Third Time Lucky? (Taupo) Wairakei, North Island, New Zealand
By fanfan-77 on 16-Mar-14. Waypoint GC50C85

Well... It was 3rd time lucky for 7 1/2 years and 281 finds. In its previous incarnations it lived for 9 years with 90 finds. not bad! Even after the trees were cut down it survived for a few months, but now it seems that it's gone. I went past on the 14th November for a good look and couldn't find it. As I have moved away from the area it is now difficult to maintain geocaches. I am now archiving this to hopefully enable someone local to show the cool tunnel to other geocachers.
I've had fun playing with this cache, and you all.

Sadly we didn't have much luck finding one. None actually. Wilbywarrior climbed all around while I got blackberry thorns in my fingers from digging around feeling for something out of place. Might have been just our lack of luck or it's muggled again

TFTC fanfan-77

*** Out on our MEGA Roadtrip with Wilbywarrior. Who says this can only happen when the MEGA is actually held?! Greetings from Dunedin, caching friends
#339 ***

Had a good look for this one. Possibly still there somewhere. Got sick of sticking my hand in voids only to be stabbed by blackberry thorns.

Thanks fanfan 77 made a successful find TFTC will send photo lucky I didn’t take the direct route thanks for the fun

...Found log from 2nd September said trees are gone but cache still there. Please guys keep looking for it. I would appreciate private messages telling me where it is (if not where you think it should be). I will be up this way in November so I can check it out then.

The large tree has been cut down

Thought it wasn’t going to be there because the trees are all cut down. But we found it!

Quick and easy find

TFTC

Found on this date on our trip to Taupo shortly before Covid19 struck again. JutyBug and I found the cache during an adventurous (for me!) evening walk. Apologies for the late logging, and thanks for the cache, fanfan-77 ??

Whilst out on a mission with ABCDF4, soon had this one in hand, signed and returned,TFTC.

Picked up with EyeSpyBen.

Fun

Was an awesome walk but couldn’t find anything

Thank you

Tftc!

I've often looked at this on the map then driven by, not knowing what I was missing. I'm glad I took the approach I did, through the Cathedral and then the tunnel. Definitely NOT a P&G! At GZ I had a moment when I thought the cache had been three times unlucky but a quick glance around identified an obvious candidate that quickly yielded results. TFTC & FP.

Did with Crystal Fairy.

Stopped nearby yesterday and after reading the description and the shortage of time we decided to give this one a skip for another day. Today we were keen to see the Tunnel and so took a lovely stroll down the hill following the MTB track (no one on it today) and made our way to the tunnel. Good fun walking through it and was concerned we'd have to go up the other side, but found a "resemblance" of the hint object (not vertically) and had the cache in hand in seconds. Nice big container and a good fun adventure. Quick walk back up the hill literally a minute before the start came pummeling down. Deserves a FP. Thanks for the cache and walk.

Warfi was the one to spot it, not too many muggles about today, TFTC

Coords seemed fine. Was interesting getting there. Pity there has been so much chopping down of trees here- but the cache was safe and sound. tftc

Soon had cache in hand , thanks.

Found with the kids today

Consulted a local map, then made like a mole and tunnelled our way across. Def not a park and grab but a lovely little walk. Great hint and coords only the usual amount out for me.

Awsome

Down from Whangarei in Taupo to compete in the Ultra Marathon this weekend and ended up with a back strain on the way down from unloading some heavy boxes in Auckland on the way. Certainly not the best preparation for a 50 km run tomorrow.

On the way to registration at the Wairakei resort, just had to stop off for this one. Had thought about taking the short direct route, but, yeah, nah..!!

Once at GZ going the proper way, the hint made great sense and the cache was quickly retrieved, the log signed and then replaced safe and secure as found. TFTC

Really nice little walk

Had to come down to Taupo today for work. Decided on a few caches while down here. Cache found quickly in good condition.
Tftc

Quickly found the cache exactly where it was suppose to be.

Nice spot!

Thanks for the cache!

