They Chose This Valley #3 (Franklin) Ararimu, North Island, New Zealand
By SethRaven on 14-Feb-16. Waypoint GC6BAFE

I am archiving this cache since there's been no response from nor action by the cache owner within the time frame requested in a prior reviewer note.

Hi SethRavenThis geocache was brought to my attention as being in need of an owner maintenance visit and after my previous reviewer note, there has been no owner response. The cache owner needs to check on this cache ASAP and either replace it or archive it, after picking up any geo-litter. See the [maintenance section of the Geocache Listing Requirements/Guidelines](http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx#listingmaintenance).I've added this cache to my watchlist, and I will check back in four weeks to be sure that the maintenance has been done. In the meantime, I have temporarily disabled this listing. When the maintenance is completed, the owner can enable the listing by clicking on the link below the cache name to return it to active status.Whatever your intentions, please **post a note** here on the cache page (not email) to let us know that you are still active and maintaining the cache. If a month passes without seeing a response, then I'll assume that this listing should be archived.Please note, that if a cache is archived due to lack of owner maintenance, the cache is unable to be unarchived.RegardsTheCoddiwompler

From Canada , was with cache owner!

No find today

Spent ages looking couldn't find

Spent some time looking and couldn't find it

Could find - spend 15-20min looking but everything was very overgrown

Good spot to hide

Cool ️

We are exploring Ararimu Valley and finding out why "they" chose this valley. Thanks for a nicely themed group of caches.

Out geocaching on World Record Day. We saw this was going to be tricky so read some previous logs well. Thanks to some clues we made quick work of it. Thanks for this series.

**15,957**
Found on our early morning pass through the area. What great photos - classic, thank you for sharing this history with us. TFTCS

Good

First day of our family holiday trip and we were a bit early for an appointment in Pukekohe so we detoured a little for some caching.

Looked in many nooks and crannies, read previous logs and narrowed where to focus but still no luck today.

Thanks for the gift it was a sorta hard find

Tricky to find, rustynz would not give up. Thanks

We got stuck behind a horse truck, so pulled over to let them get ahead

This took a lot longer to find than it should have. Not the bus stop. Not the hedge. Not by the Kauri! hmm where can it be. Looked at logs, tried to figure out where it might be?

So after the longest time had a moment, and there was the cache. A bit of a tight spot, used a pen, fingers to pry it loose, but I can confirm it is there, and I am very happy to be signing the log today.

Thanks SethRaven for the history and the hide

After climbing Mt William with Merlot58 and Nette1234 we had time to collect a few caches on our way home. This was a quick park and grab whilst exploring the area. TFTC

Thanks for placing this series, it's been interesting reading the history of the area. The cache was an easy find

A nice quick find with good clues.

Hard to find in long grass

Heading into the Hunuas for a good walk today, and I picked up some of these caches on the way there, and the rest on the way back (due to the presence of muggles near two of them!). Took a few minutes to find this one, TFTC

Found in the first spot I checked! That was lucky. Enjoyed my rural wandering today. Nice off road paths here

Found it 2/3/21 tftc

Took us a bit, but we got there in the end.

Took us a while almost died finding it

Cool trip down at Hunua falls found it but couldn’t sign because wet log and wasps!! TFTC

This took us a little bit longer than it should have as we were looking in the wrong spot. A more detailed look at the map made us make an adjustment and then soon had it in hand

Cool

There was a cyclist taking a photo of the bus shelter near GZ as it had been temporarily converted into a nativity scene.
Rather than loitering nearby we decided to drive away and back again but had to do this a few times before he moved on.
We then parked at GZ and located the cache after a bit of a search. Was nicely tucked away out of sight.
Thanks SethRaven for the cache and the interesting history.

Day two of a weekend in Auckland with my wife. She loves to geocache, I keep her company.

Found on the way back into town.
JDScout had a conference in Auckland for part of the week so I met up with him on Friday night. Hopefully we will find a few geocaches on this trip as I haven't got many left to find in Christchurch.

