"Willow or Knot"(North Otago) Kurow, South Island, New Zealand
By hill55 on 01-Jan-16. Waypoint GC691BH

Cache area is overgrown

DNF. M and Beeba had a good look but found nothing. M even tried climbing the tree as we are a bit vertically challenged and we were not sure where head height might be. I looked after the bikes..

Had a jolly good hunt but no luck today. Evidence of a good high flood (head height even) so maybe it's floated away

Same as the previous person, big dip and lots of gorse. Not for me!

Not fighting gorse for this one

Found

Found the cache. Didn't have pen with me though. Tftc

Good find

A few thorns to get through

Has fallen on the ground but put back up

Bit of a bushwack, but easy find. Tftc

Yay

Think I went the hard prickly way. But I got it.

On the way back from a weekend away. Mrs VDH56 soon had this one in hand.

On our way home, stopped for this cache, must be a weekend of Prickles! Found no problems. TFTC

On a weekend to danseys pass with farmerkeith and family. Awesome caches in the area. Thanks for the cache owners for maintaining these. Had to hunt for this one. Got there in the end. Nice hide

Had to look for this one TFTC

On a geocaching adventure with busy paws in our motorhome. Staying at Glenmac farm where we parked up. Left in suzy to explore the area. Walked to this and thought how do we get to this, found a track and off we went. Lovely big tree, cache all good and log signed. Thanks for the cache hill55.

Bit challenging to get to the cache. However coconuts3 and I managed fine. TFTC

On a trip south from Tauranga. Nice to collect smiles along the way. All good here.


I am logging using the Cachly app template so please excuse generic logging along the way. It’s just my way of keeping track, but I do genuinely thank each and every one of you cache owners for taking the time and energy to place these caches. Logged with permission. Many Thanks for bringing me here. Cheers.

Quick easy find but a bit hard to get to.TFTC

Cache was a quick find once I battled gorse and hawthorn to get to it. I now remember why the word thorn is in hawthorn. Removed the food item that was in the cache

It was so so spikey, watch for lots wire hidden in long grass and tangled in branches. Might go back some day with a bag to collect rubbish too.
Black tube, had fallen so we put it back at head/chest height where we thought it belonged based on the clue.

TFTC & Happy New Year

A lot of fighting with gorse. A fun find. Thanks!

Nice easy find

Bloody mission to this one, gorse and vines galore

Found it even with the gauze bushes

Found it

Found

Third time back for this one. Yay with Kaz53

Found with Judith Richard's. Watch out for thorns and barbed wire. An adventurous find. TFTC

Well camouflaged, cool place thanks for the hide

No luck for us today

Everything wet, no real path and looks like a swamp, we couldn't get to this one today, maybe we approached from wrong direction.

Found with StreetWalkerNZ on our Waitangi weekend to Kurow and environs. After checking into our accommodation in Kurow, and having a reviving cup of tea, followed by an even more reviving coffee , we decided to find a few local caches before dinner.
We walked past GZ thinking that this cache was on the wetlands track, but realised our mistake when we walked to the Kurow wetlands #2 cache. Didn't take long to find once in the right place. TFTC.

#19288. This one was a bit further from the track that I expected. There was a faint path to follow to get to GZ (with a bit of gorse to contend with along the way). Didn't take long to find once we got to GZ. TFTC.

??

Scramble through the bushes but found it. Tftc

Initial thought was to give this a miss as it looked overgrown but then spotted a path leading towards a possible GZ. What looked OK at the start became steadily more entangled but perseverance paid off for the first find of the year. TFTC

In town for a few days so after the hill walk this morning we took a quick bike around here. This was the easier of these nearby finds but had to watch for the barbed wire along the ground and all the barberry bushes and wild roses. Found it though.

Full log to come

Love the Wetlands walk thanks for bringing us here

I had earlier arrived to stay in Kurow for a couple of nights but after falling asleep a number of times whilst trying to read my holiday book I decided that some exercise was needed. So down came the ebike from the back of the caravan and I set off on a cyclocache ride.

I had DNF'd this cache a few years but noted that others had recently found it so it was worth another visit. I discovered that the elephant tracks to the Willow were well defended by some very spikey plants. Ouch, ouch [xx(] But the cache was quickly spotted once at GZ. TFTC hill55

With an electric fence between me and the cache coordinates I wasn't willing to make a serious attempt to find it!

An enjoyable weekend enjoying the scenic McKenzie area, and finding some great caches along the way. On the bike for a few of the A2O trails. Perfect day for a ride. TFTC

??

??

After a quick stroll around town, I decided to head towards this cache. There were two shops near here, full of antiques. And there was a garage with an old timer car just near here. Sadly, the shops I wanted to browse through were never open in the time we were in town. Wonder whether the owners had gone away ...

I knew we would be coming along this trail the next morning when we resumed our A2O. However, the others were not interested in caching, so I thought it better to try pick up this cache now while there was no hurry.

After a bit of checking out the area, I found a way down towards the willow and then made the find. Not really that easy to access GZ properly, but by carefully picking my way through and around the undergrowth I got there.

