HRT Bridge B08 (Hauraki) Matatoki, North Island, New Zealand
By vectis on 11-Dec-13. Waypoint GC4VA4R

Took a while before the cycle highway was clear but eventually space came. I went down the swale drain, kiwitrecker1 took the other side of the bridge. One of us was right. TFTC

Searched, paused, searched found it!

Cache CheckAll ok

Found - Mrs McMike2012 & I live full-time in our caravan travelling around NZ, visiting the places we want to visit & doing the things we want to do and fitting in a bit of Geocaching here & there currently staying near Ngatea for a few days we had decided that we would drive over to Kopu & then get the bikes out & bike some of the Kopu to Paeroa Section of the Hauraki Rail Trail (HRT) weather wasnt looking that great but we went anyway cache was easily found, at the base of what once was a tree, now just a dead stump! more than pleased to add this 'smiley face' to the tally TFTC ... TN:LN:LS #5,586 for Us!

HRT Bridge B08 (Hauraki) was transferred from vectis to user pomtom44

TFTC !!This was a very fun cache, and it took us a while to find. The cache was cleverly hidden, and one that you need the hint for. Thanks heaps.

??

TFTC GOOD hiding spot

Thank you for the cache. Out on the trail with PomTom44. Hopefully someone is able to adopt the trail as will be a shame to see it archived. Great series of caches.we weren't sure if we would find it being that the last 3 logs had been dnf's but found within seconds of dismounting from the bike

Day 1 of our two day adventure doing the Rail Trail with BearCache #7Total found so far: 6Yet another bridge....But not like the othersI think a tree has been cut down recently, as the previous finds were all DNF's and the tree is now a stumpBut, after a little searching found it hidden slightly too far out of viewSigned, and returned in a slightly better spot

No find for this Tree we think it was at base of is a stump now. Tftc!

Out and about with the shoebs family once again. It was a DNF. We will be back another day.Thanks anyway

Too hard

Lovely and quiet on the trail today but a quick find anyway. TFTC

He he! Pressed the wrong key!!

Nice ride with the kids on a windy day; miss 7 claims this find too. And once again we have no one so hane included photo of the cache (without location).

Dead giveaway!

A death give-away!

TaurusSix and I are in New Zealand for a three weeks holiday. We love New Zealand and have had lots of wonderful experiences here previously. This time we have decided to focus our attention on three destinations for one week each, all in the North Island. The Coromandel Peninsula, Waiheke Island and The Bay of Isles. We are very mindful of not focusing all our attention of the holiday on geocaching, however it will still play an important part. We are deliberately focusing on caches that involve some walking, great views, interesting attractions , history and general points of interest. And this will all happen in between exploring, swimming , walking, doing touristy things and relaxing .
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Day 1 - We picked up our hire car from Auckland Airport and headed immediately South then East in the general direction of the Coromandel Peninsula collecting caches at intervals along the way. Before we did though we picked up the virtual cache in the International Arrivals Terminal. We particularly liked elements of the Hauraki Rail Trail , Thames and the drive across to the far side of the Peninsula.

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This is our sixth cache find of the day as we leave the HRT for now, we hope to be back. There was a particularly nasty big thistle protecting gz therefore we had to improvise a bit to get out hands on the cache . Thanks for the cache vectis

Morning biking along the rail trail after spending the night in Thames. The trail was easy to ride but due to upcoming rain we only did a quick 20km exercise today. The journey continues in the Northland. Tftc and greetings from Finland.

New cache container and log in place, hint changed.

Our first find heading back to Paeroa TFTC

quick easy find, cheers [8]

Pretty quick find, given it was lying out on the track. Rehid it carefully. Found with DeadRockFlower on our bike ride, one of many today. Tnlnsl. TFTC!!

Found with Kiwiterm while cycling HRT. Cache was lying out in the open on track so we rehid. TFTC

After a while we gave up

Lots of hidey places, lots of wasps, decided enough was enough after a 15 minute search.

Great cache.

Gave up quick waspe

No luck here for us - gave up after a short search as it was too hot to search any longer.

Found by dad. Kids chasing Pokémon here

??

Restrictions have been lifted so all good to go.

The Hauraki Rail Trail is closed while the Covid 19 rahui is in place. Anyone geocaching during this time is putting themselves and others at risk by handling the containers, stash and logs. So this cache is disabled until this present emergency ends. I reserve the right to disable any logs dated after the lockdown started.

