HRT Bridge D3 (Hauraki) Tirohia, North Island, New Zealand
By vectis on 11-Dec-13. Waypoint GC4VA64

Quick find. So many carp in the stream.

Didnt take long to find this one. No trolls but lots of carp. Tftc

Happy to change this one to a smiley face- thanks for all the maintenance on this trail.

Replaced container and log

HRT Bridge D3 (Hauraki) was transferred from vectis to user pomtom44

Day #2 of our two day adventure doing the Rail Trail with BearCache #49Total found so far: 43Glad I didn't need to go under this bridge, was a quick and easy recovery, sign, and replace

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 sadly we had a bike breakdown so didn't manage to complete the Paeroa - Te Aroha section of the HRT.

Like the previous log said. No need to troll any more.

There were no trolls under this bridge- we were far too adventurous and then it was found not where we had been exploring

Another DNF today

Tried hard. Couldn’t locate

Didn't look like an easy way through after the cyclone

Took some time to locate the cache. Found it with one last effort on journey back up. TFTH

Not quite where a troll would like to be but close enough. TFTC

Not as far under the bridge for thus troll

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 ... #2,872 for us.

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

No joy locating this cycling to Paeroa so had another look on the return trip. read previous logs and peered from upper level and spotted likely object down low in tangled weeds. I think it had slide from a likely hidy hole. Replaced broken container and secured in location behind a small rock. mind the electric wire but bottom wire safe to go under to retrieve. tftc

We stayed in Te Aroha with the goal of finding the remaining caches on the HRT that dud not have a smilie face. Quick find. TFTC.

Lid came off when opening but it secures nicely after signing log [8]

Thanks for your amazing cache.

Been in Auckland visiting family. Now heading home. Stayed in Paeroa last night at the railway reserve. $5 for a camper van so well worth it. It’s right at the start of the cycle way. Got up early this morning and headed out on the bike towards Te Aroha. Made it about halfway. Found 12 caches and 2 DNF. Quick find. Cache all fine. Thanks for the smiley.

We were cycling the Hauraki Rail Trail from Te Aroha to Paeroa and back (46km). Quick find here with the hint and we were back on our bikes. TFTC

No trouble in finding cache, log signed and placed back as found. 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. Spent quite a while looking for this one down below but without success. Scrolled through some of the earlier logs and saw one which stated that the cache wasn’t in fact below the bridge! On my way up I spotted it near the top. That was pleasing after all that time I’d wasted down below! #3566. 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.

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.
There's a real troll problem around here!!!
Thanks for putting it here to entice me along this trail

Found this Cache on our way from Matamata to Thames. TFTC

No need to climb down. I found cache on way back up.

Another good caching day. Thanks

Found it, ta!

Thought I was going to have a shocking time finding this one but was very easy! TFTC

We were pleased to see a previous finder had replaced this one, especially since it appears to be in a slightly more accessible place than the clue suggests the previous one was.
A nice quick find. TFTC.

We were despairing over the weather today, however we decided to give it a go and see how far we got along trail. We were trying out our new suspension posts on our seats and we managed quite a way before turning back. We will do the rest of the trail from Te Aroha end another day. It turned out to be a lovely afternoon and there n back we covered 23.5 km which is not too shabby. Quick find here. 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.
Had spare container , fresh arrivals from my workshop. Left at GZ as looks like hide here is gone. I hope CO is ok with that.
TFTC

Naaah... not for me this one.

Ugly to much cow shit to overgrown and too many electric fences. Ta

So many bridges and such high water. Mud Mud Mud. T4tc

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.  13 of 15 Found by Nahkins. Helped with the looking. Couldn't sit to sign log as the ants were just too many. Ant City and lots of carp in the river. 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. Nahkins got this. She had the ant problem this time. Log is okay. Put back in it's space. TFTC

Had a good crawl around with no luck so carried on along the trail for a bit. On my way back as I was about to have another look I noticed something I'd not seen on my first visit, nice and clear of any high water levels, TFTC

Out in the area, starting off with some of the HRT caches, haven't been on the bike for awhile and decided to put my new bikerack to good use. Don't let the copy/paste log detract from the effort you've put in to set up this trail.

TFTC vectis, the cache was found in good order Signed, sealed and returned to GZ. 1 find(s) of 7 today, making this find #1662

Quick find, TFTC.

Nearly missed this....crawled below in all four ends but no joy ... boo.
Then looked in somewhere completely different and there it was !
Then looked at logs and saw Spiderhouse replaced it and chose new place....

Again Mr Troll and again we were successful in finding it.

On a HRT cycling adventure with Beconaze. Signed log as Gernaze. Cold now! Hint didn't quite seem right for where we found it. TFTC

The cache was protected by an electric fence today. Lots of interesting places but found in an easy one. TFTC.

Found ...thanks Spiderhouse for putting a replacement here and in my option I believe in a much safer position from the flood waters ....almost feel like a second to find thanks Vectis for your great efforts

Glad swimming wasn't an option today. This cache is now safe and dry. Thanks Vectis.

Mr S played Troll while Mrs S played The Little Billy Goat but after an extensive hunt Mr S came to the conclusion that the cache had been washed away in the recent floods. We had a spare container and log with us so replaced it. Was not going to DNF one in the middle of the trail.

Thanks for this trail Vectis. Almost finished this end. Time to start on the Waihi stretch.

Did not even try for this one as the water was touching the underside of this bridge

Doing these on our bikes from Paeroa after a lot of rain last night the day turned out fine so after breakfast we were off on our bikes many thanks for placing these caches for others to enjoy as we did

Tftc

TFTC
Cheers

A bit of clambering, but quick find. 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...

A big cycle through to get to this point... I had to walk a bit, as it's been ages since I rode a bike... Another quick find after carefully navigating over and under the electric wire. TFTC.

Cycling and caching between Paeroa and Te Aroha. A beautiful sunny day to be out enjoying the countryside.
A bit of a scramble under the electric wire to reach the cache. TFTC!

The troll must have been out for the afternoon but left the cache here for me to find, which I did.
Signed the log and replaced as found
TYFTC

2.05pm. Had to negotiate the long grass to get to this one but all good.
Thank You. David.

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

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.
Considering the amount of troll houses I've been in today, I have yet to see a troll lol, and no spiders here either.
A quick find as to be expected.
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.

Getting the hang of the bridge hides so another nice quick find here. Also finally getting the hang of cycling over the cattle grids!

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.

Getting very familiar with the design of these bridges!

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 day for a ride with Pottypete*

Tftv

tftc nice wee ride

Hide hide great start on the trail

This was about the only one on this section with a totally dry 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.

Lots of good bridges built for the trail - looked under quite a few of them today!

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 scramble beneath the structure, avoiding any trolls.

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. This cache was not a D3, so I am beginning to think that the bridge numbers do not correspond to the difficulty of the caches. 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.

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 eleventh 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, and a D3 (bridge that is).

TFTC

#26 of 74 caches found today.
#9 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

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.

More trolls! Thanks for the hide!

Found on the way awesome

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.

Where!!

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

Been a while since the last bridge from memory so time to get off and have a nosey underneath. Didn't take too much effort and there it was - TFTC

Had a DNF here last September when the cache went walk-about, so it was nice to finally get back and claim the smiley for this one. TFTC

Good to get off couch back caching. Had to borrow my darling wife's phone

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

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

T4T$ no grumpy short men around today

Out on the trail with the geo kids to find new caches on the way to Te Aroha a great day was had by all except the geo dogs who got to stay at home

We were interested to see this appeared to be based on an old railway bridge, not a completely new construction like the others we saw today. More troll practice! Cache in good condition. TFTC!