Box Canyon on Rangitoto Auckland, North Island, New Zealand
By kiwicouple on 25-Oct-14. Waypoint GC5FCXF

Awesome cache!! Took us on a hunt around the rocks. TFTC!!

Got it. Came overland from the track and once on the ridges the box canyons stand out so clearly. What a confuzzled wee maze.

Once onto the Island....on my first visit here, we (HeMaLuDy team and myself), dropped our gear off at the accommodation that was to be for the next 2 nights, and headed for an unclaimed FTF on the boarder to Motutapu.

Obviously collecting any caches that were along the way.....

TFTC.

Beautiful spot and awesome feature, loved finding it

CAET found it, looking in the wrong canyon for a while!

Out for a walk on Rangitoto today, aim was to walk as much as possible and grab caches that I hadn’t grabbed before.

Nice weather today, we ended up doing a good loop and grabbing a dozen or so caches.

Thanks to all the COs for their placements!

Cache specifics:

This was an excellent place to put a cache, really lovely views from the top and just a generally peaceful spot, many thanks for the direction here.

Royal New Zealand Navy Basic Training Class 4 21/2

NAVY recruits onboard the Navy Yachts found cache as part of a leadership scenario. Beautiful view. Lovely cache.

A nice short walk today, enough to stretch the legs from yesterday's epic walk and not overdo it.
This one corralled us right to it. Amazing little place, thanks for the cache

Such a memorable day. I always wanted to go to this amazing place and never created the opportunity, don't know why. Interesting it! I'm realizing the power of Geocaching on putting you to move, to concretize, to plan and execute, to visit many amazing and wonderful places as well making you think, use your brain and I loved it.
I and VibhaHB (at this time she was just a Muggle that only knew about Geocaching), we took the ferry from Devenport at the beginning of the morning towards the wonderland already making plans to witch track/cache to take first. At this time she had the downloaded App and profile sorted out and as soon we got there we started our journey taking one of the less popular track, and long enough to see as much as possible of the place and find some caches for sure. When we got to close to GZ we started to search for the cache following the description, what an interesting feature of the island, beautiful. After a while looking for it, we finally got close enough and I could see the cache. After signing the logbook and return the container as required we kept our adventure to see more nice stuff and find more caches.
TFTC

Found on a hot January day. Thanks for encouragement to go off the path and investigate an incredible location!

[#1231 | 10:25] Another cache on a long hike on this beautiful and peaceful island. What a great views of the bay from the rocks! Thanks & greetings from the Czechs!

Our last day on the island and a few hours between leaving the bach and the time we had booked the water taxi meant we came this way for a bit of an explore along the coast to Yankee wharf. We would never have found this canyon by ourselves so thanks for bringing us here with a cache. That is one of the great things about geocaching. A nice quick find here. Found with darthcacher1 and purply.

Had intended on getting this on the way to Islington Bay but was absolutely knackered by the time we got close so took the road route to the Bay to drop off our packs. After a knock on the door from some others on the island who couldn't find their accommodation and now fully refreshed we headed back along the path rout to the cache. A bit of walking around and we eventually got to claim this. Cache and log in good order and thanks for brining us here otherwise without the cache we wouldn't have discovered this route. TFTC

#555. I think I took the long way to find this one, I went over the top of the rocks instead of through the canyon. This meant I approached the cache from above. But I'm glad I did though, the landscape was very cool here. The hiding place was easy to spot once I was at GZ.


Today four of us walked from Rangitoto wharf to Motutapu via the coastal track, and found five geocaches along the way.

Thank you very much for the cache!

What a great hidden spot in a great walk!.

Very nice place !!

Went from wrong side

Quick find after climbing mount Everest.

Wonderful place!
Thanks for hiding.

Found it on an amazing day together with Team Vendetta and Speedy Gonzalez!
TFTC!
Jolo.

