Magnificent 7 of Totara (North Otago) Alma, South Island, New Zealand
By Heafudd on 09-Nov-13. Waypoint GC4RTHB

Tftc

TFTC Found with andyfreya. On way home to chch after Dunedins mega

Found on way back to Christchurch from Mega Geocaching event in Dunedin.Log wet put in new bag

Mum and Wendy are on the way south for the Mega in Dunedin and stopped here to find this one.There was water in the jar but the log was dry enough to sign. Mum replaced the ripped bagged. Thanks for the smiley

As we parked the CO called out to us so after signing the log we went over and had an interesting chat with him and the black and white cat. TFTC

MrMagoo72 and I visited this historic estate today on a day trip with the Early Settlers Association. It was our first visit to the place - definitely well worth a visit to the place where NZs frozen meat industry began, and we were very lucky to have the CO give our group a great introductory talk about the estate. There was even a pianist playing beautifully which we'd have loved to listen to for longer over some morning tea, if we'd had the time. Before we headed off to explore the grounds and the various buildings etc, we ducked over to find the cache and to sign the log. Didn't take long to find, once we trusted the GPS to take us to the correct side. Log sheet was a little damp, so I had to try a couple of pens to sign - hope it's legible. TFTC.

Found today with MacBayMeri. An extra treat to hear the CO giving us an introduction to the estate. A great place to visit and really well preserved. TFTC.

TFTC. Quick find on Totara Estate. Greetings from Ireland. Have been on a tour of South Island for nearly 2 weeks. Very interesting place to visit and cheap too.

Such a cool place. Didnt take long to find here. Tftc

What a lovely place. Quick find on our trip around the south.

Quick find.TFTC

I pulled over to swap driving and we noticed the estate was open. We drove up, found the cache, then talked to the ladies. It was really informative and I will definitely be back. Thanks for the hide, Heafudd. #9814

??? Parking ??? was wonderful. It made finding this cache really enjoyable.This is day one of a four day trip to Mosgiel with Jude_E. It was nice to stretch our legs on a beautiful spring ?????? day.There were some lovely ladies dressed in Victorian outfits here. Sadly there was nothing for me at the cafe as I can't have dairy. It was an interesting stop.

Ck and ms tftc even had some help

Second stage of the day was a visit of the Totara Estate. Interesting introduction to the history of the exportation of frozen meat (lamb, sheep, pork), which started over 140 years ago! We are still used in Switzerland to buy lamb from New Zealand. Would have enjoyed seeing a bit more animals.
After the visit, we took a moment to log the cache. All in good condition.
Thank you for the cache
NathanS05

Found with dakotacats - such a great place to visit. TFTC

We've driven past this place many many times but it has either been shut or else we were in a hurry, but today we were in no hurry and the flag was out so we headed up the driveway. The cache was quickly found and then we decided to have a look around the estate. And wow what an awesome place it was. We paid $12 each for a self-guided tour (which included a very interesting talk with the guide for a good 20 minutes to start with) and then we were able to explore the estate. We highly recommend visiting this place - it has had a lot of recent work done and the information provided is fascinating. Thanks for placing this cache here Heafudd.

We drove up the driveway, parked and I went to look for the cache while M went to talk to a guy at the estate gate. He called out that that would be $10, please. LOL. It turned out to be Heafudd who we have met on previous occasions including in our shop. We had a long chat and he told us we were lucky to find the cache as the estate would be closed for the next three months from today so we will be the last to find the cache for a while.

One of several caches I located today, mostly in the Kakanui/Oamaru area before continuing in the direction of Christchurch. I had visited the Totara Estate heritage site and was aware there was a cache somewhere in the area which I needed to pick up before leaving. It was closer than expected, a quick find! #4978. TFTC.

Stopping here for other reasons I had forgot there was a cache nearby. Mr and Mrs VDH soon had it signed and then I realized there was another so a walk up the driveway and soon had the log book signed. We need to return and explore the area.

Worth the walk up the driveway for this Cache, found no problems with Mrs P&Vee.
Will come back for other caches and maybe a coffee, and walk. TFTC

Found - Mrs McMike2012 & I now live full-time in our caravan & travel the country visiting places we want to visit … we are now parked up in Oamaru, for a couple of days, with a couple of our Grandchildren … went for a drive to Totara Estate to have a look around & to climb to the top of the nearby hill to view the Thomas Brydone Memorial … thought it would be rude not to grab a few caches … found with no issues, log completed & successfully returned … pleased to add another 'smiley face' to the tally … TFTC ... TN:LN:SL ... #2,070 for us.