Thanks SethRaven for placing this geocache 7660 find for me.

Sadly there was no large event in New Zealand in 2019 but there are a few Mega events planned in Australia. New Zealand will have another large event in 2020 in Auckland. 
======== NZ Mega 2020 ========
Planning for the NZ Mega 2020 event is well underway. It will be held in Auckland over Labour Weekend, 23 to 26 October 2020. Thanks for hiding this geocache.

Took a minute for us to narrow down the hiding options but once we did all was good. Nicely tucked away! TFTC

Found. Log is wet. Have added some tissues to soak up water and dried log a bit. Good hide

Out on a random geocaching trip. Nicely hidden. Tftc

Spending the school holidays finding some local caches. Cheers!

Took far too long after searching in totally the wrong place. Found easily when looking at the satellite map.

Quick find on the way back from Duder Park via Clevedon. Started at wrong corner TFTC

After finishing up work for the day around early afternoon I thought I would treat myself to a drive in the country. The weather doesn't seem that bad currently, so, why not? Of course, it is also a good excuse to find some hides here and there. This was my first stop. I parked up near the shelter and made the short walk back to GZ. After taking a moment to read the plaque it was time to get down to searching. Spied in the first place I checked. Cheers for the cache placement!

I found it ,I found it quick find and sign here.

Found it with a little search...the horse helped us!

Too many wasps here today to have a good hunt....

Wasp convention

Phew..
..Came here again and wasps had gone.
Lucky I had a trowel as had to dig it out of soil!
Added waterproof paper.

Looked for a few minutes, the got intimidated by the amount of muggles and left

Dear Cache Owners,
I am a German guy who stays in New Zealand for eight months.
My English is not perfect, so please don't wonder if my log entries sound a bit strange. Thanks!

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After dropping off my host kid in school I had time to make a little Geocaching tour in Drury. I could find a couple of very nice Caches and I had fun while doing it.
Took me a while, but finally I could find it.
Thanks for hiding!

Yeah, after a DNF this was my first find for today. Yippieeee. The log book is still soaking wet, but I managed to sign somehow. TFTC

Took a little while. Good hide. Needs some maintenance. THTC

Soaking log so took picture. Didn't have a log to replace it.
TFTC

Was driving along here and not paying attention and missed the sign saying to turn! As there was a guy waiting to turn I continued down the road a little way pretending I meant to do that before doing a u-turn and heading back. Stopped to tear a hole in the soggy log with my pen, and have some raro before continuing on into the hanuas to do a walk

years since last driving along this road. Lots more houses now.

Had a free day in hand between a stressful week and the In Laws 80th tomorrow followed by a Expo next week, so this was a chance to grab a few caches that have been sitting there far too long.
So in the company of Mr MCC at 5.30am and setting off we headed north for a morning (only having leave passes to mid-afternoon) to see what we could find in the area before the muggles were up and about and we needed to locate caches in slightly less muggle intensive areas.
Today we managed a total of sixty five finds and only 2 DNF's. Not bad considering we were back home by 2.30pm.
A big thanks you to all the CO's for the effort in placing and maintaining these caches. We had a great day with lots of laughs and fun

Sorry for the repetitive logs. Thanks for the placement, Thanks for the cachen

A curious local strolled over to say 'hi' while I signed the log, luckily it was equine rather than a muggle. TFTC

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)... Short term goal: reach milestone 6000th find... It' all about the numbers, baby!

Ararimu turns 150 this weekend. That's a milestone in itself... It's probably not the most opportune time to come calling, but we are on a mission... When a location has been in existence for a while, there's bound to be a lot of history. We appreciated finding out about the community with each cache we visited.

Some festivities were attracting the locals to the paddocks across the way. We were just setting up for the cache, when another vehicle parked in front of us. We thought the occupants stopped for caching business, but they moved off to inspect the goings-on in the field... Once we had the all-clear, this was a quick find...TFTC.

