Te Ruaki Pa South Taranaki District, North Island, New Zealand
By 2 Bulbars on 16-Dec-18. Waypoint GC81CXX

Found it easy

A morning Hawera, time to find some solved Smiley's and some traditional caches in the afternoon. Thanks 2 Bulbars for the cache.

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)…

Auckland Anniversary: We needed fair weather to smash out our big caching plans. We were hopeful that Taranaki would turn on some sunshine today and it did. In spite of one heavy downpour in the afternoon and the threat of thunder, we managed to stay dry and in the game.

We enjoyed working our way through the Smile GeoArt. Each of the puzzles was a test of logic and reasoning. We were able to solve many with surprising rapidity, while a handful needed some heavy duty problem solving. In the end, we had the trail sorted for this weekend's visit... A big break from Smiling - Gap noticed that the road we were travelling formed a wide loop that would eventually bring us back to Hawera. Besides, there were some outlier caches dotted on the map. This was a tricky find. A swinging iPhone gps and long grass almost derailed our efforts. But Gap was determined to find this one, and he did. Thanks 2 Bulbars. TFTC.

bit of a search here today.
than found well hidden container.
log a little damp but dried and signed.
TFTC

Another smiley thanks Bulbars for the cache

Found it, didn't sign it as the paper was too wet.

Today was the second time I had attempted to find a different cache but completely missed the road I should have been on. All good though as this was also on my list, made my way here and had to fight the natural growth to get my hands on it. I was just about to give up when a more thorough sweep revealed the cache. And with this I FINALLY get to gemstone level for dot days, I had it completed quite some time ago but the criteria on project gc was changed, I'm not bitter about that at all nice to complete this challenge and with this cache I now have just 36 dot days to go

We were on this loop road heading back to the SH with the intent to grab this cache as we went by.

Pretty overgrown but coords were good and cache soon found, log signed and left as found.

Lots of history in these parts, thanks for bringing us here 2 Bulbars.

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.

Needed a bit of a search, but founded it in the end.

nice little afternoon drive to pick this one up.

Although it was at a reasonably logical location, it took a wee while to find this cache. We felt climbing up through almost shoulder high vegetation wasn't terrain 1.5. TFTC

I was Travelling up to New Plymouth and locating a few of the newer caches around this area.
I got to this cache and searched every where- or so i thought- and finally rang the CO. reception here was terrible so i eventually went further along the road and got enough coverage to send me back and hopefully able to locate the cache this time, I must have actually even touched it on my initial search it was just so clear!
What a steep little knoll this was on. thank you for yet another of this series of caches:)

Its raining again so everything is wet, wet, wet. Got this one tagged but did not stay around to explore. Cheers.

Day 5- Wednesday 18 December. Hawera district again including Eltham and Manaia.

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.

It's wet, buggy and rainy. With extra rain. Rain all day. The cache is still in good nick, but given the weather we did not go exploring.

Day five of Taybeedragon's and my big 3 week circumnavicaching trip around Mt Taranaki, starting from Palmerston North. Today is Hawera to Eltham - oh yes, 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!

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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!

This one was on the my way to visit a friend but he was tied up with work. Ah well, next time I down this way.

Cheers for the cache.

Out and about in the taranaki this weekend to lay my hands on some new an not so new caches and this just fitted the bill,was a nice quick find after being directed in the right direction.
Thanks for the placement and another smiley

Despite the young Rattll's having grown up and left home, Mr Rattll was taking Mrs Rattll on a mother's Day geo-caching trip to celebrate the day.
We decided to head to Hawera as quite a few newer caches have popped up since our last visit. a few newer caches have popped up since our last visit.
The grass was pretty long and wet here, but the cache was quickly located.
Thanks 2B

It is interesting to read about about the Pa, which adds more to it than just looking at it. Scratched around for a little, looked at the hint , then thought about the CO's M.O and soon had the well hidden cache in sight. Tftc.

Out for a drive with the family grabbing some caches. Been meaning to grab this one as I drive past it every day. Quickly found. Tftc

Exploring some of the back roads in the area. Great to read some of the history. TFTC (Late log sorry)

Easy find once navigated the long grass and thistles haha

This cache took us a bit out of the usual way, but introduced us to another of many pa sites that Taranaki is scattered with. Always interesting. TFTC

Sorry to lose a bit of car as we turn around on the narrow road went back to NP but all the garages were closed have to wait til the fourth before the mend, by the way thanks for the cache

On our way to somewhere else we drove out here for this cache. Unfortunately Jeremy left a bit of his car undercarriage out here so that was the end of our trip for this day. TFTC I do like these historical hides.

Thank you for bringing me to another historically significant part of New Zealand

Thank you for bringing me to another historically significant part of New Zealand

Published

#10,516. {FTF} at 15:30 and first day find. A good drive to Davidson Road in Hawera to see the old Te Ruaki Pa. GZ 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 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.