ToP 12 - Porirua East (Porirua) Cannons Creek, North Island, New Zealand
By The Wandering Dragons on 06-Oct-18. Waypoint GC7YMVV

Working today in Porirua with an early finish. So thought Id hunt out a few geocaches on the way back to Tokomaru. This one came up on my radar as a Lonely Cache. Its been 473 days since this was last found. Initially my GPS was all over the place, and I checked a few trees up the bank before I found it. This area could do with a good CITO mission Nicely hidden and in good nick, and I enjoyed the walk down and the history of the area. Mihi ki a koe, The Wandering Dragons, mo te keteroki #432

I had tried 4 times here and finally PAF.
Again, the phones GPS may have been affected by the environment here as I found 8m away from where the map was pointing, which is further up where the hint hinted.

Retrieved code and returned where found.

Cheers.

Sleepy was here!

#118. Happy to knock this bastard off lol TFTC.

I'll be back.

Not today

This was a nice find while in the area this morning. All is well with the cache, thanks.

We needed to make a trip into the big smoke today, so a quick detour to continue our progress through this series. All good with cache.
Thanks!

Found this one after a bit of a search. GPS wandering a bit, so went looking a bit further afield than I needed to! Agree with Mrs SeaBreeze; the amount of rubbish needs a big black bag and gloves to tackle! All good in cache, tftc!

TFTC. Found l, but didn’t sign as no pencil

After spending the morning gathering all the caches in my missing degrees over in Titahi Bay (except that I missed one, but another cache covered that degree, so no big), I headed over to Cannons Creek for some more missing degrees. Nice little path this, and nice and hard for road tyres, except in a couple of places where my skinny tyres went sideways and I did a rather embarrassing wobble but at least I didn't come a cropper. Not too hard a find. I tend to always worry a little when the last log or two are DNFs, but I have found so many that were DNFed that I never let it stop me. I just worries a little.

I have been getting a bit of cabin fever from too much working from home, so I decided to take the bike for a bit of geocaching. But where? And separately, I have been living in Lower Hutt for a while now, so I moved my home coordinates and discovered I only have 30 missing degrees to complete my diamond 360 degrees from home badge. Well, that makes this weekend's decision easy! Porirua! I have 4 missing degrees there. So I downloaded a query with all the caches in my missing degrees into my phone and took my bike on the train to Porirua. There are four degrees to get there, and 10 caches within them - way more than needed. Oh - and today is a multi dot day, and one of those caches is a multi! I love it when a plan comes together!
So that was all I found. A few caches in Titahi Bay, and a few in Cannon's Creek. I wonder how many caches I simply cycled/walked past? No idea.

Not today - will have to come back another time, armed with gloves and a rubbish bag as this is one very sad mess!

Coordinates changed from:
S 41° 8.313 E 174° 51.497

Coordinates changed to:
S 41° 8.316 E 174° 51.496

Distance from original: 18.8 feet or 5.7 meters.

Replaced cache in a better spot

Did a maintenance run with The Wandering Dragons and Astro Hunter, Violet Butterfly and Ezratar. Never knew this lovely walk existed and driven past here so many time. Thanks for the catchup and cache.

On a maintenance run today. Could not find this cache, so have replaced it in a slightly better location.

Found during a maintenance run with the CO today. Thank you.

Cache # 1,607

Found during a maintenance run with the CO today. Thank you.

Cache # 1,078

As others have found, the coordinates we a long way off and the hint didn't add anything. After a bit of milling about I read a few logs and got some other ideas of where to look, which managed to turn up the cache.
Thanks (I think).

GPS on my phone miles out but earlier hints and 'trail' give helpful clues! TFTC

As New Zealand is at COVID-19 Level 4, one must be safe if geocaching. I am not disabling my caches, as this could be a good opportunity for local people to start a new hobby. However if you are going caching during the lockdown, please follow these common sense suggestions:
*Use gloves when touching commonly touched items
*Only walk to the cache from your home - if it is too far away, save it for another time
*Keep your social distance - probably best to cache alone
*More than ever, be aware of muggles and leave a cache rather than cause suspicion that could see you get into trouble
*I will accept dated photos of the cache/log rather than a signature during both Level 3 and Level 4

Stay safe

Needed a cache today to deal to a dot day. This was it. Wandered in from Cornwall Cres with the geohound. My heart sank when I saw the vegetation near the item mentioned in the hint. Fortunately that doesn’t really feature, meaning the hint isn’t especially helpful. Searched in a few spots before scrolling through earlier logs. Someone mentioned terrain rating which encouraged me to scramble uphill a little. When I was beginning to think DNF thoughts, as the coords on my iPhone didn’t seem to settle particularly well, I was fortunate enough to spot it! The trapper’s trail was helpful. Unfortunately I’d left my pen in the car. A photo of the cache is attached. #2872. TFTC.

