Awa Tapu Cemetery Nano (Kapiti) Paraparaumu, North Island, New Zealand
By tmann421 on 29-Apr-17. Waypoint GC74T52

We were a bit daunted by this high difficulty cache but it was an easier find for us in the second place we grabbed. Maybe we are smarter than we knew? Or maybe Wellington just has their fair share of nanos and that makes us feel chuffed! TFTC. It was a beautiful spot to pay our respects.

Had attempted to find this on another occasion, but too many people around GZ. Popped back today, and while it was a perfect day for visiting old loved ones, the visitors were far from GZ. Not many of the traditional tricky hidey holes were necessarily on offer here, so kept my mind/eyes open and search area large. Eventually, absent mindedly feeling my way around, out came the cache. Very sneaky!

I took the train out to Paraparaumu for a golf date. I am early, but I planned for this and brought my bike along.So I sort of did a loop around town before heading out towards the golf course to do more.The number of times I have checked for this hide style is beyond counting (mainly because I have never counted it) and out of all those, this is the ONLY one I have discovered. And rather a nice implementation, too.I thought it was going to be tricky getting it out but no. Would love to hear how you did that.And the golf? I completed my round of nine with a score of seventy-five! Frigging AWESOME!! Supergolfingman!! (hey, it is my second ever game, and the last one was over thirty years ago!). My golfing partner got similar so we were well matched

Dragging my adult daughter out for a few caches and some fresh air.Few people around which made it a bit harder, but my daughter guessed the location. Great little cache - thanks.

Today was a day, and for reasons... I needed to get out and about and Geocaching was the answer. So I did just that. My decision was further reinforced by finding, amost several others, a cache that contained a bunch of motivational quotes. One was "Today I choose to be happy" which was definitely the focus of today. Here was one of the geocaches I found.I dunno who told to CO that "too many of his caches are easy finds", but they should keep their opinions to themselves. I initially spotted something in a tree that looked promising, but it turned out to be litter (it's in the bin now). After that I spent some time looking and looking and looking, and eventually an idea occurred to me that I had come across before and sure enough the tiny little cache was found.---Thanks to tmann421 for placing and maintaining this cache. I enjoy each and every cache I find, and it is only with Geocachers like this creating them and placing them out in the world that this wonderful game continues.[DGSc-Bulk] tagging to help me generate a list for GC30AD8 - DGSc Challenge.

Visiting the area to attend an event at Paraparaumu beach. Afterwards we had some time to collect some local caches. Targeted caches with high FPs. Got to GZ and looked for something different, and soon the log was being signed. Thanks for the smiley.

**19,818**This was a nice quick cache find, in the second place we looked as we had a similar memorable cache find in Nelson that has stuck with us through the years so is a bit of a go to place to check now. TFTC

Was very keen to avenge this DNF from 7 years ago!
Haven't cached on the Kapiti Coast since then!

On that occasion, I was driven by my muggle sister....so as you can imagine, it's hard to find a tricky one when someone is waiting impatiently!

Today, however, TrinityNZ is kindly driving me wherever I would like to go on the Kapiti Coast....and this was on top of the list....as I heard it was pretty good!

Wow how brilliant!!
Most definitely a Favourite Point !
How on earth did you come up with this idea?
Never seen anything like it .
Very pleased with this Smiley
Many thanks!

Replaced the full log, good to go.

Found much quicker than expected. Took the last spot on the log sheet with the geokids. Had to write small to fit both us and lil_bean4 on it! Thanks for the cool hide.

Good spot and a nice walk around

A cool find after a quick 9 holes over the road. Definitely best to visit when no-one else is around as it took quite a bit of fumbling and feeling about. Many thanks for placing the cache here. Deserves a favourite point. The log just has space for one more name.

