Hawera Christmas (Taranaki) Hawera, North Island, New Zealand
By spotonbob on 30-Apr-17. Waypoint GC74T5F

I am regretfully archiving this cache since there's been no response from nor action by the cache owner within the time frame requested in the last reviewer note.

Hi spotonbob

This geocache was brought to my attention as being in need of an owner maintenance visit and after my previous reviewer note, there has been no owner response. The cache owner needs to check on this cache ASAP and either replace it or archive it, after picking up any geo-litter. See the [maintenance section of the Geocache Listing Requirements/Guidelines](http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx#listingmaintenance).

I've added this cache to my watchlist, and I will check back in four weeks to be sure that the maintenance has been done. In the meantime, I have temporarily disabled this listing. When the maintenance is completed, the owner can enable the listing by clicking on the link below the cache name to return it to active status.

Whatever your intentions, please **post a note** here on the cache page (not email) to let us know that you are still active and maintaining the cache. If a month passes without seeing a response, then I'll assume that this listing should be archived.

Please note, that if a cache is archived due to lack of owner maintenance, the cache is unable to be unarchived.

Regards
TheCoddiwompler

Teamed up with Cats&Dragons, for an overnight mission down the West Coast focusing in and around Hawera. It's been awhile since we've done a trip like this and it was great to be out finding caches again. We left Hamilton at 7pm Friday night and returned midnight Saturday, with only a few hours of sleep needed we managed 116 finds for the trip. A big thanks to all the cache owners for their placements.

Searched this on pretty well, but like others have mentioned I think this one gone. Great tree for climbing though.

this was about the 5th go at this one with no luck

Up in Taranaki again today so in light of finds since my last look it was worth another visit to try to displace this unhappy face. Unfortunately another epic fail for me today.

Seeing mention of the word "climb" always makes us wary, but as it was into not up we decided it might be ok. We managed to climb inside and slightly up, but couldn't find anything.

Wow what an amazing tree. OK is it up there? Good excuse for The Seagnoid to go up as he loves his tree climbing. The rain is back but we are well sheltered under this amazing tree. After much searching I found this elusive one without having to leave terra firma. Now tagged. Cheers I love trees Fav from me..

Day 4- Tuesday 17 December. Hawera district today.
Running around the Hawera district today in Toby, while Zara rests up. Checked Manawapou viaduct and Nowells Lakes.

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.

And... now it's raining. This ended up being the theme for the next few days, which was really annoying. Still we are sheltered under this tree. It would be an awesome climb, would make a great tree climbing cache, except that I think everyone would then find it. Including those we don't want finding it.
I climbed up 4 m but in the end there was no climbing required. Quite a bit of hunting was needed though. Added a path tag.

Day four of Taybeedragon's and my big 3 week circumnavicaching trip around Mt Taranaki, starting from Palmerston North. Today is Hawera - it's going to be a slow trip!!
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!

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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](https://coord.info/GC87777) - you won't want to miss it!

Found 12.35pm
Day 2 of Squirrel Nutcase and my road trip south, now from Whanganui back to Rotorua.
Mission completed with collecting TMGT caches, and as to day 1, great history.
Will have to come back at some stage as there are so many caches in area.
Thanks to cache owners for the cache placements. SLTFTC

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)... This weekend’s mission was about completing the North Island leg of the TMGT. It involved a fairly extensive road trip through the Wellington, Manawatu/Whanganui, and Taranaki regions. We also made a plan to pick up other caches along our driving route...

We did what we were supposed to - climbed into the tree and took a look around. The most recent logs seemed to indicate that this cache was in trouble. There wasn’t any recent maintenance notes, so we climbed out and searched lower. Gap found the cache lid, but nothing more. We were in two minds, but decided that this one was worth replacing - a specimen jar between 1.8 and 2 metres above ground level (seat side)... Thanks spotonbob and TFTC.

I pulled up to GZ and had a silent gulp as I knew this could easily turn into a 'needle in a haystack' type of search - there are so many possibilities!

I happily entered into the tree and climbed up a little but I wasn't seeing any signs of a cache. I thought maybe I'll head back down and go around the other side of the tree as there might be another 'entrance'.

As I was making my way around the tree I spotted the cache without a lid on the ground at the base of the tree. I found the lid ~1m from the container so once I attempted to sign the damp log - this will need to be replaced; I placed the cache back where I found it. CO may want to check up on this one.

