NZ Native Trees #7 – Mamaku (Wellington) Upper Hutt, North Island, New Zealand
By BarnabysTravels on 02-Mar-15. Waypoint GC5NNEX

Removed for repair

The cache was still there, but the string had broken and it had fallen down the bank. It has become more difficult for me to maintain my more remote caches and with only one attempt to find it since last August and only 2 FPs this one does not justify keeping it going.

Alas yet another DNF on this trip. So many up this hill.

Not too keen heading down there today- a reason to come back with a buddy next time. Onwards and upwards!

Wohoooo! Gosh!! After more of a dna (did not attempt) than a dnf on the way up, I thought I’d give it a crack. Oh of my kids could have seen me! Then again, that’s not the first time I’ve thought that and not really a good ideaGracefully down and a bit of an adventure back up but got there and lived to tell the tale! (Or perhaps I won’t!) Many thanks for a super placement

Found it! Sent Jordy in to look for it & he found it lower down the hill

Looks like the branch may have dropped behind the tree

Cache log replacement was wet but still signable, water was tipped out of the container

Thanks for the cache
C&J

This cache took me longer than it should have, for which I am going to blame my aging eyesight. I had some idea of what to look for, thanks to the hint, but just couldn't spot it. For some reason my GPSr suffered from some serious drift all day here too which was frustrating. Eventually I resorted to reading some previous logs and then found the cache in seconds (spotting the hint item after the find). Nicely done. TFTC and I do like a good mamaku

Replaced the log book and plastic bag with a new dry bag and a couple of sheets of waterproof paper for the log. Dried out the inside of the container too.

I came to Tunnel Gully to climb Mt Climie and hunt for some caches. It was my first time up Mt Climie and I had a very successful but tiring day! A quick easy find here but the logbook was wet mush. I attempted to sign it but couldn't really write my name on it so I added a small bit of waterproof paper to the container. Thanks for the informative descriptions of the native trees and TFTC

Managed to hook this one.
Thanks

We do like these tree ferns. Ste hopped down for this one. Tftc

TFTC

Found it - nice hiding method!

I noted the concern about a steep bank at GZ and then discovered after a quick assessment that I'd probably have to go down in there But how to get up again!? Looked at the hint which just referred to a CO log I didn't have Than I saw the set-up Aah he's thought this one through Good one Barnabys Travels Suggest that your hint is changed so it doesn't require looking at your old log TFTC

Today I had been invited along to meet up with some fellow Cachers to try to do the Mt Climie trail in Upper Hutt. I had a certain amount of trepidation, as it was supposed to be a fairly decent climb to the summit, and we were not sure whether we would be able to complete it due to both time constraints and the fact that we had Gale Force winds forecast for the afternoon!
So as a group of 4 adults and 2 dogs, off we set. As it turned out, whilst the gale was certainly doing it's best to blow the trees over, the trees were providing us with great cover so that we hardly felt a thing for most of the climb.
Only when we were exposed to the elements, at the higher points of the track, did we have some fun and games with the wind!

I was too busy gas-bagging with a member of our party that I had walked past GZ for this one before I realised it, but only just. A quick search around and the Cache an easy find once the correct tree had been identified. A quick sign of the log, replaced as found, and then back to the upwards slog towards the next cache.

Having just placed my first Cache this week, I have an even greater appreciation of what is required to put caches out in the field for all of us to find, and once placed maintain them. So a huge thanks from me for your efforts in placing this one.

So my goal was to get up mt Climie, hubby was just trying to get as far as he could not being a hiker and pushing his bike.
we arrived around lunch time and started the weather was hot with hardly any breeze so shady spots were very welcome by hubby who found the walk hard going, we managed to get roughly 2.4km I think before hubby had, had enough and wanted to head back. So I will be back to finish the rest, thanks for taking the time to place the caches and bring us here. sorry about the copy and post logs

Found on a very warm afternoon at 3.30 pm while enjoying a walk in the tunnel gully area. All in order at cache site. Replaced as found.

