WL#1: Down and Dirty (Taranaki) Stratford, North Island, New Zealand
By knees'n'things on 03-Sep-16. Waypoint GC6RCVC

Quick find here, thanks

Mrs Macfam has spent the weekend competing with the geo dog, Southridge Laird of Kinlochaline (Lochie) at the Hawera Dog Obedience competition at the Normanby Domain. Just heading north to my home town to catch up with some old school friends but still have time to find a few local caches on the Western Loop. TFTC.You never get sick of this view.

Tftc

Thanks for my first find!

Tftc

Tftf, gps jumping a bit

Found TFTC, took sometime for GPS to settle, but clue was spot on

Thanks for the find

Thanks for the find

Heading home from a few days staying in the most awesome treehouse, we decided to make the trip back home super leisurely. We stopped at a few specific and random caches, as well as food stops, op shops and whatever else took our fancy!Had planned to get several caches along this track as well as some ad labs. However, after finding this cache and one location, the weather packed it in pretty bad, so made a hasty retreat back to the car. Wasnt really up for getting soaked through on a cruisy road trip. Found the cache with no trouble, quite damp inside but the log was ritr paper, so all goodThanks kneesnthings#1194

After a nice loop walk this one came into view and after dismissing where it wasnt I matched the hint away from mid bridge for a quick find.Took Friday off for travel as Im heading up into Taranaki for a couple of days out New Plymouth way. The last few times Ive visited Ive been time poor and have done Bulls- NP-Bulls in an extended driving day and been dead beat when I got back. This time I gave somewhere to stay so can enjoy my journey there, my time there, and the trip back. Also less pressure when searching and the Autumn weather is being kind too. Redeemed a couple of DNFs created a few more and had a nice time. Good to complete some Ad Lab series too and the Taranaki region COs are thanked for their hides and maintenance.

Cache contents very wet. Signed and replaced as found. TFTC.

Found with bkj97 after traversing the Forgotten World Highway. Staying at the Stratford campground made this a close-by find. TFTC

Livingk dragged me out for a late afternoon stroll around the loop to stretch the legs. Staying at the campsite meant it was too close to ignore these last few caches for the day. Tftcsl

I have the week off work so have come up to Taranaki for a couple of days or so for caching, tackling the Forgotten Highway and hopefully finally knocking off the E174 challenge that I signed some years ago.In the area collecting adventure labs so thought I'd grab this one on the way.All good here and TFTC.Find #6568 at 20 March 2024 5:00 pm

During a short walk through the Park we found it. Thanks.

No pen on me today but a nice easy find while we stopped in Straford on our roadie North. The pup enjoyed the walkThanks.

It's raining. So we visited the Glockenspiel and searched a cache.TFTC

A lovely patch of bush to wander around. TFTC

Found it after a while of searching, thanks for the nice site and the cache. Czech Republic.

Found it after struggling a bit looking around. Thanks for the cache !

Finally got it! Thanks for the cache

we were staying just through the fence from this cache.
at first we were only going to do this one.
track fairly good and rain was staying away so kept going.
no problems to locate.
TFTC

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)…

Auckland Anniversary: The Taranaki weather had been particularly good to us this weekend, considering the mayhem it had sparked further up the country. It felt almost anticlimactic to be going home today, but work beckons…

Surprisingly, this cache was only 50 or so meters from our accomodation. Surely, we can muster the strength to walk over… We spotted the hint item and spied the cache thereafter. We hadn’t planned to go much further, but we did! Thanks knees’n’things. TFTC.

**17,268**
Took one of the dogs for a walk around this lovely area, as he had been cramped up in the van all day. Nice, quick, easy find and then was off to the next one. TFTC

Heading up to New Plymouth with BFG for a weekend out of Wellington. Last day, so on the homeward stretch.

22 January 2023 08:42 Number 12276 for me. TFTC knees'n'things for placing this cache for us to find.

Coordinates had me on the middle of the bridge! About 10 m out. BFG had a much more sensible idea of where it was hidden than the one I was about to try

Me and IF were busy insulting each other given the cache title. Found cache after a short head scratch. Thanks knees'n'things!

Spending a couple of days in Stratford on the way back to Auckland from wellington.
The wife and I are out doing the adventure labs an I was able to stop and Quickly grab a cach on the way.
Log was to wet to use so popped a new one in.
Thanks for placing these cach.