An interesting location. I probably would have simply bypassed this spot if not for the cache. TFTC

On the Island for the day trying to clean up the right side. We actually entered the box canyon from the top and went right past it. Had a look in the other box by then return to the right one and soon had the cache

I took a longer, but easier way over to GZ and into Box Canyon. I looked for a place that fit the hint, but nothing jumped out at me. There was only one place that fit, but the cache surely couldn't be there, could it? It could. TFTC.

Kiwiscot on school holiday's so we decided today was a good day to explore Rangitoto & collect some caches along the way. Mother nature played her part. Not to hot and only a couple of brief periods of drizzle. Enjoying this different type of landscape. Kiwiscot liked exploring this location so gets a favorite point. TFTC

Found in our holidays to New Zealand.
Greetings from Germany and

TFTC,

JuStMeMi

Roasting hot trek along the coast path and even hotter at this hidden spot! But we got it. TFTC

Amazing place, but like a cauldron today.

I did attempt this cache as a local black-backed gull took exemption at me getting close to the cache. I found out the reason as soon as I turned the corner when I saw two small fluffy chicks walking away so I bested a hasty retreat to leave them alone.

Awesome place, came after a great weekend sailing. TFTC

First cache of the day as the ferry dropped us at Islington Bay. Wasnt easy to find GZ so just kept looking for the hint. Finally got there to earn the smiley. TFTC

#8494 @1620
Following a few days work in Auckland, I stayed over for the weekend to spend a day walking (and caching of course) on Rangitoto Island with my daughter who lives in Auckland. Due to the wind, we were dropped off at the Islington Bay Wharf, so started with some nearby traditional caches then headed off around the coast to the Rangitoto Wharf. From there we climbed to the top and back down the road towards Islington Bay Wharf. I approached this one from the wrong direction (via the seagull's nest, getting swooped in the process), and went right over the cache, before returning and revealing it. TFTC.

Log wet and mushy
Traveling around New Zealand in Hanene our Jucy Van, last night we camped in a camp site overlooking Rangitoto and were treated to several firework displays across the bay and one by the camp site that must have lasted about 4 hours.

Today we took the ferry to Rangitoto and walked to the top and then down again via Islington Bay. It’s a long way from there back to the pier on a track that would warrant proper boots and not the sketchers I had on.

There was a bird nesting quite close to GZ but it just stayed put and just kept an eye on us. We practically fell over the cache as we walked along. Signed and returned. TFTC

As it's been a while now since I finally qualified for all of the GIO series I thought it was about time I head back over there to see if I can turn the rest of the series into smiley faces. The initial plan was to head over with the family, but as the weather forecast didn't look great at all the plan was quickly upgraded to an island clean up attempt while the family stayed at Nana's!

The day turned out to be a great success, with the weather holding out til the last few hours on the island, and nearly all caches attempted found. One massive search which resulted in a DNF, took the last little bit of time needed to do the full loop and clean out the island. Oh well...I'm sure I'll be back another day.

I think I wandered past this cache twice before I spotted it. Not quite where I expected it would be, some neat canyons here!

A big thanks for placing this cache!

Was on the island today for a Gorby Event but took the Coastal Track to grab some Geo LIcence caches. This was on my must grab list too so took a detour down the Islington Bay Track and eventually made my way to the wee Box Canyon....then the next wee Box Canyon....finally third time lucky. Awesome area, loved the formations, giving this an FP.

Such a cool place for a geocache! Happy that we tried to find it and went a bit 'off-track'. Thank you so much for guiding us that way!

On a day trip with Yorkshirekiwi83 to gather some of the caches on the east of the island and hopefully some licences. Got into the canyon and what a beautiful area. Loved the sponges and moss hanging off the trees. Realised eventually we were searching in the wrong scree slope. We heard a shout from nearby to say Sophie had found it. Favourite point for the area, thanks

KirsTim and I ventured over to the island early this morning for a day of adventure on Rangi. Started off very plesant under cloud cover, occasionally looked like it was going to rain, but no it settled on very hot and sunny. Had a fab day and collected some caches that had been steadily growing over here.