Tftc

19 November 2017 17:13. The final one for today. TFTC

My 2017 birthday geocaching adventure! 8.5 hours of walking and geocaching, 21 finds, 2 DNFs, one very tired dog, and one exhausted human. Was pretty good haul for one day. Got all the way to 'It Can Be Done!' - didn't have the appetite to go beyond that. Weather was generally pretty good, although quite changeable. Views from the top were stunning. A great day's geocaching!

First cache of the day! Fairly straight forward find, once I spotted something a little unusual. TFTC.

Yeh. Nice hide. We all loved it. Tftc.

A cunning hide. Out with Tararua Tramping Club group, most new to geocaching. Great climb up Mt Climie in very windy conditions. TFTC.

Tararua Girl had organised a hike up Mt Climie with the Tararua Tramping Club and invited me along as the "geocaching expert" of the group. However it was TheFerret who spotted and retrieved the cache for the group to sign. All good so far. TFTC

At last I managed to get back up the Climie track to attand to this. The -gonefishing- running repair had come apart again and once more the cache was sitting free at the bottom of the steep bank. Luckily we had the muggle son with us on the walk today and he is big and strong and could pull me back up the bank with ease after I'd retrieved the cache. Soon had the cache attached back the way it should be with some more suitable string and should now be easy to retrieve for the next finder.

A few hours spent collecting caches on Climie. Not too bad a day for it, although cold and windy at the top, and a couple of showers on the way down. Once I worked out what was going on here, I thought it would be an easy retrieve. However, the means of attachment has rotted through, so I was left empty handed and could see the cache rolling down below. I bit the bullet and hopped down to retrieve it, got back up ok, although a little tricky after all the rain. The cache was full of water, which may have contributed to the problem. Made some running repairs to the means of attachment to get things going again. I would suggest replacing the attachment with the gardener's or fisherman's equivalent, and investing in a water tight container instead of eating so many M&Ms! [xx(]
TFTC

Looking at the cache I thought "If that is the safe location I would hate to see the unsafe one". Then I realised the CO had provided a safe retrieval mechanism .

The GPS initially zeroed out in the middle of the track which was no help. After a few moments it directed me to one side. A little bit of peering in that direction revealed the cache. Perfectly calm autumn day which is making this walk very pleasant. TFTC.

A great botanical lesson for myself and my daughter as we slowly made our way up Mt. Climie. Nice quick find, TFTC

TFTC - Beautiful day and Mt Climie has always been a place I have wanted to go to. Didnt get all the caches I wanted but had an awesome day

Had the day off work, and decided to go for a walk up Mount Climie - both for a bit of fitness, and also to grab a bunch of caches. Quick and interesting find. *TFTC BarnabysTravels #133*

Find # 2739. Back on the bike, coming from Maymorn off the train, to stretch the legs, catch some caches and enjoy a rare summer's day.
Left the bike at the bottom of the hill for this one. Please to see it back after a dnf on my last visit. Trickily hidden too. SL TFTC.
Headed on up the hill another 300m to the turnoff back to Tane's Track and "Mudddy Boots".

Found this one on a walk with friends. tftc.

Yay

TFTC

Tftc

A weekend in Wellington and so a walk with Cache.Mike is on the agenda. This means a walk up a big hill for him and plenty of caches for me so this area was a good choice.

This was our first stop after parking at the lower car park. CM had the early finding form and discovered this one from his lower vantage point.
Thanks BarnabysTravels for the cache.

#10503

This was the first one on this day walk with KiwiExplorer and I jumped down into action while KE was reading the cache page. Meanwhile I noticed I was down way too far and found the cache basically in front of my eyes

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**+-++-++-++-++-++-++-+ TNLNBFP +-++-++-++-++-++-++-+**
Cache.Mike

It took a while for the penny to drop and I twigged to a new means to once more have the first cache available in a long string of them up the Mt. Climie track.

Went up the track to check on this today after 2 DNFs in a row and the cache has vanished: I even dropped down the bank to search around, but no sign of it. As its hiding place ledge has also been wrecked since I last visited the cache I am disabling for now until I can work out a different way to hide the cache in the same location.