#12,767. Armed with a bit more knowledge of the cache it was time to return to avenge my previous DNF. I have found 3 other caches hidden the same way so should have looked for that option last time. But I didn't. I guess you get fixated on a particular type of hide and don't broaden your thinking. Anyway this time I had it in hand in 30 seconds. Nicely done and very well hidden. Thanks tmann421 for such a clever cache hide.

Got around here a bit before dusk - so wasn't in danger of having to search in the dark. Thanks for this more challenging cache.

Amazing find after much contemplation and nasal gazing!!

Well, this was tricky. We looked for ages, while chatting to the nearby chickens and trying not to look suspicious to the nearby muggle in her car. I thought I would need PAF when I decided to try one last thing and there it was! Favourite from me

A neat hide here - simple, yet elegant and hopefully at pretty low risk of going missing. If and I hadn’t found quite a few of the CO’s caches before, it would’ve been much trickier. TFTC. KTG

Out with KTG for a small road trip north to Paraparaumu. Decided we'd stop and collect a few caches along the way. This hide didn't take us too long to find (thankfully the cemetery and crematorium was completely empty) and we were soon signing the log. I'm glad we have got a few hundred finds behind our names. Or we may have struggled with this one. FP from me for the creativity of the hide. Not seen one done like this before. TFTC

Running late, about to walk off...one last check????? Yep! Clever clever!

Came with Nanniekerr who could not find but easy as pie for us - we are tmann cache fans

Finally found with KingSportS after a few times looking. Very clever tMann!

The statement "Have been told that too many of my caches are easy finds" is slightly amusing. I've not found that to be the case but to be honest what makes them "easy" is consistently accurate coordinates. A lot of COs are extremely lax with their coordinate precisions and it makes finding their caches more of a guessing game than a GPS navigation exercise. I have noted many times on tmann421 caches that the coords are always dependable and that's what makes them so findable.

And so for this cache that preceding waffle is 100% relevant. The GPS took me to a place where I basically had 2 or 3 options and without bothering to widen my search area (like I said - it's never necessary) I examined what I could from one position and sure enough a tricky little cache revealed itself in a place that I almost couldn't believe. Quite a creative use of a nano and gets an FP from me. TFTC.

Once I extracted and signed it took a while to roll up the log again despite only being a "short" log that didn't need to be wound super tight to go back in. But the biggest problem was the sudden appearance of muggles stubbornly looking in my general direction (no they weren't watching me but I didn't want to return the cache while in their range of vision). So I headed over to a seat to plan the next part of my journey and returned the cache a few minutes later.

Went for a little jaunt this afternoon to pick up two or three caches over this way. This was the last of them. Probably not too many potential hiding places at this point. Located it reasonably quickly! 4389. TFTC.

Bracing ourselves for a lengthy search on this, however upon reaching GZ, junior calls out ‘found it’ within 10 seconds! Nice hide!
Thanks!

The Great Geocaching Tour of NZ Cemetaries rolls on! This cache set me back on my heels a bit! No obvious place to hide a nano, so think laterally about obscure spots and discard impossibilities. Fortunately all quiet at GZ as I put a few theories to the test. Finally found what I was looking for. FP from me for a hide to make me think! Tftc!

last one of the day for me, a quick find courtesy of BFG - and a peaceful spot to search. TFTC, Number 10113 for me.

Found the tricksy hide after a modicum of searching; and always enjoy the serenity of boneyards. Thanks tmann421!

Loved it - tricky!!! Cemetry empty at dusk on a Sat so was able to have a good fossick with muggles mother joining in. We had a laugh.
Cache all in good order and tucked away again. TFTC.

Queen's Birthday long weekend, and a newly published cache. Cue a call from a mate yesterday asking me if I was going to go for it? The timing wasn't great for me, having had to work half a day, so we hatched a plan to venture up the track today. For once the weather looked like it's going to be perfect for tramping/caching, and that's how it turned out.

