Trail head Waimangu, North Island, New Zealand
By DOCBOP on 01-Sep-16. Waypoint GC6RB9R

#4273 Today is day 42 of my geocaching vacation in New Zealand. I'm roaming around Rotorua. The main goal is to visit ["First New Zealand" GC45 Memorial Plaque (BOP)](https://coord.info/GC892XR).Found it! It's not the typical trailhead as there was no parking. Also, it's not the type of trail I like to walk. I'm glad the find wasn't too hard. **Parking Suggestion****S 38 18.560' E 176 23.260'**DOCBOP, thank you for the cache! -crystaloops from Taipei, Taiwan on November 11, 2024 @ 16:25:09[GC6RB9R] Trail head was a D4.5/T1.5 Regular Traditional Cache at the time of finding.

Out and about to locatete the last of the bison that were MIA last visit. Diverted here to grab a few trads while in the area, nice quick find TFTC.

Bit of a disappointment as someone had spoilt the cache! Nice biking track although looks under utilised.

Not sure what its supposed to do as was a straight grab - is it broken?

Tftc nice and easy

#14,000. My milestone cache. Funnily enough my 11,000th cache was just 3km down the road from here. Been a fair distance since that one was found including to Sweden and back. But anyhow I was staying overnight in Rotorua and driving back to Wellington today. Picking up a few local caches on the way. This was one of them. Finding the parking spot and access point was a challenge as the area is pretty overgrown. Going to need some track clearing soon or the blackberry will take over. Reached GZ and got a surprise at the grand entrance. The cache holder was soon spotted. I am wondering if something has changed as no tools were needed to open it now. Signed and replaced as found. Thanks DOCBOP for hiding it here.

Found with kre8ive after a short walk up the cycle trail! Tftc!

Something a bit different, dunno if it was meant to be as easy as it was. Found with reschedule

️ Trouvée ! / Found it ! ️

Plus facile que prévu, la boîte ne doit pas être celle d'origine...

4032ème cache trouvée.
Merci DOCBOP pour la cache

Easier than expected, the box must not be the original one...

4032th cache found.
Thank you DOCBOP for the cache

A nice walk in to get this one, armed with various TOTT. Didn’t take too long to find this one. Tftc

This is my fourth geocaching excursion to **beautiful New Zealand**!
Due to Covid [xx(] I had to wait for 3 long years to again return to my beloved [:X] Middle-Earth.
This time its a road trip enduring for 26 days, covering both North- and South-Island.
Today was dedicated to collect some smileys in order to complete the **'NZ 400 minutes longitude challenge'** (https://coord.info/GC7YQZ8) .
This geo-treasure contributed to the mission and the finds of today. Cool! [^]
A funny cache-container was waiting here [^] [:o)]. Gotsha!
A big thanks [:X] to the owner DOCBOP for hiding and maintaining this cache [^] - and best regards from Germany !

A quick find and extraction cache in good condition tftc

Kids found before arriving at trail end good cache well sealed

My GPSr was acting up today and said I was at GZ when I was still 700m away. I finally got to the right spot and hiked in, I wasn't sure of the correct method to get the cx, but I got it anyways. TFTC.

We stopped for this one on the way to Waikite Valley but didn't have a TOTT with us. Stopped again on the way back with heaps of different equipment. Tried a few things that didn't work, then hit the jackpot! Great cache here, an fp from me, TFTC

School Holidays so time for a tiki tour and some caching. Heading down to an event in Sanson, Winter Warmer IX. I visited this cache a few weeks but without any TOTT. Today I was more prepared and after a bit a fiddling had the cache in hand. Great start to the day. Thanks for the smiley.

Walked a bit to get to the cache. Had some Blackberrys on the way. Found the cache quickly signed the log, then had more Blackberrys on the way back.
TFTC

A nice quick find thanks. Get the log to sign was a different matter. Luckily I had the right piece of tott in my bike bag!

Ms_KR and I are off on a wee tour of the North Island. It was a great weather today, We walked and drove and I biked to a bunch of caches in around Rotorua.

Thanks to all CO's for publishing and maintaining their caches. Cheers.

We had biked earlier in the morning, and after leaving our bikes at our accomodation we set out to explore this area on foot. We quickly spied the cache and shortly after had the log in hand. Tftc

Found by Blenheim Bear on a wee day out looking to fill the latest challenge. A little walk from the car for this one. Thanks for the cache all good today. Blenheim Bear

TFTC great track nice hide good puzzle enjoy these now back to rainbow mountain carpark

#12,526. A park, walk and grab off the Te Urewera Rainforest Route in Waimangu. GZ at the trail head was all quiet at the time of our visit. Relatively quick find. Great hide. The cache was in good condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

Thanks for the placement, and for bringing us to this site, and …

.T h a n k s. .f o r. .t h e. .c a c h e.
.M a u r u u r u. .k o e. .n u i. .a t u. .h o k i. .t e. .k e t e r o k i.

