Collins Drive West (Coromandel) Coromandel Forest Park, North Island, New Zealand
By stretch.kerr on 07-Jan-14. Waypoint GC4WMKY

loved this one and the other tunnels too! TFTC

Accio 07:32:30After a strenuous mountain climb a couple days ago, and a quieter driving day yesterday, Stairman1 and I went looking for a fresh adventure today. 3 perfect sunny cool days in a row has made this trip truly stunning. And today we are here!After a great climb up the path to get to the start of the tunnel, we popped on headlamps and 'went in'. Wow wow wow. I absolutely loved this tunnel. half a click of total darkness, a steady walk, rock markings, the traces of shoring, water, glowworms, the silence. Stunned that this place exists for us to enjoy.Quick search around on the wrong side for the cache, but eventually the numbers made sense to me (not sure why I was mathematically turned around) and the find was made safe and sound. Absolute highlight!Thanks stretch.kerr for entertaining me at this location. *{Overall find #12330}*

Found today with Pprime. We had to visit Alice a couple of days ago and had a few says up out sleeve. Another great day greeted us so a bit of a drive from Tapu had us here for a bit more walking.This is a cool tunnel. We had come armed with our torches. Really enjoyed this cache.The cache took us a bit to locate but all is good here.Fav point from me.TFTC

Location, location, location - this tunnel is definitely worth a hike and was one of our highlights on the island. The glowworms were perfect to watch, the one closed side passage looked like something out of Indiana Jones and it was also beautifully secluded. We are happy to leave a favourite point here, even if the box is "only" outside.Lage, Lage, Lage - dieser Tunnel ist definitiv eine Wanderung wert und war eins unserer Hhepunkte auf der Insel. Die Glhwrmchen liessen sich perfekt beobachten, der eine geschlossenen Seitengang wirkte wie aus Indiana Jones und schn einsam war es auch. Da lassen wir gerne einen Favoritenpunkt da, auch wenn die Dose "nur" auerhalb liegt.

Found - Mrs McMike2012 & I now live full-time in our caravan & travel the country visiting places we want to visit & doing the things that we want to do we are currently parked up at the DoC Broken Hills Campsite near Tirua weve always enjoyed looking at the remains of both our Gold Mining & Coal Mining operations wherever we happen to be absolutely blown away by the Collins Drive Tunnel the length & the amount of work that went into this must have been phenomenal the cache was easily found, completed & replaced pleased to add another 'smiley face' to the tally TFTC ... TN:LN:SL ... #4,617 for us!

Great walk fun going over the hill tftf and for bringing me here found 15 dollars on the ground walking here after the hill i said hope i find 50Well well cache had 50 cents in it was hoping on dollars but guess i was clear enough lol

An easy found after the walk through the dark hole in the mountain. Tftc with favo for the complete round from macajoh

Found before entering the tunnels, took us a while to figure out where it is. The tunnels are amazing, tftc

Found it during our trip. Amazing place. It is easy to find, but it took us a while. Tftc

Tunnel was the highlight of the hike. Amazing!! There were glow worms and weta in the tunnel too.
Found the cache the hard way, noticed a geotrail on the way out...

Nice area. About to enter tunnel. Tftc.

Wow... That was a quick find and log on my second visit today and only after finding the right fallen one...

Thank you for the cache

Find number 7444. A few months ago when I came thru this area I completely forgot about this one so today I had time. There seemed a geotrail in but probably just a trail that lead to cache. Pleased to get this one this time. Thank you for the placement.

Quick find while the others stood by the tunnel scoffing lollies

Third cache found on New Years Day, staying at Broken Hills. TFTC

This was meant to be a flat 1hr walk! Yeh right!. I have just spent an hour slogging up the hill. Now for the down hill and this tunnel. Which was on the Seagnoid radar from the start. Well conned on this trip. Got this one snagged and tagged. Cheers. Now the tunnel. but before venturing in I need tp put on a jacket or Ill freeze.

Day 11 - Monday 28 December - Pauanui - Puketui Valley - Whangamata. Another full on day and hills to conquor!