My last cache for the day. Even though I felt absolutely shattered by this time, I don't get down here all that often so I just had to have another go at this one. As with before, I check all the usual places but even with 2 years more experience under my belt I'm still struggling with this one. I'm sorry to say that I had to resort to a PAF, but I'm glad I did so I can finally avenge an old DNF.

Thanks for the great cache. Such a simple idea, but well executed and gets a FP from me

Ah clever clever ! but i found one like this several years ago and with the knowledge that this one was very tricky i thought Aha! as soon as we got to G Z so it was very quickly retrieved, signed and returned
we were down visiting paraparaumu for the day geo caching and these two caches at the cemetery were two of first caches for the day. This first one was quickly located, signed and replaced before we moved on to the next cache nearby,
thank you for this cache
this deserves a fav point from me ! thank you

It was a good day to go with haydn.seek to the Kapiti area today leaving the rain behind us as we travelled south. Today's caching was not about numbers but rather to focus more on special caches, particularly Wherigos and learn more about doing them. SearchSteve joined us when we got down there and later we had the very helpful support and assistance of Flowerydaze and Tallia64 in learning how to do a reverse Wherigo. This was much appreciated.
This certainly was a sneaky little hide but haydn.seek was quickly onto it. We signed for the three of us searchSteve, haydn.seek, geodatum = SHG. TFTC.

Very clever hide, although I found a bit easier than I expected to for my first 3.5

very well placed hide, but had an idea of what I think I was looking for and got it first pop, gets a fav always enjoy a cache with a little twist.

Was just about to give up when I tried just one more idea! How clever
Gorgeous gardens as well

This was such a clever hide! TFTC

Wow this one is tricky. I went up and down the fence for 5 minutes looking. Discovered a blackbird nest in a tree. Did not see the cache. Will need to read more logs it seems. A hearst with a coffin pulled up at the building nearby. Decided it was time I departed the scene.

Pure fluke we found this one. After not getting the last one we were feeling a bit down so glad we could end on a high.

I only had a few minutes to spare before I needed to head back to Wellington and as this is one of my nemesis caches I wasn't optimistic. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I looked for a short time and drew a blank but then it occurred to me that I had noticed something about a certain item and sure enough on further investigation I soon had the cache in my hands.

Fortunately it took about ten minutes from arriving to having re-rolled the log and returned the cache which meant I was in plenty of time to get back.

Phillipa_B's name was on the log so it should have been there when Supernanny visited. I guess therefore that whatever Supernanny found wasn't the cache.

A poignant moment as I left as I happened to pass the grave of a person who had been a very good friend, it is a joint grave with that of his mother. I had not recalled that his grave was here, call it chance or providence that of all the graves in the cemetery I happened to look straight at it!

TFTC which gives me a new Wonders of the World souvenir.

Was on holiday for a few days in Wellington, and trained up here to catch up and go out with my sister in Paraparaumu today.
We were here for quite a while...but did not find the cache on this occasion.
I spotted one out of place item, and got quite excited... but there was no paper inside so I guess I was wrong....
Next time!

It was proving to be tricky when I had an I wonder moment, around 30 seconds later my sister had found it! Clever wee hide

Checked cache, all good here replaced the log but the old one was still pretty tidy.

Thought this cache was going to take ages to find, but parked the car and found that we were only 4m away from it and youngest son had his hands on it within about two minutes! A very sneaky hide indeed, think it would have taken me a lot longer. TFTC

I came up the coast today to boost my numbers for September.

Pulled in from the South, after heading up the gravel road (I'm becoming more familiar with it as we've started coming this way to avoid a lot of the traffic when leaving my in-laws house in Raumati). It just started to rain when I started looking, but luckily I was under the trees here. Quite a bit of back and forth, looking at various options but nothing was showing. I was almost about ready to quit when I thought of something else and after a couple of pokes and prods I had the cache in hand. Signed and replaced and then headed to the gates in very heavy rain (which I gave up on). All good here, very sneaky! TFTC

My first attempt at doing this cache, and reading through previous logs it appears to me to not be that unusual to fail to find this cache on your first go.