What a difference 30m makes, such a different diversity here and a great place for a cache. Tookl us a little while to get our hands on it, but great location, fav point TFTC

Our duke of ed group was staying on Motutapu/Rangitoto for a couple of days.
We found that there were way too many scree slopes to be able to tell which one it was, and there were three dividing walls, so that made it even more difficult for us

Great hide and location. TFTC

#3175. I had a day of leave available before heading back to Wellington. The day dawned bright and clear so decided a boat trip to Rangitoto was in order. I have a few of the GIO licence series that need to be located and there are plenty of traditionals to find. So arrived on the island at about 10am and with just five and half hours until the last boat home I needed to put my skates on. Decided to divert off the main track to check this one out. Had a black-backed gull and a Caspian tern nesting nearby that kept swooping at me. Took a few minutes to locate the correct canyon entrance as the GPS was wandering around a bit (with me following it). But once there I quickly spied the hiding spot. Signed the dry logbook and replacec the cache as found. What an interesting area to explore. Thanks for hiding the cache here.

Followed the instructions of waiting till I got to the path, before cutting across. Once I got near GZ I was navigated up the wrong fork of the canyon. Once I could see nothing that matched the hint, decided to walk out, then go up the other arm. Again climbed to the top! good views from up here, and on retracing my steps found the cache.

Thanks for the hide, a special secret spot

These caches are what I love about geocaching, without the cache I would not have left the track and viewed these amazing structures. Had a great day exploring this side of the Island as part of the Heritage Festival, now off to a nearby bach for tea and cake.

On the shipwreck bay walk and stopped in to see some baches which were open for the day. A great day out - and found a few GCs for the day as well! TFTC.

Took the path rather than the road which allowed us to make a detour to find this one - pretty little spot and nicely sheltered from the breeze here, must get hot in summer. Stopped to read the hint and realised then that I must be right on top of it - sure enough there it was.

Good decision to come this way as we got to walk on to Islington Bay and a local bach holder invited us in for a cup of tea and to look at their bach restoration. Fascinating as I've never seen inside a Rangitoto Island bach before. TFTC.

What a very cute place! Like a fairies hideaway! TFTC

Great hide thanks for putting the cache here, we'd never have stumbled across it otherwise! A favourite point from us. 9 out of 9 for the day so far for us. TFTC.

Nice detour from the path - TFTC!

very nice place - unfortunately no more trading items there.
voradl

this is the best geocache we have found... a great spot off the beaten track, well maintained and full of treasures!

Today I decided to visit Rangitoto for some hiking and caching and was great! I'm from Gerany and so I never saw a landscape like this in my live. So interesting and unusual and beautyfull! So I walked and walked and walked around the whole day and enjoyed every moment.

And this was the right decision: No one went in this direction and so I had this lovely trail (and the caches along) on my own. What a great place!

Thanks a lot for the cache.
dG

In: A favorite point for the location.

Finally back to Rangi so can make a find ont his cache placed since i was here last. Wow, I didn't know about this area - very cool. Fave point awarded just for how cool these canyons and walls are. After finding the cache I climbed up and explored further inland. It's like a maze of canyons and walls for quite some distance, although there is a fair bit of gorse in there too. Anyway, TFTC!!!

I headed out on this fine day for yet another visit to Rangitoto. My focus for the day was to pick up the newer caches on the Eastern side of Rangitoto and the Western side of Motutapu - in all a very long day on the islands, with lots of walking! As I headed down Yankee Wharf Road to access the Islington Bay Track, I encountered 2 full size cattle trucks heading the other direction along the road - no room for me and them on the road, so I had to take refuge in the scrub till they passed - not something I was expecting to see on Rangitoto. I then made my way around to the box canyon, where this cache was quickly found at GZ, under the watchful eye of an upset black back gull. A cool little spot this, that I hadn't encountered before. TFTC!