I was a little apprehensive about the hint, but it wasn't so bad. So it was a quick sign the log and off again.
Thanks for putting this here for me to find

First bridge cache for the day.
TFTC

Found this one on the way north towards Kopu - very few muggles about as it is so hot today. TFTC

So windy on my bike. Quick find. Tftc

This one certainly lived up to its hint. Good idea to take your bike helmet off first!

Out and about with family. Always good to in the fresh air. T4tc

Really appreciate all the caches in this series and a great place to come over Labour weekend. TFTC

We had to work for that one and it was easy when you look in the right or correct place. Photographed a little bike in the cache but left it for someone else to enjoy. TFTC

***400*** woohoo! Nice to get a milestone doing the HRT. Biked the whole thing 2 years ago so only doing this bit to get the GCs. Thanks CO

Found it on my first trip on HRT from Kopu to Paeroa. 55km bike journey on Easter Sunday! Thanks for bringing me here, for great joy , for great hides.
My GPS device was not in good form today so started troll version first. Then got the hint from my smart phone .... Well. TFTC

Instead of cut and paste all information is on HRT Memorial Bridge. TFTC

Tftc

A hot day exploring the trail between Kopu and Paeroa and finding a few caches enroute. Managed to extricate cache with skin still intact. TFTC.

This one took a bit longer than the previous caches along the trail as we initially overthought the clue but once we asked ourselves the question "Where would I hide it?" we made a quick find. TFTC.

Quick easy find, while in the area. TFTC

Found where others have left it. Couldn't spot where it belonged so left as is.

On a mission with Dee+ME today. Please excuse my cut and paste logs in advance. A great series to get knocked off. Many thanks for setting up the trails we really appreciate it. A great winters day today, beautiful sunshine after a brisk cold start to our day. We have left vehicle in Paeroa for the night and booked motel in Thames. Cheers

We overthought this one, but soon came uo trumps .
Cheers

Grabbing some more of this neat trail, TFTC

An early start with another day trip with NZPatoto in her motorhome, with bikes on the back to complete HRT caches. Started in Thames and headed to Paeroa. Had a head wind so biking was tougher as well as cooler today. Set out to find 15 smiles. Achieved 13 and 2 DNF. #5 of 15 Found by Nahkins. Spotted by me, cache on ground, we left it on the ground with a stone coverage. TFTC

Nahkins and I set off early with our bikes and headed to Thames to finish the HRT geocaches. It seemed tougher biking today. First time we have struck a head wind. We had 14 HRT caches and 1 other to find. Got 13 smiles and 2 DNF. The DNF were HRT caches. It was much cooler today. #5. It was my turn. Was looking up high thinking it was stuck in a barberry bush but I found on the ground. Signed log and put back where I found it but I did camouflaged it. TFTC.

After riding from Kopu to Puriri and back not stopping for any caches. We decided to try a few things today to start a little below what we did and retrace our steps. Our first idea was to cable tie the car gps to handlebars so it would speak to us when we were getting closer, this worked up to the 2nd cache when the battery died. So then we used the phone and worked distance against speedometer on bike to work out approximation of where to stop, which did work reasonably well. We covered 24km return today, so were pleased with that a few finds along the way. There were a few that eluded us and perhaps will return another day to have another go. Glad to say this was a easy find here. Thanks for setting up the trail, we know the work involved.... and appreciate it. SL. TFTC.

Quickly found this one. The log was too wet so signed a temporary log and put it in the cache.
Replaced as found
TYFTC

Thorny is an understatement really

Couldn’t sign as rather damp

Another find on our way back from selecting our Christmas tree. Lovely stroll with my youngest son and husband.

Updating my new geo account with my old finds. Geokid has grown out of the geo adventures, but I'm still keen! Found as thebrownehornet but not logged, with keylev and Team SEAC and finally logging 02 04 2024 as NurseDr.

sorry for taking so long to log. Found with Keylev TFTC

A group of us arranged to ride this leg (Kopu to Pearoa) of the HRT as it was the only leg not done by our group, but we see another leg was opening today....soooo maybe some more caches will be hidden along that route....

Located this one swiftly and without any muggle issues as they were all on the newly opened trail.

Signed in as SEAC17 to save log book space.

TFTC.

This leg of the Hauraki Rail trail from Kopu to Paeroa was the last leg that we needed to complete the whole series. Mrs Keylev suggested that we do this and it just happened to be her birthday. This coincided with the opening of another section of the trail from Kopu to Miranda! There were lots of cyclists there for this but we basically had the section from Kopu to Paeroa to ourselves.

A well maintained series with only ONE DNF!!

We signed the log as SEAC17 to save log paper.

