Highland Home Holey H2O Holdup Manawatu District, North Island, New Zealand
By thebigflax on 29-Oct-19. Waypoint GC8FCPN

Very good spot enjoyed the challenge of needing water

Found these sorts when they are used at events but never in the out the wild. Had to go in and out of the bush a couple of times but once supplies were retrieved it was a pretty easy cache but definitely a two person job. Go the clear, easy and most direct path is my price of advice.

EtherNonBinary wanted to go bush during the school holidays to find some caches. They invited SammyBoi4512 to join us to get his numbers (and experience) up. We started on the trails through Summerhill, then hit the lunchtime Meet&Greet event, and now we've collected TwigNZ and are grafting into the Pohangina Valley with the aim of finding Fern Walk - the oldest active cache in the Manawatu. We let them follow the compass to the container, then smiled when they realised that they needed a tool. Fortunately for them, I'd brought the required equipment with us so they were sent back to the car to fetch it. Twig and I laughed at them figuring out how it worked, but they got there in the end

I love caches like this and I had packed what was required in the car just incase we came across one. Lots of laughter as the container was returned. Thanks thebigflax

#14491

Paddle Chick had exactly what was needed for this one in the car. These are always fun and especially when the hole stopper lets go because you never quite know what is going to happen then. We had a good laugh as we both leapt back. TFTC # 20,174

I always have the necessary items in my car, so although we didn’t know we needed them I had them. How lucky we were.

Out with Itchyfeet2020 finding 50 caches today for the DGSc challenge in the West Coast. Kia ora rawa atu for the cache thebigflax.

I am working on a challenge that includes 8 days of over 50 caches per day. This cache is part of day 2. Which finds me here with NZ_B, today and the Pohangina Valley as the focus. We hadn't done much pre reading of our wider lists, so it was as we approached we realised. Luckily NZ_B had everything we needed and tasks were duly performed efficiently. A fun cache in a great spot for doing it to. Log retrieved and signed and we left with grins, thank you.

Spent the last week camping with the family not far down the road. Had an amazing time, but wasn't able to get much caching done. Had a DNF at the glow worms and placed a cache of my own not far from our camp. This was our first of a couple of caches we grabbed heading back to town, not too many as everyone is tired. We were excited to do a gadget cache, appreciate the effort Tftc thebigflax

Based ourselves nearby for a few days to complete some of the local cache trails.
Another great caching day, love these caches, just as well we travel with puppies and their refreshments. No problem with the find TFTC.

Nice execution here with good off-road parking. I still had the required TOTT in the car from 3 weeks ago so put to good use. Extracted by mouth (I know, right?) All good and replaced as found, quite draining, thankfully I know a little Dutch boy. FP here, cheers.

A return back to the Pohangina Valley today with a few mini-missions planned for the day. Primarily to enjoy the turning of the Autumn leaves on the trees as this area is one of the best to view that occurence. Next up is to find some more 20/20 caches after managing to get the solved coordinates for some I missed last time. (a final assault on the last few will have to wait until a future adventure). A return to some roads, and some new ones driven. Also, do the other side of the Pohangina river Valley road, and also extend out towards Utuwai, then return again along slim dusty roads. A good day to be out, 41 finds with 7 DNFs (some were probably me, some not). Thanks to the COs for their hides and maintenance, a special mention to watcache who will soon be my 5th most prolific hider, nice one. I took small notes on all finds today, incl changes of wet/destroyed logbooks.

As we were parked just around the corner and I had just done a trail up a side road not far away i had the nessacary elements to help get the log into our hands in a camelpac on my back. Lucky i ask mrs B and she came along
A FP from us

Awesome one. Easy to find hiding in the trees

Enjoyed an afternoon exploring the Pohangina village and surrounding valley. Second visit here as last time I came completely unprepared. Being alone I was glad I had some resources from my geocaching box to make things a bit easier. Great cache. Thanks for the smiley.

with being a long weekend we decided on another trip to the Manawatu.
we based ourselves in Ashurst. with lots of caches around the general area.
main idea was to complete the 20/20 series which we had all the solves for now, plus anything else.
we checked ourselves into local pub, arriving just with enough time to have a couple of beers.
plan today head up thr valley one side back down the other.
caches all in fairly good order.
thanks to the owners for the placements.

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)... Roaming around the wide open spaces of the Manawatu this weekend. We’ve had the caching brakes on for far too long, and it’s a weekend to cut loose.

We did a bit of reconnaissance on this hide to see what was required and returned a little later. We didn't have a suitable vessel so Gap decided to use one of his gumboots which seemed to work. I have a love/hate relationship with these sorts and always seem to wear the outgoing... A nicely crafted hide - Thanks thebigflax and TFTC.

Found yesterday but realized I needed 3 hands. More hands later a successful retrieval of the log book, quick sign. Tftc

Thanks thebigflax for placing this cache

The title and description had me preparing for this one in advance, and after a few days of driving around with suitable Holy liquid I found another cacher willing to accompany me...

