Gnarly Giant (Auckland) Auckland, North Island, New Zealand
By GeoRick on 31-May-14. Waypoint GC5621F

GPS bouncing around a bit under the tree cover but accurate enough with a good hint to make it not too hard a find, just a bit of a methodical search. All good with the cache here. Tftc.

Took me ages to find this & i didnt want to end on a DNF! Persistance paid off in the end & i was relieved to find it. Coords 14m out for me, made for a huge search area! [TFTC]

Out and about in Takapuna today. Perfect temperature for geocaching, not too hot, not too cold, just right. Trying to clear out the area. This cache was hard to find. It took me about half an hour of thorough searching and when I was about to give up, I finally made the find. Persistence paid off!!!Though I had an idea what the hint meant, there were still so many possibilities and places to check. And with all this natural camo lying around, the small cache was easily overlooked when I checked the hiding place for the first time. Second time was a charme. Glad I found it in the end. Thanks for hiding and maintaining. Tftc

Great spot. Seriously gnarly trees

This one took a bit of searching but persistence eventually paid off.

This one took quite a bit of searching to find the sneaky hide. Was about to give up when we looked in one last place. Tftc

Been to the bigger section of Smith's bush many times and always wondered about this little section

Checked today all still good here. Happy Caching.

Sadge

**#19,346**Starting to get a bit dark out now, especially under the bush cover, quick jog in to find this one, no worries with the find here, thank you!

A couple of beauties here ....a quick find and I left a marker . The cache is nice and dry and old school Camo.

Searched numerous trees in the area and cant find it

Another great weekend in Auckland with Lis's Crew to complete this months challenge and find a few extra caches in and around Milford.

Wow what a lovely bush walk with some spectacular gnarly giants. Lucky I was wearing my winter caching attire ie gumboots as the first part of the track was very muddy.

It did take a few minutes to find this cache as the GPS was moving due to the coverage but after reading the cache page and hint again we soon had it in hand. Thanks for bringing me here and TFGC.

Yvettetb and I are down in Auckland again for a geocaching weekend. We had a great day yesterday at the event then collected all the different types needed for the souvenir around Auckland. That was a sucessful outing and although rain constantly threatened it only spat on us occasionally.

Today the forecast wasn't much better. As luck would have it we had another dry and productive day. We even managed to get 5 ftfs in Whangarei to finish our weekend off.

A great little bit of bush in this area. It was a bit muddy at the start of the track but it soon improved. We found several gnarly trees and I bravely put my hand into what I thought was a great geocache type hidy hole. Without success we read logs of an impressive giant and better analysed the hint. A change of gz soon revealed the cache. Thanks for the hide

Searched around a good while. Hunted several trees. Found a wooden post nailed to big tree and even found this perfect spot but alas, DNF.

Found tree but don’t get the hint

Wow.What an impressive tree..Tftc

New container and log book added. All good to go. Happy caching.

Checked today and its gone. Will replace shortly.

Not today… has not been found for awhile

Second look today and found it Cool tree. TFTC

Found it but container was hard to open

could not find, will look again another time

Checked the obvious spots, re-read the hint and an early log and after about 10 mins the cache was located. TFTC

Such a cool hiding spot! Loved the clue, it helped a lot. TFTC!

First time to Smith’s bush this side of the motorway. It was an impressive giant. Found the cache ok. Thanks for the cache and for bringing me here.

Another one of those caches that I drove past/near to hundreds of times last year on the way to/from Devonport but never found time to stop for. Some great trees in this nice wee bush remnant and admired the size of some. After checking the 'likely' one I widened my search and got to the root of the matter for a nice find. Replaced with a bit of stick-o-flage. Cheers GeoRick.

So, my time living in the area is rapidly coming to a conclusion and I move South in a couple of weeks time back to the Manawatu region, though have plans to head back here periodically to visit and explore, once more. After my work chores were done for the day I headed out on a loop drive and walk to mop up some of my unfound caches within the North Shore area. Once again some good finds and big thanks to all COs for their hides.

Nice hiding place

Found it after 15m great little hiding spot

My fist lockdown geotag

Found 14/08/21 - Our first geocache ever. Simple clues and description, my navigation was all over the place, but we knew we were in the right place, after an hour of searching and about to give up, we found it! Great little hiding place.

