Grandad's Lighthouse (Cape Egmont) South Taranaki District, North Island, New Zealand
By HappyBogan on 27-Apr-21. Waypoint GC892M6

Found on our drive from New Plymouth to Carterton

TFTC

Nice place and huge respect to your granddad that he was able to stand this big winds on the coastline for that long. Also nice idea to keep his memory alive with such a virtual cache view to MT Egmont was not perfect, but we tried our bestTFTC #429

Beautiful day up at the lighthouse today. Im travelling back from teaching in New Plymouth, travelling the Surf Highway to grab a few caches. Thanks for sharing your grandparents story. Your grandfather sounds like he lead a very fulfilling and interesting vocation and life. Mihi ki a koe #132

What a beautiful spot! Thank you for putting this virtual here. I can tick off geocaching and photography all in one spot! TFTC

Thanks for the virtual cache! A very wet day out geocaching with soflo100! The mountain was hiding today

Thanks for first virtual cache. Out geocaching with Shellflo on a wet, cold, windy day. Lots of fun despite the weather!

Staying at New Plymouth with my sister after farm sitting for them we went for a drive and I flagged this as one I wanted to get. Unfortunately the mountain in the background was somewhat obscured by clouds today though you can see the bottom of it, just not the snow covered peak. Thanks HappyBogan for the chance to grab one of these cache types.

I was doing a Geo Tour of Taranaki, and this and the old cache nearby were on my radar.

Was a little damp weather wise . As a Taranaki born girl I have relations around this coast

I have the week off work so have come up to Taranaki for a couple of days or so for caching, tackling the Forgotten Highway and hopefully finally knocking off the E174 challenge that I signed some years ago.A return visit to this gem (it's not the first time a virtual head popped up in a far away place once only previously visited once). At least you can see the mountain this time.All good here and TFTC.Find #6580 at 21 March 2024 9:34 am

Cache found during our drive on the beautiful and scenic Surf Highway 45. the view of the lighthouse with Mount Taranaki behind is gorgeous. Thank you for the cache and the discovery of this magnificent place.

Thanks HappyBogan for the cache. Its #1890 for us. We found your cache on Monday 18 March 2024. Great place. Thanks for bringing us here

TFTC From Colorado

Tftc and greetings from Germany

Tftc very windy today and hazy Mt Taranaki

Nice view, but the Mountains are covered with clouds

There's no chance getting the mountain and the lighthouse together, thanks to the clouds. I enjoyed my day out in the sun, though, but was unable to venture up to the lighthouse as it was closed.

What a great place. I love lighthouses. Tftc

Tftc! What a spot!

While staying in the area during our trip thru New Zealand i visited this location.Thanks for telling the story.Greetings from Camperfietser

As traveling through New Zealand this month, I'm trying to find a few caches along the way.What a neat place to visit, love the lighthouse!

Lovely

Heute konnte auch dieser Virtuelle gefunden und geloggt werden.Danke an den owner fr's herfhren und ausdenken.TFTCSchmerzbefreit

Thanks

Day 16: Around TaranakiTodays journey took us around the Taranaki Region, where we headed as far south as Cape Egmont before heading up to Pukeiti, and back to New Plymouth for two more parks: Tpare and Pukekura Parks. After that, we searched for the best views of the Maunga from Te Wera Wera Bridge and walked the Coastal Walkway back to the Port. Another truly productive day, and thanks for all the caches around the Taranaki Region. (End of the cut and paste bit)Heres the specific log for this cache: The Maunga was still hiding out at this time of the morning so only the lighthouse could be featured. We had quite a bit of fun posing in front of the light, and enjoying the landscape. Thanks for the personal story behind the virtual as well - anecdotes are always a welcome addition to listings. TFTVC!

We are staying in Eltham Taranaki with a cousin I have never met before. We were lucky enough to be chauffeured around various places and picked up a few caches. Thank you for placing this virtual cache.

Weekend getaway succesfull! And Mt Taranaki showed himself a few times. Beautiful area!With frogprincesss...Tftc

A quick and easy virtual. Thanks for sharing the history of your family.

