Deer Flat (Milford, Southland) Cascade Creek, South Island, New Zealand
By Donovan (adopted by ADV, then by daywalk) on 17-Apr-01. Waypoint GC7E7

I am with Muggle on a three and half week trip to NZ. Nothing serious, just the well trodden track every NZ tourist does who is coming from the other side of the world and has not the chance to come here more often. North Island is done, Auckland Coromandel, Rotorua and Wellington touched. Even the South Island is almost done. We arrived in the Eglington Valley Camp yesterday after Motueka, Punakaiki, FJ and QTown. We enjoy three nights in this place. Yesterday we did the Sound by boat. Today there is lots of rain starting at about 8am. Probably a shopping trip to Te Anau is on the list. But before that I checked on some confluence which left an itch with me. I did not tell Muggle what my plans were for early morning. He always sleeps till 8:30 and he needs his sleep more than worrying about a crazy geocacher. Muggle was still sleeping while I indulged myself in the best and cheapest occupation ever. I parked at Deer Flat. Yesterday we stopped for the loo and I already got an impression that there may be a way over the river without swimming. Today I tried it at that point. Well, the power of the flow must not be underestimated! It is strong even if the water only reaches slightly above the knee and the stones are slippery. The walk through the wood was not as bad as expected once I left the riverbank. Underneath the trees the vegetation is less dense. And the cache was a surprisingly fast find. Just as written in the previous logs I only had to look about 25m west of the COs and under one of the biggest trees there I found the typical signs for a hide in the wood. The box is in extraordinary good shape for the age and the climate. Going back was also packed with adrenalin. Would I make it through the river a 2nd time without drenching completely? Well, succeeded. Thx to daywalk for a perfect morning walk with some adventure.

Wanted to try for this but site closed. No access.

Spent over 2 hours looking for the cache but sadly gave up. We'll be back another day.

Was für ein cooles Abenteuer!! Mit meiner Tochter ging es durch Fluss und Urwald und nach etwas Suche gelang der Fund. Habe mich sehr über das Original Logbuch gefreut. Herzliche Grüße vom Rumtreiber aus Braunschweig, Deutschland.

Had this cache on the radar for years. Forded the steam, smashed by way for 100m until the bush opened up and walked in circles until found. Brilliant and loved every minute of the adventure

Had been planning a trip into find this old cache so delighted today to be able to pick it up. The Eglington river is very low so waded across without getting too wet and headed for the cache. There were many large trees within the required grid but lucky we found it quickly. Thanks for placing this mystery cache all those moons ago and thanks to the more recent maintainence carried out by ADV and daywalk

Nice to get this old cache for it's history. The river was low and my height was an advantage so I did not get that wet. A walk to GZ then a look for big trees. Success. TFTC

This cache is the main target for this trip to the south, oldest mystery in NZ and also (judging by the number of finds over the years) a real challenge to find as well. We made it to Deer Flat about 1pm after having a few walks up the road first. After parking the car and a quick lunch, we began to size up a crossing point for the river. I thought that it might be possible to go a little further upstream at what seemed to be around 270 metres from the cache, but after making my way through thigh high water, I realised that there was a deeper pool right next to the bank on the other side so turned back.

I then took the more conventional approach down stream to where there was a placed that a trail exists on the other side of the bank. Even still it required a bit of a pull up to get up the bank that was easier said than done because everything I touched seemed to be sharp, Plenty of thistles through here and some bash lawyer to come soon after.

The walk to GZ was better than I thought, took about 20 minutes with a few alterations of direction along the way but more soft and mossy rather than root bound and lots of things to climb over. I followed a track closer to the river to start but then had to make my way more in a southerly direction to get to GZ. Once close I realised I had overshot by about 40 meters so made my way slightly downhill to where I got to within 2 metres on the GPS.

Unfortunately this is where the fun and games began, round and round I went visiting numerous trees up to 50 metres away from where the GPS was pointing (many of them more than once). Even with a recent photo available I still struggled to find the right spot. I must have been looking for about an hour (and even was beginning to think that I would have tp give it up before too long) when I finally stumbled onto the cache about 20-25 metres away from the indicated coordinates, in a direction that did not appear as open as what the photo indicated.

A big sigh of relief hit me as I was becoming exhausted from working my way through the thicker parts of the forest. Cache is in good condition due to the numbers of layers, signed the log and returned it all back into place. The walk back was quite quick about 15 minutes roughly following a trappers line all the way back to the starting point. I was thinking Mrs B and Tinytree must be getting sick of waiting for me but they had spent a very pleasant afternoon down around the river and had even been tempted to try a swim in the cool water.

All up the adventure took about just over 1.5 hours and after cleaning up we left at 2.55 pm. Thanks for the great adventure here and keeping this old cache going, mission finally accomplished.

While checking my Milford Road caches and as the river was only waist deep I went to look for this one again. Fortunately it was easier to find than the previous 4 finds (2002, 2004, 2009, 2010). It's been far to long between visits!

The highlight of the day was seeing a large, stately stag (deer) wading downstream, about 100m up from where we were on the shore by the vehicle. A stunning sight as he looked at us for ages before dashing upstream and up the opposite bank by the gravel fan.

Cache was in good order. The double box method is a good idea and having the outer protective bag is great. Took a couple of the 'sheep' bottle openers for the young children of my friends who waited patiently by the car. They will make travel bugs out of them. Thank you.

17:16
FITW GreenMenace, Garp Baxter

Oh wow, this turned out to be one great adventure! We parked up at one of the picnic areas in Deer Flat, and it was only about ~600m as the bird flies to this cache. Easy, right? Right!?
Of course, I knew there was a river crossing but there was so much more. Terrain was not what I would describe as "flat" as the description says. And it was surely obstructed. We waded the river the long way. As it was easier to go forward in the river than try and bushbash through the thistly meadow of long grass and prickles.
But as the bank on cache side was getting higher, we had to jump out of the water and still fight some of those grasses. Once in the forest, bushbashing continued but with different plants. We took a bit of a wrong direction and climbed this strange mound. Turned out that was completely unnecessary. So we descended the mound and slowly but steadily moved towards the confluence point.
And then I started finding these pink triangle markers and they seemed to be leading us right in the needed direction. Must be some sort of a rangers trail for laying traps?
That was the right track indeed and we eventually got to GZ, and one of those markers was very close to the cache too.

After some time of going round all the big trees, I finally spotted the "pyramid of sticks".

So this small 600m walk turned to an hour long bush bash, and ended up in a total of 2km distance. [Strava tracklog](https://strava.app.link/jCfIMr0ltmb)

Also, therr is an excellent wee swimhole pool, just downhill from the "Deer Flat hillock" cache. We used that on our way back and had some fun jumping into the water from the bank.

I think this will be my oldest found mystery cache. Even though it's not really a mystery. And altogether one of the 15 oldest found caches for me.

Kia ora! Paldies!
TFTC, Donovan (adopted by ADV, then by daywalk)!
#8551

No caching during Covid-19 alert levels Level 3 & 4.
This includes virtual waypoints - we need to stay home except for essential outings.
Working together, we can beat delta and keep our community safe.

[https://covid19.govt.nz/](https://covid19.govt.nz/)

[https://wiki.groundspeak.com/display/GEO/New+Zealand?fbclid=IwAR2GUaxN7zpUQI2Suglt1ggVnCqw8V1emnygD1Tdw6YTu1f4LUcIt92oZhs](https://wiki.groundspeak.com/display/GEO/New+Zealand?fbclid=IwAR2GUaxN7zpUQI2Suglt1ggVnCqw8V1emnygD1Tdw6YTu1f4LUcIt92oZhs)

Finding this cache marks the realisation of many years of trying to find excuses to come here. I have been to Otago quite a few times in the last few years but never managed to get as far as Fiordland. Today it all came together with an extended period of fine dry weather to ensure levels were low for our crossing of the Eglinton River. And Tufty and I were both in the far south at the same time and knew of each others’ plans, so we could arrange to meet up and make it a joint endeavour.

