Smugglers Booty 2 (Northland) Whangarei Heads, North Island, New Zealand
By the observer* on 04-Feb-17. Waypoint GC702QZ

Picked up a couple of caches in the area today, along with some Ad Lab stages. Unfortunately this wasnt one of them. I wasnt sure where the best point was to head into the bush to access my way to the cache, but with a bit of effort managed to get to the general area of GZ. I spent quite some time trying to locate the goods, with the coords bouncing around a little in the undergrowth. Obviously I didnt get to the right tree, partly because I was able to access only limited info on my phone at the time! Sometimes this can be a very frustrating pastime. This was certainly one of those occasions! It was quite a distance to get to the cache and it was raining with a howling wind at the time! In the end I was thoroughly soaked and had to leave empty-handed. It may be a long time before we get back this way again, if ever. Well, I guess you cant win em all!

Tftc kids loves this one. Great treasure hunt

Tftc! Log too wet to sign

Found - Mrs McMike2012 & I now live full-time in our caravan & travel the country visiting places we want to visit & doing the things that we want to do we were visiting the Whangarei area & decided we needed a good walk Mrs McMike2012 wanted to do the Smugglers Bay Adventure Lab, so off we went this cache was easily found, logbook completed & cache returned BTW: the cache container is totally rusted out & everything inside is exposed to the elements; the log book is also wet & full, looks like some serious TLC is required here pleased to add another 'smiley face' to the tally TFTC ... TN:LN:SL #5,069 for Us!

I made this quite an adventure by going down the fence line, which I wouldn't recommend in the winter, as there would be too many bogs to cross. It just looked the more direct route, either way there is long vegetation to transverse. A very tired cache container as others have mentioned but that adds to the thrill of finding the treasures still hidden within.

Wow so cool.

Arrg Captain Jack beat me to the gold booty!! Great location view. Out doing a Recce for Cadet Forces for a navigation exercise. So had to grab a few caches while here! #2 TFTC

Tftc. Coffre très abîmé. Absence de log

Wooooww !!! Absolutely loved this one )
It is a pretty old boot ahah

Trouvée rapidement par CrazyTraveler
Belle grosse boîte dans un endroit lnsolite
Superbe vue sur mer
Nous favorisons cette belle découverte

what a treasure

A unexpected wade uphill thru dense grasses and shrubbery from the sandy rocky beach. Bit of a tree climb. Cache container is in dire need of replacement. But log book is dry.

12:28 Really cool cach! Thx HK from CZ

I think not that I must climbe the big tree.
Took me long time.

I made quite a mess of this search. As I approached, I saw a likely hiding place and headed there only to discover my GPSr was directing me elsewhere. So I searched elsewhere which was a little hazardous in the slippery conditions. After a few minutes, I decided to re-read the description and learned that I had not imagined a mention of a Pohutukawa tree. So, ignoring my GPSr, I moved to where I should have gone to in the first place and quickly found what I was after. Time constraints meant this was my only find on this visit but I certainly want to return to this location. This was a satisfying way to wrap up my geocaching activities for 2022.

Heute zusammen mit letmethinkaboutit am Ende unserer Wanderung diesen wunderschönen Ort gefunden.

Located with Ricardinho
Please refer to his log
TFTC

A nicely themed cache here, although it is falling to bits a bit, the second layer of protection is doing the job.
Impressive tree, don’t see specimens like this in the South Island. Or not so much anyway. Easier getting up that down, but no real issues.
TFTC the observer.

Day 3 of a road trip around Northland - today, Whangārei.
Plenty of options of things to do today, but the main thing is that it is RG1972’s birthday today, and it’s a significant one.
So she go to choose where we are off to, and my job is to drive there and not complain.
Decision made and Smugglers Bay it is! We’re leaving soon.
A quick look at the geo map and I can see some geo-art, but not many trads. OK, I had not realised we were heading here, I won’t have time to solve these. But then I dug a little deeper and for the majority of them, the solve is not too bad at all.
I quickly loaded the coords and off we went.
We found the first 8 mysteries with no issues, and the trads that were around. The others are probably up over there if they need to be done in sequence, so no issues ignoring them for the moment.
Enjoyed the walk, although the farm part of it was a bit slippery.
2 hours 20 minutes later we are back where we started and it’s off to start the rest of the day.
That included the Hundertwasser museum, a bit of shopping, a bit of relaxing and then dinner in town. Nice!
Thanks all COs.

