Blackberry Jam (Manawatu) Feilding, North Island, New Zealand
By the Seagnoid on 20-Feb-14. Waypoint GC4YPC5

Alas it keeps disappearing. Floods I think. Also the blackberry has grown... which is a bit of an understatement!

With Gap (of Fap and Gap) Weve run away from home for the weekend. Our plan is to cache til we dropAs a kid, I lived semi-rurally. My parents were pretty good at living off the land, and blackberry jam was a seasonal favourite. Shop bought jams just dont have the same appeal as something home made I walked along the river while Gap bush bashed with his machete. We arrived in the same area, searched the same objects, and reached the same conclusion - This is probably missing. Unlike blackberry hunts of days gone by, we walked away from this empty handed (not counting splinters and prickles). Thanks the Seagnoid.

love blackberry jam.remember as kids black berry collecting with mum & dad.yes we got to GZ.found hint item but no cache. area overgrown and the scratches to arms tell.its been a while since last found and wonder has it been washed away?

Like the last cacher has written we couldn’t find a way to access

There’s a wall of blackberry taller than me 80 m out; and in addition to recently reaching over this bank, the river has carved a new course hard up against the bank. Would need significantly lower water to attempt this, or a suit of armour.

Went to try nab this cache today but unfortunately it’s a bit too difficult to get down to right now!! Will pop by again once the weather has sorted itself out!

Jam making and preserving making is one of my favourite hobbies so I am always on the lookout for a good berry zone

Walked right along the river, so I think I was lucky enough to avoid most of the blackberry.
Thanks!

Found this cache after placing a hide near by. After a prickly search I found this cache and claimed the trackable. I will take him for a re-home him somewhere new. Tftc

Well that was an adventure! Beautiful, peaceful, scenic walk along the river. An uneventful wander until we began searching for the cache. Over, under, scrambling around amongst the tall grass, trees, rotten fallen logs giving way underfoot, and blackberries everywhere! Luckily there wasn't a soul in sight as it looks like a herd of elephants went through. We returned bedraggled, scratched, bitten but sucessful!! Had to cool down in the river for a bit. Left a trackable, hopefully it isn't a year before it's found again. Thank you so much for a great cache.

Nice home for this trackable

I tried this one in the winter but the blackberry beat me back.
With Kelly0 and Miss 13 we found the going much easier. We got to GZ easily but the uncovering of the cache was a challenge.
The blackberry fought back, the trees grabbed at our clothes, the grass tickled until we sneezed. After several attempts at f repeating the search terrain I heard the unmistakable sound of wood on plastic! Uncovering the cache from its overgrown nest took some strength and further blackberry battles.
There were blood, sweat, sneezes, scratches and tears but ….
SUCESS

TFTC

My last cache of a busy day caching in Fielding. I parked up beside the river and jogged my way to GZ. A quick find at GZ but unfortunately I was hoping for a blackberry or two but looks like they're not quite ready yet!

TFTC

Thanks the Seagnoid for placing this cache

Having just been to the dentist in Feilding it was a great day to put on my gumboots and go for a splash in the Oroua River!

The water was clear and a good flow today after recent rains. If I had my Hilux I could have driven to GZ but then I would have missed out on the peaceful walk.

TNLNSL TFTC

Slow cross country journey to Whanganui for work. Caching today in Ashhurst and on to Fielding. Nice day to be out on my motorbike. Had an extended walk here. First tried approaching GZ along the top path which ended up as a dead end. Then approached nearer to the river which was successful. Next got back to my bike and realised I had dropped one of my bike gloves on the way. Back to GZ but couldn’t it. Finally headed back to the original dead end and was very relieved to spot it. Thanks will have to return when there’s some blackberries and not just thorns!

