The Beast of Brookside Park (Canterbury) Rolleston, South Island, New Zealand
By Bigglesponies on 15-Nov-14. Waypoint GC5GJB0

Cache is gone. Time for something new.

Not for us today. Cheers

Down in Christchurch with the Squirrel, ABCDF4 and eyespyben. During Covid lockdown, we solved a load of puzzles and decided that this would be a good time to visit. We've enjoyed a few days of good weather and seeing the Canterbury countryside. The caches have been in varying states - some good, some not so much. Our time here has been a blast, and we'd like to thank all COs who have made this adventure possible. Thank you and TFTC.

After puzzle solving in the Canterbury region along with ABCDF4 we were invited to join Fap (from Fap & Gap) and Squirrel Nutcase to a week long caching adventure in the Canterbury area. With flights and accommodation booked were off, all met up in ChCh. and many hard dusty Kms travelled and many caches found, I think the Squirrel has said it all in his brief. Many thanks for the placements and Cos for bringin us to the very pleasant areas we travelled in to your region

After puzzle solving in the Canterbury region along with EyeSpyBen we were invited to join Fap (from Fap & Gap) and Squirrel Nutcase to a week long caching adventure in the Canterbury area. With flights and accommodation booked were off, all met up in ChCh. and many hard dusty Kms travelled and many caches found, I think the Squirrel has said it all in his brief. Many thanks for the placements and Cos for bringin us to the very pleasant areas we travelled in to your region

With ABCDF4, eyespyben, and Gap (of Fap and Gap). Logging all finds as Team HRP (Huntly, Rotorua, Papamoa - Our hometowns)... During Covid-19 lockdown, we solved a truck load of puzzles around Christchurch - Canterbury region. No use thrashing the old grey matter for no cause - We decided we should make good on this handiwork...

There are lots of interesting trails and geoart surrounding Christchurch. What you aren’t told is how far flung some of these caches actually are. Some beforehand advice would have been great, so here are some of my notes... You’re welcome!

1. Mobile coverage is patchy, especially in those quiet, rural areas where it was most needed. Saving caches to offline might show that you are prepared and organised...
2. There are many dusty metal roads on the trails. The car will get messy, and your hair will feel like cardboard at the end of the day...
3. Suitable clothing and footwear are essential. You will climb in and out of hedges, gorse, and other rough stuff. You might get scratched, cut to shreds, and bleed a lot. It’s not advised to wear your brand new jacket on the day...
4. Take lots of food and drink. You’ll probably be head down, tail up and not realise you haven’t eaten until late afternoon. There are very few shops or gas stations out there...
5. Make sure that you secure keys and wallet and know where these are placed for easy retrieval. A full box of pens might be useful too, especially if you’re inclined to free some into the wild...
6. Know the difference between left and right, and north, south, east, and west. Turning right and heading north will not get you to South Christchurch quickly.
7. Look with girl’s eyes rather than boys eyes... Some caches haven’t been found in a while and you might have to get down on your knees to pray.
8. Always be prepared for misleading hints. This is what turns simple caches into D5/T5 hides... “Head height” could mean the cache is positioned at your toes.
9. Have a sense of humour and like the people you go caching with. It’s going to be a very long day, and you might want to hurt someone during the journey...
10. Make sure you can operate your phone/device and it doesn’t crash when you most need it...
11. Learn to cut and paste logs because you’re going to repeat this function so often when logging all of your finds.
12. Above all else, have fun and be kind...

We have another one of those punishing plans to cache until we drop - An early morning start with the hope that we'll finish at a reasonable time... We are back in the South Christchurch neighbourhood to mop up a few more hides... Thanks Bigglesponies and TFTC.

Having a long weekend and decided to head up to Christchurch to meet friends. The rest of the weekend was spent geocaching, grabbing many of the puzzles solved during lockdown.
This was my last day up and so decided to drive around some back roads to grab caches before heading south and home.

All good.

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Thanks for the fun hunt! Really liked this one

Pleased there was no one round here this morning. That made for an easy search and it was a nice quick find too. TFTC # 15,581

Quick easy find. All good. TFTC

Searched all around the wooden bridge, but couldn’t find it.

Found a while ago, just updating finds now. Tftc

Checked on the cache today. All good.

Thank you for the cache! I’m on a holiday journey in New Zealand and Australia with my husband foomanjoo and my parents sob55 and harmony9. The people and the scenery have been spectacular! Thank you very much for making the trip even brighter with a smiley

We are now home from our family holiday adventure so I’ve taken a minute to reflect on some memorable moments.

