HRT Bridge D10 (Matamata-Piako) Te Aroha, North Island, New Zealand
By vectis on 11-Dec-13. Waypoint GC4VA5Q

Out with rattll on the Hauraki Rail Trail on a warm Saturday morning, me for the first time, she filling in gaps. A good day for an easy ride, stopping to find caches every so often. Thanks for keeping the series going!A quick find here, as per the hint. All good. Signed, and returned as found. Tftc!

Cache Check All ok

HRT Bridge D10 (Matamata-Piako) was transferred from vectis to user pomtom44

Found - Watch out for the trolls!!!!

Quick find in the obvious spot.Thanks.

The muggle cows were interested in what we were doing! Tftc!

4 on our trail today. TFTC

very fun third HRT #16 TFTC

Nice shady spot

Had to fight off a big troll to get this one! TFTC

The bridges all nice fun, all in slightly different spots

Found after a short search today 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 at Te Aroha for a few days … as the weather was supposed to be fine, we decided we’d ride part of the Hauraki Rail Trail (HRT) today, doing the Te Aroha to Paeroa Section & return … thought it would be rude not to check out some caches on the way … this one turned out to be an easy find … pleased to add another 'smiley face' to the tally … TFTC ... TN:LN:SL ... #2,869 for us.

Great day out with buzzybb. Quick find. All good. Tftc

A nice quick find here, on a good day out with Kimbathelion…. Taking our long detour home! TFTC

School holidays so biking from Paeroa to Te Aroha with x2 tweenie witches. TFTC all of them have kept them going.

A slow trip up to Auckland for the Mega next weekend. Stayed with friends in Te Aroha for the night. Got up early for some biking before it gets too hot. Had already done the northern end of this series so pleased to finish it off. Just one DNF that’s left for next time. The other hides were reasonably straight forward. Fortunately the trolls were out today. Cache/log all fine. Thank for placing these caches and getting me out doing some exercise.

Stayed in Te Aroha for a couple of days with the goal of finding several caches on the cycle trail that did not have a smilie. Quick find. TFTC.

Provided a bit of shade when grabbing this. [8]

Nice quick find on a beautiful bike ride

Found with BoertjieRSA.
Thanks for the cache.

From Auckland.
TFTC. Found with VinnigeVoete

Already found caches in the following countries:
1 South Africa, 2 New Zealand, 3 Australia, 4 USA, 5 Spain, 6 Portugal, 7 Latvia, 8 Estonia, 9 Finland, 10 Andorra, 11 Antigua and Barbuda, 12 Saint Lucia, 13 St Kitts, 14 Netherlands Antilles, 15 Qatar, 16 Mozambique, 17 Swaziland, 18 France, 19 Belgium, 20 Italy,
21 Croatia, 22 Montenegro,
23 Greece, 24 Slovenia,
25 Netherlands
26 Botswana, 27 Namibia, 28 Russia, 29 Turkey, 30 Zambia, 31 Tanzania, 32 Kenya,, 33 Rwanda, 34 Uganda, 35 Malawi,
36 Zimbabwe, 37 Singapore , 38 UK England, 39 Ireland

TFTC

Thanks for your amazing cache.

We were cycling the Hauraki Rail Trail from Te Aroha to Paeroa and back (46km). Quick find here in the obvious spot. A few wasps around so were glad to complete the formalities here quickly and get back on our bikes.

Found cache ok, but log was so wet I was unable to sign it, so I have placed waterproof log paper in cache. Cheers

One of 11 located on a ride along part of the Hauraki Rail Trail today with the intention of enjoying the ride and picking up a few caches. My caching companion, my sister, managed to find this one without much difficulty. #3562. TFTC.

Found it

In the open, so we hid it better.
Log is very wet.
Thanks for placing the cache.

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.

Mrs rattll was back on the trail this morning with the intention of riding through to Te Aroha.
Lots more people on the trail during the day time, which meant having to check carefully for oncoming muggles in both directions before starting the search.
No problems making the find here, but had to kind of etch my name into the wet log sheet.
Thanks for putting it here to entice me along this trail

Damp log sheet. I'm caching and running the 22km to Paeroa while our son plays cricket. Thanks for the series!

