Green Thumbs Up (Canterbury) Woodend Beach, South Island, New Zealand
By CHCH MEGA TEAM on 25-Oct-15. Waypoint GC63XG4

Putting. away the garden gloves

Paddle chick and I attended this event and planted a couple of trees ,this is going to be a great spot once the trees get going.

Out with the Dunedin caching crew.DCC. Day 3 Mega planted about 4 trees. Great idea TFTC!

We were delayed at a cache in cashmere so by the time we rushed back across town we were late for the CITO. By the time we arrived there was only three trees left to plant. Nanzie and i did one each and another late come took the last.

#3773

My event highlight.
1: Cleared dunes... tick
2: Tons of trees... tick
3: Tons of volunteers... tick
Equals, job done in no time!!! And a lovely sense of achievement!!!
It was great and we did a great service to the Tuhitara Coastal Park. Gred the Ranger was blown away and we have named our Biota Node 'Christchurch Cachers' and we'll adopt this and we'll look after this piece of Park. We'll have a plaque made up and I have volunteered to make a 'sign' for our plaque
The park is now offically 'Geocaching Friendly' as long as we respect the local flora and fauna.

Such great fun.

Thanks to all the attended!
#3731

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For info on the next NZ mega, and to register, go to: [url=http://www.nzmega2015.com]nzmega2015[/url]
Visit the cache page and log a 'Will Attend' [url=http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC587BC_nz-mega-christchurch-2015]NZ MEGA CHCH 2015[/url]
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Plenty of plants to plant, water and stake (650 in am told). With so many volunteers, we did it in record time.

Great to see so many eager faces, and Greg the ranger was wrapped that the job was done, and quickly too.

Our own special place in Woodend Beach.


Thanks to the MEGA Team for organising

Previously logged under a team account. Re-logging with my individual account.

Relogging this under individual account, previously a member of Gaz'n'Kab account.

Well I have to say the idea for this CITO was excellent! While its great to help clean an area up, actually planting trees which will remain for longer was a great idea!
Thanks TheWanglers for organising the event it was greatly appreciated!

Cache Type #7 for the day.

Attended and had a great time chatting with fellow cachers and lugging buckets of water up to the tops of dunes to water the trees planted by others. (late logging as i attempt to catch up ona pile of unlogged caches)
NZ Mega road trip.

TFTC!
with Tan1aNZ

Great way to add to the local community!

Thanks for this!

Caching with Team FARKIS this Mega weekend.

Had great fun planting my first trees... May turn into a Green Thumb!! Great to see so many people helping out and doing some good for the environment! Thanks for the event ... Team Farkis

Yes

Yes

Zusammen mit PPJoe als Team *TheBros* in NZL mit dem Camper auf Tour. 6 Wochen Geocaching, Herz was willst Du mehr.
Der Cache konnte gut gefunden werden, wie man sieht werden die Dosen hier gut gewartet.
TFTC & LG aus Tirol/Austria/Europe

I was amazed by how much this group was able to achieve in such a short space of time, despite arriving a bit late I was still able to get my hands dirty... proud day to be be a geocacher. TFTC (2546)

Urch and I were on a mission today, and joined up with Kyzabra and Jinta29 to find 12 different cache types in one day (or 11 types for me, as the Tealby B Team had already found the one & only virtual in Christchurch). This was the CITO event cache that we found/attended - arriving a little earlier than needed, so we managed to find the nearby challenge cache first. With plant in hand we waited for the briefing and demo and were pleasantly surprised that it was nice and easy digging in the sandy soil. The shrub was planted, watered, and photos taken before heading off to find the other nearby cache. TFTE - a great idea for an event with many hands making light work.
(Edit to change log from a note to attended - not sure how I made that mistake!)

This entry was edited by Tealby on Thursday, 29 October 2015 at 19:27:19 UTC.

Arrived just as all the planting was finished but whiskasnz and I did get to water some of the plants. Amazing to see how much was accomplished in such a short amount of time. Proud to be a geocacher and stoked to include this cache in my 12 types for the day.