But this will not beat us. We will be back!

The only one not found today after being up to the top. Two samples of said tree in the vicinity but nothing at one, and impossible access to the other.

Swapped out old tatty log and the recent temporary replacement with a new log book.

This one eluded me on the way up and again on the way down. I will return until I find it in what will appear to be the obvious place. Cheers!

Great description re the two trees! See what you mean about falling through the foliage...

Collected as part of a whole lot of caches on the way to Mt Climie on a sunny but slightly nippy winter's day.

Log was the consistency of toilet paper so replaced with a "rite in the rain" log with room for 50 entries.

Found on stroll a little way up the track. No worries here. TFTC

TFTC. Thanks another nice walk in the forrest

Quick find after I stopped looking around a fine specimen of the wrong species! Tftc

Two days ago I attended the very nice CITO on Mana Island Meeting a lot of lovely People. And I recieved the hint to hike at Mt. Climie. Good idea, here I am! Even the weather wasn't good today (a Little bit rainy) it was a very nice (and easy) hike garnished with a lot of nice Caches. I really enjoyed the day, but near the sumnit bad weather appeared with strong wind and cold rain. So I was quite wet when I was back and I missed the Caches in the outback behind the sumnit, because I don't want to go there without any sight. But that's live, I don't care.

It was a great day and many thanks to every owner for all the nice Caches.
dG

Another find out with eidesor today climbing Mt Climie. Perfect day for it; TFTC!

Hi, TFTC! Got into caching whilst visiting friends in NZ, coming from Norway, and has been great so far

Out for a stroll today with Glad-NZ log is a little damp. TFTC

Found with NZ1 while out on a morning walk. No problems finding cache as hint very good. GLAD to have this one, TFTC.

Find #200!

TFTC.

First find up the road. Wonder how far I'll get?

What a workout! Found with LALNZ

Such a hot trek up the hill! Thanks

Fifth find on my way down the access road. Was exposed in its hiding spot - looked like a bit of rubbish sitting there! Signed and left with a bit of cover, though it's not really a place that cover will sit. TFTC.

Found with 1Grunta and Broadbridges. We did the whole circuit in 12 hours including almost all the caches and a new push on thru cache down the back. TFTC!
Was windy and very rugged, but the walk was well worth it

Didn't take long to find this one.
Wished I had paid a little more attention to the cache descriptions for these at the time - a few months later I was on a Bushcraft course and having that knowledge tucked away would have been really handy.
TFTC

A great way to end the day on the way down the hill.

1Grunta found the cache at the correct location, and we then walked back to the car.

A very long day - 22.33km over mostly terrible terrain (but this one is an easy walk up and back!) taking 11 hours and 32 minutes with 26 caches found.

Thanks to 1Grunta and 1Bumblebee for the company.

TFTC !

A quick find while out on the tracks today. Thanks for the cache.

Making my way up the veeery steep hill. Huffing and puffing as I do. The relief from the sun comes each time I pull over for a cache. Bring on more caches!

This afternoon's route did not take me past this cache on my ascent so it became the cache to find on the descent. On arrival at ground zero, I soon saw what must have been Plan A followed by what I thought was most likely to be Plan B. I gently disturbed some leaf litter to see a small amount of red waving at me.

Tftc

Found it after a bit of scrabbling around. Sadly forgot my pen/pencil so unable to update log book.

Cache # 2,687 - a big day out with Crystal Fairy as we climb Mt Climie and beyond. Did this cache along the way. All is well. TNLNSL. TFTC!

Decided to climb Mt Climie today with Wandering Dragons. Was an absolutely beautiful day and quite a slog up the mountain. Views from the top were amazing being able to see as far as the South Island, Kapiti Island and even the Wairarapa along with Magnificent views of Upper Hutt. Most of the caches were easy finds, but some took a little longer as the vegetation has grown quite a bit. Thanks for the cache

Nice quick find on a damp, but brisk romp to the top of the Climie track. Been a good while since i've been up this way, but it feels so familiar.
Cache was quickly spotted, log signed, and replaced.

