The kiwi are back! (Manawatu) Aokautere, North Island, New Zealand
By the Seagnoid on 11-Feb-14. Waypoint GC4YEXE

After finding the Forest Gump cache earlier, we walked up further up the path to locate this one, after going back into the bush to find this one locate GZ, as the GPS was bouncing around quite a bit, it was a. challenge to work out where to go first before finding the cache, we get close enough to GZ and then after a couple of looks around, and spotted the cache, well, we spotted something very fitting before finding the ACTUAL cache box. Very well made and loved this one very much. TFTC from Melbourne

Great effort on this hide!

Thats the best cache ive ever found, soooo cute

What a sweet cache.

Thanks for the cache found it with wolfpack24

Spent a little while wandering around looking for this one, but gps was pretty close in the end. What a cool cache - a favourite point from me! Initially we couldn't find the log, but then spotted it down the hill a bit - maybe some predators had been in the area. Returned it to where it should have been. Thanks for setting up.

Eventually found after much looking. I should have waited longer for the GPS to settle as the coords were spot on. I already had eggs for breakfast so I left this one behind. TFTC

Je ne pensais pas en voir un et finalement jai vu toute la famille!!! Tftc +1pf

Carrying out some cache maintenance at GC7K57G for rattll on a damp Saturday afternoon. Seeing as how I was there already, it made sense to carry on and get the rest of the caches on the Tawa Loop track.This was the first cache that I reached. Under the canopy and heavy cloud, my GPS could only do so much, so I still had a bit of searching to do. I knew what I was looking for in terms of a hiding spot, so did some casting about. Found the hide after searching for around 10 min, although I only realised what I was seeing at second glance. All good in the container, returned as found. Tftc!

Cool

Great cache. Found it, no pen. Got a photo

Neat cache, tftc, no pen on me but photos anyways

The rāhui has now been lifted.
Thanks for your understanding

There is a Rahul on the Manawatu Gorge. Walking the track and finds are not permitted during this time

What a nice kiwi cache!!! Love it! TFTC!

Gorgeous! Very accurate gps made for a nice quick find! Thanks!

Straight to it from phone. Many thanks- appreciate all the mahi with this one. Very clever!

With help from 6 year old but didn't find it today.

YEAY!
Tftc!

Lovely cache, well done and thanks for the cache

With the Geotour coming to and end soon Yvettetb and I decided to go on a road trip to collect Tahi and Rua. Of course I had some puzzles at various places to collect and a few special types were added to the list too.

Today's plan was to get from Woodville to who knows where but probably Napier. As it turned out we only got to Waipukarau.

We came to do this walk for the tour cache. While we were here we picked up the others on the track. We had a most unexpectedly great time here with the wonderful cache hides.

I've been to a kiwi release up north. It's great to help our native bird get re-established back into the wild. A bit of a hunt/scramble to find this but a neat surprise. Thanks for your fantastic cache

Our North Island Roadtrip from Whangarei to complete Tahi & Rua of the NZ Geotour - Day Nine

Another highlight cache of the trip. Took a little bit of finding but well worth the find. TFGC

*Catching up on some LONG overdue logging!!!*Due to the PW GeoTour finishing in February, I had made it my mission to get as many of the Rua caches as possible. So weekends were taken up with a few spontaneous missions with GeoHubby (GNARwhal) and Miss 10 (UnicornLex). As there was a PW cache on this trail we, obviously, decided to collect the others on the way around the loop.There had been quite a bit of rain and the track was very muddy in places. Lex had a great time slipping and sliding around.It was a rainy, cloudy day and the GPS jumped around quite a bit. Took a little while to hunt out the right spot. Such a fun cache! Lex stated that it was her most favourite ever!

Random spontaneous Caching Mission with LL113 and UnicornLex

A great cache! I really love the creativity of this one. Gave all the kiwi a little snack, they felt quite hollow!

I had decided to spend more time in Palmerston North this morning so I could go to the incremental event which meant I was later than planned in getting to here. So I thought perhaps I should miss these ones off the track and stick to the focus PWG2 cache. In the end I thought I would have a quick look - so glad I did because this is a very cute cache thanks the Seagnoid and well worth another favourite. TFTC # 18,678

Loved this. One of those caches I've been planning on getting for years!

