Pipit's Progress (Wellington) Western Lake, North Island, New Zealand
By BarnabysTravels on 23-Nov-13. Waypoint GC4TKFJ

Too hard to maintain, not found often enough to make it worthwhile. Will retrieve the container next time I can get up there.

Walking the Back Road back to the car. Walking the back road back road back road back to the car. Does that sentance remind you of banana?

Okay, okay, back on task. Twig did say he was trying to keep me honest here, which was some new meaning of the word I had not previously encountered. I'm digressing again, aren't I?

Twig found the cache in about the 8th place he looked, which was also the first place he looked, and also the most obvious place. I think we spent too long hunting here! Alas the log is all wet and horrible.

On the way here there is a culvert under the road. There must have been a heck of a lot of water in that stream not long ago as the road is washed out with nice cut vertical (and I do mean VERTICAL!) banks, and quite high too. Check out the photos!

I was due to spend the weekend in Wellington, and had some time available for some caching today so hatched a plan to meet up with the Seagnoid for some tramping time. He suggested following Collie's Track and going from there, which was fine as it's all virgin territory to me.
Over the course of the next 12 - 15km (estimated) we had to contend with everything from gnarly hills, very overgrown tracks (roads?) right through to the easy gradients and relatively smooth gravel of the Remutaka Rail Trail.

But it was nice to see the sun and to feel the warmth after so much rain and icy southerly blasts over the last few weeks.
I had never set foot on the Rail Trail before, and was very impressed with the form of the track. Definitely worth blowing the cobwebs off my bike and returning here in the not too distant future.

We were making our way back towards the car, via the Via, but still stopped to look for this cache. I immediately spotted where I thought it would be, in a very obvious hide spot, but actually missed seeing the cache. So we continued to look until I went back to my first location and finally spotted the container from a slightly different angle. The cache was full of water, and the log soaked. I just about managed to etch the log with T.A.T.S (TwigNZ and the Seagnoid) before replacing it all back as found.

Thanks for the smiley, over a year since the previous find

Today was fairly still with plenty of blue skies and I had the day to myself so I dragged out my mountain bike, drove to Cross Creek and spent a few hours burning fat and hunting smilies. This was my first find for today and I was cruising along so quickly I almost overshot it. Praise Buddha for waterproof paper because this cache was filled right to the top with water. After signing and returning the cache I added an improvised rain hat to try offering some more protection with winter coming. It has been around 30 years since I have ridden out here so TFTC.

Had a phone call from 2Bulbars earlier in the week wanting to head back into the remutaka's area and start from the fear
featherston side so here we are and no rain insight yay good ride up had lunch at the summit then headed around the backroad which at the mega we only found this road by mistake so have been keen to come back and of course pick up the few caches around this way.
Quick find here thanks for the placement and the smiley.
No pipits insight here today.

we are out trying our mt bikes out and what better place than the Remutaka rail trail.
This area is so full of rail way history an the things people did many years ago just to help the wheels of the industry to keep going around
many thanks

Nice day out with mumandme. Tftc, track is slightly over grown in some places but a nice walk, wasn't much wind.

Started at SH2 and came up Collies Track (getting quite overgrown), then along Back Road to the Summit, along the incline to the other end of Back Road and out to SH2 again along Via Dela Rosa. Quick find with kimmy+co. tftc

A pleasant spot to rest on the long walk today (BFG reckoned about 14Km walked today). Cache quickly spotted, but a little tricky to extract, but in good shape after that. TFTC

This and a few others did indeed encourage us along the Back Road — the name, speed limits, and number of road signs amused me. Container had water in, but log dry inside baggy, returned downside up. Nice hiding spot to rest on, cheers BarnabysTravels!

well hidden - good time finding these.

Despite the hiding place seeming obvious on arrival and later confirmed by the hint this took me ages to find. Partly because it was well hidden but partly because I was totally off my game today. I enjoyed the ride up here though. TFTC!

Found together with some friends, many eyes make light geocaching!

Thanks for the find

At last managed to organise a trip to maintain the cache. Not surprised it had water in it: the container was cracked. Luckily I came with a spare, just in case, so cache and log now replaced: the new log book uses waterproof paper too.

I found the container full of water - the log is very wet. It wasn't good drying weather today (tomorrow going by the date of this log entry!), so it's still wet. A replacement may be needed because it's starting to tear.

Saw it immediately as I approached. Unfortunately it was full of water and the log was saturated. I did manage to sign it, but wasn't able to dry it..

Found on a 30 km MTB mission on the Rimutaka Incline, Dela Rosa and Back Road in cold drizzle. Pretty obvious where it should be but had to peer from different angles to eventually find it. Small hands an advantage !

