Otakaro 9: Nature Gives and Nature Takes (ChCh) Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand
By TwoSharpe on 21-Jan-16. Waypoint GC6A1P9

Time to clear out

Checked the big trees, smallers trees and could not find the cache.

We found The marble no cache

found a lone marble but no cache

A really nice walk along the Avon River with some beautiful willow trees hanging over the water. Had no trouble with the find. TFTC

After finding the right tree and reaching a bit high at first, I got this one eventually. Find #740

Easy grab.

A bit wet but a cute spot

Almost too visible from a distance; TFTC

Found

LandedAutumn Topposs and KraftyKiwi

Nice easy find. Great to back out with kraftykiwi and landed autumn. TFTC

Tftc

Found it. Thank you!

Found

Visiting Christchurch for a few days and gathering a few smileys as we go. We used to live here many moons ago, so thoroughly enjoying rambling around on our bikes. Cache is all good. TFTC

What a good way to start the day by turning a frown to a smile. Before going to school, we stopped at the location. Little cacher was guiding me, after a few errants, we stopped and he recognized the tree. He said, we already looked here, there is nothing. As I lifted hime from the ground his eyes were shining, it is here.... Yes, the CO has done a good job! We quickly signed the logbook, he was watching for kids and parents entering the nearby preschool. It was then time to head for school with a smile on the face. Both container and logbook were in good condition. Thanks for maintaining this cache!

Nice n easy grab TFTC

Mrs said to read the hint and it helped.
Caching around here and in the centre today. Tftc May have signed as MM78

cool cache

Tftc

TFTC

TFTC

Tftc

Quick find. Cool breeze today!! Tftc

With ABCDF4, eyespyben, and Gap (of Fap and Gap). Logging all finds as Team HRP (Huntly, Rotorua, Papamoa - Our hometowns)... During Covid-19 lockdown, we solved a truck load of puzzles around Christchurch - Canterbury region. No use thrashing the old grey matter for no cause - We decided we should make good on this handiwork...

There are lots of interesting trails and geoart surrounding Christchurch. What you aren’t told is how far flung some of these caches actually are. Some beforehand advice would have been great, so here are some of my notes... You’re welcome!

1. Mobile coverage is patchy, especially in those quiet, rural areas where it was most needed. Saving caches to offline might show that you are prepared and organised...
2. There are many dusty metal roads on the trails. The car will get messy, and your hair will feel like cardboard at the end of the day...
3. Suitable clothing and footwear are essential. You will climb in and out of hedges, gorse, and other rough stuff. You might get scratched, cut to shreds, and bleed a lot. It’s not advised to wear your brand new jacket on the day...
4. Take lots of food and drink. You’ll probably be head down, tail up and not realise you haven’t eaten until late afternoon. There are very few shops or gas stations out there...
5. Make sure that you secure keys and wallet and know where these are placed for easy retrieval. A full box of pens might be useful too, especially if you’re inclined to free some into the wild...
6. Know the difference between left and right, and north, south, east, and west. Turning right and heading north will not get you to South Christchurch quickly.
7. Look with girl’s eyes rather than boys eyes... Some caches haven’t been found in a while and you might have to get down on your knees to pray.
8. Always be prepared for misleading hints. This is what turns simple caches into D5/T5 hides... “Head height” could mean the cache is positioned at your toes.
9. Have a sense of humour and like the people you go caching with. It’s going to be a very long day, and you might want to hurt someone during the journey...
10. Make sure you can operate your phone/device and it doesn’t crash when you most need it...
11. Learn to cut and paste logs because you’re going to repeat this function so often when logging all of your finds.
12. Above all else, have fun and be kind...

Apologies for some very late logging... We are down to our last few hours in Christchurch, so let's squeeze a little bit more fun out of this adventure. We opted for another visit through the Red Zone... A quick pause for this one. Thanks TwoSharpe and TFTC.

