Mosaic Journey 1 Turangi Turangi, North Island, New Zealand
By bkj97 on 16-Apr-18. Waypoint GC7N502

Another solve provided and quick find near the matching hint item.After coming back from the Poutu canal I had lunch and a brew and headed out on the bile again for another 10-15km ride.Onto phase 2 for the day, cycling the Tongariro river walkways. Ended up turning round and heading back from Red Hut pool and covering same ground. More great scenery and a comfortable terrain level.I have (another) long weekend away from home starting Friday, destination is Turangi. Our work has a team-building day on Friday with Whitewater rafting in teams followed by Tokaanu hot-pools and shared lunch. It was a double banger event with half the people doing Wednesday and the remainder on Friday. As chance would have it I'd already identified this weekend as a weekend away at Turangi and booked the work bach to stay in Friday and Saturday night. That was fortunate as I drove myself up on Friday morning and stayed the weekend. I brought a work push-bike along too with the hope to cover more ground, and so it was. I found almost all of my target caches and a decent haul was made. Waking up Sunday morning to overnight rain and fog across the Desert Road left me glad I'd done most finding on Friday and Saturday. Thanks to all COs for their efforts hiding, especially Funkymunkyzone. I even bumped into another caching couple on the trails on Saturday, nice to meet you cympull and fisha1288.

4-week family trip through NZ - Find #88!After eating in the nearby fast-food restaurant, we went for an evening walk along the Mosaic Walk. It was fun to look for the matching images, and even though some mosaics are damaged, we could connect everything. A few calculations later we had plausible final coordinates. My son ChrisAngel99 dived into the bushes , and quickly found the cache .TFTC!

What a great idea for a field puzzle.!Really enjoyed all the mosaics....but it sure is sad how several have been partly or totally obliterated.Had some help with some of the numbers...Then, off to find the final!Not quite waist height for me....lower...But the rock was unmissable....then I had to dig a bit.

What a fantastic puzzle! We've walked along these murals so many times but today attempted this cache.
Took a bit of detective work - sadly one of the murals is almost completely destroyed but got there in the end. Finding the cache was a bit tricky, we thought we knew where it should be but the hint object was missing. A few more looks then a bit of muddy digging revealed the cache, all in good order.
We put it back where found that may have been the hint object according to earlier logs and replaced it on top of the cache.
Many thanks for the work in setting this one up!

We wondered If we would find this guy after the previous finder had a dnf ,but find it we did and it has been almost a year since it was last found.
Another one that took a bit of wrangling, ashamed that some of the mosaics are deteriorating.
Signed and replaced as found
Thanks for the placement and the smiley
Found with xsaveya.

Completed with watcache , the final area was a bit yuckie.
Thanks for the smiley and the cool little blocks watcache called them mosaics.
Tftc and the smiley

Well darn, after all that looking & figuring, I got a big fat DNF. Maybe it's an error in my maths? But It looked a highly likely GZ. Ah well thanks for the nice little stroll anyway.

#1919. Day 2 in Turangi for a well deserved post-Covid break from Wellington. Last time we stayed here, 6 years ago, I was a brand new geocacher. Seems like yesterday!

Yesterday, after a coffee in town, we wandered all the mosaic trail, photographing them all for these two Mystery caches. Started the process of sussing them out after dark.

Today, after Sunday brunch, it was time to do a couple of WPs of the Fishing the Tongariro AdLad, then back at Kaimanawa Lodge I set about finishing the solves. Despite a couple of the mosaics being damaged, one quite badly, I managed to get probable numbers for GZ for them both. Excel was my friend. Then it was time to go and collect them.

This was a nice easy find, with a good hint and I spotted the hide in no time. That’s a big rock!

Tftc and the challenging puzzle, bkj97.

Due to various reasons have not been able to collect until today

On my way back to Auckland, so made this quick pit stop. As to the cache reached in, and there it was.

Loved the mosaics, although some look like they are in need of some TLC.

Thanks for the puzzle and the hide bk97

Did the legwork for this a few months back (or was it longer?) then analysed the photos at home. Passing through Turangi today gave me the chance to finish the paperwork. Quick find in good condition. TFTC.