10.15am -Today was a numbers day for us with hopefully most of them being drive by caches.
I worked out a route plan, met the Squirrel at Te Poi and made South Auckland our target.
Many interesting array of finds and tasks to collect caches with the odd one not a drive by. SLTFTC

Great hide! Took us a while to find and a second look but we got there!

Last one for the day, after a re-inspection and a good hint from a previous finder we had it in hand in double quick time

I decided to have a bit of a Sunday drive around and grab some easy park n grabs. Thanks.

Nice drive easy quick finds so far

nice quick find

thanks for the easy find and a nice day for cacheing

Heading out today to try and get to 300 finds before the end of the year. This was our sixth for the morning. One of the reasons I love doing this is all the little things you discover - stopping to do this cache was another discovery. It is also interesting reading the history of this area. I am very surprised at the amount of traffic around here but getting the geodog out for a stretch makes things look a bit better.

I had a couple of hours to spare this morning before heading to the airport and home so headed out to find a few caches. Decided to follow this pioneering trail in an area that I'm not sure whether I've ever visited before. This one took way longer to find than it should have done. Very nicely hidden. TFTC, Biggles.

Very nice memorial here and a touching story, nice to see that the unmarked graves here are being respected. Not too difficult a find once I had a survey of where I thought a likely hiding place might be. A nice young local farmer stopped to ask me if I was alright - the plaque made a good cover story, fortunately I had already replaced the cache. TFTC.

We tried, spent way to long looking, under things, over thing and behind things, gave up and moved on

2510 Looked at all the obvious places with no luck and then I looked at the obvious obvious place again and there it was. Sat in bus shelter to sign.

Was in the area today with a little time to spare and having chased down some of this series as FTF's decided to make a stop for a few more.... lucked out on another one nearby as was not fully equiped for it but this one looked more promising.

The road is surprisingly busy and consumed 1 liter of water pretending to have stopped for a water break at a nice intersection....

TFTC.

Had to pop down to Pukekohe to check some information out on a machine that we were having issues with.

Quickly assessed and as it was mid afternoon decided to take the slightly longer trip home so I could grab a few caches as well.

This took me WAY longer than it should have and I was surprised how busy this road actually is.

Thankfully persistence paid off and I found the cache.

TFTC

Got it haha

A nice quick find here. No kids around phew! Log signed as b&p.Tftc SethRaven. Find # 3062

Quick easy find cheers

Last of the day, found in a nice little spot. We enjoyed our afternoon out. TFTC and history lesson.

took some time to find this one as it wasn't where we thought it would be. TFTC

Didn't know where to start looking - so many possibilities. Found it without too much difficulty though. Tftc

This one was spotted by yodabeach. Tftc.

Got away early from a meeting in Auckland. We always like that. It was still light, so figured that it was time for a few caches. Is is dark now and we have another two hours to home, so this must be the last for today. Maybe!

Thanks SethRaven

I decided to head eastwards today to plunder some caches. Mostly I was successful.

Cheers for the cache.

better luck with this one found it quick

Thanks for the cache

Heading North and enjoying a variety of caches all adding to the fun of this trip.
A quick find here. TFTC

Noticed these new caches pop up a few weeks ago, so had them on the cards to find over this long weekend. So after visiting some family in East Auckland took the less beaten track to get back to Hamilton and attempt these caches.

Needed a bit a of search to find, but no real issues. CB was more interested in the nearby fruit stand so she was no help with the hunt. Nicely hidden.

Log later.

quite a nice drive to find TFTC

Enjoying these today

Tftc

I looked right at the cache from a little distance, then searched its location to make sure it was what I thought. TFTC.
I turns out I know the older sister of four of the kids in the picture. She is the granddaughter of one of the three original settlers of this valley, and knows the families of all of the other kids in the photo. If you continue up Ararimu Rd, the first road on the right is named after their family.

Parked up right alongside GZ and searched a couple of spots before noticing an area that looked promising. A quick find resulted therein. Another well thought out placement, TFTC!

Ftf with Darthcacher1 & Purply log to follow

Published

BEWARE THE TARGA CAR RALLY THIS WEEKEND . . .