As New Zealand goes into nationwide quarantine due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are fortunately still allowed to individually go for a walk.
I used to be envious of those who had a companion to geocache with while on the whole I have usually geocached alone.
I'm now pleased I've developed my own self reliance skills as we are all now obliged to walk alone or only with a constant companion from our own household family unit.
Accordingly this was my walk today. I started along the faint path through the wild rampant blackberry but soon realised the error of approaching from this route and half way was forced to take a beeline to the riverbed. It was then an easier walk and a straightforward find.
Love the size of the container. Unfortunately I had no swag with me to stock the cache.
*I have fond memories of my parents making not blackberry jam, but blackberry jelly, as the seeds of jam got under their false teeth. Not so fond memories of picking the blackberries due to the thorns. Dad, a keen fisherman, used to don his fishing waders and wander straight into the middle of the patch to pick the best fruit. Then the fruit was placed in a flour bag and hung over a large pot in the bath for 24 hours to extract the juice. Then the jelly was made in a similar fashion to jam. Yum, on toast. Unfortunately there's not many patches of spray-free blackberries around now... except perhaps here around GZ.*
TFTC. Stay(ing) safe.

#11,705. After our DNF in December 2019, we noted that the cache had been promptly replaced in January 2020. So a return trip to Feilding to walk a little bit further to the newly relocated GZ. It was again all quiet at the time of our visit. Found after a short search. The cache was in excellent condition, all nice and dry inside.

Took The Seagnoid's 10,000 finds pathtag
Left nothing, signed log.

Thanks for the placement, and for bringing us back to this site again, and …

.T h a n k s. .f o r. .t h e. .c a c h e.
.M a u r u u r u. .k o e. .n u i. .a t u. .h o k i. .t e. .k e t e r o k i.

With the Etherlord Girls in toe we are out and about in Zara Bus to Fielding for the LAB caches. Now its a maintenance stop at Blackberry Jam to keep this one in order. . Cheers

Day 21 - Thursday 2 January. Palmerston to Fielding and back. Then south to Wellington for the night. Lots to do so lets go!

The Seagnoid, Zara, Toby and I are spending Christmas exploring Taranaki via geocaching. Its been an amazing 3 week adventure. Rattls BBQ was a great event, meeting many other cachers. But also managed to fit in a few more events, especially New Years Day celebrating the start of 2020. Lots of caches - over 500. Lots of cache maintenance. Lots and lots of kilometers. And lots of amazing places visited along our journey. Mt Taranaki remained elusive for much of our travels and the caches on it at the top. Loved Pukekura Park Night Lights Show and the the Wooden Mechanical toy exhibition at NP Info centre.

Coordinates changed from:
S 40° 13.225 E 175° 36.561

Coordinates changed to:
S 40° 13.230 E 175° 36.541

Distance from original: 97.7 feet or 29.8 meters.

Muggled twice, so moved down the stream a little. Good luck and happy jamming!

Navigated our way to GZ ... but unfortunately didn't find the cache. No jam for us today.

Great

Had been saving this cache for blackberry season and, having sampled some berries near home that were delicious, decided to give this one a go this afternoon. Parked up at the given waypoint and walked along the river bank to GZ to make a quick find. All in good order cache-wise, however the blackberry and willow along the riverbank has been cut back a couple of metres and there where not a lot of berries around unfortunately. Those that we did find were still green or red and only a small handful of smallish blackberries. We did find a couple of spots on the way home that provided an ice-cream container full and a number of scratches for good measure.

We are lucky enough to have an automated machine that turned 750g of fruit and 750g of sugar, with 45g of lemon juice, into yummy jam in 28 minutes - no manual stirring or risk of burning. TFTC and we might need to visit again.

Tango Sierra and Tango Delta are staying with Echo Charlie for a few days, and today was cache maintenance day.
Us three adults and my three minions piled into my geomobile and set off to confirm the cache conditions.
As this was one that I have not found, and am unlikely to visit again in the foreseeable future, I added my name to the logbook despite today not being a dot-day.

Thanks for bringing me here to your super secret blackberry spot. I promise not to tell too many people about it!

Cache reinstated correctly, dried out, good to go again.

Cache back in place. Many thanks, ritaryanandjj!

