MARAETAI HALL Auckland, North Island, New Zealand
By stevecoxnz on 09-Oct-15. Waypoint GC64THR

I have made a new cache that is very different from the original but in the same place so it is a new challenge.

It will be in place this weekend 11-09-22.

Construction of replacement cache is underway. Hopefully not too far away.

The tree has been trimmed and cache hide needs rethinking. Will update asap.

The tree has been blown over but cache is still accessible with care.

Hmmm several false starts but got there in the end. Big slugger guarding cache

Replced log paper.

We can see this one from home!

Hi Steve. The physical log needs a fresh piece of paper

Now this one was a bit tricky as there were muggles right next door but they looked like they were going to be leaving soon so we just waited it out by visiting the next cache then returning when the coast was clear. Found the decoy before the real deal

Was very sneaky!

Tftgc quick find for the kids

Yay!

I found the first clue but was looking around and still could not fine we searched every nook and cranny and did not find it.

Ha nice trick

Tricky!

Cheeky

Loved it!

alert level 2.....lets play again

Due to the covid 19 situation I will be disabling all my caches until we no longer have to self isolate. Anyone logging one after this date will have the log deleted. Stay safe.

I'm sure like everyone we fell for all the right tricks but in the end we persevered and found the cache. Nice idea. By now Albert the Geohound was getting hot and tired and so we decided to call it a day before he got stressed. Thanks for the cache - very pretty local hall and nice to visit. All good here.

After 4 years the hiding place has seen better times but is still usable. Replaced log. Re hide with care.

Thanks seem easy

Here today with a new cacher ....but the cache was all in bits ...taken apart ....and needs attention from C.O.
Cheers!

Find number 6004. Thought I could see this one as I approached GZ but this was not the log. After signing I then talked to a muggle about the tree. Explained what I was doing in the area. He had heard of geocaching as he knew the CO. Thank you for the placement.

Tftc! Had us fooled for a minute!

We’re on to you, Steve! Oh, maybe not... Nice one! Fell for it hard, just like all the peaches! TFTC!

Good cache - meow (found a while ago with my mum Raven_eyes)

Beautiful Sunday in the area. And nice hide here. Found as per hint. TFTC

We'd pick the theme of these caches now. So no trouble

??

Two old guys working together in shed next door. Paid no attention to me. Too busy doing guy stuff. Haha nice hide. Tftc

A lovely sunny winter's day spent caching around Maraetai. Looks like someone has crashed into the fence around the hall. We made our way past the pile of broken panels and the muddy tyre marks to somewhere that fitted the hint. We thought we had made a quick find of the nice camo, but that was only step one. It took quite a bit longer until we were able to sign the well hidden log. TFTC.

This was a bit tricky but stuck to the task and finally got there. Tftc

After finishing up work down Manakau way, I decided to take the scenic route back home this afternoon. The worst of the weather seems to have passed, now. Still a cold wind but the sun is finally out again.I parked up in the Hall car park and made the short walk around to what I though was GZ. Once there I quickly realised that I was on the wrong side of the fence. Once on the right side of the equation I quickly found the first part of the cache. The second part eluded me for some time. I did have the right idea, initially, but just didn't look hard enough. A more careful examination, some minutes later, meant that I came up with the prize on the second pass. I don't usually enjoy this sort of hide, but I was, actually, rather chuffed to sign off on this one. Nicely done. Favourite point applied. Cheers for the cache placement!

Found this, very cheeky

Tinytree had a party here a few months ago but didn't get to the cache due lots of kids around. This time all quiet and found this nicely hidden cache quickly - great camo. TFTC.

Anniversary weekend saw us head to Omana for a few days of camping and caching with KirsTim, vistra and yorkshirekiwi83. Grabbing a few caches nearby while we were waiting for dinner, this was a great and fun hide with a bit of a twist! Very well done, thanks for the hide.

Took a drive out to visit yorkshirekiwi83, Vamber and Kirstim who were out camping at Omana for the long weekend. We set off for a short drive around Maraetai to grab a few caches before dinner. Thought I'd found this one, but turns out I had to search some more, but soon had the cache in hand. Clever hide this one, favourite point added! TFTC!