[red] For information on the 2016 New Zealand Geocaching Adventure being held in Turangi, go to... http://www.nzgeocachingadventure.nz [/red]

An almost surreal environment to explore where this cache was located. Fortunately we used our brains and then checked the description to determine that there was no way that we wanted to be accessing this cache from the road.

Found at 1025Hr on 15Nov2015.

Very cool cache, sailed here on our Yacht today and decided to have a walk and find this cache. When we got to GZ we found the cache very quickly.

1x Favorite from us! TFTC

Great spot, tftc

We were on this side of the island completing some formalities on some other caches and took a detour out to this one as we had made excellent time and knew we would have enough time to get back to the ferry. Not been along this track before. TFTC

Nice walk to GZ... a bit of a hunt around, I swear I must have stepped on the cache before I realised where it was. T4tc

I decided today to explore Rangitoto. This island looks really impressive from all over Auckland and the surroundings... let's have a look ! I wake up early this morning in order to catch the first ferry at 7h30. I want to have as much time as possible on the island, until the last ferry at 4 pm. The weather is great, windy but this is not a problem on most of the tracks.
Just after arriving in Islington Bay, I head towards Rangitoto wharf through the coastal track. The landscape is amazing, and the track challenging with a lot of stones - hopefully, I like this ! I walk in the forest and on lava rocks ; sometimes, I cross some lava fields with only lichens on it - very impressive !
After only a few minutes walking here, we feel like in another world. The cache itself is a perfect example of the amazing areas we can find here.
Cache is in good condition.
Thanks for the cache.

Very appropriately named cache and a beautiful location to be sharing, thanks for bringing me here. Found by rosmar's sharp eyes after a short search. TFTC kiwicouple, # 7836. Really like this side of the island, it was so peaceful on such a beautiful still morning.

Always enjoy our visits to the island and this time we shared it with a first time visitor Waiiti20. Our purpose was to find the licence stall on the island and claim a few endorsements to our caching licence. The weather was kind which made for an enjoyable day out and about on the island. Great spot for a cache and no trouble with the find TFTC.

We have been coming to Issie Bay for years in our boat and did not know about the canyon. Beautiful spot. Be sure to check out the black backed gulls during nesting season. Their chicks are amazing.

Negotiated my way through the maze of canyons to find the cache and pick up the John Deer travel bug. Great little spot. TFTC.

The Islington Bay Track runs along the coast from the Islington Bay Wharf and comes out at the road that leads to the Yankee Wharf boat ramp. The entrances are signposted. The track starts about 350m south of the intersection shown on Monster666's GPS ('NoWay' in monster666's log).
The track is visible on the cache page map if you click the plus sign once or twice.

No idea how to get close to this cache without
trampling through the nature or coming by boat.
Went the track up and down the coast for a kilometer
without finding any access to the bay. Gave up
after half an hour of searching for the right way (

Having completed all the licence challenge endorsements, I was overdue for another visit to Rangitoto. Luckily I ended up with some flights originally booked for a slightly different purpose, no longer relevant, but more time for caching!! The weather forecast was not ideal, but Mainlanders can't be picky when they finally make it up here - the temperature was so balmy anyway! I got soaked in the persistent drizzle, almost blown away on the coast, and scorched by sun... Awesome day overall!

What an amazing place!! Thank you for placing a cache here so others can discover it! Definitely a favourite!! Also a great way to finish today's exploration of the island, with half an hour to spare before the ferry

Come and join us at the next New Zealand geocaching MEGA event!! Register now at http://www.nzmega2015.com to receive newsletter updates and be the first to know. Let us know you are coming by posting a 'will attend' at http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC587BC_nz-mega-christchurch-2015 It will be a great event, come and be a part of it!!

Found this one today as my second cache on Rangitoto today. I was really glad to get this cache as the terrain is high enough to mean that all the walking I did today can count towards my current drivers licence. I didn't meet any nesting birds today but this was still quite challenging to find. Interesting spot to come to. Signed log.

