ACoIaF # 19 Brienne of Tarth (Lower Hutt) Lower Hutt, North Island, New Zealand
By jefraser on 03-Jan-18. Waypoint GC7GPKA

This cache was my turn around point this morning after coming up Fern Gully track.Once I got myself into the right area it was a quick find.Thanks very much for the cache.

In the final week of what has been a 2.5 month working holiday through South East Asia and Oceania. Some roughly accurate overall trip stats:~ 830 total finds (non-AL)- 424 in Australia- 196 in New Zealand- 131 in Thailand- 40 in Hawaii- 14 in South Korea- 12 in Nevada- 5 in Indonesia- 4 in Malaysia- 2 in Laos- 1 in MyanmarOf the 830 total finds, roughly 110 of them were multis (my favorite cache type).14 year 2000 caches including all of the year 2000 caches in OceaniaOldest caches found in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Indonesia9 virtual only fizzy fillers (5/5, 4/3, 1.5/3.5, 2/4.5, 4/3.5, 2.5/5, 2.5/4, 2/5, 3/4.5)2 earthcache only fizzy fillers (2.5/3.5, 3/3.5)4 California original fizzy fillers (5/2.5, 2/4.5, 3.5/4.5, 4.5/1.5)Many thanks to all the COs who have placed these caches for me to find!------------------------------Wow, you aren't kidding with the terrain on these ones. I did a loop of them that started at the top of the mountain, ran down along the ridgeline before cutting straight down into a ravine with a creek running through it. The trail down the ravine was incredibly steep with me loosing footing and sliding 10 feet down the side into the creek at the end. It was a challenge to follow the pink tags near the creek as well as the vegetation was much more lush down there. I made it through without dying though! And with only one DNF despite almost all of the caches being 2 years lonely. Thanks for the adventure. I was looking for a challenge today and got it.

Having a lovely time up in these hills. Love the beech forest. Quick find on a beautiful spot. TFTC

I had a crack at one from this series when I first came up from Days Bay. A T5 this close to a track? Too easy!!

It was not easy at all. With that one abandoned, I managed my expectations a bit. A quick trip up a hill and I scored one, and my only, from this series. Cache is in great shape and the coords are bang on.

Shoutout to the CO. I’ve never seen a power trail with this terrain level. Placing these must’ve taken some determination!

Together with BigDarkFreeze! Thank you!

Thank you! Kiss

Another quick find today. TFTC

Apologies to the CO.
I found this cache a while ago but have been very sporadic with caching for a while due to the pandemic, and this find was left as a draft on my app.
TFTC

The main purpose of our trip to the Wellywood region was to join forces with Mr Huhugrub, and make a start on the ACoIaF series.
Mrs rattll and Tess the geodog stayed back at camp while Mr rattll set out on this quest.

We loved the Game of Thrones series. Brienne of Tarth was another one of our favorite characters.
This was the last of the series for us today. Can't wait to launch an attack on the rest of the series

Thanks for setting this great series of caches up

#12,720. Enjoyed a day of tramping with rattll to find the first 19 of the “A Cache of Ice and Fire” series. We started from Lees Grove and returned via Fraser Street. Between the two trailheads on Rata Ridge Track, the ACoIaF bait line portion was 5.3 kms and we took 5 hours 40 minutes, including cache and lunch stops. A pleasant tramp in good weather today.

We arrived at #19 now and continuing on the ridge east of Gollans Stream in the East Harbour Regional Park in Wainuiomata, Lower Hutt. GZ was all quiet at the time of our visit. Found after a short search. The cache was in good condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

Thanks for the placement, and for bringing us to this site, and …

.T h a n k s. .f o r. .t h e. .c a c h e.
.M a u r u u r u. .k o e. .n u i. .a t u. .h o k i. .t e. .k e t e r o k i.

I am in Wellington this weekend, and today had a few hours to myself so decided to head out to Wainuiomata to try for a few caches. I don't get over here all that often, the last time being on Leap Day of last year.

These original ACoIaF caches have been on my radar to do ever since I was fortunate enough to share all the FTF's on the later additions to the series. I can't believe that was 2 years ago! Since then I have been meaning to get back here and finish the series. I knew that today would not be that day, but no harm in making a start on them.