Arrived late, but during the scheduled time, to find that all the trees had been planted super efficiently. So we, Kittykatch, winged_kat and GrimRaider, picked up some rubbish around the area to do our bit. Thanks for setting this event up.

This entry was edited by edvern on Thursday, 29 October 2015 at 06:55:04 UTC.

Very disappointed that this event was listed as running from 1-4pm and finished at 3-00pm

Was informed by another geocacher by phone that it was finishing early - we were too far away to make it by 3-00pm but had intended to attend and were in the area by 3-20pm.

Attended this cito as part of our efforts to get 12 types in one day. Our planned route had us here later in the afternoon; unfortunately this meant that, while we did arrive within the allotted time, the trees had all been planted long ago - you guys are just too efficient! We felt like we should try do something to qualify for the smiley so we did make sure to pick up some of the rubbish in the area before leaving.
Thanks for the event.

25/10/201 01:00 PM
# 6411
Wow was not expecting such a great turn-out here!!

The committee talked about what we could do instead of picking up rubbish for a CITO that would be more exciting, and after much being passed round various contacts, ended up in touch with Greg from Tuhaitara! Which we're all pretty stoked about!!

650 natives planted, and looks like everyone had an absolute blast!

Mission completed in no time!!

A great idea! Really enjoyed planting and it was so nice to give something back, especially since we'd had a ball finding all those geocaches. Wonder if we will be back in a few years to find a cache under one of the trees we planted today. Found with the Dunedin Caching Crew (DCC)

Found with Skaga during the Mega.
We were on the hunt for 12 different cache types today - this is number 10.
What a great idea! I really enjoyed planting the trees and we even managed to do some CITO on our walk back to the car afterwards.
Thanks for organising this.

This entry was edited by Nic-jay on Friday, 30 October 2015 at 11:29:01 UTC.

This Cache was found during our Christchurch Mega Road Trip from the Deep South. A fabulous time was had exploring the region and discovering caches. All in all, a fun road trip with Guwapo, Granville86a, Mrs Hazzer and KiwiGeoswami, we signed the log as a Team under the name P.E.G.S to save both time and logsheet spaces. Today our challenge was to complete 12 different caches in a day, and this cache was one we wanted to completed as well so added it to the list, Enjoyed giving back to the community

My first ever CITO event. What a great idea for a way to give geocachers an opportunity to give something back to the local area. I like the whole biota node idea though I'd never heard it called that before. A similar thing is being promoted in the Tasman District where landowners are being encouraged to preserve and extend scattered remnants of native forest. Thanks for the event !

Found with Riser5 and Team MCI & had to wait for the crazy runner Riser5

After a mad rush to complete all the different cache types in town, it was another mad rush out to gz for the CITO. We arrived in perfect time for the watering part, and I rose up to the challenge to give the CO a piggy back - I think he did not trust me though! Great fun, thank you for organising a CITO a bit out of the ordinary!!!

*New Zealand Mega 2015*
We collected these caches either as part of a group assault during the Mega or just Mr & Mrs Bee whilst traveling around with Muggle John seeing the sights of your fine countryside.

Group assaults occured with the Aussie invasion of Travellinbees, Locus Cache, Paris Laura, Team Jacob, SnapHappy, Tomboy711, TR!, and two ring ins New Zealanders Fuzzy Fruit, & FiremanSam

We jet boated, walked up hills, sat in sulphur pools, walked through ruined cities, botanical gardens and general beautiful countryside.

We have thoroughly enoyed our short holiday over here on the South Island and we based ourselves in the CBD, Adelaide and Christchurch are sister cities and it was surreal to be part of that.

We climbed fences, crossed rivers, climbed tree's and hopped around like gooses, we collected many smilies while on this trip and we collected many new friends.

