Kaitoke Hill realignment Upper Hutt, North Island, New Zealand
By Newzealandtrips2001 on 22-Mar-17. Waypoint GC74RVT

Tftc

First find was here and managed to get the car safely off the road and make a search. Cache was soon spotted and after signing was replaced to be found again, without grovelling through brambles and litter.A big day of caching beckoned today, and that's just the way I wanted it to be, and why i'd stayed overnight in Upper Hutt after travelling down yesterday arvo. I had designs on taking my (wife's) tiddly Tiida out the back of Carterton/Gladstone and knock over those Nifty Swifty solves and realign into the GeoArt they deserve to be. I had a lot of help with the solves, I'll admit, but collaboration often comes back around again so that's fine. The good thing about hitting a powertrail of Geo-Art 'early' is; the caches are almost certainly still at their original placements (no cache creep), they're in good condition (no ripped baggies, rusted mint-tins, muddy outers) and the early finders might be able to remember to help with a tricky find. As it was there were no anomalies and all of the series were found, along with a couple of random skindo extras near to the new placements (research will sort which ones out). It was just under 80 finds for the day, just under 5 hours from first swifty find to the last one, and plenty of dust on the tiddly Tiida. A good day with sun, rain, light wind and heavy gusts )aka Summer in Palmy!)Thanks to all COs, an advancement on my finds of Wellington region COs caches (not you Tom!)

Yep I awsome

Had a bit of fun. TFTC

Bit of a prickly spot but found the cache.

Well would you believe it Flowerydaze and I are on a bus outing travelling over the Te Marua hill when the bus broke down. With a couple of hours to kill while we waited for a replacement FD checked for caches in the location and what do you know there is one within meters of our position. Log signed and cache replaced, all good. TFTC newzealandtrips2001.

Well what a drama, Talla64 and I are in a full bus off on a trip with about 40 others and it's broken down and we're waiting for a replacement. Might be here a while! Big sigh!! It's not all bad though - there's a cache here. Thanks for the cache, a very quick find.

A quick trip back over the hill to find and log this one. Despite being a bit damp I was able to sign the original log. I have passed this gap in the barrier a few thousands of times and not noticed it -and then have twice missing stopping to find the cache.

Kia ora rawa atu for the cache UHViolin.

Found after a prickly search. The cache was full of water and logsheet was pulp. I dried as best I could and left a fresh log sheet and new bag for the next finder.

No reflective hint, but a quick find all the same.

TFTC

A nice quick find. Thanks for placing your cache.

Ms_KR and I are off on our annual pilgrimage to Auckland to visit family. Today we Cruised from Lower Hutt to Greytown. Rain threatened but did not eventuate.

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

Thtc, quick easy find, gorse has grown a bit so a couple of jabs lol

TFTC, was a rather wet one and the papers gone a little mouldy but awesome hide

Was travelling south so parked a bit down the road and walked back. Quick find. Interesting wee diversion through a bit of rubbish and gorse around. TFTC UHViolin!

Have thought about stopping for this cache on a number of occasions, but have been in too much traffic. Finally nailed it today, quick find at GZ.
Thanks!

So much prickly stuff, so went back to the car for gloves, didn't need them in the end. Was a interesting little stop. TFTC

We decided to have a few days in Wellywood. Largely to start knocking off some of the ACoIaF series, but also to enjoy a bit of a break and go camping .
Having packed up camp, we are heading back to town to meet our daughter for lunch.
A very prickly place to search, but Mr rattll braved the gorse and made the find, although as mentioned previously, there was no red refector on top.
Thanks for putting this here for us to find

Found it, lid was off and red reflector was missing

Following the government announcement I'm reactivating this cache, stay safe.

Disabling due to Lockdown.

Will need to bring some pruners as the gorse is getting long. Tftc

A two person find. One person to hold the gorse while the other retrieves it! Bring pruners! Signed log and replaced where found. TFTC.

In Petone for a ten pin bowling tournament, park and grab after doing a adventure lab and some caches in Rivendell area. Thanks UHViolin for the cache.