We have been a bit over enthusiastic with these bridge hides recently resulting in a few head bumps so we were extra careful this time. We saw the remains of a large wasp nest nearby and were very pleased to see the former residents had vacated,
The cache was soon spotted nicely tucked away. Thanks vectis.

Shall I stay in the house as it spits? TFTC

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 one gave us all sorts of troubles, we spent ages first pass by and couldn't locate, on our return journey, the other half of the team clambered under and got on knees trying to avoid the wasps, must have been cool enough, they were sleepy thank goodness, anyway finally spotted the hide. SL. TFTC.

Found during my second visit to Hauraki Rail Trail. This time did Section D: Paeroa to Te Aroha - 55km both ways with some extra caching in Paeroa and Te Aroha. Great hides and enjoyed my bike trip so much. Light wind on the way back but much easier than previous time.
Another bridge hide. TFTC

No trolls and no wasps spotted today, didn't know about wasps until I read the log after the fact.

Log later

thought this was going to be easy but guarded by some nasty paper wasps in the long grass . got 3 stings getting in and out. take care. found where expected.

TFTC

Found tftc. Enjoying the ride, not many peoples through here lately.

Not here

Its a good thing I am short and not afraid of mud. T4tc

Started off on wrong side at first. But found quickly once in the right place. Nice and cool under here. Glad I'm not to tall. Drop a tb here. Tftc

Nice to get down in the shade here. Good hide cheers

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.  6 of 15 Found by Nahkins. Had to help look for this one. Found on ground so have placed it high up above waterline (hopefully) in a likely 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. My turn but I was having trouble. Nahkins found on ground. I was looking up. SL an put up. TFTC

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. When it came to finding this one the hint was perfect and it was a nice quick find. I was startled here as another cyclist went over the bridge at pace while I was under it... He/she must have been flying as I didn't even see any other cyclists on the track before I went under the bridge. So log book signed... cache back in its home. So thank you vectis for setting up this cache series along this cycleway. I really appreciate your efforts as you helped me to explore this area today in a way that I probably never would have otherwise. TFTC!

This has been a great adventure and an enjoyable ride thanks Vectis nice quick find at this cache

Parked at the hall and headed south with 4 year old in tow but gave up as trainer wheels meant the back wheel didn't grip more often than not. Ditched him and made much better progress. The troll kept this safe and dry. Thanks for the placement vectis

Quick find, TFTC.

Nearly gave up here as getting dark ....got out my torch and looked somewhere I thought I'd checked....and there it was !
Phew .

Quick find like the others around the bridges

On a HRT cycling adventure with Beconaze. Signed log as Gernaze. Cold now! TFTC

If I ever meet a troll, I'm going to have some very strong words about all these damn geocaches he's been placing! TFTC.

TFTC, found with Polargirl while exploring the Te Aroha end of the Hauraki Rail Trail. Found once we searched the correct side of the bridge

This was our first time on the Hauraki Rail Trail. We'd never heard of it as we've only recently moved to the area. This was a good excuse to explore. Surprisingly this cache was nice and dry. TFTC

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.

Nice quick find here exactly where and how it should be.

Thanks for the smiley and the placement.

Submitted via Garmin Oregon 7xx

TFTC

TFTC
Cheers

Little wasp nest around so be careful. Tftc

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...

The troll was away, and this was a quick find. A couple cycled over while we were under... TFTC.

Cycling and caching between Paeroa and Te Aroha. A beautiful sunny day to be out enjoying the countryside.
A short scramble and soon had the cache. TFTC!

Last one for me today and after a little scramble the cache was in hand.
Signed the log and replaced as found, now to ride back to where I started from.
TYFTC

12.35pm. Able to pick up 2 on this walk, now back to the car.
Thank You. David.

