Manawapou viaduct walkway The gate(South taranaki) Manutahi, North Island, New Zealand
By 2 Bulbars on 09-Mar-18. Waypoint GC7K9B8

On the way to Hawera with rattll, stopped to visit the Manawapou Viaduct Walkway. Not sure which end of the culvert was which or where, so searched them both. Found the cache in good order. Tftc!

later

Tftf aroha and happy caching

A quick easy find as we approached the viaduct, although sadly no trains crossing today. The herd of cattle stood watch over us too here. TFTC

**17,396**
This was a nice quick find as the cache was spotted on approach whilst a herd of cows looked on! TFTC

cattle showed us the way found but wet inside bag. replaced bag after signing log.

2 goes at this one too, managed to find it on return. The last hider indeed tucked it up and under as per hint and I located by the tactile method, touching huh?

I liked the look of this 4A onto this old road and mixed bag described my visit. 4 finds, 2 not so much and will message the CO with my images of the 2 I missed. A nice walk it was in the shelter and warm sunshine.

With a preferable weather forecast for the Saturday this weekend, and a little time available for a roadie out Taranaki way I was off out the house at 0600 and back home 12 hours later. My initial (misguided) plan to cache up to Stratford, then back again was adjusted just after lunch and Normanby was the turn-around spot. A good day out and improved my Taranaki stats somewhat with 30-odd real finds and 17 Ad Lab stages (3 completed). Put my big-boy pants on to climb the Hawera water tower (a DNF for the cache though) and a great Earthcache out at Ancient Beaches. Many, many 2 Bulbars caches, thanks Lester, and appreciate the efforts of all COs.

Sitting in water in culvert. Placed to side out of water. TFTC

With the sunny weather and school holidays it was time to team up with Kelly0 and kids to get some cachers done.

The little cachers were still walking strong and the fancy gate was neat to see. A few locals were very interested in the cache and came up to the fence with their white faces to watch the proceedings.

TFTC

With Emmacbl and the family visiting we decided on another caching day. After sitting at the table and doing some research and planning we came up with a goal, Mount Taranaki.

Leaving a little later we had a list of filling in some missing/dnf caches, points of interest and a lunch stop on our way to the mountain.

Enjoying a nice stroll along the track i spotted what we were looking for easily. Cache was quickly located, TFTC

This was pretty random to come across and so out of place but at the same time suited the area well. Quick find of container. TFTC

Found this one in the most likely spot but can’t believe it hasn’t been washed away yet with the way it sits, oh well whatever works! At the last stop I flung my pen down to gigiev and it smashed to pieces so we had to sign with just the ink part which we laughed about. Awesome ornate gate that we used for a photo op.

Beautiful gate but dnf

Yeh this time it was a find although i had a very specific hint from C O it still took me a while and a few 'prayer-ful' minutes to actually put my hand on the cache. all was well here and no train went over the viaduct while i was there today. No stock around either.

thank you for this cache and i am pleased to turn the blue face into a smiley one ! at last !

Did not find this one so i will need another walk up here another time

TFTC with DeltaTea

Just remarking on such a ornate gate. Good precise description tftc

Teamed up with Arcane_NZ and family to do these caches.

We all wandered along together to near GZ where after a short search the cache was found, signed log and left as found.

Thanks for this wee series 2 Bulbars.

We decided to venture out to Hawera today for a bit of caching. This was one place we went straight past last time we were in the area.

As we got to site we had a PAF request. He ended up coming down from Patea and joining us on the walk. A little bit of showers at first but it soon cleared up.

Thanks for bringing us here and TFTC 2 Bulbars!

Had the day off work so headed off for some caching. Enjoyed this walkway. No problems here.

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

First planned walk of the night. The cache spotted easily, thanks for the hide.

This was a much quicker find than my previous one. I am enjoying the walk even if it a bit on the cold side.

Quick find this time in day light

had a visit from the locals as i went for this one another quick cache in the bag.

