Otawa Series #3 Ruru (Bay of Plenty) Waitao, North Island, New Zealand
By HambrookHunters on 06-Sep-15. Waypoint GC64M76

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 third find of the day. Another quick and easy one. TFTC

Díky za keš

Got the afternoon of 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. This find didn’t take too long however the original log is sakes and I was unable to collect any numbers. Signed dry replacement log. Turned out the caches are close to the track unless otherwise specified. On to No 4. Thanks for the exercise and smileys.

Otawa Series #3 Ruru (Bay of Plenty) was transferred from HambrookHunters to user kimbathelion

I was a little to trusting of my gps for this one. Once I started looking further afield the cache was an easy find. Thanks

Nice easy find. Log very damp.
We have replaced plastic bag and put dry bit of paper in it.

Out for the day with Kimbathelion. Found this one, but the log was very wet.

Having fun with the GPS but eventually we found the hint object & did some more looking. Found it but sadly the log was very wet. 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. A lovely walk through the bush and caches as a bonus! Looking for this one in the seemingly obvious place but a wee walk further on, an about-turn and there it was...seen from the track. 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.

After a few easy finds, we may have got a little over confident. this one took us quite a while and it wasn't till we checked back over some of the previous logs we realized we had been looking in the wrong place. once we changed search locations it was a quick grab. tftc

#11,548
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.
This was almost a DNF as had all but given up on it before spotting it using the head torch, phew! Was spending most of my time search off track on the right hand side when I didn’t even need to leave the track!

Was a long way between this and that last, found easily once we looked on the correct side of the track. TFTC

It was a long walk to this cache from Otawa #2. We had the trail to ourselves and were able to hear lots of birds in the bush. Another quick find with the detailed 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.
It was a very big gap between caches and we discussed how we should have brought more caches to fill some gaps, but we are never organised enough for that and it would be mean having to come back up here again.
No sign of McJ yet, but she's not far away now.
Thanks for bringing me here.
TFTC.


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

Found by the hint about eight metres. 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

On this mission today with TNXPRO and McJandals. A lovely sunny morning after a day of rain. Many Thanks for this series and for eventually bringing me here. Cheers

Found with Tparty, ABBA1026 and GHopa.
Straightforward to find.

This was a while in the planning, and the day finally arrived when four of us (GHopa, Abba1026, SuMars41 & Tparty) took to the hills for the 10 km walk around the Otawa Reserve. The weather had turned for the better today, and it was a pleasant stroll around the track. We were in no hurry, and took the time to enjoy the scenery. A car had been parked at the Manoeka Road end, and thanks to a friendly muggle, we got dropped off at the Te Puke Quarry end. This was a good move in hindsight, as it eliminated a fair bit of steep climbing had we gone the other way. We were unable to find #1, even though we knew it had been moved. It's hiding place eluded us, but it will not be a hardship to return to this one at a later date. We were also unable to find #5. Recent logs suggested that GZ had changed a little since the original placement. Despite armed with this knowledge, and a fair bit of time spent searching, we were still unable to turn it up. We will return sometime in the future. We made sure that the bonus numbers were collected along the way, but we walked past it in the end, and decided not to go back to retrieve it. This can wait for a later time when we return to pick up the remainder of the series. Many thanks to HambrookHunters for making the effort to lay out the trail. It's a great challenge and well worth the effort. We had little difficulty finding the containers using the hints provided. A couple of logbooks are damp but still able to be used. A very enjoyable walk with a great group of friends. TFTC

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. No Ruru's here, but a Kereru swooping past instead, go figure. Initially looking on the wrong side of the track, but turned around and spotted the correct hiding spot, thanks

A long haul to get here but a quick find in good condition. TFTC.

Went for a run up to the trig with no intention of geocaching but as I came down and saw the big rock I though, hmm I'll bet there's a geocache here, had no coverage so just had a look around and low and behold found something. Got back home and went to log it and and realised it's not the actual geocache, although there is the actual one somewhere in that location lol.