Will be up to replace in the next 2-3 weeks

I rather foolishly didn't check previous logs before making my way to this site. When I did check, I thought I may as well have a look since I was close. I took the inland route to begin with and luckily when this way became unpassable, I was able to use the river route which had become an option as I got closer to the cache. Anyway, I was able to make it to ground zero with wet feet but no scratches. At this point, I was quite confident as I could be fairly certain that the cache owner would have provided accurate coordinates and that the cache would actually be a large one. After a few minutes, my searching turned up a broken bungee cord which got me thinking about how the cache could be hidden. None of my ideas resulted in any success; not even more bungee cord. While I thought I gave this a pretty good go, I am reluctant to claim the cache is missing. Maybe a previous finder who reads this and lives nearby could have a quick look to see if they can track it down.

Found the cache on my 3rd maybe 4th try, it was a little worse for wear so cleaned it up and it was eventfully returned to its rightful place. Thanks for an adventure or 3 still have to come back at Blackberry time now that i know it is there.

A large cache, not to many of those about so i gave it a go.
Impressive amount of black berry. Not a mission for the short trousered. Checked out the alternative route but not a goer today either.

Definitely will have to return during fruiting season. Will bring a couple of harvesting containers and a pair of Gummies or togs for the river to see if it's easier via that route.

Returned to the car with no cache and lots of blackberry scratches. Will have to return at a more appropriate time of year

Nice find but a bit of a mission bashing through black berry! Thanks for the hide. Cache is a bit wet

Could not get to the cache. To much blackberry and the river was up. Will return when the river is down.

I went looking today but as the river was still a bit high and all the alternative routes too prickly I didn't make it to GZ... but the searchDog did find what he was looking for = one large possum is no longer breeding and destroying nearby trees! Luckily the dog doesn't mind a few scratches on the way to his find!
Will try again when the river levels are lower

Wet. Found while on a caching trip to the area. TFTC

Headed along the river. No problem finding this as its contents were scattering all over the ground a few metres from where the empty cache container was. Log book was damp. Put it all back together and placed it nearby. Did not have any problems with blackberries and did not notice any bungy so it will not be in it's original position - sorry. We did the best we could and placed it oruvaqgerr.

TFTC. As previous finder mentioned log book pretty damp.

Tftc! The log is pretty haddit. Might need replacing.

Thank you for the sage advice - will try to do better. Pleased it has not been muggled after all.

[green] Thanks to Watcache for confirming that it is still there, and all you had to do to find it was... open your eyes! (it's a big cache - it's not that hard to find!)

This is a large container. If you can find the bungee but not the container then the container is definitely missing. Hopefully I can find someone to put in a temporary cache for me...

A nice spot by the river....This cache looks to have had a bit of foot traffic. Had a good look but all I found was a black bungy cord with plastic ends wrapped around some branches but no cache? Looked up and down the bank from here but DNF. Maybe my geogoggles failed me too.

This was my second attempt after the last find, i am probably not using my geoeyes well enough and his time i used a gps and still couldn't find it, i did find a black bungy and looked about for a cache but couldn't find it, just in case it had fallen. Will "watch" to see if someone else finds it and will then take another look.

not quite the place i thought it was going be, but got there in the end. Lots of blackberry around no fruit yet .

We visited this one after attending the nearby CITO event..and I thought since I had wet weather gear on,we'll get some geocaches in the rain!At GZ was a quick find,signed and re-sealed container carefully and the cache was securely in place too.TFTC!

Looked for this a few days ago with no success. Took the kids today who found it straight away! Was a bit damp inside, log book and pen a bit damp but just managed to sign. Kids and dog had great time in the river. Blackberries over for the year though. TFTC

Well my phone died just before we wanted to seek the cache... But... You made my day anyway, blackberries picking, a little dive in the river, an adventure- chasing a floating flip flop down the stream cache next time

Spending some time in the Manawatu catching up with a friend, spent the afternoon exploring some of the backroads grabbing caches....Managed to walk to this one without getting our feet wet...just, and then negotiated the blackberry prickles to grab the cache. TFTC

Lying in open under trees with lid off. Had water in it. Drained water. Log dry. Signed log. Put lid on and placed out of site a couple of feet from where it was lying. Suggest you wear long pants for this one. Awesome. Tftc.

