In Pursuit of a Ponga and Pa (Hamilton) Horsham Downs, North Island, New Zealand
By kiwiteachernz on 06-Jun-14. Waypoint GC56F0Z

Sounds like area has changed. Freeing up space for another CO to have some fun with us.

Dead ponga at gz fitting the clue. No cache.

Searched likely spots according to the hint but no luck so moved on.Interesting history here.

Thanks

Had a look around the rather dead ponga, but no luck.

Only one ponga bit no prize..

Found with Skishnfluff on 8/8/21 TFTC

Nice to find the pa 2

Easiest one ever

Almost missed it!

that statue is huge ... and even bigger than me!!!

Second find with the family today. Little boy is getting grumpy so off to home we go.

Ja

Awesome and took me to a part I never even new existed!

Went for a night stroll to find this. Found the correct path eventually. TFTC

How cool!

.

Found the magnificent pou....the ponga not so much....
First I thought I needed to climb a vertical bank!
Then found the correct track....

TFTC

Was on the wrong path so had to climb up a bank. Found it though

Just realised there was actually a path that lead up to it

Checketts BOYZ
Found by Daniel&Dad

Boob

Nice spot, thanks!

Nice spot

Found, lovely walk first thing in the morning ️

Found it. Couldn't find it last time as it was to dark.

Found while out on a cycle ride along this amazing path. We are stuck in Hamilton due to an Akld Covid lockdown. Hoping to resume our journey North soon.

Nice pa site. Easy quick find. Log full. New one added.
Stay safe everyone. TFTC

Couldn't find it as we went in the evening and there were some strangers looking at us and we felt weird

Found it. But lost my pen on way to find lol. Will sign nxt time

Cool

Yay to day we reached Hamilton so up at 5 am to smash out th 20 km walk.
Then we get to resupply and pick up some new gear .
Then tomorrow we relax before heading back to the forest.
And on south to bluff on my Te Araroa adventures
Log full
Living life one foot steep at a time as i walk from cape reinga to bluff and caching my way home as I walk the
Te Araroa and discover the hidden treasures new Zealand has to offer.
From the beach of the north to the forest and lakes of the south
Blùff here i come
Thanks for the hide

tftc

If anyone gets to it before me, the log sheet needs replacing. Cheers.

On a bike ride down the path and discovered a pa I had no idea was here. Love this hide but the container could do with some new paint. Tried to cover better so as not too visible. Thanks very much kiwiteachernz

Nice and easy to get in the end. But needs a next log book.

??????

TFTC

Lovely to find a hidden gem while finding a cache. Tftc.

Nice and shady spot. - maintenance required - more logbook paper needed TFTC

Nice quick find as it was lying on the ground.

Yay kewa, found it

Kids spotted another one

Tau ke.
Awesome

I find these pā quite interesting.
The GPS in my mobile was all other the place, but the hint help me find the cache.
TFTC

Managed to get this one on the way back to the car. T4tc

What a wonderful spot, we diverted from the main path to find the cache and take in the history.
The cache was quickly spotted as it was quite exposed so we have re-hidden it with a bit of natural camo to preserve its security. TFTC.

I'm slowly chipping away at these Hamilton caches and anytime is a good time for another raid - even in the rain! Mc Jandals was the only one crazy enough to join me as I plowed through a fairly specific bunch of trads, multis and solved puzzles. A neat little walk here to help pump up our step count. This cache was found quickly and in good condition thanks to a straight forward hint and placement. Cheers kiwiteachernz & TFTC

On another Waikato mission. What better way to spend a rainy day. I am logging using the Cachly app template so please excuse generic logging along the way. It’s just my way of keeping track, but I do genuinely thank each and every one of you cache owners for taking the time and energy to place these caches. Many Thanks for bringing us here. Cheers

TFTC
# 1139 May 5, 2019 16:02

My 3 year old found it with a small amount of help. We are loving these finding activities as a family.

I was over for the weekend visiting family and managed to persuade my sister in law to vary her early morning dog walking route so that we could go together and pick up some caches along the way.
This area has certainly changed a lot since I lived in Hamilton 28 years ago.
We parked up near by and this was the first cache along the way.
I had missed the turn off for this one on the way down the track so left it for the return trip.
After an unfortunate incident while heading back, where the dog had decided to pursue a cyclist, tripping me up in the process, I had decided to leave this one, but my sister in law said nah, I might as well grab it up too, so we made our way to GZ. She checked out the near by pa while I, with my multiple abrasions and what I eventually discovered to be a fractured thumb, painfully completed the formalities. I had trouble opening and closing the container, and had to write with my left hand, so it looks like a 5 yr old wrote it, but it is there . Now that's dedication to the cause!!! I then checked out the pa site too, before heading back to the car.
Thanks for bringing us to this interesting and memorable spot (memorable for many reason's)

Never been up this path before!

Nice and handy! Bit of uphill on my bike but no worries .... TFTC

#525. Mr Northwood had to get up early to drop one of the junior Northwoods at a friend's house for a sports trip. So he decided to make good use of the early start (and avoid the heat later).

This was one where doing things "in reverse" meant walking back a bit further and wishing you'd paid more attention to all the signs on the way. But soon spotted when I needed to head. Another spot I would have never found.

It is no longer a "small black cache", think the opposite color of that. TFTH.

A beautiful stretch along the Waikato River with enough caches to keep the kids walking and engaged.