We stopped for lunch at the Convenient Cow where we all seized up and getting back on the bikes afterwards was a mission. Total 30 Ks biked and even the younger cachers did the whole lot. An awesome day!

When is the Kopu to Miranda leg going to be populated Vectis


TFTC

The SEAC (South East Auckland Crew) started this set of trails around 2 years ago. Life got in the way and this was the only one we had not yet done so we decided to finally do something about it.

We had not realised a new section of the track was opening today so the start of the trail was really busy at Kopu but then other then only a couple of muggles we pretty much had the trail to ourselves.

It was a great day, aside from the very strong wind, sore legs and sunburn.

This one took us a long time to locate. It is still there but not in a troll position. I couldn't even see the thorns nearby but it is in another common cache location.

Thanks for the cache.

Out with Team SEAC. Thanks for the cache.

Out with Team SEAC. Thanks for the cache.

Interesting to see the remains of the original railway bridge under the new Opus bridge. I hate thorns but still enjoying the trail. TFTC.

Not.as hard to find as expected but still pretty thorny.

What a prick of a cache so to speak ..down low and crawling under a thorny bush I finally spotted it and managed to direct KL to lots location thanks Vectis...love these caches NOT.

When I saw this hadn't been found by the last couple of cachers I wasn't sure that it would be here. After poking here and there Macwatt thought he could spot it. With remote directions I managed to put my hand on it. Yuss. Well decribed by others. All good thanks vectis.

We have a really good look for this but could not come up with the goods

No luck for us, reading previous logs showed that it clearly isn't where it should be and it seems to have gone...

After planning a trip to the bay of plenty for easter to gather a cache or two, it changed dramatically (we thought) when we heard that cyclone cook was about to bear down on this area our hopes had dropped .
But no almost the complete opposite, so after getting bike and body sorted it was to the start we went and ride the HRT trail, we started in thames and the plan was to ride to te aroha if the body allowed.

This was definitley a prick of a place .
Got muggled here by mum and dad and the kids they were very interested in this geocaching game.

Thanks for the smiley and the placement

1.35pm. This was a DNF first visit for me. Came prepared with leather gloves today! But didn't really need them as the film canister was lying on the ground down the bank. I did not know where it should be and have placed it in the thorn bush but had difficulty finding a place where it would stay. It can be seen and I am not sure if it will stay in a breeze. Good to get this one off the list.
Thank you. David.

Nice greets from Dresden in Germany. Tftc

I was out with the MCC biking the HRT from Kopu to Paeroa. After getting stuck a few times, we spotted this cache. The warning didn't make any sense, so time for a CO visit. TFTC.

We were out with Agazo biking the HRT from Kopu to Paeroa. A great bike ride and legs were jelly by the end of the day

Nice hide yes a bit Thorny,but all good back on the old bikes to the next one

Thanks

We had already biked part of the Paeroa-Thames HRT, so today was the day to complete it. Not a very nice day unfortunately, with showers passing through, but still there were several cyclists out there - surprisingly! Apart from one DNF these are now completed for us - TFTC and the series

Today the Squirrel and I decided we would try and clear the remainder of the HRT Trail, so we walked and biked section to complete this, starting at the Te Aroha and heading to Paeroa. Once this leg was done we went to the Thames end and back to Paeroa. Caches were found fairly quickly with the hints given. We replaced 2 very wet log sheets with new ones and one where cache container was missing. Improvised and found a large piece of timber and used as log sheet, hopefully owner will replace. SLTFTC

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)...

We've been wanting to complete the HRT for a while now. We've picked up parts of this trail over several visits, and now we're left with the more 'out of the way' hides. We have no choice but to bike these sections. It's going to be a long ride between caches...

Another bridge... A bit scratchy, but an otherwise straight forward find... TFTC.

Hopefully on my last leg to complete the trail.
It has been a very enjoyable effort and a great series.
Certainly an attraction to the area.
Tftc

I have been thinking of cycling the Hauraki Rail Trail for some time. Finally made it on a sunny day.

2 ndtime looking in the thorns Smf this time either

Down from Auckland today to cache in Thames then this HRT trail. Caching with 2 keen cachers supernanny and harisree and we're working our way south to Paeroa. we have 3 bikes, but as it turned out it was a lot easier using 2 of the bikes for the girls and I do the driving and make them hot drinks from time to time as they showed up, we would snack together then carry on. It seemed to work well. I did caches close to the roads and they did the rest.

I was supposed to find this one, but it alluded me! Bring in the backup... and it was soon found by hari, those thorns are sharp alright.