Geocaching has given us many pleasures and this cache was one of them.
TFTC
Travellinbees
Sth Australia

What a great event this was. Something very different and the great vision of what we had accomplished warmed our hearts. We planted a Kophi tree which I believe is a Maori word for yellow. The birds love the nectar of these trees. Thank you TheWanglers for coming up with this great idea for this event. It brought back memories of Arbor Day my first year at school where each of us little students planted a tree. Cheers [^][^]

#2293
What a fantastic CITO event this was. Geotooter and I did our bit and planted a number of trees. I really enjoyed myself and thought this was a brilliant idea. Well done Mega Committee!

Enjoyed being part of the big turnout

What a great alternative to picking up rubbish. Will have to come back in a couple of years to see how it is going and to grab some new caches that will be placed under theses trees.

What a great idea and I feel like I have now left my official mark in New Zealand. We came, we planted a few trees and we left feeling that bit more accomplished for the day. Thankyou to the organisers, and hopefully I can come back one day and see what the area looks like after todays visit.

This was a great event. It was a really novel and rewarding experience to help plant out an area rather than pick up rubbish in some suburban park. The guy who we were planting for was knowledgeable, personable and passionate, not to mention appreciative which just added to the experience. I teamed up with a local Geocacher and we managed to plant more than a dozen plants of varying sizes. My two sons also made sure they contributed as well. The only downer was managing to get a clump of dirt in my eye. Thanks for providing this unique take on a CITO event.

The Christchurch mega took us (=tanjuli with husband, vipema, Veke68 & Katsukka) to NZ. Had a great time and found a lot of caches + saw so many interesting/beautiful places.

I like CITOs and really enjoyed this one!

Thank you!!!!

Had a fantastic time planting a tree on one of the mounds - means I will have to come back and check how it is going!! Thanks for organising.

Found with Chosen1978, Mrs Hazzer and Kiwigeoswami and Guwapo as team PEGS during CHCH Mega. A required challenge cache as part of our 12 caches in a day. We arrived at GZ and with all the other cachers we grabbed some trees and bags and then headed to the area for planting. Trees planted and watered, Lets hope they grow and beautify the area.

Came down to Christchurch for the 2015 MEGA with a group of caching buddies for the weekend. My first MEGA, and it was fantastic- loved every minute, the caching, the events, meeting other like-minded crazies (sorry, I mean cachers!!!). Our group found 283 caches throughout the course of the of the weekend, so apologies for the cut and paste logs- but it's going to take me hours to log them all!!!! All logs were signed as SEAC (South East Auckland Crew), to reflect out home caching base!
HUGE thanks to all involved in putting on the MEGA event, and also to all of the Chch CO's for the effort gone to in their hides- we found some awesome caches, including fantastic hides, and cleverly done camo.... well done Christchurch, you're an awesome bunch!

My first CITO, and was cool to be a part of it... although when we got there, all was pretty much done! I got to water some baby trees though!!! Thanks for organising!

Dropped in for some tree planting along with the rest of Team FARKIS. TFTC!!!

Found it with Team FIN [janahola, kapeka, laalaa & temyllyl]

We had fun with caching few weeks here in New Zealand. Lots of geocaches and many sort of them too. We saw awesome places, weather was pretty good all the time and people were friendly and polite. Caches were pretty similar like in our home country. Of course there were some exeptions. Nice and really scenary country!

Greetings from Finland

#1284
This was one of many caches found while over here to attend the Christchurch Mega Event. Just took some time to log it. Found ourselves in the middle of it without really trying. An original idea for a CITO-planting trees & then watering them. TFTC.

[green]Find #7235[/green]...

Found this whilst visiting your beautiful country...

Attended with Tomboy 711... A beautiful day to be out and about in this beautiful area with a bunch of like minded people... Fantastic to see so many familiar faces, some I haven't seen for quite a while and great to meet so many new teams...

Thanks for organising this event for our enjoyment TheWanglers...
- P

We flew over 20500 kilometers to get to New Zealand. [^] There in Queenstown we started our magnificent and unforgettable journey along the whole NZ. First we drove through south island and then the north island to Auckland. Altogether over 3000 kilometers by car and so many glorious and beautiful views, animals and plants we saw. [^] We fell in love with the country for life. Unfortunately we had only three weeks to spend for our holidays, but we really hope, we’ll be back.