Back in Turangi after a few days walking the Tongariro NC, I have a few hours spare before my bus up to Taupo.

Having spent last Saturday night in town I took photos of the mosaics then so I could solve the puzzle while I was tramping.

Having then worked some number which appears to be viable, I now set off to see if I was right.

Happily I was, and despite thinking that the cache may have gone MIA, a closer look confirmed that I'd been cache-blind first time of looking.

Thanks bkj91 for this, and the sister puzzle, which happily filled a good few hours.

#3760

Stayed in Turangi for the night on our way south. I’d looked at this one before we left home so enjoyed seeing the mosaics and checking answers. Sadly a couple of the mosaics have been damaged, but I think the puzzle should be fine. Thanks for bringing us to the mosaics and the smiley.

third find for the day - nice and quiet in the morning - easy to do when staying so close as we had done the 800km ride the day before so the walk was great for the legs - thanks for the placement.

**13,792**
What a great idea, incorporating these lovely mosaics into a cache. Nice quick find with the final of this one, walked straight to it. Now back to the lamb roast we have for tea before completing the second one. TFTC

March has been such a busy month, but not so much with getting out and about to indulge in finding some caches for myself. So what better way to remedy this than have a few days away in an area not previously cached out?
Cue a weekend of touring around the Tongariro National Park in good company. Exactly what I needed, and a weekend that would see me find over a hundred caches, including getting my 4000th, as well as grabbing some of the new PWGT caches.

I knew this would be a long day, both starting and finishing in the dark, but I hadn't quite expected to be out caching for 16 hours straight lol. It was early evening by now, with less than an hour of daylight left, and the finish to our long day with a hot meal and a drink was in sight. But not before we had done a few chosen caches in and around Turangi.

No problems locating the cache. Encountering no issues with the container or the contents, the log was quickly signed and the whole thing replaced exactly as found.

Thanks for setting up and maintaining this cache.

Staying at Punga and Paua's place in Turangi. Came down from Auckland a few days ago and I have chipped away at this puzzle on my e-bike going to and fro in the early morning while my caching buddies have slept. This morning it was time to get the final after doing the math with rustynz. Got to GZ, and inside I went. A few muggles went by and I wondered what they thought I was up to! cache all good here today. Thanks for the puzzle bkj97. A FP from me for the mosaics used.

Now back to where I'm staying and we're off to kayak down the Tokaanu stream, about 5km long.

Due to Covid, our planned UK holiday to attend the MEGA could not proceed so plan B was a timeshare stay in Paihia so we could cache around Northland. Once again this could not proceed as we could not travel through Auckland due to the Level 3 lockdown.
A last minute plan C was put into action and our timeshare week was transferred to Turangi.
Off we went on a sunny but chilly 4 deg morning and its been quite a while since we have seen any frost on the ground so a bit of a novelty for us.
Day 4 and we spent the day on puzzles around Turangi. After visiting each of the mosaic plaques along the walkway we popped back to the timeshare to complete our calculations then it was back out to search for the final which was quickly spotted. Really enjoyed this field puzzle, appreciate the time taken to set it up. Fav point awarded TFTC.

After having cycled the Tongariro rive loop track we decided to also undertake these mosaics. In 32 degree plus heat we traipsed backwards and forwards visiting all the mosaics more than once and photographing every one as we knew that if we had to we may have to resort to out [photos. Fortunately for this cache we managed to get all of the mozaics and the right coords. Mr Jag 50 had to load the coords on his GPS as the Iphone just refused to play fair and eventually we had the spot. Drove to a safe parking point and then walked the last 250 metres to the GZ. Mrs Jag50 did the honours of locating the cache. After which it was a trip to Taupo for a well earned ice cream and then the 4 hour journey home in that really hot weather. What a brillaint weekend.