The Seagnoid, Zara, Toby and I are off on another geocaching escape over Xmas, this time to the mighty Coromandel, then over to Opotiki and stop off at Rotorua to return home on 5 January. Had an fabulous time exploring many wonders of our country. Rounding up over 400 caches along the way, with a few LABS, 20 odd TMGTs, virtuals and lots of interesting earth caches to keep the mind busy. Watching the sun come up on New Years Day at Mt Maunganui was spectacular. Lots of walking and even more driving. But had an awesome time. Thanks to all COs who made this adventure so special.

Having walked up the hill widdershins, the dragon and I were - well I was - quite keen on entering a nice cool cave. Even if it is man made. I assume this tunnel was adapted from a mine, because it is quite a bit of engineering just for an access route. However/whyever, it was a pretty neat experience to walk through. And of course, wildly different to the two gold mines we walked in part way up the hill.
Gets a favourite. just because. And a pathtag.

Taybeedragon and I went on a tour of the Coromandel - one of the few places of New Zealand, especially of Te ika a Maui, that I have yet to explore throughly, and from there along the coast to Opotiki to see one of my many, many sisters. From 18 December to 5 January we found over 400 caches, including 12 adventure labs (60 caches), 20 or so TMGTs and a host of virtuals and earthcaches. And I hosted an event to see the sun come up on New Year's day - surprisingly popular given that it was at 5am. We climbed a lot of hills, saw some amazing beaches that were quite popular despite (or because of) the insane access to them, walk a lot of bush, entered and explored 8 gold mines and generally had an awesome time. However I am glad to be back, but now is the hard part, and I fear it will take just as long - logging!

Was a bit cold in the tunnel but loved the glow worms.

Nice quick find, easy hint. Lovely day hiking. Tftc

Loved the walk. Lots of fallen ones. Tftc

Found while on my Christmas holidays in Pauanui. The tunnel was awesome! TFTC

Found it after bit of search. Picked up TB. Now into the tunnel! TFTC

After a night in Whitianga this was my plan today. I've been here before but Dot hadn't. It's a good place to visit. Only a couple of walkers out today. Located cache and drop tb. Tftc

One and only on this trip

So much history in this area - loving the walk even if it is yes a good climb. I have been meaning to come up here for ages and today is the day . Had to read the hint a couple of times then I was off and spotted a likely hint item - Yay rewarded with the cache TFTC

Another hiking day for D4nielB and me. We started on Broken Hills (Water Race Track and Collins Drive) and continued with a relaxing walk in Pauanui. Of course, we also took the chance to look for some caches on our way.
This one was no problem for us. Thanks for hiding!
Greetings from Hamburg, Germany.
Juliane

Today Jul1ane and me started with a hike at Broken Hills, going to the Collins Drive via Water Race Track and back down the main track. Afterwards we did a short trip over to Pauanui.

After making it through the tunnel, Jul1ane quickly found the cache.

Today was planned to do a bit of a walk up the Puketui Valley and then onto the Collins Drive.

I had searched for a while and then I re-read the hint and then looked down and there it was.

Cheers for the cache.

What a great walk to do! Loved exploring the bush and the mine. Took us a while to find which fallen tree, fairly easy find though thanks for the experience

I joined forces with TNXPro this weekend to pick up some of the more difficult Coromandel caches. After checking in at the Tairua School Wine & Food Festival we made the call to tackle the Broken Hills - admittedly it was becoming harder then I'd anticipated. This was our ninthstop and the cache was a little tricky. We had some initial trouble establishing a path but eventually narrowed down gz and found the cache quickly and in good condition. Cheers stretch.kerr, TFTC

On another Coromandel caching mission with Philip.Perry and son.
Wow, wow, wow. I just loved the tunnel and the fact we could actually walk right through it as part of the walk track.
After stopping many times for photo opps and attempting to gather the Multi data, we eventually found this cache in a fairly obvious location, once we found the geotrail! We found this at 17:00.
Thanks for placing a cache here. Its a fantastic spot.
TFTC +fav

Spent ages exploring in the tunnel & was covered in mud when I got here. Had just detoured off the track to look for the cache when I heard some muggles approach - initially wasn’t sure whether to re-appear or just stay hidden but decided to stay put to avoid having to explain myself - then realised they’d stopped for a break: thought I was going to give myself away by giggling! They finally moved on, into the tunnel, and I was able to look for the cache. Nice quick find, thanks to the excellent hint. Cache all good, TFTC

After we had passed the Collins Drive we had to search for a while till we found the cache. Thank you for hiding.