This one took an AGE to find! Unfortunately I had to succumb to some help from the CO after checking all likely hiding spots. Made a quick find today but still can't quite get my head around the hint. This tree sure is a massive tree!!! TFTC

Checked it out. All still good here cache is in its hiding place.

This one needs a CO check please. It hasn't been found in a year and has gone missing in the past. Thanks

Will check it out.

No luck again but many logs have been cut down since my last visit so am wondering if this is still here? This cache has had a few muggle problems in the past...

Cant find this one again! I think I found the "Support" but cache is nowhere to be seen. There were also some muggles doing some dangerous activity in the back of the bush so didnt want to spend too long

Great hint and what a grand gnarly tree. I love it when you apply a bit of hint based logic and bingo...Thanks for the new log paper Nette.

Second time of looking. Thank you from Howard and Kath
Manchester UK

All good here with good hints.
Lovely giant !
Added new log paper as was sodden...
Was just in the other Smith's Bush earlier....

Not this time

All clear tomorrow. Have fun caching but keep safe.

Will enable again when we are given the all clear.

Yeah spent a while looking but with my gps going all over the show, nothing was bringing me any luck. This is the 3rd DNF in a row so will have to take a breaknow

Took a second try, but finally found! Well hidden!

My friend and I hunted this one for a couple minutes and she managed to find it quite easily. No climbkng required, a little bit of a challenge!

My friend and I hunted this one for a couple minutes and she managed to find it quite easily. No climbkng required, a little bit of a challenge!

Found it with newby grandparents

It was hard to find, climbing wasn’t required and support was grounded

The Giant wanted me to climb... but I didn't . Log was wet so didn't sign it. I found the 'love wizzpopping' badge. A cute little walk and cache.

Visited the other side of Smith's bush many years ago on a school trip. Was expecting something a tad bigger but got the find so that's what counts. Ttc and safe journeys

Yay. My first find with no help from my kids!!!! Thank you.

Found with @Waihi Magyars

Was in the area so paid a quick visit to the gnarly giant. I don't think I've been through here since my TNIS days... Well hidden. TFTC

Checked and all good here.

I may have been too impatient though. Will have another look on another Auckland trip

Today was a chance to head out in the company of McCutchen Cache Clan for a little bit of a hit out around Takapuna and Northcote/Highbury areas. So trying to make the most of the day (and in that what I really mean is to avoid both people and traffic as much as possible. We headed up early and were actually caching just before 5am and were all over by noon so that we could get home to our families.
All Logs signed as "MCD" to conserve logbook space

Having set myself a couple of personal caching goal for the year (or at least whats left of it) I thought I had better crack into it and start collecting so that hopefully the last 6 months of the years is far more productive than the first 6 months.
All in all a great morning was had and we managed to stay dry. Not too many DNF's, a couple of unattempted's as not able to get to them and plenty of founds. A few of the gully's that we traversed were very muddy and so was suitably grateful for the decision to bring the tramping boots to keep the feet dry.

Great collection of caches and some very clever camouflage by the usual suspects. So all in all 65 successful finds today with what the time allowed. I apologize for the rather generic logs but it was a bit of a rushed trip so things started to blur into each other.
Great little piece of nice open bush in a urban haven
Thanks to all the CO's for their contributions, thanks for the cache.

Started out at 3.30 in the morning (all good plans start when it's dark!) The drive north was fantastic, virtually no traffic all the way through Auckland to the North Shore and in the company of Cats & Dragon's. We found our first cache at 4.30am and cached hard out untill lunch time. The weather held out for us, with the occasional lite drizzle. A fantastic day, over 60 finds a few DNF and a big hole put in the area.
Thanks to all the CO's who placed their cache for us to find and thanks for the great day!

Have been wanting to visit this one for a long time, and once I found the entrance with nearby parking I was soon exploring this enchanted place. Love the hide, and dreamed of climbing up to what was once a secret place. Thanks for the hide

I've looked at this cache on the map a few times and wondered how to access it - passing by today so I decided to find out. Quick find thanks to the clue. Cheers!

Investigated for a while but did not find the cache. I did find a really big tree... I wonder if that was the gnarly giant... I am new to geocaching so a little help would be good. I will come back.

I thought when I came here with my e-bike, that this hide was one of G-2's! I only see now as I log this that it isn't, my apologies GeoRick. This did give me some grief in finding... I checked the co-ords when I got here and once more after that. I seemed to get a clue from others in 'widening their search' once I did that the cache was all mine! Whoo hoo!!