So I will no doubt be back to have another crack at it at some stage

Had some help from Clippie with this one for my second visit. Found with Dellz727. Was a very nice spot for a cache and well thought out. TFTC

Find #3074. Needed a day out but the cold southerly limited the places to go, so headed north to hopefully see more sun. Showers and a cool wind were around most of the day but not as bad as further south.
The two caches here were an aside from the main goal of the day. I spent some time looking for this but eventually persistence paid off. Found an abandoned nest in the totara and plenty of lovely brown speckled stick insects.
The cache itself was more felt than seen, very clever hide, deserves a favourite point. SL TFTC

Finally.. Lost count how many visits I have made to complete this find. Not the first here today either.. TFTC. Nice hide.

New log sheet placed.

After our walk came to the cemetery and after a bit of a search this was a find for me. We signed the log and returned. There is only 1 space left. TFTC

I noticed one of the attributes for this cache was that it would take less than an hour. After spending a few minutes here, I began to think that an hour might not be nearly enough for me.

However, I eventually had a brainwave and I checked a place without being too hopeful. I was delighted to lay my hands on the cache.

This might seem a bit strange but I don't seem to mind nano caches when it takes me more time to find them than it does to roll up the logsheet. An obvious favourite point here.

Wow! Clever hide.
A quick find. I read all the logs about multiple visits and my heart sank.
Then I had a ‘I wonder if’ moment, and cache was in hand!!
Thanks.
One less sandfly in the world, too, so much success.

Well it's the WENZ Mega Weekend and a plan was hatched to motorhome (as we thought it would make a difference from sleeping in a car which is our normal accomodation method) down here in the company of HKCB, & 11HPG11 (and connecting up with Alpenmilch80 later today) and head for a few caches along the way.
As time was of the essence and we had planned to spend bugger all time at the actual mega but rather head for specific caches that we would otherwise not collect.
The record keeping for this trip was a total of 1750kms, (fuel = $450) and less than 100 caches, plenty of Beer & Wine and I still call it a complete success as we got what we came for.
Following the Big Mountain Virtual we collected this one on the way out, and fortunatly for others (we were in a 6 Berth camper van) we had the road to our selves
thanks for the palcement

MEGA TRIP 2018.

As usual with the annual MEGA event, we partook in our annual MEGA Trip. However this year was a little different from others, with much more sleep and a little less time caching than usual, but just as much fun being had along the way.
The general goal for the trip was to focus on all the new Virtual caches published over the last year, visiting Cape Palliser (for the Southern most cache in the NI), and Castle Point, along with spending time at the MEGA Event. With this in mind hiring a campervan from Hamilton and seemed like the best way to tackle this goal, plus sleeping in a car with four people, would just be too cramped!
The trip was a great success, and our goals were achieved. A big thanks to all CO's for there hides.

LEG 2: Virtuals and exploring Wellington: Todays plan was to tackle the two new Wellington region virtuals, plus a few of other caches we had on the must do list.

We got lucky with this find as it took no time at all to find. Though I haven't found a cache quite like this on before I had a similar idea to hide a cache in this way. Thanks for the evil hide.

It's Mega time! This year we decided to hire a motorhome and travel down in relative luxury, very different to the last few years. Our team this year consisted of Cats&Dragons, HKCB and later on Alpenmilch80, and myself, logs were signed as MEGAHOAC. We went on a bit of a whirlwind trip round the lower half of the north island, chasing virtuals, earthcaches and anything a little bit different.

A nicely camoed cache that had us going for a moment. Plenty of room to get the camper up nice and close to provide cover while we searched. Thanks for the hide.

Found it with kesdan01 after a couple minutes of smart searching!!! TFTC

Took a few minutes too find with hayz85. TFTC

This was tricky!
After 10mins I tried texting a friend for a clue but before I could get a response the penny dropped and the mystery was solved.

