Gateway to Otawa (Bay of Plenty) Te Puke, North Island, New Zealand
By HambrookHunters on 07-Jun-15. Waypoint GC5X4TH

Operation Otawa. The not so wee fella anymore and I grabbed special cut lunches made by Mrs and headed out the door. Great day for it. 1 out 2 so far. TFTC

I had a day off work today - a so called well being day - so took the opportunity to walk to the Otawa Trig and find some caches along the way.

This was the first. A good easy find to start off with. Log was damp but then all of the ones I found today were the same. TFTC

Got the afternoon off work and as the suns out and it’s meant to be raining the rest of the week, I headed up to this series. Wasn’t sure how far I would get but managed five out of the first six plus the bonus. Was a great would out that took just over 3 hours. It did take me a while to find this cache as my GPS was jumping all over the place and the hint isn’t exactly specific! Checked dozens of tree before spotting the right one. Turned out the caches are close to the track unless otherwise specified. Log all fine and numbers collected. On to No 2

Gateway to Otawa (Bay of Plenty) was transferred from HambrookHunters to user kimbathelion

Nice quick find and a good cache to introduce a muggle friend to. Thanks

Off on a chilly Sunday walk. Tftc.

Submitted via Garmin Live Geocaching. A great walk thanks. Logs wet but able to write in.

We'll go on a short stroll says Kimbathelion, haha!! Was a great day out though.
GPS had us wrong initially on this one, but soon came right after reading some previous logs.

GPS had us on the wrong side to begin with, then I read a few logs & changed the area & there it was. Tftc

We were on a practice hike for a bigger long tramp later in the month and came up here just to reach the trig. Loved this walk apart from all the long grasses we walked through to get to the bush...hayfever drama! Located this cache easily once we left the track and went higher. Tftc.

We needed to get a few km under the belt before a trip we have planned next month, so off we go with our packs fully loaded with over night gear, feeling a bit over prepared. This series has always been on the todo list and now we have an excuse.

This one was a nice quick find, hoping this was a good sign for the days adventures

#11,550
With this cache trail potentially getting archived a quick plan was hatched to kill 2 birds with 1 stone , I needed to go for my daily run and needed to find this trail of caches.(no actual birds were killed )
Checked out the map and decided on starting at Manoeka Rd end to maximise elevation gain for my mountain running training.
Last cache for the day before my run down the road to get back to the car, thanks for the series and for the nudge to finally get up here, all the stopping for caches didn’t do my Strava time any good, will have to run the loop again to try for some KOM segments...
Total loop distance 19.7km and 3hrs15min.

On a mission up the hill with my bestie, his first time up here. TFTC

It was a very hot sunny Autumnal day, so we were glad to head into the shade of the bush. We had to wait for a couple of muggles to pass us, before we were able to step off the track to locate the cache. Quick find here with the help of the hint.

A plan was hatched to tackle the mighty Otawa track today. DC and I left his van at the Otawa Lodge carpark and headed up to the top carpark on the Quarry Rd. We were supposed to meet McJ, but she had left without us, fully aware that we would catch up.
We waited for some mountain bikers to haul their bikes over the gate before we could start. We passed a hunter returning empty handed as we made our way back through the grassy track.
This cache was a straight forward find, which we did, knowing McJ had signed in for us.
On to the next one.
Thanks for bringing me here.
TFTC.


*Found with [Geooh Live](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobiltal.geoohLive)*

The message came through last night asking who wants to do this series. I was keen as I didn’t want to have to walk this track on my own and have been avoiding doing so. I have also written this template on Cachly to log as I go. On this mission today with TNXPRO and Davidson Clan. A lovely sunny morning after a day of rain. Many Thanks for this series and for eventually bringing me here. Cheers

Coordinates changed from:
S 37° 46.372 E 176° 15.441

Coordinates changed to:
S 37° 46.382 E 176° 15.447

Distance from original: 67.1 feet or 20.5 meters.

