.And so after 3 and a bit years I have finally found the last of the Mega puzzles, just in time for the Dunedin Mega and whatever they have to throw at us (GeohoundandI keeps giving me hints of what is to come).

A new cache is now in place in a slightly different spot. The hint has been updated.

Came by today , I have gut feeling about this one . 3 years since a find .

No finds for 3 years , messaged the owners a number of times , they have been driving past it over the weekend - it is taking up space for a cache I want to place - can someone sort please .

I was really impressed when I solved this puzzle, it was one of the first ones I had solved. I had a quick look for it sometime ago but had the geohound with me, and he was more interested in eating everything he could find and tying his lead around trees. Several other attempts at looking for it were also thwarted when the carpark ended up as a Covid testing centre, and then as a carnival.
Finally this week thought it was time to collect some more solved puzzles, and as this was one of the closest (and could be combined with a trip to the yellow supermarket) off we went. Directed Daddypig to what I remembered being the closest parking space, and looked in dismay. There was standing water on a slope, a massive mound of mud and sod, although no idea where it had been dug up from, and the "path" where I had entered the bush last time was no longer visible. Tried to get around the swamp but the whole area was much more suitable to "sending Rafajaw in". Even tried standing back to see if we could spot the host from the hint but couldn't even spot that tree.
Oh well, we might have to try again when the rain has finally dried up!

Wanted to see if I could get 3 from 3 on this set of puzzles so came here after finding the others. A little bush bashing got me to what I think was a likely spot, couldn't find the cache but seemed like several places it could be so I will be back to have another try. Fun puzzle to solve though!

great to tick this older puzzle cache off.
had work not to far away today and when squirrel nutcase suggested we should go and find this one thought lets go. manuka had almost grown around container and took a bit to free.
log all good.
our last cache for a very big weekend.
tftc

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)... Chasing down the last few PWGT caches for Section Tahi. We’re whipping through Northland this weekend at a cracking pace. No time to enjoy the scenery or smell the roses - it’s a pity...

We were at the Auckland Mega when this puzzle was published. However, we were way too newbie to solve this then. In fact, it took a couple of years to solve for us, and then we put it aside... Gap’s work brought us into nearby Coatsville and this cache appeared on the geomap. Let’s go and finally deal to it.

The terrain at ground zone was rough but navigable. We spotted the host from a distance and Gap had the cache out on arrival. A nice way to complete a great weekend. Thanks kiwicouple. TFTP and TFTC.

Things must have grown a lot since the cache was placed since getting to GZ was quite challenging.
I have difficulty identifying trees, so I spent too much time at the wrong one before I decided to try another. TFTC.

Decided to have a day cacheing day just out of Auckland
With EyespyBen and KGD
Solved the puzzle sometime ago.Great to pick up the Final

A day out in the Suppa City with KGD and ABCDF4 to tidy a
few caches in the area, thanks to the Cos for the placements

The last of this trio to sign off today. Quite a bush bash in bush/scrub but it wasn't long before it was found and signed. Felt very satisfying to get the smilely faces on these thanks kiwicouple. TFTC # 16,141

On a geocaching expedition from Nelson. Way back in February Isis58, no.13 and I planned a trip to Auckland for the planned Mega event. When Covid struck and the country went into lockdown we decided to wait and see what happened - - that was less hassle than trying to get refunds on our flights anyway. Well, of course the Mega event was cancelled but luckily for us, flying was an option again by Labour Weekend. We changed some of the details of our trip but decided we would fit in as much caching as we could. We were joined by Mrs SoBad. We visited some amazing places, fitted in some walks, came across lots of people - - lots of traffic too. A huge thank you to the COs for hiding caches which presented us with puzzles to solve, took us to great places, were cleverly camouflaged, were cunningly hidden - - sometimes in plain sight - - all of the above and of course an equal thank you for the ones that just gave us one more smilie. We really really appreciated them all. Thanks !

The INSS had replaced one of the series and then found the other 2 along with a few others in the area. A nice wander before heading for icecreams in the mall. We all entered from different points and headed in different angles and one proved to be the best. Log signed as INSS.
Thanks.