Went for an afternoon bike ride from Te Aroha to Paeroa and back, lots of caches found and a few DNFs. This one was a quick and easy find. Signed log, TFTC

We formulated a plan and decided today would be a very nice day to tackle some of the Rail Trail that has been on our to do list for too long. We headed to Te Aroha and the start of the trail, with the intention of getting what we could without over-doing it. We had plenty of water and a packed lunch. We also came armed with new log paper and little baggies because our research had indicated some of the logs were very wet.

This was #4 on our list and Mr S was hunting when Mrs S blithely cycled onwards. He thought she was going to the next one. She thought he was miles ahead. Wrong on both counts.

Thanks vectis. One more smilie for us.

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 today (Saturday) we are doing the Te Aroha to Paeroa leg, joined by 3 muggle friends of tikitour's. Whilst a shorter leg than yesterday it was a much hotter day, but still a nice ride. This cache was soon found along the way. TFTC!

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Day 2 of our cycle ride. Teamed up with vistra and 3 muggle friends to do this stage on a hot morning. the track was fairly clear with not too many other muggles which allowed for easy caching finds. With only 1 DNF on the track it was a great day. Thanks for placing all the caches, all found in good condition and hidden well.

I got today off work and decided to head to Te Aroha to cycle the rail trail to Paeroa and back on a caching mission.
The 6am start was unusual for me, hit the road before 7am.
The first of the Troll homes. I'm not a fan of spiders but this location was all good, no creepy crawlies here, that I saw anyway lol
A quick find. I remember a lot of the logsheets on this trail were soggy but can't recall exactly which ones.
Recommend replacing with water proof paper when possible.
Thanks for the cache

Joined forces with 11hpg11 to tackle the Paeroa-Te Aroha leg of the HRT series today. These caches have been on our to-do list for such a long time now, having both missed out on previous group missions to the trail. Neither of us are confident cyclists, so a section at a time plus sorting transport to enable one-way cycling seemed the best plan to us, which meant we cycled about 22km today; not in a rush and took about 3 hours all up, including all the various caching stops and breaks. Thanks heaps for setting up the trails: great excuse for some exercise on a sunny late summer Sunday & to explore somewhere new to me.

Another bridge, another quick find here - thanks for the hide!

Finally back here again, this time to conquer the HRT once and for all. Last time I had no babysitter so helped out with transport. Which meant I was looking at doing these solo. It was a little while ago that Kiwi69 mentioned she also needed to do these and that set the ball rolling. After both sorting out our leave passes and making sure each of our cars could fit 2 bikes we set a date to conquer the first leg. As we are not cyclists we decided to divide it up into 3 'manageable' chunks to avoid being complete write offs when we get home and the next day! Today we did the Paeroa to Te Aroha section. Paeroa was quiet when we arrived but soon got a lot busier with the Street Races on, lucky we got a park nice and early! Signed logs as either our names or K11 to save room.

Speedy find here thanks!

Thanks for all the work in setting up these trails, great to have the caches to stop at along the way.

On a geocaching holiday around the area.

Nice quick find here. SL
Enjoying the good caches on the way.
Thanks for the fun!

*out for the hot days riding with Potty pete*

Wasps oh no. Tftc

nice wee hide tftc

Easy find and a nice hide thanks

Swarmed by sandflys! Another great find

Spotted the likely door from above, went down and wasn't dissapointed.

TFTC

Having done the Paeroa Waihi leg some months ago, this was my opportunuty to take the next step
with the one to Te Aroha. Had the chance to try out an electric bike this time, but still took some effort.
Good weather and not many folks on the trail. Only the Thames to do now. Tftc.

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 Q15 and finally logging 02 04 2024 as NurseDr.

Out with a the group of biking cachers doing the HRT series from Paeroa to Te Aroha today. most enjoyable ride and awesome to pick up all the well set out caches along the way. log signed as Q15 for the group. sorry for my late logs.

Found as part of the geocacher expedition consisting of Auckland and Tauranga cachers riding the HRT from Paeroa to Te Aroha. The log was signed Q15 as a group log.