Old location has fallen down the bank.

We forgot to bring details of these Otawa caches when we were staying at the Mount at the end of March, so having a free day today we came back to get those at this end of the track. Buckets of rain as we drove down from Auckland but we enjoyed a fine day down here. Great planning to have these caches spread along the track, made a grand walk for us. Thanks HambrookHunters.

A chance to get out and about before the festive stupidities start (with the Otawa Track as the main objective for the day as we have been looking at for a long time), but of course a few other caches are always going to get caught into the action. So in the company of HKCB & Kyb3r we set off in two cars (parking at each end) and beginning the walk from the northern end and heading south.

Started walking at 5.33am, Distance 12km. Total Time 3hrs17min, Moving Time 2hrs33min. Conditions great and nice and cool throughout the walk.
Started out very nice through the long grass of a farm walk, which was followed by a nice gentle bush walk that for the most part was easy to moderate in intensity (at least that's what the smartwatch tells me). Most finds were located quickly (with good use of the hints) and all in all we were glad we walked the direction that we did.
There was plenty of laughter and good nature'd ribbing about many different topics and a thoroughly enjoyable time to be had by us all.
Thanks for putting this in place and getting us out and about, it was brilliant.
Our thanks goes out to the CO for the effort in getting these out here.

Thanks for the placement, Thanks for the cache

As usual this series is another one of those series you've been wanting to get since it was first published. However this one proved to have another challenge thrown into the mix as it involved either there and back walk or a vehicle at two ends! Hence as I wasn't yet prepared to do a there and back walk this series was put on the back burner.

However a few hours this morning managed to make itself free and we quickly filled it with this series. It had finally got the best of me so teamed up with Cats&Dragons and Kyb3r and headed over from Hamilton in two cars. As I needed to be back in Hamilton by 10.30am, a early start meant we had positioned cars at both ends and had started walking a bit after 5.30am.

With the time against us there was no room to stop and smell the flowers, so it was head down and get the heart rate up. And it paid off as we completed the track with all caches found, plus an extra unpublished one at the end of the track in 3 1/4 hours, which included a 20min hunt for one cache. The rest were found without much hassle, and the bonus cache was well made.

Thanks for the series!

On the cards today was walking the the Otawa Trig track. First cache on the track, just remembered as we walked away that there was info to gather. Pleased we didn't get too far down the track, thanks for the cache

Today's mission is to grab the rest of the Otawa series. Good drive in via Rocky Cutting Road and a nice field walk to warm up. TFTC.

Success! Fun easy find adding extra excitement to a bush walk for kids. Thanks

Quick easy find TFTC

A nice quick find on a lovely walk TFTC

On geocaching mission with georunnermatt and livee_nz. Hoping to find them all! 1 down 8 to go . Tftc

First find in this series. Really enjoying the walk so far. On a geocaching mission with livee_nz and DotjeNL. Quick find for this one. Nice spot for a cache. Thanks

Hiking the Otawa series with georunnermatt & DotjeNL, a simple find for this first one. Glad we're in the bush and shade now, it's a warm day!

Today is supposed to be a great day outdoors so after a few chores we headed on up. Didn't take too long to find with good hint. Wouldn't want to lean on cache holder as it's a bit wobbly. Thanks for bringing us here

Wonderful day for cacheing.. found in good condition..most enjoyable walk so far took TB...thanks for a great cache and nice placement

I tried to con a couple of other cachers to come with me today but got no takers. It was a beautiful morning so what better way to spend it but on a walk through some beautiful native bush. Had a nice talk with the farmers on the track to the bush. I love caches that are put where they are easily found especially when placed in bush. That way the young plants are given a chance to live.

Swapped TBs.

Cheers for the cache.