Took a while to find... Really pleased to have stuck with it ️️️

One of five caches we located today, in addition to a Stratford Ad Lab, on our drive from Hawera to New Plymouth. Spent 20 mins or more looking for this one, mostly down by the river because that’s where the coords seemed to be leading me. However they did seem to bounce around a bit. Mrs tbird searched on the other side of the river. A moment after I had given up and called it as a DNF, she announced that she had found it. Thank goodness for that is all I can say! #5740. TFTC.

Good hint , wet log. These click clacks aren't waterproof. The new design sistema are near impossible to open without spilling the contents, have you notice? Maybe they are waterproof tho!

18.10.2022 16:05 Uhr GMT+11
Nach etwas Suchen doch gefunden ...
DfdC DeSchmidt_n #5

School holidays so time for a tiki tour to visit friends in Taranaki. Stayed the night in Stratford so now collecting some local caches. Great walk along the river and over the bridges. Took a while to track this one down but glad I persisted. Thanks for the smiley.

Quick easy find unfortunately without a pen again.

Found whole passing as we did the nearby lab cache. Only problem is we didn't have a pen with us so I etched our name in with a bit of dirt on the end of a stick... loving the walk through here this morning. Thanks for placing this cache and thank you for the smiley. The log is a little bit damp but totally useable

What a lovely park. Easy find once we settled on which section to search and pleased to report that the cache is good; log is a bit damp. TFTC

TFTC cache log damp still writeable

A lovely walk tftc

We are staying at the nearby campsite and found this on a walk after dinner. What an amazing park and walkway! I struggled to find this, it was well hidden! But junior cacher stepped in after I read out the hint and found it in a place I had already looked at. Took the TB to move on, TFTC!

Visited to drop off a trackable.

Found on my 6 weeks holiday. Took me 5 seconds - good geosense today. FP!

Found it. Summer Holiday 2021

The GPSR was leading us on a merry dance, but cache sense took over and quickly spotted. Met a very friendly young dog out for a walk and it seems this is well used by canines and their humans. Log a little damp but very writeable. Tftc

Took a very long time but got there with a 2nd look. Tftc

Thank the Lord another find. A diversion from doing the Lab Adventure. Tftc

I went across the bridge a couple of times before deciding there was really only one location that fit the hint and sure enough it was right there.
T F T C knees'n'things.

I wasn't in a big hurry on my drive today so thought I'd do one of the Adventure Lab Caches in Stratford and find the two traditional caches along the way. It was a good, albeit cold, walk past a few interesting sites.

Team BOP is back on the road this time heading to Taranaki with our sights set on some Labs, some geo-art & everything else in between

Our current incarnation includes Davidson Clan, NZFlossy, McJandals and myself and we’ve signed the cache logs as ‘Team BOP’ to save time and log space. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the journey as most caches have been found quickly & without fuss thanks to accurate coords and a straight forward placements.

I appreciate there’s a stigma attached to cut’n’paste logs like these so I’ll try to provide cache specific notes retrospectively when I get home. We do genuinely respect the work put into these caches, particularly some of the puzzles, but with a numbers mission like this - the hides start to blur together unfortunately. So Cheers COs, TFTC and most importantly - thanks for bringing us here

TeamBOP are together again for the long weekend. Philip.Perry, McJandals,NZFlossy and myself are heading to New Plymouth and surrounding areas caching.

On a weekend trip to Taranaki with some of Team BOP. Always lots of fun on these trips targeting cache trails, solved puzzles and high favourites. Thanks to all the cache owners TFTC. Lovely walking area

A plan was hatched recently to hit the Naki area this long weekend. Nice to get away and grab a lot of our solved puzzles and ALs plus others along the way. Signed logs Team BoP to save room on log sheets.

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. Many Thanks for bringing me here. Cheers.

Need a nice walk and remembered this one from my last visit.

Nice easy find with pram and the dog!

Passing through on a cycling tour around the west coast area. Thnks knees'n'things

A nice quick find thanks. Track was dry as, and the sunset over the mountain was lovely.

Ms_KR and I are on our annual pilgrimage to Auckland for our family Christmas. We were staying in the camping ground in Stratford, and it would be rude not to do some of the nearby caches, so I went for an after dinner walk and collected some of the closest! Please excuse the generic logs, there have been a few finds and they get muddled up sometimes.

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

This was my second attempt to look for this cache (I had come months ago) because my phone gps was getting very confused last time. Thankfully this time I had a better idea of where it was ( I had looked on the wrong side of the bridge ) so found it very easily and signed the very soggy log book. I was worried the track might be busy because of holidays but I didn't see anyone since it was a bit nippy out. TFTC.

