My First Mystery (Central Otago) Cromwell, South Island, New Zealand
By KNCN on 24-Aug-19. Waypoint GC8CMWX

Found - Mrs McMike2012 & I live full-time in our caravan travelling around NZ, visiting the places we want to visit & doing the things we want to do and fitting in a bit of Geocaching here & there we had decided that wed move on to Central Otago today, staying in Cromwell we went for a bit of a drive this morning to get a couple of caches that we had investigated last evening we had parked up by Historic Old Town & then gone for a wander as there were two or three caches we wanted to get Mrs McMike2012 had solved the Mystery some weeks ago & we had it on our hit-list of caches to get after a quick search soon had it in hand although there were some ladies organising what looks like a Christmas display, it certainly made life reasonably easy when theres not too many people around were also pleased to add another 'smiley face' to the tally TFTC ... TN, except photos:LN:LS this was #6,604 for us!

After a bit of searching, we fo6nd the tricky blighter hiding in full view found with ZEALOG

Solved a little while ago - Found with Rayzer TFTC

Have a full day in Cromwell to explore the town and search for some caches. Thanksto the COs for placing the caches.

Solved this a while ago in anticipation of my trip to Cromwell. A quick find at the final GZ today. Much stealth was required at GZ. Eventually I spotted something familiar and found the cache. Kubabelle and I signed the log and replaced as found.Thanks for the cache

Solved the easy puzzle and found the cache TFTC

Caching around Cromwell today. Ventured around and finding caches. Log book signed. TFTC

Rattll and I are on a road trip in the South Island for three weeks. Having spent last night in the NZMCA park in Alexandra, we're headed for Wanaka tonight. On the way, we're targeting adlabs and a virtual at Cromwell. A pretty relaxed day, really, once all the morning chores at Alex are out of the way.Now that the well-known online converter no longer works as it should, these puzzles are not so easy to solve as once they were. Fortunately, I have another way to solve. At GZ, a short hunt and the container was spotted. Signed, and returned as found. Tftc!

Moving on from alexandra today and heading towards lake Hawea.No problems making the find here. Thanks for setting this up

Solved this some time aho & finally in the area today to collect. Had plenty of places to check before finding the right spot. [TFTC]

Nice find here today tftpc cache all good here

Time to find this one! Thanks family

just a check.. and visiting some TBs back in New Zealand

Up for few days, thought we would have some time finding caches. TFTC

Nice little puzzle and a quick find. TFTC!!

I knew what was needed, then spotted the odd one out. Thanks for the cache.

Queenstown to Wanaka today via Cromwell. We grabbed a few caches on the way.Managed to solve this one while driving round the area as we knew what to do.We parked up close by and walked over to GZ where a quick find was made TFTCTim and Viv - ddm

Found quickly. TFTC KNCN

Day 9: Across the Lindis PassThe route for today brought us back to close the big loop of our Southern journey by passing through Omarama and the Lindis Pass and back into Cromwell where we stayed the night. This would be my first trip across the Pass and we found many caches along the way, including the highlight of the day at the Bendigo Historic Reserve. Thanks for all of the caches along the route!(End of the cut and paste bit)Heres the specific log for the cache:First in a short walk from where we staying around the older Cromwell area. This was around the corner, and despite a woman and her dog having fun by the lake, the place was otherwise quiet and I spotted the cache almost instantly. Simple puzzle here, which I solved in a jiffy so TFTC!

I was here last night, but struggled to find the cache, and being where it is, across the road a muggle walking her dog was interested in what I was up too! I said I was playing a game, which seemed to keep her happy, but I decided to stop searching, and perhaps try another time.Well this is that time, and happily I can say I found the cache, and the log was signed.Thanks KNCN for the puzzle and the hide, thankfully no police came to visit!

Todays intention is to drive back to CHCH after a quick job up at Coronet Peak.. Wasn't to be, I got sent back to Dunedin, anyway, I worked out what was needed to get some coordinates, and wandered along... Late at night so didn't have to worry too much about anyone catching me in the act haha. Another mystery dot day signed off, thanks!

TFTC , the cache was found in good order Signed, sealed and returned to GZ. 1 find(s) of 3 today, making this find #4280

Solved a while ago, easy find. Tftc

Another one moved from the solved list to the found list. TFTC

Solved a few months ago in anticipation of this holiday period. Quick find at gz even if o did look under the wrong object first and felt disappointed

Not being great at solving most mystery caches we were glad of one that looked nice & simple &, yep, we found the cache with ease . Thanks for setting up this mystery for idiot .

A type of puzzle that I use to skip over but once I knew how to tackle it, it was plain sailing. Type of hide to fool a novice. Thanks.

Enjoyed the cache. A quick find at gz with no one about. Thanks

tftc figured out this a wee while ago and had the cache in hand pretty quickly as we kinda guessed what the container would be when we got to the location. sl and replaced

So many objects of interest. That much do that I had actually picked up the cache without realising it. H suggested I have another look at it thankfully.

