2014 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards Alphington, Victoria, Australia
By LouiseAnn on 21-Feb-15. Waypoint GC5H8AF

With less than 10 logs outstanding (according to the log book) I think it's time to put this event to bed for another year.

Thanks once again to the sponsors and supporters, my team on the day and to everyone for coming along, despite the heat. Please keep an eye out for an event later in the year for the 'Hall of Fame' and once again, if you want to either help me out next year, or donate a prize, please let me know.

Lets all hope next year isn't quite as warm! See you soon

LouiseAnn

My first cache of the year event, well organised except for the presentations when the podium was placed in the sun resulting in a sunburn I'm told. It must have been difficult to select the caches to include for voting as there are so many great caches out there. Congratulations to all the nominees and to the winners, also to maccamob for their 20000th find.

A little medical knowledge was dished out to a couple of team members who had sustained some injuries, when I saw that the tree climbing was about to start in earnest I made a hasty retreat, just in case.

With so many attendees it was difficult to get around to everyone, but I managed to at least say hello to most people.

Thanks to LouiseAnn for organising this event.

Thank you LouiseAnn for the initiative in setting up this great event, and everyone who helped with the logistics before and during the event. I unfortunately couldn't attend the event but was really elated to hear that Flight A127 had won 2014 Victorian Cache of the Year .
Iamapom (Carl and geostuff.com.au) - your kind sponsorship was an awesome surprise. I'm sure everyone else is just as appreciative of the generosity of all the sponsors.
Thank you to all the cachers who managed to find Flight A127 so far, nominated it and obviously voted for it - I am as appreciative as any cache owner could possibly be.

The day I completed and found my first wherigo cache I immediately realised the enormous under-utilised potential of the wherigo platform. Surprisingly there are very few in Victoria - to be precise, there were just 5 wherigo caches in the whole of Victoria at the beginning of 2014.
I set out to double the number of available wherigos before the end of the year. At that stage I had not looked at a simple builder and thus did not know how to write even a simple tour cartridge. After getting over the initial learning hurdle of cartridge builders, the challenge became storyline creativity rather than technical code. On average, it took me less than 1 day to write a wherigo cartridge ready for publication, and another 3 weeks of testing and tweaking before I actually submitted it for publication.
By the end of 2014 I had published 8 wherigo "projects" and there were a total of 17 available in Victoria.
In trying to get more published by other cachers, I held 3 training workshops in Geelong, Melbourne and Ballarat to stimulate interest in the platform (even purchasing a video projector merely for that purpose). While we haven't seen too many wherigos published subsequently, at least finders sure seem much more comfortable running wherigos than they previously were. Smartphones also make it much easier for us now, compared to 2008 when the cache-type was first made available.

I wrote this wherigo background to highlight just how ecstatic I am right now, not just because "my" cache was awarded, but because Victorians enjoy wherigos enough to vote one Victorian Cache of the Year. Much appreciated .

First time to attend this event and second event I've attended since joining Geocaching on the 9th of June 2014 and have found 90 caches so far and own 10 of my own caches too! Where 9 of them are based on the Mornington Peninsula and one in Canberra which is my 10th cache hide.

Thanks for hosting this great event! Never seen so many people and it was a great turn out too! It was nice to being able to meet a few new people who I've found some of their caches and some people who have found mine too including meeting some people from the Geocaching Melbourne Facebook group and Instagram. So it was nice to put names to faces at last!

Thanks for the great event including my spot prize too! Will be back for next years event for sure! And I'll be at the Melbourne Mega Event in November too!

Grabbed two trackables which I'll drop off into my own Travelbug Hotel in Rosebud soon. And will log all the ones I've taken photos of that were on the table.

Thanks for the event! Looking forward to the next one!

Found with nirgalagrin... now I have my own account.



13:19

Another fantastic get-together. I think this has become my favourite event in the calendar. Celebrating the whole year of Geocaching... what could be better than that (apart from finding all those caches).



I enjoyed catching up with friends both old and new, and I'm pretty sure the girls had a good time. Short-stuff especially had a bunch of fun playing with The Rusty's' kids.



Congratulations to all of the worthy winners there's at least a year's worth of fun there. Thanks to all that worked to organize and ruin the event... and many thanks to LouiseAnn for her tireless efforts in making this the celebration it is. Again. Each year, it just gets better and better.



#2686

Found with nirgalagrin... now I have my own account.

13:19

Another fantastic get-together. I think this has become my favourite event in the calendar. Celebrating the whole year of Geocaching... what could be better than that (apart from finding all those caches).



I enjoyed catching up with friends both old and new, and I'm pretty sure the girls had a good time. Short-stuff especially had a bunch of fun playing with The Rusty's' kids.