Near our accommodation. GPS a bit out. Used the clue. Tftc

Decided to travel to Stratford for the groceries today and as it was such a beautiful day decided some geocaching must be done. With the help of Lilbud this was a find although the tree cover made the gps travel some so an executive decision on search area was made and a find secured soon after.. TFTC

Was passing through so decided to find some caches today, what a beautiful spot for a walk

Nice hide! We put the log in a little plastic baggy as it was quite wet.

I missed this one on the way in but found it on the way back. The GPS kept jumping around and I wasn't too sure on which side of the river the cache was. I ended up find it on the opposite side from where the GPS was telling me. TFTC

After several attempts we found it. Had to use clue GPS few metres out

One of a small number of traditional caches found on my truncated holiday in New Zealand - this one found while staying overnight at the nearby camp ground. Sadly I only had time for a short walk before having to move on. No problems locating the cache - a short search revealed the hinted location. All is well with the cache - thanks for placing.

Unfortunately we didn't find this one (blaming it on ourselves and the many muggles streaming by all the time).
Nevertheless we thank the owner for a very nice afternoon walk we hadn't done without the caches of the WL round.
Paddelhannes from Bavaria, Gernany

nice start for a long walk

Had 3 nights at the campground although I was only there to sleep. I had to get the nearest cache to there before leaving this morning. I wish I had to time to do the whole track, next time. Thanks knees'n'things

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Planning for the [NZ Mega 2020](http://nzmega.com) event is well underway. It will be held in Auckland over Labour Weekend, 23 to 26 October 2020. It's going to be a massive celebration of geocaching:

* 20 years of geocaching worldwide.
* 20 years since New Zealand had the very first geocache hidden outside of USA.
* And it's 2020 - all the 20s!

Talk to your geo-friends and start planning to be part of [this event](http://nzmega.com) - you won't want to miss it!

#9515

Die nette Tunde spaziert und die Serie geloggt. Dfdc

This one took me way longer than it should have, the GPS would not settle and I looked in quite a few places that matched the hint until I widened my search to other side of the bridge and spotted it straight away!

Out trying to find geocaches in Stratford. Very nice walk in the forest. First find of the day. #175. TFTC.

Speedy find during our dog walk. T4TC!

Accurate description. TFTC

I had to take the dog for a walk to tire her out a bit before our longish drive to our next port of call. This cache was a bit further away than I really had in mind but it worked out well with a quick find enabling us to return before others wondered where we had got to.

And the search party was out again here. Took ages to find this elusive one. Had to recheck the cache details to finally get this one tagged. Cheers

Day 8 - Saturday 21 December. A long day from New Plymouth to Egmont, then Stratford and back to New Plymouth for a few well earned ZZZZs.

The Seagnoid, Zara, Toby and I are spending Christmas exploring Taranaki via geocaching. Its been an amazing 3 week adventure. Rattls BBQ was a great event, meeting many other cachers. But also managed to fit in a few more events, especially New Years Day celebrating the start of 2020. Lots of caches - over 500. Lots of cache maintenance. Lots and lots of kilometers. And lots of amazing places visited along our journey. Mt Taranaki remained elusive for much of our travels and the caches on it at the top. Loved Pukekura Park Night Lights Show and the the Wooden Mechanical toy exhibition at NP Info centre.

Oh, this cache took far too long. I love bush environments, by man, my GPSr was making me work for this one. And it's not even raining! The signal only has the trees to contend with! A lot easier once I read the description, but even then it took some wandering around .

Day eight of Taybeedragon's and my big 3 week circumnavicaching trip around Mt Taranaki, starting from Palmerston North. Today is up the mountain and Inglewood and Stratford.
Highlights:
* 3 weeks, 536 caches
* Mt Taranaki had been removed for washing, which was a bit of a shame. Even after it had been returned we were only allowed to see it for it was less than half an hour a day.
* High percentage of caches with crappy coordinates
* Amazing Pukekura Park
* AMAZING Pukekura Park light show!
* Pukeiti Gardens
* Lots of cache maintenance!

***[======== NZ Mega 2020 ========](http://nzmega.com)***

Planning for the [NZ Mega 2020](http://nzmega.com) event is well underway. It will be held in Auckland over Labour Weekend, 23 to 26 October 2020. It's going to be a massive celebration of geocaching:

* 20 years of geocaching worldwide.
* 20 years since New Zealand had the very first geocache hidden outside of USA.
* And it's 2020 - all the 20s!

Talk to your geo-friends and start planning to be part of [this event](https://coord.info/GC87777) - you won't want to miss it!

On the way into the loop we looked before the bridge. Upon returning, we searched on the other side and made a quick find. Thanks for these caches !

