HRT Te Aroha station (Matamata-Piako) Te Aroha, North Island, New Zealand
By vectis on 11-Dec-13. Waypoint GC4VA5F

It hasn't been possible to get hold of the group that looks after the station. They have done a lot of work on the building lately and I don't want to re-use the old hiding place because cachers would end up having to tramp across the new garden that has been placed at GZ. I will, reluctantley, archive this until I can sort out a new placement with the owners permission. Anyone local that wants to put a new cache here is welcome to do so and to use HRT as part of the name.

There has been a lot of work done to install a garden at GZ so it is no longer appropriate to have a cache in this position. I need to re-think this placement.

My third visit at the location. This time with previous finder. And we did not find it.
Looks like is missing.

This geocacher reported that the cache might be missing.

DNF. On 14 July 2020. Have found this one twice before but it appears to have gone ️

Too cold and hungry lol. Had a good look, know im missing something, will be back. Tftc!

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.

Two misses in a row. Bad way to finish

No luck here today.

I put a paper there
TftC

Had a quick look for this but could not find this time

Had a quick look, could not find

Looked everywhere no tail or cache

Berrydehamster and me are travelling in New Zealand for three weeks. We cross the country from north to south and back again by campervan, see a lot, do a lot, visit lots of places and meet a lot of people. It’s nice to be here and we have a great time.

As both of us are geocachers, we find a lot of caches on our travels. This is one of the caches we found. Thanks for your cache, vectis, that helped give us a wonderful time here.

NLBokkie and I are going on holiday to New Zealand for 3 weeks. In Auckland we rent a camper. We start on the North island and driving to the south to make the crossing to the South island. Here we make a round and then take the boat back to the North Island. A long trip, but a very beautiful one! We do and see a lot on our way.........…

In addition to being a tourist, we are also going to cache along the way. The virtuals and earth caches are often on tourism places. If we have a long day of traveling, we stop for some caches.
It were great weeks!

Yay found it

Another find

We found on the te aroha old car day festival (aroha cruise) near the train station was pretty easy

Lovely spot! Beautiful spring day. TFTC

Took a bit to find the tail. Thanks to photos & perserverance I found the tail & cache. Tftc

Nice find!

A nice quick find before lunch. Thanks for the cache

How cool is that!. Like the hint

My twins FOUND IT.
Signed log. Good clue. TFTC
Couldn’t find it a few months ago.

FOUND

Took longer than it should have to find. Enjoying the caches in the area

Finally!
I'm sure I looked there last time !
All good now....
I'm embarrased to admit I pulled quite a few incorrect tails in the wee engine...oooops.
Don't go there anyone!
Think I deserve a hot soak....forgot togs...hope there's a private spa!

There were Nana and grandson muggles at GZ when we arrived so we had to wait for the coast to be clear but once they had moved on the hint item was spotted.
A great cache to end our very enjoyable walk of the Paeroa to Te Aroha section of the trail.
A favourite point for the series. Thanks vectis.

Tail clearly seen once I looked in the right place. A favourite because of the series. Thank you.

Thanks for the railway explore.

Was on my way to meet up with a group of cachers to hike Mt Te Aroha this morning, so of course, I had to leave extra early and find caches along the way. Arrived in Te Aroha and still had time before we were meeting up, which meant I had time to find this cache. The cache was quickly spotted and signed.

Started from the Te Aroha end of the HRT to ride back to where we finished on Friday. We were watching the rain clouds gather in so tried to be as quick as we could to beat the rain. This first find, was a real cutie. Loved it. SL. TFTC.

Uff DNF here. Did a "good" search at GZ and thing mentioned my hint. Must be good hide. I hope is still there.
Thanks anyway.

That was tricky.... But found it!! Unfortunately no pen to sign the log book.

Checked and all is well. It is still there and well hidden.

Long searched and found nothing.

WE SWISS GUYS searched for ages and have not seen a thing..we even lay down and more poked our heads in everywhere !!

looked in the holes without luck. tried the new co ords but people at the mini train station so not able to have a thorough search .

Easy find!

Tftc.

I reckon the mower keeps getting this one.

Coordinates changed from:
S 37° 32.525 E 175° 42.524

Coordinates changed to:
S 37° 32.527 E 175° 42.526

Distance from original: 15.7 feet or 4.8 meters.