*French*
Après le long tunnel et retour à la lumière! Attention aux pièges à Possum!

stretch.kerr, thanks for the geocache
Frank et Muriel
10016
Belgique
Log with GSAK

#1580 13:00

Found with no problem, very nice surroundings. What a wonderful place!

Thank you for the cache and greetings from two Czechs!

On my way back down from the hihi I decided to stop by here on the way down. I'd hoped there was a track leading to pukenui from here - I had tried to find it going up but couldn't figure it out. Some hunters I passed told me that yes there is a 'shortcut' and a 500m tunnel! COOL! I obviously didn't do my homework so it was a nice surprise. The hint was good, and there's a bit of a geo-trail leading right to the cache. Nice hide, great area! TFTC

After having crossed the tunnel - amazing experience - it took me a while to find this cache. Went to the wrong hint object first, but eventually all went well.

Thank you for the cache!

Last Labour weekend, Mr and Mrs HH stumbled upon a very suspicious container here during an adventure race. We had spent 4 hours stumbling down the creek in the valley below, then bush bashing directly up the hill, our navigation was off (no gps allowed!) and we couldn't find the tunnel entrance! As we stumbled with relief towards voices we could hear of other competitors, MrHH spotted the cache, but Mrs wouldn't let him stop to sign the log during the race!

So now we have returned for a more sedate family weekend camping at Broken Hills. MiniJ and MidiK did a great job walking up this big hill. The tunnel was a highlight, although we were a bit wary after some of the inhabitants of the smaller tunnels at Gem of the Boom Creek nearby! Only a few wetas here, and we were excited to find a freshwater crayfish in the very wet tunnel too. MiniJ stayed close for the walk and needed a raincoat to stop the cold drips down the back of her neck, but MidiK was happy to wander off on her own with a torch and beat us all out.

JAC and P found it TFTC

I was so committed to finding this cache that I went through the Drive despite being quite nervous indeed. I kept an eye out for the multi hint object but was reluctant to slow down much, and didn't end up finding it. Once I spotted the light from the west entrance I moved even more quickly and emerged through the sloshy streamlet into the sunshine. I spotted the hint object and made a quick find. TFTC

Found this Cache on our New Zealand Trip . TFTC

That was an amazing track! Indiana Jones comes alive

We were doing the Whangamata Adventure Race and found this cache by accident! We had bush bashed up from the stream below, but got it all wrong and missed headed too far west, missing the tunnel entrance. After nearly an hour of frustration, we heard voices, headed in that direction and popped out at the tunnel entrance. Tom was following behind me and said "here's a geocache!". At that stage I was just so relieved to be back on a marked track after 4 hours of bush, and with 18+ hours still to go, I wouldn't let him take a couple of minutes to sign the log book!

With Gap (of Fap and Gap). We have been so fixated on filling Dot Days recently, our other challenge requirements have been suffering. We are looking for 'large' and 'not chosen' cache sizes to complete a license challenge. Today's adventure will take us to Whakamarama, Waitekauri/Golden Cross, Hikuai, Whangamata, and Waihi.

Hikuai/Broken Hills: I had to check that there were no Wetas first... We successfully navigated the 500 metre tunnel and emerged into darkness (save for a headlamp and iPhone torchlight). With not much to see, we quickly interpreted the cache description and hints, and headed to ground zone. This one was soon located after a brief fumble in the gloom. TFTC.

5.25pm - Should have been up here 2 hours earlier, had to use lights to find. Quick location of cache once we worked out our bearings. SLTFTC

A great stroll, better with the addition of caches. Unlikely to be muggled up here.