What an interesting journey! Loved the mosaics. Learnt some interesting local history to which was nice. Last time we were in town was for the mega event so we've already got most of Turangi. Tftc

This was done over two visits. Two weeks ago we picked up our grandson from Palmerston north and this was a good stop. He enjoyed going from mosaic to mosaic and we enjoyed trying to match them. We realised that we had something wrong on this one. There was a cold gnarly wind so as we knew we would be back we headed home. At home I checked online and was pleasantly surprised to find complete mosaics, not vandalized ones. This took the guesswork out and soon had final coordinates. This find was straight forward with no vandalism. Fantastic idea for a cache and an enjoyable walk. Thanks very much for the puzzle and cache bkj97.

What an enjoyable cache...it was quite a mission to get the matches as the wind was bitterly cold and my powers of concentration trying to figure the cleverly taken pic to the actual mosaic were severely affected lol freezing fingers and shrinking brain ...not used to this....but this did not detract to this cleverly designed cache ..it was a pleasing to do ...thanks bkj97awesome and an easy fav from me

For my personal challenge of working towards getting my calendar on GC.COM to be at least the same shade of green or darker I need to sign off at least 12 caches today. I won't grumble if I find one or two more. Today I decided to go a drive down to Kuratau from Taupo as I hadn't explored this area before then it was back to Turangi.

I gathered all the info bar one which soon fell into place. Soon found the missing item on my way back to the cachemobile.

Cheers for the cache.

Beta checked before publication so now logged.

Arrived in Turangi yesterday and a lovely walk round the mosaics today picking up the information we needed. Eventually arrived at GZ and found the cache. Stamped and returned. TFTC

Solved this two puzzles in tandem, numbers worked out ok for both and the caches were located without any trouble. Thanks for the effort that must of gone into setting these puzzles us. Cheers

Had collected the information for the two mosaic puzzle caches on a walk the other night and soon had some good looking coordinates. Out for another walk on New Years' eve to make the finds while it was still light. Had thought of doing some sort of multi cache with these mosaics ourselves so it was great to see these caches. This was a nice quick find at the final and all in good order. Thanks bkj97.

#10,525. We spent a few hours walking in Turangi, including a stroll on the mosaic journey. The path was not too busy, coming across a couple of walkers and a cyclist along the way. Quite easy to spot all the installations … but it took a little longer to match the images … but got there in the end. Happy to get the check sum to agree first up. Did the further sums and obtained a set of sensible coordinates. Proceeded to final GZ, which was all quiet at the time of our visit. Quick find. The cache was in excellent condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

Thanks for the field puzzle and placement, and for bringing us to all these sites, 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.

Wow, so much fun and excercise for the grey matter between the ears.

On our way back from the Mega in Wellington
Great puzzle

Nice puzzle pick it up with ABCDF4

We are making our way home from an enjoyable WENZ Mega, and have decided to do these two Mosaic puzzles to break the journey. We enjoyed the wander checking out the panels, and managed to find all but one of the images on the way (spotted the last on the return journey). We made use of a picnic table at the end to do the final calculations in comfort, and soon had a couple of good looking coords. We like the way the finals are on the return journey. Both caches were found easily and are in good condition. Thanks for the fun.

Find number 4197. On my way to the Mega snd had to stop for a coffee. So wjile here I wandered around the mosaics. Once at GZ cache quickly found and able to use spot for my coffee cup
Thank you for the placement.

After some hard yards yesterday in the Coromandel - I wasn't sure if I'd be *allowed* out again today... but here I am My main goal today was the two (semi) nearby Virtual Caches but there was a little detouring so my crazy co-pilot had to keep me on track - Tauranga to Turoa (Ohakune) return, 13hrs, 600km & 18 Caches sums it up. A great trip and great company - the whole reason I play this game

These puzzles were our eighth, ninth & tenth stops and thankfully we were prepared knowing what we had to do and having the time up our sleeves to do it. These were also the last caches I had to do in the area which was an added bonus. The mosaics were awesome and I'm sure there are some pretty proud kids around here. The math took much longer then the walk but where two heads are better then one it didn't take too long. The final took me a little while to spot even after being told "have you looked there?" haha. Cheers bkj97, well themed and well executed. TFTC.