After having scouted around for a bit to find the most suitable place to cross the river, we found a spot where it was widening and about to split in two to go around a central island. We were able to cross here with the water up to a bit over our knees (and it wasn’t particularly fast flowing) and I didn’t need most of the special gear (including a wetsuit) that I had brought with me.

Tufty’s log fills in a lot of the details from here on so I won’t repeat them.
However I was quite surprised at the rapidity with which I was able to find the cache - when I got to within about 30 metres of GZ I started going from large tree to the next large tree and it was at about the fifth of these that I spotted the telltale pyramid of sticks. The cache is in surprisingly good condition for such an old one, and credit must go to daywalk for her excellent level of care, and to other finders for ensuring that the markers etc are all there. We signed the log with great satisfaction, and it’s a shame I can give it only one favourite point as it’s worth a fistful of them

Photos:
1) Tufty showing how easy it was to cross the river.
2) This is what you need to look out for at GZ!

The need to sign this cache off has been in the back of mind for a number of years especially over the past 4 years when I have been in Te Anau.

When I was here last Novemeber I even walked to the river's edge and looked across towards the GZ but seeing that I was on my own I decided not to risk it. So it was put back on the back burner. Then I was talking with agcnz who said that he would be travelling around parts of the South Island including coming to Te Anau in February. I asked him if he was wanting to do this one as well. He replied in the affirmative. I replied back with "when you finalise the date you are going to be Te Anau I will make beeline to Te Anau with my snail shell in tow as I wanted to do it as well". He duly let me know his plans and I then drove to Te Anau a few days early and waited for him.

So today we met up and drove up, parked up in the carpark and walked to the river close to the river. After surveying the river for a good crossing point we decided on one good one at S 44 59.973 E 168 00.276.The water level was just above my knees and was quite refreshing. It wasn't as cold as I thought it might be. Then the fun stuff started when we had to bush-bash through to the GZ. We encountered a few thistles as we waded through long grass first before entering the bush. Then there was a little bit of bush lawyer. For my with a bung knee that wouldn't bend fully it was a tad difficult and exhausting with only one stop to admire the scenery.

When we arrived at the GZ we split up a bit, 10 m apart, and started searching. It wasn't long that there was a yell from agcnz of "I've found the sticks! I've found the sticks!". By the time I joined him he had the cache in hand. It was nice and dry due to the log book being within 3 containers. We duely signed the log, placed the cache back in it's hidey-hole and replaced the sticks for the next cacher. Agcnz's GPS had the GZ 4m away while mine said it was 22m away.

Then it was back to the river crossing and the cachemobile. All up it was a 1 hour return trip from the cache side of the river. We were feeling very elated at having this fantastic adventure in locating this old cache. It gets a fave from me (it's a pity I can't give more than one).

Thanks goes to Donovan, for placing it in the first place, ADV, wo first adopted, and lastly to daywalk, for adopting after ADV, and keeping it well maintained.

Cheers for the cache.

This was one of the caches we wanted for this trip south as it was a date we didn't have. After a day trip into Milford Sound and a lot of wandering around chasing caches on the way out, it was 5.30pm by the time we stopped for this cache. We had checked out some details with a family member who knows this area well and sussed out the recommended area to cross the river only getting just over knee deep in the water. Gps led us a mighty chase but we eventually got to the GZ then the search began. Although in the end the GPS gave us around 1m at the GZ after we found the cache, it wasn't any help when we were looking. Finally started checking every tree and we elated when the cache was finally in hand. Much quicker exit from the area but it was now 7.30pm and we were covered in scratches. Never mind, great to get this one done. tftc

Found with StreetWalkerNZ on a day trip to Milford Sound from Te Anau. The forecast for today was for fine weather so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some sightseeing and geocaching while the going was good .
I had done quite a bit of prior research on this cache, reading previous logs, noting any posted co-ords and important info etc. I thought I had updated GSAK with the appropriate details, but once at Deer Flat, I couldn't find my notes - oops . With no cell phone coverage we relied on the GPSrs, my recollection that we should be looking to head up a dry creek bed and a photo of GZ that SW had downloaded to his phone. The first two items only were useful!
On looking at the photo gallery, the crossing point tallied with Geo-Nic's photo. Not the shallowest option, as the water was over waist deep but it did end in the fabled dry creek bed and it wasn't too swift! This didn't get as close to GZ as hoped and a bush bash of over 150m was required. GPSr coverage was pretty abysmal and at the final, quite a few trees had to be searched before the cache was found under a piece of bark rather than sticks. Phew!
Good to have our names in the log book of such an iconic (and old) cache. Thanks for keeping this going, daywalk. TFTC.

#18826. When we were working on the South Island old school challenge, I was worried one of the then 10 oldest would be archived before we could complete the challenge, which would have meant Deer Flat would become one of the 10 oldest. Given its distance from Christchurch, and the need to cross a river that might (or might not) be crossable, it would have made the old school challenge a lot harder to complete.

Anyway, the old school challenge was duly completed, and today we were finally in the area and ready to have a go at Deer Flat. Based on past logs, I felt a bit underprepared. However, conditions were perfect so we definitely had to go for it. I had sandals for the river crossing and shoes for walking through the bush. I also had drink and insect repellant (though the sandflies were nowhere near as bad as expected). The crossing point chosen was the direct route to the dry creek bed. It mean quite a deep crossing (waist deep), but the current was sluggish and the main challenge was the water temperature.

The dry creek bed was pretty easy going, but with nearly 200m remaining it was time for bush bashing, initially through a dense thicket of saplings, before getting into open beech forest. Things were spongy underfoot, and the foliage a little wet, but overall it was better than expected (didn't end up covered in mud; no encounters with bush lawyer). Once at GZ it was time to search, and it felt like a needle in a haystack job. I'd saved a photo on my phone, but that didn't help a great deal. I kept a lookout for a pile of sticks, but the last find was nearly 2 years ago, and I wasn't hopeful there being a nice pile to find (there weren't). The search was more wandering in circles than systematic grid, but eventually I found a flat area at the base of a tree, which turned out to be a piece of bark covering the cache. There was much rejoicing! Right, time to head back and enjoy a well earned lunch. TFTC.

Re enabled because of the move to Level 2. Stay safe; be kind.

New Zealand is under Level 4 lockdown from today for at least a month, because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

I am disabling all my caches for the meantime to remind people that we MUST break the chain of infection.

Covid-19 is now being spread within the community, person to person. We know that the virus will remain on surfaces like metal and plastic for up to 4 days.

We have only one chance to stop the Covid-19 virus spreading further. This is to BREAK the chain of infection by keeping each household separated completely. During this time each of us MUST keep isolated and only share with the people in our own household.

The best advice is to act as though you are infected... which you might be. We know there are cases in Dunedin... I might be infected and so might you.

If you touch a cache container, you will leave viruses on the plastic, logbook and pen. Those will remain infectious for up to 4 days. Suppose some other person finds the cache tomorrow. They are likely to pick up those viruses and will get infected.

Playground equipment is out of bounds for exactly that reason- touching surfaces can spread infection.

Each of us has to do our bit to save lives. If the Covid-19 virus spreads, a lot of us will die. Maybe your grandmother, or my friend who has just had a bone-marrow transplant.

Stay home, stay safe, let's get to the other side of the pandemic before we go geocaching again.

To much water, unfortunately!

Wow, what an adventure! I always like this kind of caches. We had sunny weather and 20 degrees. But the water was icecold. testic... getting smaller )). After crossing the waist high gras it wasn’t getting easier. I was nearly fighting through the jungle. For me as a German guy it was not a forest or bush it was a jungle . After one hour I was at the GZ and were lucky to find the box very quickly. It is in a very good condition! On the way back I tried 3-4 times a different passage but the water was too deep. Nearly 2.5m. Nevertheless I found a good point with only knee high water. But unfortunately the last 2 m hits nearly my cheast. After this adventure I was very happy that I did it and found the box. Thanks for keeping this earlier one in good condition. A blue heart is clear.