Found with StreetWalkerNZ as we travel from Invercargill to Christchurch.
We have driven past here many times and thought it was about time we stopped for the cache. On the journey south on New Years day, it was closed, but we noticed the open sign today. We had found ourselves in a convoy, so it was the ideal opportunity to get out of the convoy and find a cache.
We must have been too obvious searching as we were muggled! Enjoyed meeting the CO, and hope the cycling goes well . TFTC.

#20796. Good to finally stop for this one, and also to meet the CO, who had no trouble muggling us. Looks like a nice place for refreshments, but we had no time to linger today. TFTC.

They are certainly a magnificent display of seven, what an impressive entrance. On our way to Oamaru for some caches and was easy to call in today. Thanks for this cache Headfudd.

New Zealand making at it best

A quick find after a look around the interesting old buildings and coffee and scones. A walk up to the monument worked of the jam and cream. A place well worth a visit

Had relatives living near here so had time to find today tftc

A quick find after an excellent afternoon looking around the estate and climbing the monument hill. Can recommend the apple cake!
Looks like we were the first to sign the logbook this year.

The sky was a odd colour today because of the fires in Oz. A good hide.

TFTC

Quick find. Nice spot. Well worth stopping for.

Unsere Reise an's schönste, für uns andere, Ende der Welt nach Neuseeland, haben wir lange geplant und die Vorfreude war groß. Wir haben einen wunderschönen Urlaub erlebt, kamen hier vorbei und konnten uns im Logbuch eintragen. Danke für diesen Cache und herzliche Grüße
Our journey to the most beatiful, for us others, end of the world to New Zealand we have long planned and the anticipation was great. We had a wonderful holiday, came here and could log in the logbook. The farm is a surprise on the wayside, thanks for the cache and best regards.

Cool little place got to feed the lambs so cute! TFTC.

Nice hide tftc

Easy find while Mr Guzzi was talking to an old fella about Caching. Visited the Totara Estate Heritage Display and buildings. Well worth it.

First find here for the season. Nice & straight forward, and a pleasant wander around the buildings. Thank you for a nice day

A quick park and grab while on my way to oamaru to get as many caches I can for points for the planatery Pursuit challenge. Hot chatting with CO here as here works here. Was great to me a fellow cacher TFTC

TFTC

TFTC

Enjoyed the visit. Very educational

quick find while visiting Totara TFTC

Heading to Geraldine for a holiday with a few planned detours A nice quick find after previously driving past a few times and being unable to look as the gates were shut. Glad to finally have a smiley here. TFTC

A quick find on a windy day. TFTC

The (major road trip was about to begin) that was for the Oamaru Geofest trip in the company of HKCB and iammrwalker for a bit of a road trip across to the west coast, through Haast and in a roundabout way to Oamaru.

My trip stats were as follows: 617 caches (214 Puzzles), 3300kms, 500 litres of Petrol, 21 hours sleep, 100+hours caching time. THe weather was wonderful and apart from about a 6hour period on the sunday we had fine weather all the way and feel that we made a bit of a hole in the region.

Firstly thanks to all the CO's that put in the effort to to set up these caches and to all the CO's whose caches we did not find this trip, well we are already planning our next trip.
We worked hard at getting specific caches (especially the Geo Art around christchurch and hence our concentration on this area for the preliminary 24 hours. So after a couple of running repairs to the rental vehicle (fuses not working) we were off knowing that all ports could be charged and that sleep was for the weak.

Sorry about the copy and paste logs but that is what tends to happen with a number run of this size. What a day this was going to be and a chance to have a good look around the area. It was amazing to wake up after having afull nights sleep and not have that sand in the eyes feeling and sore back from sleeping in the back of a car. Starting the day off working our way along the coast, followed by a spot of inland caching before making it back to Oamaru for a bite to eat followed by a bit more caching.

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Did you know that planning has started for a Mega Event in Wellington in 2018? Check out the details on the [WENZ Website](https://sites.google.com/site/wenzgeo2018/home) or visit the event's page on [FaceBook](https://www.facebook.com/groups/590545297801072/) and don't forget to log your attendance on the [WENZ Event Page](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC78NMQ_wenz-event-2018-wellington?guid=23f451a2-08ac-4374-883f-ed6814687147/)

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Came down this way from the North for the Oamaru Geofest, and decided to add a few more days to the weekend trip and turn it into a bit of a Mega mission, starting 5pm on Wednesday 18th and finishing 3pm Monday 23rd! Teaming up with Cats&Dragons for the first 24 hours then with Iammrwalker joining the team for the remainder.
Just a few of the stats for the trip were:
- 700 caches found, including 270+ puzzles (thanks to the Christchurch Geoart)
- 3300 km's driven, using over 500L of fuel $$$
- Just over 20 hours of sleep (about 4 per day on average), and about 100 hours of caching time.
Certainly a Mega Trip!