We are finishing the track with this last find. Vines were getting in our way but we finally made a lovely encounter. Little cacher loved it. Both container and logbook were in good condition. Thanks for the cache.

Very cute, thanks to the makers! Love from Holland

The coordinates were spot on, GPS led me straight to it, very cool hide thanks Seagnoid

#12325

I love this one they have definitely spent a lot of time on this one TFTC heading back to the car before it gets to dark!

A very embarrassingly late log... I was part of a trip north with BFG, Bruzie, GSEL and BruceWNZ all crammed into my car to (mainly) attend the CITO and collect some of the PWGT caches which were live at the time. My excuse for not logging this at the time is I was doing the driving! If you don't believe I was there, check the logs of the others who place me at the scene! Anyway, a belated TFTC,

After some deliberation we decided to go offtrack on our way up the loop. Quick find while GSEL named the birds that were calling. Awesome themed hide, thanks the Seagnoid!

#11,043. A group of Wellington cachers decided to drive up to Palmerston North today to attend a CITO event. In the afternoon we headed to the Manawatu Gorge so that Infoferret could complete the PWGT2 section of the latest geotour. I had not been up this track before and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the forest up here (a nice podocarp hardwood forest with lots of nikau in the understory). The track is well formed and was dry today. As we approached this one we had to head off track and the tree cover lead us in a bit of a merry dance even with a range of GPS units in hand. But eventually it zeroed in on the cache and there we found a very nicely presented hide that fitted well with the theme of the cache. Signed the logbook and replaced the cache where found. Thanks the Seagnoid for setting this one up. Gets a favourite from me as well.

Reaching close to GZ it was off into the bush to go hunting for kiwi. Took a while to do, while GSEL was distracted by calls of other birds. Eventually the themed cache was found and the log signed. All good here, and TFTC.

Up from Welly chasing my final North Island PWGT cache. Stopped off here to catch my breath. Happily found second place i looked, what a delightful surprise when I spotted it, and more fun retrieving the log.
Thanks Seagnoid lots of fun!

PS: Oophs wrote wrong date on log, should read 25th April ANZAC day!

So cute! A bit off the beaten track but worth scrambling around for.

Really funny little set up!

The youngest had fled the coup a bit, but we managed to reunite it with its parents.

Definitely a fun cache!

Thanks!

Cute tftc

Nice find on a beautiful walk. Was a little tricky at first but soon found it nesting away. Tftc

When I saw the clue asked where kiwi sleep I thought "What a strange place for a backpackers hostel". Because I was being a bit lazy with this one & using my cellphone instead of the GPS it took longer than necessary to reach the GZ. As soon as I left the trail & got under the tree layer proper it didnt seem to matter what direction I walked or for how far, I was showing to be constantly 22-25m from the cache. Managed to get there in the end though. One naughty kiwi had gone for a daytime walk down the hill, so I gave it a telling off & returned it home. Other than that all was well here & a Fav from me. I left a kiwi themed key ring. TFTC

Found this one on the way down the trail. Was expecting a bit of a search but found quite quickly. Gave me a fright at first but was very cute. Gets a favourite point from me. A very cool cache.

TFTC and for bringing me to this great trail.

Found this one fairly quickly as part of the cache had gone for a little walk down the hill. Put it back as it should be and signed the log. Favourite point from me.

A cool fun cache! Found with livingk, spate and owlj. Has definitely deserved a FP from me. Thanks for placing the cache

Found during a Sunday trip, with SPate, OwlJ and elihyn - and enjoyed the find. Thanks for an interesting cache location. All in good order. TFTC

We have come to the North Island to do a bit of a whirlwind tour and find some of the new PWGT caches. We were in the North Island for our summer holiday only a few months ago and as it turns out many of the places we went to we are revisiting on this trip.
As gk was passing through this area he decided to stop and have a look for the nearby caches.
He is pleased he did as they were all worth finding.
He took photos so that when he got back to the campervan he could show me what I missed.

Thank you for placing this cache and thank you for the smiley.

Another amazing cache.this is awesome. Sorry am not sure how to add favorite. Tftc. #2 found with jescar31.