The city of Auckland, New Zealand saw our first cache just a few seconds after getting off the plane at the airport, and then later amidst the fish market and Sky Tower. We cached our way through Rotorua's geysers and bubbling springs while touring with a cousin who lives nearby and joined us for the day. Then to Napier where the caches were stashed amid all of the Art Deco buildings and antique cars. In Wellington, we encountered a breathless Josh caching all the way up to Mt. Wellington. At our next port Akaroa we found caches in Rolleston, Arthur’s Pass (by train!) and at the lighthouse at the port. We then set sail through Milford Sound and onward to Australia.

In Hobart, we found Josh and Lee in the park by the port and searched in vain for a caching event, but could not find them in the New Year's Eve crowds. At Port Arthur there were caches in the gardens next to the remains of the Penal Colony and along Pirates Bay where we saw Remarkable Cave, Devil's Kitchen and the Tasman Arch. When we arrived in Burnie we walked to caches in and around the small town of 22,000 and we followed a path along the seaside to a man made waterfall and extraordinary rock formation in a park. We cached and toured at the iconic Sydney Opera House, walked the Royal Botanic Gardens, and sat in a chair that was hewn in stone. We made our way to Lane Cove and posed for a selfie
under giant gum trees, seventeen of which are squiggly! In the iron oxidized soil of Uluru we found caches among the rocks and paths, including a miniature version of the inselberg itself. Then we flew to Melbourne where our first cache was a puzzling one in an alley next to Flinders Street Station. We visited Hosier Lane's Street art while on our way to another. We drove to the Great Ocean Road and cached at a really cool place Crowes Buffer Stop, which is the site of an abandoned rail stop complete with flat bed car, tracks and sign. We finished our trip in The Grampians where in Halls Gap we found our last cache along with cockatoos and roos in a rock climb just above an incredible view of the valley below.

It was a fantastic month of adventure and family – my husband Miles (harmony9), my daughter Carey (forestmanjoo), and my son-in-law Josh (foomanjoo), as well as a new friend that we met aboard our same cruiseship, Lee (Cache_Lee). We saw some amazing sights and met some wonderful people.

Thank you for placing this geocache, an important part of our memories of this adventure!

Fast and fun find with forestmanjoo and SOB55 (harmony9 too, but he never logs anything) during a day’s adventure off the Noordam. Our first smiley on the South Island! Thanks for the fun, Bigglesponies!

FMJ#41095

Find #3 of 8 today (from 10 attempts).
I'd finished my early shift at work a bit early, Mrs Rincewind was also working, and R jr had driven to Ashburton to visit her Nana. What's a cacher to do?

I've parked across the road here more than once, but decided to leave it due to high muggle activity. Today there was just a Dad teaching his girls to ride their bikes and they were screened from GZ. Found in the second spot I checked.

TFTC Bigglesponies
Find number 4051

With no one in sight this was a quick find today but took me longer to return as a noisy carload of teenagers turned up but luckily they were only there to pick up a friend

Its a No from us today.

We came to Rolleston for the Event and then spent the afternoon and early evening caching before going home. This was a great hide, we could happily look as no one was around and carpark empty. No Trolls to say hello to today. Thanks for the cache Biggleponies.

Heading up to CHCH with KJR for a make shift mega as there wasn't one planned in the south island this year. Stayed in Temuka for the night with some friends and pasted this one the next morning on our way up to CHCH. Nice and easy find TFTC

Heading to Christchurch with Gadget169 to meet up with some Dunedin/Invercargill cachers for a long weekend geocaching adventure and found this along the way TFTC

Good hide

Quick find on a sunny Sunday afternoon; TFTC

Down in Christchurch for a week and friends have come down for the weekend to collect the Smurfs series. We had just completed it and were heading back to Christchurch when we detoured into Rolleston to pick up just a few more! This was one of the extras - great to find this one, TFTC

Down in Christchurch for the weekend from the waikato with friends to do some geocaching. Great day with fantastic views of the alps. Found the cache after getting down low, nice hide. Thanks

Been and checked on this one. It's still in place and waiting to be found.

Spent way too long looking getting very wet in the process. No beast found here today, just a lot of damp leaves.

It took a time to see it... But finally it was on our hands..
TFTC
# 1275 July 7, 2019 14:57

TFTC nice hide the beast is home

Found it. Comments confusing!! Thanks for the cache

11:19
2nd attempt. This time the ground was dry and I could really get into some trolling. Soon I had the cache at hand. Not a soul around but, of course, as soon as I sat down on the bridge to log in, there was a muggle walking her dog coming by. Probably I looked like I was doing something dodgy, sitting on the ground, fiddling with a pill container and a ziplock baggy.