We were with Vamber, YK83 & Vistra waiting for our fish & chips before heading off to an event. Vistra had already found the first part by the time we rolled up, and then shortly after we found the cache. Thanks for the clever hide

KirsTim, Vamber and I (signed as varieties of KKKTS) were in the area for the the weekend camping at Omana, today we were joined by Vistra. Another nice find and well crafted, enjoyed finding this one

Quick find but only with some encouragement from the CO!! Lovely to meet him (and his grandson). We had a nice chat but then it got too dark and we need to collect mini geokid from Magic!! SL TFTC

Lots of highly rated caches over here but as the kids were not up for caching I could only search for a couple. This one's coordinates are spot on but I was a bit tentative to stray from the path in case I was on private property. An onlooker (i.e. the C.O) encouraged me on and I found it. Innovative container. FP awarded.

In the area for the Santa event at The Franklin so took the opportunity to find some caches.

Very cool cache. Not sure how you made it fit so well!!

Definitely worth a favourite point!

Out with keylev...cragger stayed in the car .

Thanks for the cache.

I found the first part of the cache fairly quickly, dislodging a few beetles in the process. After reading the message, it took no time to find the 2nd part of the cache and the log. A fun cache to find on a sunny winter's day. TFTC!

Quick find of both parts Nicely done. TFTC stevecoxnz.

Last time I attempted this there was a large group of car enthusiasts gathering next door in full view of the cache.

TFTC

Excitement turned to disappointment but then all turned out OK. TFTC

Last full day in Auckland before heading home to Nelson tomorrow. Decided to head out in this direction to find a few caches. Sneaky. That's all I'm going to say about this cache. Sneaky. TFTC, Biggles.

We thought we had made a quick find with this one but before we had a chance to celebrate discovered the unexpected twist so it was back to the drawing board and the search resumed.
Could it be here?....No.... How about there?...still nothing.....This looks like it....oh no it doesn't.
After a bit of head scratching we changed our way of thinking....maybe it's...could it be.... surely not....yes it is!!!
What an awesome hide, very very sneaky and a great idea. Thanks stevecoxnz for something a bit different. We often walk away from your caches with a smile on our faces and this one was no exception. Well deserving of a favourite point.

Found on the 18.01.17

Very funny, but no fooling Mr P. T4tc

Another year and the first trip for the team out and about while none of us had to work the following day. So todays little jaunt was to be up and arounf the Clevedon Maretai areas to see what we could get before sleep took hold of us. On this adventure in attenence were HKCB, iammrwalker and RWIMF. Departing Hamilton at 7pm after doing the pickups it was with high spirits and high expectations for another good caching year with plenty of miles to be covered before returning home tomorrow morning.

We hoped to get about 50 for the evening and my final taly was 57 finds along with 2 DNF's, not bad for a bunch of beginners.
What a great start, soon started to get into the swing of things and before long we were coolkng with gas.

THanks to all the cache owners whom placed the caches for us to find this evening. Am sure that we will be back again soon to continue our travels

At a recent local Geocaching event I mentioned in passing it had been a while seen we had done any night missions and maybe we could head out for a few hours one evening once the kids were tucked up in bed. Somehow that evolved into me jumping into a car with Cats&Dragons, HKCB and RWIMF at 7pm on the 29th and hopping out of the car eleven hours later at 6am on the 30th. We signed the cache logs RICH an acronym of Geocaching names. I didn’t get as many finds as the others as I crashed and fell asleep in the car for a couple of hours sometime between 3 and 4am. Thanks to all the CO’s for placing and maintaining all the geocaches we found on our trip and for my companions for making the evening so enjoyable. Got beaten to this one by RWIMF, I must be getting rusty!

I received a phone call about 2pm asking what I was doing in the evening. I said nothing, so the boys said "come caching!" So we did, leving Hamilton at 7pm to spend the evening picking up caches. This was my No16 of the evening. All logs signed RICH.