Great day for geocaching with inss
This was a team effort in finding the cache Great hide
Signed log as inss
Thank you for the cache

This one has been on our solved puzzle list for far too long, but never had a chance to collect it. Today, while doing a little retail therapy at the Albany mall (along with LOTS of other muggles enjoying the freedom now Auckland has moved back to level one COVID-19) we took the opportunity to find this one. After a very short bush bash, we were at gz and the cache was soon spotted. TFTP

After finding the last cache I decided to do a big loop back to the car. Headed across open ground and along there but on the wrong side, and ended up in private property, sorry occupants. Rectified and made my way to true GZ as intended. Log was damp, but signable, and replaced as found. T F T C kiwicouple. Puzzle was fun, though I needed a little help.

A slightly early finish at work today and my eye was on a trip out Albany way and a small loop walk to swoop up a few available options. 14 attempted and a dirty dozen finds was a good yield for a dreary Wednesday afternoon sports choice. Home for a great meal and a glass of homemade plum wine, life is good.

I've never got around to solving this one but last weekend I took a look at a couple of unsolved puzzles around Auckland as I'm run a bit light on puzzles to get - other than the I'll-never-solve-that-in-a-million-years puzzles. In the end I was right about what was required and after a bit of work the answer popped out nicely.

Day off for us both today so we drove up here and got a couple of caches and this was first on the list. As we approached GZ there was a man striding backwards and forwards talking to himself but he soon moved off and we were able to dive in and look for the cache - the hint is very useful and that had us in the right spot for a quick find. Log slightly damp but OK to sign.

Thanks for the cache - all good here.

Another puzzle that I've had solved for a while now. Ended up taking a few detours with other cachers to find a few caches that had proven difficult after attending the International Geocaching Day event in Murray's Bay. I was now on my way home, but just had to find a few more caches on the way.

Parked closeby and made my way across to GZ. Bush-bashed my way to the right spot and made a quick find.

I called here a few days ago with supernannny but after a good look we came to the conclusion that the cache had gone. We noted that the cache had been replaced so it was back for another look. Signed and replaced. Thank you for the placement.

Came here the other day with KayGeeDee and had a bit of a hunt .
But could not find it .
Then saw that it had been replaced by nzseries1 and decided to revisit as was in area today!
All signed and safely returned!
Many thanks.

Thanks nzseries1 for putting in a replacement cache. You are now looking for an orange bison.

#902. No worries kiwicouple, it means I now get to log a cheeky find

Was here with a very experienced geocacher....pretty sure we had correct gz ...Appears to be gone.

No luck with this one. Sure we were in the right place. Found the hint item but no cache.

No luck. I'm certain I got the puzzle solved correctly and fairly certain I was in the right place while I was looking for 20 minutes, but came out empty handed.

Solved this one with ease way back in 2013 and today we needed to be in the area so made the effort to pick up some of these long solved puzzles. Once at GZ, the hint made perfect sense but the cache doesn't look to be there anymore. Theres quite a bit of rubbish in and around GZ which would seem that this ones been muggled. One day we will be back for another go, hopefully not in another 5 years time!

Solved this puzzle quite a while ago and had visited the area once before but after a good start to that day things started going wrong so abandoned the search for these caches.
I really enjoyed this clever little puzzle for its simplicity yet it is still quite effective.
I never made it to this one last time I was in the area and it took me a couple of minutes to get my bearings today under the tree cover. After thinking it was somewhere else and cleverly camo'd under an old birds nest then I spied the right place and made my way through the bush losing my sunglasses in the process.
The cache was quite damp inside but log in its sealed bag okay to sign.
Luckily noticed the glasses where gone and tracked then down before I moved on. TFTC.

A nice quick solve for me last night before coming here with Merlot58. Geohounds were ecstatic to get out amongst it all here with our first cache of the day.

I was pleased when Pazzabella told me this cache was back in action so we stopped here for our first cache of the day on a very foggy morning. The geohounds thought they were in heaven as they raced around while Pazza made a nice quick find.

Out collecting our daily cache. Nice quick find this time after a DNF on our previous visit. TFTPuzzle

I looked at this puzzle ages ago but didn't get any co-ords out of it. I persevered a few days before this trip and was pleased to get a viable solution on my second attempt. Very cunning I thought. I was dropping my son off at Uni today and collecting caches before heading home. Glad to pick up some solved puzzles. An easy find at gz. Thanks for replacing it

This was one of the very first cache puzzles I solved, along with the help of the CO.
I hadn't been able to find the cache though, so left it on my watchlist until yesterday when I saw it had been re-enabled. So happy to be able to pop back today and sign the nice new log, thanks kiwicouple.