Day 5: With a good nights sleep for the first time this trip, we were up early and out the door for another full days caching. The goal for today was to cache our way down to the Moeraki Boulders and then see where the next cache lead us. One thing we were looking out for today was caches which hadn't been found in a long time.

Sorry about the cut and past logs, but that seems to happen with cache runs of this size!

I found this Geocache on a Geocaching mega mission along with Cats&Dragons and HKCB. With only just over three and half thousand Geocache finds I was very much the over achiever in training. We were in the South Island to support the Oamaru Geofest event, hunt down some Jasmar and D/T harder to find Geocaches, lonely caches (those not found in more than 6 months), virtuals and try and meet some milestone numbers. We signed the logs HIC, an abbreviation of our respective Geocaching names, (H)KCB, (I)ammrwalker and (C)ats&dragons. A huge thanks to all the CO’s who placed and maintain the Geocaches we found.

I arrived in Christchurch late Thursday evening having left straight from work and was picked up by my intrepid companions in our four wheel drive rental to find they had already grabbed about 270 finds in the previous twenty four hours. I wonder if the rental company would have still let us have it had they known we would travel 3300km in it before returning it four days later? Our trip took us to Greymouth via Arthurs pass, Ngahere, down the west coast to Haast across to Hawea, Cromwell, Twizel, Aoraki Mt Cook, Tekapo, onto the east coast up to Oamaru and back up to Christchurch via Akaroa and countless diversions and small towns along the way. We slept in the car for the first two nights, grabbing some shut eye between cache finds, taking turns to drive. We rented a small place in Oamaru for the other two nights and appreciated a bed to sleep in and a hot shower. It was an amazing trip, in which I discovered the South Island has some of the most incredible scenery in the world.

Nice visit to the original exporting of mutton station from NZ.TFTC

Sadly we arrived right on closing, but we did get to find a cache and watch a very new born lamb try to stand. Will be back for a look around.
One of 25 today, hence the short log, sorry.
TFTC

This cache was found during our Oamaru Geofest Road Trip and logged as TTT (Trans Tasman Team). Thanks you for the placement. Was a great weekend filled with lots of fun and caching of course. we noticed that a lamb had just been born before we arrived... pretty cool. planning on coming back for a more indepth visit
Tftc

Oamaru
Visiting for the geofest, we cached with Happy Feet 1 during our time here.
We found caches in some amazing places & wonderful scenery today.
Thanks for placing this cache Heafudd

A nice hide found while travelling through TFTC

Found on a trip to oamaru nice place cheers

Des isch Easy xi drum bin i do xi. Bin auf Tour mit meiner Liebesmuggelin zum 60ger in NZ um nebenbei diese tollen Dosen zu erhaschen. Geocaching isch so Gsund do wirsch nümma rund! TFTC ! Danke fürs legen und pflegen dieser genialen Dosen..

Found it. Tftc

I have been planning this trip for a while now as I had some airpoints due to expire and wanted to go somewhere for Wellington Anniversary Weekend. So I've made it a 4 day weekend and come down from Palmerston North for a caching road trip. I have two goals for this weekend, to get to 2500 caches before 23 January as that is when I took up caching last year and to get caches on as many latitude minutes as possible that will hopefully qualify me for a challenge cache in the Manawatu. This is day 2 - Oamaru - Palmerston - Ashburton.

I haven't been to Oamaru and the surrounding area for five years and it doesn't look like it has changed much. Such a pretty town, full of history

This cache was on my bucket list so as I was passing I had to pull in to get. Heritage New Zealand have maintained this historic farm well and the entrance now looks very inviting since the last time I was here.

If you are in the area, make sure you have a tour of these lovely farm building and hear the story behind this farm, it's an important one and one that started New Zealand into what it is today.

Cache was quickly in hand however under the watchful eye of the staff member on duty. Swapped trackables. Tftc

Geocaching trip with Just-Lookin.
Nice quick find for us here heading slowly towards Christchurch.

Lots of wind and heavy rain today. SL TFTC

A great road trip with tmann421 taking in the views and collecting some caches.

A nice quick find for us here. TFTC

Easy find, too late in the day to do the tour so will go back.

An interesting place. We found a TB we recognised from HB so we picked up to carry on its journey. TFTC

Quick find on way home after spending time in Geraldine. Dropped off Egg & Spoon TB.