What a great story! Taranaki Maunga wasn’t visible yesterday, so the pic is just me & the lighthouse. Thanks HappyBogan! This was one of the reasons I talked Infoferret into returning this way.

When I was younger, my grandparents lived in New Plymouth. Occasionally we would drive around the mountain, but we never came to see the Lighthouse. It wasn’t till I was Geocaching that I made my first visit here -I have since been back 2-3 times with other geocachers and I still like seeing the lighthouse, the mountain and the coast line.
Today the mountain was hidden. The sea was rough and at one stage I could hear boulders banging together in the surf.

Out and about with LNM1961 revisiting Taranaki and collecting caches.

Kia ora rawa atu for the cache HappyBogan.

A lovely spot for an important piece of shipping navigation infrastructure. Thanks for bringing us up here today.

It was a weekend visit to see family in my home province. Many a year had passed since I visited this location. The mountain was being shy so there was no chance of me earning bonus points. Thanks for the interesting historical information in the description.

Our first virtual cache! What amazing stories your grandfather must have been able to tell. We have visited many lighthouses around NZ and have always admired the courageous and hardworking families that lived and ran the lighthouses. Unfortunately no views of the mountain today on this wet and windy day.

Nice day at the cape for a bike ride

I don't often get to visit the Taranaki, and even rarer is a visit to New Plymouth. But I had a reason to be here over the weekend, and even though that reason was not geocache related I still managed to sneak a few caches into my itinerary

I had decided to make my return journey via 'the scenic route' in order to try and get a few caches to help me with my '360deg from home' count on PGC, as I have some ugly gaps on my chart. But that also allowed me to stop at any other caches that took my interest such as this one.

I initially went down the wrong road - oh the joys of traveling along and not being able to do more than the most rudimentary of navigation whilst driving - but soon realised my error. Once at GZ I snapped off a few photos after reading the signboards. I'm afraid the clouds did their best to hide the mountain

Thanks for bringing me here today.

#3,939: Viewtiful Find!I came to this one with my sister and brother-in-law who are visiting from the US. I flew up from Chch to meet them, and have a spin around the Naki.We had to visit this icon. The mountain wasn't showing itself on this day, so my bro-in-law will have to do!TFTC!!

After collecting the old cache, turned around and grabbed a few photos of the lighthouse. Pity Mt Taranaki was covered in some of the long white / grey cloud that NZ is famous for. What a great spot for a lighthouse keeper. Thanks HappyBogan for highlighting some of your own family history.

Took the scenic road back to Wellington, wouldn't have come to the lighthouse if it hadn't been for geocaching! Unfortunately Mt Taranaki was covered in cloud but still enjoyed the coastal views from the Cape.

Another day in the land of the long white cloud. TeamARF, JACSTeam and I headed south to Wellington. Lots of rainy caching but still some awesome caches and spectacular locations. Thanks to all COs!!

Day 5: We ( TeamARF, Gcoven and myself) have travelled over from Brisbane, Australia to have a visit since we were not able to make it to the Mega. We have spent some considerable time solving puzzles and making plans in preparation.

Today the plan is to work on collecting things of our list. We have a gigantic list of old, interesting, highly favourited, challenges and a few Geo-arts to try and collect over the next 10 days. There is a good chance we got lazy with our logging and do some joint variation of our initials - TGJ, GJT or JGT.

Please excuse the generic log, just have extremely little data to try and survive on it for the 10 days. However, you can be assured that if we have found your cache it was special to us for some reason or in a special location - so thank you for contributing to our holiday.

I will edit logs when back in Brisbane to add more details to those that need more details and of course I will be adding favourite points as I go along.

Heading off for a long weekend to New Plymouth with tmann421.
The Naki put on perfect weather for us.
Some wonderful caches found and great sites seen.

Thanks to the cache owners, without their efforts this game would not be possible.

Fun geocaching trip away with woolwood9.
We enjoyed the drive around and the good finds.

*Thank you for putting this Virtual cache out for us to visit.*

Had an absolute shocker today. Ended up at the wrong light no coverage on my phone so couldn't load the caches, then wrong side of the fence when I found the big light on the way out no road across. But got to see a nice bit of coast.