A little initial confusion as to which way to go, but logic took over and the GPS soon agreed.

TFTC

We were out with Gam & Co checking out some of the mines and tracks and of cause
found the caches in the area that we had not done TFTC

Out with the family for a day walk the weather was fine been to this area many time always good

We were travelling around North Island and found some nice caches. Thanks

The fourth day of "20 days exploring trip through North Island".
3636 km and 104 geocache

Thanks for this cache!:)

Great spot came from the top so now for the tunnels ya ha should be downhill from here. Fascinating area

Journeyed through the tunnel and gazed at the glow worms. All very pleasant indeed.

Good cache hide with good coordinates.

Thanks for the cache!

GPS was bang on but we found out in the open so we Replaced back to do with the hint . Thanks for this cache what an amazing tunnel

easy find but was out in the open -the glow worms gave us a good show on way though-

Started out on Main Range track which was hard on my knees. Quite steep at times. Turned into Collins Drive and West end of the tunnel. Through the tunnel I felt what Harry Bosch was feeling. A tunnel rat.
Hint made it a lot easier to find.
Thanks for taking me to this interesting place.

Good clue helped tftc

Finally free and did not get eaten by glow worms and wetas. Evilno9 and a few stormed up to get the cache. I was too late to see it, but still feeling great and enjoying the trek!

Found with the Waitangi Weekend Caching Campout group. I spotted a small breakaway group sneaking into the bush, so I duly followed. Lo, the cache was found! Hopefully all names were signed into the log sheet. Good group to be hiking with up here. Cheers for the cache.

Bit like the old Kopu bridge, only one way traffic - as we emerged there was a couple of families of muggles patiently waiting for the 21 of us to come out.
We then had to wait for them to all enter before we could start the search for the final. Cache had actually been found before others had finished decoding the hint (they hadn't realised). TFTC

Found en-masse as part of camping weekend walk. Was a great hide in an awesome tunnel. Thanks for bringing us here.

Last out of the tunnel but managed to be in a good spot to head off to find the cache once the other traveling party had made their way in. Bit of a wander off track and the cache was soon in hand.

Another goodie - TFTC

Takes a bit of fiddling round on a modern Garmin to punch in an offset and it seemed like everyone was waiting for someone to do it first in our group of 21. In the end a rough guess sufficed based on the position of the Sun which incidentally had made itself visible today at precisely 09:00 after the rain as predicted . The shout went out from in front and cache was in hand. After quite a while later as we sequentially re-hid and individually re-found the cache 21 times we carried on our way. Thanks for placing these.

Found log later

A bit of discussion on what way to head to cache and had to wait for another large group to go through the cave. Thanks for these caches

Found this while on the big group walk during the Waitangi Weekend event. That's a lot of people for a FTF! We found our way out of the tunnel, and it was lucky, because some muggles were waiting to go in. It might have gotten a bit squashy in there with two groups going in opposite directions.... Anyway, a group of us deciphered the hint, while the rest went to make the find. Another big container, yay! TFTC

A family waiting patiently for us as we all made our way out of the tunnel. Once the coast was clear, we headed off to make the find and signed the log, trying not to forget any names. TFTC!

Rush hour at Collins Drive! As we exited the mine we ran into a large group of muggles waiting to travel through in the other direction. Similar to the cache at the other end of the tunnel it took a bit of group head scratching and searching before the cache was found. Thanks!

Was a little bit tricky but finally located by our big group on the joint FTF tunnel expedition! TFTC

Wow what a great experience walking through this tunnel, special full lighted with so many head lamps. It was a nice way to cool off after the very humid climb up. Thanks for placing the caches around there and in there for future geocachers to experience this spot. TFTC

We made a very last minute decision to attend the annual BBQ camp and arrived just in time to join the FTF cache trail around the hills. Enjoyed the cooler temperature while we walked through the mine and with 20 cachers completing the calculations it wasn't long before all the names were added to the log TFTC.

Good to have a larger group to look for this joint FTF.
TFTC.

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