So after a bike ride up Takapari Road and a very short walk the cache was soon in hand!!

Great cache design!
Log in good condition TNLNSL TFTC +FP

With the morning's activities over, it was time for GSEL and I to turn our attention to the other unfound caches in the vicinity, of which this was one. Quickly located, but extracting the logbook took some time, fortunately GSEL had what was needed. TFTC!

#8665. I came up to the Manawatu on Friday with Infoferret to attend the four events being held at Totara Reserve this weekend. After a fun day so far at the community celebration event doing field puzzles and finding newly placed caches in a convoy of eager cachers, it was time now for a few hours of quieter activity before the evening halloween event. We parked nearby for this one and soon discovered what it was all about. I had only read Highland Home Holey on my GPS and thought it was a cache hidden in a hole in a tree. Nope its something different. Luckily I store a bit of H2O in the car and there was enough to assist us here. With 2 of us covering everything we could find in went the water and out popped the cache. Love doing these types even if I have done dozens so far. They are always entertaining. Signed the logbook and replaced everything as found. Thanks thebigflax for setting this up and a favourite for the fun.

Fun in the rain with water to play tftf

Found during a busy day's drive in the Pohangina Valley with Yeetrees, agcnz and Tramper Ted. This one is very well done and having a team was a great help. Thanks for the fun and another favourite added.

#12,037. A stop by Churchill Drive in Pohangina. Fortunately, GZ was all quiet at the time of our visit. Came prepared with the special tool required for the Holey H2O Holdup, so a relatively quick find. The cache was in good condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

Thanks for the field puzzle and 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 were on a short trip up this way and as we had sufficient of the requiste element to complete this super cache so it was soon applied and the log was soon signed and all returned to it's original state.
thank you for this cache. I took nothing and left nothing

Always helps to have three others to add to the resources for collecting this one. Visited with AGCNZ, Edvern and Yeetrees today. Nice one! TFTC

Spent the day in the area with edvern, Tramper Ted and Yeetrees after the poor weather put paid to a planned tramp. This one was a quick find and fortunately I had enough of the required liquid in the vehicle with me. With lots of fingers available to block various cunningly placed holes, the cache was soon in hand. Signed log, TFTC!

A fun cache of which we have done a few previously. As the most recent one required more fingers than we possessed, we went prepared with alternative means of retrieval, which resulted in a quick dry find with markhnz, although the wet approach would have been fine with this particular cache. A favourite from us. TFTC

Found with W.E.K.A. who had come prepared for this cache.
Great fun hide.
Thanks.

Found 13/9 with Deonrocks and zayn2016 while out for a Sunday drive. What a surprise this one was. We hadn't saved offline maps and my phone had no data left so we didn't know water was a must to get the cache. Deonrocks headed back to the vehicle and came back with 2 car aerials and proceeded to remove the cache using them like a giant pair of tweezers. It took a couple of attempts but he soon had success. I was very impressed. Log book all signed and everything put back into place. Thanks for the awesome cache.

This was lots of fun. With no description or hint to go off we had to figure our own way to do it. We had success though. Proud moment. TFTC

Today's adventure was planned for the caches on the eastern side of the Pohangina River. I had thought about staring from the top and working my way down the river.

I have come across this type before and luckily I had the right equipment with me to access the log.

Cheers for the cache.

We had a bit of trouble getting the top off but got there in the end.
Knowing we only had a certain amount of what we needed, we had to make sure we nailed it on the first attempt. Fortunately it all went very smoothly, although there was a surprising amount of squirt when we finally released it
Thanks for another one of your entertaining caches.

Found today with TwigNZ and Stardust, thanks for the cache and sorry for the copy/paste log.

Took nothing left nothing signed log, TFTC

I set off on an adventure of the Pohangina Valley with TwigNZ and ThatWeirdGuy04. There are some amazing views in this area and we had a great day.

I really enjoyed the interactive nature of this cache. It was a team effort to retrieve the container and we were just fortunate enough to have the right stuff on us to carry this out as we hadn't pre-prepared for a cache of this nature.

Logs were signed as either Team TST or just TST depending on available space.

I can't believe it's been almost a whole year since I last visited the Pohangina Valley. The last time I was here was in the company of Stardust718 and ThatWeirdGuy04, and so it was again today, the plan being to travel up the West side of the valley (ZigZag Road and Ridge Road) and then return back down roads taken last year in order to have a chance to avenge some DNF's from that trip.

We had great weather for our caching day, with a weak winter sun doing its best to illuminate all the varied valley views we were treated to, and absolutely no wind at all. We also pretty much had the roads to ourselves, which made parking near all the caches so much easier.

I love gadget caches, no matter how basic or simple they may be. I've seen this type of cache before but I still love the simplicity and joy of the execution. It was a team effort to retrieve it today, and once the log was signed (as either Team T.S.T or simply T.S.T as space allowed) we were back on our way again.