So creative, was so much fun. Thank u

As we progressed up the track on the other side I was very disappointed to only hear magpies warbling. As we came down the other side there was a lot more evidence of native birds which was very encouraging to hear. No kereru that I could see or hear which is a shame as they are the prime distributor of tawa (and it northern cousin taraire) seeds. At least two kiwi and their egg are safe for now. Thanks for the cache the Seagnoid

We were on a PWGT mission but felt it necessary to locate and gather other traditional caches along the way ..this cache took a bitctoo find...eventually I located around 7 mts out according to my GPS's. But a nice surprise on finding a whole family of the National iconmany thanks The seagnoid

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)... Easter weekend is upon us. We’ve been looking forward to this holiday - it’s a chance to take a big swipe at the PWGT2 caches. We’re also keen to pick off some interesting hides and avenge one or two previous DNFs...

It was late afternoon when we arrived... We were surprised by the number of people also setting off on their walks. We were a bit apprehensive about the journey ahead - by all accounts, a long, steep ramble lay ahead.

This appeared as a bit of a challenge to approach. Our initial concern was needing to bush bash. However, we did find easier access and it didn’t take too much effort to arrive... It was definitely worthwhile - another brilliant hide on this trail... Thanks the Seagnoid and TFTC.

we decided to tackle this one even though time was against us.
gps was wandering a bit but almost walked straight to it.
very good themed cache
egg not ready to hatch yet.
gets a fav from me
tftc

This was so worth going off track for. I have to say the 3 caches in here on my way to the PWGT were great fun, i really loved this hide. I had a great experience finding this one with the place to myself on a overcast day. Lots of potential hides in this area which just made the find so much better. Fav for sure for brilliant theming.

Flowerydaze and I went to the Gorge primarily to get the PWGT and this was so close to our path it was a shame to ignore it although we did have some trouble trying to locate this at first but we got there in the end. Thanks Seagnoid for a great cache FP from me.

What a great track this is! Talla64 and I have never been in this area before - yes, we've driven through the Gorge many, many times but never stopped to walk the tracks. We were out on a mission to grab the PWGT cache and while we were in the area we had the added bonus of finding a few more caches. Having read some previous logs about this one, and looked at the area, I put my gardening gloves on but told Talla I'd rather he put his hand down any dodgy looking holes. We both had a laugh when Talla found the treasure. Thanks for the cache Seagnoid, definitely worth an FP.

Stopped to look for this one while on the loop track. Took a little while to locate, enjoyed what we found TFTC.

Parked up for the night at Ferry reserve and decided this morning to walk the Gorge track. A 20 km hike with 14 geocaches on the way. Found 13 and 1 DNF. What a wonderful way to spent the morning. The track is very well maintained and sign posted. Every km there a sign with different native birds on it to tell you how far you’ve got. Some great lookouts on the way. Steep in parts but not too strenuous. Enough to get up a sweat for a refreshing swim at the end. Loved this cache. Approached it from the southern track which probably helped in spotting the Kiwi. ‘Twas morning so they were all fast asleep. A favourite from us. Thanks Seagnoid for the smiley.

Super cool. Gave us a fright to be honest! Probably best cache ever after our years of geocaching around the world thank you!

Another find with Boots, Bug (5) and Ruru (2). Weren’t sure how far off track we needed to go, so the kids waited on the track while an adult went in search. Boots was second in and obviously has the kiwi-spotting eye. Very cool hide, thanks! Left a couple of treasures.

Full log later...

Came here this afternoon with a group of four other cachers on a walk from the Woodville end to the Ashhurst end of the Manawatu Gorge Walkway. Only two of us had not yet found this one, so I headed up into the bush from the Tawa track with Phronimos and TwigNZ while Tufty and Yeetrees had a rest on a conveniently placed seat. It only took me a few minutes to find the nicely set up cache while the others were looking a little distance away. By the time I had finished signing it the GPSr had settled to about 2 metres away so top marks for coordinate accuracy! Signed log, TFTC.

We were making our way around the loop as it started to rain. Decided that we still wanted to attempt this cache so headed straight for it. Found easily, so cool! Thankfully we were sheltered from the rain by the trees as we signed.

Had to burrow some courage for this one. TFTC

Got quite the fright when I reached in! Well worth the small detour off the track!

We drove a little further today to do our walk around the loop track at Ashhurst as it was a lovely day and there are many more people on the very local walking tracks . Neither of these two caches had been found just recently and probably wont be for the next little while but i did use hand sanitizer on both the cache and my hands.
it is not often you get such an up close encounter with a kiwi so this was very special once i had located it but the co ords were pretty accurate despite being in the bush. thank you for interesting cache and worth a fav point from me. I did take some photos also which i will try to find.
Thank you T.