We totally enjoyed the Otawa series!
We started with series #6 and walk back down to the "Gate way"finding Otawa series in a backwards order, as we started tramping into the Otawa track from Otanewainuku (Oropi) end.
**If you like tramping and want to meet onto Otawa track by start at Otanewainuku, plan for someone to drop you off and pick you up at each end. This track is a steep climb, track is over growing in areas and orange markers are few and far between! Research the area and tracks before you start this tramp. Go well prepared and start early as it is a long day and a hard walk!**

Otawa Track is a lovely walk, tracks are great and has beautiful stops to veiw from and rest at.
The Otawa series is really great!
We've being to trig from Quarry Road before which is a great walk, tracks are great, but didn't know about Geocaching then. So these Caches made this tramping expedition more exciting.

Today's first Cache find was Series #6, as from here this is where our tracks met from Otanewainuku.
Plan being is to find Otawa series in a backwards order #6 - Gate way, collect the bonus co-ords and come back again at later date and start from Manaweka Road to collect the #9-7 (from memory) and find the bonus cache as well.

Found Gateway cache, was surprised by its size. It's in a cool spot really, nature has lots of nooks and crannies all natural and unique in it's own beauty!
Thank you for a great set up and cool themed Geocaching. We loved our day out today, finding these series will bring us back to find the rest!

9/2/2016: This cache was so good I have made a return visit with a little friend in mind!

Second time at this cache. First time was two days before the Otawa series was released. It's taken me this long to get the opportunity to come back for the others. Thanks for the series HambrookHunters
Picked up the Geocoin

New team from kiwi corral!!! Nice weather today! TFTC

We went to collect the two of this series that I did not have in the poring rain. We got pretty dam wet I can tell you, but a lovely walk. TFTC

Staying at the Mount for the weekend, and thinking of exploring the bush this time instead of the beach. Good idea too because a very strong Norwesterly would make the coast very unpleasant, but in the bush it's quite tolerable. We thought we'd get blown off the farm track on the way to this first cache, but we got there, and sveppi spotted the hide as I was staring around clueless (I haven't got my mojo yet!). Nice tidy cache in a good spot thanks.

Well we were almost blown off the farm track on the way up the hill but the day is lovely and sunny. On the way up to the trig hoping to do the series on the way... easy find on this one, nice hide. Thanks.

Received notification of new caches at Te Puke and got a text from Squirrel Nutcase asking if I was interested in going for these. As we needed caches for published on day for our challenge my answer was yes without looking to see where they were. Next message was that the Tauranga guys were also going for them tonight so a bit more pressure to go so I suggested that they start at one end and us at the other end and do a vehicle key swap when we meet up on the track. Great idea so off to pick up the Squirrel. By the time we got to the start it was 8.30pm and not to worried about the distance to the end.
Walked up through farmland and at first missed gate into the bush. Quick discussion and we were onto the track. By this time received text from team at other end who were struggling with finds with only finding one cache at this stage.
Good walking track up and steadily finding caches as we went with more texts from other end of track, almost to #4 when we met the other team, buggar me its Philip and his 10 year old son which I got the impression they were glad to see us. I felt it was a brave effort on their part ( we just get called mad, crazy etc etc which is mostly from Mrs Fap) anyway a bit of a pick me up talk we swapped keys and parted. Apart from a bit of a search for bonus cache all others were found fairly quickly with hint and Co Ords except #9 as our phones had gone flat about half an hour before so will be back to get this one but maybe in daylight. We finally arrived home at 4am Friday, lucky for Squirrel he is on school holidays but me it's a another work day.

9pm - Glad of good hint, no problem to find with our head lights. SLTFTC

Day 38 of a hopeful 50-day caching streak. Back on the hunt with Gap (of Fap and Gap).

The notifications for the Otawa series began to pour in just before 6:30PM. Shortly after, Gap phoned to gauge my interest... How badly do we need these caches for our license challenge? Naturally, I was keen to go, but wanted to see who else might be out here tonight. A few texts revealed that Philip Perry and son were coming in from the lodge end. We arranged to do a car key swap along the path...