A more secure placement, I hope.

Looks like this one has gone again. Need to find a less exposed place for a cache.

Cache seems to be gone.
Only broken glass and snailshells found.

This geocacher reported that there is a problem with this cache.

No joy here. We spotted the likely hiding place, which matches the description, but there was nothing there.

Auf der Durchreise gefunden.

Greetings from Germany and
TFTC El_Mue

Third time here waiting for school group to arrive, thought it about time I got this cache. All good here. Been another busy school cycling camp, tired troopers off for a relaxing swim now. Thanks for the cache.

After lawnmower the cache seemed to be taken out of the hide [:o]. We found it open, lid 2m away but now - maintenance done for CO - everything is safe and sound again. TFTC #2443 say Die_Butzis on 6. Dezember 2018.
May the forest be with you.
Logsheet: OK, Cache: OK

Found it after biking the trail! It was a beautiful day!

Found it after biking the trail! It was a beautiful day!

Pleased this was re-actived when going thru. A grocery deivery truck was parked up nearby but able to retreive and replace OK. TFTC

Quick find thanks to the good hint. TFTC

Cache replaced with a temporary one. I will try and move it to a safer spot next month.

new cache container placed.

Disabled until I can replace it.

No go here

This geocacher reported that the cache might be missing.

I think its been moved- saw a photo which had a pole in it, pole is now gone

Searched all the hiding spots, checked a photo but think its been moved. Unfortunate.

Unsure if still there

We surched for ages could not find it???

DNF - housing is also developing in the area

Couldnt find may be missing

DNF

Found this on a trip to Matamata the day was good the cache was OK easy find TFTC

The station's a fitting place to end my trail. I think I'll go have a look around. TFTC.

TFTC found today after doing the Hauraki rail trail Te Aroha o Waikino return. Nice wee hide I find these plain sight hides under used and under rated very enjoyable.

Here hiking up the mountain today, so while they were having a bathroom break I headed over to the cache site for a quick dig around

Righto, that's lunch. Time for a coffee, a nibble then a return back along the trail. TFTC.
Cheers,
G.

Quick find. Log vvv wet so replaced!

Grassy with a rock on top

Found second time around. Log very wet couldnt sign.

In Te Aroha today for my Nana's funeral just around the corner, so before i got there i decided to grab a cache... cuz why not wasn't going to make me late or anything. Took a few minutes to locate but was a nice hot sunny day and in nice clothes so no one was going to think i was just lurking around. Well being Te Aroha i am sure i wasn't the only one lurking around town.

Before today i hadn't be here for 17 years, and not much has changed in the town really... same main street, same shops, same burger bar but different faces.

Anyway TFTC - Log is very wet so i took a picture.

Interesting place thanks for bringing me here, cheers

Drive by on the way to Rotorua.
I take a picture log because the log book is damp.

TFTC

NZPatoto organised the day trip in her motorhome, filled it with food and loaded bikes on the back. We set off to find 15 caches - 13 smiles and 2 DNF.  2 of 15 Found by NZPatoto. I found where it could possibly be but had to wait for muggles to leave. We waited & waited. In the end NZPatoto sat in the spot I reckoned and secretly retrieved the cache. Log signed and returned with them none the wiser. Had a little bit of exploration before eyeing the spot. TFTC

Nice day. I loaded the bikes onto the motorhome and packed food into the fridge. When Nahkins arrived, we headed off to do HRT from Te Aroha to SH26. Had a stop at Waihou(cache) then parked at back of Councils parking. Set off to find 15 of the Trail caches. Found 13 DNF 2. Had to dither around as 2 muggles arrived and leant their bike against the low wall. They were trying to figure out where they were going next. Nahkins whispered where it might be so after 5 minutes I sat down on the wall playing with my GPS and discreetly dug it out. SL and popped back. Lucky it was where Nahkins had said. One down 14 to go. TFTC

#5052. Had a short but enjoyable stay in Auckland. Now its time to head home to Wellington for Christmas. But first another mission. My DGSC bulk find challenge concludes on Boxing Day and by then I will be trying to find up to 200 caches to bring up 1500 qualifying finds this year. So have three full on days of geocaching before arriving home. I stayed overnight in Te Aroha so I can visit the old timer cache 101 today. Then heading south via the Napier-Taupo Rd and staying overnight in Hastings so I can have a big day out in southern Hawkes Bay/ Wairarapa on Friday. An early start and time to check out the railway station. Nice quick find here. The log sheet was damp but managed to sign it. Replaced the cache as found. Thanks for the cache vectis.