I probably shouldn't have picked a day after so much rain to do this one, but I did manage to get to the treasure ok.
The treasure chest is looking a little worse for wear, but still doing the job.
Thanks for setting up this fun cache

I have to go up there! Yes you do. Took what I thought was a short cut, but I suspect the easier approach is to come sling the beach and then attack the long grass.

Surprised to see the cache container has completely rusted out, but the top looks good. Only been 5 years, the salt air must be very harsh up here.

A fun find and adventure with gorby today exploring Smugglers bay

After I came down off Mnt Lion, my caching buddy was no where to be seen. I knew she was in front of me and I had to take the stairs more carefully than she needs to I wondered where she had got to. She never runs off without telling me, so I panicked a little bit and tried to ring her. No reply... so I wandered back up the mountain for a bit thinking the worst might have happened to her, bumped into 2 women who I shared the details with and just as I was going to get them to search too, rusty finally rang me back. She was here, and waiting for me. I was quite relieved but had to tell her off for not letting me know where she was, anyway all was well and she had moved on since she was cold.

So I sat on the beach on a log, and she said she had found this cache without a bottom, it had rusted away. So we moved on as time might end up being against us.

Great spot for a cache. TFTC.

Bees and as dont get on thanks anyway

Our first Large geocache

A great place for a cache, quite a few people out today enjoying the sun and the beach, TFTC

Tftc. Awesome treasure!

...1242. 2:41 pm. Great idea for a Smuggler's Bay geocache. The cache container has seen finer days and is rusting out is base, but with care it still has life in it. TFT(Booty)C.

had an amazing day whilst out collecting the spot x caches with other local geocachers, this was worth the effort of getting here the 3yo was really happy with the SWAG inside tft(awesome pirate) cache

Cool cache but the bottom is rusted out

Had another look at this cache while in this lovely spot.

Cool find , loads of treasures to be found. Nice beach might finish the day off with a

Amazing beach. Great hide! Thanks for an adventure! Visited this area during labour bank holiday. TFTC

Perfect finish to our family walk today, my nieces were wowed by the find and the treasure contents.

Amazing treasure! We've found that right after sunset and it had some really good atmosphere. Absolutely love this one!

TFTC!

Wow what a treasure chest. Missed this one on yesterday's walk as we didn't want to back track to it. Still a bit of treasure there. Thanks for the hide

Die Krönung unserer heutigen Runde war dieses Versteck: was für eine tolle Idee in der Smugglers Bay einen Piratenschatz [B)][B)][B)] zu verstecken. Wie Jane ( von Tarzan) kletterte Prinzessin Leia und krönte das Logbuch mit unserem Stempel. Ein paar Silberlinge ließ sie auch noch da.

The highlight of our round today was this hiding place: what a great idea to hide a pirate's treasure [B)][B)][B)] in the Smugglers Bay. Like Jane ( from Tarzan ) Princess Leia climbed and crowned the logbook with our stamp. She also left a few pieces of silver.

> TFTC
> HanSoloAndFamily

Absolutely brilliant one to finish today. Have a favourite!

Last cache for today - fun container!! TFTC

Ha ha. Nice spot and great cache.

Very cool cache. So appropriate for the spot. Tftc

Great treasure me matey! Awesome spot

What a awesome cache. In a stunning spot.

Nice spot. Easy find

Spending the long weekend in the area with Jag50 and we also met up with Pazza 2. What a beautiful bay this is and we found the treasure chest was full of bounty

Met up with Merlot58, Pazza2 and 0B80B8 on a stunning sunny morning. Stunning beach with a few boats and muggles swimmingly the crystal clear water. Also spotted a few stingrays in the bay.

What a crystal calm clear bay it was here. My biggest regret here was not having my mask and snorkel, but I bet the water would have been cold if I had. Great hide and a decent size. Tftc

Yay! Best geocache ever. Looked the hiding spot and cache itself. Thank you!

Had to tip a whole load of rusty water out, would recommend the original hider coming back for a bit of restoration! Great find for the kids. No wasp nest when we found out. Tftc

Forgot to log. Done with Riser5 while walking the loop track. Tftc

Catching up on logging. Top of chest is falling off. Nor sue of meant to or not.
Love the theme and make.

