Night cache #1 Auckland, North Island, New Zealand
By stevecoxnz on 27-Aug-16. Waypoint GC6QZD5

Keeping it 'local' this weekend and taking a stroll with Mrs NZT and two geo-hounds. Weather was perfect and the caches were a bonus along the way!Mrs NZT assisted for a quick find here and we were on our way again. Thanks for the cache.

Really confusing couldnt see anything that the hint was saying and seemed virtually imposible

getting around to logging some of my finds, i found this a while ago with my mum Raven eyes, so the dates will be wrong, TFTC

Had a look during the day today and did not see any fire tacks. Will have to try again another time!!

**16,019**
Managed to find a carpark nearby and set off with our headtorch. We enjoyed the stroll along the pathway and then we took a wrong turned and had to backtrack. Back on track we headed off again but then lost the trail a second time and had to backtrack seriously. Found where we had gone wrong and then it was a leisurely stroll, locating the markers as we went, leading us to a spot where there could be only one good hiding place, and there it was. A thoroughly enjoyable night cache and our last cache for the night. Time for some sleep before another caching day tomorrow. Thank you for the effort taking to set up this fun little cache. Worth a favourite point for the effort. TFTNC

Was funny to do a night cache in the daytime ! Found gz but needed extra nudge to find the container..thanks Steve.

Checked on cache today. It's still there.

Found fire tacks but Coordinates are a bit off we could not Find the geocache itself either

Enjoyed this cache was interesting. Had trouble finding the cache.
Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty

Took awhile to find the cache lol cool tho

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.

Wowee what fun! Tacks has us going the wrong way to start, then we went round and ended up where we started... what a fun idea! Thanks heaps for this would love to do more like it!

Loved it. TFTC

It was a beautiful sunny day today and since this is a night cache we weren't too confident in our chances of finding it but decided to give it a go anyway.
Our plan was to walk very slowly and methodically searching for the fire tacks as we went which ended up working quite well except for the few times we deviated from our plan and made some assumptions about where we thought it might be, all which turned out to be incorrect.
But once we returned to the methodical approach the final three tacks were reached and we were very pleased to find the cache nearby.
Thanks stevecoxnz for a great cache. We really enjoyed the hunt on this beautiful afternoon and were pleased to see some new born lambs in the nearby paddock.

New cache container placed in same position. Have fun

Was pleased to find an alert telling me this cache has been replaced. Thought I had better wait till nightfall to go and claim it though. There it was right where I had expected it a month ago. Thanks for replacing.

Cache has gone missing. I will replace as soon as I can get another.

After being unable to find this at GZ last night I went back for a day time search today. I think I left no stone unturned in my search including being up to my elbows in muddy water.

I'd just completed a night hike with my Kea Scout group and once I sent them all home with their parents I went back with another cub leader to find this night cache. Some of the tacks took a little bit of hunting but the final three were eventually found and then the cache itself.. at one point we thought we had seen a tack glowing in one direction but then it started to move... it was actually sheep eyes glowing lol TFTC!

Thanks. Our first night cache

Having found another night cache with fellow Team SEAC buddies not too far away, we decided to convoy to this one, in order to complete it too- the night was still young, after all!
After parking at what we had thought was a suitable location, we made our way to the start point, then proceeded to follow the tacks to the final.
A rather amusing game of follow the leader ensued, but we got there in the end, rather amused at the path we had taken to the final- we definitely didn't head in the direction we were expecting!
Final found and log signed, while several of our team members debated the attributes and behaviours of some local wildlife.
TFTC, and the night-time adventure!

A plan was made with some fellow cachers to attempt this cache. We parked at suitable location and started walking. Making our way to what we thought was the start point as indicated by two separate GPS's, we spied a fire tack. Following the fire tacks was easy until as long as we followed the instructions in the description. We were about to return to the car when another fire tack was spied which would be a logical point to start the hunt but was about 10m from the co-ords. All is good with the cache container and log. Some local wild life made for a couple of taking points on the return to the cars. Found with Purply, Darthcacher1, Stik-A-Crane, Er-iot, Newlynfam and UncleSam. Signed SEAC to save space on the log. Definitely worth a favourite point. TFTC

Headed on over to this cache as we had just finished another night cache , and not being ready to head home decided upon just one more.....
We didn't park in the best place being a little bit away from the start ......after a short walk the trail was located``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` for us to start our journey....

The trail took an interesting turn ......as it led us to the final.

Signed in as SEAC to save logbook space.

TFTC.

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Great night out with the gang. Enjoyed the walk

Log to follow.