Well worth the off track detour. TFTC

Holiday weekend so tracks busy. Thankfully there was a gap so could dive on to hunt. A tree fell down as I was walking to gz so worried might be wild animals. Then at gz what a surprise. Always wanted to see kiwi in the forest.

Thanks for the cache. Love the hiding spot. My pen has stoped working, so here is photo of the log

What a great find, added this to favourites. This is our sort of cache! Found on Xmas Eve on a family walk while staying with family at bunnythorpe. This is one of our go-to tracks to run and walk, so thought we would go cache hunting today. Tftc!

Best one yet! We struggled to find it, but that was our rubbish navigation love the idea. TFTC!

Definite favorite. Found on a family walk. Eggsactly right for the occasion. Thanks to all cache owners for taking the time to place and maintain your caches. Team Broadbent (signed TB on micros). Find # 2253

Awesome hide, awesome walk here...TFTC

Nice hike to this area - a little brush, but nothing too difficult! Hope the Kiwi's didn't mind, I had to check the egg! Thanks for the fun one and for the bonus of hiking this beautiful area. They sure don't have trees like this back in Illinois.................

Found with our 3 and 6 y.o. Thank you the Seagnoid for making us stop here. Definitely on of our favourites. We followed our nose without any bushbashing. Excellent idea!

I had a very similar experience to Jodanz, it seems. I found a bait line which got me close and then my GPSr insisted I check out a particular feature where I found the nicely presented cache.

We were a bit worried how far this was from the track and how much bush bashing would be required but luckily there was a an established trapping line to follow most of the way. GPS ended up within 1 metre which is pretty amazing in this terrain with such a thick bush canopy.

Must have been our lucky day - the little blighters are obviously exploding in population!

FP of course - need to find more caches to replenish our stock which has dwindled over the weekend with so many great caches around up here.

Another great hide. Took a little bit of searching due to the dense bush, but found soon enough!

It's been quite a caching weekend for me. I was hosting the MGC People's Choice Awards 2018 event here in Palmerston North on Saturday evening, so came up on Friday after work to stay over with friends. They kindly put me up a second night too, which has allowed me to spend today getting out and about to clear up some caches I've not attempted before as part of a very leisurely journey back down south again.

So having hosted the event at which several caches from this loop walk had been nominated for several awards, I thought it would be a great time to go and visit them for myself to see why they had been a popular choice.
I hadn't driven down this road since it was closed to public traffic after the last big slip, so it was interesting to see that you could still park up reasonably close to the start of the loop track.

This was my second cache on the loop, and required a bit of going "off piste" which is fine apart from making it just a little harder for us cell-phone users to get good GPS co-ordinates. But I was soon in the vicinity of GZ and then it was just a case of looking around in a wide circle looking for places that fitted the Hint.

Then of course, I spotted something that turned out to be one of the junior members, and on closer inspection of the site I realised we had a whole family present complete with a new member on the way. Once all the caching administration had been dealt to, I made sure that everything was left as it should be, to ensure any pesky predators won't get a chance to snaffle the hide.

Thank you for placing this well designed cache, and bringing me to yet another place I haven't been to before. FP for the joy of the find.

Out on a walk/run to the top of the gorge. Missed GZ going up so collected it on the way back down. Got a bit of a fright when I discovered GZ. So cool it gets an FP. Now time to stretch my legs cos those DOMS are gonna be bad! TFTC

What a lovely spot! Very nice cache. It was full of water, but the log was dry. Cleaned it all out, put the swag in new clean bags. Good as new. Thanks for the wonderful adventure.

My Dad was on a mission today to find the remaining caches on the Ashhurst end of the Tawa Loop walk and he found them all!
What a fantastic hide! In great order after not being found since May. A favourite point.

Pretty cool hide.
TFTC

Traveling in NZL and looking for geocaches - double fun. Walked with friends here and found the little treasure - indeed: the Kiwis are back. This idea definitely deserves a "like". Was wondering that the GPS was very precise and could make it with the first attempt - ).

TFTC.

Fun cache! Found with Sproggles while Conkycon and Mom were having a rest TFTC!