A nice quick find here and the retrieval wasn't too hard. TFTC.

Great getting out in the fresh air. Tftc

Parked on the side road, and made the short walk to GZ. Just before I arrived a daugher/father combo rode by

I stepped aside, waiting for them to pass, then I arrived at the shelter. Hmm where, oh where, oh where can it be? well talk about obvious.

Clever creation, thanks DOCBOP for the hide

Found while on the Te Ara Ahi cycle trail today. This was our favourite part of the trail with the riding being so much fun here. Easy, fun cache. Tftc!

TFTC

In Rotorua for the weekend and decided to
tidy up a few caches, nice locations, nice hides
and an enjoyable weekend,thanks to the cache
owners for the varied assortment of caches.

Over in rotovagus for the weekend with abcdf4 so
tagged along as usual,to try and get my telly up,
thanks to all the cache owners for there placements

Parked East of the cache at an old mill site and walked to the trail head. Quickly at GZ and then had a peek around and soon spotted an extra object. Wee think and then log book retrieved. TFTC No bikers out today.

Came down with the bike - all good here

TFTC

Easy find for us. Not sure whether it deserves the difficulty rating... tftc

Out and about today and attending event at Horahora,to get some more smiles. Great to have these places to explore. Many thanks for bringing me here. Cheers A detour here on way home. All good

For our Christmas vacations, we stay for two days in Hong Kong and then two weeks in New Zealand : a lot of geocaches are on our way, including that one !
Geocaching : a good opportunity to discover the area.

Merci beaucoup pour cette cache !
Thank you very much for this cache !
Depiou ( 6401 ) - from France

Yebo DOCBOP

Dropped of our friends at the nearby thermo-geological site and went off exploring & caching

Am not sure if I did it the correct way, but with no damage but patience had cache in hand

Found well
Tftc

Nice hide, I had to park a bit away.. fortunately I happened to have tools on me.. fortunate as someone had dumped a TB in the bottle of the bigger thing.. how they imaged someone taking it out from there, I had no idea..

Found at 16:18 - #8628 - on a 5 week trip in New Zealand

TFTC

Today we made a trip from the National Park Village via Taupo to Rotorua, thereby visiting many new sightseeing locations and looking for caches, too. On this trip we searched, found and logged a lot of caches. The weather was between good and very good all day long, colder in the morning but it got warmer in the afternoon. Funny clouds were our compagnions the whole trip.
Almost no muggels observed us as they had other things to do than observing harmless geocachers.

Thanks to DOCBOP for showing us this location and for the fun we had at Trail head. The search we had here today didn't take too much time.
It was a Little tricky, but we found the Right solution within minutes and had a fast success with that method. For the fine artwork we give a favorite.

Greetings from Germany and hope to see you soon in the forest.

TFTC says H_M_A @ 31. Oktober 2018 @ 16:30 Uhr @ [#12270](https://coord.info/GC6RB9R)

Easy find, had to resort to a number of tools, suggest a pair of tongs.

Wasn't sure where to park for this one, but we found a suitable spot and went for a wander. Have seen caches similar to this before, so had a fair idea how it was meant to work, but unfortunately, as previous finders mentioned, the equipment had a malfunction. Luckily we had our own special tool at hand, that did the trick. Tftc.

I wasn’t sure what to expect here - the D rating was intriguing. We parked a bit further along the road and walked along the trail. The kids spotted the cache pretty quickly. We didn’t use the intended tott, but she worked . Tftc

tyfc ,, left tb , beautiful crisp day , we were looking at bike trail.

Found it, I found it thx. great place.

Tried to park next to GZ, Google said I could, but terrain said otherwise. I found a quick way to get this cache, being clever as I needed to be. The secret shall remain with me.

I continued on caching towards the south from yesterday's most southern found cache.

I found the cache and then had to think on how I was going to get at the log. So it was back to the cachemobile to get a couple of potential TOTT. So back at the GZ I tried option 1 but that was unsuccessful so it was on to option 2. After a couple of modifications to it I had the log sheet in my hand. But I was unable to sign it as it was full so it was back to the cachemobile to get a replacement log. This is worth a favourite point.

Cheers for the cache.

After completing the caches on the Loop Road it was time to head to the hot pools. Just had to stop here though as the D/T intrigued me and it was great to be able to retrieve the cache and sign the log. Many thanks for this cache.