This one certainly lived up to it's hint of "thorny ".
We crouched down low ,looked , moved a few branches and looked again ....
Was not looking good , when harisree finally called out "found it ! "
We all felt like pincushions by then !

FITW Supernannny and Gorby

Really thorny and bit of a difficult find. # of us searched more than 15 minutes.. and the scare of a dnf crept in.. but... luckily I found this little sneaky one, with some scratches. tftc.

A group of us met to tackle the HRT Thames to Paeroa leg of caches, including ourselves, yorkshirekiwi83, KirsTim, Tikitour and Vistra. We signed as the EasterBs (bunnies, or bikers? We couldn't decide). The ride took us longer than anticipated, but it still made for a great day of caching with some fantastic company.

A quick find here. Thanks to everyone who has placed all the caches along the trail today. We really appreciate all your hard work!

Earlier in the year, tikitour and I decided we would team up and cycle the whole Hauraki Rail Trail over the long Easter weekend and look for all the caches along the way. On Good Friday we did the Thames to Paeroa leg and we were joined by yorkshirekiwi83, vamber and kirstim. The weather was overcast today and luckily the rain held off until the end of the day - we had a great day out! This took a bit of searching in a very prickly hiding place - and I discovered the electric fence was on! TFTC!

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**For information on the 2016 New Zealand Geocaching Adventure being held in Turangi, go to...**
[2016 New Zealand Geocaching Adventure](http://www.nzgeocachingadventure.nz)

Headed down south for a long weekend of cycling, walking and of course caching. Teamed up with Vistra for the three days and were joined by 6 others on the Friday. Started here from Thames heading down to Paeroa on day one of the HRT. There are a group of 8 of us so we have signed the log as a group the Easter B's to save log room. Thanks for the cache.(sorry about the same log).

Joined up with Vamber, Yorkshirekiwi83, Vistra & Tikitour to hit the HRT Thames to Paeroa bike ride. A long but successful trip, with all but 1 cache signed. Weather held off with only a few spits of rain, thanks for laying all these caches. Stuck my hand in the wrong thorny bush so left this one for the others to extract

A group of us met to combat the HRT Thames to Paeroa section, there was myself, Vamber, KirsTim, Tikitour and Vistra and we signed as the EasterB's. Took us longer than we expected but had a great ride, fabulous company and was a great day overall.

This was a particular nasty nice, lots of scratches from those who dived in to find it, thank you to all who laid caches out along the trail TFTC

**For information on the 2016 New Zealand Geocaching Adventure being held in Turangi, go to...**
[2016 New Zealand Geocaching Adventure](http://www.nzgeocachingadventure.nz)

Found it with some difficulty. Extremely thorny place! Sent hubby in to get it lol. TFTC.

An enjoyable ride with some of the EU Crew, dodging showers and looking around the countryside. Dealt with the bush - then with the cache. TFTC

We didn't know if the hint was a hint or a warning. We decided it was both and whilst we took a while to find this one, the log was duly signed.

Found with a crew of four, consisting of TNX Pro, KiwiMikeBOP, Tony S and myself. Log signed as DMTM for Dave, Mike, Tony, Matt.

TFTC.

Today was the day to attack the final leg of the Rail Trail - the last part that I had left to do. I sent out the smoke signals and it was answered by Kiwimikebop, Splattynz and his father Tony. S. Log signed as DMTM for Dave, Mike, Tony, Matt.

Ahh, this really was a prick to find. This one is clearly the standout cache of the series, but only because it was so bloody awful to find.

I cannot understand why anyone would intentionally place a cache in a thorny bush. There was a lot of cursing going on in the search and only after I had been zapped by the electric fence wire (NO NEED TO GO BEHIND THE FENCE POST) I found the location of the cache. Extracting it proved painful and like others before us, I drew blood and have scratches to show for it.

I know, I didnt HAVE TO, find it, but if you place it, people will want to find it.

May I suggest either add a thorny attribute to the listing or moving it away from the thorn bush, as I imagine that the bush has grown outwards now since it was placed and is very difficult to extract. In fact, I would even call it dangerous.

NOT COOL

The call went out from TNXPro for the final leg of the HRT we had left to do, so of course I could not miss this opportunity. Had a fantastic day out with TNX, Splatty and his Dad Tony. The weather was amazing and company great. Thank you to all the owners of the caches we found today

I was a little bit the wiser on this one and pointed out the bush and let Dave get mauled sorry TNX lol but agree with him it might need a new place maybe under the bridge or beside it as TNX arm did look worse for ware