Had nearly given up, TFTC found with heyhaynz

In Kurow for the long weekend. After a day trip to Otemetata it was back for something to eat and a bit of night caching. Pub across the road do great burgers! Afterwards was a quick stroll and soon had this one in hand. Wasn't fussed going into the long grass in the dark tho TFTC

Decided to make a trip to Duntroon over the Dansey Pass. Lots of logs to find and sign and this one was one of them. Day and it begins again. TFTC

Unlike last time, the track was open today.
Pulled up and parked the ute, mentally prepared myself for what was to come. Found this was only a short distancve away and breathed a sigh of relief!.
Thanks
erninz

replaced cache with larger container

GPS not accurate. No public space within 12 m.

Luckily found the cache on the ground so we replaced as best as we could . TFTC

Yebo hill55

We are on the southern island for business and leisure and that leisure part includes geocaching, of course

Found well but unable to sign, as said before it’s soaked soaked soaked

Tftc

Very difficult to find!

Found but this cache needs serious attention from the cache owner. The log is a sloppy wet mess at the moment

Log is completely soaked and unable to be written on

Could not find it had no hints.

??

Hard to find paper is hard to write on a bit wet

Didn't spend much time searching, what with thorns and barbed wire to contend with who really wants to bother searching? Certainly not me.[xx(]

Nicely hidden.TFTC

Needs maintenance, the log is quite wet

Bit of ducking, diving and blood loss involved here. OUCH! Log is damp and only just able to sign. TFTC

Found this one while on a holiday from our home in Whangamata . The log is to wet to sign I just managed to sign it. TFTC

Too many thorns.

Quick find.

Lots of potential spots but no luck

on the ground, hope we returned to correct spot

A lovely clear winters day to go caching along the trail. TFTC

quick find on a -1 morning walk. - Bitsprayer

Nice Day for a Bike Ride and a few finds. TFTC

Found while on a weekend leave pass with Karma Reprint, heading up and down the Waitaki Valley with a few bike rides and wanders on the way. The pie a distant memory (mmm, time for another), KR took the easy way and soon had it in hand. Cheers

KM took the high road and I took the low road, and I was at cacheland before him, even though it was 30m further to walk. Each way. Cheers.

Off on a caching weekend with Kiwi Moose, to the Waitaki and slightly beyond. Great weather, great place to be, great company, and more than a few little plastic boxes.

Thanks to all of the CO's for the hides. Cheers.

Set out on maintenance run this morning, Thought it was such a good day a walk was called for.
Arrived and parked up, only to geeted by sign that says the track is closed due to duck shooting.
erninz

Took abit to find. Nice day after abit of overnight rain.

Scrambled down when could have taken an easy route not to worry TFTC

TFTC, lovely wee spot on a hot day

Found with juju54 and bworm08 after lunch in kurow TFTC

Found with JuJu54 and Ralph06 after lunch in Kurow TFTC

Found with Ralf06 & Bworm08 today after lunch at Kurow & time to find a quick cache or two. Nice hide TFTC

Forgot to log this cache. Found it easily while the boat trailer was getting a warrant. Had to duck while some A2O people was cycling past on the track. TFTC

Sunday drive/bike/walk around the lower waitaki to get some more smiles

time to stretch the legs for the next 3 seeing as though they were quite close together, even then I over shot this one and had to grab it on my return tftc

We started on our cycle trip from Kurow to Duntroon with the idea of stopping for some of the caches along the way. We had barely got underway when we realised that we had overshot this one so back we went.

Have been planning to do this section of the Alps to Ocean since it was finally all off-road - arranged two cars so we could go one way and today was the day. Only a few caches allowed of course. A cup of tea at the picnic table , then, 35 m away, one to mark the start of the trail...

Stopped here on a day drive to explore the region and find a few caches. I had hoped to do some biking along the trail today but it was very windy and had started to rain so I flagged that idea and just went for caches within easy walking range. Found this one after just a few minutes, nicely hidden. Signed log , TFTC

Nice to meet another geocacher doing the Alps2Ocean trail. Although I found the two are mutually exclusive if you want to properly do them. I had enjoyed the geocaching on walks so much yesterday that I changed my plans to have an extra day in Kurow so that I could be a geocacher proper today. Thanks for placing this cache.

Tftc.

A straightforward find while riding the Alps to Ocean cycle trail.
Thank you hill55 for this cache.

Spent some time looking for this without success - could not get my bike very close to this one and it is not the most pleasant place to search.

Easy find. Watch the broken glass though.

OK

Grabbed these three on foot from Kurow.

I was on my way to Kurow to sign off a few caches on the way to and in and around the township. They are nasty, nasty thorns.

Cheers for the cache.

Decided to walk this bit of the track and pick up these last 3 caches. TFTC

Whew . Beginning to think we had no chance this weekend
Amateurs

Another willow tree and another new cache. Container nicely hidden in its resting spot. Now off for an ice cream and a ride back to the car. TFTC