At last a chance to use my favourite TOTT! The cache had been returned upside down so it was a little trickier than it should have been but got there in the end. Grabbed a TB. TFTC. FP.

Found, managed to find room on log. Dropped TB. Tftc

Came out here after work to get 'just one' cache... but this one was so close by that I couldn't resist. Great place to hide a cache and lots of interesting things to learn here. Log book is extremely full... managed to find somewhere to sign but unfortunately didn't have any spare log paper so had to leave it as is. TFTC

Quick find while in the area, TFTC

Wow simple and effective. Still there as well.

Noting the difficulty rating of this cache for the first time in years I donned my bag of tricks to take to GZ.Luckily I had the appropriate but the extraction still took quite a while.Very much a case of so near & yet so far but we eventually won.Brilliant DOCBOP,thankyou & a fav.

After visiting the Waimangu Volcanic Valley we went for the Mud Pool and on the way we stopped to enter the mountainbiketrail for two caches.
And we found them both.
This cache asked for a bit more ingenuity and the surroundings helped us to useable tools, so this one could also be logged.
Team Mavos - Albert and Maria

Cache number 3424 and day 92 of my current streak. My mission today was to do the loop and collect the caches and as some first to finds as well. I had a good day starting with an event at 5.30 am and finding 34 caches including 3 first to finds. I walked over from the other nearby cache. Wandered around a couple of times before spotting the hide. Then it was a matter of working out how I was going to be able to get my hands on the log. Tried a couple of different things before I got lucky. Pleased to get it signed and returned it to how it was. A shower of rain came over so I stood under shelter waiting for it to pass. Plenty to read while waiting. Thank you for the placement. Cache all good.

It's definitely time for KrystalKath & I to "take the waters". Finished work early so we could get to nearby Waikite before dark. Stayed in the campground, took the waters, and again this morning and now to continue our road trip in support of Captain Mary Hyde. Heading to Lake Rerewhakaiitu to stay tonight and saw there are these two new geocaches on the way. Like others have noted it's not so easy to retrieve the log. Definitely need a TOTT. Hardest part was finding a rubbish place to park the camper. need a CITO here TFTC

Nice hide, took a we bit of a think to work it out but got there in the end. found on the way back home to tauranga after spending the day in Taupo

Found easily. I see it's still not fix. A make shift tool is at GZ but it got us part of the way but not all of the way. Then something happened and it was in hand. Lol. Wasn't how I plan it but log signed and returned. Tftc

Nice cache. We figured out what we needed to do but the tool part of cache is missing so had to improvise to get the log. Log signed b&p. Find number 4233.
Thanks for the cache DOCBOP.

Pinch me I'm in NZ! Hello from AZ, USA. Signed log Team VPMH. TFTC

Very quick find with team VPMH from California and Arizona. Great drive to Taupo today. TFTC!!

On our way to Lake Taupo. Good hide. Inked log Team VPMH. TFTC

In the area to see the sights but had to swing by for this rare D:T combo. Strolled up the path and located the container quickly. Had cache in hand within minutes - I perhaps question the difficulty here. Maybe I just got lucky with the right tools? TNLN TFTC

After we've seen Wai-O-Tapu our journey goes back to Rotorura. But we ever have enough time to find somes caches[:p]...
Thanks for showing this place and hidding the box. A nice idea; we give a FP!
Greetings from Germany!!!

Its Been a while and now its time to catch up on all the logging that I've put off to a rainy day (while it may not be raining, where we were heading the roads are still closed hence sitting here doing this).

A bit of a mini mission with HKCB & RWIMF to clear out many of the caches south of Rotorua. There were a few specific caches targeted for the day but there were also enough other caches to make it a very interesting day. A great big thank you for all the work and effort put in by the cache owners in keeping it all going. (and you'd be surprised where you can actually take a 2WD work vehicle when the boss doesn't know)

So thank you for the placement, thank you for the cache

On a bit of a clean out mission in the South of Rotorua with Cats&Dragons and RWIMF, but we did have our eye on a few specific caches for the day. Is was a really good day out with a lot of new places visited, however the day didn't quite go to plan as there were a couple of things happened which made the day very eventful and in the end cut short the caching day, but more on those at the caches they happened. Sorry for the mostly copy and past logs, but a big thanks to the CO's for the placements and the reason to visit these places. We signed the logs with HamC, HCR or a mash up of both.