Like all of the previous finders, we kept on walking and lost the trail of markers. After two backtracks we finally figured out where we needed to go and found the elusive three. Great night cache. TFTC

After spending the afternoon enjoying the sunshine at Omana, we thought we'd grab a couple of caches before heading home.
We parked our car outside the gate at the entrance to the Regional Park and made our way along the Perimeter Track to the start of this trail.
Once there, we took a few minutes going around in circles until we spotted the first marker. We were lucky to spot the first one as it wasn't quite dark enough to get the reflection from the tacks with our headlamp.
At one stage we overshot the mark and had to backtrack before spotting where we should have turned. From then on, it was plain sailing until we hit GZ and the cache was quickly found. Ants had taken up residence inside the cache, but we cleaned it all up ready for the next finders. All good here, thanks for a little night time adventure and TFTC!

Out with master 9 who has wanted to do this for a while. Took a while to find first tack, then we were off! Lost our way after number 4 (I think) but a bit of retracing our steps saw us off again. Great camo, and enormous fun tracking it down.

What a day so far with TheMexican and evilno9. First we had some Deutsche Brezel's at the Farmers market, cleared out Duder's "again" and now performing some night geocaching at sundown. Lost the track a couple of times missing the turns but ahahahah... good one! TFTC

Had a lot of fun here with alpenmilch80 showing TheMexican how these caches work at night. Couple of false starts but soon it all clicked into place and once we had another good laugh at TheMexican's expense we had the cache in hand and could head off for the other night cache. TFTC

Yeah our first night cache.
Wasn't shaw what to look for but a little help from Gernita and CODEHill and we where on our way.
Lovely clear night and a nice walk TFTC

I didn't realise this was a night cache until we were on the way to it. We have enjoyed the previous ones we have done at night so wondered if we should come back to do this. We spied what we were looking for along the way and of course had to then follow it through to the end. Cache is in good condition. TFTC.

Lots of back and forth to find it. Very clever hide t4tc

Camping the weekend with Vamber at Omana Campsite and joined by yorkshirekiwi83 for the night. Next day we set about collecting the caches around Omana Regional Park. We'd hoped to do this one at night, but was busy with birthday celebrations, so thought we'd give it a go in daytime. Three of the team set off after finding the first 5-6 firetacks we thought this was easy. Then we stumbled, back and forth we searched then all of a sudden another tack was spotted and we were off again. The other two joined in and we soon made our way to the final. Pleased we could find in the daylight, disappointed we couldn't do in the dark. Thanks for putting this together, signed log as KKKTS

Having a walk through the park after having camped there the night before with Vamber and KirsTim. Found the starting point and made our way along the route, once we knew which type of firetack we could start to spot them. I quite like finding night caches during the day. Quickly found once at GZ. TFTC

We were out camping with KirsTim and yorkshirekiwi83 for the long weekend, staying at Omana Regional Park, and thought we would hit some of the nearby caches around the area. We were wondering if it was possible to try and find this cache during the day, and when we spotted the first firetack, we thought, "what the heck, let's give it a go." Soon managed to follow a trail of firetacks, and thought we were doing really well, and then we lost them. A lot of back tracking, we weren't to be disheartened, and after awhile, realised what direction we needed to be heading. Back on track, we continued following the firetacks, and eventually made it to GZ. Quickly found the container, and signed the log. We love night caches, and also love doing them at night, but now realise the fun of also doing them in the day time! Signed the log as KKKTS, respective of each of our first names, in order to save log space. Thanks for the cache!

Thanks for letting me know about the mishap TF/TW. Will rectify ASAP.
I typed in the 18th but it insists on pre-empting this event.

Out and about with TF and we found 30+ caches today with no DNF's. A couple of apologies to be made here. Firstly, we have a habit of finding your night caches in daylight which we managed to do today. Secondly, we got fooled by the obvious at GZ and then located the cache. It was as the cache was being replaced it fell into a deep hole to which we could not retrieve the cache from. This will need a visit from the owner. Sincerely sorry about losing the cache, may be able to be retrieved in some way but not with anything that we had on us. TFTC

Yep, my bad. As I was replacing the cache, it fell into a rather deep and narrow hole. We certainly tried to fish it out, but without success. It will some-one with very thin hands/arms or a tool to grab it out. My apologies for the fumble and the lost cache. Thanks for the cache.

Retrieved cache from deep & narrow hole using improvised chopsticks Cache is up & running again.

Found the tacks no problem, followed the trail & made a nice quick find at GZ. TFTC

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. This was our second of two night caches that we found. I think we entered the park at about 1am and trudged out sometime before 3. No problems following the trail but the final took far longer than it should have.