On Tuesday 28th November I tried to intentionally find 50 caches in a day but failed achieving only 38 finds as I ran out of both charge in my device and daylight. That was two days ago and I hate losing! So yesterday I decided to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch to hatch a plan that would ultimately bring success. And so my strategy for today is to start by collecting the caches along the Pit Rim Walkway in Waihi, and then focus on the cycle ways between Te Aroha and Paeroa, Paeroa and the Karangahake Gorge, and then back on the cycleway north of Paeroa on the way to Thames simply riding until completion. Also, I took a few photos during the day and I will share some of them with this log. So the first leg of the my cycle plan was to leave Te Aroha and cycle to Paeroa. And so that is how I came to be looking for this particular cache. So after arriving at this point by car, I soon had the cache in hand. However, as I made the grab, I think I may have been noticed by a guy at the workshop across the road... I'm not sure if this may be an issue with his curiosity... But log book signed. Also, as I was signing the log I heard thunder from above Mount Te Aroha... hmmm... could be a wet experience maybe? So thank you vectis for setting up this cache. I really appreciate your efforts in doing so as you helped me to explore this area today in a way that I probably never would have otherwise. TFTC!

Quick find but cache a bit exposed so covered with a small rock.

Having done quite a few of this series, I thought while I was down in Te Aroha I'd at least come and get this drive-by. Looking forward to coming back down from Auckland to complete the whole series. Need to bring along several other mad cachers willing to do this. I'm a happy man today... got my 5000th cache find on Wairere falls today!

Digging round helps!

Down in Te Aroha for a weekend escape. Have been marching up the mountain, relaxing at the spa, and now it's time for a spot of caching! Super quiet here today do found it easily. Not exactly where I first thought but close enough. Log is wet & mouldy but I still managed to sign. TFTC!

I've managed to wrangle a week off work after a busy winter. Had a meeting in New Plymouth last night, so once that was over, it was holiday time. Decided to head towards the Waikato, as I had solved all of the geo art there and was planning on concentrating my trip in that region.

Made it safely to Te Aroha and found my Airbnb. It's in a converted cowshed and I'm in the bit where the milk tank used to be. How awesome is that, great repurposing.

Headed out for dinner and noticed I was passing a cache so I had to stop. It was a quick find and as I was signing the log, a bunch of young boys came past talking about taking the olden day's bike home to fix (it was not that old, a couple years old at most, just dirty and rusty) and it made me laugh. tftc

This was my first one! Great stuff!

Staying in area found

Had to dig a bit but found it. Was worried it may not of been there because of all the dnf but it is. Yay never been the first to ever sign a log before TFTC

Nothing to see here unfortunately.....

Our last one for the day and unfortunately a DNF. Pretty obvious where it should be but unfortunately it was not to be.

We were pretty tired after cycling from Waihi to this point so must admit we didnt out a lot of effort into searching after the previous log. We had a little look and came up empty handed sad to finish our day in a DNF.

On a 4 week trip through NZ we found severel nice GC. What a trip and what a beauty to find all those GC.
2 attempts and we didnt find it. Not our day... Thank you nevertheless

Nicely placed

Awesome

Have just finished about half of the trail from here towards Paeroa and enjoyed the ride many thanks for placing these here will give this one a fp
Others will be logged by my GPS so they look a bit impersonal please forgive

Quick find. No muggles around because of heavy rain and stormy winds. But nothing to hold me back from a geocache!
TFTC!

Biking the rail trail today. This is our start! Found by my mum. Tftc

Used to live in this awesome town just here for the day it feels good to be home!!! Tftc

In Te Aroha for our Wedding Anniversary, so I wandered down here yesterday for a look-see. Didn't find it because my info was out of date, so returned today with the updated co-ordinates for an easy find. Te Aroha seemed to be very sleepy for a holiday weekend. I guess everybody was off at a beach somewhere. TFTC.