TFTC!

First stop on what is now a bit of a power trail. Not that I'm complaining - it was already time to stop and catch my breath. Can't say I was familiar with Mamaku and with concentrating more on the task ahead of me, didn't really take too much notice of the botanical niceties. Now, if you had directed me to Cyathea medullaris, I'd have been onto it - NOT!

Oh, you did! (TFTC).

I had a reasonably early start today with the intent of seeing whether there was any space up what has become one of my favourite vantage points in the neighbourhood - Mt Climie. Since I have been caching, this hill has bit by bit become a power trail. The seven newest caches up here haven't hit my score card yet, so as I began my walk I felt the need to fix that.

As I found this cache the morning was still fine. The forecast was for all of the rain to have been complete so I was set for a great day. Little did I know that in less than an hour I'd have snow landing upon my arm. Never the less, I carried on and I did find a couple of untouched locations further up - you'll all need to watch this space to see where any new Leprechaun's pop up.......

Thanks Barnaby for further education on our trees, and for another smilie. Cache in good order.

A beautiful sunny winters day as we start our upward climb to the summit.
No problem tracking down the cache.
Left a pet rock - a bear cub & took the TB. TFTC BarnabysTravels

.

#947. The forecast seemed reasonable (fine with light-mod winds) so I decided to tackle the remaining caches on Mt Climie today. Well the forecasters stuffed it up. But it wasn't a problem while on these lower caches. I was grateful for the cold early winter morning as climbing up this steep hill in summer would be a mission. This was a nice and easy start to the day with nice big prominent mamaku tree ferns and an easy to reach hiding spot. Cache all dry. TFTC

tftc and the fresh air hope we don't come across the missing pig dog

Found while hiking with Belmont Scouts and Jax479. TFTC

picked up frog tb TFTC

Found on scout walk. Swapped tbs. tftc

Out for another Mt Climbie walk with Scouts. Found with ZathrasH, Metal-art and Jax479 plus a couple of budding future cachers. TFTC.

Nice easy cache to start my day. Nice bit of botanical inforamation too. TFTC

#6512. A nice walk up Mount Climie Track in Pakuratahi Forest on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Only saw one dog walker on the track, and GZ was all quiet when we visited. Interesting description. Quick find. The cache was in excellent condition.
+ SPCA TB
Took nothing, signed log. Thanks for the cache.

Found as part of a loop series along the Climie Spur ridge. This was our eighth and final cache after arriving at the road and heading downward towards Tunnel Gully.
Pleased to make a straightforward find on this cache. All in order, log signed; safely re-hidden. Familiar cache container.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

Quick find with Wafflekitties, thanks for the cache

Nice easy find, cache was well covered and as the hint described TFTC

Found, although I didn't know what the tree looked like! TFTC

A lovely specimen of this fern it is too. Nearly back at the car now, so will need to track down the rest of this series another time. TFTC

I had no idea what a mamaku was and the picture hadn't saved on my phone so I was lucky to find this one. I've learned something today TFTC!

A nice find while in the area with Just-Lookin & Princess Emily.

Enjoying this series of nicely set out cache pages and caches at impressive native tree examples.

Good quick find here on the trail. SL TFTC

A lovely sunny day out collecting some local caches with tmann421 and Princess-Emily.

We are enjoying this series of interesting native trees.

TFTC and for the series

Out with tmann421 and Just-Lookin collecting some caches.

TFTC

A quick find with TregearP doing this Power Trail in what started out in fine weather and finished up with a torrential down pour.

TFTC.

Second to find with SJT_NZ, a great idea for a series

A late morning FTF Not working today so went for a walk in pleasant warm weather with Mrs agcnz. The cache was a quick find in the first place checked, I know this fern well as we have several growing at home This is an informative and well-done series with particularly well-written cache pages and I'm enjoying them. Signed log, TFTC and it's worth a favourite point.

Published