Dock Bay (Te Anau, Southland) Te Anau, South Island, New Zealand
By Donovan on 16-Apr-01. Waypoint GC7E6

We thought we were going to have to log a DNF but on coming to log it in find that the cache wasn't even there!! and we spent well over an hour combing the area, searching every likely object. We finally decided that the two of us had scrambled over enough forest floor so gave up and left the area. All is revealed now!! Thanks anyway - it was a very pleasant and sunny afternoon down by the lake and in the forest!
Iris & Rodney

Javamama will be pleased to know that the money cat has been placed in the Restful Dale cache near Dunedin. Sallies has since picked up the cat to keep it moving. Cheers, Donovan.

As I was in the area, as some have expressed concerns about the environmental impact of this cache, and as there was another cache nearby, I decided to archive it. I'm sorry about giving no warning of the cache's removal. I didn't see any additional damage to the moss due to the cache.

Thanks to all 23 finders for their trade items. The only original items left were the flower pot and the two dice. The idol from Bali was converted into a travel bug called Te the Bali Idol by RangerChaCha, with a final goal of returning to Dock bay from the USA. But duvalcrawlcouple have had the TB for over a year now, and I doubt that it will ever return to Te Anau. The items in the cache when I recovered it are shown in the photo. I have been placing them in caches around Dunedin.

Cheers,
Donovan.

I've collected this cache, as I was in the area. I'll write a proper archive note soon. Cheers, Donovan.

My first last to find cache. We found this on our way out of Te Anu on a cold, cloudy day just before it was archived. We tried taking the difficult way into the woods and after sinking into the bog tried again from another approach. Found it easily once we got close. We left a money cat and hope it will be recovered from the archived cache and put back into circulation.

I helped JM be the last to find this one. She started into the woods in what was obviously the wrong place. After stepping in the bog, swearing a little, almost getting hit by a falling log, she believed me. We tried a better way in and spotted the giant box easily once we were close. Was harder to retrace our steps to get out of the woods. Good thing we had a gps, right?

i did a boat ride on the milford sound today, which was awesome. we had beautiful weather and i realle enjoyed it. afterwards i went for this cache. i got of the kepler track a bit to early. but i actually had a good gps signal. after a 10 minute search i found it. it is really a huge cache.

i wrote down some notes. nothing out, nothing in.

thanx for the cache and merry christmas

jamba

I found it very easily even if I took the wrong way and I had to walk in a difficult bush. It is my first huge cache like this. I took a photo to show to my Swiss friends who play geocaching too, because they won't believe me if I tell them it was true. I did some exchange but I can't remember what exactly. I enjoyed very much this forest.
Thanks.
Berthe

Had a quick look for this one but was beaten by thrre things.
1. A GPS that couldn't decide where it was!!
2. Daniels blood being way too nice for the sandflies!!
3. An injured tramper that required assistance to get back to the carpark.
Will have to come back with:
1. More insect repellant!!
2, A better GPS
3. When there are less people about!!
But we will get there
Cheers

5th Cache of our Kiwi adventure. What a HUGE cache container! Fantastic. This is what caches in the bush should be like, not little 500ml jobs! Pity I had nothing large to leave in there. Had a little trouble finding it in the fading light, but once I stumbled into the right area it was very obvious! Left a new pen, as I couldn't get either of those in the cache to work. Thanks Kiwitonia! Beautiful view back to Te Anau with snow capped mountains in the background from here.

I ran out of time to check on this cache while searching for the nearby Lake Henry cache, maybe next time... Cheers, Donovan.

Found it after a bit of stumbling around -- my GPRr was quite convinced that the spot was much further along the path! My wife did not mind, it was a beautiful winter's day and the trees were full of light and birdsong.

+ keyring (from Marion Falls)
- game.

On a visit from Canada, we went to the swing bridge at Rainbow Reach and then decided to make a quick trip to Lake Te Anau for some geocaching. It was a beautiful day for a walk by the lake but unfortunatly we ran out of time before finding the cache. The dense cover prevented my GPS from getting a reading closer that 10 m. Then is was off to Pearl Harbour in Manipouri to catch the boat.

After visiting the cache Lake Henry, we went to this extraordinary position this cache is placed in. It was not very complicaed to find the big box, but we where a little bit unsure if we should walk into the forest. At last we did it.
Thanks for the cache.
No trade. (all our things would be loosened in this big box.)
Reiner & Jutta

This was a good one, after proceding throught the thickest of the bush, spotted the container imediately.

Seems like you needed a truck to carry that one

Took Photos left footprints

What a mission, wet, windy and by the time we found it, it was dark as well. Good spot, but not recommended in the rain as we came out totally soaked to the bone. Neat tramp thru bush but I think we may have accidentally killed a few native bushes along the way - perhaps placing the cache where there would be less environmental impact would be an idea.