A nice quick find today. An interesting gate!

It's time to start the trek home. And now we head to Wellington to cactch the ferry. What a lovely day with views of both Taranaki and Ruapehu. TMGT series is complete enough for a coin after today. Just need to head to the far north, Dunedin and Napier (again) to finish the GeoTour.

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

Fun gate from before the days of now fashionable corten steel. Tftc

Heading south again to Manawapou Viaduct for a walk. Enjoying this walk and now can view the Viaduct. Amazing. Muggled by local bovines here. Container knackered here so arranged a replacement to help this one along. Cheers

Day 4- Tuesday 17 December. Hawera district today.
Running around the Hawera district today in Toby while Zara rests up.

The Seagnoid, Zara, Toby and I are spending Christmas exploring Taranaki via geocaching. Its been an amazing 3 week adventure. Rattls BBQ was a great event, meeting many other cachers. But also managed to fit in a few more events, especially New Years Day celebrating the start of 2020. Lots of caches - over 500. Lots of cache maintenance. Lots and lots of kilometers. And lots of amazing places visited along our journey. Mt Taranaki remained elusive for much of our travels and the caches on it at the top. Loved Pukekura Park Night Lights Show and the the Wooden Mechanical toy exhibition at NP Info centre.

I noticed the track had not been mapped, so half way through writing up the log for the last cache, just 2 minutes ago, I put the track in and and I now see that the map is already updated! That was quick! Had to replace the container here, it looked like a cow had stepped on it. Incidentally there were a lot of big beefy blokes in the paddock next door, but although they watched us (to see where we put the cache so they could step on it again?) they did not come over to say hello.

Day four of Taybeedragon's and my big 3 week circumnavicaching trip around Mt Taranaki, starting from Palmerston North. Today is Hawera - it's going to be a slow trip!!
Highlights:
* 3 weeks, 536 caches
* Mt Taranaki had been removed for washing, which was a bit of a shame. Even after it had been returned we were only allowed to see it for it was less than half an hour a day.
* High percentage of caches with crappy coordinates
* Amazing Pukekura Park
* AMAZING Pukekura Park light show!
* Pukeiti Gardens
* Lots of cache maintenance!

***[======== NZ Mega 2020 ========](http://nzmega.com)***

Planning for the [NZ Mega 2020](http://nzmega.com) event is well underway. It will be held in Auckland over Labour Weekend, 23 to 26 October 2020. It's going to be a massive celebration of geocaching:

* 20 years of geocaching worldwide.
* 20 years since New Zealand had the very first geocache hidden outside of USA.
* And it's 2020 - all the 20s!

Talk to your geo-friends and start planning to be part of [this event](https://coord.info/GC87777) - you won't want to miss it!

Find number 6435. After dropping off a German friend in Wanganui yesterday it was time to start to head towards home to Hamilton today and collect some caches along the way. I ended up in Hawera and collected 46 caches in doing so.
I too only found the mangled container. No log in it though. Placed it back where the previous cacher had placed it. Thank you for the placement.

I am now on my way to Wanganui, but I still have time to grab a few as I travel. The cache seems to have been hit by a mower and is broken. There doesn't seem to be a logical place to return the cache, so I hid it under the brace. TFTC.

======== NZ Mega 2020 ========

Be sure to join the Facebook page: NZ Mega 2020.

Planning for the NZ Mega 2020 event is well underway. It will be held in Auckland over Labour Weekend, 23 to 26 October 2020. It's going to be a massive celebration of geocaching:

20 years of geocaching worldwide.
20 years since New Zealand had the very first geocache hidden outside of USA.
And it's 2020 - all the 20s!

Talk to your geo-friends and start planning to be part of this event - you won't want to miss it!

.

great cache thanks

Was in New Plymouth for work and after finishing work it was time to start making my way South back to Wellington for the night. I decided that if I had a chance I would pick up a few caches along the way.