After the initial climb to get up to this track, I was enjoying walking along here as there wasn't another soul around which made for casual searching whenever I got to GZ of a cache. I initially missed the 'turn off' for the bait line and ended up taking a harder route for 50m but no major issues doing that and I soon found the easier route and was at GZ where the helpful Hint made for a quick find.

No issues to report with this cache or the log, which was soon back in place again ready for the next cacher.

Thanks for setting this cache.

Decided to try and do the first loop of the ACloF series. Came up the zigzag track. Thanks for placing the cache

First leg of the ACoIaF series. Last one for the day! Quick find as per hint. All good in container. Tftc!

#9169. I decided to take a day of leave and thought it was time I made a start on the ACoIaF series of caches. I had looked at them for a while and had decided to approach them in a staged way doing a northern loop today and later a central and southern loop. So today I headed out to Wainuiomata and headed up the Lees Grove track to pick up the first 19 ACoIaF caches. Took me 6.5 hrs to do the loop at a very slow pace. A speed freak would halve that time. Loved the native bush up here and the hidden valley. My favourite type of caching. Must admit I haven't read the books or seen the TV series. Heard others talking about it so have some concept of what its about but its largely escaped me. Still happy to visit your caches!

Well my fun day out in the back country has almost come to an end. Just the quick walk down the main track to go andthen down Fern Gully track back to the car parked near Lees Grove. This was a quick and easy find not far from the main track. Signed the logbook and replaced the cache where found. Thanks jefraser for the cache and the fun day out. Favourite awarded for setting up such a fine trail of geocaches out here in the wop-wops of Gollans Stream.

Nice quick find, short hop from the main trail!

TFTC jefraser #841, 22 February 2021

The only one of this series I attempted today. WIll have to come back for the others some time soon now I'm familiar with the terrain & access points to the Rata track. TFTC

I have a free weekend!! What should I do? Okay, I am working on a streak and puzzle cache dot days and a puzzle streak, but once I have a puzzle cache... decided to head into the hills above Wainuiomata. Following some bait trails - old hunter trails. Sometimes the track was overgrown, sometimes big trees had fallen on it, a number of times I simply lost the track and just bush bashed my way to somewhere, expecting to pick it up again.Took about 8 hours to do the figure 8 without the tail. A could have done the tail... Oh well. Another time.
Loved the track, loved that the caches were a decent size, and that most were actually dry. I have dropped a number of favourites and even more pathtags.
Thanks for an awesome day!

Note to self, next time bring pencil

Out for a stroll with Fozzmiester, doing the first secton of thh ACoIaF series, starting from the Zigzag track.
TFTC jefraser

Found while out for a stroll with gonefishing. This was the last for today's efforts. An enjoyable walk/climb/scramble but fairly tiring. No problems with any of the hides and for the most part managed to follow the trail with only a couple of minor deviations. Will plan another visit to continue the series.
TFTC

Found. Now do I choose to find more or go home?

Find #3186. Completed a 14.6km loop, starting at Zig Zag Track, onto Rata Ridge, up to Mt Lowry, north along Lowry Ridge to Wainuiomata Hill, across the bridge and up the ECNZ road to Mt Towai, then down Konini firebreak and back to the car. Blustery Nor'west wind and quite cold early on, but mostly sunny.
With this one being so close, I thought I'd at least make a start on the series. Goodness knows when I'll get to do the full loop. Nice spot. SL TFTC

With brucewwnz I did the first ACoIaF circuit to pick up #1 to #19 He had already collected about a dozen of these ones on previous visits The route finding was generally pretty easy and the surface was remarkably dry which made for good travelling The finds were largely quite straight forward although when my phone GPSr started to play up I was very glad for the backup from the instrument of brucewwnz Thanks very much jefraser for these back country caches I enjoy this type of country

OK, here's where things started to go wrong. I decided on a whim to start the GoT trail, despite knowing that the weather forecast was not great. I should have known better. Anyway, this find was no problem, and the weather was still good here. TFTC.

