Leprechaun's Back Road (Upper Hutt) Upper Hutt, North Island, New Zealand
By wb1116 on 11-Sep-15. Waypoint GC638XB

#11,806. I decided today was a good opportunity during Labour weekend to pick off a few of the back country caches at the head of the Remutaka cycle trail. But the plan was to access them by walking in via Collies Track. The track has had some recent cutting and marking on the north slope so was fairly easy to follow and creates a nice shortcut into the upper reaches if you don't mind a bit of hill climbing. I wandered down the trail to Via Dela Rosa Road and then onto Back Road. The Road Closed sign is there for a good reason. Further along there is a massive washout on the road that makes a tank trap look like a small ditch. Don't hit that at speed on your bike. You will come off second best. But before reaching there I stopped to do this cache. The hint didn't make too much sense so just checked under some rocks by the road and the cache was in the first place checked. Yay. All good here. Nice and dry. Signed the logsheet and replaced the cache under a nice pile of smaller rocks. Thanks wb1116 for hiding it here.

Twig and I took the "Fast and Furious" route here via Collie's track (Collie's road?). We then diverted off to this cache before carrying on, me forgetting that we are coming back this way anyway. A very fast find, first place I looked. And a lonely cache! A perfect test for my lonely cache analysis tool that I am currently writing (it's running a test now, as I write this!) to test additional finds after the first run, without testing those first few thousand finds again.

Twig and I needed some tree time so we decided to come here. Over Collie's very overgrown Road to the Rimutaka rail trail and back via the appropriately named Back Road.

Log signed as TATS - TwigNZ and the Seagnoid.

I was due to spend the weekend in Wellington, and had some time available for some caching today so hatched a plan to meet up with the Seagnoid for some tramping time. He suggested following Collie's Track and going from there, which was fine as it's all virgin territory to me.
Over the course of the next 12 - 15km (estimated) we had to contend with everything from gnarly hills, very overgrown tracks (roads?) right through to the easy gradients and relatively smooth gravel of the Remutaka Rail Trail.
But it was nice to see the sun and to feel the warmth after so much rain and icy southerly blasts over the last few weeks.

After the initial scramble up Collie's Track and down to join Via Dela Rosa, this track (Back Road) was a breeze. We had detoured to get this cache, not quite realising that we would be passing this way on our walk back, but no matter. The Seagnoid made an almost immediate find in the first place he looked, and we were happy to be the first people to find this cache in over a year.
The logsheet was signed as T.A.T.S (TwigNZ and the Seagnoid) before replacing it all back as found.

Thanks for the smiley

A wonderful cruise along this road from the summit in the sunshine today. After leaving the Cross Creek area it was just me and the Kererū until I was almost back at the car park. This one had me a little stumped at first when I realised the big pile was no longer here. My other problem was that I had pretty much dropped my bike on top of the cache when I arrived and blocked my view of it. Once I realised my mistake the log was in hand and it was wonderfully dry. TFTC out here that encouraged me to revisit this area for the first time in around 30 years.

Had a phone call from 2Bulbars earlier in the week wanting to head back into the remutaka's area and start from the featherston side so here we are and no rain insight yay good ride up had lunch at the summit then headed around the backroad which at the mega we only found this road by mistake so have been keen to come back and of course pick up the few caches around this way.
Quick find here thanks for the placement and the smiley.

we are out trying our mt bikes out and what better place than the Remutaka rail trail.
This area is so full of rail way history an the things people did many years ago just to help the wheels of the industry to keep going around
many thanks

Nice day out with mumandme. Tftc, track is slightly over grown in some places but a nice walk, wasn't much wind.
Not under the pile I thought.

Started at SH2 and came up Collies Track (getting quite overgrown), then along Back Road to the Summit, along the incline to the other end of Back Road and out to SH2 again along Via Dela Rosa. Quick find with kimmy+co. tftc

The leprechaun has certainly been busy round here! Another of his 'leavings' Tracked down and signed. TFTC

Quick find opposite the large pile which is no longer there. Thanks for another wb!

Found it, number 9 for the day - yippie!

All very wet in there Inner container does not have a lid Emptied and dried out as best possible in 10 minutes Worth a CO visit but only when next in the area TFTC

I certainly made the right choice for my direction of travel today - that being up to the summit on the main track then back down via Back Road. A long speedy downhill section to here made it worth the relatively short climb. On arrivial I didn't see much in the way of notable hiding places and because things haven't gone too well caching-wise today I wasted little time falling back on the hint. That didn't seem to help much but I found the cache after not too long . The log is pretty wet but no problem signing it because of the waterproof paper. It wouldn't be the same caching in this part of the world without finding at least one Leprechaun cache. TFTC!