Found with Kiwimykl, refer to his log for details.

TFTC KNCN

Found with NZDi. Full log to follow.

I'm staying in Clyde for a couple of days. Headed into Cromwell early this morning. to have a look around and find a cache or two. Easy solve and find.. TFTC

A nice straightforward puzzle and the cache was a quick find. TFTC.

A detour to get this since we were close. As we approached the three words in mind were - yuk, private area..... luckily cold foggy morning and no-one around. But. Inside the fence of a leased area is a bad choice for a hide. You really need permission from the group in the building for this placement. At the moment they won't know why odd people are rummaging around...even though thd hide is not on the building itself, only at gl by the fence, it could be embarrassing or worse for some cacher caught searching.

Needed the extra hint as alot ofsearch options in high muggle area

I remember coming here a while ago and not getting out of the car as it looked too exposed. This time wasn't much better but suddenly......! Tftc

A nice quick find thanks. All quiet at GZ, though I still felt quite exposed.

Ms_KR and I are on a wee South Island break. Today we cruised around Wanaka, Hawea and Cromwell. There was a stong nor'wester wind and some lovely lenticular clouds, but it did stop biking and caching.

Thanks to all CO's for publishing and maintaining their caches. Cheers.

thanks KNCN for your first mystery, quickly solved but took awhile to find the final. Read some logs and figured what I should be looking for. Really enjoyed solving and finding. bring on more mysteries and cache hides KNCN

Solved this before coming down here. Loved the old Town. Tftc

Good team work solving and finding this one with kimbathelion

While parked up the road, giving my van a breather, I solved this.
Gave it another breather looking for this, finally spotted in the first place I looked.
Off to find a cold ice cream now, and hopefully getting down to Alex tonight.

Came back after a blue face and had sucess this time. Found with downsouthinv and Abbykitt

Back up to central and every time I come back up here I think of the years when I call this place home .
Yes I miss central but one day it may be home again.
But for now it just a quick trip and away again.
But time to nab this one .

Getting out and about in to the out doors is my happy place so any excuse to go caching.

Life is short. Live one foot step at a time.Never say" I'm gonna "- Just do it!!
Thanks for the hide
tftc

Lot less people around early in the morning.

Coming home from a trip to Wanaka with my grandchildren thought I would stop to get this puzzle, I had solved earlier, since I was on holiday and had the time..... grandson had it in his hand but didn't realise lol.
TFTC CO

Quiet morning to have a solid search, but no luck on finding the elusive container

This one remains a mystery. Searched with Haydnseek and muggle Chickadee, but no luck.

well this one is still a total mystery to us. ! it was a DNF.
Today was set aside to do a geo caching day to Cromwell if the weather was unsuitable for skiing which is was , so we set off early at about 8.30 and finally arrived home about 5.30 with approx 41 caches in total including the adventure lab , so we were very pleased. we took a muggle who have been intro' to geocaching briefly on a few days before and so today was a big geo caching experience for her and as i had 2 GPS's with me she was able to use one quite independently by half was thro the day.
we enjoyed spending some time at the historic Cromwell area which none of us had actually explored before and where we had lunch at the Grain cafe.
we only had 2 DNFs and both were of puzzle style caches which we had solved but there was nothing at GZ.
thank you for these caches

Picked wrong time to search. Everyone coming out from meeting

Congratulations on your first mystery. You can never have too many mysteries in life! Tftc

Straight forward solve and find on this cache. TFTC

I have had this solved for a while in hope that I would get over this way at Christmas time. Quick solve but the find took me longer than it should have. Searched in several places and then my brain kicked in and I started looking for a different hide. Quick find after that. Congratulations on your first mystery cache KNCN. TFTC 3 16,824

*Another good puzzle cache find.
Nice day going from cache to cache with woolwood9.*
We soon had the container located. SL: **tm/ww NZ**
Thanks for putting this out for us to visit!

We enjoyed the drive / walk around!

On a three week trip to the lower South Island with tmann421 hunting caches.
Enjoyed the trip around and the challenge of the finds.
Signed logs tm/ww NZ
TFTC

We did feel like a swim, but that came later, after our bike ride, and involved jumping in the lake. Luckily Flumsy2 knew how to solve this, and it is always good to find the first cache of the day. .

Now if I hadn’t been to a geocaching puzzle workshop with Spoonz2 I would not have had the foggiest what this meant. I was so happy found with Spoonz2 on a gorgeous Cromwell day at the start of a geocaching expedition Tftc

Driving back from Queenstown to Christchurch & decided to spend a bit of time wandering around Cromwell, always a delight.
Thank you for the puzzle, KNCN, and this well hidden cache.

Out caching with Tufty (Grandad). Great hiding spot. Thanks.