I was trying to find a number of caches for the "summer challenge" Mystery at the Museum, you'd never think "winter is coming" with the weather today, a stunning winter day for my walk to find some of these Game of Thrones caches, was happy that I found all that I looked for and that I didn't get lost in the bush following the bait lines, really enjoyed the pretty scenery in this area, a quick easy find here, TFTC

found it on a long two days hike over the ridges. Finding the track was a big problem, but with the pink tags and the pink ribbons, at least I could find it!! TFTC!
Malta-Dinger

A quick detour from our civilised loop walk to pick up Brienne. I've been licking my chops at the prospect of bagging the rest of the series but we'll be back another day with more time and prepped for a decent walk (lunch!). Thanks for the taster

Stopped here on the way from Stanley St to the first of the AColaF series near Mt Lowry. All good.
TFTC

Found on a short walk with a group of friends up the Puriri Track and down the Zigzag. A comfortably warm day, beautiful bush, it was a well spent afternoon. Sorry not to meet Trancer96. TFTC

19th and final cache in the 1-19 part of the trail I did today. The forest really opened up when I got to this cache and I could start to see signs of civilization again. Good coords led me to the cache without the aid of the hint. I was surprised to see a sig from Pat&John in this cache with today's date. I hadn't met a soul on my entire journey so they obviously didn't proceed past this cache. I wonder if they were the pair with backpacks I saw down in Lees Grove who would have been right behind me if I didn't charge up the hill faster than I should have.

From here it was a short drop back on the main track and more climbing back to the Lees Grove junction before heading down to the car (in retrospect I could have gone down the other way). The whole thing took about 4.5 hours (car to car) with about 3.5 hours of that on the bait trail itself. The time in the attached elevation graph has about 20 minutes missing from the start (most of the ascent from Lees Grove to the ridge) when the GPS wasn't working for some reason.

This was the culmination of what has been one fantastic forest loop walk - certainly one of the best cache trails I have ever done. The caches were all in great shape, the navigation was nice and easy for the most part with only a couple of challenging places to shake things up. A good mixture of terrains, the weather was great and I found all the caches I was looking for. What more could a cacher want?

Thanks so much for the excuse to explore an unofficial trail which I would never even have known about without geocaching. Now I just have to devise a plan to tackle the southwestern loop.

It's difficult to know how to allocate favourite points on something which is all about the trail instead of individual caches. So this cache gets one (as other people seem to be doing) since it was the point where I reflected on the experience.

Forgot to add the photos

24 December 2018 10:45. After a short walk along a better route than I was expecting, BFG spotted this one, TFTC

TWD organised a return trip to finish off this series. With Infoferret joining our company, we did 19–10 then 22–24. Thanks jefraser!

Cache # 4,646 - After Barefoot Guru and I ventured into this area in September (with the broken ribs, whooping cough, and eventually the badly bruised ankle sustained on the journey), we agreed to come back and finish the series after I was healthy again. Timing coincided today, and we made the journey for round two, this time in the company of Infoferret. The weather cooperated, and the 7.3 hour, 13,7 km journey saw us gather the remaining 13 caches in the series. This was the first of the day, and like 110 of the others, was a quick find. TNLNSL. TFTC!

Consecutive caching day # 2,053

Found on our way through the main track. Will leave the rest of the series for another day. tftc

Found, thanks!

Great treck! Tftc

I am not a Game of Thrones viewer but it has been on the big telly quite often over the past few years while I watched something else on a smaller telly in another room. I don't expect the cache owner planned for cachers to start this series with # 19 but it was the closest one once I completed my primary reason for being in this area this afternoon. From my perspective, it was thoughtfully placed as it was easy to work out where I should leave the main track. The cache was easy to find and it is in great condition. A pleasing start to get this series under way.

Great to be out and about in this part of the world. We enjoyed a romp around the hills, following the cache lines. This was one of many caches found during this expedition.
I visited here with team cacher zboy wonder.
This was a straightforward find, true to coordinates, description and hint. Cache all in order.
Log signed, then cache safely re-hidden, just as found.
TFTC - really enjoyed pursuing this series of caches and the territory we covered. It was a great walking experience.
The Turtle strikes again!