With the prospect of a nice long weekend available, I decided to spend a day or two over in the Wairarapa chasing archived Skindo puzzle caches and any other caches I would be passing right by including this one.

It is rare these days for me to head over the Rimutaka Hill, so I thought it would be a great chance for me to stop and try to get the few easy access caches on this trip. The ability to reverse into this space was a blessing. It's amazing to see just how quickly nature is reclaiming the former road as its own!

Looking around at GZ, there seemed to be a likely looking hide location which turned out to be right. However, the gorse was looking like it would be a bit of an impediment, but in the end it was a straightforward find. As others have mentioned, the log is a bit worse for wear with the water ingress into the container, but I was just about able to sign the log before replacing everything exactly as found and heading back to the car.

Thanks for placing and maintaining this cache, and Happy New Year to you.

Tftc, it is quite damp.
Out and about with geeves90

Unlike the cars going nonstop and the occupants staying dry, this cache is a touch wet and the reflector is un attached.

Great spot to stop on our way to cache the day away

Looked for about 20 minutes and couldn’t find

(# 5918). Sunday morning is a good time to grab a few caches way up the Hutt that I wanted to retrieve. A quick find. The log is a little bit damp but no real problem as can still easily write on it. TFTC

The log is dam and needs some love!! TFTC

Flag the reflector

TFTC

After a short search I found this one. The red reflector has become detached but it is now back in place but not stuck on. TFTC

# 264 Haha Mum tried to do the GSAK thing and stuffed it up! This is my actual bulk uploaded log! I would have found this one with my mum Gr33nslime! Im sure I had fun, i especially like finding toys. I hope to have more finds than weeks alive! Thanks to my mums obsession for geocaching... Cheers for the cache.

# 1605 A before dinner dash out to this one while waiting for takeaway thai to be cooked in Upper Hutt... not too far out of the way but seriously running out of closer park and grabs now. Interesting placement, and again thanks to caching, something random was brought to the forefront of my consciousness. Cheers New Zealand Trips for pointing this place out... would have loved to venture deeper down the track but it was dark and damp. Signed and returned with a little wee badge 'zone out'! Log is a bit damp but still signable. Cheers.

I had this cache in the back of my mind as I was heading to Kaitoke but I originally planned on stopping on the way back south. But because the Rimutaka Hill road was closed due a fire there was almost no traffic heading up here (and none behind me at all) so there was no safety issue ducking into this little area. I backed the car in so as not to make the mistake of backing out into the oncoming traffic later.

The cache was a quick find in a spot much easier to get to than I was imagining. The reflector had come unglued and was sitting next to the cache but everything was good inside.

The departure was straightforward enough with still no traffic but I used the common sense of music off and windows down to listen for anything about to come around the blind corner at 100k. Then the advantage of a high power car comes into effect to safety get up to open road speed quickly.

TFTC.

#6692. I had the car available this morning to pick up a few caches. Its been an emotional 24 hours in New Zealand with the horrible tragedy unfolding in Christchurch with the shootings of innocent people at the mosques. Never would have thought we would see the madness of gunmen shooting unsuspecting people spread to our shores. Terrible to think these people fled violence and evil people in their homelands to reach sanctuary here and then have a low life nutcase decide otherwise. Good to get out for a while and concentrate on something else. A walk to find a Welly Climbs cache seemed a good option. Parked here on the way. Can't recall travelling up the old road but its obvious where it used to be. The cache was quickly found. Signed the logbook and replaced the cache where found. Picked a few ripe blackberries. Very tasty. Thanks for the cache Newzealandtrips2001.

Quick and easy fond with Selb0t. We went for a meander up the track and the bees were out and about in full numbers so we quick retreated.

