Life’s a Beach # 1 Westmere, North Island, New Zealand
By Let's go looking! on 06-Jun-15. Waypoint GC5X27F

Given the two geocaches here have been removed have decided to archive.

The Life's a Beach series is still achievable without this cache.

Checked geocache to find it has gone. This is two gone from the same area so am contemplating where to next with this one.

Looks like whoever is ‘tidying’ the place up is taking the caches given both were in areas which have been replanted.

No luck searched for a good while with the clue, still coming up empty handed. New trees planted in the area so may be cleaned up.

Dropping the geokids to their mums so did a bit of cache exploring along the way. Last one of the day and no luck...even after reviewing logs and using new coordinates...time was running short so we gave up.

No go here today. Not a good start for getting the final at the end.

Gps is all over the place. Will come again when we have more time

#9841. We had a good search here at the entrance to the Westmere Reserve before lunch, but could not find the cache. As we were getting very hungry by that stage, we logged a DNF and went to get something to eat first. Now having replenished with sustenance, we returned to the Westmere Reserve, and searched some more. But still did not find it. So we decided to have a pleasant walk around the lake and to look for the other three caches in this reserve.

In the meantime, it had started to rain. Returning to the entrance we received a message from the cache owner of the updated coordinates. It was good that GZ was all quiet due to the rain. A relatively quick find this time round at a spot which we had looked at before, but obviously not well enough. Well hidden. The cache was in excellent condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log (first to sign the replacement).

It is a mystery that despite the cache owner having updated the coordinates in the listing, we could not see them … even now the website is still showing the old ones. In any case, we have now posted them here. The new coordinates are 27 metres from the old ones.

Thanks for the placement and very prompt responses, and for bringing us to the site, and …

.T h a n k s. .f o r. .t h e. .c a c h e.
.M a u r u u r u. .k o e. .n u i. .a t u. .h o k i. .t e. .k e t e r o k i.

*****
Did you know that planning is well under way for a major Event in Wellington during Labour Day weekend in October 2018? Check out the details on the [GC78NMQ WENZ Event 2018 (Wellington)](https://coord.info/GC78NMQ) cache listing, [WENZ2018 website](https://sites.google.com/site/wenzgeo2018/home) or visit the event's page on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/groups/590545297801072/). If you plan to come, please remember to log a “Will Attend” on the [Event Log](https://www.geocaching.com/play/geocache/gc78nmq/log).
*****

DNF at GZ and around the gate area. Noted the CO has recently replaced the cache, but at a new location. But the coordinates do not appear to have been updated, despite the CO'S note below.

Coords at new GZ were averaged over several days using a GPSr and have been updated here so should put you on the spot. Perhaps the difficulty needs to be updated.

Cheers
LGLNZ

The original cache has gone west with the gardening along the fence line so a new cache container has been put in place just inside the gate. Coordinates have been updated as well.

As always, you can be muggled here by walkers so stealth is required.

The plan was to do the series and hopefully find the mystery one once the clues were solved... Unfortunately we came up empty on this. Looks like there has been some recent planting in the area, so perhaps the cache has been removed? 9YO was disappointed, as he was hoping to have another find before Mum could get a look in.

Day 5 of my NZ trip (already ?) and the weather was very pleasant today and should be OK for the remaining few days. Today I was in and around Whanganui. Before lunch I visited Mowhanu, just up north and then the Bason Botanic gardens which has quite a few geocaches. After lunch I slowly headed back into town via Nobby's Grotto which has some very cool caches and then a few "urban" caches around town. I should have found a lot of caches today but my eye was not "in" today and I missed heaps. Perhaps the only downside of the day.

Didn't find this one.

Thanks anyway LGLNZ

Stopped by today to check the cache, dried it out.

Was in Wanganui for a drive to pick up a few caches, after finding GC52GH1 - Cache & Play: Cricket (Wanganui), it was time to continue on my way back to the main road so I could make my way towards home. I decided that I would pick up a couple more caches on my way as there was a couple more of the Life’s a Beach series I wanted to pick up today.

I decided that I would go and find the last cache of this series and get the final number required for the bonus cache. Arriving near GZ I was able to find a parking spot without any issues, then it was a short walk to GZ, the GPSr was bouncing all over the place as the weather was starting to close in and it was starting to rain.