By the time we parked on Te Puke Quarry Road, it was well after 8PM. Light rain had been falling, but the track was fairly good. The trek in was fairly standard for a farm crossing, and we were making good progress. We arrived at a gate and headed along a fenceline... It didn't feel like a well trampled path, but we continued on for many more metres. We seemed to be heading away from the cache, so Gap turned back, and I eventually followed. This detour added at least 30 minutes to our journey...

Once on track, it was a quick walk into the cache. We used our cache sense to find this hide. We were quite pleased with ourselves to have this first find, considering that it's quite dark under tree cover. TFTC.

After my FTF here 3 months ago it was quite nice returning here to finish off the freshly planted Otawa power trail. We collected more info on the bonus and it was really interesting to see my stash note and ANZAC .50c piece still here. Visit my Otawa #9 Tui GC64MCP link for the full experience on tonight's adventure

Great walk thanks. Have been meaning to go for a walk up here so thanks for the extra motivation. Did the loop track as suggested to the Whareokakaho Trig which was very windy being out in open again. Had the place to myself so really enjoyed the peace with beautiful bird song. Will def be back here again soon and will bring friends and head the Otawa Trig. Loved the hide. TFTC Hambrooks. Took the TB

TB Drop

Done this walk a few times now with some caches up the hill. Nice area for a walk. Could see my place from the gate at the start of the bush.

Was suppose to go tramping today but the weather was too wet. So i thought I would catch up on some more caches. Being wet made it a pretty much a muggle free day and I was enjoying myself. Loved the walk even in the rain the views were good. Great loop walk and lovely bush. Good spot for the cache TFTC

Too nice a day to stay at home so out I went out to pick a couple of local cachs. Enjoyed the walk around the loop track, will come back one day to walk up to the trig. TFTC

Finally got out here for a great walk around the loop. Never knew this was here so a great spot to come to. Thanks Hambrooks.

We are so lucky to be so near to bush or coast in this country.

Actually this was my third attempt to sign the logbook. Not that this cache was particularly difficult to find (if you don't mind a short leisurely walk uphill through farmland). Obviously the stars were not correctly aligned enough for me. Attempt #1 was a few hours after publication. Arrived at the car park to find the CO and a gaggle of cachers. Before donning the tramping boots I received a text from my daughter to take her to hospital as she was having difficulty breathing. BIG DECISION to make now! Oh well... grabbed some home baking off a well prepared CO and left. Attempt #2 seemed straight forward enough. Mrs Splatty was up for a walk a few days later. The weather wasn't particularly useful, but decided to take both my grandchildren with us for the walk. Got 2/3rds of the way to the bush line when the cunning plan seemed to unravel. To be fair, it probably started to unravel within the first 200 meters. Let's just say that grandpa was not flavour of the month. The icy wind and driving rain became too much for the two little ones, so we literally carried them back down the hill with the prize in sight. Attempt #3 worked out much better. After returning home to drop the kids off with Nanna and a few lollies to keep them quiet about their experience (what goes on caching stays on caching), we set about going back to finish the job. What the heck, we were already wet and freezing cold, may as well finish what we started. On a different day, the views would have been most welcomed, but we didn't stop long enough to appreciate them. Of course we walked past GZ and had to go back, but the logbook was duly signed and back down the hill we went. Mrs Splatty took one for the team today This cache won't be forgotten for a while, and not just because Mrs Splatty ended up sprawling in the mud on the way back down. Am looking forward to further placements from the CO through the Otawa Block. Who knows what further adventures are in store? TFTC

This entry was edited by tparty on Saturday, 11 July 2015 at 20:46:20 UTC.

Found today by Mrs SplattyNZ who accompanied TParty up the hill .... twice! I'll let him tell his story, but one thing I can confirm is that it was cold, wet, windy and muddy. Mrs Splatty managed to fall over, much to TParty's delight.