Out with Mr Cat 1 enjoying the sunshine in Taupo. Thanks for bringing us here Found the cache without any problems thanks to good coordinates. Cache was out in the open and visible to everyone so put it back in the same place but covered with some natural camouflage.

TFTC, upon reaching GZ we found the cache was exposed and visible, Shonig wrote in log and hide it a lot better.
I also dropped a trackable.

Enjoyed this cache. Quick find. TFTC

Nice scenic walk

Nice walk

Nice walk - cool tunnel!

easy find

TFTC!

??

Awesome walk to cool hiding place. Log still dry.

The tunnel is cool.

Great spot. Now is the perfect time to head out. Not a single person there. But i cam imagine in the weekends and high peak times that it would be quite dangerous. But this lil guy helped me sign the book

Hard to believe I've been here nearly a week( for IronMan) and this is the first and only geocache I've hunted. Phone went flat promptly after finding it. Going semi oldskool style , just looking at map & hint as don't have the app loaded & the old Garmin batteries are flat as well. TFTC!

It was kinda experience to go through the tunnel;) thanks for the Cache:)

Dd

Chur

On our way to Craters of the Moon so just had to stop and get this cache. Quick walk to gz and a quick easy find. Log signed and cache replaced as found. TFTC

On day 7 of our 5 week road trip in NZ. Today our drive took us from Rotorua via Huka Falls to Wanganui. Debated about having time to stop here and I’m so glad we did, absolutely loved it! Muggle hubby wanted some coffee so we pulled in at the Hub Cafe. I made the trek to find the cache- lovely walk. Cache was just out in the open so I covered it up again- it’s in good shape. TFTC

Cool tree! My 5 year found it!

Great place tftc

Found with MrsC on our NZ travels. quick find, good location

Found with mr c on our travels from the UK thank you

Used the tunnel from the helicopter pad. Cool approach. TFTC

Found after coffee at Kefi at the Hub cafe. Spotted this was near and saw the note about the tunnel. Great wander, then carried on to the road and back to the car. Gets a favorite from me for the approach! Greetings from Wellington New Zealand and TFTC.

At the top of the road we came across this little eatery with the helicopter business just behind it. Out the front there is a Mil MI8, an old Russian helicopter. My little son was immediately intrigued by the large old chopper and wanted to have a look. In fact, he wanted to sit inside and have a meal like he had done at the McDonald's in town. Alas, the place had already closed for the day, even though he thought he could see someone inside the café. Eventually, we agreed that we'd have breakfast there the next morning when they were open again, and when he would be able to get inside the helicopter.

So while the others stayed around there to have a look at things, I made for this cache, finding the track pretty quickly and making my way down towards GZ. Nobody out this way this evening, not even a mountain biker. I could imagine this track would be fun to ride, though it might test some of my skill and strength in places.

I got to GZ quicker than I had anticipated, and the GPSr beeped to remind me to slow down and check where GZ was. It was a quick find in a logical place. Log signed and everything put back as found.

I then followed the track on to get back to the other side of the road by going through the tunnel. Very neat way to get around. Lots of fun walking carefully through the dark in the tunnel, focusing on the light at the end to get through.

#100 woo TFTC
Smells way to much like tree c**.....

Great nice n dry and hidden

Nice walk quickly found signed log and replaced as found. Tftc an smiley

Quickly found. Container broken but log book still OK. TFTC

A quick find as it wasn’t covered, cache rehidden log damp but still ok tftc

Found

An easy one as in plain sight!
Re-hid a bit better
TFTC

MPLC

TFTC

Found it! Really cool! Fourth cache! Lots of fun with the family! We walked along the track a bit, looking around and had loads of fun! Thanks for the cache! Hopefully third time is lucky!

Last cache in the area before heading to our accommodation for the evening. A fabulous spot that we would not have discovered without geocaching.

Dropped tb

Dropped tb off on family walk

It was a way from where it said on map so rehid next to co ordinates was also out in the open not hidden

Thanks for this little walk

Actually pretty quick to find - hint is good.