Out with grandaughter, Redco5, for a nice walk to Hooker Lake and nearby kocations.

Keep them coming.

Cheers for the cache.

Congrats on your first mystery I hope there have been many more. T4tc

Didn’t have too much trouble with solving this one. Camping near Bannockburn and decided to come grab some caches in Cromwell. Quickly found here. Tftc

Found with StreetWalkerNZ on day 2 of our geocaching trip down south. Today we are travelling from Twizel to Te Anau, the day started with clear blue skies (but rather chilly) and ended in rain as we neared our destination.
SW investigated something that wasn't the cache before spotting this right beside it . TFTC.

#18806. This one wasn't too hard to track down. TFTC.

This one improved my mood after about 4 dnf today, second of this type so that easy for me.

Spotted straight away. Thanks KNCN

#10218

Took longer than it should have to find

A nice puzzle. We strolled here after lunch. Jude_E and I spent last night in Arrowtown and are planning on finding the fruit series, doing the lab cache and other geocaches in the Cromwell area. It is our final full day on this Otago Road trip.. Thanks KNCN for creating this hide. It was find 8729 for me.

======== NZ Mega 2021 ========
Planning for the NZ Mega 2021 event is well underway. It will be held in Auckland over Labour Weekend, October 2021

On a 7 day caching trip with Nosynel. Seventh day on the road focusing on caches in Cromwell. Thanks for the puzzle and hide.
#5747

Solved the previous night while in Queenstown, we stopped by here to make the find before heading out of Cromwell. TFTC

Such a cunning little hide, which took us some time. We were fearful that players would begin to turn up, but that didn't happen. We did enjoy the chase. Thank you.

**Found on our February - March tour around the South Island. Logging back home in Auckland in Lockdown isolation**

Travelling and caching from Cromwell to the southern West Coast via Haast Pass. We are familiar with this kind of puzzle, so an easy solve for us. It was drizzling when we arrived here, but no one else was around and thankfully we made a quick find of the nicely camoed cache. Thanks, time to park up for breakfast.

Away for 3 full days and 4 night weekend again, with Rebel98 and Aiden29. We have in mind Queenstown, down to Te Anau, Manapouri, as far as we can up towards Milford and later Cromwell. We had some great adventures and some hot and weary walks and a lot of fun.

Solved this prior to our travels. easy enough to do, then mentioned this puzzle to the others and they solved it too. Aiden found this one when we got to the final, thanks for the cache!

Gorby contacted me on Monday asking if I wanted to join him and Rebel98 on a trip to Queenstown for a long weekend. As I already had a week off in between jobs I was free to join them. We travelled from Queenstown to Te Anau, up the Milford Rd as far as we could, over to Cromwell before returning to Queenstown. Many adventures were had and many wonderful gems discovered. We signed with a variation of our own names or R. A. G.

We were heading to Cromwell and finally Queenstown to fly back to Auckland from our accommodation in Mossburn. I hadn't solved this before we left, but I am well familiar with the source so it took no time at all to solve. Once at GZ I spotted something that looked like it may have the cache and I was proven correct.

Log later

Quick solve while in the area and a quick find of the final too. TFTP

Had a great drive around Central Otago and Southland today, a wee bit of rainat the start, then a hot day many thanks to all the cache placer's. Thanks Bitsprayer

Good first puzzle cache TFTC

Solved this not long after it was published. My 2nd for the day & wasn’t doing as well as I thought. Was looking in the flax bush which I hate but as usual was looking in wrong place. Cool cache, when I finally found it. TFTP

I recognise that puzzle ; solved and on to the final; found and signed as MM78; TFTPC heart ️ KNCN

Found. Full log to come. TFTC

I solved this one back in Britain because I knew we were staying here on holiday in December. On a bitingly cold night, more like a December night in Britain than New Zealand, we popped out and grabbed it. I thanks for the fun of the puzzle and the find. Now back to our warm Airbnb!

Once you’ve seen one of these you recognise them!! TFTC

Clever. TFTC.

No swimming for us today. A quick find after finally solving the puzzle.

The puzzle was quickly solved, but finding the cache itself took a little longer. TFTC

I solved the puzzle a few weeks ago when I knew we would be passing through. Love the puzzle and M saw the cache within seconds.

3TF. Out for a bike ride when we stopped here for the find.

Was about to give up as don't like poking around this kind of area for long. Came up trumps though. Found an app to send coords to my satnav. That was different. Tftc.

FTF on a brilliant frosty crisp spring Cromwell morning.
Must say, there's lots of firsts here .... name of cache "My First Mystery" for you KNCN, first to find, first mystery for me too, and first time I've visited TBs to a mystery.
Note to other cachers, it's very difficult to write on those fancy log rolls with a ball point pen. Perhaps a pencil or felt tip is required.
Tftc

Solved, Added to the PQ for next holidays.

Published