Ngaroto#3 -House of Sticks Ohaupo, North Island, New Zealand
By iammrwalker on 18-Jan-17. Waypoint GC6ZED5

House is more like a pile. First wrong decision, approach from the path. second better decision, walk along the fence line. Eagle eye spotted the cache, with a quick extraction.

Stage 3 of our trip is a few days on the North Island of New Zealand. Thanks to all the COs for placing and maintaining caches for us to find. Day 1 Quick find at the Airport when arrived before we headed down to Pirongia to say with friends. Day 2 I spotted a multi in Hamilton which took us on a tour of street art. So we headed into town for a stroll around. After lunch, a walk was in order so we stopped at Lake Ngaroto and walked and geocached around. Of course we went in the hard way and life was much easier on the way out!

**S 37 57.214 E 175 17.674**That was a challenge! Neither the coords for the cache nor the ones in a comment further down got me there, although they got me closer. I pushed through to the fence and followed it getting less and less sure I was headed in the right direction. Whatever house of sticks that used to be here has long fallen down. The container itself was in surprisingly good condition though.

Thank

Wolf couldn't get through wet grass or sticks , wait till grass dry

My first time visiting Lake Ngaroto...and I will be back; what a lovely walk.Well the GZ took some getting to....Nothing found, but I have noted some other coords for my return visit.

Too hard to locate despite the search.

We were soo close but didn't find very overgrown hope we find it next time

If it's still there, its overgrown.

Missed this guy on the first lap,ended up coming back with a previous finder, and after our bush bashing we came across a house of sticks which was storing the container and a log ,so we signed the log and replaced as found Thanks for the placement and the smiley.

**S 37 57.211 E 175 17.672**#14,961. At the conclusion of the nearby Rattll'n around for 20 years event in Te Awamutu, Waikato, a group of us went rambling around Lake Ngaroto to attempt a number of newly published caches and other ones that had been around for a while. This was one of them. There were quite a few walkers, runners and cyclists on the track, but the GZ itself was all quiet at the time of our visit. After quite a bit of searching around, eventually found it about 9 metres away and within 5 metres of the nearest fence post. The cache was in good condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log (as Team 20 or T20 as the group name for the new caches, and with individual names for existing caches).*Thanks for the geocache 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.*

Found a house of sticks, found a fence but no cache

Thanks for your amazing cache. I really appreciate the time you took to set up and maintain your caches. Found with Fisha1288 Deserves a favorite for difficultyCheers, Cympull.

Took a while but found with Cympul. TFC

After failing to spot this yesterday, I returned with rattll this morning. She soon pointed me in the right direction, and I found the cache, some 11 metres from the given coordinates, but still quite close to the fence. All good in the container, tftc!

Hard to find !! But got it !

Just didnt find it

H

Found the fence line and the house of sticks and did not find it.

Bush bashed for a bit but turned around. Went further down the trail and came back along the fence. At the posted coordinate we found nothing.

Made it all the way to the fence line and the posted coordinates, but didn't find the cache, sadly!

Hard to get to, Vamber searched along the fence line but no joy

Thanks

Decided to give this a miss due to the dense bush between us and the cache - wasn't going to be a good time with a small dog in tow. Perhaps there's a more approachable path that we overlooked. Enjoyed the lake walk enough that we may be back for another look.

Huge thanks to Bulbar who helped MrsB find it!! We’re bus Bush bashed in and then MrB took the easy way out. But we have a smiley

We dien’t even try, because we didn’t want to go trough the bush and damage it.

We bush bashed from the sign through cob webs & doggie doo bags to the fence line & searched but no luck for us here today.....

A bit of a bush battle but got there. I found a big white container lying out in the open about 12 metres from where my navigation system said it should be but it had a log book in it so i filled it in and hid the container back under the sticks where i hope it should have been. I read other posts afterwards and discovered there are 2 caches hidden here so perhaps i didnt find the right one. That was fun. Thanks for the cache.

