HRT Trees R us (Matamata-Piako) Te Aroha, North Island, New Zealand
By vectis on 11-Dec-13. Waypoint GC4VA5T

I am archiving this cache since there's been no response from nor action by the cache owner within the time frame requested in a prior reviewer note.

This might well have gone, but I won't be home until March, so I am disabling cache until then.

pretty sure trees been cut down, not sure has a good look everywhere

No luck.

Been some tree pruning which might explain why this one was last found in May.

Climbed a tree but could not see any sign if it. Trees have been trimmed

No luck here today, lots of branches around…

Stayed in TeAroha last night and headed off on track this morning, wanting to find 2 DNF from my 2017 trip. Was not disappointed this time.
Chere's

Quick find. Only the odd cyclist around. Tftc

Not too busy here today, just the odd cyclist passing making the most of the lovely weather. A nice quick find. 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. Cache/log all fine. This one took a bit longer until I got the right angle. Thank for placing these caches and getting me out doing some exercise.

Nicely hidden away, cheers [8]

Happened to stop at just the right place

Sneaky hide.
Thanks for your amazing cache.

We were cycling the Hauraki Rail Trail from Te Aroha to Paeroa and back (46km). Glad this cache wasn't up too much higher as we wouldn't have been able to reach it. TFTC

After a short time of looking, spotted cache in its snug hiding place. Signed log and placed back as found. Cheers

We located 11 caches while riding along part of the Hauraki Rail Trail today, but this wasn’t one of them. Endeavoured to find this one without getting over the fence, although I did fleetingly at one point. Wasn’t sure which tree it was in and gave up after a few minutes of searching – we were on the return leg at this stage and running out of steam and enthusiasm!

Found it
Was on the ground so we put it back where we thought it was meant to be

Thank you. Greta hide

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.
I'm starting to see a few more people as I near town.
Thanks for putting it here to entice me along this trail

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

Very happy to get a find here after a fail 2 years ago!
Didn't even need to stretch as some others mentioned!
Was preparing to wait for a tall passing cyclist!

We thought this one might take a bit of searching but we were very lucky and happened to look in the right spot straight away.
Nice hide, thanks vectis.

Found just before a walker came along. First person I have seen on the trail today.

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. A nice green glade and quick find. 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.
GPS bouncing for a bit but found it when steady.
TFTC

I too am loving this part of the trail. Trees... trees... trees, gotta love them when it's stifling hot like today! parked up here, and had to wait out more cyclists. Finding the right tree also took a minute or 2 but after a good stretch, managed to find what I was looking for.

Log later

quick find out biking this morning. tftc

Nice stop in the shade

Quick find, thanks for the caches along the track.

A wee hunt around but got there in the end. T4tc

Riding Paeroa / Te Aroha and return today: didn't do all caches, just a sample at each end and the middle. Managed to squeeze a minions keyring in here. TFTC.
Cheers,
G.

Like this part of the track with the trees. Lol. Bit of a challenge for the short. But made the grab. Tftc

Checked a few places before reading some previous logs. Something about step up... well that surely eliminates the side with the electric fence. On my third sweep I found this nice 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.  7 of 15 Found by NZPatoto. Had to have a bit of a look for this one 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. Okay my turn. Lucky as I am taller than Nahkins so I was able dig out cache quite easily. SL. All good. 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. After reading the hint on this one and looking at the spot for some reason I thought it was going to take a lot longer than it did. It was actually a nice quick find (he says surprisingly!). 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!

Quick find after reading logs. TFTC.

Too tricky to continue search here as dark now...
Looks to be a great hide though. .. will be back !
Someone mentioned a climb ?

Nice hide location for this one. Quickly returned as we are getting cold but getting nearer to the end for today

On a HRT cycling adventure with Beconaze. Signed log as Gernaze. Cold now! Well hidden and an interesting retrieve. TFTC

Expected it to be a lot harder but a quick scramble and a quick find. TFTC.

Wow the tree trimmer has recently passed by and had really given the trees a good hair cut......I thought this may be a bit of a problem ....but I was able to use the natural ladder to locate and sign ...cache all in good condition thanks Vectis for setting this trail ...love it

This got me going a bit, but all was revealed eventually. Obviously well placed to avoid being trimmed! Thanks vectis

TFTC, found with Polargirl while exploring the Te Aroha end of the Hauraki Rail Trail. Weren't sure if this one was going to be successful, but found after a short search.

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. Found after a short search. TFTC

We found it yay

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 .

Did a Fap and Gap here stamped a big piece of wood here CO might want to check this one

Submitted via Garmin Oregon 7xx

Recent clearing/cutting of trees along here suggestes that it has gone, BUGGA!!

HRT Trees R Trimmed

Not quite where i thought it would be, but found eventually. 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

Cycling and caching between Paeroa and Te Aroha. A beautiful sunny day to be out enjoying the countryside.
A privet corridor! Luckily they were not in flower. TFTC!

A nice quick find once my gpsr settled down. Retrieved the cache signed the log and
replaced as found
TYFTC

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

Back to pick up one or two we missed last time.

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 #5 on our list and more confusion. Mrs had cycled on too far and come to a halt at the road, uncertain of just where the trail was from there. No sign of Mr S. Out with the phone. No Answer. A call back from Mr S revealed the confusion, he was actually still behind, not miles out in front. Ooooppss. Mrs S must have had her eyes painted on when she cycled on, back at the last one, because she didn't see either Mr S or his bike bedside the trail. Oh dear. . All was forgiven after some hasty explanations and on to the next one.

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.
A quick find but took a while to retrieve the container, my gloved hands were just too big and clumsy, but got there in the end. A welcome shady spot to sign the log before heading on.
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.

Left a new waterproof log in this one, 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.

Up up up and there it was. Glad to be wearing a helmet while dodging branches.

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

SEARCHED UP AND UP NO LUCK

nice one on a nice day

Yes Up Up and away alright

Up up & away

This one was saturated, thank goodness for the waterproof log.

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.

Nice variety of hides and another one soon found. SL 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.

Quick find by the posse, on we go towards Te Aroha

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.

#33 of 74 caches found today.
#15 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 eighteenth 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.

Quickly spotted here. Thanks for the hide!

Found, what a run was a little damp

Mike and i

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.

Didn't see the shop front anywhere.

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

This was a nice stretch to ride along, and I must have been in the zone somewhat at this point as I managed to spot at exactly the right spot and found the cache straight away (not how it usually goes).

Nearing the end now, TFTC

No muggles here!

Log a little wet but my pen worked

Had me going a few mins looking for this one. As other have said the pruning of the area helps to find this one. Walking from Te Aroha must be time to head back. Tftc

Nice one! After I'd finished work not too far off, I had time for a bit of a wander along the rail trail from here. I decided to try and see how far I could get, starting from Te Aroha, with the time (and energy) available. I really wish I had my bike with me!! No problems finding any of these caches and really enjoyed the walk. Thanks for setting up the trail and TFTC, Biggles.

Riding the trail with friends and grabbing the caches in the way TFTC!!!

652 On my way to Paeroa for street racing tomorrow. Last year I did the Waihi trail so this year it is Te Aroha.

Cool one! It seems some recent pruning has made this an easy one. Great hide. Tftc

Tftc. Nice hide, which i suspect has been made a lot easier due to some recent pruning in the area. Unfortunately, its now rather exposed.