Not so much a DNF as a Did Not Make It Across The River,

I'm logging this note as a reminder that when I get another chance to try for this one to be better prepared!

I'm sure the river can be gentler after a period of dry weather, but we have experienced torrential rain over the last 24 hours or so, and as such the river was too fierce to have a casual go at crossing, especially as the point of the day was to get to Milford Sound with friends, rather than purely caching.

So whilst I'm disappointed that I didn't get to look for the cache, even though it was only 'just' over there, it still provided me with a bit of an adventure, so thank you.

A weekend in Fiordland, today caching with Tuitigger and SearchWisely.
Set out with this cache at the head of the list, and yes it’s our first for the day. Survey the river, and choose a crossing point up to our knees - quite invigorating; next thistles, overcame; into the trees, wet and damp and wet again, and it’s not a rainy day (well it will be later); surrounded by birds here and there, a robin, and fantail, and passed a little blue egg in the top of a stump; started the search before we got to GZ and four of us spent a while hunting. mr walked past it, looking for a clearing like Daywalk’s photo from a year ago, and then mrs piped up ‘found it....I think’
It was, to all our relief. The eleventh oldest cache in NZ, found, and then the iPhone went to sleep.
So, cache looks different, and yet it’s not.
We had to leave our four tails wagging with family, probably a good thing for the birds. However, Clarence got to come for this hunt.
SW found the trappers trail, and we followed that out, past a recently fallen tree, then back across the river, to the car and b’n’ep.
Trapping seems to be working, as we were surrounded by birds all the way, and I am sitting here typing a log at the picnic table with birdsong over the shoulder

We decided a weekend at our holiday home in Manapouri with caching friends was well overdue.
Not so many caches around here, so decided we shall attempt this one again after our pitiful attempt a couple of years ago.
Turned off the main road at 10.38am just as Searchwisely said its only 700m over there. Sounds easy!!!
A couple were having a picnic on the river bank as we parked the car, I changed into shorts and sandals, sprayed on the bug spray, and loaded up back pack with shoes and water.
Crossed the river in 3 stages at 10.58am, upstream from last attempt, then bashed our way through head high thistles to the bush before changing into walking shoes.
I thought i had saved for offline use, obviously i hadn't, but easily rectified to situation by plugging in 00.000 into c:geo... and 300m that way!!!
Bashed our way through the bush as annoying sticky things grabbed onto the hairs of our legs.
Started looking from 50m out, as the 4 of us did a grid search closer to the "00" point.
Mr Chosen had pics of previous finders at GZ, which didnt really help.
Mrs Chosen yelled out she "got it" at 11.59am, after about 25 minutes of searching.
Was a huge sigh of relief as we were all getting a bit of sick it and didn't really want to log a DNF, or come back.
Followed the arrows back down, and back to the car in a good time of 31 minutes for our picnic celebratory lunch.
Back on the road about 2 hours of beginning this Deer wee cache.
Thanks for my first confluence cache, worth a fav point for the river crossing, the bush bash, and for the fact that is 18 years old.

We attempted this one a couple of years ago, however by the time we crossed the river we decided it was too dark and we were too fat to run from charging wildlife if we got stranded lol. Second attempt today, with great company and much earlier. Plenty of rotten trees to sink into along the way, still we battled on in the name of geocaching. We had a couple of feathered friends encouraging us along the way, finally the magic words "got it" rang out and we all scrambled over to see. Arrived back at the car cold, soaking wet and absolutely filthy, but stoked to knock this one off. Found with MrandMrs Chosen and Tuitigger. TFTC

Yet a further cool Kiwi experience! The river was so high that my underpants got a bit wet, but it was worth it. Going through the moosy rainforest was fun. At GZ I tried to find matches with the spoiler pics, but without success. I went a certain direction which led to success and a smile on my face. The oldest mystery I ever found!
In FP
TFTC
Btw, I am surprised that are only two logs per year on average in all these years

Had been wanting to get this cache for a long time but it's a long way from home. Now that we were in the area it was elevated to a must -do, especially since the goal was to hit 4,000 caches by the end of the year.
After a warm to collect Dear Flat Wee Hillocks we set off to walk to the end of the road (the access road is now blocked at the bottom of the hillock) and investigated various crossing options along the way. Eventually at the end of the road we found what we considered to be the best crossing - a bit deeper but a smooth bottom, a safe run-out and easy entry and exit points on both sides.
After crossing to the gravel beach on the other side followed a zigzag path of a mixture of GPS bearing and blue bait line tags. At GZ, according to the GPS, we couldn't find the cache so widened the search to look at the base of all large trees. The arrangement of sticks was the giveaway so the cache was duly retrieved and the log signed.
Then a 20 minute trip back to where we had crossed the river. There is a bait line near the cache but we crossed about three lines to get back to our gravel beach.
Once again a straightforward crossing - the deeper part is only about 5 m wide on the overall crossing.
TFTC and a worthy cache for my 4,000th find.

#11,423
This cache has been on the bucket list for a long time but we never got close to the area, so when a plan for a non caching orientated holiday was hatched that included a trip to the Milford Sounds this cache was one of the few that made the cut as a MUST DO.
We had been up since 4.30am for an early breakfast and trip to Milford Sound to take a trip out on one of the tourist sightseeing boats, today was the only day in our trip that it rained (as it tends to do in this neck of the woods more often than not...)
We saw hundreds of waterfalls as a result on our boat trip so that made it all worthwhile.
On our way back out we still had plenty of time for a stop at Deer Flat, the river wasn't too high so off came the long pants for the thigh-high river crossing, freakin' freezing and quite a swift current!
Got across ok and made my way along the river till I got to the bush line, I followed the compass directional arrow on the GPS till I got to within 10m of the cache, luckily I had checked out the spoiler pic before leaving home so remembered what to look for, quick sign and back to tackle the river for the return trip, again no issues other than the wet smelly shoes for a few days afterwards

Incredible

Found with goldielover. We have just spent a week at Big Bay and had a few creek crossings under our belt. Although this one was a bit deeper. After stripping off we made a dash for the other side. That is cool. With no real tracks to follow we just set a straight line to GZ. Love the Beech forests over here. We soon reached GZ and set about trying to match photos. Did not help us at all but goldie soon spotted a SPOS (suspicious pile of sticks). Quite a bit of water had made its way through the first layer but with the other layers of protection the cache was in perfect condition. After drying out and replacing the cache again it was off to the freezing river. With no mishaps we were soon back to our geomobile.
Thanks for your great cache. Easy to give a favourite point.

Found with stairman1. We are in New Zealand for a holiday and had a few hours to spare so decided to grab this special type of cache. We read the previous logs and prepared ourselves for the cold creek crossing . Boy was it cold . The water came up to our thighs so we stripped off and headed across. Once on the other side we dressed ourselves and headed in. There was no path to follow so we pushed our way through the scrub. We got within 20 metres of GZ and studied the photos. In the end we were looking at all the trees until I made the discovery. The black bag was full of water but the cache container was dry. We signed our names and read both log books. We dried everything and put it back ready for the next finder. Now to get back down to the creek. We followed some blue arrows and eventually found our exit point at the creek. The water hadn’t warmed up or got any shallower. Safely across the river we headed back to our car.,This was a fun cache and what caching is all about. A favourite point from me. TFTC

The photo shows that Foster Bros Jr actually found Deer Flat Wee Hillocks cache - plus bloslo found that cache on the 4 March - I've emailed Foster Bros about the confusion.

Younger Foster Bro happened to be on vacation down in New Zealand and followed a group of Germans to the cache. He didn't even have a GPS or the coordinates for this one but got the Foster Bros name in the logbook.