This was a nice quick find of a nicely hidden cache. No sign of any pipits today.

Visited this one after cycling down from near the SH2 Rimutaka summit and walking up to three caches along Collie's Track Stopped for a bite to eat and let the slightly damp log dry in the afternoon sun There were two other riders using The Back Road while I was there Tftc

This was a nice and easy find on the way back to SH2 after doing the loop around the rail trail. The cache is in good condition, log book all dry thanks. Thanks for bringing us out this way; a whole part of the region we had never explored. Will be back here soon to tackle the caches higher up the hills.

P.S. No sign of the bird today I'm afraid

Find #2501. Early start to the cycle trail with no one around at 7.30. Freezing cold on the bike after the southerly yesterday, despite the sunshine and took some distance to warm up. Lovely at the Summit, paused for a while to enjoy the quiet, then detoured up Back Road to collect this and the other cache. Went back to the trail rather than going around. SL TFTC

Rode into here on an epic cycling adventure on a beautiful summery Sunday afternoon. Magical.
Started our ride at Tunnel Gully and came by the Phew route. So, pushing the stamina button and some more by the time we reached here.
A bit of grovelling and feeling before we had the cache in hand. Happy to make the find.
Cache in order; log signed, safely re-hidden, just as found.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

all good here, didn't even have to get off the bike, a real park and grab! TFTC

#6935. Parked off State Highway 2 Rimutaka Hill for a further walking exploration of the area. Came via Via Dela Rosa and The Back Road towards the Summit Yards. Seemed strange to be generally walking downhill to the Summit! Yes, the tracks were all quiet during the visit, apart from the birdsongs along the way. Did not encounter a pipit though. The well camouflaged cache was a quick find. The cache was in excellent condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

| = = = = = T h a n k s _ f o r _ t h e _ c a c h e = = = = = |

Also found this one today before returning nice place to rest too. TFTC. Out : TB. Sherlock Hood.

This entry was edited by sherlockhood on Tuesday, 23 September 2014 at 03:02:46 UTC.

Out for a cycle ride with a group of friends to Cross Creek and back via Back Road. A cold blustery day. TFTC

Nice distraction from the normal route. I did this one from the top after dropping off a cache on the far side of the long tunnel - watch this space in a few days time....

I read GoneFishing's log and heeded the advice to head off to the right. Soon enough cache in hand, and I decided to drop of Jewelbuggy to lighten my load on the way home.

Thanks for another one that has taken me off the beaten track

Best done on you bike from top down.tftc

Out for a family bike ride today. After lunch at the summit, the girls returned via the main track while the boys took the back road. Have ridden the trail many times, but never tried the back road, so a good excuse to check it out. Like others, we started it from the summit end, and after a short uphill slog it was all downhill. My son thought he would try the left turn instead of the initial right and head along the ridge top. After a bit of a slog and a long downhill he found a gorse blocked track and had to retrace his steps. Having agreed to meet at the ford, and expecting him to get there well before me, I had a good 15-20 min wait for him only to be surprised to see him coming from the wrong direction!

Bit of an adventure for him, a pleasant ride for me!
TFTC.

A gut busting ride up on the back road after traveling to the summit. The ride down was good fun. No crashes
Unfortunately no pen on me but hopefully the attached photo is proof enough, although a good excuse to go this way again next time.

Found riding with the family.
TFTC!
with CaligulaNZ & FiddlefingersNZ

Out for a MTB ride with the boys this morning, and what better than adding a few caches. Like Aqcnz we approached this cache from the higer entrance point to the Back road, and after seeing the steepnees of our descent were pretty happy we had chosen to do so. Have riden and walked the Incline many times, but never been out on the Back Road, so thanks fro bringing us here for that. Cache was quickly found and all formalities completed. Picked up the Jeep TB.

TFTC!
with Comandercon2 & FiddlefingersNZ

Interesting cache site signed at 3.04 pm No Pipits today. was lucky to have perfect weather and be in such an ideal area to go cache searching.

FTF at 10:30am Second of three on a very pleasant bike ride to the incline summit and returning along the Back Road which I had never been along before. I deliberately chose to come in this direction as the rivers were high and running brown, and I wanted to give a bit of extra time for the levels to go down near the next cache "Wet Feet". As it turned out, it made the bike ride easier as there's only a small bit of uphill track at the summit end of the Back Road, and then it's just about all downhill with very little pedalling needed.. No pipits here today although there were quite a few kereru around. The cache was a quick find in the obvious place. Signed log, thanks for the cache and for givinig me the excuse for some good exercise in a great area. Just the sort of cache I enjoy most!

Published