Nice to see a cache just a few hundred metres walk from my house. TFTC

Returned after my DNF earlier in the year for another attempt. I found it but it still took a while - the GPS was still pointing to nothing of interest (the middle of the path). The ground to the side of the path was very wet and slippery which didn't make a blanket search very appealing. I was just giving up when I thought I'd try one last place - re-checking a place from a different angle - and there it was. That happens so often it's ridiculous. I think that's level one finally completed. TFTC!

Was in Tawa and in want of a bush walk, and this urban bush track between 2 streets looked ideal on the map. However arriving at the parking WP divulged a narrow gravel road! Still managed the walking part though. Collected clue and left cache with some local cover. TFTC TWD!

Nice quick find with woolwood9 today.
Trying to get a few finds before the rain comes through.
Could have been a drive by but we enjoyed the short walk.

*Thanks for putting this good series out. SL*

Nice day out looking for caches with tmann421 today
Managed to keep ahead of the looming rain clouds
*Thanks for the placement*

interesting walk, the wide path from Cornwall Crescent looked nice and new, but there is so much rubbish in the area, looks like a lot of it has washed down the stream, quite a lot of rubbish around GZ too, luckily it was a fairly quick find, saw a couple of kakariki flying overhead which was nice, TFTC

#6927. Needed a few caches today but didn't want to do a big walk as I am preparing a talk for a conference next weekend. So just doing four park and strolls. Lucky last for the day. I see the difficulty rating is set at 3. Wondered if that was because of the odds of getting out of here with your wallet intact was not good. But no safely made it to GZ without misadventure. Quick find of the cache in the first place checked. Signed the logbook and replaced the cache as found. Picked up the code. Then scuttled back to the car as fast as I could. Thanks for the cache TWD.

A lovely warm autumn morning, what better to do than geocaching with Gilgul. We were going to do this a few month ago but track was fenced off. A lovely wide track and we had it to ourselves Only spoiled by piles of rubbish at road end. Muggled by two fantails who were flying straight above cache TFTC

Nice walk down to GZ but no luck. I'm sure it's there somewhere but the GPSr didn't point anywhere likely.

I walked in from Warspite Ave today. The track is now wide, flat, and easy going. Much to my surprise it didn't take me long to find either. So now I need to find were I put those codes and crack on with the next level. TFTC

Find # 196. Out enjoying New Year's Day with Aros71. Really enjoyed the birdsong along this pathway, just beautiful! Another "I had no idea this was here" which is the reaction of many Geocachers, I think. Cache in VGC. TFTC & Happy New Year!

Another new years Day find! GPS co-ords are spot on but the closer you get to the gz the more it bounces around.

I had come by here on the Sunday of Mega Weekend, but the fence had put me off (as there wasn't a clear way past it) so held off on getting this one. I was in the area this afternoon grabbing the Ranui waypoint of the other Tour of Porirua, so stopped by again to see if the way was clear. The fence was still up, but a gap was available and I knew there wouldn't be any works going on, so headed down. Got to GZ and it took me a while to locate, but in the end trusted the GPS and also referring to the terrain rating and container size soon had me holding the cache. I signed the log and referred to the code that I had already guessed, but it was good to have confirmation. Then it was time to head back up. TFTC

(# 4860). The last of the regular ToP series. First entrance was closed off so went to another. After a quick walk I found the cache in quick order. Everything in order. TFTC

I decided the quiet residential area was the better parking option for me and I was soon on my way to the cache site. I am sure this could be a pleasant area to visit but it isn't at the moment. A few minutes were used up as I struggled to work out where the cache was hidden but I soon got my act together.

This one proved more elusive but hey there are only so many trees right? Co-ords were spot on. If I’d relied on the GPS instead of my not so well honed Geocaching sense I’d have found it first time.

Just about nabbed all this series now. I’m sure I wrote all those codes down accurately

A mid week visit and came in from the church end. I was able to get around the barriers easily enough and enjoyed the walk down to the cache despite the current rocky nature of the trail.
This one proved the trickiest of the six ToP cache finds I made today, it needed a bit of looking about although the co-ords did prove quite accurate when I did eventually make the find.

Many thanks.

Excellent weather today so I decided to come and clean up some unfound caches in the Porirua region. A quick-ish find here, fortunately the cache was not too well concealed. Signed log, recorded code, TFTC.

Followed Infoferrets advice. School end it is. Had been in the other end but path blocked by diggers etc. easy find. Thanks

Decided I just about had time to attempt this one as well tonight. Decided I didn't like the approach from one area, so headed round and parked nearish the church. Dodged the barricade, and headed off down the track. Got near (ish) GZ, but initially couldn't work out the access route. Then I went slightly further, and spotted a likely option,. which proved suitable. Was very glad of a quick find, as the light was starting to fade, and you know how I hate night caching! Logbook signed and photographed, and the TB taken to move it along as we'd not met before. TFTC, a much appreciated addition to the 2 1/2+ D/T element of the DGSC Challenge.