After moving into the accommodation, checking the GPS and it mentioned there is a cache nearby. Headed out to search for and after a short one - found it. TFTC

2nd time we've looked for this one and not found it. Found all the others on this loop easy as. TFT walk

Enjoyed the walk. Found on my trip north enjoying the caches in the area

TFTC logbook a little damp

Tftc.

My 3 year old almost chucked the log book into the river but it was saved. TFTC

This took a little while to find for the reason the GPS was bouncing around and having us search 10m away for 10 minutes. The hint was good and enabled the find. TFTC

Found after a bit of searching

Heading out in the company of HKCB for a quick 24 hours down to Taranaki collecting caches around the mountain to try to tidy up the area.
We departed Hamilton at 7pm Friday and made it back home 7pm on Saturday with a haul of 70 caches and 820kms traveled. A great drive through the night, clear sky's and a fantastic day on Saturday to view the mountain in all its glory, a calm sea along the coast. Together these factors made the trip memorable as we could not have asked for better conditions to cache in.
A big thank you to all the CO's whom have placed these caches for us and continued their maintenance.
Second pleasent walk of the morning and continuing in an anti-clockwise direction from the previous cache

Thank you for the placement, thank you for the cache.

In the company of Cats&Dragons for a quick 24 hour blast around Mt Taranaki, with the aim to tidy up as much of the area as possible. Leaving 7pm Friday night and returning 7pm Saturday we managed the loop and found about 70 caches along the way, with a couple of hours sleep thrown in as well. The weather also played its part with fantastic vistas throughout the day of the mountain.

With some well hidden and maintain caches found throughout the day a big thanks must go to all the CO's for the placements. Time for the second walk in Strafford, with a nice blue sky and great views of the mountain. Had to wait for some muggles to past before starting the search, was pleased with an easy find.

As the weather looked quite unstable, we decided to go geocaching instead of hiking the Mount Taranaki. This brougt us to this two beautifull loops.
This cache was quickly retrived
Thanks for hiding and maintaining this series.

We picked Stratford as our base to go hiking around Mount Taranaki. When we looked what Caches were in town we were surprised to find two small trails. Since the weather wasn't so good we decided to do our hiking and Caching along those trails. We started with the Western Loop, which we enjoyed very much, so many beautiful trees! Since the weather was holding up we continued with the Eastern Loop, which was more interesting in the second part, than in the first.

One lucky grab and the container was revealed.

Thanks for this Cache!

# 2070

Spotted some nice walking trails with lots of caches here in Strathford when we were planning our NZ holiday. Decided we need to stay here for a few days to find a few of them. So glad we did, the walks along the river are simply beautiful.
TFTC knees ‘n’ things

Staying here fir a couple of nights found whilst walking into town

Staying in Stratford for a couple of nights and this is right near where we are staying so we popped out to find this on our way to town. Tftc

a rather late log from coming home from new plymouth and i have realised these two were not logged. I parked by the rugby field and walked along the track at the back until the bridge. My search took me quite a while and to make it longer i had to stop several times as muggles were out with their dogs or just out for a walk. I was almost giving up when i approached it from below as it were and re read the hint and there it was just waiting for me!
thank you for this series of caches along these walk ways but i think i will try to get a map of the walkways here before i attempt any more. as i when oi walked along to the next one i did not know whether to turn back or go one with the hope the track would take me back not too far from parked car. i went back.
thank you for the smiley face.

Quick find. TFTC.

On our way up to new plymouth to cap off the Easter weekend and trying for some of the traditionals along the way to boost up our planetary mission points.

Found the cache after crossing one bridge to far.

Cheers.

Me and scoria were out caching today working on collecting points towards the planetary explorer mission souvenirs.

I am heading to New Plymouth to today to spend Tuesday hunting for caches in the Bell Block area.

Doing the Weston loop walk in Stratford
Started looking in the wrong place to start with but found it quickly when looking for it the right place

Logical after reading the hint once more. Good cache.

Finally! Took us a while because our GPS was playing up and we started looking on the wrong side of the bridge. Glad we finally found it. Tftc

Another nice day for a stroll through the bush. At first my GPSr was not very accurate under the trees and there were several places nearby that fitted the clue. Eventually I changed 'tools' and the alternative led me straight to it. TFTC.

Found it on a nice Walk while staying at the Campsite.
Really nice walking track!

Nice spot , phone GPS was a bit in accurate, but easily found after checking the hint. TFTC

Our first find on the loop took a while cache all good thanks for the placement.

Spent a bit of time looking on the wrong side of stream. About to give up when clue suddenly made sense. Put a hand out and cache was fpund