Congratulations to all of the worthy winners there's at least a year's worth of fun there. Thanks to all that worked to organize and ruin the event... and many thanks to LouiseAnn for her tireless efforts in making this the celebration it is. Again. Each year, it just gets better and better.



#2686

Hello all!
Just a quick note to say the results are now up on this event page. I have also added an additional bookmark for the award winners and runner's up, so they are easy for you to find and plan your visit to.

Thanks once again to all attendees (70 teams in the log book and around 100 people present!!), nominators (49 people), voters (108 votes received), sponsors ([url=http://geostuff.com.au]geostuff.com.au[/url], [url=http://www.101geo.com.au/]101geo[/url], [url=http://rehfisch.com.au/]H Rehfisch & Co[/url], [url=http://www.tigersdens-geocaching-goodies.net/]Tigersden's Geocaching Goodies[/url] and [url=http://www.melbournesteam.com.au/]Melbourne Steam Traction Engine Club[/url]), prize donators (Glanville Girls, ahomburg, Alansee, Maccamob, day1976, gmj3191, phetlern, BorisB&Natasha and anonymous) and of course, the cache placers! Without all these people, we wouldn't have such a wonderfully successful event.

Thanks to my helpers sharkiefan and SirJ-Oz and to day1976 for the loan of the marquees, I know everyone appreciated them.

I have created a facebook page, which can be accessed by people who don't have a facebook account, to act as a central place for all things Victorian Cache of the Year Awards based. I have put all the photos from the Awards yesterday, and the previous years, on the page.

https://www.facebook.com/VicCacheoftheYearAwards

There will be some more information on the 'Hall of Fame', and how that will progress, later in the year.

Lastly, thanks for all the lovely logs that have been coming in. I have been reading them all and they make it really easy to put the effort in to organise this event, since it is very clear how much you all enjoy it. Thanks for coming out in the heat.

Louise

P.S. don't forget to electronically 'pick up' any trackables you took with you

Another year goes by so quickly! Congrats to al of the winners at this year cache of the year awards. LouiseAnn threw yet another brilliant celebration of all things cachey and I was lucky enough to be able to attend and enjoy the festivities! It was great to catch up with old caching friends and meet new ones at these events. It's also fantastic that so many people are willing to vote and attend this event to show their appreciation for a cache well done. Some cachers put hours, even days or longer, into preparing a cache and I really like that the annual Victorian cache of the year awards are here to give those extra efforts the recognition they deserve. Brilliant work by LouiseAnn, organising another successful event. This was my 1543rd find.

Another event hosted by the other half and another event I have to be at. Great turnout, lots of happy people around. Warm, but bearable.

I nearly forgot to log this event however a couple of months late is pretty normal for the way I log caches.
We attended another great event and it was inspiring to see the best of the best awarded for the excellent work they have done in creating their caches.
Our thanks to LouiseAnn for hosting the event and for putting a lot of hard work into making it a great event.
Regards
The Coffee's

Another great cache of the year award event! A fantastic effort by the organisers and their helpers.
It was great to cache up with good friends for a chat on all things caching, unfortunately my two ladies (the Queen and the GeoPrincess) had hurt their ankles to the point they had to sit in the car for the whole event , and a big thanks to Micaparamedic for having a bit of a look and dispensing some expert medical knowledge, (cause she won't listen to me!)
Congratulations to all the nominees and the winners, and a huge congratulations to maccamob on reaching their 20k at the event, it was great to be able to share it with them, and everyone!
We were even able to get up to a bit of mischief with Philipp and a tree but poor master Riddler probably didn't think so at the time and was happy to finally get back down. We even nearly got Mr Coffee up the tree as well but Mrs Coffee and Mrs Crackers don't trust me at all with him (wise words) so he stayed on the ground.
Once again, thanks to LouiseAnn and her helpers for another great event, looking forward to next year!

Cheers

Attended together with Pathfinder24 on a lovely but very warm day.
It's the first time I get to attend this event that I have heard so much about. It was great to be here!
It is a wonderful idea that seem to help increasing the quality of the caches out there. Maybe I should try arranging a similar event when back home in Norway....
Thanks for all the effort LouiseAnn (and her helpers) put in to host this event. And congrats to all the winners!
I grabbed a TB that wants to go back to Sweden, so I will help it on its way.
(Sorry that I am so late logging my attendance online)

13:19
Another fantastic get-together. I think this has become my favourite event in the calendar. Celebrating the whole year of Geocaching... what could be better than that (apart from finding all those caches).

I enjoyed catching up with friends both old and new, and I'm pretty sure the girls had a good time. Short-stuff especially had a bunch of fun playing with The Rusty's' kids.