Thanks for placing this cache. FP because I love these caches.

Another drive up Pohangina Valley to find some more caches. FP. Thanks thebigflax for the cache.

Gosh that was fun!!! Second attempt at this one as we wasted our water on the first before we had a chance to stop it!!! Nice cold, refreshing splash afterwards too!!! TFTC.

We visited GZ this afternoon and soon located the cache.It took a couple of minutes to extract the log,write our entry and re-conceal carefully.Thanks for this cache.Gets a fave from me!

**12,273**
Always enjoy these sorts of cache hides. Well constructed and lots of fun. The dogs got a quick leg stretch and then back in the van and off for the next cache. Worthy of a favourite point. TFTC

I had recently solved a puzzle further along this road, so decided to head out today and collect a few caches out this way. spacenarwhale came along for the ride, acting as navigator and scribe. This was my fourth find (the second I attempted, but I needed another run at it) of the day. I tried to find it on my own but couldn't spot anything that looked man-made, so I asked spacenarwhale to join me (I knew I'd need her for the teamwork part anyway). We quickly found it once we stopped looking along the roadside. She ran back to the car for the required liquid while I got all my fingers in place. She poured the first lot in, but then couldn't get the second container open. So, we switched positions, and I poured. This didn't work out so well, so we switched again and she ran back for yet another container. That finally worked, and we were soon jumping back out of the way of the streams.
Thank you for the cache, we love this type.

Cool hiding spot. Couldn't log as there was no log?!?! Vinaka

Out and about on a maintenance run and almost forgot about this one even though I had packed some xtra water on board .
Was a quick find and cache was a little bit longer to retrieve.
Thanks for the cache and a smiley

always carry lots of water when away on a caching trip.

Nice find while out with woolwood9 today.
*We enjoyed the fun drive / walk around.*
Nicely done cache - we soon had the log out!
SL TFTC

Nice afternoon out with tmann421 picking up some of these caches.
Enjoyed the drive around
TFTC

It's always great to see a new local cache published. It's also great to have an added reason for a trip up the lovely Pohangina Valley, especially on a beautiful afternoon like this one.
We are familiar with these sorts of hides so came prepared. We know it's always wise too to bring extra water - just in case...!
The placement was soon located, but it took us a couple of goes to co-ordinate everything properly, and then up came the cache. It was soon signed and returned, and then Mr G didn't move fast enough and got squirted a bit! He soon dried off in the warmth of the afternoon.
Next we turned back down the other side of the valley, stopping for devonshire scones (num num) in the village. Thanks for the incentive to come this way again, and TFTC.

Published

{FtF} at 10.04

I had seen this new cache get published earlier in the morning, but with getting the kids' ready for school, and EtherLady not feeling well, I figured it'd be a lost cause for me so didn't give it much thought.
Then I noticed the twinkle in some of the Seagnoid's many eyes as I headed to my bedroom to get dressed after my shower (and no, not for that reason) and knew what he was thinking.
I quickly got ready and we raced out the door without much having to be said of our intentions.

In fact, not saying much proved to work against us!
When we were only a few Km from GZ, I decided to read the cache page and realised that we were unprepared for the "Special Tool Required" attribute...
It's OK though, because we're in the Seagnoid's geomobile and he is prepared for zombie attacks.
We rummaged through his collection of polyethylene terephthalate pottles and found something to contain the required tool. Now to source the took.
Just past GZ was a location where the tool was on tap. Bonus!
Instead of getting our feet wet to Scoop, we managed to bend and pour.

Back at GZ, we quickly found the host and utilised the tool to extract the cache.
And it has a blank logbook! Yippee!
The first entry was made as ECATS ("Etherlord Clan And The Seagnoid")

I smiled at the diamond shaped sticker on the host, given that this acronym is my current employer

I have been thinking I should change my FTF notifications to the Manawatu given that I am here for a few days. After all, it only takes two clicks. And then I forgot. So I was rather surprised to see the new cache notification for this come out - I was sure it was outside my FTF alert radius.

Okay whatever. A nervous wait for Etherlord to get out of the shower and Etherlady seems to be on another mission and not home yet, so she is likely to be starting on the many hour project later today, so we have some time to disappear and and claim my FTF for the month.Today means my monthly {FTF} streak is now 60 months long! AWESOME!!!

So, anyway. I am a little embarrassed about how much I have forgotten about this area, but since all roads lead to Raumai Corner, I figured if I take a random road I would get there. Turns out I was right, although I did get Ethernavigator to check for me first.He starts reading out the description, something I hadn't done. Water?? We need water?? Well, I have some geocache containers... Drove past the cache and and down to the river. Found a tap so did not even have to get our feet wet. Rummaging in the boot I found a 1.5l water bottle - that should do. Filled it and back to GZ. Soon had the cache in hand and signed the podium position as ECATS - Etherlord Clan and the Seagnoid. Time to get back home...

Many thanks from the Seagnoid!