TFTC

A planned geocaching trip to the USA was shelved (but is all go for this time next year!) so we came up with a weekends Plan B. Taranaki with TheWanglers, KarmaReprint and KiwiMoose - logs signed (TK)^2 or a variation of. A really fun trip with the forecast rain and thunder seemingly always in the distance but never hindering us. A really fun weekend.
Arrived in New Plymouth; grabbed the rental and hit the road running - aiming for Hawera....
Hawera finally arrived at...accommodation checked into & tea finally eaten. A bit of light drizzle - but keen bean use figure there is still a bit of time for a few more find and signs.
4 pairs of eyes eventually found it open and scattered on the ground - put it all back together and back to GZ. That's a big jobby of a tree - must be awesome in flower. Cheers.

A quick find as it was in the open and quite full of water. Drained it out and put it back at the base but it will need a looksie.

Up here for an awesome weekend jaunt with Team Gators, TheWanglers and Karma Reprint to do a loop of the mountain in 48 hours grabbing as many caches as we could while having a good laugh. Logs signed as some derivative of (KT)^2

Cheers spotonbob for the cache

A plan was hatched for a few of us to head to America for a Mad Mission. With life getting a bit crazy a downsized trip was organised as I had sorted childcare for the cachelets. The big America trip is now set for next year. We asked a member of our crew if we could go to Nelson, Dunedin, Auckland, Wellington, Hastings the answer all came back "I don't have many to find there". We left it to that member to suggest an area. He came up with New Plymouth and a loop around the mountain. That's a go from the rest of us. We sorted puzzles, gpxs, motels and a car and hit the ground running. The forecast was doom, gloom, rain, hail and lightning. Oh well, sounds exciting. We had very little of any of the weather that affected our caching and found we had all overpacked (thank God!).
Day 1: We grabbed the car and started caching at 2pm and made it to Hawera after 8pm settled into our accommodation and had a bit to eat and hit the town before calling it quits for the day.
Found on the ground.

Thanks for the cache spotonbob.
#6120
Find 66 of 80 for today.
Find 66 of 224 for the trip.

A quick and easy night time find. 4 pairs of eyes helps. Cheers

Day one, New Plymouth airport to Hawera.

A long weekend cache raid to Taranaki. The weather didn't stop us doing anything, and we had fun times. Logs were signed with a combination of KT and 2 depending one which of did the signing. Thanks Kiwi Moose, Team Gaters and TheWanglers for a choice time.

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

Awesome find have signed and put back and also left a little something xx Happy hunting

Have searched high and low can not find is it still here

We had a reasonably good look but we did not come up with the goods in this case. A lot of area to look at.

Cool tree. I did give it a go, but not being 10 years old any more, and seeing many other DNFs I didn't put too much effort in to it..
(seriously a cool tree though)

Gave up at 19:26

ISAG

Made it to first level but no sign- lots of DNFs wonder if this one has walked. TFTC

Searched high and low but I think it's gone missing. Will try again another day

Might not have found it but I had fun climbing the tree.
Didn't like to go to far up on account of the rain and potential to slip, but I did get as high as the nearby pole in two different areas of the tree.
When I got home and saw the posted pictures I realised I may have been over eager in my elevation. Next time I know what I'm looking for since one of the pictures proudly displays container and will look a little closer toward the earth

Tricky for three little girls.

Bit hard for our young girls, might come back with a monkey!

Lovely sunny day and a chance to go exploring...and geocacing locally. Clambered all over the tree but didn't find what we were looking for...we'll be back. Tftc

A little too slippery for me to attempt to find this one.

Found tree and realised that I had read the difficulty and terrain ratings but not the attributes. Pensioner with a dodgy knee and alone. I reckon the terrain is far too low. Maybe another time.

We were in this area today caching with a local stalwart 2Bullbars,our first visit proved un successful as we had entered the tree and that was all and we had a good look around, we left empty handed so while in transit to another cache we used the PAF option and they replied we had not gone deep enough so we called in on our way back to our accommodation and ventured deeper into this glorious tree and she soon exposed what she was disclosing within log signed and replaced as found.
Thanks for the placement and the smiley.
I think this requires a higher difficulty rating.