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 No29 of the evening. All logs signed RICH

After following the cache trail to its natural conclusion we searched high and low for this one. It being after middnight I think all of our collective brain power (and it was considerable) was making this too difficult for ourselves. It finally took the more junior cacher (me) to spot the odd thing out and produce the log. The boys all then asked themselves if they had not found enough of these types of hides in the past. Obviously not is the answer.

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.

Not sure why this is a trad, but I'll take night caches anyway they come. Followed the trail no problem, but struggled a bit at the end. Nicely done.

We decided Omana looked like a nice place to cache with a nice high density of caches available. 4th for the day and I do mean day. Were were able to pick up the trail and make our way to where GZ was and soon had the cache in hand. Favorite point from us as we do like these type of caches in the dark but our timing was obviously off. TFTC

Well a day out here to celebrate supernannny's 5000th find turned out to be a 14 hr day caching and 24.5km walked. We planned to do this night cache, but then decided since we were out this way we might as well do #2 as well. #2 was completed and we headed back here making this our last cache for the night before heading home.

We followed the path until we couldn't spot the tacks no more. Mr Jag50 discovered the required path and away we went again. The bodies were weary and very tired, but we kept going. Eventually we ended up at GZ and laughed. Oh, a nice easy find. What?! Not so easy but many eyes made the cache show itself.
Thanks stevecoxnz for another great night cache.

Wow ! This was a bit different ..... Following the light tacks ,,, then a change of direction was needed ...luckily spotted by Mr JAG50 !
Very soon we were at the end of the short trail ....but where was the final ? No one was prepared to concede defeat on this last one of our huge caching day ....
We Eight crazy Westie Night Owls were prodding and poking and inspecting .... luckily I was at the right level and someone said " Feel There ..."
And it was the cache ! Bit of a distraction at the end but we made it ,,,,,LOL
Thanks for the fun Steve !

Our last cache for the night which happened to be a night cache done only at night! We had spotted the fire tacks much earlier in the day but when they ended we didn't bother trying to find them, we didn't want to spoil the effect of seeing them at night. So with 8 very keen (or very tired or both) cachers Rebel98, rustynz, Aiden29, merlot58, supernanny, jag50 and myself = 8 still very mad nutters we all came here for the final adventure before going home. we traced our way around and got to GZ with no problems, more fence hopping off course but who cares - right! We knew we came to GZ by the 3 fire tacks clue. But for several minutes, we felt the C.O Steve was playing tricks with our minds. We searched there, we looked there but finally one of us proved fruitful in the search and found the cache we were looking for, quite clever this.. Thanks Steve for all your caches today, especially the 2 new ones that came out, you're a bloody champion!!

Yay. After 13 hours caching we were doing our final cache for the day. A night cache. We had been this way earlier in the day and spotted the first few fire tacks in the daylight and then they had stopped so we were intrigued to see how we would fare at night with torches. Doing this as a team we were soon on the hunt and we got to the point where the tacks ran out. While some of the team had gone on ahead MrJag50 scanned the area and quickly spotted the fire tack deviation and the call went out to come back and follow the correct path. Being very tired we were now having to take some risks climbing fences and stuff. Merlot58 almost kicked the bucket (empty of course) but the sharp eyes of Mr Jag50 prevented the bucket from being fatally damaged. All of the team were astounded when we finally got to the final. Yes we had this in the bag. But Nooooooooooooo!. It was not here, It had been muggled. Frantic searching took over and we almost picked up the phone to the CO. But another few minutes of careful searching and we were rewarded by not being so easily distracted and fooled. Finally with the cache in hand we could sign in as Team H and then get home to bed. At about 11.15 pm we crawled into bed quickly falling asleep and dreaming of more and more and more caches. A favorite from us.

After a big day out attending an event, and then continuing on to collect some Maraetai caches, 8 members of Team H decided we needed to do the 2 night caches in the area. We had completed #2 successfully so headed back here to complete #1. There was a little bit of deja vu as we walked along the path as I'm sure we had already walked this track earlier in the day! We followed the trail then suddenly couldn't find another marker.... what? After a bit of searching Mr Jag50 spied the next one and we were off again. It didn't take us too much longer to get to the end, and there, the cache is there, but no it wasn't! Mmmm, it's got to be here somewhere. After a bit of a search a couple of us spotted something in the torchlight and on further investigation we had the cache... whew, we were a little worried there for a moment! A great way to finish what turned out to be a 14 hour caching day!

Well our goal had been to do the night caches out this way, and after finding #2 at Duders, it was now time to find #1 at Omana. With our cars parked (some parking down the side street, and others near the start) we took off down this well trodden trail.