One of many deviations below trail level and well lookee here, it's a cache! TFTC

After a successful fun day riding the Paeroa to Waihi leg of this trail we were back to tackle this part. The weather could not have been better, the company lots of fun and the scenery well it was farmland what can I say...

Thanks so much for placing this cache series and giving us an excuse to get out on our bikes. Signed as Q15 (short for Queen 2015 as its Queens Birthday weekend).

Out with a large group of cachers biking the HRT from Paeroa to Te Aroha. TFTC.

Out with a bunch of cachers today, doing the Paeroa to Te Aroha. Was a great day. All logs signed with our team name “Q15” in honour of her majesty the queen, as we did this on her birthday weekend.

Was a great easy ride. Thanks for placing these caches

Another part of the HRT trail today. A group of us had done the Paeroa to Waihi a few weeks previous and decided today to tackle to Paeroa to Te Aroha leg.

The weather was brilliant and was a great turnout with people from Auckland and Tauranga attending.

As this was the Queens Birthday weekend we signed the log as Q15 in honour of the occasion.

TFTC and placing the trail.

Found this while out on a bike ride with a group of other cachers from Tauranga and Auckland. The log was signed by our group as Q15 as we did this on Queens Birthday 2015. A good long bike ride for us, but great fun, and great company on the ride, very tired at the end. TFTC.

Wow what a day #74 caches in the end, Stating at 6.30am when TNXPro picked me up in Tauranga. We where heading to the event Paeroa to do the HRT Rail trail down to Te-Aroha. We decided to leave early and clear the Matamata caches on everything on the way. Had an awesome trip then after the ride did the Golden Cross Series, the caches around the Martha Mine and to finish of the day a night right down Waihi Beach to Bowentown clearing the new series down there, even a couple of FTF's in the mix. Thank you to all the cache owners as I might be using copy and paste a bit with logging 74 caches. Really enjoyed the day and what a mission time for some well needed rest.

We signed the logs for the trail as a group name of Q15 as it was Queens Birthday weekend.

#34 of 74 caches found today.
#16 of this leg of the trail.
Found and signed with a group of enthusiasts under the name Q15 for the Queens birthday weekend.
Thanks for bringing us here on a beautiful day.

Met with a group of cachers in Paeroa and we cycled down to Te Aroha (signed as Q15), I had a fabulous time and really enjoyed the cycle. Was a little concered about fitness but we kept a steady pace and only started to feel a bit sore 2/3 of the way through.

Thanks for setting the trails up they are great, and have been on my to do list for a while, glad to have completed this one.

Quick and easy find TFTC

A group planned an assault today on the Paeroa to Te Aroha rail trail after having cycled the other trail to Waihi a month ago.
This was the nineteenth for the day and the weather was superb.

Signed log as Q15 ( for Queen 15 due to it being Queens Birthday weekend 2015)

Thanks for placing this series of caches promoting cachers to get out and see new places.

TFTC.

We were out with a group of cachers today, tackling the Paeroa-Te Aroha leg of the HRT series. Never having done a bike ride this long before, we were pretty happy with our effort for the day! Thanks heaps for setting up the trails, it is so nice to get out and do caches by bicycle for a change. These have been on our to-do list for such a long time now, so with a few legs done now, we can't wait to get back and finish them off! Logs have been signed at Q-15 since there was such a large group of us, so this was to save time and log sheets.

Almost at the end! The wind was getting strong here. Thanks for the hide!

Found on the trail making good time

With mike

This is the second day for me on the Hauraki Rail Trail. This time it is from Paeroa to Te Aroha. I decided to head South this morning before the afternoon sou'wester kicked in for my return trip to Paeroa. It was definitely the right decision.

You missed a few bridges.

Cheers for the cache.

Two of the team did the trail from Te Aroha to Paeroa this morning. Great day for a cycle ride and they only had to do one way as the mum of the team picked them up from Paeroa. Many thanks for placing these caches and apologies for the generic logs. TFTC