This one proved to be a bit of a challenge. Finding the cache was the easy part but accessing the log proved to be troublesome. We soon gathered what was needed but the tool was missing. Luckly C&D had the required tool in the car, and while he had gone to retrieve the tool I managed to retrieve the log using another method. It looks like the tool had fallen into the bottom of the container. We were just signing the log when C&D turned back up, we tried to replace so it was a bit easier for the next finder. Thanks for the neat cache, I hope it gets back up to it's form glory soon.

We parked up at the entrance and walked to the two closest caches. I spotted the cache then we had the lovely effort of trying to work out how to get to it, with the special tool visible but also unreachable. Luckily we had the appropriate things back in the car, but while C&D went back to get it, HK and myself found an alternative way to get hold of it, so we're just signing the log as C&D got back

Heading home to Feilding from Rotorua after two wonderful days caching. Loved this trip to Rotorua and our dash to Tauranga for the web cam cache. Now racing for home with as many on the way as we can fit in. We spent ages last night figuring a route home on which we could collect the most or something interesting or needed for the Matrix grid. Could not decide and just got up and drove. And then stumbled on this run we had not seen. When we pulled up at this location there was another vehicle and we suspected another cacher. We are astounded how few we have actually met in the field whilst caching. Potty Pete was just logging it as we arrived and he watched as we found it. Sadly it is not the challenge it is intended to be and needs maintenance to put that to right. Had a great chat and gave Potty Pete a pathtag and we wandered back along the track to the other traditional here. TFTc and giving it a favourite for the intended design. TFTC

Found it
Tflc

Time for a few days away geocaching.
Another good find on the way through.
*As mentioned the container has been damaged and doesn't function as intended.*
SL Thanks for the fun!

Needs fixing as cord is broken.

Found easily, but couldn't retrieve logbook as cord was broken, and the makeshift tool was no good. Managed to remove and replace again. But needs maintenance to fix it so it works properly. TFTC.

**#10,895**
In Rotorua for a FTF attempt but failed at that so thought we'd carry on and rack up some numbers to get the year rolling.
TNLN TFTC

13:10
FITW ambertron9000, Ginger Ninja, Vegan Scraps, FakePedro
It's a new day, it's a new year, bringing new caching adventures!

The cache was not obviously working as intended because at the moment it was D1. It was very easy to access the logbook and almost no effort and patience was needed for it. Well, anyway, thanks for showing the start of the trails.

#4558

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[facebook.com/HMRoads](https://www.facebook.com/HMRoads/) <-- The Road Less Travelled to the Place Furthest Away --> [hmroads.com](http://hmroads.com/en/)
(Or "Why did we go to The Chathams and what did we do on Pitt Island")

In rotorua for a few caches along the way this was the second one on this trail for us,we weren't quite sure what we were in for on this one ,so it was off to GZ to see what was install for us ,on arrival we new what to do straight away soon had cache in hand with the log signed and replaced as found thanks for the placement and the smiley here.tftc

Very good, the container was "down the.." tried to fish it out, the container became unattached, someone had obviously removed it at some stage, but it went back on no problems. Thank you

Thanks for the cache.

Easy find. TFTC

A bit of trial and error to get the log book out but knew what to do it was just a matter of how. After a couple of busy days in taupo this was a nice way to finish off with a Difficulty/terrain find. Tfrc

Very good cache container. After riding the Waikato River trail and Timber Trail, this was an easy day biking back to Rotorua from Kerosene creek.

Noted this at publication time and today had the time and chance to grab it as we were in the area.... 4.5 eh ..... took all but 2min to sign the log. Found the TOTT left by previous finders but that wasn't needed. Think you can remove the NM icon as it seems all good (jusy maybe a bit too easy for 4.5). TFTC

Walked up here - great trail and area. Spotted the cache and thought oh no haven't got my bag of tricks and then I thought about the hint. aha! loved it - great fun caches thanks DOC TFTC

ON the way back from town and to a job in Rere, but we were a bit early so stopped here to finally grab the cache. sveppi is accompanying me on this Sunday and she spotted the cache first. She had her hand on the logbook and I didn't have a chance to try. Easy to retrieve, cache works fine. Thanks. Last time I rode this trail there was no gateway here...

This was our second geocache in NZ and after a little walk from our "parking slot" we did not have quite a lot of effort to find and log this one.

TFTC

Supergrobi

With Supergrobi and the little one I found the cache and was able to get the logbook in just a few moments.
Thanks for the cache

OK! What do we do here. Spotted some local material and fashioned a TOTT. Okay. Got the log signed, but mind your head on the way out. Glad to be wearing a hat, to limit the damage to the poor old dome.

Thanks DOCBOP for a well constructed cache.