Congratulations to all of the worthy winners; there's at least a year's worth of fun there. Thanks to all that worked to organize and ruin the event... and many thanks to LouiseAnn for her tireless efforts in making this the celebration it is. Again. Each year, it just gets better and better.

#2686

A fantastic day in spite of the heat.
Lots of people in attendance and so many people to talk to! A bit of information exchanged between cachers about caches, awards presented, a very nice cake for Mary and David of Maccamob on 20,000 cache finds and a whole heap of new cachers, some of which won some caching awards.

For those who stayed in the heat, topped out at 38 degrees I believe, there was the tree climbing event following the awards.
Great to see the coffees, but we couldn't convince Ian to do the treeclimb (but you could see he wanted to.)
Interest waned a bit when Master Riddell sat suspended up the tree having a bit of a problem with the descender.
All worked out OK and a few other people tested their rope skills ascending into the branches.
And a big thanks to LouiseAnn, Sharkiefan and all the other helpers and sponsors, especially Carl, from Geostuff, from that place around the corner, like Louise says.
See you all next year!

Well the weather may have been very hot but the massive crowd was even hotter. I arrived a bit late at 12:45 pm but in plenty of time to see the presentation of awards. I signed the log and then joined the throng to chat with some familiar geonames and some newbies about all things caching. [^]

Thanks go to LouiseAnn for all the effort you put into organising this year's awesome Awards event and to Sharkiefan and all the other helpers for their hard work. Also thanks to the generous people who donated the great prizes. It's a shame that you can't give faves to events because I definitely would have awarded one to today's fantastic event. [^]

Congratulations to all the well-deserved winners and nominees. Now that I'm a retiree it looks like I need to get to the Ballarat and Geelong areas to experience some of the best caches in Victoria.

A huge congratulations goes to maccamob. Mary and David's incredible 20,000 finds, including 2200+ in 2014, puts my minuscule total of 1100+ to shame. I loved reading their log about their geojourney thus far, which gives us all something to aim for even if we never get there.

An event that should not be missed if at all possible. Well done to LouiseAnn and Sharkiefan as well as everyone else who pitched in and helped, thank you to all for your efforts in organising and running the day. It was great to see the winners and achievements of so many people and to have been there as a small part of it. Looking forward to next years event already.

Wow! What a great day out. It was awesome to meet so many geocachers and put faces to names I've seen on logs or caches I have found. The bingo was a great idea and so were the spot prizes. Next year, I will bring my proper compass. Thanks to LouiseAnn and Sharkiefan for an awesome event and congratulations to the prize winners.

Got there early to set up, enjoyed a great BBQ breakfast as we set up. Went for a wonder around to do the multi and came back and boy, were there some people there. Thoroughly enjoyed catching up with old friends and made some new ones too (always the sign of a great event). Thanks so much to Louise and Sarah for organizing such a fantastic and well-planned event. Congratulations to all the prize-winner and runner-up, some amazing sounding caches there. First to arrive, last to leave!

[url=http://geocaching.melbourne]Are you coming to the Melbourne MEGA event – 14th and 15th of November, 2015. Click here for details.[/url]

Smilie # 2146

A long day down to the big smoke with my parents, Tyred n Cranky, from our small country Town of St.Arnaud our first ever Melbourne event.

It was great to see so many people at an event, one of the biggest I have been to. So many new faces to meet and a lot of familiar faces there too, to catch up with. bring on that BINGO game, that helped a lot with introductions.

Congratulation to Maccamob on your 20,000 smilie. some of us can only dream of that day.

Myself, having a cache nominated I didn't think I had a chance at an award, seeing that it is in the country a long way from the city life. But I was proven wrong and shocked too. something I never thought would happen. Thanks to those who nominated my cache and thanks to the caches that voted for FBT?? - Hydrant. and thanks to gmj3191 for sponsoring this award

A big well done and Congratulation to all the winners of the other categories. and to all who sponsored the day.

And a bigger well done to LouiseAnn and her bunch of helpers for hosting the event.

Smilie No. 866.

A trip down to the big smoke, from our small country town of St.Arnaud, to attend our first ever Melbourne orintated event. FUF009 came with us. The three of us all thoroughly enjoyed the day, meeting up with cachers we knew plus meeting some new cachers which the Bingo Game was good for. Never got to meet up with everybody as there were so many people around.

Congratulations to FUF009 on his award and to all other award winners.

And a big thank you to LouiseAnn for hosting the event and all her helpers.

This entry was edited by Tyred n Cranky on Sunday, 22 February 2015 at 05:16:40 UTC.