Took the electronic game (for Nathan to play with on the rest of our honeymoon...so he should leave me alone now!!)left colouring pencils.

Nice walk through the bush...took us a while to find it!
Took nothing and left nothing.

Thanks

No luck with this one today , just checked the logs I dont think I went in far enough, might have time to try it tommorow.

Bitsprayer

Found The cache easy this time, Thanks to the tip from kiwitonita the cache is quite wet, no exchange was made..


Many Thanks Robert ( Bitsprayer )

Ciotach and sp00k (NZ) and Varuna (Perth Au) went looking for this cache. Spent quite a bit of time chasing around on the wrong side of the stream before realising we had gone too far. Lots of logs lying around there some of which were pretty rotten.
Got back on the right side and tracked the co-ordinates from a different angle made it much easier to find.
Left a purple frog.
Took the travel bug Hit the Road Jack! which we have since left at Tasman Lookout, (West Coast).

[last edit: 2/27/2003 10:30:14 PM PST]

Accompanied Sp00k and Ciotach on sightseering and geocaching tour of South Is. Took a while to find the cache site after second attempt at other way around. Thanks for bringing us to the lovely forest scenery.

The 77th Toot Brigade found our second cache on the South Island, and the fourth of our trip. Like many others, we didn't follow the instructions and ended up bushwhacking a fair bit on the way in, but hey, it was fun! Thank goodness for the large size of the cache or we may not have found it due to poor reception in the bush. Took deck of cards and left some Canadian change and Hit The Road Jack travel bug. Cheers, Tonya & Daniel

[last edit: 2/16/2003 9:41:22 PM PST]

11 Feb.
An excellent view down the length of Lake Tenau, although it was cold and windy. I had looked for this on on 9 Feb, but ignored the advice to take a compass. On 10 Feb I met Kiwitony who gave me a nice tour of the nearby hyrdo facility. He also gave me a tip for this one which, in combination with the compass made things much easier. Left Idaho potato lapel pin.


Left, then retrieved a Liberty Bell TB so it could continue its journey of peace around the world.

Absolutely amazing forest, and we had lots of fun trying to get to GZ. Not having the instructions we came in the hard way, and had to negotiate several gullies layered with ferns, mosses, and soggy wood (it was like Every step could be your last!).
No problems spotting it, it kinda stands out a bit.
We hope to get back to do the Kepler track, which several people have told us is possibly the best tramping track.

Gratitude to Donovan Govan

Having just purchased our Garmin 12 via eBay we thought this nearby cache would be good practice. It's about 3km from where I live. We found it no trouble at all, thanks to being a large, white container amongst the thick, undulating undergrowth of the beech forest.

We were amazed at the contents, even having read about them. Once again, water needed to be drained out. The canned goods were rusting so have removed them for disposal. We left a new blank cassette tape but felt this was a bit tame so will re-visit and do better. Will also take a large clear plastic bag to put over the container to help keep the rain out.

Am at home now enjoying the Lemongrass & Ginger tea. And I took the cool Smithsonian Pin too - we'll create a new cache and leave the pin in it. Must study this Travel Bug thing.

A tip for easier access - instead of walking along the track until the cache is at right angles to you (at a very large tree that has in the past fallen across the track and since been chainsawed) - head in toward the cache beforehand - the ground cover is much less and results in less bush bashing.

This is our first experience at geocaching - we all enjoyed it. Thanks from Tony, Daniel, David, Scott and Kelly.


[last edit: 6/2/2002 12:25:35 AM PST]

Our first ever cache found! Great fun, a nice walk. Took nothing, left nothing but signed the book and enjoyed the bush. Thanks Donovan.

We found this cache during a visit to New Zealand from the United States. It took us a while to find, but it was still there. The little bit of the Kepler Track we saw was beautiful -- hope to return in a few years and walk the whole thing. Quite a bit of water at the bottom of the cache, but contents still seem dry. We took the idol from Bali and left a pin from the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. We will take the idol home to the US and turn him into a travel bug. We'll see if we can send him home! Thanks for the cache!
NOTE: The Idol from Bali is now a travel bug and you can track him with this number: TB26F4. He is starting his trip in Maryland, U.S.A.

[last edit: 7/7/2002 2:17:57 PM PST]

James and I arrived in Te Anau late in the afternoon, it was overcast and raining. Never-the-less we decided to head out in search of this cache. We parked at the Control Gate carpark, and were fairly wet by the time we got across the Gates. We headed onto the track, and walked until we were within 80-90m of the cache. We then headed straight for it, which in hindsight proved to be a hard path We eventually got through, and saw the large container! There was a little water in the bottom, which we drained. We returned to the car happy, and very damp campers. Great fun! [/FTF]

[This entry was edited by rediguana on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 3:21:06 AM.]

I have just added a photo of the cache to the cache report and I did some editing too.