Went out this afternoon to do a maintenance run on some of our Smile series, so added this one to the list.
Approaching GZ I noticed that my GPS was struggling under the tree cover here. Replaced the cache in a new hide with a hint that hopefully will be easy to spot from nearby.

Will check it out.

Adding my name to the list of dnfs. I checked quite a few of the trees in the area but no joy.

After collecting a couple of solved puzzles over Greenhithe way we decided to continue to Albany and find a few more. Unfortunately our luck ran out. The 1st puzzle may have been solved incorrectly and we will need to revisit. With this one we are certain we have the correct coordinates but we were unable to locate the hide. Lots of plant debris at gz made searching difficult. Will add to watch list but a visit from the CO may be required.

We managed to get a nearby park and soon were at GZ. Always a worry when looking for a cache which has been unfound for any length of time. May still be there but the passage of time and general debris around may be hiding it (or I have worked out the co-ordinates incorrectly [B)]). Our first DNF of the day, and have already found 15 which is not bad for caching in Auckland.

Found I had half an hour before the agreed meeting time to pick up my daghter and her friends (school holidays) so decided to go for the final on this cache, having worked out the coords a couple of months ago. A bit of building wirk of some sort nearby but managed to get to GZ without witnesses. Found the cache container out in the open though. Replaced it where I thought it might originally have been placed. At least it is more hidden!
Thanks for the puzzle and the cache kiwicouple. Nice to get a mystery cache find today.

Found this one today. This one was solved at the MEGA puzzle solving event but I never managed to pick up the cache that day. Today was the first opportunity I had to pick up this cache. Nice easy find once I got to the right location. I think the terrain on this one at present is a bit higher. Signed log. Happy New Year.

Thanks for the puzzle and the help kiwicouple.

A nice puzzle to solve, finally got around to it. Out and about tonight getting a couple of finds to improve the calendar. Quick find. SL. TFTC.

My grand-daughter was getting in the swing of things as she found this one out in the open a bit. Signed the log and then covered it a bit better.

Cheers for the cache.

I sat down this morning and had a go at deciphering this one and was delighted to crack the code fairly quickly. The cache was also quickly found later on in the day quite exposed on the ground which I re-covered with some local camo.

12578… A quick solve after the Mega was over, a nice touch to the cache page with some appropriate colours. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the opportunity to attend your sessions, other Mega related activities kept us busy elsewhere, TFTC.

Worked it out in the end with my aunty when the hard part was done. But it was challenging and quite fun working out the last parts.

Was up in Auckland for the mega and popped out to collect some caches in the area. This cache was easy to find because of the huge number of cachers in the area. Thanks for another cache and getting me out and about. I had a great time at the mega and these caches added to the experience.

Found it with ALL7 while at Mega Event.
Nice hide
TFTC

*Found with PrincessDiala whilst trekking about New Zealand on the way to NZ Mega*

Solved the puzzle during the puzzle solving tutorial at Mega.

we headed out to the area, and found the cache, amazing to find that we were joint FTF!!!


TNLNSL

TFTC

Solved the puzzle with instruction from the Seagnoid, then we both walked to claim it - tidying up a few cache finds on our last afternoon at MEGA in Albany, thanks for this cleverly presented puzzle kiwicouple.

Did I mention puzzles do my head in. That's why I enjoyed the puzzle solving session - thanks. Now to solve this one albeit slowly and go find. Did that later with RuruNZ who just seems to do these quickly. Not even the horrible cuppa I had helped to stir the brain cells. At least now I know how to do them and although it took time I won the battle.

[green] Edvern had no idea how to solve this type of puzzle (I recognised what type it was almost immediately) So I showed her how to do it, and more importantly, what tricks you can use to get started. Had it solved in under 5 minutes, which is also about the time it took us to retrieve the cache. Thanks!

Solved at the Mega Practical Puzzle solving session. Initially headed off down the wrong tract, but after spotting a XX XXaYY sequence I was soon on the right track.
Called in with kiwicampnut to claim this as a smilie.