Before we go to New Plymouth, we made a nice little detour here. From time to time we could almost see the whole of the big mountain, then it disappeared again into the clouds. Tftc.

Long weekend, cousin visiting / studying in Wellington for 6 months, so an excuse for a road trip around the LNI to show her some of the best bits off the 'tourist trail'. A bit cloudy today, so decided against a long trip up the mountain, so we hugged the coast road. I came here a few years ago, so was very glad of an opportunity to revisit. Was a 'touch breezy' today, so I can well understand why the house was built downhill from the light, where there is some shelter available! You obviously come from hardy stock!

Thank you for choosing this spot for your well-deserved virtual, and for sharing some of your family history with the Geocaching community.

Awesome story TFTC

A nice visit today with ebrm. TFTC

Belle visite faite ce jour avec CrazyTraveler qui joint la photo de la team

Day 6 on our holiday in New Zealand. We visited the spot of this Virtual Cache. We made the requested photo, and added it to the log.

Blue hearth in



***T4T$ - Many thanks to HappyBogan for this Virtual Cache, and showing us this unique spot***. ️

Thanks! Cool spot. Visited and completed with hill-billies.

Found with KiwiMadScientist. Beautiful spot.

Some really great photos coming up. Enjoying seeing what people are coming up with. Thanks to everyone who has visited so far.

When she blows.... she blows. And it was blowing today. But still a great place. Thanks for bringing us here. TFTC

A great location. TFTC

TfTC great spot at lighthouse we always go to these landmarks.

Loved visiting this special place. Managed to get a photo with both the lighthouse and the mountain in the background too!

TFTC

Driving along the coast with some nice view point.
I like Lighthouses very much.
Thanks.

A windy day and certainly no chance of seeing te maunga! I had no idea there was a coffee shop down the bottom!

This is my fourth geocaching excursion to **beautiful New Zealand**!
Due to Covid [xx(] I had to wait for 3 long years to again return to my beloved Middle-Earth [B)].
This time it's a road trip enduring for 26 days, covering both North- and South-Island.
Today the road led me from Palmerston North via Whanganui to New Plymouth .
There were quite some interesting caches on the route, that wanted to be visited [^].
This geo-treasure contributed to the finds of today. Cool [^]!
Great that this virtual reward was placed in memory of the owners grandad, who was the Lighthouse Keeper here in former days [^].
A big thanks [:X] to the owner HappyBogan for guiding me to this remarkable place [^] - and best regards from Germany !

Nosynel my wife sent in the answers for this.

We are travelling from Christchurch to ️️ Wellington to Turangi to New Plymouth to Opunake to Hawera, to Picton ️ ️ back home over the next 8 days
What a fantastic spot. We managed to get a photo with the mountain ️ and the lighthouse in it but not at gz.

More later

On a little road trip around the Mountain and after finding the traditional cache at the top of the road (and not realizing for awhile that the lighthouse was on this road, I made my way here. I do remember the traditional cache that way the lighthouse a few years back as well Sao e down the road a bit further. This lighthouse also had a starring role in a video I was also in - Step Up Taranaki recreated the famous Poi e song using Taranaki landmarks in the video. Bonus points for me to get the lighthouse and mountain

Absolutely howling a gale here today which nearly blew the kids off the hill. However it made for a pretty authentic lighthouse experience! Thanks for bringing us here

Having had a bit of a slow start to the holiday period, I finally got on the road and out of town (Wellington) yesterday, making it as far as Wanganui. The plan today was to head to New Plymouth via the coastal road, and collect as many caches as I could find. Sadly, that was not as many as I wanted and I had a record (for me) number of DNF's today. But, regardless, the glorious sunshine and easy driving made it a wonderful day.

This however, was one of the caches I was able to do. Photo attached.

Thanks to the CO for placing this geocache and bringing me here.

I enjoy each and every cache I find, and it is only with CO's like this placing them out in the world that this wonderful game continues.

With the wet weather in Taranaki today our plan to walk some of the tracks on the mountain had to be changed. The decision was made to drive down to Hawera from Stratford then up the Surf Highway to New Plymouth.