Mr Splatty, away in Christchurch for the week, has vowed that he will also make the trip up the hill .... when the weather is a bit nicer!

TFTC - here's a pic

18 minutes after publish, the alert was waiting for me when I got out of bed. It was looking a little 'rural' to my blurry eyes but with a straight forward hint and solid waypoints I was fairly confident of a find if my phone crapped out. I waved good bye to family and told them I'd be home by .... lunch? I was a little unsure if I'd get there fast enough for the [FTF] but the facebook chatter hadn't started yet so I figured I was in the running.




I arrived at the car park to only one other car. The baking left on the roof and the car seat inside screamed cacher so second place was still up for grabs at least, but I'd better hurry. A little disappointing to see a bunch of rubbish littered about the place but my view darted towards the trail and I couldn't see anyone on the track so I had some ground to make up. Two thirds up and who do I meet, none other then the CO which meant it was their car which meant [FTF] was still on the table. Time to get back on track.




A quick find at gz, with accurate coords, hint, waypoints and the phone never lost signal. A solid hide and a generous sized cache. Topped off with great views and some fresh air - an easy fav. Not to mention some delicious lollies and a TB for discovery. Took Sheep Rubber (smiggle?) and left 2x Millennium ANZAC Coins. Time to head back to the car. Turned the corner and who should I see, Davidson Clan making their way! Commitment there, and received intel more cachers were on the way. The facebook logs weren't all talk after all.




Arrived back just as HambrookHunters finished an impromptu CITO of the area! - you should have created an event with TNX and TParty having just arrived that made 5 caching teams on site, excellent!! What a day. But with Drinnans new cache out in Matua, I still had a little travelling to do. Awesome to see / meet everyone today - after only 19 months Geocaching this is exactly what I imagined it would be like - amazing people, challenges, experiences. So stoked, cheers Tui.

I was still in bed when alert came through had a quick look on Facebook no chatter thought to myself maybe all the Tauranga people were asleep or at Church. Decided I would go for the FTF turned computer on to download to GPS got dressed grabbed a bottle of water said goodbye to the wife she said where you going got go get a FTF won't be long she suggested I take 3 year old had to decline instead went outside to get Apache who was building the fence so we can get some cows.
Jumped in car and headed for Te puke and then up into the hills got to carpark and there were two cars already there bugger I thought my boy suggested we run that last about 50m then I started walking as we were getting near the top we came across the CO and her daughter good to meet you both they wouldn't tell us if another geocacher was ahead of us or not but we when a bit further up around the corner and we saw a guy running down the hill with the biggest smile on his face good to meet you Phillip so we now new we were second no bad after coming from Rotorua.
After a brief talk with Phillip we carried on up the track as we entered the bush part I remembered reading something about the trig so we walked about ten minutes along the track then pulled the GPS out to see how far away we were oh no we were 300m past the cache we had to turn around and race back down the hill as Phillip said TnxPro was on his way lucky we got back to GZ co ords were spot on took the travel bug and made our way back down the hill no biscuits waiting for us never mind we had a great morning walk thanks Tui.

What happen to TNxPro and Tparty I didn't see them car park was empty when we got down saw a man on his bike riding up the hill on our way down. Another couple turned up as we were leaving but didn't recognise them.

Yeah - found the cache without GPS probably because I know the setter too well!!! Made me smile when I fond it & for the rest of the run. Beautiful location - perhaps more need setting up there?!

Published

Am sitting in A & E thinking about what the morning might have been. Nice to meet the keen ones at the car park this morning, and the brownie was a much welcomed bonus on a very breezy morning. As this cache is close to home, I will get after it later this week. Thanks for your placement... I like a walk.

TB drop.

This cache is our revenge on those local cachers who keep beating us to the park and grab FTFs. We're looking forward to seeing who has the legs to venture a little further than their car. Depending on when the cache is published, we may even be on the trail to enjoy watching you walk up the hill..........