As I was heading out of Hawera, I decided that I wanted a break from driving and getting out of the traffic was quite heavy. Have seen this series of caches along this walkway quite a few times now but really havent had the time to stop and look at them so decided that today was my best opportunity.

After finding GC7K9B5 - Manawapou Rail viaduct (South Taranaki ), this was the next cache that was on my list that I wanted to find today. As I was making my way into the previous cache I had a look for this cache and couldnt find it, so decided to continue to the last cache in the walkway and also text a PAF and see if I could get more information on this cache.

Arriving back at GZ armed with more information as to where the cache was, I had a closer and more en depth look but was not able to find the cache, so with limiting time it was time to leave this cache unfound and continue on my way back to the car.

Got back to the car safe and well without any other issue, was a bit of a pity that there is a cache outstanding along this walkway, may have a look if the CO can confirm that it is there next time I am in the area.

Disclaimer: The above log may be based on true or actual events.

A trip to South Taranaki today and a few Geocaches. A nice quick grab. Thanks for the cache.

I actually found this on the way back from the viaduct as I had looked here with no success the first time. I spent quite a bit of time here before finally putting my hands on it .

Tricky little hide, found after a bit of a search.

Not many likely hiding places but still took a while searching before woolwood9 located it.
Nice easy walk along the road.

It was certainly an interesting looking gate, and one can only but wonder at the reason behind it.
Cache container was rather wet inside so we drained it out. Think the desiccant pack might be fighting a losing battle.
Thanks for the placement.

This one had us scratching our heads great hide many thanks

A nice placement - must have missed it previously by centimetres. Thanks 2 Bulbars for checking it out for us.

The second blue to go yellow thanks for the advice and for the checking I did enjoy the walk in for the second time and to have everything right TFTC

Missed this one today

Had time to walk up Manawapoa walkway to find some caches on my way home to Palmerston North after a few days in New Plymouth. Thanks 2 Bulbars for the cache.

Dnf from us today

all in place again

Great gate no smint

A second disappointment along here. Found the catch for an eclipse tin on the ground. Maybe the cows thought it was worth a mint!

Agree lovely gate but no cache.

Lovely sunny day and a chance to go exploring...and geocacing locally. A nice walk and another quick find. Tftc

Another adventure another cache ,almost did not find this one as had not loaded the whole lot in the phone and as there is no cellphone coverage here I was almost blind, very lucky the C O gave reasonable hints and with a push in the right direction cache was soon in hand, signed and replaced as found thanks for the placement and he smiley and for bringing us to some where new.

Last weekend I popped down here to claim FTF on this cache and was then disappointed to see two other Manawapou Walkway caches published the very next day. So today KrystalKath, Tama the geohound & I called in for a walk to get them. Meanwhile the CO gave me a camoed Eclipse tin container to replace the munted one which we dropped off. Certainly the plastic pill bottle looks chewed to me. An admirable gate - left open today!

I'm heading back to Palmerston North after spending a couple of nights in New Plymouth for a work event. As it is a Saturday, my time in my own, so I'm being leisurely about it and taking my time and of course, doing some caching on the way, catching up on ones missed or placed since my last trip to various locales around Taranaki.

Second one on this short walk this afternoon. Cache was an easy find, however getting the log out was difficult as the cache container was squashed and has the marks of a creature chewing on it (although I met Phronimos back at the carpark who said he has a replacement container for it). A great gate, rather ornate for a farm gate. TFTC

We came here chasing a couple of ftf's but decided it was such a lovely day we'd keep going and pick up the other two on this track.
We could see a couple of groups of muggles approaching from the other direction as we neared GZ so kept going and picked it up on the way back.
We found it out in the open, somewhat squashed/chewed up. It has a hole in it so will need replacing, unfortunately we didn't have anything on us.
We replaced it where we thought it should be.

Thanks 2 Bulbars I'll claim that {FTF}. A very pleasant walk and great gate. TFTC

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