Great view and treasure!

Nice treasure box good place on a early Sunday morning. Log book hard to find in all the junk.

Found it

Very cool spot. No water in it even after all the rain in the last 24 hours! Trackable off to a new spot. Please make more caches like this- awesome!

Found again left a trackable treasure!

Yebo observer*

Being for a few hours on this rather beautiful bay with its tempting tracks, we decided to do a short round to smugglers bay and back

Found well, all good with the cache, filled with a mighty boot, worth a pirate

Tftc

Stuff was F**cked and not interesting at all and the booklet had a swastika in it and the container was filled with water but all good only took half an HOUR TO FIND

My buddy and I were down from the far north today collecting the Spot X puzzles for the Planetary souvenirs. This was on the way so we grabbed it as well. A lovely beach. Neat booty and cache container but unfortunately it was full of water. It was too heavy for me to lift and tip the water out. Thanks for the fun cache

A bit of a scramble to the caxhebut got the booty in the end. I did get a number of wasps stings from a random bush that I brushed my hand over so follow cage beware. TFTC. A favourite despite the pain.

Aaarrrhh me mateys we found it!!!
My BOOTYful wife helped me scale a fence, cross swords with spiders and sail on past those pesky wasps!
Fantastic cache and a great size for loot!
Many thanks!!!


Wasps still present in fallen branch in front of the huge tree.
Cache was waterlogged but logbook dry.
Again many thanks.
Lovely spot!

Recent report of wasps near base of tree, updated attributes and added warning in hint notes.Thanks alligatorsnz.

Found with assistance of light weight jackspratt69 member..much better tree climber than me...*****dont approach from directly below..there is a massive wasp nest in the ground on seaward side of tree..we got one sting...(will report to park)
Lucky we had walked in.. this made carrying loot most unattractive for youngest member...really nice to see a different size container for a change..now heading for a swim on a deserted beach thanks to light drizzle on other wise muggy day:)

What awesome treasure tftc

Avast! The mermaid was again consorting with muggle types of the harrier clans... or so she thought! Unbeknownst, while navigating about, swimming right past & then resting one's flippers mere meters from a cache , there was a motley crew of cachers amongst the group! Only upon the trek out did this become apparent, from spying suspicious behavior of some young towheaded pirates. Alas the old cache was no more...and all hands sailed on. But it spiked the mermaid's curiosity, so after frolicking in the waves over at Ocean Beach, she summoned her charts & spied version 2 of Smugglers Booty, so back to the cove again! Another admirable & bountiful hide; naturally a favorite. TFTC! Hmmm, now why does mermaid have such tired flippers? !

I'm travelling around NZ for 7 weeks, using geocaching as my travel-planner. I was so lucky to be offered to stay overnight with thegreatauk and his mom, and that also meant that I could go crazy geocaching with thegreatauk. We had a big day today, we left the house at 6.45am and came back 10.45pm. We started off with the Tiger-caches, then we walked up to Mt Manaia and finished off with the SpotX. We had plans to go to Peach Cove and Eagle Rock as well, but we didn't have the time (or energy) for that. A great day with lots of beautiful scenery and caches.

About this cache:
Wow, what a great cache!! Nice hiding place with excellent views. Not hard to find this big cache, And an easy climb up to it. Tftc, greetings from Norway

Nice easy find. Good cache.

Out for a wander to GPS the Smugglers Cove - Home Point track for search and rescue on a beautiful Saturday late afternoon which also gave us a chance to pick up a couple of caches.

There were only a two groups at Smugglers Cove this late in the day so it was easy to head down the beach to the cache location. Once at GZ the cache was a quick find. As previous logs have mentioned the treasure was a little damp (there is quite a lot of treasure in the cache) however the log is safe and dry.

We teamed up with thegreatauk this morning for a day out caching around Whangarei Heads. We met at the carpark at 10am, and returned to the camper at 4pm. It probably took us longer than expected to walk the loop (plus several side trips) and find all the caches, but we were in no rush and enjoyed exploring the Bream Head Te Whara Scenic Reserve. The weather was mostly pleasantly cool, but at one stage we had a brief rain shower, and by the end of the day we ended up with a little sunburn. . All up we found the last 11 Spot X caches, 4 of them joint FTF with thegreatauk, and 2 Trads - a great day's caching in a lovely area.