Thanks for all the fun and occasional frustration tmann421

Having read this cache page some time ago I didn’t think it was going to be a simple park and grab however after my nice quick find at ‘GC74VY3 Gates to Heaven’ I was feeling reasonably confident, so I parked up close to where the GPS was pointing and started doing some homework.
Difficulty 3.5, no hint, and the use of the terms ‘tough find’, ‘took a while’ and ‘such a difficult cache’ in the first three logs….. my confidence was starting to fade.
Stepped out of the car for a quick unsuccessful search of any likely spot and then it started to rain!
Back into the car for a more careful read of quite a few more logs when a couple of very subtle hints jumped out at me. Then a casual glance out the rainy car window…… I wonder….. Leapt out the car and had cache in hand! You’re a sneaky bugger tmann421. Gets a favourite point from me. SL TFTC
NOTE there is only 5 or 6 spots left to sign on the logsheet so will need replacing soonish

Bit of a tough find. Needed a bit of assistance with this one.
Finally found and log signed and returned.

Took a while to spot this one. Clever hiding place. Have to give this cache a favourite. TFTC

As we were driving along the road, the MSP half asked the name of this cemetery, revealing that a friend was buried here about 20 years ago. After an amazingly quick find while the Phoenix half was still reading the description, MSP went for a wander and located her friend at one of the gardens. A special visit for us, and the Phoenix half is still wondering how such a difficult cache was located so instantly!!! TFTC and a FP from us.

Caching with Ethnz. This one took us a while and two visits but we got there in the end. Thanks for the find.

When we first arrived there were young muggles parked right beside the cache so we left them in peace and went to find the other cache and a friend’s grave. By the time we returned they had left and our hunt began. We read previous logs and knew we were on the right spot but couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Left to have and and seek advice. Returned in the dark and found the cache so easily it wasn’t funny!! I did see the hiding place earlier but didn’t think anymore about it - GRRRRRR. Anyway tmann, a great sneaky hiding place so favourite given.

Tough one! Another hide I might have DNF'd without the help of extra eyeballs.... or hands! Thanks for another creative hide!

Caching with lostcheq and Mocrin on an adventure halfway around the world. Nicely hidden. A sneaky one. TFTC

TFTC Another Favorite for one of your caches! Visiting from Wisconsin, US, with Mocrin and Aix sponsa. Clever hide. Found after a few minutes. Had a great time in NZ and hope to be back some day.

Trusted the GPS and went straight to it. Cunning hide. Thanks for the cache.

11.15am. This may be my fourth visit here but it was the first without muggles in sight. So I was ready for the long haul if necessary. However it only took about 30 seconds. Forgot all the places I'd looked before and found it at the third spot I looked. Definitely a favourite point for a cunning hide.
Thank you. David.

Another abortive attempt to find this one. Owing to a muggle problem at the gates I decided to move on to this one but I have now spent a total of an hour or more on it without success.

2nd attempt today.lliterally a minute to find.

I called back here this afternoon for another look and was pleased to find the tricky little container after a couple of minutes.
Thanks heaps for the cache.

No luck today

Considering the amount of time some people have spent looking for this one, I consider myself very lucky (or skilled ). Oh well, does make up for the DNFs that seem to happen from time to time - - - sometimes on the easiest of hides. TFTC .

A rather special corner of the cemetery for me as a close family member rests nearby. So, two reasons to visit here today.
I decided that the best approach was to stand back and study the GZ before me while running through a mental checklist of possibilities as to what the hide might be. One of them was right but I didn't spot it initially. However on a slightly closer inspection there was something that caught my eye, and the more I looked and studied the more convinced I became. Time to check it out, and yes, gotcha!
Very pleased to have made a find on this one on my first attempt, very tricky.