As we are locals we knew this tree was here and had intended putting a cache here but probaly under the seat that isnt there now. Also looked at this tree for a final for a multi but wanted somewhere closer to town
We found it after phoning a friend and going back and looking again
many thanks

This was an awesome tree to climb, got hubby to drop me off (it was early) and he went off to find somewhere to buy a belt, no muggles at all so was free to climb and hunt, the wind was bitter but nice inside the tree, they came back I had hunted all over before kaleb joined me and found it within minutes, gets a fav I really enjoyed the tree it was an easy fun climb.

a quick up and down, a fun cache and a lovely spot, TFTC

Quick stop and find, had to explain to police why on a tree at night.

I dont generally climb........thought to give it a go at night........... Trying to explain to police had to be the most difficult part! Fun hide!!!

The rain had finally stopped so out for some fresh air and a walk. Being a wet cold afternoon, no one at GZ so was able to do the job without observation. A nice little hide, thanks for the placement spotonbob.

Was making my way north to New Plymouth for work and was seeing clients along the way and decided that I would pick up a few caches if the time allowed.

After finishing a meeting in Hawera I decided that I would check my GPS and see if there was any caches nearby and notice that there was a cache that was worth investigating.

The drive to GZ didnt take too long and I was soon there before I realised, once I got to GZ I saw how big this tree was and thought to myself this is going to be fun, where the heck am I going to start looking for this cache, wow what a great specimen of a very healthy Pohutukawa.

Decided to do a walk around the tree before I decide how to approach this cache, after a short walk I soon decided that this was going to either take me a long time or I am going to find it quickly. Decided to have a look at the most obvious spot and work from there, I was quite surprise that I was able to find this cache as quickly as I did, as I spotted something in the corner of my eye and it was the cache.

That was definitely a very sneaky hide, very surprise that the cache hasn't being muggled especially with all the signs of muggles being climbing all over this tree. Thanks for placing this cache here and for bringing me to this lovely spot, TFTC TNLNSL (12325), definitely deserves a favourite point.

Thanks for bringing us here! Took TB for Ride back to central island, TFTC

There were a number of muggles coming and going we had to be mindful of, but no one seemed to pay any attention to us.
It took a little bit of searching to finally spot it, but we got it.
We left a pet rock - a parrot, & dropped off a TB.
Thanks for setting this up spotonbob

On a day trip out with Shelbells so time to pick up a few 2BB caches on the way to Hawera, spotted and on the radar a while ago but now get to find GZ log signed SB and BB. Mission accomplished, this one is a wrap. Thanks for the cache from Blenheim Bear!
This cache posted with CacheSense for Android.

After knocking off the New smiley series plus a couple of other hawera caches myself and Blenheim bear made our way here. Up and in I went to retrieve from its hidey hole, lost my shoe in the process! Log signed as SBBB.

Time to head back to Feilding after a great weekend in Taranaki. I'll have some time to do a little bit of caching on the way, but I don't want to go mad, as I want to get back to Feilding in daylight.

What a fantastic tree - had a great time trying to figure out how to find my way inside. Quick find once I had figured it out. Giving it an FP for location. TFTC

What an amazing tree - a really noble giant! Felt a bit cheeky fumbling around for the cache. All safe again. TFTC

Bit early for Christmas but never mind enjoyed the climb a quick park and grab TFTC

Another good find with jackeesback on a road trip today.
*Nice quick stop* - I really enjoyed this one, cool tree!
SL TFTC

Nice climb thanks

Travelling through to New Plymouth to do final details organization for Mum in laws 90th birthday in August and had to locate a t least few caches en route. I entered the 'cave' from the correct side and soon found the cache as it was very visible and stood out quite plainly so i re hid it with a little more of nature's covering so it wasn't so obvious to kids who must like exploring this tree.
Thank you for this new cache and another smiley face.

Very majestic nice hide many thanks

I used to live near here and as a boy 60 years ago loved playing in this, what was then, a huge tree. It certainly is a magnificent specimen so it was great to revisit. Many thanks for placing the cache - spot-on!

Driving past on our way back from a weekend in Wellington I recalled this went live while we were away, so a quick pull over for a look just on dusk. KrystalKath actually found this one, and thought it was a FTF but Rick-a-mortis' stamp in the log precluded that. Great tree, possibly even better than New Plymouth's Wee Reserve, GC558J0. TFTC

First to find . A nice cold night in the Naki. Amazing tree . Good hide thank you for putting in this cache .
Look forward to many more

Published