So with rebel98, Aiden29, merlot58, gorby, supernanny and jag50 we made our way into the darkness.

Without giving anything away, more fun was had, the moon shone bright, with no cloud in the sky to hide the stars, we made our way towards our last find for the night.

I would like to write we found it straight away, an easy find! yeah right! so well concealed, it almost had us fooled, but luckily with so many eyes and hands eventually the cache revealed itself, and the smiley was ours

Another fun cache, thanks again stevecoxnz!

Our first night cash! Thanks Seekoei!

Spending some time in New Zealand visiting family. After dinner and some fun, we decided to go look for the night cache. What can I say.... Ha ha. This was fun, it started of very easy until we ran out of luck, went back and forth a few times exploring the forest and other areas. Then finally something made sense and one of us spotted what we were looking for. From there it was a bit easier until we finally found the last one. Here we struggled a little bit but finally had the cache in hand. Loved exploring New Zealand at night.

Fp would have been awarded if I was still premium. Perhaps one day I will join again

Went on a night time caching adventure with CODEhill after a Chinese takeaway. Was fun tramping through the fields in the dark! It's been ages since we did a night cache like this, thanks for the adventure

Love night caches, first one in a while for us. Got to the car park and checked the time the gates closed, all looked good. Headed off down the nearest trail, then came the question passed back down the line "have you got a pen?!?" No, not one between the six of us (4 adults & 2 kids), oops!
Fortunately we weren't too far from the car park so I headed back.
Pen in hand we followed the glow being careful not to confuse the star tacks with the glow of the sheep eyes that stared back from the black, probably wondering what on earth we were doing.
Finding the cache was easy enough, no one fell crossing fences, slipped in the mud or got lost in the dark!
Great fun, TFTC.

Out and about after work this afternoon for a spot of cache detection. This cache looked interesting so I stooped as I was heading past. I parked up at the logical spot and checked the cache page. Well this will be trickier in daylight. Let us see how it goes. Quickly spotted the first tag and made brisk progress after that. Then I lost the breadcrumbs. After some back and forth I regained the trail. Only for it to slip through my fingers once again. That was when I started to think like the cache owner. Here we go again. I soon arrived at GZ where the cache was detected in the second spot I looked. Better lucky than good! Cheers for the cache placement!

Tftc great night cache with a fun little twist at the end, lots of fun! Thanks again! Appreciate the effort you put into your caches

Published

Had recently gotten back into NZ from an extended overseas holiday and hadn't had any chance to get an FTF to keep up our monthly streak going.

There were a few releases but these were on Tiritiri Island and we didn't stand a hope of getting there anytime soon. Had almost become resigned to the fact that our FTF streak would come to an end.

Watching the ABs defend the Bledisloe Cup against Aussie and a beep comes on the phone....... OOOOO a NIGHT CACHE and WAIT its in Omana Park. Stuff the rugby!!!!!!!! (did I really just type that????)

A call to Miss NZTravellers, who was hibernating in her room, was she interested in coming out for a proper night cache. Amazingly YEAP she's keen.

Torches and headlamps are grabbed and into the car be pour. Miss NZT still putting her shoes on as Mr NZT races down the driveway.

Get close to GZ and was worried about parking but the description was accurate and the only decent space available was right at GZ.... PHEW!

Its a good omen that no other cars are parked here. Out we hop and the torches are turned on. Took a couple of minutes and the first marker was spotted. We are OFF!

Follow the glowing markers and things are going well. Then they ARNT!

We search around again with both torches and then GOT YA! we are off again. Another stumbling block but this time Miss NZT spots the marker and we are away racing.

Miss NZT now well and truly taking the lead racing between easily sighted markers. Its not to long before we spot a DOUBLE MARKER!

This is it!!!!!!

There are obvious signs of where cache was going to be hidden and in we go. BUT WAIT.... there's no cache...... A quick check YEAP we have the final position two orange markers.

Then Mr NZT spots something familiar and the cache is revealed. Surely this HAS to be a blank log.

The container is opened the log book retrieved and unfolded........

YAY an FTF!!!!!!!!!

Miss NZT does the signing duties at 8:05 PM and the cache is returned. We head back to the car and head for home.

Arriving back home at half time in the rugby with the ABs 15-9 ahead. They go onto win the match 29-9 and retain the Bledisloe Cup for the 14th consecutive year!!!!

What a great night, another (FTF) for team NZTravellers and a win for the AB's

That now make 24 continual months that we have ALWAYS got an FTF (that's 2 YEARS!!!)

Thanks stevesocnz for a great little night cache. We eagerly await night cache #2