I arrived late after caching in the morning. Still had time to catch up with many friends and fellow cachers. It is great to be able to find some of the caches nominated by others. Well done to all COs who hid caches and well done to Louise and the crew for the event.
GJMMelb

We came, we logged, we joked, we laughed, we ate, we drank, we clapped, we cheered but most of all we met some wonderful people, who like us find finding little containers hidden around the place great fun.
Thanks so much to LouiseAnn and Sharkiefan for putting it all together, to the sponsor's for the prizes and to the Geo-family for a great day.

The iamapom team was there consisting of the male human and Woody the Geo-dog. We both ate some special Maccamob 20k cake. We both sang "For he's a jolly good fellow" to Mr Coffee. And we both awarded the prize for Victorian Cache of the Year - well done Joe. It was freezing.

Attended from 12:30pm, find # 4122.

A last minute decision was made to attended as I had to wait as I was getting some work done at home, once they had finished, I headed to the event on this hot hot day.
I arrived to the cutting of the cake for maccamobs 20000 cache find and after chatting to a few people I knew and meeting a few faces that I had only known by name, the awards ceremony began.
Congrates to all the winners, I will have to get around to finding the one that I haven't found yet.

A big thanks to LouiseAnn and all her helpers for putting on and running this event, it was great.

Luck was on our side this weekend as it was not a work weekend, so we could the trip down from Beaufort for these Awards. It was our first time and we have thoroughly enjoyed the whole process from nominations through voting to the culmination of this event. We met many new friends, caught up with old ones and finally put faces to many names we have met via caches and forums.

We thoroughly enjoyed the bingo game, and completed the full 25 squares only because we were enjoying the concept so much. To then win the draw of the Bingo prize was just icing on the cake. Thank you so much to the sponsors of this prize - Boris & Natasha. It was great to meet you as well. This prize is so much appreciated and will most certainly be put to good use as part of our next lot of plans for Mt Cole.

Congratulations to Maccamob for their 20,000 finds, to all Award winners for their awesome caches (and photos), and of course to LouiseAnn and her crew for such a fabulous event.

Date: 21 February 2015

Time: 15:24

Find #4577

Was not feeling 100% today, but was determined to get here for more then one reason. This is the third year and my third time attending. It is getting bigger and bigger each year. Thanks so much to Louise for her organisational skills and to sharkiefan and day1976 for helping out too. I managed to get to just 29 of the contenders which I must say were high quality. Thanks to all those that donated prizes, without these generous donations, there would be no prizes.

Congratulations go to all the winners, some caches that inspire me to want to put out better caches

Thanks to LouiseAnn for another amazing event. TNLN

http://geocaching.melbourne

This entry was edited by ahomburg on Monday, 23 February 2015 at 05:54:34 UTC.

[green] Ich war auch da! [/green]

It was great to catch-up with some new faces and have a little bit of entertainment onto other's expense. Sorry Philip for letting you dangle in the tree - I should have checked the skills of taking off an ascender.

Thanks Louise - I hope we can help you with the 2015 Awards and take the stress out of it.
Philipp

[url=http://geocaching.melbourne][navy]Melbourne[/navy][red] Mega [/red][navy]2015[/navy][/url]

This is the second Victorian cache of the Year Awards that we have attended, both times now on very hot days but that didn't hinder attendance as we saw many new teams here as well as some of the old guard.
Time passed quickly and it was soon time for the announcement of the well deserved awards, congratulations to all the winning teams and thanks for the generosity of the sponsors.
We would also like to thank the orgainisers for putting it all together for our enjoyment.
Of course we must also congratulate maccamob on their 20,000 find, we are glad that we could share this milestone with you.

I got a bit lost on the way here, on top of a sleep in, so I was very late.
But I made it! Said hello to some fellow cachers which is always nice.
Thankyou to all the event organisers, my appreciation for all your hard work.
I look forward to next year's, which I will be more organised for.
Headed to Geostuff afterwards.
Cheers & T.F.T.E =]
Safe travels and hoppy caching!

A great event - thankyou for all the work you and your team do to mount this event.

Find #1721. Attended @ 11:30 until about 14:30.

I've been on many caching trips with the EO lately, with the express purpose of finding as many nominated caches as possible. I'd also agreed to help out (many of you would have been bingo bombarded by me on arrival). So when The Good Lady Wife decided that we were taking a weekend trip with the in-laws to Ocean Grove, I felt that I had to still honour my commitments (and TGLW agreed).

I set out early to make my way to GZ before event kick off, but was stymied by a broken down truck on the Westgate and only arrived with a scant half an hour to spare. This also meant that there were precious few parking spots available.

I parked, made my way to GZ and tried to look helpful. Handing out bingo forms was a great task as it allowed me to interact with a lot more cacher teams than I normally get around to chatting to at any given event.

The unfortunate side effect of being chatty meant that I spent most of my time talking and neglecting to eat lunch, so at the start of the formal proceedings, I was up the back stuffing my face rather than hearing what was going on.