Out near the coast the weather was better than inland around the mountain - in fact we couldn't see the mountain most of the day. It made sense to take the side road to the Cape and lighthouse as we were passing. Photos were taken and the couple of caches at this location were quickly found in between the rain showers.

Will post our photos once we return home from our holiday later in the week.

A quick stop to claim this virtual. I wanted to attempt the bonus photo but the mountain was wearing his invisibility cloak today. Interesting that this lighthouse is not well sign posted from the main highway. TFTC.

Too many clouds around the mountain unfortunately, for a photo including it. Still a sunny day with a newly painted lighthouse to see.

Thanks for all the info on its history! Enjoyed this visit

TFTC an the exiting story, you shared with us in the description. Unfortunately, today's weather didn't give me a chance to get the bonus points. We just circled the volcano today. The clouds stuck stubbornly to the mountain.

A beautiful day for a visit to the area. Thanks for bringing me here

I like to see the lighthouse with the sea... But her Majesty Taranaki Mountain was covered by clouds... Anyway thanks for setting it up!
Nice spot.
I've found this cache during my second day of the Queen memorial weekend in Taranaki.
TFTC

#12,845. Good to visit the Cape Egmont Lighthouse on Cape Road in Pungarehu again. Appreciated the family story about your grandparents’ lives at this historical landmark. Great personal touches for a virtual cache in memory of them.

Good to see that in Puke Ariki’s archive collection is an oral history record of an interview with your grandmother Lillian Mallowes in 1996 talking about life as the wife of a lighthouse keeper for over 30 years. Must be fascinating listening.

Favorite point added.

Thanks for the virtual 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 drove up towards the lighthouse but found that it is undergoing renovations and no entry is currently allowed. Still able to take a photo to meet requirements. Thank you for the interesting family history.

I did not know this lighthouse was here. Thanks for the adventure.

Such a cool spot!

I was looking forward to this virtual when I saw it even though I have been here a few times. Blessed this time as the skies cleared and I got a photo of three of my favourite things. A lighthouse, a volcano and a penguin.

Would hate to live here now though with people wandering through your garden all the time.

What a day! TFTC

Thank you for bringing us to this great place and sharing a part of your history with us. It was incredibly windy, but worth it for the beautiful sight. (The photo is a slight exageration if the wind, but not much!) TFTC

What was hoped to be a 3 cache haul down this road turned out to be just this one, but glad I came down anyway. A short diversion off the SH45 surf highway and soon within sight of the lighthouse. The keepers cottage was all signs about 'closed' and 'no parking' so headed to the beach to appreciate. A nice lighthouse and so picturesque with the Maunga alongside. I liked the backstory to your choice here too, thanks for sharing HappyBogan.

Having moved down from Auckland at the start of the week, and settling into a new work routine and having a new team at work it's been quite a hectic week. So what better way to kick back and relax than embark on a 730km, 16 hour marathon Geocaching expedition to the Taranaki region. It was more about quality than quantity and I had a number of statty targets; a couple more TMGT tour caches, my final missing S39 degree minutes for the Challenge cache, a few Virtual caches, including the new fmz Monopoly one, couple of Earthcaches, and a couple more DT combos, and anything else that I passed, but without adding too much diversion onto my trip. 36 caches was the total and a pleasing selection of treats and more than doubled my current Taranaki finds total of 24 finds total. Thanks so much to all the COs for their caches, imagination and hard work and maintenance, much appreciated. When I eventually made it 'home' at 1045 PM I was ready for bed, and dashed my (foolish) plans of heading to Ohakune/National Park etc today, that will keep.

It's very rare that I'm in family photos so it was great to have my SIL take family photos...although not all are facing the camera in many of them!!
Great history here and awesome to learn the lighthouse is still active.

A quick trip around the Maunga with another photo of the lighthouse - this time with myself in it. Tftv.

Cheers!

Visited today after driving the very long way home to pick up a westerly cache for the compass crossover challenge. Great little lighthouse. Photo added as required, tried to add second photo for the bonus points of lighthouse and mountain, but on the app, which limits me to one. Will write note it TFTC in such a scenic spot.

The bonus point photo ...

A Sunday ride around the mountain on a day so hot the road tar was melting and we were caught between sweltering in long sleeves or burning in short ones.