Thanks TWD for doing due diligence in checking the state of this pathway. It seems they're updating the sewerage system here to prevent it from leaking into the nearby streams and waterways. The timing of the cache placement was an unfortunate coincidence but the advice about when to come here seems sound. I came here early evening on a public holiday and it was encouraging to see all the heavy machinery penned inside a fence which meant they weren't going to be out roaming the track (I'm zoomorphizing a bit). However about 20m from GZ approaching from Cornwall Crescent was a yellow caution tape stretched across the road and beyond another parked piece of heavy machinery. So I interpreted "caution" literally (it didn't say keep out!) and proceeded. With caution. The track is a bit of a mess with all the heavy vehicle use but better than it was when I DNFed. The huge mound of dirt that was in the way has been removed and the road is a bit more graded than it was.

It took me several minutes to locate the well hidden cache which appears to be safely out of the way of the works. Not really the tour experience I presume the CO wanted to provide so hopefully finders after December (the scheduled completion) will have a better walk getting here. It seems like a nice area so I'll have to revisit when the work is done.

Thanks for bringing me to a "new" area of Porirua.

GPS wanted me in the creek. Spotted a go trail as I was about to give up and success. All good here. TB is still in cache. TFTC

Stopped by the Catholic Church entrance this morning. The signs there do not prohibit people from going down the trail, but warn about ongoing work for the next few months. The baricade is opened on weekends when they are not working, but shut during the week, although you can get around them if you want. I would suggest that folks approach from the Cornwall Street entrance instead, and try to avoid regular working hours if possible until all of the remediation work is done. Evenigns and weekends are fine.
I will continue to monitor the area through occasional visits and watching people's logs.

Was making my way back from New Plymouth when I saw this new cache published and soon realised what this cache was and decided that if I get back to Wellington at a good time I will go and see if I could check this cache out.

As I was making my way back I noticed that the FTF had gone on this cache so I wasnt in a hurry to break any speed records as I made my way South. I was quite a nice drive as the traffic was behaving itself and it was a nice drive back South heading towards the setting sun.

Finally arrived back in Porirua just after 20:00 and was thinking to myself if I was going to attempt this cache or leave it till another time, in the end I decided that since it was still early enough, I might as well go and give it a go.

Arriving at the parking spot and as I pulled up I noticed that there was a familiar car parked at GZ and soon realised that it was the huhugrubs, had a chat with Mrs Huhugrub and she said the Mr Huhugrub was making his way to GZ. So it was time to start making my way to GZ, manage to find a easy access to the path and from there it was a very easy walk to GZ.

Arriving at GZ, I managed to catch up with Mr Huhugrub, who had just replaced the cache, so it was a very easy find. Managed to retrieve the cache, signed and then replaced the cache back where I found it. Thanks The Wandering Dragons for placing another cache here and for bringing me to this spot, TFTC TNLNSL (13815).

Time to make my way home and do some math's and see where it takes me, and also get some food as I still hadnt had a chance to get any dinner yet.

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

#10,402. Second to find and first day find. We tried to have a go at this tour stop in Cannons Creek, Porirua after dinner. There was still light and no problem making the way down Thompson Gully, after skirting round the entrance. There were obvious signs of recent construction work activities on the track, which had been cleared of all overgrowth on it now. GZ was totally quiet during the visit. Found after a short search. The cache was in excellent condition, all nice and dry inside.

Dropped off Around North America
Took nothing, signed log.

Just about to leave, and then heard someone coming around the track. It was Yeetrees. Good to catch up and after he completed the formalities, we made our way back together to where we left our vehicles.

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.

*****
We look forward to the Mega Event in Wellington during Labour Day weekend later in October. Check out the details on the [GC78NMQ WENZ MEGA Event 2018 (Wellington)](https://coord.info/GC78NMQ) cache listing, [Wellington Event New Zealand MEGA 2018 website](http://203.118.159.23/) or visit the Mega Event's page on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/groups/590545297801072/). If you are thinking of coming to any part of the event sessions, please remember to log a “Will Attend” on the [Event Log](https://www.geocaching.com/play/geocache/gc78nmq/log).
*****

I made the same observations as the previous cacher but decided against breaching the barricade. I also tried the other direction and encountered a mountain of dirt. it was passable but since this was not the intention of the CO to find a cache this way I left it for another time.

The CO may want to visit this because it looks like the cache will have to be disabled for a while while the groundwork is completed or else relocated.

Cache was only put out about a week ago, and track was passable in both directions, although the one end with the "barricade" looks like it is closed but is not. Will still come by and check it out tomorrow. Not disabling it as people will need the code for the next puzzle about to be released.

Published

[FTF] @ 18:15 Saw this one appear as I was getting ready to leave work, so rather than go home I headed out here. Disappointed to find access to the path is closed for "Track Upgrades", but judged that everything looked safe, so snuck around the blockade and headed down the path. Arrived at GZ safely, and saw quite a bit of tree removal work seemed to be happening, so was concerned, but after the GPS settled I spotted what I was looking for a pleased to find a clean log book. Another ToP done. TFTC