Stunning place. Awesome people... Shame about the grumpy old swagger fella... Oops it's the CO x

We both had a different idea of which of the magnificent 7 would be sheltering the cache so each headed off in our chosen direction. Turns out we were both wrong. TFTC #7531

The geo-kids found this while out on an adventure with Captain Starship and Rayzr01 tftc

Found on an adventure with captain starship and team MacDonald TFTC

Indeed they were magnificent but one held a secret... the cache. Fortunately I started at the right end and soon had the container. It took a bit of opening 'till I worked out that it wasn't a screw top after all.

We've often passed Totara Estate, famous as the place where the first shipment of NZ frozen meat was sent from, but you're always on your way somewhere or else it's closed for winter.

Visiting Info http://www.heritage.org.nz/places/places-to-visit/otago-region/totara-estate
Totara Estate historic information http://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/7066

Today we had planned a visit as part of our biking/walking trip Oamaru way. So first, a quick grab in the carpark, no-one around... oops, muggled by the CO!

So we paid to go in, and first walked up to the Brydone monument (at last! after looking at it all these years!). And then we learn from the aforementioned CO that anyone can go up to the monument without payment, just have to get permission from the Totara Estate office first. And that apparently we will soon have a reason be going up there again....

And then a good wander around the farm buildings, taken to the slaughterhouse by the CO but luckily he herded us out the back door still in one piece.

Muggled by the CO today while retriving this one.

Saw that the coffee sign was out so we poped in for a coffee and a cache. Great parking and a quick find.

Found on a trip to Dunedin.

Thanks for the hide.

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| For info on the next NZ mega, go to: [url=http://coord.info/gc587bc]nzmega2015[/Url] |
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A quick find today in the wind! TFTC

Found on way north

What a lovely spot. Tftc

Love this estate. Enjoy the history of the area. Thanks

Nice quick find. No-one around. TFTC.

Detoured into here for a quick grab.
Muggle Mr Farmer nearby so I parked so he didn't see what I was up to.
TFTC

The estate is now open for the year so feel free to call in find this cache,a tour of the estate is a must
j

Interesting estate, and learned more NZ history. A bit of hunting and rechecking was required, but did find it. TFTC.

Once again, the Witching Hour arrived, so what better way to cope than by finding a cache! TFTC.

down here for the open day at the estate thought it would be a good chance to grab this one, realized when we got there it wasn't on the gps ,so we went off to look around the estate. on our way out we went for another look and quickly had it in hand , great place to explore and learn the history tftc

Interesting place and a very nice lady on the farm!

This historic site is awesome! Very interesting and really well done. Definitely worth a stop. Nice to grab a cache too

I was watching a concert here and search for one near by and said there was one only 70m away

Nice quick grab on the way past, always great to come in here and take photo's - Bitsprayer

A quick trip to a known location to finally sign the new logbook. Picked up TB

Found as part of a great day in and around Oamaru. Still reckon this is the best caching area I have ever encountered. Original standard set by Bitsprayer, but now a few others adding to the story. Many thanks to all!

Having found the temporary cache that was here a little while ago, we had no trouble finding this one too! TFTC.

13477... An interesting and historic estate... no time to sample the wares today, thanks for beginning us here.

Found with WGHS 2 on activity week. TFTC

Frankie Lee and ourselves hosted a group from WGHS for activities week, to show them what geocaching is all about, so we took them to one of ours as a start and dropped off a TB. Great day all round.

It didn’t take too long to find this cache, although it was not quite where we expected. TFTC

I had not been in this location for a number of years but recently I have certainly made up for this.
With a sense of deja vue I once again drove up to this impressive complex.
After a chat with the person in attendance the log was signed.
Thanks
erninz

This entry was edited by erninz on Sunday, 01 December 2013 at 07:08:51 UTC.

Late to log.. sorry! TFTC nice place

So the assault on Dunedin begins. After weeks of deciding which puzzles to solve for the area we are ready to head out from Timaru. Beautiful scenery, road-tripping and caching is the plan for our two days away.
Drove down the long driveway to see what was there. Checked in with c:geo and saw there was a cache to be collected nearby. Quick find and sign under those beautiful totara trees.
#632.
TFTC

Lovely chat to the lady at the estate over coffee before heading back out to find the cache - would be great to have a link to www.totaraestate.co.nz on the cache page so people know which estate and what the actual opening hours are TFTC!!

Found on the way home after a weekend in Ommers.
A nice looking historic Whitestone house, the lady tending the garden in period costume was very nice.
Tftc

found while doing the event cache

found on the way to the event

Nice quick find today to sign a different logbook. TFTC

FTF Nice to find an empty logbook Left TB

I'ts well worth taking a look around the estate

Just thought I make this one official , make sure you sign the right log book ,will remove other one end of this week