This is a remote support to the Old Gnarly. Thanks for the cache.

Jag50, Aiden29 and I were making the most of a rain free morning. This took a little while to find but Mrs Jag50 eventually spied it's hiding spot

Out with Merlot58 and Jag50. We cut across from Smales Farm, and found an access route to the bush. Our GPS's wouldn't settle, but we located the Gnarly Giant. Took us a little searching before Mrs Jag found the sneaky camo.

Out with Merlot58 and Aiden29 we spied the gnarly giant as we approached. Our GPS's took a while to settle under the bush cover. After extending the search area the cunning hide was located.

After three fun kayak caches up around Riverhead this morning, I decided another couple of land based caches this afternoon would be great. This was a fun cache, GPS took me straight to the Gnarly Giant, and the cunning hide was soon spotted.
I've explored all through Smiths Bush previously, but never ventured over this side until today. Thanks for bringing me down to this place, very cool hide, TFTC.

Took a little while to settle on which was gnarly. Lots of empty bottles around etc, but cache in good order and well hidden. thanks.

Unexpectedly came across the old cache that had been muggled, cleaned it, dried it, removed ruined fridge magnet, and hid it carefully with the new cache. Suggest that it may not be a safe permanent hiding spot for that container. Perhaps @GeoRick you might like to remove the old container?

Thanks for letting me know about the problem Lily Libra will get on to it soon.

Great camo... Glad I found it today after a DNF last time. Added "I love whizzpopping" badge since there was room in the cache

Actually, there are several Gnarly choices. I looked at the one to which my GPSr pointed me, and all I found was a dead possum [xx(]. Once I was sure there was no cache in it and that it was once a real, live possum, I shouted, "Yuck!!" Mental note: "Wash hands really well before lunch."
At the next one, there were no dead animals, but lots of places to search. I went around a few times before my poking stick hit something. Took: Signal the Frog Travel Tag. TFTC.

All replaced and ready to go. New camo. Added Signal a new trackable. Bring a pen. Please replace gently.

Its been muggled again! Will replace soon with more camo.

Looked for 20 minutes and didn't find anything. GPS reception is bad in the bush but the clue should have lead me to the right place, sadly not.
Quite a busy area with people walking dogs and transiting through from the school fields.

Also found with Carlos but on a tuesday

Amazing old tree! Coordinates off but strong hint. Added a blockhead to the cache stash! TFTC

What a cool tree – we loved it! Quick find. Left a pathtag. TFTC. Mahalo and Aloha from Hawaii.

Nice family trip out to this small patch of lovely bush. Thanks!

#306 - What a fantastic old tree! I've been walking in the other section of Smith Bush across the road, but this was my firt time in this wee little remnant that the motorway cut off. An easy walk from my flat. Loved exploring the many trees. Coords were a bit off - my GPS clocked this at S. 47.382 / E 45.256. Still an easy find by following the clue. Thanks for the hide. Give it a favorite point.

Another DNF

Another DNF

Found a long dead possum in a hollow tree, but no cache.

The only thing we found was the dead possum!

Easy find ☺

Nice find, nice walk as well around TNIS!
TFTC;)

As soon as we got near to it, locator went psycho, and threw us 300m away. But based on earlier countdown tracker, we believe we found it. Size of sandwich box, but has no logo.

Quick lunch time cache to keep up streak. Cache is in good order. Not to hard to find. TFTC

Quite hard to find. Look carefully

Collected Kiwiscot & friend from the local school and decided to grab this nearby cache on the way home. Lovely piece of suburban bush with some fantastic tress. Quick find. TFTC

Thanks good find on lunchbreak

Couldn't find the cache but the mossies found us:(

That's a nice piece of bush for sure , better container than a mint tin
All good, nice one!
Thanks.

Found a dead rat a dead bird a pack of smokes and a birds nest b4 finally locating the cache nice spot TFTC

Thanks for putting it back. A nice quick find and spoiled with a brand new log book. Thanks

Coordinates changed from:
S 36° 47.382 E 174° 45.266

Coordinates changed to:
S 36° 47.375 E 174° 45.266

Distance from original: 42.7 feet or 13 meters.
Slight change of location due to muggle problems.

Sorry for the delay all up and running now.

3 months since last find, 9 weeks disabled, itching to find this one, time to go ?

Has been muggled. Will fix as soon as possible.