Picked up the day after the Mega Puzzle event to increase my number of categories for the day. Nice puzzle and well presented at the seminar. TFTC and for all the work put into the presentation

Saw the puzzle caches late on Monday so quickly got some numbers for all three and went out that night. Stadium area was almost deserted when we started the hunts and quite hard to find in the dark. Got two out of 3 in the end (must have done something wrong with the logic one) and happy with that after the time I scribbled them out. TFTC

Found with Sevren.tftc

Out for a MEGA day of geocaching with Earthbound Chief & Co. Well I certainly can't call this one a quick find. We got out of the car and walked towards GZ but my gps was saying we needed to go another 24m over the water to get there so we attempted to walk around but that was taking us further away so we turned around. Now we were out in the open I think that helped us get a better lock on GZ. Well what we thought was GZ. Cache was eventually found around 10m away and guess what NOT on the other side of the water. After all that I found out that hypoglycemia doesn't help!! TFTC.

The GPS wanted to go one way and logic pointed in the opposite direction. We resorted to looking for a geotrail and after returning to the car for another GPS it led us to the same spot. Again logic said NO, so we widened our search area out by about 10m and eventually turned up what we were looking. Added a few mozzie bites to the collection. TFTC

Loved this puzzle, ciphers are fun to solve (usually). Thanks for the cache, and the training session.

A cool puzzle, thanks for the assistance on this one, bumped into some keen mega attendees here

TFTC

Found orginally as part of phasevisitor team, now created own account, re-logging as yorkshirekiwi83.

Solved during the puzzle solving session at the Mega event and found while wandering around the stadium afterwards - part of the group FTF! Thanks for the cache and your puzzle solving sessions on both days!

Found after the puzzle workshop - crafty puzzle not sure i would have easily solved it without a hi t but nice straightforward hide.

Tftc

A quick solve and off we went. Thanks for the puzzle and the cache.

Lil did the ground work for this at your seminar earlier in the day so we thought we should grab it on our way back for dinner and the prize giving at the stadium. Definitely one of the easier Glyn hides of the day

After attending the puzzles workshop this morning at the Mega Event, we headed out to see if we did it right. Success

A big thanks to the Kiwicouple who ran the puzzle solving seminars, and also to Team Itchy & Scratchy who assisted us with the solution. Those participating were granted a group FTF on this cache. Thanks for a well hidden cache in a sneaky area and thanks for the glyn hide also. [^][^]

NZ MEGA day two. Enjoyed the workshop very much, thank you Kiwicouple. I would never have been able to solve this one on my own. Very intricate. So it was good to get some new ideas.
TFTC

Reperio at 1745 with Albida33 and Sol de lune.

Found on Day 6 of my visit to the North Island as a part of the NZ Mega event...and I met up with Albida33 and Sol de lune for a day of caching before heading back to the NZ Mega event for the closing festivities. As Albida was feeling a little under the weather, we dropped him off at the event site and headed out to make use of the remaining daylight to grab a few more caches. We returned back to the mega event site...and Albida had finished solving this one. We wandered over and soon located the cache. A nice little puzzle.

Gratias kiwicouple.

New Zealand 2103 trip for the Auckland Mega at Albany. Day 17, In Auckland Region, Northshore. NZ Mega Auckland Day 2. Caching with Sol de Lune and Marcus Vitruvius followed by the evening activities at Mega Central. The second event puzzle solved and collected. Heaps of fun. Thanks.

12637.592 TNLN
Visited: World Traveling Gold GC A#6 & 2009 Compass Rose Silver Glossy A#158

Albida

Finally we arrived at the Mega Event in Auckland and after some talking to different people inside the rooms of the event, we decided to go out to find some geocaches. We met many nice people out here and had lots of fun with them. Nice meeting you all and thanks for helping us out with the new lab caches !

Ahhh, I like puzzle caches, they brought me to go geocaching in 2011 (yes I am registered since 2008, but really go caching since end of 2011). Out here we did the puzzle cache in a team and had a nice time together, thank you guys !