After puzzle solving in the Canterbury region along with EyeSpyBen we were invited to join Fap (from Fap & Gap) and Squirrel Nutcase to a week long caching adventure in the Canterbury area. With flights and accommodation booked were off, all met up in ChCh. and many hard dusty Kms travelled and many caches found, I think the Squirrel has said it all in his brief. Many thanks for the placements and Cos for bringin us to the very pleasant areas we travelled in to your region

After puzzle solving in the Canterbury region along with ABCDF4 we were invited to join Fap (from Fap & Gap) and Squirrel Nutcase to a week long caching adventure in the Canterbury area. With flights and accommodation booked were off, all met up in ChCh. and many hard dusty Kms travelled and many caches found, I think the Squirrel has said it all in his brief. Many thanks for the placements and Cos for bringin us to the very pleasant areas we travelled in to your region

Down in Christchurch with the Squirrel, ABCDF4 and eyespyben. During Covid lockdown, we solved a load of puzzles and decided that this would be a good time to visit. We've enjoyed a few days of good weather and seeing the Canterbury countryside. The caches have been in varying states - some good, some not so much. Our time here has been a blast, and we'd like to thank all COs who have made this adventure possible. Thank you and TFTC.

Quick easy find

A fabulous spring-like day, good to be out & about, roaming around the Red Zone searching for caches. I arrived here not long before Kindergarten finished for the day, so stayed in my car for a bit to avoid the small influx of muggles.
Thanks for this cache, TwoSharpe.

TFTC quick find today

Found on a cool day down here. Enjoying the caches and the walks in the area

Up and running

New cache in

No luck. Great tree but no joy

Missing will check when Covid settles more

Geocaching day today, we follow the Avon up to the Red Zone. Our first search wasn't successful. We found a spot that looked right, but no container. WE'll try another time, thanks for taking us here!

Yep found it. My heart goes out to all the people who used to live around here. My hope is that they have now moved on to better things and places like for example the new city library which was an amazing place to visit today. TFTC .

Once easy find on a lovely walk. Sl. Tftc

Our first find ever! Looking forward to exploring more.

I'm in Christchurch with my wife who is undergoing surgery in Christchurch Hospital and what better way to take my mind on what's happening to her than to go geocaching. On Sunday I ended up doing 100 caches in a day with the help of the Thompsons Track and a few others. So the next few days the numbers are somewhat less. After scaring the bejeebers out of myself on an unsuccessful FTF hunt in the Red Zone the other night, today it is my intention to scope out the area in daylight. Already noting that there were certain areas of the Red Zone with disabled caches or ones with lots of recent DNFs, I selected this area which indicated a better hit rate.

For some reason c:geo took a while to settle down so it was indicating this feature here, then that one over there, no this one back here. I finally found the cache either here or there.

TFTC TwoSharpe

Nice easy find with an army of kids

Easy find with good hint. Lovely day for some geocaching.

Got a bit off my planned route somehow and ended up here instead. No problem with that as there's still caches to find. TFTC # 14,423

Nice day for geocaching. Quick find, TFTC!

We are currently visiting Christchurch awaiting the birth of our 5th grand child and decided to head out while the sun was shining to find a few caches. The cache was found easily enough during our walk. With our name added to the log book, we continued on our way.

Thank you TwoSharpe for having placed the cache and for maintaining it for everyone to enjoy

??

Really couldn't miss this one. It's so peaceful here now. Tftc

The coordinates are a bit out. But otherwise easy. Love these caches! Well done Two Sharpe

Nice and easy, stones don’t commonly land in trees.

TFTC .

Found this one while in ChCh for a week with my daughter.
TFTC

Easily found, was in plain sight, different container, tftc.