Perhaps unwisely we followed thegreatauk in a more direct route through long wet grass to this cache, but arrived unscathed. After that we let him do the tree climb and retrieve the Booty. An interesting tree and a lovely location for the cache, thanks.

Out caching with kiwicouple we decided too find this together with the new puzzle series, bonus we both hadn't got it, it had been a bit rainy so the tree was a bit slippery but I made the climb easy enough, unfortunately the cache contents were mucky and wet so a dry out is required but the log book is fine. TFTC

I was out at Smugglers Bay early this morning in quite miserable weather, working on the new Spot X series of caches and made a detour to look for this cache. Soon spotted the cache at GZ and made an easy retrieval before signing the log. The cache contents are quite wet though. A great view down the beach from here - fav point added! TFTC!

Thanks for a great treasure hunt! The kids just love it. The new position was mint!

Awesome ! Absolutely the best catch sofar!.... Ok have not seen many yet, but this chest is awesome.. Kids love finding it after a day in school... We hid the loot again, waiting to be found!!

What a lovely beach - enjoyed the walk in. Now, which is the best way to approach gz - each took a different route. Treasure soon in hand. Wasn't til we were about to leave that one member of our group realised the clip on sunglasses were no longer attached. Went back for another search of the area but no luck. tftc

This our fifth day on the New Zealand. We decided to try to find our first FTF on the New Zealand on the small Frenchman island. On the way we stopped by this lovely tree on the beautiful bay and we found this amazing treasure.
Thank you for this grateful experience. At this moment I felt like a child

#5404 - #1670

Avast! A wonderful treasure in a wonderful place! One heart is little. We have come across the pasture and have a wonderful view of the beach and Busby Head. We searched in the fern at the momen and then my sight caught something angular. I was upwards wery quickly. I was astonished at what treasure we discovered . Thank you very much for such a beautiful box.

Thanks for the cache.

Ahoj! Nádherný poklad na nádherném místě! Jedno srdíčko je málo. Přišli jsme přes pastvinu a otevřel se nám nádherný pohled na pláž a Busby Head. Chvilku jsme pátrali dole v kapradí a pak můj zrak zaujalo cosi hranatého. V mžiku jsem byl nahoře. Byl jsem v udivení, jaký poklad jsme objevili . Moc děkuji za tak krásnou schránku.

Díky za keš.

Oohh aarrr, oohh aarrr, after slaying ye Lion on dem hill nearby, de pirates treasure was a calling me. I made a course to port and followed de scent of booty aplenty. But oh no, a plastic muggle ship approaches and weighs anchor, right below me. I must stay hidden, which be easy, as de tree be large.

No problem with de climb, and thar she be. A treasure chest full of booty, well worthy of adding a few more silver dubloons me thinks. Time now to exit, but there below me be two muggles, rowing ashore from their $2 million plastic gin palace. Surely, dey not be come to plunder de booty - dey have enough of der own already me thinks. So, using me pirate cunning, I slipped into de bushes and vanished away and from de top of de hill, used me spyglass to make sure de muggles left our booty alone.

TFT(Treasure)C

(2492) Out for an after work walk in the area, so could't resist picking this new cache up along the way. Nice easy find once we reach GZ. Great area. Enjoyed doing the loop walk around the point and back to the car. TFTC

{FTF} Joint with Macwatt. Spotted a green dot on geocaching map that wasn't there before. It was dark and we had done a fair bit of tramping. Got up early this morning and walked over to Smugglers. Wasn't concentrating on gps so over shot the mark. Soon had gz lined up. Quick shimmy up and there was the treasure - heaps of it!!!!! So appropriate that we got this as whangarei heads is almost our second home after tauranga. Thanks the observer* for the cache.

(FTF) Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum..last nights...up and staggering into south westerly we headed over the hill to GZ...must have been blurry eyed and brain fade...got the wrong tree first up ha ha made it hard in our selves..after ye old fashioned flogging from te captain....GZ was found and ye old booty was scored...and to boot a clean log yeh ho ho and a bottle of rum a (FTF) ...thanks The Observer for a great cache great placement

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