Out on a MEGA day pass attempting to find enough caches to make the MEGA Event my 12k find.
CITO Event over. Time now to cache my way to the Kaitoke Event.
Amazing to think that I used to drive on this bit of road.
TFTC

I really should have left the house earlier so I could pick up more of these caches on the way to the CITO, rather than on the way back. I drove the old road alignment towards GZ, getting familiar feelings of roads long since driven - it's not often that a realigned road stays in service and is kept maintained. I parked up near the end and waited for a gap in the traffic before crossing over - boy they come up the hill fast! Got to GZ and after a short search found the cache, then it was back across again, a bit easier this time. TFTC

Lots of cars whizzing past in both directions today - - - oblivious to the fact that the road used to be quite different. - - - It was interesting to spot bits of the old route - - but we didn't try following it. TFTC .

On the way over to the Wairarapa for a couple of days in the search for the hidden creatures. What do you know up pops a Troll fol-de-rol!!!!! Yeah only 70 more to go. The bling has separated from the cache. TFTC # 12,696

Found while driving over to the Wairarapa for a weekend of sightseeing and some cycling. It would be interesting to follow the tar seal down and see where it comes out. TFTC

Nice quick find to introduce a friend to geocaching!

Quick find thanks All dry here but red reflector has come unstuck from the adhesive pad and needs a bit of glue TFTC

Very lucky as I approached the cache site from the old Kaitoke Road on foot. Had a complete break in the traffic both way's on crossing and returning from the cache site. Most unusual for this very busy highway. Found cache all in good order signed and replaced as found at 2.30 pm.

A nice quick find before my appointment in Mt Marua. TFTC

** This is a log from an account split. Logged as YetiNZ **

TFTC

I am not sure what to make of this cache. I have some familiarity with this area and knew exactly where I needed to park but even then I needed to to be careful with my traffic management. The first action was to choose a quieter time of day and I thought a weekday lunch time would be better than most. I was prepared to pull into the lookout car-park and wait for a gap but it was clear the vehicle in front of me was pulling further ahead and the one behind me was dropping further back as we climbed the hill. If the opposite situation applied, I would have had to abandon the attempt.

This all meant I was able to slow right down and easily pull into the parking spot. I then made a very quick find and, after a short look around, was also able to depart the scene without traffic issues.

This certainly wasn't my most enjoyable caching experience and I would not recommend it to visitors. On the plus side, I always find it good to visit sites of old roads.

I took the Thai Guitar TB that I will look to soon re-locate.

Cache # 3,905 - Remembered from the last time I scoped this out that you can only really get this if going north. So what better time that in the daark of early morning, when the majority of traffic will be heading south, so plenty of space to slow down and find the right spot. Easy to park when there is no one behind you. However cache was a bit trickier to find in the dark than it probably would have been in the day. Found after a few minutes of searching, in the logical place, but only after I had checked some less likely but more accessible spots first. All good with the cache, although would pay to put the log sheet inside a zip-lock bag inside the container (did not have any spares with me). Dropped off a trackable. Wanted to explore the roadway, but in the dark with the rain threatening decided against it. TNSL. TFTC!

Consecutive caching day # 1,559

#9201. A quick stop off State Highway 2 in Pakuratahi. Good to have a park and grab that we needed today. GZ was all quiet when we visited. They have done a good job disguising the old road section after the Kaitoke Hill realignment, for it is now rather narrow and certainly would not be wide enough for a two-lane highway. Quick find. The cache was in excellent condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

Continued walking along the old sealed formation into the road reserve afterwards to find a number of bee hives and a geodetic survey mark used for deformation monitoring.

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.

Out for the afternoon finding a few caches around the Carterton/Greytown area.
This one was a quick find on the way.
TFTC

A quick find it passing and was rather glad of the light traffic this morning, not the best location to be slowing down and looking to park the car.

TFTC

Nice find on the drive around today.
Soon spotted the container. SL TFTC

Thanks for the cache, nice easy driveby.

A quick late night find after a spectacular Hurricanes finish. What a great end to a rather ho hum game. By crickey - that young Barrett boy is doing well - he will be an All Black any time soon.

Quick find at GZ on a quiet road at this time of night.

Thanks for another smilie. All good at GZ.