Doing the Gorge walk with 2 Bullbars found after a short search great cache Favorite from us

We decided to walk the gorge track from west to east today and of course get the caches along the way
This one is extra special and gets a FP from us many thanks

#1214. I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go for a walk with the family on the Tawa Loop track. I'd planned to find this one on the way up but a family was stopped nearby having morning tea so we continued along. Despite the track being very slippery with all the recent rain we eventually made it to the top and stopped for a picnic at the tables for a snack ourselves. This track was more of a challenge than anticipated while carrying one child each. After finding the awesome transformers cache we headed back down the track with this as our next target. I headed in towards GZ with little miss while Mr Stardust and Mr 3 carried on along the track (with Mr 3 finally deciding he would walk it was slow going).
I walked in circles near GZ for a while searching in a few locations then decided to branch out a bit after applying a bit of logical thinking. WOW, oh WOW. How AWESOME to discover this. It is just so PERFECT. Another FANTASTIC, well executed cache. YOU MUST FIND THIS ONE
Coordinates ended up being really accurate once I got to GZ. Then I just needed to make my way back out. Tried as best as possible to exit discretely with an upset baby and think I succeeded at this. Thanks so much for placing this here. It's been on my radar to find for a while and I'm glad to have finally got out here to complete it. Definitely a FP.

Very exciting geocache. Blundered around the general area for about 10 minutes, and were just about to leave when we spotted it. Nice cache!!!

Very well crafted hide. Clever location too, mid way between the two pathways 20-30m off the track of both. Found along with mini cachers on a walk up to the top. Missed it on the way up going one way, but found it on the way back going the other way. Delighted the mini cachers (aged 8, 9, 11 and 11) so gets a favourite from me.

The kiwis are back what a wonderful cache get a fav such a great walk as well TFTC

Must admit I did jump a bit on seeing this delightful cache. In keeping with the fauna and flora of this area. This has got to be a favourite. tftc

A `"weekend between weeknds" with sveppi. We had a function in Pamly last night. We got up early to make the most of the day and give us plenty of time for a long walk before the long drive home. The hike of choice today was the gorge. Parked the car at the other end and hitchhiked back to this end. Started some time before 9am, which was a good idea since it started to rain almost as soon as we got back to the car!
Second find for the day, always enjoy a slight venture off-track. I thought I knew what to expect, and it was what I expected, but it still somehow gave me a bit of a fright! Thanks for the cache and great effort that went into this.

They certainly are…. making fanfan-77 jump as we reached GZ! Nice hide and nice camo. Enjoying the gorge walk on a mini 2-day midweek break to Palmy and back. Some very good caches on this track now. TFTC

Keen to keep the numbers ticking over I decided to give this a go after calling in to get the nearby earth cache. (I was also trying to find 2x Seagnoid caches to take me to 100 so I could qualify for the cache of 3 x 100 of different CO's.) Yep, it was a good 1.5km up, up, up, up and more up. The MEAN winding track puts you closer and then takes you away. Ok, finally landing at a spot where I obviously needed to depart the track it appeared I needed to travel 25-30m off track. Hmmmmm. I am one of those who if you spin me around I am lost. I ventured a wee bit off the track a couple of times, got the wind up and so returned to the track and decided this was not a sensible option for me today so I went home. The weather was packing up and my aged sensibilities told me it was not a good day to spend lost in the bush lol.

Great theme and ultimate GZ, worth a FP, TFTC

A day on the Gorge Track making some cache finds. This one stunned us. Not what we were expecting and clearly much work to create this scene in the bush. Thanks. It was cause for a bit of uhhing and ahhing. A good thing.
Cache was a straightforward find once we had carefully picked our way to GZ. All in order; log signed, safely re-hidden.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

I was going to leave Palmy today but had second thoughts and so decided to walk part of the Manawatu Gorge walking track and sign off some caches. Nice to see the family is still together.

Cheers for the cache.

Stopped by on the way back to the carpark from meeting Whatonga, cache is all good

Came in from the wrong track, but got there eventually.
The coordinates seemed fairly accurate so we soon found the cache once we got to the right area.
Nicely hidden.
Thanks.

We made rather hard work of this cache, coming in from the wrong track and bush bashing for 100 metres. Once we reached it, the cache was a quick and delightful find with markhnz and gets a favourite point from us. TFTC