I’m a GoT watcher, and wouldn’t call Brienne ugly... at least not to her face. The cache was quickly found, all in order, TFTC

From time to time I just have to get out of the office and hit the hills. I haven't been able to take any time off for most of the last year, until today - there wasn't a lot urgent on at work so I could take half a day off, and the weather forecast seemed to be friendly for a change. How much caching could I do before heading back to the office at lunchtime? I figured if I started at 6am I had about 5 and a half hours to try and get the 41 caches in this area I didn't have (including the 32 AColaF caches) - I know I had some rugged and hilly terrain ahead of me but I had no idea if this was an overly optimistic goal or not!

In the end I got 38 caches - the three on the Lees Grove track, the 32 AColaF caches, and the top 3 on the Rata Ridge track. I came back in the evening to get the bottom 3 plus a mystery in town, which gave me 42 - my biggest one-day haul.

I did the Ice and Fire series in a figure of 8 - the 15 stream caches first (1 to 9 and 23 to 28), the 7 caches on the west side (29 to 32 and 20 to 22), then the remaining 10 caches on the east side (10 to 19). There was a real mixture of navigation difficulty - from surprisingly well formed and well marked tasks to navigating purely by GPSr when I lost the markers (usually when following the stream). Most of the caches were straight forward - I used the hint for almost all of them to help speed things along. I have a few FPs stored up - I will distribute them between the best of the caches.

#1828. Overshot and found myself looking at the wrong tree initially till I worked out where I was supposed to be. The last of the Ice and Fire caches! Will have to read the books or watch the television series sometime.

Thanks for the cache and the series!

Well, that was interesting. I tried the zig-zag track in fading light, knowing that I'd have to find my way back down by torch light. I knew exactly where the cache was since I'd been past it the last two days in a row.

I enjoy that kind of adventure. I am thinking about doing another one tomorrow.

The cache is in good condition. All nice and dry.

Thank you

Cherrys Rule

The hunting season has ended for the year. All clear and safe to complete this series now.

A limited deer hunting season takes place in the Northern Forest area during Easter and through to the beginning of May. I am therefore disabling the Cache of Ice and Fire series until the 2nd of May.

We stopped close by for lunch. Didn't have time to do the bait line caches today, but we will be back as it looks most interesting. TFTC

An early morning start today with the main focus being the new Fire and Ice series. Was looking to do this loop track solo, but after having chatted with Mr-McGoo decided to team up with him and glad I did as there were two occasions I can see I would have struggled to regain the bait trail markers.

A great series and excellent walk and managed a clean sweep on a gorgeous summers day. We were accompanied by a fantail most of the first half. I really enjoyed this beautiful walk and a bonus to have some great company.

TFTC and an excellent series

Yeetress, Mr McGoo and I set off this morning at 8.00am from Lees Grove with the intention of achieving smilies on this new series of caches. After huffing our way up the hill we started on the series around 8.30am with #1 Arya Stark. 5.5 hours later Mr McGoo and I emerged at the other end of the track after finding the Five Fingers cache to be met by Yeetrees (he had ducked off earlier down another track to go and collect the car) with a refreshing cold drink.

This is the last cache of the series. I have had a really good time walking in the bush with the other two compadres. It's been a while since I've been out like this in the bush so it was quite enjoyable. It's taken a bit under 5 hours to do the trail, we weren't pushing it and being under the trees certainly helped in keeping cooler. Even so all of all went through nearly three litres of water each. Heading down back to the road we were more out in the open and it was HOT. The car temp gauge was reading 31deg C once we got back to it.
Doing it in order #1 - #19 I think is the best way to go from a terrain perspective, seems to be easier - possibly? Yes there are two big climbs, up from Lees Grove and from #9 up to #12 but the rest are either rolling along (ups and downs) or down hill. Going from #5 to #6 is a steep down climb, so if you're going the other way, its going to be quite a steep climb up.

Many thanks for this cache and the series. FP easily given for the series.
Have had fun out here today!