Did you know that planning has started for a Mega Event in Wellington in 2018? Check out the details on the [Wellington Event NZ (WENZ) Website](https://sites.google.com/site/wenzgeo2018/home) or visit the event's page on [FaceBook](https://www.facebook.com/groups/590545297801072/)

Thanks to the Cache Owner who has gone to the trouble of creating this cache, determining the coordinates and then averaging them to make sure they are accurate, placing the cache and registering it online for our enjoyment. Without Cache Owners doing their bit, there wouldn't be a fun hobby that we all love - so again a big THANK YOU. For our bit, all we need to do is find and log the cache that was carefully placed for our personal enjoyment. As we log it we should consider that the Cache Owner also needs to maintain it - when the log sheet fills up, they must replace it. When the container becomes full of water, they need to empty it. When the container is broken, they need to repair it. When it goes missing they need to find or replace it. Well..... the great news is we can do our bit too - make sure your log doesn't take an entire page - just a name and date. If full of water, empty and dry the cache as best as possible. Be careful when handling the cache and make sure you replace it where you found it. If it has a bag, seal it. Just remember - the Cache Owner showed respect to you by placing the cache - please respect them and fellow cachers that follow you by being careful with the cache. And if you have a spare log sheet and the cache you are at needs one, please leave it behind. Finally, if the cache does need maintenance, please let the Cache Owner know - you can log a Maintenance Log or you can drop a line to the Cache Owner. Above all - have fun and remember the Geocaching Code.

Called here this morning - with a good gap in the traffic behind me when I was driving up the hill, I had no problems pulling in to the small parking area near to the cache. Found the cache quuickly, signed log, and I was on my way again heading for the Rimutaka Rail Trail. Thanks for the cache!

After 2 previous FTFs this morning at "McHardie Street and "Mangaroa Road Deviation" this was our attempt at a third FTF and the final stop before our planned caching at Kaitoke.

Missed the parking bay next to the cache when coming from Upper Hutt but luckily about 100m further up the hill it is possible to pull into a side road (make sure you are in the right hand passing lane beforehand though !) Visibility when crossing the road was better than expected from both directions so we shot across, signed the pristine log and went back the car to log the find.

When leaving we saw another car parked next to the cache and on the assumption they were fellow cachers give them a bit of a cheeky toot. Seems this was Barnaby's Travels - felt a bit guilty at having pipped them at the post but on the bright side found some of his "Native Trees" caches later in the day.

I'm not one of those people with 'smart' phones, so I don't get instant notifications when new caches are published. However, as I prepared to sit down for my lunch I checked for new emails from this morning and there were a few new caches, one of which was VERY close to home. Mrs B suggested I dashed off to find it before eating, but I was too hungry, so delayed a few minutes to get a little food inside me. May have cost me a FTF. As I got to the end of the road there was a car parked on the bend in a position where no car EVER parks, so it was highly likely it was a fellow Geocacher. The driver seemed to be busy entering something into a phone as I passed: logging a find? Such is life, I carried on anyway.

The designated parking spot isn't easy. Basically, you have to be familiar with the road to even realise it is there, you can't see it until you are right on top of it when you are heading uphill, and if there is anyone in a vehicle behind you coming up the hill don't even think about pulling over as you'll be braking hard and scaring the hell out of them to make it into the tiny space available. As for coming the other way, I recommend you don't try it: you have to cross two lanes of traffic that is coming round a tight bend and they won't see you until they are seconds away. If it was Jodanz I saw parked up across the road in Kaitoke Loop that is certainly a safer place to stop, but then you have to dash across three lanes of 100+kph traffic on foot to get to and from the cache. Up to you. The 'Not for kids' attribute on this one is very appropriate.

Once safely at GZ the cache was an easy find. I was a bit sorry, but not surprised, to see I'd been pipped for FTF. Returned to the car, wound the window down to listen for hard-charging cars coming up the hill and when I couldn't hear any zoomed out onto the road. As I pulled out the grey car that I'd seen parked up in Kaitoke Loop pulled onto SH2 ahead of me and I heard a couple of cheerful beeps on the horn: had to be a fellow cacher guessing why I'd been stopped there .

Then it was back home to finish lunch at a more leisurely pace.

TFTC Newzealandtrips2001.

Published