This one took us a wee while but eventually got there TFTC

Went for walk to try and pick up some of theses caches .This is the only one I could find. Will have to try again one day. Great view from GL. TFTC

After a lively walk through from #2 we were disappointed to see the last log was a DNF. So we widened our search and soon the cache was in our hands TFTC

Weirdly we found something but do not think it is the correct cache. Could not find at the coordinates but found one nearby / around the corner under a boulder. Was a geocache container but unsure if we had the right one. Possibly moved by a muggler? Actually it appears we found someones decoy? Wrong container. Someone will be laughing at my log out there! Our lack of success is also because we had no clue access from the GPS. And because we are fairly useless at looking and impatient.

Livee_nz found this one! It took us quite some time comparing to the other two. A beautiful track to walk! Now it's time to find the bonus. Tftc

Had to search a bit more for this one. Livee ended up finding it first (before me and DotjeNL). Another good cache on this great bush walk

Too busy talking we walked right past, and had to back track a little. My turn to get my hands on this one first, yay. Glad for a rest stop before we head to number 4. Tftc

Good to tick another off today. Reminiscing about the times we ran through here to and from the guide camp. Thanks for the placement Hambrookhunters

Finally got it gps had me 9 meters out and the phone 6.5 but great clue soon had me on track and the log signed thanks for a great cache and nice hide

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.

This one had me going for a while until I read one of the previous logs which mentioned that there were several possible locations. I moved to one of the others and soon had it in hand.

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.

#3 series, was abit more tricky, making us laugh as we looked around, there are a few sawn logs, but once again mum was sitting on this one!

Took a bit of searching as there are several sawn logs, but was good to have a rest anyway. All in good order. 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. The walk between No2 and No3 gets a bit steeper, but now the landscape has changed with more semi-tropical plants such as the Nikau palms growing here in abundance I was surprised to see them I wasn't sure if they grew this far South but obviously they do!
This cache was a bit harder to find as we discovered more than one area that fitted the hint, and the GPS wasn't as accurate under the trees. But after about 5 minutes sveppi came up with the goods (I still haven't go my mojo!)

Took a little longer to spot this one on the way up but soon found after widening the search area. Great bush walk and so far not too steep. TFTC

Last one for the day - will get Numbers 1 and 2 from the other end, as the next one is 1.7 km away and we still have to walk back to the car at the lodge yet. Hind sight says we should have left a car at one end. Ended up walking over several km and it was a wonderful day. Many thanks for the series, and will be back for the other two. Good hints and one of the best Bonus caches I have done. Still have a smile on my face

Well I feel like I have had a good walk and it is time to turn around and head back. I will do number two another day. Really enjoyed today Thanks again for getting us out here TFTC

This entry was edited by NZFlossy on Monday, 12 October 2015 at 02:16:19 UTC.

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.

10.15pm - (FTF) with Squirrel - Glad of hint in dark and soon had cache, air temperature starting to drop now. SLTFTC

{FTF} On the hunt with Gap (of Fap and Gap).

Day 38 of a hopeful 50-day caching streak...

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 geocaching license? (Challenge: find 20 caches on the day of publishing)... Naturally, I was keen to go, but wanted to see who else might be in the area 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 walk...

Another long walk between caches... We arrived at a track spur and were determined to choose the right path this time... The track climbed steadily, but these sections were regularly broken by flat ground. It was on one of these plateau that we found ground zone. Our gps put us in the general area, but keen eyes in the darkness soon had this one sorted. TFTC.

We were able to get help on this one from Gap & Nutcase but with a phone GPS kicking in and some fresh foot prints we soon had the little guy in hand. Visit my Otawa #9 Tui GC64MCP link for the full experience

This entry was edited by Philip.Perry on Sunday, 11 October 2015 at 03:08:26 UTC.

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