Had a quick look around but the rain was getting heavier and the GPSr was bouncing me all over the place so decided that it was time to call it quits, will come back next visit if the weather allows and have a better look.

Out with Red Roaming as we tour NZ, having a wonderful time on these Islands. another lovely sunny day. Log signed with our initials (DD & RR). apologies for my lateness in logging this cache.
We wanted to do this cache as there is a new series at home called Life's a beach (But they can be any type of cache except a Trad, now numbering past 50!)
I took a while to locate this one, it needs a little TLC as is just a bit damp generally. TFTC

Cache soon found as it was very exposed, but after signing log we replaced and recovered. Many thanks

Just had to find this cache (apologies for only one as driving onwards to get to next Hostel) as at home we have a series of Life's a Beach caches recently started by a young cacher in our home county called Heartradio who hopes that his series will spread around the UK - and perhaps beyond if this CO or others read this log! If interested just email Isaac through his profile and I am sure he will be pleased to advise and welcome another cache in his series!

Travelling around the world with Dartmoor Deliverer helping her celebrate having taking early retirement!

NB Dont forget our Devon UK Mega 2017 GC6JZNY this August in the beautiful East Devon area of our county. UK Megas are over one week full of events and geocaching - a wonderful way to enjoy our county!

Was too dark for us to find this one so will have to come back another day

First geocache, so it took me a while to find.

A glance at the potential places for this trip were made and a trip to the beach seemed to be in order, especially with an Earthcache at the end of the road too! Grabbed all the individual caches, the first couple were damp and pages stuck but number in the lid was useful and we got the final too so mission was possible. Cut and paste for these I'm afraid.

A new day dawns in a town where I haven't cached for ages, plenty of scope for a successful day, plus we have to stay out of the house as daughters partner is sleeping off nights. That can mean only 1 thing, a caching day or as my daughter called it a visit as a tourist in her own town. Grabbed a few today, some goodies yet again and Wanganui continues to set the bar high for cache construction and innovation, nice one you lot.

It was finally a sunny day in the area- we have not had many of these type of days in the Manawatu this year- and so I decided a trip to this beach would be ideal and locate this series of caches along the way to the beach.. I visited here many years ago and only vaguely remember the look out and I don't think I went down to the beach. They were all fairly straight forward and quick finds except for the cache up at the look out, which took a little more searching and time to locate amongst the trees and bushes. It now just leaves me to re visit Bason reserve and locate the newer caches placed there since I visited the reserve 7 years ago. Thank you for this series of caches and a reason to go out to the beach along with the 6 new smiley faces.

This little series was the object first thing and notice all these logs had Waiiti20's name in the log book but unfortunately he was never able to log them due to the events that took place at the end of last year. Very sad to follow his journey around this part of the country. No problems in locating the cache and grabbed the number required for the bonus. TFTC

Coords spot on. Made the find after we stopped making assumptions. T4tc

Thought we would complete this series in reverse order on the way home from the beach while on holiday. Tftc

took the wrong road after the mega so taking the long way home and finding some great caches along the way. TFTC

My GPSr took me to the wrong location to begin with and I couldn't sight any hint items. I then noticed another car was in the car park and I didn't know its occupant/s whereabouts. Rather than potentially being muggled, I carried on with my circuit of the lake. On my return, I went directly to the correct site where I made an instant find. It might take me a while to get to complete this series.

Yes phrominos is right we were hoping he would come and save us but alas he had all ready signed this one previous so he was sitting in his vehicle laughing at us he eventually appeared and said what are you doing over there(and of course we were well off the scent) So after a bit of banter he joined the search and while searching he almost done himself in (after all geocaching is not a dangerous pastime yeah rite) And then he says he has spied it and guess what he was right and mr watcache obivously didn't have his geogoggles on (twice)missed it completely.So a big THANK-YOU goes out to him for rediscovering this one. So we said our goodbyes And off with roar and too meet another day (which I am sure). A warning to other caches make sure you have your goggles on . We have given this a fav because we were not looking hard enough when we should have been.TFTC

Teamed up with Sunju after staying the night in Wanganui for a work event. After tying up a few loose caches we'd individually been having trouble with in Wanganui, it was time to head out of town in the direction of the main event of the day - the Meet the Flying Dutch"men" event in Mowhanau. We made a plan for the day to make the most of the time and that we could arrive at the event at the prescribed time. We decided to head to Bason Botanical Gardens - I'd been here previously and collect a couple in the park, the rest I had to leave at the time as it is quite a busy area in the summer.