Yes, the boys were busy searching while I read the clue, so was able to go directly to the spot and immediately see what I thought was the cache. After a bit more searching the cache was in hand and we were on our way again! 10:30pm - it's an interesting time to be wondering around out here...

It's been a while since we have done a night mission, so with a few ideas thrown about we settled on heading to the Beachlands/Maraetai area for a bit of a clean out and to locate the two night caches in the area. The team consisted of RWIMF, iammrwalker, Cats&Dragons and myself (HKCB), which meant we signed the logs as RICH an accornym of our caching names.

Leavng home about 7pm we cached through the night, with the goal to reach my 7000th find, unfortunately the late night counting wasn't accurate enough which meant I was 1 short of that goal, but still 67 finds for the night wasn't a bad effort. We all had a great night, and found a handful of really good geocaches as well. A big thanks to all the CO's for the placements.

After feeding our hunger with fish and chips we popped up the road. Haha, I was fooled but not RustyNZ, then it was time to say hi over the fence to the CO and congratulate him on his great caches

Its been a fun day of caching, but more caches need to be found with rebel98, gorby, Aiden29, merlot58, supernanny and jag50.

What we thought was the cache was quickly found, hahaha, but no! the CO just wants to play with us for a little bit longer!

Luckily I had an idea, and I must have had similar thinking as to the CO, as there was the cache

Well a call was made to the CO, and he came out to meet us! lovely to meet you again, and for making all these cool caches. Thanks again for the hides.

While the rest of the team had raced off to get another cache we found our way here. Found the cache or so we thought. Not to be fooled we checked it carefully again and quickly found what we were looking for. Hung around for the others to turn up. Once they too had found it we signed in as team H.

I enjoyed the twist to this cache. Another clever cache design. Signed as Team H.

The cache owner must have a weird sardistic sense of humour.Well done and talking to the neighbours they get free entertainment watching us.
TFTC

Cool hide. Very creative,I saw the real one before i saw the fake one so i guess i was fooled?...TFTC

The neighbours thought we were praying to the hint object. We may have been on our knees but no prayer going on here. Nice quick find of the log book. Thanks

Heading out to Duders with TW, so stopped for a few drivebys on the way. These pill bottle hides seemed to be the theme for most of the day. Thanks.

This was hilarious ! What a great idea steve ! Ya had me bamboozled there for a minute !
Definitely a Favourite ! Thanks !

It was time to leave the caravan at Duders and venture out and about signinging off a few caches nearby. There is one good thing about caching in drizzling rain and that is there is no-one about to muggle you.

Cheers for the cache.

No one home next door thank goodness so able to have a quick find.

Great hide- almost caught us out.

Another great find while holidaying in the area. A good hide here.
TFTC

Things you find when you haven't got your glove with you.
I used the well known two handed chopstick retrieval, since this was insect central.
But when you see what you want..... you don't give up.
TFTC

A peachy hide, got fooled

TFTC

Ha great geocach, great find and clue, lovely guy next door watched me hunt and got a congrats when I did

Out with UncleSamNZ in Maraetai today picking up a few caches before the weather closed in, and before we were due at a friends house for dinner.

UncleSam had already found this one, but we pulled up here anyway, because he said he thought he might "let me find one" (yeah right, like THAT was his motivation!!!). So we parked, and headed in. My phone was playing up, but once we rounded the corner it was pretty obvious where it would be. UncleSam promptly got comfortable on a nearby piece of grass and proceeded to watch the entertainment.

I overlooked the hiding spot on my first pass, but the amusement of my caching companion was a bit of a giveaway, so I returned and quickly found something that looked like a stevecoxnz cache. Nope, keep looking..... and jump out of the way of the bush cockroach that emerged, disturbed from its hiding spot, to yet more amusement from UncleSam!!!! Luckily it was a quick find after that, as I had spotted something that I thought was a bit out of place, and sure enough, it just happened to be the cache!!!! Log signed and all replaced as intended. One or two muggles around, but pretty sure I avoided suspicion!!!!

Off we went before UncleSam could find more reason to laugh at me.

Another very cool cache stevecoxnz.- well done!!!! Fave point for this one!