Awesome walk down to find the geocache one for the whole family to join in on

Cool track and easy to find! Wouldn’t recommend taking dogs. Left a little doggy paw print key ring in the container

Quick and easy find.
SL TFTC

A quick easy find, although we have to wonder if the tree fell before or after the cache was placed? Was a further shift averted? TFTC

I'm from Switzerland and spend 4 months in New Zealand on vacation. Found this cache after a few minutes search, thanks.

Yes was very lucky today ..had a nice walk to the bigest tree i thougt from the top then a smile and it was a other big tree... thanks fom Swiss guy !!!

Heute stand zusammen mit Heckenstürmer ein etwas gemütlicher Tag auf dem Programm. Wir waren in der Gegend um Taupo unterwegs, sind durch die Stadt geschlendert und haben uns die Craters of the Moon und die Huka Falls angeschaut.

Greets from Switzerland

Day 20 in Newzealand. Today we visited Taupo, the Huka Falls and The Craters of the Moon.
A very beautiful Country with lovely places. We were able to find nice Caches and See Lots of beautiful places.
Thank you for showing us this place.
Tftc

Well worth the detour. One of quite a few while out with bkj97, a couple of muggle friends and team China doll47. T4TCSL

Out with Bkj97, Little Blue Hen, and our 2 Muggle friends for trip to Taupo and the surrounding area. A lovely walk through the trees, went through the tunnel making a lot of noise but then found we needed to retrace our steps. The men folk had this found when I arrived, stamped and returned. TFTC

Great tunnel. Another stunning day weather wise so headed to taupo from turangi with little blue hen, China doll 47 and a couple of muggle friends. tftcsl

Easy find.

Easy find once you work your way past the gorse.

Lots of blackberry bushes not good walking thru when wearing shorts. Good hide otherwise thanks for the cache!

Cool find

Heading back to Wellington from the Waikato today with some time for some caching - yay! Parked and walked along the rather winding track and through the tunnel to access the cache, rather a neat little track although it doesn't seem heavily used and there is quite a bit of blackberry growing on to it. The cache was a quick find and the coordinates were reasonably accurate for me. Signed log, thanks for the cache and for showing me this place!

22351 Traveling through New Zealand to see nice people and places. Also to find some geocaches.

Today we moved from Taupo to Rotura, seeing nice places and visiting caches along the road. Stopping at a Volcano park. We stopped at some caches of the Te Ara Ahi trails, where we could stop the car, because our bikes are 18.000 km away. It would be nice to ride this trails by bike.

Most caches were found quite quickly. A few took more time. Some were wet with waterproof paper, but our stamp and pen do not work that good on such paper when it is wet. Muggles did not watch what we were doing and had more interest in the surrounding views.

fanfan-77 TFTC and the fun it brought us. Theo

On the next day, the camper took me to the great Lake Taupo, where some caches I was able to find.

Thanks for the caches!

Nice

Very clever place for a cache. Thanks for taking me there.

Teachers have taken strike action today... I decided to pick up the dog and head for the hills. We haven’t done this for a while.

This was our first find for the afternoon... The walk in was interesting, as are many of these hidden gullies in and around Taupo. The hint was a ‘big’ surprise! It felt strange having that bulk overhead. This is one hide we are pleased to finally visit. TFTC.

Couple of Blackberries couldn't stop us. Tftc

Nice Spot here

Nice little walk in the trees away for everyone. IN TB

Tftc great old tree

Today was International Earthcache Day, and as it happens I was driving from Auckland back to Levin after having a break up there, so thought I would break up my journey by trying to grab an Earthcache or two in the northern Taupo area I used to visit more often before the bypass was completed.

So whilst here I thought I would look for a few nearby Traditional Caches, including this one. In my rush, I was initially fooled by my GPS into thinking it would be an easy park and grab, but realising my mistake I then found the path which should lead me to GZ. Once there, the Hint let me know exactly where the cache should be, and then it was an easy find. All was fine with the container and its contents, and there was no-one around to disturb me whilst I signed the log and replaced it all as found.

Thank you for placing this cache, and good luck that it lasts.

Thanks for the cache. Quick find

Wasnt too hard

Good little walk.

Good day hunting with the kids