Dead End (Wellington) Normandale, North Island, New Zealand
By IamMagikarp299 on 19-Feb-19. Waypoint GC83M47

Today is a size regular dot-day, so I cycled to the bottom of Dowse Drive and took the bus to the top. I have cycled up this hill before, but frankly it is a slog. Then it was a cruisy cycled down Stratton Street to the end and to the cache. Found that, cycled back to the start of Stratton Street then pulled the phone out to see what else was around. This cache!So I cycled over. Downhill all the way. Oh. Steps. Thankfully my bike is a lightweight wonder so carrying it isn't a problem.The cache was a fairly straightforward find, just a little awkward due to the tree cover and the poor signal. After going a little way up the bank I decided this was a crazy idea - I would not hide a cache there, and went back down to hunt some more sensible places. Like where the cache was actually hidden.Alas the log is sopping wet - these older sistemas are notorious for not being waterproof at all - so I could not sign. Here is a photo log instead.

Abandoned the search after 20ins in the deep wandering willy and blackberry without seeing any rocks.

Gps was all over the place but found neither the less. Log is soaked hard to make a mark. SL TFTC

Access across the field from the car park. Too wet to write on

DNF - Geosense not working for me today. Found a small pile of rocks out in the open. Stopped at the fence like others have, phone pointing for me to go over - very strange. Will visit another day when there's been more activity.

I found it pretty easily but the log was a bit full and it was pretty wet the owner might have to replace the log but that was the only thing I wanted to point out

The log was wet and full I was hoping you could replace the log with a new one thank you.

Nice find with woolwood9 today.Took a bit of searching but soon found.SL *tm/ww NZ*Thanks for the fun find!

In the area with tmann421 hunting cachesNo problems hereTFTC

I thought this was going to be a very boggy field after all the rain we've had in the last 6 weeks or so, but it was surprisingly firm. My GPSr pointed over the fence but I soon spotted it at the base of a bush in a truely typical hide. TFTC.

Yay

TFTC. left a token.

TFTC. Didn't take anything but left something

Yay our first cache found

14 November 2021 14:09. Last one for today. Whilst I was looking in all the wrong places, and re reading logs looking for inspiration, BFG looked in the right one! TFTC Number 10383 for me.

Squelched across the field on a Sunday to GZ (i.e. not a school day). Took a while to spot the hide — leaf litter had completely buried it and satnav was pointing across the fence. After some scrounging under leaves I managed to unearth the cache. TFTC IamMagikarp299, interesting dead end

Wet and slippery!

Went into the bush from an empty field. Returned to three dogs and their muggle owners. Hopefully they just thought we were random bush crashers! Tftc

All nice and safe, rebuilt the rock pile also. Tftc

Found with the help of my trusty friend

Figuring out how to get in was the hardest part. Left this one til after school hours. Quick find at GZ, all in good order. Tftc!

Nice hide. Added a couple more rocks

Found it! Lovely big field discovery too.

Neat place to hide a cache! TFTC )

Parked at one of the walkways leading to the school and quickly to the GZ where the cache was easily found. Thanks CO for the cache.

What an awesome place to go to school! All found nice and safe and dry

The map said there was a track to the cache - which wasn't a dead end as there was no start. So Mrs SoBad and her sister backtracked a bit to the track that did exist - the one her sister thought was right all along. The down to the dead end and along to the cache which her sister spotted while Mrs S was checking the size. Left it a bit better covered. The cache was 770m from Mrs SoBad's sister's home - and gave us a 4km walk before tea.
Thanks.

The fur monsters demanded a run around so out we came. A nice spot, cache is back reasonably hidden, nice and dry. Have dropped a TB. Thanks for the cache

Found while on a short walk around the local area. We feel for the security of this cache as it was perched on a small rock out in the open. As the slope it was on is relatively steep we tried with some stones to build a base on which it could sit. This effort made it even more obvious so we finally loosely covered it with the local greenery. Not sure what else to do. TFTC.

This is no longer a sneaky hide in fact it is extremely obvious for a cache on school grounds. I could not work out where it was supposed to be so I left it there. Hopefully the school kids have adopted it.

However I did not think it a safe place for the geocoin I am carrying around in my bubble. I may have to drop this off in a cache I have already found.

Was an easy find. Found it straight away.

Couldn’t find it in the bush

#7441. Probably not a great choice of cache after a day of heavy rain. The field was soaking wet and squelchy underfoot. Heading down the long flight of wet steps on the footpath to reach here was also a challenge. But made it safely to GZ without mishap. Once there the cache was instantly spotted. But the strong winds blew the log out of the container as I opened it so had to climb the fence and head into the trees to rescue the log. Signed it and replaced the cache as found. Nice interesting area to hide a geocache and a hidden school it seems. Never been here before. Thanks IamMagikarp299 for hiding the cache down here in the secret valley.