Noice cache

Would help of I went to the right one first haha, nice hide

Unlike our last find, this one was easily reached. TFTC

tftc

Tftf

Staying at my sisters for Christmas and New Years, the new years party had just started and I was about to have my first drink when I remembered I needed a cache for the souvenier so excused myself and took off for the closest cache which I DNF'd, the next closest was 6 kms in the opposite direction so off I went, got that one and this was close by so I figured I should be more fuel efficient and get two. Thanks for the cache TwoSharpe, Happy New Year

#8572

TFTC easy find

Out for an early Christmas Eve caching adventure. Not many people around and team Gadget is out hunting the Garden City for caches. Tftc.

#11449
Getting towards the end of my run as I have been summoned..

This one was very exposed, signed and gave it a cacher's camoflauge.. much better. Tftc

??

Should have read hint before going over fence, tftc

Another easy find. I was worried that I might have to climb the tree but thankfully after one circle around I had spotted it. TFTC.

School holidays so I took the afternoon to do some city caching with Miss 5 while her sister was on a play date. Quick easy find. Thanks for the effort that goes into placing and maintaining a cache series.

I'm a white container

I'm a white contaener

Easy

Easy find
TFTC

Was completely exposed on our arrival. Tried to cover it up a little better. Tftc

We found it, hidden in a good spot. Good fun!

We found it! Took us 10 mins or so of walking round and round haha

Found on ground. Signed log and replaced where I thought it should be. Thanks

Founds with teenz04. She walked right past it on the ground. Replaced in likely spot. TFTC

Playing leapfrog with council staff cleaning the riverside, so a bit of a wait before I could retrieve this one. Worth it for a smiley though. Wonderful day to be cycling beside the Avon.

Lovely walk on Easter Sunday. Ambling along the loop of the river we wondered what would happen to this beautiful part of the city. Hopefully it will not be covered in a new subdivision or sterile sports fields, but become parkland with maybe a pleasant café…
The container was rusty and full of water, the log sopping, the pencil unusable. So we replaced the eclipse with a pill box and the soggy log with new paper. No space for a pencil, sorry.
TFTC

I have been visiting my family in Christchurch this Easter, and we went on a lovely walk along the Avon on a Sunday afternoon. It was really fascinating to see the suburban landscape returning to wilderness - or at least, a peculiar kind of wilderness of lawns outlined by trees like so many little park squares! All but one of the caches along this route were found, with enough challenge to make them fun but not so much as to frustrate.

The coordinates in this case were a bit off, but we managed the find without overmuch trouble. Unfortunately the container was damaged and the log was waterlogged beyond recovery - Trefolia Argentea replaced both.

Thank you very much for the caches!

Found it

Read the hint!! Our GPS said 19 metres away

Quick, easy find on my river ride. Log is pretty fragile. TFTC

Still there, as described. I wonder if the DNFs had the same issue I did with the trees. Distance was jumping around all over the place. Keep insisting on taking me to the next hide object, jumping from 17m to 4m and back up to 20m. If your GPSr doesn't get you the find try S 43 30.969 E 172 39.859; it MIGHT be closer. Then again it might not!
TFTC

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Big fences and flattened ground, unsure how or if I can get in.

Large fences with signs saying surveillance cameras operating, didn't go in!

TFTC

Nice quick find. I was surprised how many people were about given the lack of houses. TFTC

Found in mint condition

Found it yay hard but this time it wasent soaked

If you don`t follow the coordinates and trust your eyes, it is an easy find... I followed the coordinates and it took ages
But I found it
TFTC

GPS is miles off, but found it after reading previous logs. tftc

GPS was a little off target, but an easy find when I was in the right spot

Tftc!gound on an evening stroll. Easy find!

Gps had us way out. Tftc

GPS was a bit wobbly. Found reasonably quickly anyways. Tffc

I spotted this as I walked past the tree but had to show a lot of patience before I could sign the log owing to some workmen having a mid afternoon picnic right beside GZ. I got it in the end. Sadly my Gps batteries died so I will have to return another day to find the rest. Tftc

Being a tall person I managed to spot this quickly but made it a bit less visible when returning it.

TFTC

I have tried to get it from the wrong tree first!! Needless to say that I was not having much luck... TFTC!!