After coming down the hill with the Christchurch Gondola, we drove straight here. While we knew this CITO had started at one o'clock, but we were there about half an hour later, we thought we would be fairly in time. But when we arrived, we saw that here already were a lot of trees planted. Fortunately much was still to do there and we rushed in to work. We dig many holes, planted many trees into those, carried water to trees and so did many, very many other cachers too. Soon were the hills full of planted and watered trees. This CITO was really fun, great and totally top idea! [^] Thanks for the cache and very many greetings from Finland.

We made our way here next up, a little late but still just before the event finish time, and were excited to see all of the plants already planted! We pulled up, and went for a walk to grab some of the local rubbish, before heading off back on the road for a few more caches for today [^]



TFTC TheWanglers



Gaz'n'Kab

Brilliant idea, Hats off to the Mega Committee for making this an original concept instead of rubbish collection... Bravo. [^]

I arrived with a tribe of other Aussies,a little too early for the event to kick off. So, we detoured to the nearby trad then came back just in time to etch our names in the log, collect our greenery and tune in to the Rangers speech. He was very pleased to have us on hand it would seem...

All revved up, we took to the shovels and before we knew it, the sandy hill was flush with green. Pretty cool and done in no time at all. We pulled out after about half an hour as more hunters rolled up to do their bit.

A very satisfying CITO event so thanks again for making it something different.

Cheers Wranglers and the Mega Committee. A job well done.

More than 21 years have passed since my first visit to New Zealand. In 1994, I was only 12 days here, but this time I wanted to see the country a little more. Then I realized there would be a MEGA-Event in Christchurch at Labour-Weekend. I started my trip a day earlier and was happy to attend my first MEGA outside of Germany. I got much help from the cachers there, so I could visit the different event places without using the bus or a taxi. Later on the tour with my group, I could only look at the caches nearby.

Together with Hinemoana I arrived on the scene just for the watering of the plants. It was my second time visiting such a kind of CITO. Last year I helped cutting down branches on some old apple trees. Later another cacher helped me to go to the event place for the MEGA.

Pacmess

#1811

FIN (laalaa, janahola, temyllyl, kapeka) holiday in New Zealand. Wonderful time and we had fun. Wonderful idea to cito. I enjoyed this event.
Greetings from Finland.
Thanks for the cito.

Tenth day on our geo-roadtrip in New Zealand, and caching our way towards south. Logged using our group nickname FIN with janahola, laalaa and kapeka. We made it to Christchurch, so now it is time to do some caching! Found also some other Finns from here!

Attended this event with Team FARKIS (fmz, alpenmilch80, rosmar, kiwi.bug, indianajill, slieschke). Great event that was well attended TFTC.

On a geoholiday road tripping to Christchurch MEGA and around beautiful New Zealand. Our four people group (temyllyl, laalaa, kapeka and myself) from Finland used group tag FIN to log the caches.

On a Mega weekend caching around Christchurch area. Lots of fun and nice places with good caches. This was first time for me on a cito without collecting trash. We had good time planting trees!

Welcome to MEGA Finland in 5-7 august 2016!

This was a great day and fantastic slant on the CITO... thanks for a great event and a lot of fun.

Great to see so many people helping. We will come back one day and see how well it is going.

Well done CHCH Mega Committee to organise this worthwhile alternative to the 'traditional' activity of picking up rubbish, an equally great way to put something back to the community. Planting was in full swing when we arrived, but there was still lots to do so it was out with the spade, and dig in. An event obviously well enjoyed by all, it was great fun.

Thumbs up from me, TFTE

Great event, great idea, well worthwhile! I lost count of the number of trees I planted. I'll have to check back at this site to see this area develop. Attended with Haydnseek.

Attending the MEGA and today was the day to find 11 types and the rest of the Lab Caches.
My previous two caches, a Mystery and a WebCam. Raced back out here from Ilam - running late.
All the trees had been planted magnificently. Just time to grab a bucket or three of water to add my bit to the big group effort.
Cool idea for a CITO.
Type #10 - tick. Now off to find an earth cache.
TFTE

This was the best CITO ever. What a great idea instead of collecting rubbish. Would love to revisit in 5 years and see how it looks. . Thank you TheWanglers for hosting this event.