Since maintenance responsibilities for Donovan's Divine Confluence were passed onto us by ADV last year, we planned a long Waitangi Day weekend in Te Anau. Time to make an official visit to the 11th oldest cache in the South Island and the oldest mystery cache in New Zealand! We organised a fine day, thank you Huey, and thought we'd make the trip across the river on the way back from Lake Marian to allow time for it to warm up a bit.

Had been raining... Mr D reconnoitered the river and this time we chose to cross about 30 m upstream of the Hillocks cache. A nice U shaped shallower gravel bank to follow. Mr & Mrs D were happy to only get wet to the thigh this time, but i-gotit got rather more dampish!

This approach across the grassy flats takes you across a tangled stretch where the river takes a shortcut when in flood, yuk, such a relief to get into the easy going of the bush. My expensive Oregon 700 then decided to lose satellites, typical, so i-gotit pointed out the direction.

Every tree looked the same... will we need to resort to the cheat sheet cooordinates? And then the blessed call i got it!

Pleased to see that everything is in good condition, with both the original logbook and ADV's logbook useable. Put a large silica gel sachet with the logbooks, inside ADV's 2008 1 litre lock'n'lock container. Put that inside a 3 litre snaplock box with some swaps. Then put the whole cache inside a black waterproof bag. (If you particularly fancy an item, feel free to take it and 'pay it forward' with a swap to another cache later.)

Added a few 'giveaway' white sticks - if you get to within sight of the cache, it would be nice for you to be able to spot it. But remember that sticks rot down fast!

The return trip is always easier! Then a cup of tea and gingernuts, watching a black robin around our feet. It caught a grub and then pulled out a worm - impressive!

Ever since I learnt that this was the 11th oldest active cache in the South Island it was been on my "want" list, even more so since I knocked off the older 10. Last year when I did the nearby Deer Flat wee Hillocks and could see the very low level of the river it was a great temptation that I managed to resist because nobody knew where I was. Today I was with the new cache owners so the three of us linked up and put our rusty river crossing skill to the task. River was still running rather high after the recent rain. We made it across and been the shortest I ended up with wet shorts. We still had lots of grass to battle and finally the forest was made. Once inside the bush it was easier going and the distance gradually narrowed. we then spread out looking at various trees until I was able to call out my user name. The hiding spot didn't resemble the photo that daywalk had posted on the log of 4 years ago, the branches having rotted away. The photos did help though. I left with a big smile across my face that was still there after getting my shorts wet again on the way back across the river. thanks to all those who have looked after this cache. I've still got 6 SI caches of 2001 to knock off.

We were heading towards Milford Sound for the day with tunfisk, with the main aim of having an enjoyable day, no rush, no need to adjust plans to others as we have done so many times - and have time to find some interesting caches! We were all ready to get wet, heading for the suggested and good looking spot on google maps - but tunfisk spotted a better ford about 200m downstream, with the water only going up mid calf at most! And it was not even cold, or maybe we just expected the worst... This of course meant a longer bush bash on the other side with a few holes waiting to swallow us under the long grass, but that was nothing in comparison to the whole journey! It took us a quite long time to locate the cache as the signal was bouncing up and down, and it felt like we have already searched the whole forest when tunfisk finally had a smile on his face. Two hours from the car and back, including the detour to the cache on the hill. When we located the cache, I was not even sure If I knew we'd take so long I would have taken some supplies, rather then just casually walk over in shorts, equipped only with the GPS, phone, and a couple of pens (and car keys!) Thank you for the memorable experience!!!

T-Tech and I are touring South Island for 6 weeks

Today we travelled from Lake Monowai via Te Anau to Cascade Creek, just south of Milford Sound. Along the way we stopped to take some short walks, and this one was high on T-Tech's list

We made sure to pack well, including food, water, wet weather gear, thermals, GPSr, phones, batteries, torches, first aid, Swiss army knife, (you know, all the stuff we might need, just in case we get lost out in the wilderness ) and of course MY MUD BOOTS!!! Very glad I had brought them all the way from Brisbane [^] We checked out the river carefully and soon found a good spot to cross, and after zipping off our trouser legs, and carrying the hiking boots, we took on the terrors of the deep Well, it sure was moving fast, but thanks to the mud boots, and the water only at thigh deep for me, it was quite an easy crossing [^]

A change back into the hiking boots and we dived into the beech forest. It was pretty hard slog for most of the way. Some of it we followed blue triangles, but soon lost them and just had to bush bash our way through, in as straight a line as we could. It was crazy watching the co-ords run down to all those zeroes At GZ we dumped our packs and began the search. We ended up widening the circle out to about 20 metres, and I was beginning to get quite frustrated, when T-Tech yelled out he'd found it!!! So gob-smacked to see the cache in its hidey-hole, and it was so well covered in leaves and sticks that I don't know how he spied it, but we were two happy cachers [^]

This cache has much to be happy about: more than 18 months unloved-ness, it's been around for a very long time, and it's on one of the "integer degree intersections of latitude and longitude". TFTC, Donovan, and ADV and daywalk. Very pleased to make this one a smiley so have a favourite point [^]

And our journey back to civilisation was completed without a problem as we managed to follow the blue triangles all the way back to the van. A grand adventure.

Over from Brisbane for a number of weeks "motorhoming" around the South Island with IolantheK [^]
Now on our way via the scenic route to Milford Sound spent the day grabbing as many Puzzle/Challenge caches as we could (with the occasional traditional, Multi or letterbox)

We found an "appropriate" place to cross the stream at about knee depth (at least IolantheK had her mud boots, I went in bare feet ) After donning our hiking boots we set off in a fairly straight line for GZ Not easy going as the terrain is like negotiating a lumberyard covered in moss and obscured by ferns and other scrub
At GZ we re-read the description and IolantheK went one way and I another [^] In less that five minutes I made the find (all I was doing was looking around the base of large trees [^] It was a miracle that I stumbled upon this one.

After we had the appropriate photographing and signing we headed out. We were thankful for the DOC poison baiting team that had placed some rather convenient markers on trees (so that they can find the baits they place) which gave us an easier and more trodden path back to the stream [^]

TFTC daywalk a favourite point for "intersections of integer latitude and longitude degree lines" cache

Deer Flat (Milford, Southland) was transferred from ADV to user daywalk

After finding the other Deer Flat cache, we decided to try our luck and get our get wet... we crossed the river then we changed our minds... it was 4pm, as night was approaching, we didn't really want to send out a search party. Thanks for the laugh of crossing the river twice for nothing. Back to the house to light fire and dry shoes ready for another day tomorrow. We will be back!

enjoyed the trip across the river and back alas at GZ a bit of a wander, alas no internet available so wasn't able to do some prior research, if we ever return to NZ this will definitely be on my to do list. Thanks for the challenge, some you find, some pass you by. Its not the finding it's the journey

On our journey to New Zealand, xhead and I travelled to the South and the North Island and to Stewart Island. We had a lot of fun hiking in these great landscapes, viewing a lot of interesting animals and nice peoples. Sometimes a little treasure likes this Cache was crossing our way. Thank you very much for hiding this Cache in this amazing place.
Greetings from Germany, Akirey

Akirey and I visited in April and May New Zealand. First we decided to look around on the South Island including Steward Island then we went to the North Island.
All the time we enjoyed our trip. We saw a lot of sweet animals, amazing landscapes and met many nice people.

Also we searched for some caches. This one was one of them. This was a real adventure for us. First wading through fresh water and then walking off track to the cache.