A nice morning to go for a walk with Yeetrees and SAROC to complete the new Ice and Fire series before the day got too hot. After watching Game of Throne I know who each character is. A quick find after a short search. Everything in order. Thanks jefraser for setting up this series and is worthy of a favourite point. [Find # 4081]

Saw this series of caches when they were published and was wondering to myself as to whether to chase the FTF or not, in the end I decided that I would leave it to a more agile and fitter cacher as I was still building my fitness back up as I have done too many long walks for quite some time.

Did the series of caches with SAROC and Mr-Mcgoo, we managed to get to the parking co-ordinates as planned by 08:00 and from there we set off on our way up the Lee Groves Track that meet up with the Rata Ridge Track as advised, once we got to the top we made our way along the Rata Ridge Track until we found the access point to make our way to GZ. Got back to the car just before 13:30

After finding GC7GPK6 - ACoIaF #18 Hot Pie (Lower Hutt), this was the next cache that I found today on our way around the Bait Lines trail, as we neared GZ we checked the hint and it only took a few seconds to find the cache in the first spot that we looked, retrieved the cache, signed and replaced the cache back as found. Really starting to get the eye in to look for the trail markers.

Thanks jefraser for placing this cache here and for bringing us to this spot, TFTC TNLNSL (13063),
Finally making it back to the Rata Track and I decided to go for the car and left SAROC and Mr-Mcgoo to make their way down via the Zig Zag track to pick up some more caches that they hadnt found.

Giving this cache a favourite for the series of caches.

Last one on this fabulous bush walk with a great topic. Car to car took us around 5 h and even today was nice and shady in the bush. Good little adventure thanks again for laying this little series . If there are more secret little walks like that would be great to have a second series, there are enough characters left. TFTC. Sherlock Hood and Squirrel.

Wow, what an epic adventure that would have been for any character in A Song of Ice and Fire! When I thought I was getting lost or had made a wrong turn, I thought 'What would Arya do?' and channelled some cool Stark logic to get me to the next cache. Third to find this awesome new series with excellent coordinates and hints. Tftc and series! Favourite point awarded for this cache and the series.

Published

Having seen an entire trail published at breakfast as well as a couple of other caches I was overjoyed that there was around three more weeks worth of 'one cache per day" to keep my tally going. I knew I wouldn't get any FTF as I already had plans for my morning and with knowledge of how long (or short) these new caches would last I knew I wouldn't have a look in, so didn't bother.

In the early afternoon I decided to check in on this trail - just do one and see how the remainder would suit for after work caches in January. I gave GLAD-NZ a call to see whether he wanted to come for a short walk - he was otherwise engaged for the day and said he'd rather do them all at once regardless.

I had caught up with CO late last year and he discussed this bait trail as there were likely going to be some caches placed at some time. I had no idea how many or when, however had a quick smile when I saw them published.

{FTF} at 1704

Then my dilemma - should I carry on grab a couple more - or should i be happy with my one cache for today. I decided to grab two more. Following those two I then asked myself whether it would be reasonable to expect that I'd actually come back up here again each day after work for three weeks to get a cache a day. The answer was no, so I decided to carry on and do the circuit.

It was a fun walk around - much of it through lovely beech forest. I love spending time in this type of terrain - the circuit certainly earns a couple of Favourite Points.

I'd certainly encourage all cachers to remember that this is a bait trail and not a standard track. If you are usually used to travelling on well appointed tracks then parts of this are not for you to travel alone - ensure you have somebody capable of navigating off tracks with you. I ended up missing bits of the bait trail at various points - sometimes following the blue line and not the pink line, then from #9 to #12 most of my movement was bush bashing as I missed a bait trail turn. Also understand that where there are multiple pink markers on a single tree this means there are multiple options from that tree - don;t blindly follow the wrong track.....

Thanks Jefraser for this series - I really enjoyed it. I've got a couple Favourite Points up my sleeve - three of these are heading your way - thanks for an enjoyable day out.










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Saw this series published this morning and I immediately realised that it would be a fantastic excuse for some great exercise in the hills, particularly with today's cooler weather. Another quick find here. Last in the series, a clean sweep! Giving this one a favourite point on behalf of the series, this is just the sort of caching I like most Now for an easy walk down to the Fern Gully track and back to the vehicle in Lees Grove. Signed log, TFTC