I did manage to hear that a few of the caches that nominated and voted for managed to win prizes, which was very satisfying.

During the presentations, I counted just under 100 bodies standing/sitting around enthralled by the end result of all LouiseAnn's hard work in organising and hosting the 3rd iteration of the Victorian caching awards.

I was thrilled to be able to meet up with a mixture of old friends and new, and putting faces to names (even if those names are cacher aliases).

Somehow in it all I managed to score a spot prize (thanks tigersden), although, as much of the list of items was suggested by me as items I carry in my caching bag, perhaps I shouldn't have.

Took a trackable, left nothing, signed log and visited some other trackables.
Thanks for the event cache LouiseAnn, thanks to all the prize donors and especially to all the cache owners - without you guys, this wouldn't be possible.

This event has certainly taken on a life of its own, and is now a much anticipated entry in the geocaching calendar.

21/02/2015 12:54 This is now the third CotY award held in Melbourne and the third I have been privileged to attend. A lovely afternoon meeting all and sundry. a big congratulations to David and Mary on their huge 20k at this very event!
Many thanks to The Pathtag Portal for the prize I gained for having a real compass in my bag. (BTW: I actually have three compasses in my caching bag!!)
Despite the awful heat I stayed for sometime to watch the tree climbers (and newbies) go up a rope and...... eventually come back to earth. Thankfully not the hard way.
I Dropped a TB and collected another to travel with me. TFTC LouiseAnn TNLN SL

Tb drop

Trackable drop

Quick drop in to say gday while doing some GC's with OzHockeyChick

Brief stop in with 88andy88 after a few GCs in the area.

Having fun celebrating the awesome world of geocaching!!

And the award goes to...

Thanks for all the effort. Little bit mortified to see "that photo" up on the wall but I guess that's why I'm here!!

Many thanks for your wonderful event.

Thanks Louise and Sarah for a great event, our first GeoAwards. Lots of deserving winners. Great to see so many in the community supporting with donations of prizes. A fantastic turn out on a particularly hot day. Beautiful venue and love catching up with old friends and making new ones.

OzHockeyChick and i attended this for our first attend of a GC event. The people were lovely abd very friendly anc thankyou for making us newbies welcome .... Was a great day with similar minded people

Intended to stay for only a little while, as we are meant to be at a 21st birthday celebration. More than two hours later, 88andy88 and I have met some wonderful people and heard some amazing stories. Thankyou Louise and Sarah for organising. Looking forward to attending more events in the future.

A MASSIVE thank you to Louise and Sarah and the sponsors for all your work in organising this great event which was even better than last year's. We got to meet the makers of our favourite cache of all time which was very inspiring, and other new faces too. We have renewed motivation to get out and build some more caches. TFTE

Unfortunately wasn't able to stay very long today but did manage to see the end of the awards and say hi to a few people.

Congratulations to everyone who won and a big thank you to all the sponsors and organizers.

Hope everyone managed to survive the heat!

A quick whirl wind visit for me today! I ducked in just in time for the announcements, signed the log, discovered a bunch of trackables, then trawled the car park for everyone's car TBs! It would have been nice to stay a bit longer and do the multi nearby, but the heat drained us too quickly so we escaped back to the aircon. Congrats to the winners and nominees; now I will be trying to find all of these caches! Thanks to the organizers for putting in all the effort - it was excellent!

TB drop

Thanks ladies for organising this event again. This year we finally made it,albeit a bit late.

Congratulations to all the winners and to all the finalists. Without you all none of us could continue to enjoy the hunt. Thank you.

Nice to reconnect with some familiar faces and good to see the Coffees up & about!

Thanks Louise & Sarah. We look forward to a Marvelous And Grand Adventure in Melbourne in November

Attended in the company of Muzza as part of our March caching adventure.

Thanks to LouiseAnn for all her efforts in organizing this event.

Again we were pleased to be able attend this well organised event although Mr80 was working so a little late. Picked up a few spot prizes, checked up with old friends and introduced ourselves to some newer cachers and in particular cachers not often seen in the city. Great to share in Maccamobs 20000th also as this is a great achievement. Thanks Louise and Sarah for all your hard work and also to the sponsors for their donations.

Great event. It's been such a LONG time since I logged a cache, it was nice to catch up with some like minded people to get me back into the spirit of things.

It was also great to catch up with some old friends and meet a few new ones and it was great to actually meet LouiseAnn in person finally

MASSIVE thank you to to the organisers and everyone else who donated prizes and helped and congratulations to all the winners. I'll definitely be back again next year

My second awards event. Thanks ladies for all the excellent (once again) organization.

Was great to meet a few people I had talked to online but never met in person.

I'll definitely be back next year.

