HRT Counting Cows (Waikato) Waitakaruru, North Island, New Zealand
By sp8sm8 on 10-Jun-18. Waypoint GC7R0G9

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Massive reconstruction of the stop banks have been happening for the last few months and looks like many months of construction to go over the length of the stop bank. This length of the stop bank is taking shape, but the cycle trail has not been replaced and there is no physical access to gz. I imagine GZ will be completely destroyed by now but can't confirm.

Grass was very long. Checked the main post and one either side. Not my day today or perhaps it is missing. Nobody has looked for a while.

Good

Good

Lovely day for it!

We got this one as our first today.

Uff. First find of the day after 3 DNF in a row ... bike journey from Waitakaruru to Thames!
TFTC

Thanks for your amazing cache.

Tftc while out riding with grandie

We were on a bike ride from Kaiaua on the Hauraki Rail Trail to Piporoa and back and stopped off to collect a few caches on the way. Another quick find along the trail. Not much for the cows to eat after such a hot dry Summer and we could see a cloud of dust on our approach which was made by the cows walking in their very dry paddock.

Found while doing the Miranda to bugger cafe rail trail. TFTC

On a bike ride along this part of the hrt today with my brother (tbird53) and his wife who are currently up from Wellington. A beautiful day for it and we picked up several caches. Thanks for placing these caches

One of 11 caches found while biking with my sister (pinocchio59), her hubby and Mrs tbird along part of the Hauraki Rail Trail today, a very pleasant summer’s day. All the caches were quick finds. After locating a number on the earlier section of the trail, we motored to Waitakaruru, jumped back on our bikes and picked up another two. This was one of them. #3585. TFTC.

no cows today to count but 0lenty of bales. how come you get a head wind riding in both directions. and the drizzle and mud. fun ride!

Evidently some Pokémon go as well

Too many cows to count along here. Too busy keeping an eye out for muggles. TFTC

Quick find here. Gave the hubby plenty of warning this time!!! Tftc.

A post-lock down outing was devised by Keylev, so a small contingent of team SEAC loaded up the bikes and headed south to get some fresh air and some caches. The day started out poorly for MrNZT - his GPS had a close encounter with a toilet bowl and he overshot the meeting place ALOT, but finally we were ready to set out on the trail starting at Waitakaruru and ending several hours later in Kopu.
Noted many cows, many more cow pats and plenty of Pukeko's! TFTC!

An adventure was planned with some of the Team SEAC crew to explore a part of the country that we had not visited before now that lockdown has lifted and we are allowed to travel a little further from home.

There were laughs, groans and muscle pains but it was, as always, heaps of fun.

Thanks for the cache.

Out for a bit of cycling along the HRT trail. The Kopu to Waitakaruru leg, kindly arranged by Keylev, joined also by NZTravellers, and HeMaLuDy, Purply, and Darthcacher1.
Signed in as 'SEAC' to save logbook space. Stopped in for lunch at Pipiroa, and then back on the trail, before the rain came....not quite...got a little damp towards the end. (luckily it's not too cold today)

A great day, and a great group of people.

TFTC.

Thanks to Keylev for organising our outing today we tackled the HRT from Waitakaruru to Kopu collecting caches along the way with Keylev, NZTravellers and Stik-a-crane. This was the first time the HeMaLuDy's had been on their bikes in over 2 years, and it showed today - a couple of the team opted to enjoy the hospitality of the cafe halfway along the journey and wait for the fitter members of the team to complete the trail. Happy to make the find here.

No cows today only ducks and pukeko.

Thanks sp8sm8.

No time to count the cows as fighting a strong wind . quick find

Yes a lot of cows. Out and about with family. Always good to in the fresh air. T4tc

Counting cows is better than counting sheep otherwise we might fall asleep, thanks for this cache placement

I was down in Miranda for the weekend to cycle the HRT trail from Miranda to Thames with a group of muggles and hoped to find as many of the caches as possible, without falling too far behind the group! Thankfully all caches on the trail were nice simple finds and I was able to quickly fid the cache, sign the log, then dash back to join the group - half of the time I didn't even need to get off the bike! Thanks for the cache!

As the weather forecast was a bit better today I decided to try and finish off the HRT caches at the bottom of the Firth of Thames.

No thanks, that will take too long. I have more caches to find.

Cheers for the cache.

The ground cover certainly added to the camo here. Had two goes to find. Cows were watching me lol. Thanks for the placement sp8sm8

Well that was well buried..lol..eventually found and signwd ..thanks sp8sm8te great trail

Too busy day dreaming to Count Cows...will leave that for when I go to Morrinsville!
All good here thankyou.