I'm hoping that transport is considered caching equipment because the phone I used to take the picture is the one I cache with. If not, I've got a squinting selfie at hand.

We were 260m away from the virtual's location but parking closer was difficult as it was very popular here today.

What a wonderful way to remember your Grandparents. We were saying while we were here, that it would be awesome living in a lighthouse.
It was a beautiful day to stop by here. There were still plenty of muggles coming and going despite covid restricting the number of tourists.
Thanks for setting this up and giving us a reason to visit it again

There were ppl having a bbq at the lighthouse, so took the photo further away. Geocaching item is the phone and pen

The predicted rain has stayed away and we got glimpses of the summit of Mt Taranaki.
Malinkaly and I planned a road trip to go to the MEGA but Covid has postponed the event again. We decided to continue on with our planned journey making adjustments as we go with the ever-changing travel restrictions.
Greetings from Dunedin!
Thanks for the cache, HappyBogan
#2653

Great place for a virtual! I mean, who wouldn't take photos here?!

TFTC HappyBogan

*** Out on our MEGA Roadtrip with Wilbywarrior. Who says this can only happen when the MEGA is actually held?! Greetings from Dunedin, caching friends
#409 ***

Having spent several days in new Plymouth visiting M in Law and locating a few more caches in the area we decided to travel home via the coastal route to avoid the road works and the stop go signs with waits and waits waits ! although i have all the caches on this route except this new one at the light house I previously visited this light house back in jan 2020 so i knew where we were going etc etc . Our decision to travel the coast was certainly a good one as we had sunny weather all along this route and we had lunch in the sun at Opanaki beach behind the life saving club sheltered from the breeze. I do like travelling this route despite it being 30 mins longer .
thank you for this virtual cache and it is a pity that we get no points for Reach the Peaks with virtual caches .

Was Out And About Searchin The Okato Cemetery For Relatives Today Between The Rain Showera,On The Way Home To Hawera Thought I Might Stop And Pick Up This Cache ,Got To Gz And It Was Blowing A Gale,Tried To Put Gps On Post To Take A Photo Wind Kept Blowing It Off.Rain Would Not Stop So Into Car Hang Gps Out Window And Try To Take A Photo With One Hand.And Saddly No Mountain Today To Much Cloud.

I have been here several times before but didn't take any qualifying photos.

Cheers for the cache.

With team bop Philip.Perry McJandals and Nzflossy back in June going back through and logging the caches I forgot to log back then thanks for bringing us to this part of New Zealand really enjoyed our weekend away.

Had to do the tourist type shot.

Sorry for the late log.  We had a number sitting on an old phone that i though had logged but they hadn't.
We head up to New Plymouth for a few days to explore some short walk around the mountain. We head home along the coastal highway. Mamma Bear likes to stop at lighthouses. Thanks for bringing us to another one. Photo of Junior Bear looking checking our the lighthouses.

Too cloudy for a mountain view today. But thanks for the cache.

Was in the Taranaki for work and was making my way around the coast and was a bit early for my next appointment and I decided that since I was in the area I might as well go and check out this virtual cache.

I did see this cache when it was published and did consider chasing the FTF but attempting a virtual cache especially this one at night was definitely not the recommended thing.

As I was making my way South along the coastal highway I noticed this cache and decided that since it wasnt too far off the beaten track I might as well go and give it a go. As I arrived near the beach I saw that there were a few muggles on their way out heading back inland so I decided to wait a couple off minutes and one they were out off view I was able to do the formalities.

Another great little spot for a virtual cache. Many thanks HappyBogan for placing this virtual cache here and for bringing me back to this spot again. TFTVC

Now it is time to start making my way to my next appointment which isnt too far away.

D i s c l a i m e r:
This disclaimer informs readers that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author.

Otherwise, what one says may be construed as being what the entire one believes, thinks or condones, and this may be very inaccurate and damaging, or just complete fiction...........

On tour with part of Team BOP having lots fun and laughs. We targeted one trail and lots of cool different caches. Thanks to all the COs for the work that goes into making and maintaining. Looking forward to the next visit as well TFTC Loved this visit