Thanks for hiding and greetings from Frankonia
xhead

Found @17:07 #5345
Day 8 of a NZ South Island exploration.
Well this one cache was the one which I was most keen to find on this section of the trip.
After finding a nice spot to park the car we continue on foot to the closest point and prepared for the river crossing.
Before crossing notice a small arrow on the tree was spotted so we crossed here and the water only just above the knees.
Due to some erosion on the river bank it was a climb up to get out at this point and onto dry land.
Then what followed was some careful tramping towards GZ ducking and weaving thru the trees, with about 200m to go which took about 15mins to finally get to about zero, according to the Etrex30.
Well due to the dense cover of trees the grind was expanded with a number of trees checked and happily found the hide by luck in only a matter of mintues. It would be easy enough to miss.
Today the GPSr was showing a 25m error in a NW direction.
Awesome fun, always great to find old school caches such as these.
On the way back noticed a number of blue arrows which I followed back to the river and once the 2nd river crossing was completed decided to take a swim and a couple of swings off the rope back where the car was parked. A great afternoon and the water wasn't really that cold. Very refreshing....
Favorite.[^]

TFTC Donovan (adopted by ADV)

Found @ 15:07
In New Zealand on a 2 week holiday with sedgwickDave. Today we drove to Milford Sound which was definitely a highlight of the trip. Wow this was truly an awesome adventure and one of the most exciting caches I have ever done! Even did a few jumps into the river swinging off a rope hanging off a tree branch which was totally invigorating! What a beautiful spot to stop for this epic cache adventure. Thanks for bringing us here!

TFTC ADV

We spent our morning kayaking in Milford Sound - truly amazing experience! Today was the best weather of our trip too - it doesn't get much better than this . NZ has been amazing & we hope to do a repeat holiday as this 11-day trip is entirely too short to see this incredibly beautiful country.

GeoHiker had this cache on our list of must-gets since it is an older cache (2001) and would give us a "?" from our NZ trip. However, the stream crossing proved a bit too chilly for Sierrawildflower...so GeoHiker forded the icy waters alone while SWF enjoyed photographing the fields of lupine against the mountain backdrops. Finding the cache in the woods took some careful and patient searching, but GeoHiker was indeed successful and returned to our parking spot victorious. Great cache - TFTC!

Crossing a stream of freezing water, tramping though natural terrain forest and finding a cache with only general co-ordinates? Yes it was every bit the D/T it says it is. We looked for the shallowest part of the creek which was probably the widest here and waded across the icy water, thigh high at the deepest. Getting to GZ through this terrain took some time but we eventually found the search area and spread out. We didn't have any photos to go by, just the hint which was a good one. It probably took half an hour to find the cache and it's quite possible we looked at the same places more than once. The cache was well hidden. It was only the tell tale sign almost making MrsG weep for joy that helped find it. You'd think that would have been the end of the challenge. But no, we took an extra long way back to where we crossed the stream because we thought the GPS wasn't working properly. The second crossing was almost a delight, we were so happy to see it. TFTC ADV and the adventure. You don't get this on the Milford Sound brochures!

WOO HOO! I am glad to say we were able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat! We had an "extra" day in Te Anau to redo Milford or Doubtful Sound in the event our tours there were canceled. Both tours happened on time so we had a free day. We cached around town and then headed back north towards Milford Sound, grabbing the caches along the way that we hadn't had time to get on our way back from Milford Sound on the 13th. We finished the day up with a second attempt at Deer Flat.

It has been drizzing all night and most of the day so I was a little concerned that the river might be higher. Apparently the drizzle wasn't enough to matter, it was a couple centimeters higher at most. There were, however, sandflies in much greater abundance today than there were a couple days ago.

We were much better prepared for this excursion. I had the cache with all the "spoiler" photos downloaded to my phone to help guide us in our search. I also saved myself the trouble of taking my shoes off when I crossed the river (and negated the risk of losing my flip flops) since I knew my shoes would be soaked by the moss anyway. Most importantly, we arrived at the cache site nearly three hours before sunset so the woods were much lighter and we had a lot more time to work with.

This time my wife came along (she wasn't much of a fan of wading in the ice water but I don't think it did any permanent damage) to help me on the hunt. After making our way back to GZ we started our search for a tree that matched the photo hints. We were at it for about 30 minutes and had completed nearly a full circuit around GZ without any luck; we were starting to get concerned when I spotted a tree, only 14 meters from GZ, that matched the photo. Somehow, when I did my search the other evening, I had checked trees on both sides of it and had failed to check the critical tree.

As they say, the rest is history. We retrieved the cache, still in good shape. It is a bit musty but the logs are dry and it was still well concealed. After signing the log we put it back and took care to re-conceal it to make sure the folks conducting rodent control don't stumble upon it. I don't normally get excited about a find but I must admit to letting out a holler when we finally ran this one to ground. Thanks for the adventure and an amazing cache!

I love "real" caches, and this is definitely a real cache. I love old caches, and this is one of the oldest. And I have always wanted to find a cache at a degree confluence. Unfortunately, it was not to be. I had no problem getting to the correct area. I crossed the river just above the location of the nearby cache (GCGEQ6). I was prepared to go up to my waist or higher based on other comments so I threw on my swimming trunks before I headed across; I ended up not getting any deeper than my knees. I changed back into my clothes on the far bank and headed inland. It was late in the day and the woods were dim as the sun was already behind the mountains. I was also surprised by the amount of water in the moss. I have never hiked in an official rain forest and it caught me off guard. When I reached the GZ I set a center point and began a circuit of all significantly sized trees in a 25-35 meter area. After 30 minutes of searching I expanded my search out to 50 meters and then, after about an hour of searching, I went back over a couple trees that seemed to jog my memory from the spoiler photos. (Of course, I forgot to load the cache details on my phone so I could reference it at the cache site.) By then, it was 30 minutes after sunset and night was fast approaching. My wife was waiting at the car with instructions to get help if I wasn't back by dark so I had to stick to my timeline. On my way back across the river I just went with my shoes on, they were soaked already from the moss. The river was ice cold but otherwise I felt I had visited at a great time. Water was low, there wasn't as much vegetation as there would be in summer, and I didn't run into a single spider web! Too bad all that didn't come together with a find. When I got back to internet access I checked the spoiler images again and realized I had not been doing my thorough search on the right trees. Oh well. It was an experience even without a find.

I did it! What an adventure it was finding this old cache. The hardest part, (getting there) took me about 45 minutes. I crossed the river at: S44 59.958 E168 0.295 the deepest part here was about 3 feet and the current wasn't too strong...
Upon getting to the other side I changed into long pants, it was definitely a good idea to bring them along!
From there on I just walked as fast to the GZ as I could. I must have taken down at least 50 spiderwebs on the way...

Thanks to the previous finder who put up a nice photo, it was not as hard as I expected it to be. The vegetation had already grown over most part of the cache, making it hard to retrieve. When I finally did get it out, I was amazed to see the first logbook from 2001! I left a couple of words before heading back to the river, this time however to the coordinates given by one of the previous finders. I would not recommend going there as the current and depth were to big of an obstacle for me to get over there. I eventually decided to just head back to my crossing point.

It was extremly refreshing just chilling in the water for a while. After two hours I arrived back at the camper. I must have touched something poisonous because my right leg is all swollen up, but hey, the adventure of getting there was worth it!

Thanks,
Erkrath_Germany

Sorry to say, we failed on this one.
We heard from this cache from local cachers Daywalk on our "New Years Event" in Dunedin and decided to give it a try.
But we tried at three places to find a path across the river - always look promising but became to deep to go without having proper equipment (trousers to change ... on each of the three spots the water would have gone way above our hips). So we decided to wait for the next time - hopefully.
Seems to establish a tradition that we leave out some here that go to our wishlist - like an omen that we will make it back some day in our uncertain future.
Funny that the owner / adopter of this cache stumbled across us on the ferry between Piction and Wellington ("May I discover your TB-backpack?") - funny coincidences all over NZ.
ADV: If you need the codes to discover our TBs (backpack, car, astronaut, etc), please just drop us a note.

Team ERw2 - Eva and Robert F. - We 2 (2512)

I am bad log the wrong Deer Flat

This entry was edited by TONY HALL on Wednesday, 31 December 2014 at 19:39:06 UTC.