TFTC!
#6480

Some time to spare so thought its the start of the week and it's 27° so there shouldn't be anyone at the GZ for this the 3rd attempt. All prepared to get down and dirty I ventured to the area and dove on in, I looked up and there it was... What the... How the... missing that hide was... I mean... I dunno how I missed that... Over thought it a little me thinks.
Nemesis thawted mahahahahaha BOOM baby. Found it funky dance complete as well!! FP from me as I took 3 goes to get it...really lol...
Thank you for bringing me to this area Bigglesponies and for placing and maintaining The Beast of Brookside Park (Canterbury) geocache from Mr Cuddly Brick
Found on this awesome day the 11 February 2019.
Cache number # 2173
View and subscribe:
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DNF

Had a good time hanging out with the beast. TFTC

We are on our summer holiday, with no real destination in mind but a few caches on our 'really want to do list'. We were originally going to leave Christchurch today but my sister wants to take us to see some Christmas lights tonight, so that means a day to fill in in Christchurch while we wait for darkness.
We decided to head out and about and gather up a few solved puzzle caches and any others that we happen to pass on our travels.
There was no people around when we arrived to look for this one which is probably fairly surprising as it looks like a fabulous facility.
Thanks for the cache and thank you for the smiley.

DNF
The beast was not in a revealing mood today. It's probably hiding from the hot hot sun.

Thank you for the right place, right time, owners hint

Hunted around for about 20 mins without success. Had to give up due to some strange looks and a cut finger.

I will come back when there isn't a group having a BBQ only metres away

Tftc

Gaaa the beast alludes me yet again...30mins stooging around avoiding dog walkers.... Will have to ponder more...my new nemisis...

After the Canadian Day event I headed out to scoop up all my remaining Rolleston unfound caches. I can remember visiting GZ sometime in the past but had to forego searching then due to muggles sitting in their cars looking directly at GZ. No parked muggles today, just a couple sitting on the top of the hill throwing a ball for their dog. I waited them out, and once they departed I found the cache lying on the ground - obviously the trolls didn't like it!. Signed and replaced the cache to where the CO had obviously left it. TFTC Bigglesponies.

A great morning caching with daughter! We set off rather early and so had a good taste of the frost. As the day went on, the weather progressively warmed up to comfortable temperatures; however, we did not measure the day in degrees but number of finds instead Thank you to all CO's for keeping us busy!!

17/06/2017 10:26:00 AM
8088
On this cold, frosty morning, the stars were aligned perfectly... Husband would look after the baby, and mum and I could go out geocaching for the morning! Wahooooooo!!! Perfect, as I need to get the find rate up, but the baby hates being in the car... not very good for caching at all!!!! So a cold early morning start of waking up at 5.30am in order to find as many as possible before the clock hit 12 noon!

Took a while - surprised to see no saturday morning sports here - but plenty of dog walkers!

TFTC!!

Stopped the night in Rolleston and today we are winding our way back to Christchurch. A glorious day and ready for some quick and easy finds to boost numbers. We hoping to get to CHCH to do some Wherigos but having looked them us we decided they would eat up time too much on this trip. Gonna grab the Virtual in central CHCH though. Thanks to all who placed these caches along the way. Love the fact its easy to pull off and park. Surprised the country roads are as busy as they are. Wish we could have stay a couple of weeks and not just four days. We will return!
Found this quickly despite a dad and two boys being their (boys practising their scooter techniques). TFTC

This morning we decided to get out of the house pretty early to find a cache or two nearish to home. We needed to don our jackets, but we were wrapped up well and didn't let the few spits and cold wind put us off.

This one took us far longer than expected..... all three of us were crawling around under the structure trying to look for a 'beast' like container, so we were totally barking up the wrong tree!

A nice kind muggle with his mugglepooch offered to help us find whatever we'd lost, but I explained it was a game for the kids and he happily left us to it. Not long after we made the find.


Signed the log on 03 January 2017 at 08:27:00

Nice find

19 December 2016 15:57 Last time I tried for a cache in this park there were junior soccer players and parents everywhere and stealth was nigh on impossible. Even though today is a balmy summer day in the school holidays I had the park to myself. Glad the beast was friendly and let me tickle it's tummy. TFTC Bigglesponies

StreetWalker and I had had a couple of DNFs in the Rolleston area on our last caching raid, so this afternoon we returned to hopefully turn some into , and also to look for some more in both the Crusader and AB series.
There was just one car in the car park (which I entered via the exit only - ooops, only noticed when it was too late to change my mind) and no sign of the occupant(s) so we got stuck in. Luckily dry underfoot today. SW tracked down the cache - nice hide. TFTC.

#13433. I stuck my head under one side, and had no joy. Then I tried the other side and spotted the nicely hidden cache just a foot or two away. TFTC.