Finding some great hides today, tftc

love the sense of humour of this find. It was certainly peachy today. TFTC.

TFTC
It was a very funny cache
Panda0505

Cool hide, a favourite point from us! Shame the fruit wasn't ripe, could've done with a treat! Tftc.

After finding 'A Plum View' I came to this neat old hall in Maraetai. I see that it was built in one day, now that is a team effort, I should know, I'm a builder too. So when I got here, I walked around the place finding the peach tree of concern. I thought the cache was quite clever, certainly matches it environment that's for sure.


After putting it away I hear a loud "Gooorby!!!" I turn around and up on the hill, I see a big smile on the face of the C.O. how are you mate, I reply and we then had a big chat on all things great and small about caching. Great to catch up with you Steve. he lives close to this cache. He had been following my logs up to now and thought I might be coming here! For once it was nice to be stalked upon!

We loved the little surprise! But after a further look at least we knew we were in the right place. Added as a favourite. TFTC.

Found by team buddy on a nice summers evening. Mrs team buddy has a broken ankle so we did a few close to the road, left a few for next time.

Son so excited as it was first one he's found! Great hunt, great hiding. Tftc.

Cool hide, TFTC

So if a old lady wandering around a hall in the hot sun isn't suspicious enough I hate to think what muggles may have thought when I started laughing loudly. A favourite vote from me. Appreciate the time and thought put into this. Husband wondered if someone called the police as they followed us up the road. Due to this we could not stop for the other cache this time.

14:02
Built in one day and still standing 90 years later! Amazing!
Not to spoil anything, I'll just mention that I've seen some similarly themed caches but the execution on this one is well above average. Well done!
While I was logging, harisree found also the cache owner and we had a short exchange of words with stevecoxnz himself

Thanks for the cache! +fav
#3609

#528
after attempting the snow white multi, we thought we will try this one as we didn't want to go back empty handed. this one was a very clever hide. and it was fun finding this one in presence of CO. we had a good time laughing out loud.. ha ha. thanx for the fun. gets a fav point from us.

There are some things in the tree, but they did not bear fruit as far as the Geocache was concerned. This was a neat hide. Definitely gets a FB. TFTC.

Great fun. Thought it was simple only for a little surprise

Loved the double challenge! Another tasty treat

TFTC. This was a good cache done by you I enjoyed this cache very much.

Great camo! and lots of fun searching for it! Tftc

Loved the camo of this cache. Made us laugh out loud, and so pleased to finally make the find. Very clever. The tree was quite peachy today, will be a bonus for searchers in a few weeks to be able to enjoy some sweet fruit as they find the cache. Found with darthcacher1 and purply. Favourite point given.

After walking the coastal track from Omana to Maraetai, headed on up to this cache. Nice camo at GZ. Had we been a few weeks later, the "fruit" may have been ready to pick and eat. TFTC.

TFTC. This was my second geocache on the same day. Great way to start geocaching. This was not hard but required a lot of thinking. Altogether it was a great cache to find

Out in Maraetai for the afternoon enjoying the sunshine and of course finding a few caches. We parked up next to the hall and headed over to where the GPS was pointing. Hint made sense and after a little bit of close investigation we had the log in hand. We always appreciate the effort geocachers put in with their hides and this one was no exception. Thanks for the fun we had with this one, awarding a favourite for your efforts, TFTC!

Another great cache by Steve. Nice little twist. You are becoming quite fruity.

Found with Mrs McMike2012 while on a Sunday afternoon walk around Maraetai ... the 1st of 5 for the day ... nobody around, so was relatively easy, once we spotted the appropriate looking green stuff ... a small surprise once we had the cache, which delayed us, but only slightly ... TN:LN:SL ... TFTC ... #1,064 for us.

Last cache for my extended lunch break.

Approached the GZ and saw what I thought was the cache...but NO....a swear word did come out of my mouth..but found the cache quickly.

Felt a little uneasy getting this cache as i was out in the open....but all good.

Gets a fav point from me....what an awesome cache.

Great hide. TFTC

Having fruit trees at home growing up has come in help today

Bring tongs