I worked in the area of the eglington Valley for 2 Months. I voluntered for DOC, so I crossed the river a lot of times. But yeah I didnt try to find the Cache because I thought four years are very long ago^^
After my work I traveled with shinichi87 arround the whole south Island and when we came back to the Eglington the cache was found again, so we said we will try it.
I really love the forest at the other side and espacially the Robins
TFTC

After KullerKeks90 and I spend two days at a friends house in Te Anau we drove today along the Milford road to Knobs Flat. This was our second stop. First we found the other normal Tradi next to the carpark. KullerKeks90 worked here in this forest for the DOC since the beginning of january, but she never looked for the cache, because the last foud was nearly 4 years ago... Afrer she finished her work we travel now around NZ and before starting our trip I took another look at this cache. We saw that daywalk found it and so we said:" Ok, it is still there, so we can try it". As I wrote, KullerKeks90 new this forest quiet good and so the rivercrossing was no problem and although the first meters in the forest. But as we got closer we couldn't get a good GPS Singnal. Sometimes 4 Robins were looking at us. Finaly we could find the tree more then 25 meteres from the given coordinates, but that is because of the forest. TFTC and the hard walk, now I knew what KullerKeks90 did every day:-)

Was looking at Nemesis' hide list a while ago (how many still active have we still to get?). This one looked intriguing... if the position format used in NZ changes do people have to go and revisit all the new confluences?... so it was on the list as a 'must do' on our trip to Te Anau. At the start of the Milford road a police officer waved us on- they were pulling aside all the campervans that morning - to check driver licences perhaps? At Deer Flat we found that the campground has been closed for safety reasons, so an extra few hundred metres walk to the river.

Seems like the river's gnawed into the true right bank a bit over the last few years... looked like going across to the upstream dry creek outflow would be shallowest with a good exit point. So, mutual support it was http://www.mountainsafety.org.nz/assets/images/About%20river%20safety(1).pdf, nice cool water, smooth bottom, very gentle current... but the last two metres were the deepest... a Gollum voice squeaked "My preciouses, I've lost my preciouses" and we were up to our waists.
And this was after a hot dry spell- what would the crossing be like in normal Fiordland weather?

The advice about going up the dry creek bed was useful, and we were soon at GZ. Leaving one at GZ as anchor and SI robin entertainer http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/south-island-robin, the others started circling... and circling ... ... ... how long is it since it was found?... over three years... and it's only one litre... well things will have rotted and grown over won't they... .... .... eventually the five minute warning was given and we gathered together 21 m from GZ, ready to leave.

A final sideways glance at a tree which had already been searched, without that tree branch in the way those two small rotten branches side by side look almost suspicious... crumble at a touch... nothing in sight but reach right under - IT'S THERE!!! Sorry Key Summit and Milford Sound, but Mr D says the sight of an old plastic box was the highlight of the day.

Cache is in good shape, dry apart from the well-wrapped original logbook. We added an extra snaplock bag around the container. We rehid it in the original hollow on top of the buttress roots, completely covered by large pieces of bark. On top we laid a very obvious pile of large branches- if you get this far you deserve an easyish find!

On the way out Mr D scouted upstream and found the crossing point the DOC trappers use.

S44 59.862 E168 00.170

It's about 30 metres upstream of the dry creek outlets, marked by coloured ties on a vine hanging down over the bank. There are good roots here to help you climb up/down the eroded riverbank. Only up to the upper thigh on the return, didn't get our shorts any wetter!

Don't know exactly how long this all took, but we had a well-earned lunch back at the car before we kept going to Key Summit. Many thanks for a fantastic caching experience Donovan and ADV!

DNF. Had ten minutes to find to maintain schedule but came up short.

At last we have done it. Our first attempt was on 3rd of March 2007 when we found the confluence but not the cache.
The undergrowth has grown a lot in 3 years and the lack of deer is obvious making for a bit of a bush bash.
We did not have the luxury of a kayak to cross by the stream and walk up its bed, the easy way in.
Crossing the river while not deep was a really COLD experience. It took two attempts.
The orange track markers mentioned by Kiwitonita were put in by DOC to lead them to a large tree which has a marker on it saying Bat roost.
We took SuperElf's Cape Breton Highlands National Park Geocoin and will drop it off in another National Park Cache. Left a large "Fly" and Light Stick.
Thanks for the toughest cache we oldies have ever done.

Over the river and through the woods, to Deer Flat cache we go...

Well I thought I was fully prepared. I scoped out the river crossing, I had spare shoes, I had a good stout stick to steady myself in the current, and everything except the clews. Sadly without them I was defeated.

Thanks for the cache anyway. If I am back in this part of the world again, I will definitely make another try.

Auf Grund eines Team Account Splitt logge ich diesen nun mit dem eigenen Account nach.
Die Geschichte zum Log kann bei Cache.Mike nachgelesen werden.

Vielen Dank fürs Verständnis und Grüsse

---

Because of a Team account split I'm logging this one with my personal account.
Please read the log of Cache.Mike to get the story about this find.

Thanks for your understanding and greetings

[size=1][font=Impact] .... [orange]JoshThePirate[/orange]

WOW - this is exactly what Geocaching is all about!!!!! [^]

After managing somehow dry through the river, I also took the dried creek bed to walk up hills. As the GPS point straight to the left I followed the arrow through the woods On GZ I was prepared for a longer search party, but when I turned around I saw the Cache

This was an awesome adventure, even the Muggle highway is only about 600 meters away

Thanks for this great Cache and sharing this nice place [^]

Found again (4th visit) while checking my caches along the road. Fiordland has been dry so I got across without getting shorts wet!! Came up dry creek bed and back the same way - it's easier I think apart from the 20m band of thick, tall spindly stuff alongside the creek where there is more light. It comes to a sudden stop though, giving way to the deep beech forest. Moss was very dry too. Birds appreciated insects being disturbed and fluttered about. Took ages to find - I really should trust the GPS! While too far south I spotted lots of orange tape on trees - poisoning operation? Cache all in good order, took "Brownie Bug" travel bug - will drop it off in Christchurch. The original log book is still there and still very wet - I should have removed it for drying properly.

[font=Comic Sans MS][orange]Kia Ora[/orange]

Oh boy.

We did the easy cache on the way to Milford Sound and decided that this is a nice DOC campsiste for the night. After we did set up camp I had a short look at the oregon and saw this one. Well why not? Because I didn't have any picture or connection to the internet.
That and Martina didn't stop me so I only had the minor problem of crossing the river ... after the heavy rainfall of the past days.

I did it old school. Wading. I could say that after a high pressure laundry (twice) my pants were pretty clean I was pretty wet but hey - it's all for a cache isn't it? The dry creek wasn't much of a help since I crossed the river a little bit downstream and from there on is was all green hell ... but not too bad. Still ok. The cache itself was found easier then I thought and also a traveller will remain here :bad:

[green]Dankeschön & Cache On!
Martina & Philipp[/green] :bad:

P.S.: see more about us travelling apac at http://traces-in-the-sand.blogspot.com/

Yeah, I did this one only for tasdevil13, because somehow he's always dreamt of finding a confluence point..... To me it was just an ordinary cache hunt with a bit of an extra challenge because of the river crossing and because I did not wear the right shoes.

The forest over there was beautiful and I enjoyed the hunt a lot, except for the last bit: The fact that the cache box is placed anywhere at a radius of 50 metres from the coordinates, invites everybody to trample down the beautiful and fragile moss and plants - a fact which I really do detested. I was very happy, when my husband found the box pretty soon.

Wow! That was an experience!
At first my wife didn't want to go, but then she saw my disappointment and she thought, well, maybe, I should try it.
At the end, we had a great walk through the river (P.S. AFAIK the river contains Didymo upstream, so Check, Clean, Dry afterwards!) and we finally found the spot.

I can strongly recommend to take a parking spot in the same rest area, but further north than the other cache GCGEQ6. From there you can spot a red tape dangling in the bush... Go for it...