Well. I arrived at where my GPSr was pointing, and found the container, lid off beside it, out in the open. It was full of water. The small container was inside, submerged, also without its lid - which was nowhere to be seen. The logbook was also missing. I tipped out the water, dried the containers with my handkerchief (it was clean!), and put a receipt from my wallet in as a replacement and temporary logbook. I hid it as I thought it should be. Off I pedalled; then a hundred metres up the road, in the bushes on the side of the road, was the original logbook! (Actually, ribbons of plastic paper.) The signatures had almost entirely faded - it must have been there for a while - but they're just readable. Signed it and returned it to the cache. I guess this really should have a 'needs maintenance' log but it's okay at the moment with one container and a waterproof logbook. TFTC.

Easy find on a 30 km MTB mission on the Rimutaka Incline, Dela Rosa and Back Road in cold drizzle.

Having made it to today's turn around point in good time, I was able to search for a few caches on my return journey. The cache container was in full view as the cairn had again been deconstructed. I took a few minutes to re-build it before I moved on.

This was our last find of the day on the way back out to SH2 via the 4x4 track.

We were angry to find the cache opened and thrown over the area. The lids were off and in full view, the little cairn pulled apart and the boxes full of water. Luckily however, the waterproof log was just a few metres into the bush - looks like it had been caught up in some branches.

We did our best to clean out the boxes and dry everything up. All has been put back in it's rightful place, and we've re-hidden it in the same place but just a little further back, and covered with some natural camo.

It's one thing to muggle a cache, but for someone to open it and simply throw it all over the place with such dis-regard is annoying. Thankfully a happy ending this time, and I'm sure wb1116 will be pleased not to have to come all this way to replace anything!

TFTC!

Rode into here on an epic cycling adventure on a beautiful summery Sunday afternoon. Magical.
Started our ride at Tunnel Gully and came by the Phew route. So, pushing the stamina button around about now.
Cache find was straightforward. Pleased about that as the mower has just been through and there is mess everywhere.
Cache in order; log signed, safely re-hidden, just as found.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

all good here, TFTC

Out searching on the back road for a few new caches in the incline area on a very fine day. Search, find, signed and replaced as found. TFTC.

Last of seven for the day. I needed some exercise and with 7 new caches in the area for me to find, it was worth going for a bike ride. A quick find in the second place checked. Quite an exhilarating ride down to here from the Centre Road cache, definitely not much pedalling needed! Signed log, TFTC

Coordinates changed from:
S 41° 07.547 E 175° 12.438

Coordinates changed to:
S 41° 07.545 E 175° 12.432

Distance from original: 30 feet or 9.1 meters.
Average of three independent coordinates. With the trees it may dance around a touch - original was 12m from one other set of co-ords.

Joint {FTF} with huhugrub. With a wealth of newly published caches in the area from yesterday and only one found so far it was a question of which track was I going to travel today in the hopes of a FTF. I decided on the Back Road as I could check on my Pipit's Progress cache at the same time and it would give me a chance to dust the cobwebs off my mountain bike (literally) .

I pedalled out of our front gate at 10:00 and made good time once on the Rail Trail, but it was a bit slow going once I turned off onto the Back Road (I'm no spring chicken). As I approached GZ the GPSr bleeped to tell me I was close and at the same time I spotted a familiar figure: huhugrub had just replaced the cache in its hiding place. He offered to share the FTF honours on this one and of course I said I'd walk with him to get to the next one that wb1116 had placed along the track in the hope that we'd be able to have a joint FTF on that as well. Co-ordinates for this seemed to be a bit out for both of us, so the hint was required.

Nice excuse to come along the Back Road for the first time in ages. Certainly good exercise! TFTC

#6992. Joint {FTF} @ 10:30 with BarnabysTravels. Returned this morning to have another good walk in Rimutaka Hill. Parked off the Rimutaka Hill Road for an up and down hike. The tracks were all quiet. Arrived at GZ and started some searching, widening the area, and eventually relied on the hints and found the nicely hidden cache about 13 metres away. The cache was in excellent condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

No sooner after replacing the cache, and spotted BarnabysTravels arriving on his bike. Happy to share the first-to-find, and we carried on up the Back Road together towards the next new cache.

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