Sunday 25 October 2015: Yes, we were doing "as many types as you can in one day".
Managed 11 plus a "lab cache".

#9 CITO

We were making a second visit to the webcam and managed to get a photo at 1.56 pm, but Hinemoana told us that the CITO was going to finish an hour earlier than the programme said, so panic! We rushed north to get to Woodend, arriving to find the planting just finishing but watering still to be done. (Not so happy for those people who arrived after 3pm to help but found the logbook gone.)

The Trust people there were so impressed that we had come from far and wide and were there watering in Woodend! Seems the Trust is highly organised - one man I chatted to said they manage a 90% success rate with plantings, because they rope in school groups to weed and water the trees regularly. I'm sure the Chch cachers will be having annual CITOs to take care of 'our patch' too A great idea for a CITO event

Then off to see Woodend Beach (and the cache there), oh what a horrid cold wind, and now to find the final of that multi...

We arrived in time to plant a few trees and water them. Nice to see something being put back into the community. Attended with the DCC

Day three of the ChCh Mega weekend and today's goal was to make finds on as many different cache types in 24hrs... this was another type for the day.
Couldn't leave this one un-found so stopped by for a quick find... onto the net one.
We got to GZ and the planting was all completed, so we were asked to water newly planted trees...

Signed as 'SEAC' South East Auckland Crew to save logbook space and time.

TFTC.

Long time dream came true and we could visit New Zealand. NZ Mega was our maingoal and we had time to find others too. We travelled together with Veke68, Katsukka and tanjuli (+husband) and had great time. First time in a cito like this, great idea. We have no idea what kind of tree we planted.

Thanks for the cache.

Greetings from Finland.

This was the eleventh day of my fifteen day trip to go to the Christchurch Mega. After doing some caching, I came here a little late, but still helped with the planting. I had to be reminded, "Green side up," but other than that it was smooth sailing. TFTE.

Mega trip to NZ with vipema, Veke68 and Katsukka, day 1. I loved this event! I planted something to New Zealand, how cool!

Thanks for the fun and greetings from Finland.

After racing around Christchurch central for most of the day we finally reached this CITO but the fun was nearly all over. We did manage to help water some trees before being sent away by a very happy ranger!! Glad we could do our bit to help.

parislaura, Team jacob and I flew to New Zealand for the 2015 Mega.
Never having been out of Australia before, this was a very exciting trip for me
What a wonderful thing is a Mega! Seeing fellow geocachers with their flags on driving around town, tooting at those who are at caches and meeting many new people

Today I had the honour and pleasure of caching with MorganEd, ADV and Lady of Dreams in their home country.
As much as I adore my Aussie caching friends, it's nice to catch up again with caching friends from overseas (MorganEd) and to meet and make new caching friends (ADV and Lady of Dreams), too.
Today's tally was only 26 cache finds which included 10 lab caches but it was a lovely day as we set out to get 12 cache types in the day and we achieved this goal

We arrived with ADV's shovel and tools in hand and we planted and watered several trees
The area should look amazing in a year or wo

TFTE TheWanglers

Great a event thanks.

Out and about with a crew from Dunedin up for the mega.

Should be there but maybe a little late.

We came, we saw, we planted. Thanks for organising this rewarding CITO.


This entry was edited by 2wombles on Sunday, 25 October 2015 at 04:38:51 UTC.

Uh a good sort of dirty.

came along signed a tree and planted a log, wait no other way round!!

Awesome to be able to plant. Though my green fingers aren't as fruitful as others ..signed the log. Thanks for bringing me here to this place, TFTC CHCH MEGA TEAM, from TeamMcI, 25 October 2015 13:55, cache number #1013!

We came, we saw, we planted and we went.