Sorry we weren't able to attend. Hope all went well & everyone had a great time!

Thanks for a great event. It was great to finally put some faces to names. Unfortunately Darcy was not that social today as she thought that we were going to win a prize. When I old her that we were not nominated for one she just sooked. Hopefully next year we can at least get a nomination. Thanks again guys.

So hot but thanks for organising. I got to go shopping with Geostuff too.

Thanks for organising this great event.
Even on this very hot day us dedicated cachers got together.
Thank you also for providing the extra shade,it was definitely needed.
We met lots of new cachers which was great and also ones we have met before.
Thank you also for the extra prizes of which I was lucky enough to receive one.
Great effort !! Thank you again.

My first ever event and I enjoyed it very much. Nice to put some faces to names that I often see popping up in logs and FB.

Thanks for all your effort Louise and Sarah. The day went splendidly. I was worried it might drag out like the Oscars but was pleasenty suprised. Wished I had kept my kit bag with me I might have git a spot prize. Next time.

Now to spend some time logging all those trackables.

Find # 3414
Attended at noon on Saturday, 21 February 2015
Another very successful day and a credit to Louiseann.
Her planning, preparation, execution and general capability and gregariousness is now bringing more and more people to this gala event in the geocaching calendar.
Thanks LouiseAnn.

This was the third time we have attended these awards and they just keep getting bigger and better. A huge thank you to LouiseAnn and Sarah for organising such a wonderful event. There must be a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes to make this day happen which is very much appreciated. Congratulations to all the nominees and the very worthy winners, we are looking forward to getting out there to find them all.
Looking forward to next years event already.

Well, I got here!

After my limited caching in 2014, I was very worried that I would be useless when it came to voting for these awards. Thankfully I managed to get out and about over the Summer holidays and I managed to find some of the bigger names that were nominated.

After my efforts, I was lucky enough to pick which one would be Best Cache, and hence was able to say I was a finder and voter of Flight A127

Attending the event was a different matter and should have probably been a D4 for me. I was very, very lucky that this weekend presented me with little homework that required completion. Thankfully, another nearby cacher by the name of GtC managed to take me along. (that is, Geoff the Chauffeur).

Another fantastic event, well done Louise. I remember a few years ago when you first posted the idea on the original Geocaching Melbourne page, and look at what it has grown to! Thanks again for hosting it, I promise next year I'll be that guy thats found the most nominated caches [:o)]

Of course Mary & David were there. This Event has become a February tradition for us now. We have always loved Events as a chance to meet other caching friends old and new; David likes the discussions about caches and caching gear, while Nurse Mary fusses over people and their illnesses/injuries like a mother hen. We'd managed to find around a dozen of the nominated caches and a couple of the series, so appreciated the effort that has gone into their placements. Our congratulations to all the prize winners (and we were delighted to pick up a couple of spot prizes).

Caching was an incredible journey for us in 2014, with more than 2200 finds and our attendance at the Murray Bridge Mega plus our 3rd Midwest Geobash in Ohio. Our most memorable achievement, though, was completing cache finds in all 50 US States (which took us 6 visits over 8 years). Over the years we've also cached in Canada, the UK, Italy, the Vatican, Estonia, Finland, Russia and Hong Kong. Our three children are all cachers too, but way to busy to do more than just a few now and again. It's always a thrill for us to be able to take the three older grandchildren with us.

Today was a special occasion for us too, as it marked our 20,000th find. Many thanks to Crackers for the lovely celebration cake and bubbly, and to everyone else there for the good wishes. It's taken us almost 13 years (in April), but with so many caches available these days, the kilocache milestones seem to come around more often. For us, though, it isn't about the numbers but rather about the memorable places we've been and the people we've met along the way. We try to make each kilocache milestone more memorable by choosing caches by people we know well, or ones at a great location. Today was special because you were all there. Old friends who have shared so much with us over the years of caching together, and newer friends who we've met more recently, or even just today.

Finally, our thanks to LouiseAnn, Sharkiefan and all the other helpers and sponsors, and to everyone who contributed to all those smilies.

Phew! Hot and steamy, GJMMelb and I was a bit tardy with our arrival but caught many of the award presentations - all worthy winners. A great event LouiseAnn and sharkiefan and all sponsors and others involved. (Excited to hear of the Melbourne Mega coming soon too - looking forward to that!)