Good little find

I don’t know if I have seen a school in a setting like this before, not surrounded by houses or other buildings. I can see why it’s pupils are fit! The cache was quickly located. TFTC

On my way here I got a strong sense of "I've been here before". Not a de ja vu because it was a real memory. But why was I here? Geocaching's useless map tells me nothing but Project-GC's live view shows the location of the puzzle cache I was remembering. Onwards to to this cache though where I got deposited on a road that perhaps I could have driven down if I knew my way around? After sloshing my way through the field I arrived at, well, a dead end. But the GPS has not zeroed out yet. Hmmm. But wait, that looks like a cache hide. Yep. I like it when they say clearly say "geocache" on the container which somehow makes things feel more legit. I think I'll do to that my caches during their next maintenance. After signing I got about 5 metres away when i realized I'd left my GPS behind. I'd hate to have got all the way back to the car before discovering that. A good cache to get on the weekend. TFTC.

I originally looked straight past the cache at first. But with a little help from Monkeymoo1it was quickly located. TFTC!

Found with 05brock. TFTC!

Found with DVH between showers. Last clue needed for the second stage of Mystery at the Museum. TFTC.

TFTC and the fingerprint in mystery for the museum. A quick find which skaga located straight away at GZ after a wet walk across the field.

I was in the area checking on the well being of one of my caches. When I do such things, I like to also be able to add a cache or two to my find tally. My GPSr led me a little bit astray so I didn't find the cache as quickly as I should have.

I decided I'd check this out this afternoon as its school holidays at the moment. Had the place completely to myself. A short walk through the mist to look for the cache, which I found in the first spot I checked. TFTC

(# 5117). Was at a family birthday party today very close to the school. After lunch I decided to have a stretch and wander down to the cache. A quick find. Everything in order. TFTC

Dog loved the walk here

For a reply for The Wandering Dragons, Violet Butterfly and Astro Hunter's photo, I don't know why coolkid543 didn't log the cache. I do know him irl, so I might check in with him to see what the dealio is

Did with The Wandering Dragons and Violet Butterfly. We spent more time scrounging blackberries than we needed to find the cache! Thank you.

Cache # 979

Found today after a short walk on a Sunday afternoon. We could have parked closer, with school not in session, but the exercise was good for all of us. The Wandering Dragons and Astro Hunter helped make short work of this one. Thanks!

Cache # 1,510

Cache # 4,765 - gave this a miss a couple weeks ago when I realised it was so near a school and it was during class time. Came back today on the weekend with Astro Hunter and Violet Butterfly. Cache was a straightforward find, and all well within it. Had a second encounter with a most gorgeous cat on the stairs, and the last of the blackberries made for some fine eating by the other two. TNLNSL. TFTC!

Consecutive caching day # 2,143

Tim and I came out here for a look on a sunny Friday afternoon. Tim needed a ride to waterpolo and I convinced him to leave a bit early so we could take a detour up here to search for the cache. We parked up on Pokohiwi and walked down the stairs.

We were having a good old chat about a birthday party he is going to tomorrow. He was hoping to tell the birthday boy that we had found this cache today. No pressure!

As it turned out, it didn't take to long to find it.

The cache is in good condition. All nice and dry.

Thank you

Cherrys Rule

Sorry for late log. Quite a cool find with the owner. TFTC

Out and about this afternoon so decided to make a trip up here. Parked in Pokohiwi Road and walked down the steps. Lots of nice ripe blackberries to eat as I walked across the park to GZ. The coordinates were 12 metres out for me but I soon spotted the cache in a fairly obvious location. Signed log, TFTC!

After a slump in finds and with caching time likely to be very limited for the next few weeks it was good to have a chance to go look for this one.
Normally I would be likely to find this type of hide quickly but I was diverted by other possibilities owing to my interpretation of the cache description. Once I had looked about for about five minutes eliminating other possibilities I spotted something of interest and a quick find resulted.
Glad I did this on Saturday, though the cache is some distance from the school itself a lone male hanging around without apparent legitimate reason is bound to draw attention these days!
Anyone with walking difficulty needs to be aware that though GZ is T1.5 there are quite a few uphill/downhill steps if you use the Pokohiwi Rd walkway.
TFTC.

After a week and a half of not heading out to find any geocache I was starting to get itchy palms (or is that coming into money?). I've only found one cache on 26 February so that's a good excuse as any to pop out - I've missed one other day earlier in the month with only one find, so at least there's no pressure to try and make the double 366 this year.

Anyway, even heading out to this cache was an event in itself - a fire appliance under beacons crossed my path and was heading in the direction I was going. A lot of smoke but it was quickly under control (turns out it was a car on fire in a driveway). Carried on and parked up as close as I could and headed over - getting tempted by the blackberries. Reached the place referred by the name and started looking in the usual type of spots, but coming up with nothing. It wasn't until I took a peek from a different angle that I spotted the cache and was soon signing the log (a couple more names that are yet to log online). Replaced and headed back, but not before grabbing a couple more blackberries on the way...TFTC

#10,650. Third to find. A nice little walk in Normandale, Lower Hutt. Approached from Pokohiwi Road. GZ was all quiet when we visited. 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.

To esay

Published

[FTF] @ 21:00 - I saw the notification email at about 7:45pm, and as I was mid Otari-Wilton bush on my own little geo-expedition, I ignored it as I assumed the local FTF vultures would be already swooping in. Once I emerged (triumphant) from the reserve, I checked the new listing and was very surprised to see that it had not yet been found. I made my way out to the area, walked on down to the location, and quickly spotted the hide - and on opening was very pleased to find that I was the first visitor, a FTF for my 1300th find. Log was all safe and dry, with good use of hair-ties. TFTC.