TFTC and for my first confluence point
Roland aka tasdevil13

Found it for the 3rd time, this time with son Daniel on a sunny day. River too high as expected but we'd taken a kayak this time so it was easy to get across dry. We used some thin rope to retrieve the kayak as it was only a single man type. Aimed for the gravel fans upstream of the parking area and only 100m or so upstream of the direct line to the cache. Walking up the dry creeks is sooo easy then ducking into the bush later on minimises bush bashing.

Daniel found it easily. Even though it's my third trip it all looked different so I think it was good luck as we were just beginning a grid search as soon as our 76CSx said 20m to cache.

Took the liberty of placing the cache container - which was dry inside - on the roots above ground level but under the bulk of the trunk to give it some shelter. Placed more of the traditional broken branches standing up.

Curious to find the source of the rushing water noise up the hill we went back to the dry creek and walked up it for a few minutes and found it very close to another creek with a small steam and small falls. Walked down this stream bed (90% dry) toward the river and were amazed to see it suddenly vanish into the gravel underground.

Carried on down the dry creek bed to the river, jumped in the kayak and back to the car.

Very enjoyable and look forward to going again. I wish I'd done more preparation though and taken plenty of desiccant for the damp original log book. Thanks - ony and Daniel.

A bit of prep required for this iconic SI cache - lots of bug dope, more bug dope then a little extra just to make sure of protection. Some sandals on the feet, remove the electronic goodies to a higher place, get the radios working then off I went.

Brrrr. Took the straight line approach to the cache which took a while and after a few encounters with bush lawyer took a more roundabout approach to it. A 15 minute search of GZ in ever widening circles came up with the result and a big smile. Then the trip back down was about as evil as the way up, I didn't find the fabled dry creek bed.

Back across the river and more bug dope and a good feeling to have this cache off the list. TNLN Thanks.

How could I go past this one? The famous Deer Flat! Luckily the family were accommodating, and happy to wait while I went off bush-bashing. The river would have been pretty dubious to cross at that level - but luckily we'd bought the kayaks - which made that part a lot simpler. The fact that the 60CSx had died a few days previous - and that the backup 60CS was obviously not going to work - meant that I was going to have to rely on the nüvi! I'm glad noone was there to see how silly that would have looked! Crashing around in knee-deep moss and rotten logs - trying to keep the car GPS dry. Despite having looked at the clue - and seen the spoilers - once I got to the general location - every tree looked the same, and I couldn't remember if the hint referred to a tree or a log. I initially looked at Zorgon's coords - and went around in ever-increasing circles, looking pretty much everywhere. It was only when I thought to check closer to the posted coords that I finally ended up in a better spot, and finally spotted the very obvious 'Donovan Sticks'. Coming out - I discovered that the obvious dry creek bed upstream of the 'cacher line' is actually very easy going - and it would be a better way to go in. TNLN, Great adventure! -Thanks.

River crossing was the better part of this find as bush walk was rough with no tracks so was hard going. But was worth the walk.1st find for day on the way to Milford. TNLN TFTC

Fairly quick find, bit of a hike to get here. River was very chilly. TNLN, TFTC

I only had two caches on my “must do†list for this South Island holiday and this was one of them. A bit worried about the river crossing but the level was pretty low today and got across with nothing higher than the knees getting wet. Bloody cold water though and so was pleased that I had brought my neoprene dive boots all the way from Hamilton especially for this crossing.
Fairly uneventful walk to GZ and was even guided for a short time by a friendly little South Island Robin. Quite an odd sensation walking on the thick mossy carpet and rotting organic material – almost like walking through snow.
Started a star type search working out from a reference tree close to indicated GZ going out about 20 m each time. No luck on the first 360 degree scan and was regretting that I had forgotten to bring the spoiler pic of the cache location which meant every tree had to be searched thoroughly. Extended the search radius to 30 m and tried again. Just about to call it quits after one and a quarter hours of hunting when I found it about 26 m from indicated GZ. A huge sense of relief rather than excitement after all that searching. Pleased to have seen all the "zeros" momentarily come up on the GPSr screen twice during the search so happy that I made it to the “devine†location.
Can’t beat a nice physical challenge like this in a stunningly beautiful location.
Many thanks
PS: I make the actual cache location S44 59.994 E167 59.983 EPE 10m which might make it a little easier for the next hunter?

Ran the Routeburn track from the Glenorchy end before taking advantage of the very low river level to take an English visitor to his first cache. He used the opportunity to photo Fantails and Bush Robins. TVMFTC

ADV has kindly offered to adopt this cache. I am less able to maintain the cache than him, because I am currently working in Sydney. If he accepts, then this will be my last log as owner of this cache. Cheers, Donovan.

Logging GenCuster's Compass Rose Geocoin in/out.

Found, will update later. Took jeep TB

log update;

Without a doubt the number 1 cache on my list to find on our SI holiday, in fact if I'd found no other caches on this trip but this one I would of been happy, a truly awesome and satisfying cache to find.

Crossed at the same point as last year (and same as everyone else it seems), knee deep last time but river a bit higher this time, nearly to the point that might have caused a bit of a retreat of certain areas.

Initial bush bash to get beyond the river border not as bad a I remembered and then, as described by others, into the forest proper and relatively easy going from then on. The forest itself is rather amazing and quite unlike anything I have seen before, almost like a magical or fairy tale setting.

Fairly quick find once at GZ. Eli_The_Moose's lunch box has done a sterling job, no moisture or dampness in the cache at all. Original logbook (well wrapped in a separate glad bag) very damp still, too wet to write in but still in good condition with no signs of mould at all.

Replaced cache container with a 4 sided loc one, left a new log book, 2 gel pens, pencil plus sharpener, and a whistle.
Picked up Jeep TB and logged GenCuster's Compass Rose Geocoin through.

A great cache, many thanks.

[This entry was edited by ADV on Sunday, January 20, 2008 at 11:57:20 PM.]

Darn, beaten by some rain the night before - the river was deep, fast and needed a boat! With son David I was keen to go and check it again - and to get the Jeep moving of course!

Wow, two finds in one month. Thanks Eli_The_Moose for your maintenance efforts, they are very much appreciated. Cheers, Donovan.

Went for a nice day-walk to the lake at the head of Falls Creek; had enough time to go hunt for a cache while on the drive home, so I did.
The Eglinton is a big river indeed, but has some excellent crossing points (provided it's not in flood) - the bend nearest to the cache site is NOT one of them! If you get stuck, try the ford at 45 00.017' 168 00.445', or anywhere in the next 100m downstream. The water was only shin-deep for me. From there it was an easy 600m walk to the confluence, and the cache was a quick find.
As the zip-lock bags were in a sorry state, I replaced them, and donated my lunch-box. Sorry, this is not a good cache container, but it's better than none. The log-book however was in surprisingly good condition - all the previous entries but one were still readable, and I was able to add my own . Took the battery (which would eventually rust and leak...) and left a Jeep TB.
This is a great place for a cache and I really enjoyed finding it, thanks!

Congratulations nofs. You have my admiration for being one of the few who have actually found it. Cheers, Donovan.

Completed "wee hillocks" quickly enough while plucking up the courage to give this one a go - afterall it was only snowing very lightly! Looked at the river and figured it was crossable at the point nearest the cache. Got across with the bottom of the shorts soaked but a centimetre or so of "critical clearance". Wandered up and down the bank getting the exact line of approach sorted and then went "straight ahead" (regardless of terrain) on the indicated bearing. The etrex kept coverage until registering 10m from GZ, carried on another ten paces and stopped. Figured the cache had to be within 50m!! Actually it was about 5m away! Spotted a couple of suspicious bits of wood and extracted the plastic bag from the mulch behind them. The logbook is no longer really usuable but the historical item is still there! Put a AA battery (all I had with me) in one of the bags as eveidence of being there.