Discovered many trackables (some hopefully new finds) and dropped off my OzMega geocoin to hopefully make it up to Queensland Mega and back to the Melbourne Mega

We attended this event cache today at 11:50am as number 5 of 8 on our Cache Awards Event Day. Another great awards day so congratulations to LouseAnn and Sarah for the organisation and all the prize givers (and there were some really substantial prizes too - gone are the days of winning a sistema box). Congratulations also to all of the prize winners and nominated teams for placing all those great caches. Congratulations also to our good friends Mary and David of Maccamob on 20,000 cache finds. We have known them for about 11 years through geocaching and it only seems like yesterday that we stood in awe at seeing them be the first in Australia to reach 1,000 finds. Today for us, our 72nd event cache and 936 finds since last year's event, most of which were in Victoria. We finally wandered off just after 3:00pm for 3 caches near Collingwood but got chased away in the end with the threat of a big thunderstorm overhead. Thanks from D, HA and H B-A.

[red]Smiley #2041 Event #22 [/red]

We picked up a couple of caches along the way from Geelong today before we attended this event, one being from LouiseAnn. I'm sure a huge amount of energy, time & help goes to putting this awards event on. Thanks so much to everyone for the sponsorship, well done to all the nominees and well done to the winners (which are all of us as we get to enjoy these wonderful caches) [^] I was lucky enough to speak to a number of cachers here. We had a fun day looking at lots of trackables, meeting people and had a few pathtag swaps. We met a lovely lady that allowed a little na'wal to enjoy their lavender water spray as the temperature rise very quickly. We very, very thankful for the gazebo that was put up. Well done to another successful awards event. We look forward already to next years

[blue]Thanks for this event, LouiseAnn. [^][/blue]

Another great awards event and some caches added to my to do list. Also congratulations to maccamob on their 20,000 find.

Looking forward to the next one. Man it was hot today!!

Thanks to LouiseAnn and all others who helped in the planning and donation of prizes.

Wow, what a fantastic event! Especially given the heat (36ºC+ OMG HOT!!)
I want to thank all the award sponsors and all the cachers who came out to today's event. I will be updating the cache page listing tomorrow with all the winners, right now I am waiting for my home delivered dinner and having a nice glass of wine (or two).

Thanks to my helpers Sharkiefan for presenting the spot prizes, day1976 for the much needed marquees, SirJ-Oz for crowed wrangling and bingo assistance and my ever patient non-caching other half, Neil, for the photos and general lifting and carrying. Lastly thanks to the people who have put up their hand for Hall of Fame duties, you can all expect to hear more about that later in the year.

I am so glad to have read all the really lovely logs that are still coming in (I promise I have read them all) it really makes it worth while running an event like this. It is a lot of work, but the support received from from sponsors, nominee, voters and attendees make it really rewarding (no pun intended).

Thanks again everyone Congratulations to all the Award winners and nominees, there are some really fantastic caches out there, keep up the good work and I'll make an announcement when I have the results up.

This is turning into such a good annual event. Not just of course because of the opportunity to recognise some great caches, but the numbers that are turning up now make for terrific opportunities to catch up with aquaintances as well as meet new people. I am pleased to say that I did lots of both today so had a great time. Many thanks to Louise and others including Sharkiefan for all the effort put into it - it was well done.

With my chauffer duties finishing late this morning (U12 cricket) I was late, arriving just as the presentations started. This many I had to catch up after the formalities.
Big thanks to LouiseAnn for organizing and to all the sponsors for their donations.
I had a fantastic time as usual. So much so that I was over an hour late getting home.

I was a bit late because I had to play cricket this morning. It was worth coming for, it was a great event. I loved the presentations, got to meet lots of cachers and I got to trade some pathtags. I was able to find some of the nominated caches and I thought the prizes very cool. Thank you LouiseAnn for a great event. I can't wait for next year.

My first cache event!.. Thank u LouiseAnn for organising and everyone else who helped. Too bad I couldn't stay to the end as I had to rush home to prep a house inspection!
Thnx for my bingo prize too!... Beginner's luck!

Both parts of the Annoying Tarbit team attended this awesome event. Great to see a few familiar faces and meet several cachers for the first time (skakids, muzza, lemmykc, stemicmitsar, gmj3191, mark&kelly among others). Loved the caching bingo as a driver to speak to a few new faces too. Well done maccamob on the 20k. Huge thanks to LouiseAnn for organising this and sharkiefan, SirJ-Oz and others who helped out. Delighted to pick up a minor prize for being the most average geocacher. Apologies we had to dash off suddenly but we were booked in at the Escape Room (BTW I highly recommend it). Discovered many of the TBs that I hadn't seen before on the TB table and visited my personal TB.

Today was my monthly caching day with Biggles Bear and was chosen so that we could attend this very event. This is my third time at the awards, and like I said last year, they keep getting bigger and better each time.

Well done to all those nominated and to the winners, and a special congratulations to Maccamob on their 20,000th cache - that's a mamoth effort - well done.

And a very special thank you to Louise and Sarah for organising and running this event for three years now. I forgot to mention it at the event, but If you need anyone else to help with the Geocaching Hall of Fame, please let me know.