On the way to the Bason Gardens, there were a few caches that needed collecting. This one I had tried in the past, but couldn't find and Sunju had had some trouble with it as well. This time with two pairs of eyes, we were determined to not let the cache escape us. Arrived and made the search in locations we had both tried before, before my GPS was directing me to an area that I hadn't tried at my last visit. Bingo - there was the cache. Collected the necessary number for the final and were on our way. TFTC

Security has kicked me out of Bason Botanic Gardens and the gates are locked until 0600 tomorrow. And it's dark.
Still I've got this LAB series to complete and I can still accomplish the third Mission Impossible mission today: find and log a Mystery cache.
I did LAB#1 back in April so I can now log the Final, having found and signed it earlier today. So off to Whanganui for the night.
As I approach Lake Westmere I see WatCache's vehicle is still here. So I pull up and wait to say goodbyes having played follow-the-leader all afternoon.
I wait. And wait. And wait...
Eventually torchlights appear in the scrub beside me. They can't find it and assume I'm waiting for them to find it, or that I'm laughing at them. Of course that is not so!
I assist them to locate the cache although as always with two, each blames the other for not having looked hard enough at GZ. THAT I laugh at .
And with that we part our ways. A good day's caching. Thank you RRR.

In Wanganui for a work event on Friday night and having stayed over we (Push 'n East and I) took the opportunity to join up for a day of caching before attending a caching event just north of Wanganui. I had been to this location once before with my elderly mother and we did the whole loop walk but could not find three. This one at the gate really had us foxed and we must have spent well over half an hour at every god damn stump lol. Today we pulled in to have another look and the co-ordinates took us slightly away from my original thorough search. I had however previously searched quickly this alternative area with no luck. Like what gets most cachers you can decide in your head what it is going to be, what is going to look like or what the hint means and be thoroughly caught out. Dah ... of course! Push'n East quickly found it and we soon had it logged, code made note of, and re-hidden and off to the next. TFTC

A quik stop on our way back from the event. Only 2 more to get (we think) b4 we can find the final. The winds a bit bracing tho. SL tftc lglnz..onto the next

Nice easy cach

Quick find, just needed my geocaching eyes

Found

Nice hide

Found it!

Tftc. Looked a little suspicious from the road.

Missed this one in the start of our loop walk but quick find on the way back. Picked up TBs to
Move on TFTC

Dropped off friendly tuatara

Completed the circuit and started the beach trail. Another spot-on cache. TFTC

We're visiting from Florida, USA. That was great fun. Not on the side of the fence that I expected. Thanks for placing the cache.

Buggar. Couldnt find it after searching stump in sight. Grrrrr. Another day.

Parked for the walk around the lake. Straight forward find TNLNSL TFTC

Took a little bit to find but relatively easy. TFTC

13:22
Decided we could quickly grab this cache before heading on down to Wellington, we'd parked close by so as too pick up two caches we'd had our eyes on back home which we found, we also found three others, two of which we gave fp's too but had to register a dnf for one due to us not having sufficient time for a more thorough search, this was a nice quick find thankfully so we didn't spent too much time searching, all is well here, sl and raf, tftc . Greetings from Bury in Lancashire, England.

13:22
Decided we could quickly grab this cache before heading on down to Wellington, we'd parked close by so as too pick up two caches we'd had our eyes on back home which we found, we also found three others, two of which we gave fp's too but had to register a dnf for one due to us not having sufficient time for a more thorough search, this was a nice quick find thankfully so we didn't spent too much time searching, all is well here, sl and raf, tftc . Greetings from Bury in Lancashire, England.

Did the ones around the Lake some time ago. Good to be back handy again SL TFTC

On a geocaching expedition to Wanganui today with half of siderosnz, mainly to do Westmere and Kai Iwi Beach caches.
Having completed an enjoyable circuit of Westmere on this fine summer day, it was time to head for the beach.
# 1 cache was quickly located. We left a butterfly and continued on. TFTC

A quick find after a lovely walk around the lake. We have not been to this area before and enjoyed our visit. Tftc.