Thanks for the cache.

Phew an epic walk.
Tftc

In October last year, this island caught my attention when a fellow cacher introduced me to the Geocaching License series. Also being a geologist in a former life, I am keenly interested in all things geological and this was island was a gold mine of geology. So after months of planning, this week I took a holiday to Auckland from Melbourne Australia and today was the day I visited Rangitoto Island.

After getting off the ferry and finding caches along the coastal track, I found myself heading towards Islington Bay Wharf. With this cache on my to-do list, detoured off the main road and followed the Islington Bay Track.

Around 100m or so from GZ, a couple of red beaked bird started squawking and this in turn attracted the attention of other white coloured birds. They were putting up a ruckus and the white birds started hovering above me threatening to dive bomb me. Very clearly I had disturbed their nesting site and they were all very upset at a human invading their territory.

Not sure the names of these birds and what they are capable of but in Australia we have a black and white coloured bird called a magpie that is VERY territorial. They too will chase off any intruders that venture too close to their nests by dive bombing - sometimes resulting in blood & definitely induces screams of terror from poor victims.

With my attention focused skywards, I stumbled a few times and missed my turn off to the boxed canyon and ended up 70m past GZ along the track. Backtracked and began my search, thankful that the birds had stopped harassing me. After a quick search, realized I had ended up on the other side of the rock wall from cache. As I climbed the wall and stood atop I saw the birds roosting nests less than 20m away! We both literally freaked out!!! I ducked for cover whilst they took off and what ensured can be compared to a WW2 naval battle - birds being Zeros & I being a battleship. Amidst the noise and dive bombing, I spotted the cache and timed my dash out to grab it and ran back for cover! Unfortunately I slipped and grazed my arm and back... battle wounds! The birds cries almost sounded like mocking laughter.

Anyway, SL retrieved some TBs, visited some TBs and replaced. The attacks only subsided when I finally moved way out of their territory. Had to put my backpack over my head to protect myself.

Wow, the things I endure for geocaching! One cache I won't be forgetting anytime soon. The whole geology of the location was unfortunately totally lost to me.

TFTC & experience.

Well, no thundering mustangs but a very neat feature and a trail we haven't been on before. Thanks for showing it to us. NINO TFTC
PS stopped under the shade of a small tree when we got back to the track and spied a family of black back gulls on the high and very barren lava. Both adults and 3 fluffy chicks.

Found it after a short search while adventure training with the Navy.

This was number 3 of 18 found today on a bit of a mission with "immrwalker" to see what we could find while doing a circuit of Rangitoto. Total of 29kms covered today on the island, quite enough for one day I feel.

This was a great cache to grab and a wonderful spot. We had never been down this track before and thought the structures we encountered were almost surreal.
Thanks for bringing us here (although I did curse you when i saw them pop up following our previous trip out here

I was on the island today with Cats&Dragons who was on one of his infamous missions, this cache provided a great diversion on what turned out to be a 29km tramp. This cache highlights a great spot that most would otherwise not get to see. Gets a fav from me.

3rd for the day, pretty amazing view. TFTC

Made plans a couple days earlier with alpenmilch80 to hit Rangitoto and clean up some of the license caches (well, for me, find any of them!). Notification of these came out the night before and so a change to the earlier 7:30am sailing was in order. Luckily we did as we ran into Gorbygorbachov at the ferry!

Some nice overcast weather was with us today to keep off the heat from the island rocks.

Was talked out of a direct assault from the previous cache so we took the path around... Our final (FTF) on the island today. Loved the canyons!

Thanks!

Log to come

Fourth FTF.
I decided it was time to pay Rangi another visit to get the GLCS Licence Endorsement collected. Slieschke heard of my plans for this Monday and was keen as well. Lucky for both of us four new geocaches were published the night before and the weather looked good. We moved the time from 9:15am to 7:30am to catch the ferry and were welcomed by Gorbygorbachov at the Terminal. Great little area. Thanks for showing. TFTC

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