Floated back out to the car on the euphoria, drove into Te Anau for some heat and food. Met The Bohemian in Fiordland Bakery (great food and run by Bitsprayer's sister in law!) and had a good chat. Fanastic caching experience - it doesn't get any better.

Point taken. I'll contact kev n chris to ask them to change their find to a note. Cheers, Donovan.

I wonder if Donovan could tell me why this is an Unkown Cache as opposed to a Traditional. I do not know what the definition of an Unkown Cache is, still a learner at this fun game.
Cheers

Good question. It currently shares its symbol with puzzle caches and other caches that don't fit into the usual type definitions. The reason why this cache is unusual is because it's both a logbook only cache and a divine geocache. The divine part means that it's on a whole numbered degree lat. long. grid intersection. Cheers, Donovan.

My apologies to kev n chris for the tone of a previous (now deleted) comment questioning their log. I am also a bit confused that it is listed as a puzzle cache.

Well done to have reached the confluence point, that much is a major mission in itself and you have suceeded. I wonder if the cache itself will ever be found ?. I hope so, there seem to be a few of us now that are getting very interested in it.

[This entry was edited by ADV on Friday, March 09, 2007 at 2:46:14 AM.]

While getting as close the confluence as the conditions would allow we did not find the elusive plastic bag.
As residents of Te Anau we waited until we knew the river was low to make our attempt at this one. There has only been 3mm of rain in the last month. We crossed the river and did not get our knees wet. Off into the bush and worked our way through ferns up to our shoulders. After half an hour bush bashing we made the general area. Top priory was to find the confluence, and after some effort the GPS said 45 00.000 168 00.000 but by the time I got the camera out it had changed to 45 00.000 168 00.010 Bugger !@#. Reception is so ficcle even with dry trees that I could not get the perfect reading again. Chris had our old Lowrance GO2 and I was using the new Garmin GPSmap 60 but still the confluence eluded us. The effort involved to reach the cache area and the time of day, 4pm meant that we were not keen to hang around to long in case we could not find our way out again so we did not spend long looking for the plastic bag. I have attached photos of our gps within 2 of the magic figures. I would suggest that the degrees of difficulty and terrain be increased to at least 4. It is a pity that the area is such that an acurate reading is so diffcult to obtain. This would be the most difficult cache we have attempted and congratulate anyone who finds it.
TFTC

[This entry was edited by kev n chris on Thursday, March 08, 2007 at 1:58:42 PM.]

Found a good place to cross the river from the camping area, river broadens out nicely and the water level all below knee height. Bashed on into the bush a couple hundred metres but as I headed more into the forest I lost reliable GPS coverage.

Reluctantly decided to call it off due to the two obstacles of patchy reception and difficulty of getting through the undergrowth, though the undergrowth seems to get less the further you are away from the river.

Will try another day with a better receiver.

Yeah, it's not exatly a drive-by cache. Sorry to hear that you didn't find it BK&J. You are the first to even make it over the river since Kiwitonita checked on it two and a half years ago. Cheers, Donovan.

Managed to make it across the river which seems a small feat after looking at the previous logs. Getting across wasn't as easy as I'd thought it would be, but I managed to keep my wallet dry. Once over, I made my way to what my GPS was indicating was ground zero. With only a couple of week old vague memories of the pictures to go on, I soon realised this was going to be a tough hunt. I got to what my GPS60 was indicating was the general area (got it down to 3M) I proceeded to hunt around. I didn't have the hours to spare to complete the grid search, and seeing as this has been unfound for going into the 5th year, I decided to call it a day. I'm sure the bush will have changed a lot in the time since it was last found, and the cache is after all, only a plastic bag, so I'm picking it would be well buried by now. The return river crossing became an intersting experience. In my hunt for a safer crossing point, I came close to being swept away. I found what seemed to be a less swifter part, but was unsure of the intial depth, on testing, found it to be too deep. Having now got my wallet wet (yay for plastic money ) I thought I'd just keep going. Then the force started. Luckily I was able to hold onto a tree branch and pull myself out. I crossed back at my original site without further incident, wet and empty handed. Good luck to anyone that attempts this in the future, and if you find it you have my respect.

Looked at this one twice today...in the moring I looked at the ice on the grass and felt the temp of the river and thought later....then many hours later i still looked at that water and thought its dark in the bush some other time.
Its a must find cache location for me on a hot summers day.

We called back into Deer Flat on our way back to Te Anau but the river was rapidly rising, we were cold and wet and so we decided that we would leave this adventure until another day!
Thanks
Iris & Rodney

I really don't think we could class this as a ( did not find) as the river beat us today. I was attemping to have ago at this one after getting the nearby Wee hillock caches, but wasn't comfortable about crossing the river in heavy rain.
Will have to wait till next time.

Before leaving the region to live in Christchurch, Anita & I checked our caches along Milford Road. As it was a warm day and the river lower than last time I could not resist another look at the confluence. Anita, quite sensibly, stayed in the car watching in comfort. Kept in touch with 2-way radio this time which was fun. Cache bag is just as left but the lapel badge was going rusty so removed it. Next time I visit I should take a few large clean & dry bags. Here's a couple of pics. Check out our very nearby Deer Flat Wee Hillocks cache too. It's a lot easier to enter & exit the bush a wee bit upstream of where the shortest path would take you. About 50m further upstream you'll see a gravel fan entering the river - this is a creek when raining and makes for easy access through the bush when dry.

[This entry was edited by kiwitonita on Friday, August 26, 2005 at 2:37:44 AM.]

Deer Flat has been one of our favourite spots since moving to the area 20 years ago so it was a pleasant surprise to find a confluence just across the river. We set out to find it yesterday and failed due to fundamental errors – wrong map datum in GPS and no compass! Pity, as the river was fairly easily crossed near the rope swing but was very cold at 8 degrees.

So we went again today, better prepared but the river had risen a lot, meaning we had to cross downstream, supporting each other.

Thanks to the compass and taking bearings this time we were able to make a fairly direct line to the general area. The bush thins out about 50m in from the river bank and is just ancient beech forest, moss and ferns with very tall beech trees. Due to poor coverage - 3 to 4 satellites at half to third strength - the bearing and position readings were really jumping about when within 30m. Even when left still on the ground the readings would fluctuate. Donovan has been wise to sensibly state an accuracy of 50m on the Confluence web site.

We looked at the bases of about 20 larger trees and were thinking we'd better head home when we found it - the GPS still didn't show all the zeroes - I think it'd be a fluke to see them lined up in these conditions. We logged the trip and left a “Clyde Power Station Opening 1994†button. Does anyone know if a wet tree canopy is worse than dry as far as reception is concerned?

The return crossing we did further downstream still, not far from where the turn-off to Deer Flat joins the main road. The cup of tea in the car with the heater going was pretty good. A good afternoon out.

If the river is low it’d be easiest to cross where the road ends by 2 barbecues and the swinging rope. There’s also a toilet there on the edge of the bush.


[This entry was edited by kiwitonita on Monday, January 23, 2006 at 1:34:39 AM.]

I think this has to be one of the most satisfying finds yet! We passed it on the way to Milford Sound, knowing that we would hunt for it on our return. Sure enough, we returned and managed to drive to about 250-300m from the cache, next to the river. The river was flowing with a reasonable volume given the rain and drizzle. We hummed and through about it, and decided to cross downstream of the cache, leaving us about 300m from the cache, but on the right side of the river. We crossed through the cold water, and at the deepest point it was approaching close to the nether regions. Next we adventure through undulating ground, dense with ferns and prickly stuff. It soon cleared out a little and we were able to make our way to the general area of the cache/confluence. After hunting for about 10 minutes around the area, I noticed what looked like the work of a human Logged our visit, and walked out happy, and changed into fresh, dry clothes and turned the car heater on full! Great fun! [/FTF]

[This entry was edited by rediguana on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 3:23:39 AM.]

I have added a link to some photos of the bush around the cache (and maybe of the cache itself) to the cache report. Cheers, Donovan.