Good quick find before a nice walk around the lake

This cache was one of the many caches we found on our 6 day campervan journey from Tauranga to Lower Hutt via Waihi, Cambridge, New Plymouth and along the west coast to Wanganui and back to the Hutt. A mighty and enjoyable journey which took us to many great and iconic parts of the north island and of course some great geocaches. Many thanks to the many CO's for the great cache placements and for bringing us to so many new places. Sorry about the generic log but 200 plus to log. TFTC

Nice quick find before a walk round the lake. TFTC.

Quick find after figuring out which side of the fence I was supposed to be on. On a caching maintenance run for my own caches had to stop with he grandson to see the ducks. TFTC

Sorry for the late log. 1st cache of quite a few today. This is the first time I've ever been to Westmere Lake and what a lovely place! A quick find and nobody around despite the number of cars parked close by. TFTC!

It's such a beautiful day today so I decided to take Miss 5 and 6 to the beach and collect this series of caches along the way. The goeo-kids decided to stay in the car for this one and after waiting for a car full of muggles to leave the carpark it was game on. An instant find with the kids enjoying the swag.

TFTC

Well done sophie. Grab and walk

Found it.

Tftc!

Quick find. Last at this lake. TFTC

We had early finish in work today, so we decided to go to a beach. And this caches show us the way Easy finds and we will go for the final one next time TFTC

Last of the evening, many thanks!

We went in just to notice that the cache is placed outside and so we let it until the end of the round. Thanks.

6 of 6 for the day. Nice little spot for Master 9 to find. TFTC

A nice find after dinner

Tftc

Last one before leaving this lovely area, took way longer than it should have. Tftc

Out for a school holiday drive/walk on beautiful sunny day. First find by Mr 12 and off round the lake we went tftc

I have been a bit slack during the month of September (only finding one cache before today) so I needed to get out to increase my numbers. It was palnned for a car full of cachers to head over to Wanganui, but as the day neared, numbers dwindled so it ended up just being myself and Tommygun9. It was a warm spring day with plenty of muggles out and about. I ended up finding 30 odd caches with three frustrating DNF's
Found this one on our second attempt after completing the loop. We had planned to find the full series but time eluded us today.
Thanks for the cache and the smiley.
PS. Sorry for the late log.

We tried this one before completing the loop. After finishing the loop we had another look and noticed a previous log implied it may be somewhere else so, having given up, SpudNZ had a try with success. T F T C Let's go looking!.

SpudNZ and I headed off for a September afternoon mission and Wanganui was the destination. I ended up with about 30 odd caches (on a dot day too) and we met another cacher along the way. I had only found three caches for September so this was a fortunately timed trip. Thanks to all the local hiders for making today's trip enjoyable.

I wasn't able to go searching for this one as they were felling trees in the vicinity and had closed part of the lake track. But I managed to figure what the number is for cache #7.

We have left Wanganui this morning to head for New Plymouth, via a little detour out to Mowhanau. So of course we are picking up the Life's a Beach series as we go. Made a brief stop at this pleasant location to find #1. Unfortunately we did not have time to walk around the lake. Thanks.
Picked up the large Geocoin to move along.

In Wanganui for a daffodil show. Had time to find some Life's a Beach series before the rain. Thanks for the cache.

Visiting Wanganui for the weekend from Christchurch. It rain all weekend had to get out of the house for a walk. Thanks for the Cache. All in good order. Took me a while to find this one (in rain) Dropped of a CHCH TB. Cheers

This entry was edited by TONY HALL on Sunday, 20 September 2015 at 01:58:59 UTC.

Great cache!!

Heading back to town after finding #1, spent some time looking on the wrong side of the fence before I found this one. Then off for a very pleasant walk around the lake.

TFTC

One down six more to go

Collecting the beach series today.
Had to wait a bit for a young couple to move on but the cache was quickly located.

Done here for the day so to keep in with the 15year road trip thought we would do this delightful trail TFTC

Heading back to the Naki so taking this route north. Had intended to do these earlier but the bad weather beat us to it. Good hint so found without difficulty tftc

A mission was needed to complete one of the last few licence challenges on Rangitoto Island, so a passing comment to C&D at an event and this mission was soon planned. We nearly achieved what we set out to accomplish, with only 1 more cache to find to complete the challenge but that was due to miss-reading the fine print on the challenge page.