Gave blood for this one, it's not often you see a cache this size! TFTC, #6893

Last available August dot day today and being off work enabled me to come up with a plan. Mrs capperz took nightowl19 clothes shopping in Palmy and there was no place for me to go along (nor any viable caches in the area!)
Decided to do a Popmac/Seagnoid 2/2 split so headed across this way to knock off these two saved listings. By saved I mean I'd left them for pesky dot days as the year goes on.
No problems with the find, co ords were nice and accurate and the cache hidden and replaced well after signing duties complete. It's been a while since I made a Seagnoid find, have been saving this one for a while now. No sign of blackberries here today but Spring is around the corner and trees are budding, yay!
Drove as far as possible to the bottom of the track then ran the last bit as spud is meeting me soon to help me Get the news (so to speak)
And another Large cache size, second of the week. River was on the way down and fairly calm today.
T F T C the Seagnoid

Caching expedition in the Manuwatu region. I made hard work of this one by opting to climb through the blackberry instead of the easier option. Thought I might not find this one, but was worth hanging in there for the find as I came across the well stocked cache. TFTC

Another good find while trying to keep the numbers ticking over a bit.

Enjoyed the drive down the gravel road to the parking area then walked the hard way to cache, easier way back to the car!
SL TFTC

A good big cache that was easy to find.
Nice location.
Thanks.

A quick easy find, with markhnz, after driving almost to the river, and then walking along the mainly dry river bed. TFTC

Found quickly by cousin B - it was not tied up though so we put it back up out of flood's way. Picked up some trash on the way seeing as CITO weekend coming up. tftc

Cool cache, kids love these ones. The jar of jam is cute.

No blackberries so less pickles. But found an old el. organ. Dumped there today.. thanks

Didn't have time for too many caches in Feilding itself today ( we've been doing back country roads). It was getting near 5 o'clock & there were muggles everywhere. Went to a couple of near by caches but didn't even look because of muggles, however this one was nicely out of the way.
Quickly spotted the inevitable geo- trail, & soon had cache in hand.
A nice sized, well stocked cache. Thanks.
Left a pet rock - a butterfly.

A nice park and grab and a quick find by my three year old daughter. A good sized cache full of goodies. No blackberries in sight though, to my partners disappointment. TFTC.

A pleasant little walk in cool shade along the river on this fine afternoon. The blackberries appear to be finished, or maybe this has not been a good season. Left a butterfly in this nice, large family cache. TFTC

Lovely place. Tftc. Nice easy find. 9/3/2014

nice spot will prob be back here again ,tftc

Quick find while in Feilding this afternoon. Thanks for the cache.

Idyllic spot for a paddle, and an easy cache to boot. Not a blackberry in sight, alas...too late in the season...or just too late? Great spot.

Found with helbaby7 and Palmy Dave when we saw it pop up, really cool cache, loved finding this one, and enjoyed the walk to get it.

Saw the email to this so went quickly home to grab GPS, then as i was loading it realized it had already been found...oh well decided to go get it anyway. Enjoyed the walk to get this one, and good sized container with lots of goodies. TFTC

Published

2nd to find at 6:50 pm. We saw the ftf-ers leaving in their car and Swaybars said, I bet they just found it, why else would they be on this road? Turns out he was right. Thanks for sharing this spot - we'll be back hopefully when the berries are ripe. Also thanks for the really detailed instructions, I have made a lot of things, but not jam.

FTF a joint find with setucurst at 6.35pm it was only by luck I clicked on the map to load some palmy caches and saw this one.
got to the parking area and took what we thought was the right track only to get scratched and see we were still 44m away so back tracked to the car and went down the river and had a quick find.

didn't go hunting for black berries this time, but had to go into stealthy mode when a 4x4 drove past

took key ring and ball added another puzzle game, 3 x other boys toys and a pen

thanks for the cache

FTF with Marisa&Kaleb @ 6.35pm - YAY YAY YAY. We were able to be FTF for this cache. Marisa called me and said that there was a new cache in Feilding that had been published and that she would come and pick me up in 5 min so we could go and try and be FTF. Got to parking co-ords and went the wrong way to start with and got a few scratches from the blackberry. When we realised we had gone the wrong way we quickly turned around. Found cache with ease once on the right track and love what was inside. I didn't take anything and didn't collect any blackberry's either. Might come back another day to get some to make jam with your recipe. TNLNSL TFTC