Found on 25 October 2015 14:00 by the , this is our geocache found. Logged from a Samsung Galaxy S6

This is the first time I've ever done a tree planting CITO. Such a great concept, and heaps of fun too! Cheers for organising this event, and especially for the six months put in beforehand

Another good idea. I'll have to come back in a few years and see how 'my trees' are progressing.
TFTE

Done with Team Naki, looks fantastic well done. This one is a wrap. Mission accomplished TFTC! Blenheim Bear
This log posted with CacheSense for Android!

I got the impression that the Ranger was somewhat amazed at the great turnout of geocachers. The 500 seedlings he had brought in for us to plant were soon all in the ground, protected and watered and we were done and dusted in 90 minutes. This sort of CITO certainly gets a Green Thumbs Up from me. It was a very enjoyable. time. Thanks CHCH MEGA TEAM for organising it.

Great way to spend an hour or 2, very worthwhile project.

Great idea. Watered the trees. It will look even better in a few years

This entry was edited by Haithi.Kiwi on Sunday, 25 October 2015 at 08:12:49 UTC.

Wahoo. Great idea. Loved helping out here. Look forward to helping maintain the area with future citos.

Types in a day is the mission today. Teamed up with Capperz and nightowl19. Signed logs primarily as GCN to save room. Thanks to all the cache owners and event organisers. TFTC. This finished our types for the day, great to be involved in planting and protecting these trees.

This was so awesome. I really enjoyed putting the wee shelters around the trees. The 650 plants were already planted. They just needed shelter and water.
The other neat thing was this was my eight cache type for the day.
I look forward to taking care of this area in the future.

This entry was edited by Nosynel on Sunday, 25 October 2015 at 03:50:46 UTC.

Cheers all, was great to do a bit for this beautiful country

What a great idea! and such fun to participate in, so many people pitching in together. It will be interesting to see the area develop over the years to come - maybe some regular cleanup visits in the future??? TFTE

I wanted to give this a fav- but it doesn't let me!! BEST CITO I've attended- fantastic idea- thanks for organizing it- and very pleased to hear that the intention is for us to come back from time to time and look after it. What a great team we were

Really enjoyed doing my bit by planting a few native trees. Thanks for this opportunity.

TFTC

[green] Out caching with Stardust on our super awesome 12 cache types in a day mission. Planted a number of trees watered a heap and put up protective tingies. Awesome little event, and it went surprisingly fast! Nice to do one that is not a rubbish clean up . CITO: Done!

This entry was edited by the Seagnoid on Sunday, 25 October 2015 at 15:56:05 UTC.

Attended the planting. Stayed for the hour and planted heaps of trees (planted, wrapped and watered) - daughter did 10 alone. Was heaps of fun. Shame others only did one tree and left - not exactly the way it is meant to work. Oh well, we did our part. Thanks so much for organising.

A well organised plant of trees. We contributed to planting some and placing the protective plastic around lots of them.

This was my first CITO event and even muggle hubby was keen to join in. Great to do our bit for conservation and earn the smiley at the same time. Thanks for organising it.

Great idea for a CITO. Fantastic job on the tree planting.

Fantastic fantastic...did i say fantastic?! Joined by Mrs TG and my wee dudes....whom i havent seen much this weekend. Awesome to give back. The Trust is even going to put a sign up to label the area. Blank sand dunes turned into a tree'd woodland in an hour....

Like the others we planted a few and watered them all. Hope they grow. Thanks for an unusual event.

This was one of our 11 in a day TFTC What a brilliant idea

Glad that we were on time and got some trees to plant! Hope they all survive - will be back from time to time to check on them. Great idea for a CITO, no gloves required! Thanks for organising it.

Found with Fire-mansam and The Tri-Nations bulk mega event. At the 2015 mega. Good fun

Out for the day as part of our Mega collecting 12 kinds in a day.
Feeling alive listening to the birds and collecting caches and placing a few hides.
Thanks for the hide

Great idea for a CITO, nice variety of plants and great job to the planters and waterers. TFTE

What a great idea for a CITO. I really enjoyed helping out with the planting today. Will be great to come back and see them grow bigger.

We arrived late but did our bit. Thanks for the cache