FP awarded, TFTC

Some caches are just destined to become a saga. Having first tried back in May, then three or four times since then, finally sought a hint -thank you Flowerydaze! Turned up this morning but had to wait for a funeral group to file into the chapel before approaching GZ -then with GPS in hand and hint in mind, moved in -to find the cache lying in plain view on the ground. Good thing it was small enough to be unnoticed by the mourners who were parked less than a meter away! Was able to retrieve at leisure, relax in the car while signing, then take the time to replace it carefully in its den. Thanks tmann for a real challenge, gets a definite fave from me

Cache # 3,841 - Had a fair amount of time today, and nice weather, so decided to tackle this one. I gathered from previous logs it might take a while, and that was true. Had to dodge a few muggles visiting departed relatives. Took about 20 minutes to put my hands on the well placed cache. Trusted coordinates and revisited centre of GZ three times before I found the cool hide. Worth a favourite point. TNLNSL. TFTC!

Consecutive caching day # 1,519

This took me a while. Too be honest quite a while. It was all pretty obvious really AFTER I found it. Ha ha. Cheers and TFTC

Bum

Bum

7/6 I just noticed these in my drafts. A friend & I tidied up a good friends daughters site today. You are remembered Catriona. Tftc

I needed to make a trip to Otaki today so decided to spend a bit more time and score some unfound caches. Unlike the previous one at the cemetery gate, this cache was definitely not a quick find. The coordinates were not all the accurate so the GPSr was putting me a bit out into the carpark which resulted in my spending some time searching the wrong objects. Found it eventually, a very clever hide. Signed log, TFTC

See my log on the Gates cache.
Wasn't too optimistic here but after a DNF there it was worth a try to clear a dot day.
No luck, I did spot something intriguing looking but it was out of reach in what appeared to be an out of bounds area which would not be T 1.5 to access.
Though it does not appear it was likely to be the cache, I would have loved to see what the heck it was!

Accompanied Yeetrees and Gonefishing on another excursion into the hinterland escaping Wellington. We found a number of caches around Otaki and Levin in our journeys. The driver pointed me in the direction and then spent the time chuckling to himself while I hunted out the hide. A very good hide[^] Nice one. FP.
Last cache for this outing according to my GPS records, thanks to all the CO’s who placed the caches for us to locate.

Obviously the geo-eyes weren't in tune today, will have to revisit and try again.

A quick grab of a few caches after completeing the Akatarawa traverse.
TFTC.

On my home from doing the Mothers Day duties and decided to get the 2 new ones at the cemetery. All quiet so afforded me a bit of search time for the tricky little thing. Checked the usual places then looked at trickier places and came up with the goodies. Worth a FP. TFTC

Exciting find! Clever hide.

I was very keen to find this one today - it being a dot day. Arrived at 3.45 p.m. No-one on this side of the cemetery fortunately and I'm out of sight of the KCDC Parks and Reserves staff working on the other side. After 15 minutes searching (and determined not to leave until I found it or darkness fell, whichever came first), I returned to the spot that the GPS consistently pointed to. After another look, Hey Presto! I was so pleased with myself I've awarded it a FP. Nice hide tmann. Thanks for the cache.

This has to be one of my favourite caches when tmann421 and I put this one out.

Published

#9132. {FTF} at 09:48. A nice drive to Valley Road in Paraparaumu to check out the Awa Tapu Cemetery Nano. GZ was all quiet during the visit. After some observing, examined a number of potential hiding spots, but did not find it. Widened the area and looked some more – still nothing. Eventually returned to near where the GPS initially pointed and searched some more. Hey, bingo. Tricky and very well hidden indeed. The cache was in excellent condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

Thanks 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.

First to DNF.
I had a good look for 10 minutes or so but came away with nothing. Hmmm.

2TF with bkj97. What would he do without me? T4TCSL added favourite

Nice quick 2TF with little blue hen who was right on the money with her guess where it would be once the gps settled. Nice one.