Found it. A beautiful stretch along the Waikato River with enough caches to keep the kids walking and engaged.

The Freezer Mice strike again!!!
Took the kids out for a bike along the river path, and coaxed them into it with the promise of some caching along the way.
TNLN, TFTC.

Nice evening walk picking up caches along the way. TFTC

Decided to get the bike out and head over to do some bike trails and few other caches in the northern area. The weather was beautiful and I loved the nice path and great bridges. Thanks to the COs for some great cache placements. TFTC

Pazza2 invited me to join them and start off the New Year with a cycle ride on this very cool cycle way. This didn't take too long to find then we continued up the hill and checked out the Pa

We mostly peddled to the top but pushed our bikes to the Pa because biking is prohibited up at the top. tftc

My plan of getting a good cluster of caches before the end of the day is now definitely not going to plan. A small diversion and nice poles, but sadly terrible caching experience. A good 10 minute looking around with very little to go on, and a DNF.

Out for a bike ride along the river this afternoon. Found after a short search, TFTC

There are a lot of poles at the top of the hill

Grab this on my wayback. Good location. The walk down here is pretty good. Tftc

A day off work today so my hubbie and I went biking on this walkway north of Hamilton up to Ngaruawahia and back. Lovely sunny day for it although it's still quite cool - but can't complain about this weather for June! I was rather glad that my muggle hubbie discovered the easier way to get to this cache. Great spot, TFTC

Nice quick find here. Cache was totally exposed so re-hid more securely. TFTC.

Found this one lying on the ground but very close to GZ so we signed the log and placed back in what we thought was the logical place. Enjoying this trail today

Interesting place to visit and yay I found it .

Bit confusing TFTC

Out for a bike ride with Tinytree on this newly completed section of bike trail. We rode from Meadow View Lane to Ngaruawahia Golf course and then turned around and picked up all the caches on the way back. This is a beautiful ride and we really appreciated the effort that has gone into creating it and look forward to doing other sections some day.
Did this the hard way from the bike trail and went straight up the hill only to find a much easier way to find it. TFTC.

Thanks for the cache and for taking us to this Pa site which we had no idea was here. The black has worn off this cache increasing it's visibility so I tucked it around the back to make it a little less obvious.

Found

Xt

Thanks for the cache which then lead us on to Mangahareke Pa Site which was completely unknown to us. Thanks for sharing.

11.30am. A quick one this time. Now back down the hill to continue.
Thank you. David.

Hidden history. Tftc out biking on a sunny autumn morning

took us along time to work out where but once we got back on "track" we found it easy as!
we we added a little something to the cache
tftc

Headed out for a bike ride and caching trip with Master 11, planning on getting all the caches between Pukete and Horotiu.
Paused pedalling and parked pushbikes, paced purposefully to pa. (can't keep doing this P alliteration!). Cache found easily. Thank you for the excuse to see the pa site - have cycled the river trail often and didn't know there was a pa here.
JustKaty and son
Cache find #255

I've honestly never considered that this place was called Flax Mountain. Sounds like the opposite of a good geocaching adventure :p

Easy one not well hidden and black of container coming off. But good cache

Nice quick find. Lovely walk in the bush. Tftc

Warfi did the hard work for the P series. Thanks for the challenge.

Never knew this was here. Thanks for the cache and history lesson

170 Came to the north end of Hamilton as meeting point to pick up my boys after they have had the weekend with their grandparents at the V8s in Pukekohe. So what better than to spend the afternoon caching while waiting. Enjoying the gentle stroll, amazing how many people are out and about, be it walking, running, biking, dog walkers. Up the incline, nice easy find tried to place it a bit less conspicuous. TFTC

Got out on the bike today so though I might try looking
for some local cache's. Surprising how many muggles
where around just sitting in vehicles but managed a few
and a couple of DNF. Most were easy finds.

On my way back to Auckland I decided to get a little walking in. Enjoyed watching the high river flowing by. Nice area. TFTC

Very special spot to celebrate 100 finds. Thanks for bringing us here

Found on a lovely stroll a hidden gem

Wow! Another location I didn't even know existed. Cache easily found. Camo has worn off quite a bit, so I left it more covered than I found it. SL. TFTC - Number 8 for the day. Thanks for bringing us here.

Enjoyed this one! Nice to visit the pa and had the great lightbulb moment when I realised the hint and immediate gratification when I found the cache. Thanks!

All good

Thanks for the cache we never knew there used to be A Pa here so we have learnt something new

Like many others hadn't noticed this path intially as trying not to get run over by the kids and their scooters. A quick detour and cache uickly found. TFTC

Missed the turn off for this one on the way through but up I went on the way back, got to the top, disembarked only to realise I need to go back down the track lol. Once at GZ, it was a quick find. A nice spot here. TFTC

not sure how others took the wrong way, the name of the cache shows you the way, tftc

I also started on the wrong track, but realised the error of my ways and got on the correct level for an easy find. Tftc

Found it. TFTC.

In the area working on some machinery issues. Had finished early for the day and now heading back to Auckland. This trail was close to where I was working and as it was such a lovely afternoon I parked the car and took a little stroll to grab a couple of these at the beginning of this trail.

Approached GZ from the wrong track then started searching on the wrong side of the rack. Lesson read the description and you won't have issues!!!

After reading the description the find was made very quickly.

TFTC

Cache Nr. 3795
Quick find on our walk along the river.
Thanks for the box Quiri