Great find bro found it camo

Spotted on my second pass at least everyone is on the other side of the hill thanks for replacing tftc

Not too hard to find. Just had to wait for smoking muggle truckie to go on his way and then a quick fossick where creepy crawlies I'm not fond of hang out. Tftc.

A new cache is in place.

Searched all round no luck

It has gone again.

Dnf

Dnf looked extensively to no avail

Nice easy find on a great day out. TFTH

Great hiding spot. Was fun to find for us beginners.

Thanks for putting this one back!

Rugby practice was under way but we were able to keep out of sight to make the find.
Out on a caching mission today with Nanzie with the aim of a new personal best each, were both successful. A technical issue with the selected area not covered in the pocket query on my GPS meant we had to revert to cell phone for traditional and multis but if my calculations are correct we both finished with a total of 110. More than half of these were puzzles. Thanks to all CO's for the effort gone into placing them all.

#4730

Spent a fun day caching with Paddle Chick, found lots of awesome caches, thanks to all the CO's

I spent the morning finding a mixture of Trads and Puzzles in Rolleston. I found pretty much everyone I looked for, but the odd one eluded me. TFTC

Crawled under poked and prodded not for me today

The cache has been muggled twice now so I have replaced it with a pill bottle. I will see how long this container lasts before replacing it with a more fancy one.

Checked on the cache tonight and it has gone. I will see if I have enough bits and bobs to make another.

Great easy find for my daughter and I

Lovely walk and a cool spot. TFTC - quick find

Tftc

7236. On our way to Ashburton for a three day geocaching trip with granddaughter Stella. Did some caches on the way. This was cache find number six of eleven for the day. A quick and easy find after a short search. Not very beastly!! Thanks. Rodney and Iris.

TFTC

Quick find, tftc

No-one around on a drizzly miserable dat. Clever hide. TFTC

Watch out for trolls

3 from 3

Required three visits before being able to search, then it still took a while.

TFTC

I remember another one not far from here, glad to see the park has another resident in it. Found it in the open, after having found the hiding spot. Doh, signed the log and returned to the roost. Cheers

Quick find on a caching day in Rolleston. We wanted to do one of the nearby trails and decided to use the bicycles. So today it was cycling in Rolleston and after that the trail. Thanks for placing all the caches.

Found on our 2nd try

Another great find with Just-Lookin.
Thanks for adding to the enjoyment of our MEGA trip.

SL TFTC

Making my way to the Christchurch Mega with tmann421.

Really enjoying the area and variety of caches.

TFTC

What a nice day to have a go at some caches in rolly.
Thanks great cach.

Finally got a chance to look for this, with no onme elsa around, and success was had. A nice hide, fave from me....
A nice afternoon for a drive in the country, Collecting a few smileys and turning a few blue faces yellow.

Thanks to all the CO's for their hides.

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| For info on the next NZ mega, go to: [url=http://coord.info/gc587bc]nzmega2015[/Url] |
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No beasts or trouble here today and the find was quickly made.

Fourth DNF in a row. I think we are have a anti-geocaching day. Little muggle around who liked the sound of scooting over the spot as it makes a great noise. So that made things even more difficult.

Found it 5/6

Found the beast. Tftc

The original Beast has moved on in search of a warmer place to call home so his friend has moved in and is waiting to be found.

Went to visit the Beast tonight and he has indeed gone in search of a new home. I will see if I can find a suitable replacement.

Thought we'd greet the Beast on this lovely day, but alas knock knock ... nobody home! We may have missed the Beast's hiding place but think we discovered what could be his usual hangout. We'll visit another time, maybe he was having a nap - or maybe we were having a snooze at GZ.

Had to be a little discrete with this one as there were people in a camper parked quite close. TFTC. Cheers Bo

Out and about with purdiepurdie in Rolleston finishing off the caches there we hadn't done previously...we looked for a bit, trying to hurry in the pouring rain...and finally caught the beast lurking around! TFTC

TFTC. A few spare hours on a Saturday afternoon - it would be rude not to fill them with cache chasing. So a quick conversation with flobberworm! and we were off for the fair pastures of Rolleston to see what we could find.
This is a lovely cache with a well placed cache in a super container.
A favourite vote from me.
Thanks Bigglesponies for placing the cache.

I have found a few like this now and I think this is the first one I can remember that has had the desired effect - mildly startled. I jumped in head first, so to speak, and ended up looking up at the beast... TFTC (1709)

I actually screamed - great cache!

This entry was edited by FourFunKiwis on Sunday, 22 February 2015 at 05:08:29 UTC.

Got the wee beestie today. Lucky not to many peeps about.Cheers for a cool container.

A mighty mighty beast! Nice hide and thanks for the cache.

Eeek love it!