**What are you doing Labour Weekend 2018? Wellington is set to host New Zealands largest Geocaching Event of the year! Check out the details on the [WENZ Website](https://sites.google.com/site/wenzgeo2018/home) or visit the event's [Facebook Page](https://www.facebook.com/groups/590545297801072/). Once you're registered and have logged your attendance on the [WENZ Event Page](https://www.geocaching.com/…/GC78NMQ_wenz-event-2018-wellin…) you're all set, see you there.**

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189 cachers currently make up this [Closed](https://www.facebook.com/help/220336891328465#What-are-the-privacy-options-for-groups) group where we organise various geocaching events and excursions as well as share information and friendly banter. Please check us out if you're interested.**

The kids and I spent the weekend in Taupo. Saturday we made our way to Turangi and then further around lake to Whareroa and then back to Taupo never been this side of the lake always good going to new places. We arrived back at the Lake Taupo holiday resort after dark and went straight to the hot pools so nice after a long day. Tftc
This was cool puzzle the kids and I did both at same time then i did the workings at the end we then walked back to van stopping for the caches along the way quick finds of the finals.

Damn clever those squirrels. Have amended c as well as noted by the nut gatherers so negativity in the numbers is avoided.

Team BOP were tiring from our round Lake Taupo caching trip. We were starting to lose light when we started these two caches, so we split into two groups and tackled them both at the same time.
Team one were way faster at this than Gap and I and left us behind to make this find, probably because Squirrel had already worked out the mathematics for this one prior to this trip.
Thanks for bringing us closer to study these great pieces of art.
TFTC

5.20pm - The Squirrel had done some calculations earlier about this one. After he spotted an error in the description so good to see owner has rectified this. Anyway found the mosaics and guess was good. Gets a fav from me. SLTFTC

On a road trip with part of Team BOP. - these three puzzles were a goal for the day and we achieved it just before dark. Loved the walk along the path and gathering the required numbers. The mosaic walk is a neat idea. We were lucky and found the cache quickly and then started on number two. TFTC.

With Gap (of Fap and Gap), McJandals, NZFlossy, and TNXPro... You've got to have friends (especially for some of the caches I have lined up for today)... We took my new car for a spin. There was a bit of action in the back seat, as the leather seats allowed for plenty of slip and slide, and the occasional rude sounding noises. We enjoyed lots of laughs and conversation. This is exactly how caching should be...

Time got away on us, and it was late afternoon when we lined up for this puzzle. We decided to split into two teams, with the intention of turning back and helping the other team once we'd finished. The ladies and I set off at pace, collecting answers at speed... These mosaics are amazing and deserve far better treatment than they are probably given. We ate away the meters as we rushed down the path to the end. Somewhere in the growing darkness, we stepped off and found the hide... A fantastic reward for a very good puzzle concept. TFTP and TFTC.

As a side note, I had tried this puzzle prior to our visit today. I noticed some small errors that did not affect outcomes, and notified the CO. I'm pleased these have been rectified... For anyone wanting a stopover and a couple of fun caches, this trail is for you!

On a road trip with part of Team BOP, Myself, Squirrel Nutcase, Fap n Gap,NZ Flossy & TNXpro, thanks for the interesting walk around, I think I was a bit over it after spending sooo much time at the cemetry, thanks anyway.

A clever squirrel has pointed out there is no column 5. Will check and amend.

Have amended the calculations for d. Should now make sense although the digit required was fairly straightforward. Thanks to the nut gatherers for the heads up.

Walked along the trail today and checked out these cool mosaics that I'd never stopped to take a look at before. TFTC

Got up early to begin our mammoth mosaic marathon, hoping to beat the ominous grey sky forming over Mt Pihanga direction. Armed with notes and photos we started our search and while Paua was taking more photographs, Punga was supposed to be studying a mosaic, but he had strayed slightly off course and surprised us both when he created a record time for discovering a puzzle cache, about 2 minutes!! However, we carried on along the walkway and followed the mosaic trail, hunting out the pictures for both puzzles. Autumn leaves, red and yellow, were everywhere and lots of bright red fairy toadstools. TFTC.

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