(4 stars at [url=http://www.gcvote.com]GCVote[/url])

additional information: I will change my geocaching alias name from 'Schlitz13' to 'Megalodon'

Found both puzzle solving seminars to be very good and useful. Thanks heads for running them. learning how to do this sort of puzzle was great. This one was every easy to find for our group, there were others just placing it back as we arrive. TFTC.

Nice hide with found with r5

Our team and team Busther was visiting New Zeeland and the Auckland MEGA event during the weekend. When we saw this caches being published we decided to try to solve and then find them.

We started a teamwoork and managed to solved two of them. For the third one we get some hint from the cache-owner. We feel ashamed not to managed it by ourselfs.

Thanks for some nice mysteries.

Had some problems to solve this until we got a hint from another Mega event attendant. No problems at the location.

Cheers for this. At first look I had no idea what this puzzle is about but thanks for the workshop hint that these stands for words it was easy to solve

Had coords for this after the puzzle seminar at NZMega. Thought we had better get this guy. Easy find once at GZ. TFTC.

Took the long way to GZ as was unsure if gate was open.
Lots of visitors and group FTF. TFTC and Training.

Nice puzzle, the hide was very sneaky.

Logged as RAD together with renelm and aedk.

TFTC

Difool - #1131 - 2013-10-27@12:07 NZDT

Solved with Albida and Marcus Vitruvius while hanging around the Mega. Arrived at GZ to make a quick-ish find.

Thanks for anyone kiwicouple.......

Cool puzzle... Solved at the mega!

Got sheet during seminar and worked out the puzzle later. Get to claim the honorary group FTF.

Team Itchy & Scratchy
Indiana

Went home for a break from the mega, turned on the iPad and started solving the new puzzle around. Figured it out soon enough and then off to get it TFTC

Auckland Mega Event 2013. Sunday and a fantastic day of caching planned alongside KiwifruitsNZ with the objective of reaching my 1000th find during the weekend. This was find # 981 on that journey. Great puzzle solving session. TFTC

Mega 2013 Sunday. Great day with other cachers.

A quick solve at the Mega Event. Took a few minutes to locate at GZ. Of course I found it the moment reinforcements arrived! Cheers for the puzzle cache!

after completing the puzzle seminar was time to find the cache, tftc

Thanks for the fun and informative puzzle solving seminar this morning, as well as the caches hidden for the session. Had a great time. TFTPC.

heathtree
Moncton, Canada

I found this was the easiest by far of the three puzzles in the practical session this morning. Finding the cache the puzzling aspect was how to get around the area that the stunt drivers had cordoned off. Mrs La Vista made the find. TFTC.

Nice quick find after solving at the puzzle workshop at mega this morning
TFTC

Left this one to the last for the day. Easiest to find along with the stream of other caches. TFTC

This was a fun puzzle to solve and a quick find at GZ with other cachers attending the MEGA.

TFTP

Quickly off the blocks with flying colours on this puzzle & find! Got wet in the rain getting to it but was the last of the puzzle school finds before getting back to Mega HQ. Thanks kiwicouple & Glyn for the efforts on this cache !

Liked this puzzle and a short walk to find. TFTC

Part of the puzzle presentation at the Mega. Walked over and made the find, with everyone else. Thanks.

A good fun hunt as part of the NZMEGA event nearby. Had fun solving puzzle, then fun finding cache. Thanks for the introduction to this type of cache.

These kind of puzzles have always been a favourite of mine, so this one was quickly solved during the workshop and couldn't wait to secure the find! Thanks for the puzzle cache and the workshop!

Second day of the NZ Mega event - a day which saw KiwifruitsNZ aim to hit the 1900 cache mark and help MuzzaL53 get to his 1000th cache. Throughout the day, we were joined by Kiwinomad, Marchwood, LostCourse, Vamber and alpenmilch80.

After attending the puzzle session this morning, solved this one and then picked it up during a day of cache hunting.

Good puzzle session and now have an understanding of this typic of logic.

#1873

This entry was edited by KiwifruitsNZ on Monday, 28 October 2013 at 08:41:52 UTC.

Quick find after puzzle, TFTC

Very interest puzzle as never before this puzzle like that in Australia.. Anyway nice walk to short Gz with
Whitepaws9 as hide very well thanks

Out with Zorgon, Nova, and HPG cleaning up as many caches as we could today