Out with ApacheD doing a bit of caching this was a pretty cool cache container no problems retrieving the log sheet.
tftc

Travelling from Taupo to Rotorua collecting smilies on the way. We found some along the highway as well as taking a few side roads that had trails of caches. Weather was kind to us most of the day but turned to showers late in the afternoon. Many thanks to the COs whose caches we visited - we enjoyed visiting so many interesting spots.

Doing a drive today and hoping for some smilies along the way this was a cache we stopped for a hiked back along the trail a short distance to arrive at GZ. A look around soon had us spying the cache container. Not long afterwards we were able to sign the log and replace everything as found. Thanks for this cache DOCBOP - an unusual one. Cheers and happy caching!

I am visiting from Australia and after spending a week with my sister in New Plymouth then attending the mega event at Turangi I have time to play tourist for a week before my flight back to Sydney next Saturday. So I thought I would head towards the Bay of Plenty as I have never been to this part of New Zealand before. Today was a run from a bit south of Rotorua to Tauranga, so not a job of getting every cache on the way but a line on the map.

Spotted fairly quickly (should have looked there sooner). It's definitely not a D4.5 the way it is functioning at the moment, but still it was a chance to pick up an unusual D/T combo. Thanks DOCBOP.

Found it. Not sure it's a 4.5 but thanks for the placement

TFTC
#423

Started my day at 5.30am, leaving home to deliver a forgotten minion trackable to the mega. Arrived in turangi in time for the photo shoot event and then checked out a few things at the mega and dropped off all the trackables in my possession on the tb table.

Next port of call was heading through to Taupo as a virtual down the Napier Taupo road was a must do today, trying to get 9 different types in a day.

Decided that as there was still hours left in the day to head up to this cache as it would fulfil one of the Seagnoid's challenge caches near home. The things we do! Cache was quickly in hand. TFTC

Another early morning start with Philip.Perry. This was to be our biggest road trip together so far, not necessarily for cache numbers, but because we were off to the Mega in Turangi.

Of course Philip had planned out the day with the most efficient way to get maximum cache haul and this was definitely on our way south.

The D rating was calling us and with some interesting sounding previous logs, we thought we were in for a difficult find - but it was not at all, which was a little disappointing. It has obviously been damaged by someone and fixed up by another so its able to be reached.

Will DOC do maintenance on this to bring it back to its intended setup?

TFTC anyway.

Our journey down to the 2016 NZ MEGA in Turangi has begun. TNXPro and myself have teamed up again with plans to meet Davidsonclan later on. This was the 12th stop for Team B.O.P. and the cache was found quickly and in good condition thanks to accurate coords, a good hint and a straight forward hide. However we were left wondering about its original state - clearly not a D4.5 anymore Cheers DOCBOP TFTC & keep up the good work.

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123 cachers currently make up this 'Closed' group where we organise various geocaching events and excursions as well as share information and friendly banter. Please check us out if you're interested.**

Heading down for MEGA, staying at Mother-in-laws (they can be useful at times) in Murupara. Then I can get jump start in the morning to get up to Whakapupa for the Lord of the Rings series at Whakapapa, before MEGA starts. TFTC

6.10pm - In the area so why not lets have another go. First visit were unable to get log out. This time I note changes have been made and quickly had log sheet. SLTFTC

Found on the way to the Mega Quick walk in and find.

Caching alone in the late afternoon... I decided to take a look at parts of the Te Ara Ahi Bike Trail, in the hopes of finding places for new hides...

My scouting mission brought me close enough to this location. I managed to squeeze the car on the roadside and walked up the track. It was a surprise to find a shelter tucked in here, and from a few meters out, I could see the cache container. It took a moment to figure out how to access the cache. Once in, this was a quick retrieval without tools. I have no idea how this one was intended to work, but I'm guessing it was supposed to be a lot more challenging than it is at present... TFTC.

--\\\\\\ AYAMALIN´´´´ S GEOCACHING KIWITRIP 2016-2017 ///--

The Story of the New Zealand´ s Caches

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Thanks a lot for the next New Zealand´´ s cache! I must say that this country is one of the best for the geocaching and geocachers in the world! Definitely YES! Beautiful hills, mountains, views, landscape, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, rocks, forests, ocean, villages, cities, farms, orchards etc. AyAmalin loves this country!
Greetings from the Czech Republic! I would like to invite all geocachers to Czechia, we have got many excellent caches on amazing places too!

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2149
(no trade)

AyAmalin

DOCBOP, could you please take a look at this one and set it back up as you intended. Cheers

Well a walk through puddles and negotiating mud to this one. Found the cache quick enough and then we wondered what we would do. Seemed much easier than expected- maybe it is not working as intended???? TFTC