I had no idea how to approach this one. It was so overgrown before the bush, and probably a swamp. Looking from the track, it didn't look like id get too far even if I got to the fence, so I bush bashed from the marker post.
It was incredibly tough going, trying to get to gz. The gps bounced around , so I had to keep re-adjusting my direction.
I felt like giving up many times, but to my relief I eventually made it to the fencecline.
To my disappointment, I couldn't see the cache, so decided to throw in the towel, but spotted something as I started back. Wahoo, I found it.
The names on the log don't seem to match the online logs so I'm wondering if there's a second cache around here? Either way,I'm glad I found it.
No sooner did I finish signing it, then I heard a 4 wheeler heading in my direction from the neighboring farm. He was spraying, so I high tailed it out of there - as fast as I could in that territory.
Thanks for the challenging cache

Bit of a track into the bush! Easy find once there

But of bush wacking required but easy find once at GZ

Deep in the bush, a challenging hide! Tftc

Did not manage to find the house of sticks, very well hidden. A chalkenge for another trip to the lake.

Scrolled down to a find log and followed bulbars directions.

Bro, the reinhold brothers are sad brothers. Got lost for a long time in the DENSE BOOSH MY BRO. Never found a fence line.

Too much bush and very wet underfoot. Very uneven ground. This 71 yr old not steady enough on uneven hidden ground

I'm not sure if you expect us to climb through the bush bit dnf

No luck for us with this one. Will try again one day.

Fun adventure!

Took ages because phone coverage is slim

What a mission but as we dont come often and the fact it had been found meant it was findable
I went out into the open at the north end and followed the fence line untill I got to about 4m away then entered the bush. After giving up and going back to the fence line I tried again and back in the bush there it was uncovered by a pile of sticks. It doesnt need covering as just getting there was a heck of a mission so it can be seen with white lid

Yay we found it!

Found on my 6 weeks holiday. I spent there so much time, better not trust my GPS and hint literally.

Decided to book the caregiver for Junior cacher.....first time since the Covid-19 lockdown starting August 2021, and headed down here for a cycle and to collect a few caches about......

Continued on around the lake seeing more dead fish baking in the sun making the smell stronger........

Had to travel in this clockwise direction as we were cycling...as per the sign at the start....

Had to crawl a little to follow the GPS arrow, but located at the listed co-ordinates...not what I was expecting, but a find non the less....

TFTC.

Getting to GZ is one thing, finding the path again is another. Used the revised coordinates from a previous cacher and found what I was looking for easily enough. Bush bashed back the way I came and found the path again. Managed to slip out without being seen.

Hi

Used coordinates. Very sticky! Fence line. Not a house anymore, collapsed? Why did I do this?

Going for a walk around the lake. TFTC

Wow that was a mission lol

Went in a bush bush walk to find this one great spot!

Not ideal when you have kids with you

This proved to be the trickiest of all the finds we made today. It was a real bush bash to get to gz and omg, there are sticks everywhere! After spending a fruitless 15 minutes searching we read through some logs and found some co-ords which were 15m away from where we were searching so we went there and not long after found the cache. I suggest using S 037° 57.213' E 175° 17.670' which I got from a previous log

Wow....this was very challenging for sure!
Took us quite some time.
Would maybe have given up if on my own!
We spread out as there were 3 of us....but Sooooo many Sticks!
Then merlot luckily came across some suggested co ordinates from a previous finder....and I followed her direction and soon spotted the cache
Phew....
Glad to sign this off ...now to crawl out through the undergrowth...no tracks here!

Wow....this was very challenging for sure!
Took us quite some time.
Would maybe have given up if on my own!
We spread out as there were 3 of us....but Sooooo many Sticks!
Then merlot luckily came across some suggested co ordinates from a previous finder....and I followed her direction and soon spotted the cache
Phew....
Glad to sign this off ...now to crawl out through the undergrowth...no tracks here!

This one was the hardest of the day.
A short bush bash.
Co ods off 10m

This one was the hardest of the day.
A short bush bash.
Co ods off 10m

Tricky find, but we persevered and found it!

**#14,179**
This one was one the fun ones, also one that took the longest to find, well into the dark of night and with head torches on crawling around under the shrubby trees, took a bit to find the right spot, spotted the hint of white of the container and were glad to be able to tick this one off.
TNLN TFTC

Yes.

Did not find

Found it

Bit hard to locate while the kids are with me

Too hard to get to

Not into off track bush whacking

Unable to locate

Found it with Rosnicka11 and our geodogs Frodo and Luna tftc really hard to find !