Easter Weekend, took the bikes with us to do this trail and another one during the weekend. So glad I looked carefully at the map at Waitakaruru as I didn't realise the distances involved in each part of the trail from here back to Kopu. Hastily revised our plan and decided to start at Waitakaruru and head out to this last cache on this part of the trail and work our way back again. Very nice flat ride and think we covered 13km return which is about the limit for one of us in the numb bottom department. We will tackle the rest of the trail another time and perhaps even contribute some caches to the other parts of the trail. Thanks for popping some caches along here, it was a very enjoyable ride on a nice day. SL. TFTC.

Decieded that today was the day to do a little local area maintenance and clean up a few outstanding caches about the Waikato. Sure wish that there were a lot more caches around as fuel is not cheap at the moment ( another couple of hundred would be good )
This was the thirteenith of the day, and making the most of a Sunday road trip for a coffee and lunch (as I sold it to Mrs Dragon). Nice and quiet around here and great to see all the Whangamata "Beach Hop" vehicles heading home with a few casualties o the roadside requiring some mechanical repairs.
What a great day for a drive. Heading from the end where I had let Mrs Dragon to relax in the shade while i headed out here. It was further than I thought as I wanted to get going and would collect the caches on my return journey. All good with the cache and a dry log to boot and a few cows watching on.

Thanks for the placement, Thanks for the cache

Very different landscape here...TFTC

After walking from the last cache along the trail we were beginning to think it may have been wiser to cycle but we enjoyed the pleasant stroll and were pleased it wan't too hot.
Once at GZ the cache was quickly located. Thanks sp8sm8.

I was using a SmartPhone, so I couldn't see the distance to the cache counting down like with a GPSr strapped to the handlebars. This meant that I had to guesstimate the distance to GZ as I rode my bike. I ended up overshooting by 100m, but then backtracked a bit and got to GZ and the cache. TFTC.

After an unsuccessful hunt at the previous cache, it was good to have a quick ‘park’ and grab here. Good camo - haven’t seen that kind of tape before!

Beautiful day for a ride, nice view of the ranges in the distance.

Tftc

Found with mum. Good camo. Tftc

Out to kill some more caches found with team H R P and what a nice day for a bike ride tftc

These 5 HRT's have been on my radar for a while now so today being a good day I thought I might collect a few.
Good track for walking, running or cycling and if it wasn't for a couple of gates these could be drive bys.
Co Ords and hints all spot on. SLTFTC
I think there is room for some more caches here.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday decided to go & do HRT trail& stop at bugger Café for lunch
Put the bikes on and away we went.
Waited a little bit for the others to catch up & off we went.
Nice easy finds.Thank goodness we took the bikes.

With Team H (Huntly) R (Rotorua) P (Papamoa)...

We heard about the extension to the Hauraki Rail Trail and eagerly awaited a new lot of caches to appear. It was a bit of a surprise when they finally materialised on the geomap - This is not the original CO...

We have walked every bit of the HRT but chose to cycle this section. The caches were quick finds and were similar to those found on other parts of the trail... I can see myself returning to walk this section at a later date. TFTC.

A great winters day bike ride. Farmer was mooving stock in the area tftc

Find number 4028. After getting a FTF on another part of the trail I decided to look at the 4 along this section. No bike so I had to walk it. No problem apart from the possible weather. Rain was forecast but all good when I set off. By the time I got to the last it was trying very hard to rain. I had to walk and jog my way back to the car. I did not make it in time but thankfully there was only 1k to go when it started and didn't rain too hard until I got in the car.
I enjoyed the walk. The tide was out but saw things differently. I will have to come back and cycle the full trail. I have done the other HRT trails.
No problems with the cache. Co-ords spot on for me. Signed and returned.
There were no cows to count in the vicinity of the cache but quite a number gave me the eye along the way. Thank you for the placement.

With no work scheduled today, these caches along this new section of the Hauraki Rail Trail, looked like the perfect excuse to get outdoors and get some exercise. So, once the morning Auckland traffic had calmed down I headed for the trail head in Waitakaruru. I parked up in a sensible spot and made my way onto the trail. This was my second target. The weather has warmed up as the sun has come out. No cows along this particular section, today, but plenty further along. No issues making the find here, either. The blank logbook confirmed I was, indeed, first to find (FTF). Cheers for the cache placement and for the exercise!

Published