Another great year of geocaching celebrated in honour of those that placed caches and those that sought them out.
This is an event that is enjoyed and looked forward to by many, long may it survive.
Thanks to LouiseAnn for creating this event and to the community that provides the life force for it to continue.

Another great event, and great turn out.
And congratulations to all the winners,and also a Big Thank You must go to LouisAnn,
Who must have put in many hours to make this event possible.

My first event! It was so great to meet other cachers and hear about the best of the best caches from 2014. I will make an effort to seek out some of the nominated caches. Congrats to all the nominees and award winners.

We were so pleased to attend this fantastic event this year. Thank you so much to LouiseAnn for exceptional organisation. The amount of work you put in is evident but very much appreciated. The weather was kind but it would not have mattered as there was a fabulous buzz anyway. It was great to meet new faces and catch up with some familiar ones too. Many congratulations to Maccamob in achieving a milestone that most of us can only dream about. We managed to visit quite a few of the nominated caches but we have many, many more on our 'must do' list now! Thanks again, terrific day.

This was my first event after moving here last year. After living in Christchurch, where the average attendance was around 35, it was an eye opener to see almost 100 people there and I offered to help next time. Well here I was a year later with a group of people, most of whom I am lucky enough to call friends, and indeed was helping. This kind of event is something special and stands out as an event of the year. I was happy to attend and reflect on my vastly improved social situation and lifestyle. Congratulations to Maccamob on smiley 20,000!!! Great to see TheCoffees out and about too! So much fun to be a part of this no matter how small. I'm in for next year! See you at the next event! TftEventc

Many thanks to the unflappable Louise Ann and her amazing team of helpers (sharkiefan and SirOzJ) for putting on such a fantastic event today. I know the planning and preparation for this event has been all encompassing and many, many hours have been devoted to making this a success. Your efforts are very much appreciated.
It was great to catch up with many old caching friends and meet many more new ones from across the state.
Congratulations to all the COs who were nominated, those who received awards and those who generously donated prizes. I was lucky enough to win one today!
A special congratulations to maccamob for their amazing milestone today. I'm glad we were there for that!

I wish we could give favourite points for events!

Great turnout today and to again put more faces to log names, so the name tags were handy . I started the bingo late so was unable complete that , but someone did but didn't put their own name on it so that's a Doh ! moment for someone . The rope climbing was good to watch as it is my first time I have seen it real and full marks for the daring and patience to the cacher that gave it a shot , Well done . Many Thanks to LouiseAnn and organizers and sponsors for putting on this great event . Fav. from me .

So excited to come. I'm really happy to meet people whose caches I have found. See you there!!!

TB Drop

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going to do our best to attend, one SKAKID will be at a birthday party, but the others should be there. Very flattered to be nominated. We maybe a bit late.

I will be there.. Looking forward to it.

Homework has been kind - I'll be there!

TB drop

Thanks to good co-ordinates GZ was easily found, or was that because of the large number of cachers in attendance. Thanks to Louise and Sarah for an excellent job with the originaisation. good to meet some fellow cachers. Sounds good about the Mega, lets spread the word.

Sorry we couldn't make it. Sounds like you all had a great time.

The coordinates were off a little and i found myself taking to some dressed up emo/fairies but just when i released that these were not my kind of people, the satellites realigned and i found i was about 50 metres east from GZ. A terrain rating 1.5 hike, had me located in a better position. I rolled my eyes and thought damn muggles, i will have to sit this one out. Then all of a sudden it dawned on me " hey these are my kind of people"
I am amazed at the effort that went into organising this event. much appreciated and great location.
I almost had to log a DNF as i almost forgot to sign the log book.
º Perhaps us melbourne based cachers need to come together and hire a cherry picker for a day.

steve from the SKAKIDS

Wow, what a terrific day. Thanks so much LouiseAnn for organizing such a successful event.
Travelled to Melb with geofriends today, it was great to talk to fellow caches without worrying about my Clan. Very happy to support such a great event. Congrats to all winners. Look forward to next year's.

See you all there. This will be my first event; looking forward to it.

I will be there. Thanks for organising LouiseAnn.

Ooops. I thought I'd logged my intention to come already.

Several weeks ago, I organised to attend with Biggles Bear on our monthly cache run, but must have forgotten to log my "Will Attend".

We'll be there!

Looking forward to attending

Unfortunately work commitments are forcing me out of attendance tomorrow. Thanks to LouiseAnn for the big effort in pulling this together. Good luck to all the nominees and have a great day I hope to put some faces to names at another event in the near future!

Darcy and I are hoping to make it for our first awards day.

Hopefully dgfb33, ceebee2013 & 1 or 2 will be there

Looking forward to experience this event