So with the mission lasting 48 hours we amassed a great set of numbers, 317 caches found, just over 1200km travelled, about 7 hours of sleep, C&D finding his 180th earthcache, completing the KAS powertrail in under 3 hours and finding numerous amazing geocaches. A lot of fun was had along the way, and some great memories were created. A big thanks to everyone for placing all the caches along the way, this mission wouldn't have been as much fun if they weren't there!

No troubles here, I think sleep isn't that far away now as it is now nearing 2am.

Well another mission down the line in what HKCB and I were expecting to be another large caching weekend where numbers were the target, Sleep was for the weak, OCD=commitment , and petrol was a must. We left home at 6pm and headed straight down here to start what was going to be a long couple of days, so with much planning (compliments of HKCB) and a good supply of nourishing caching supplies in the back.
With a total of 1250 kms (just a short drive) and 5 hours of sleep we were definitely going to earn our rest by Sunday evening when we got home. Oh, we even managed to attend an event along the way and meet fellow cachers from the area while in Wanganui.

Now into the start of the last day and a bit more caching to go before we can relax, refueled earlier on amongst some great local company at the nearby event, but now it is time to grad the last caches we can before sleep overcomes us. Time to grab a few multis and rural caches that we have targeted, then once agan sleeping in the car never gets any easier on the body but it does have the added bonus of saving money for more petrol.
This was my seventh for the day (and two hundred and ninth for the weekend) although its not long after midnight, we can now both feel the effect of a long day coming on and see sleep not far in the distance, no worries about the locals watching us at this time. Our goal for the day is to collect as many caches as possible and make it to the event in the evening, we are glad to have finally made it this far
Thankfully both HKCB and I enjoy caching through the night (and the day), well we have had plenty of experience of it, especially as we are both working on individual challenges, mine being the DGSc Challenge and includes the Night Caching elective.

Many thanks

Just upgraded to premium - this is our first premium find - mr 7 found it nice and easy and was excited to find another - tftc

This park and grab turned into a stealth mission as we had a road crew nearby, Jesserfly and Myself proceeded to have a stroll around until they had done their thing. Unfortunatly during this time we got it in our heads that the location was in a different area, ended up back tracking and retrieving this from its hiding spot.
Cheers

This entry was edited by GummyHermit on Friday, 24 July 2015 at 20:51:58 UTC.

Another fun road trip with tmann421 collecting some local caches.

Enjoyed this series and collecting the clues for the puzzle.

TFTC and the series.

Nice series of caches, soon found this one. SL TFTC

Great day with no rain and no wind so spent a morning with JonoS tackling a few of the new caches around town.
Loved the road. Easy straight forward finds. Well recommended for children.
TFTC

Started of on wrong side of fence but soon onto the cache. A good start.
TFTC

Took a little bit of searching but didn’t take too long to find. TFTC

Nice quick find TFTC

We had some time to fill in while my daughter was at a gymnastics competition, as she didn't want any spectators. So I decided that we should attempt this series. I searched in a few wrong spots, but my mum was looking in the right spot and she found the cache.
Nice hide.
Thanks.

A fairly quick find with markhnz, as a fantail fluttered around. TFTC

Found with markhnz, hannahhnz and W.E.K.A.
TFTC

Found with markhnz, hollyhnz and W.E.K.A.
TFTC

#1015. Last cache of the day as dusk arrived. Took a little bit of searching to find as I took the wrong starting option and began searching every object suggested by the hint. But once the GPS settled I saw where it was and soon had the container in hand. Signed log and captured the code. Enjoyed doing these six caches and will be back some stage for No.7. Time to head back to Wellington. TFTC

Did this one in the dark which added to the difficulty rating.
Ended up going quite close to the lake & floundered around looking in all the wrong places, eventually giving up & retreating back to the car to re assess things. Soon realised what had gone wrong - I'd put a digit in wrong!!! Second attempt went straight to it
Left a pet rock - a chick in an egg. Thanks for the cache Let's go looking!

{*FTF*} All was well until the heavens opened up on me in the dark. Took me a while for this one, but got there in the end and a first to find. TFTC and the series

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