Ok this one was very tricky. Given all the previous logs we did not have high hopes. But something was telling me that the cache is still hidden somewhere here. So i was persistent. After almost an hour... Searching from a bush side (no luck as it was too dense), decided to try from the field side. Got through the fence and walked towards coordinates (S 37 57. 213 E 175 17.670) that broght me to small path between trees behind fence, so sneeked through fence again and after searching couple of stick piles i managed to find big container (peeling of black/brown colour) everything inside dry, lot of space in log book.
It was very hard to find it but worth it. Thank you

Lots of dnf

No luck today

Looked and looked and looked. And looked some more. Found the fence. Found the battons. Found no cache

We are sure it was there but didn’t find. GPS a bit all over the place. Will approach from different angle next time.

Couldn’t find it

It wasn’t too far off considering the trees. Thanks for an earlier log with better coordinates though! I should have looked further back in the logs before going down the fence as suggested because when I was at the fence I was only 3 metres away!!!! My kind of cache. Thank you. Fav from me.

This was a disappointing experience and so much more difficult than the other caches on the circuit. With difficulty, I got through to the fence and saw plenty of sticks but no cache. I hadn't spend long searching at the previous cache locations so I was okay with using some up here. Having since read earlier logs, it seems I should have widened my search area more than I did.

This proved to be quite a challenge. Macwatt approached from direction and me from another. After initially no success I read previous logs and was giving a running commentary. By this time macwatt had headed down the fence line and found the nice sized cache which matched the hint buy not quite the coordinates. Thanks for the cache Iammrwalker

This was tricky cache to get too, my GPS had me at a spot which sorta looked good ..even found a pencil which suggested I may have been closish ...but nothing ...widened the search and then again following the fence line. Eventually I located a container many meters from GZ. But it did match the hint. I am not sure if this cache is in the correct position and a couple of GPS ‘s agree ..thanks Mrwalker...now to bush bash back out to the track

It so hard

Wood of sticks alright

A lot of climbing through the undergrowth and arrived at GZ . Another great cache. TFTC

Since it has been recently found I am re-enabling this one.

After reading a few logs we knew we had to widen our search area in order to find this cache. It was a short bush bash to gz and then after a short search we found this cache

Was very hard to get to and is very overgrown. Found a lot of sticks but no cache

Went through the bush couldn't find anything but sticks, not easy treck

I'm confidant this one is still there. It is not an easy find. If you did not get to the fence line you did not go far enough. The house of sticks is a pile of fence batons. I'll check on it next time I'm out this way, but did check on it after the first couple of DNF's and it was still there.

This was fucking rigged

No luck after a long look

Spent ages on getting to fence line, searched and found pile of plant stake sticks but no cache anywhere.

Has a nightmare time forcing my way through the shrubbery, to the fence line, and getting totally soaked from the water off the trees. Got to GZ and found what appeared to be lots of sticks. Searched under all of them to no avail. Nothing at all here. Maybe there is aother pile of sticks somewhere.

??

Time for myself after 3 days of homeschooling M14. I didn't know there was such a nice walk around the lake! Beautiful weather and not to many people on the track.

I hard one was difficult to reach! Even at the fence i needed the coordinates of another log to find the house of sticks!

Thanks for hiding iammrwalker!

TFTC, picking up in reverse today, attempting to get all, missed a few due to muggles, what a shame will have to come back.... Lovely walk or run depending on what your vice is. T rating I thing is probably a bit on the low side.

The area has changed a lot since my last walk here a few years ago.

Trouvée après quelques recherches ! Ça n’a pas été facile ! Avec de la patience et de la détermination on y met la main dessus !

Easier getting out than in. Set off about 20m before marker if going anticlockwise and head just about straight.

Updated coords from earlier cacher much better.

Needs maintenance

How on Earth did the CO find this spot?

Not so impressive sticks to have the need for such a bush bashing cache there. We found a not so difficult access to the hide and luckily it's NZ not AUS, so it's not dangerous at all. The coords are a bit off, we found it (based on a Garmin Dakota 20) at S 37° 57.213 E 175° 17.670, see pic. TFTC

Couldn't be bothered crawling through the dense bush. Strange spot for a cache.