X marks the spot (Rotorua) Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand
By Teambop on 03-Jun-20. Waypoint GC8T6RJ

Day forty one of our epic New Zealand Adventure with The Morris.Traveling between Rotorua and the lodge in the middle of the Timber Trail. We start our ride tomorrow.We did a few caches on the way here.We solved a pile of these X marks the spot cache before we came to NZ for the Mega.Several of them do not exist anymore.We stopped in on our way south today and collected what we could.Thanks for the series.Thanks, Robmc.

Day 41 of our Enzed adventures with Robmc and today we leave Rotarua and head North.We had enough time to return to this series and finish them off except for the one we couldn't find.Thanks for contributing to an amazing holiday.

Hubby came up to ride in the redwoods, so at last minute I joined him but went caching. I managed a few before I got the phone call to come collect. Thanks for placement even if it was only for 1.5hours the weather was fantastic.

Nice easy find number #2 in the x series for us

Solved this one some time ago, taking the opportunity to pick up a few as we go. No problems finding this one at GZ. All good, signed, and returned as found. Tftc!

I solved this series a long time ago, and have been slowly picking them up each time I visit the area.So today we made a point of getting a couple more, in places we could park the campervan nearby. No problems making the find here. Thanks for setting this up

#2745. Day 6 of a road trip from Wellington to Morrinsville (& back) to attend the 100th birthday party of a distant cousin.Yesterday, I travelled down from Te Aroha to Rotorua, and this morning continued my trip south.I "discovered" these X marks the spot Mystery caches last year. Certitude will tell you I solved this one on 27 Oct last year, and today it was the second find along SH5. Nice easy find.Tftc ApacheD.

Clearing the X at pace. Found with Reschedule

Finally clearing the X marks the spot caches with Kiwi Does, TFTC!

Hello from Seattle! After an amazing trip along the southern coast of Australia heading from Sydney to Adelaide to attend a Mega-Event with my fellow Lackey and best Geobuddy Giacaches, we headed over to New Zealand for a week of caching and adventure - as I often say, we've never been closer, so it made perfect sense to plan for a stop. We have a loop around the North Island on the schedule, and I'm so excited to see all the things there is to see!We are continuing along the coast today, keeping our eyes peeled for beautiful views and Virtual caches to find - all to end up in Rotorua for the night. What a cool place! Gia solved a bunch of puzzles before our trip out and this was one of them - for which I'm so grateful!Thanks for adding to this great trip!

Greetings from Seattle! I traveled down under with jtcoffee to attend the Great Leap Forward Mega-Event in Adelaide on Leap Day. Of course, a trip from Seattle to Australia just wouldn't be complete without a detour through New Zealand Per usual, We're squeezing in as many extra activities as we can, including, but not limited to: Logging our geocache finds in the southern hemisphere Finding Australia's oldest, [GC3E](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC3E) at Lane Cove, and the first-ever Earthcache, [GCHFT2](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCHFT2) Enjoying the spectacle of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in Sydney Cruising along the scenic Great Ocean Road Completing a challenge that requires finding 31 Earthcaches and 31 Virtuals in 31 days ([GC32TBZ](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC32TBZ) and [GC32TC2](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC32TC2)) Finding the oldest cache placed outside of the US, [GC46](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC46) Exploring the iconic Lord of the Rings filming locations across New Zealand This was one of the many puzzles I solved before our trip. Though we only ended up finding a tiny percentage of my solves, it still feels good to pick up some mystery caches "down under." I did **not** like the parking situation here but Jessie was committed to the find and jumped out for us. Thanks for keeping this series in play and contributing to our epic adventure!

Were travelling with Wilbert67 for a short holiday to NZ, seeing different places and grabbing caches along the way.Thanks to all the COs for their hides.

A wet start to the day again. Today mainly Roturoa and Taupe to discover. Lots of caches and adventures! TFTC Wilbert67

Found this one. Skipped the last few because of dnfs and lack of place to stop.

We keep being asked if we're all right when we stop to find these caches. Lovely New Zealanders! Saw a stray cat along the way to this cache. TFTC

Had previously solved this so grabbed while passing through on my way to Wellington. A nice quick find with a wee surprise inside that initially made me jump lol. TFTC Teambop

Quick and easy stop on our way to Waimangu. Tftc

Quick and easy find, tftc

TFTCShrioyama

No worries with the solve or the find with this one. TFTC

Fun find, fun puzzle, nearby event

Down in Rotorua for 2 nights and 3 days and I had in mind doing a few more of these puzzles, but this time I tagged along with Rebel98 and rustynz in Rex's car. The C.O decided to join us along this stretch of road and we ended up doing some cache replacements with him.

This cache was OK, no need to do anything here. Enjoyed solving the puzzle about 2 years ago I suppose, I had help on 1 or 2 from memory.

Our North Island Roadtrip from Whangarei to complete Tahi & Rua of the NZ Geotour - Day Eleven.

On our way from Taupo to Rotorua we stopped by and found a few of the X marks the spot geoart. Found with Lis's crew. Thanks for the puzzle, series & TFGC

With the Geotour coming to and end soon Yvettetb and I decided to go on a road trip to collect Tahi and Rua. Of course I had some puzzles at various places to collect and a few special types were added to the list too.

Today's plan was to get from Taupo to Rotorua collecting the tour caches and the Spot X puzzles in Rotorua. It was a bit of an adventure going to the Whirinaki forest today as we weren't sure how the roads had feared with the recent cyclone. As it turned out there was only one slip and the road was in far better condition than I expected. It was a beautiful walk to the tour cache and then the waterfall which was very pretty.

We grabbed this series on our way back. This I'd solved in July 2020. Glad to be parked off these busy roads. Good parking here for another quick find and a movie our family has watched lots of. Looking forward to more in the series sometime. Thanks for the partial Geoart:)

Heading home after a few days in Rotorua for Christmas.But ther is a X in the way...

Cache container broken, but due to an excellent choice of log material, the log is in good condition.

Decided to grab a couple on a trip out this way. What a cracker of a day. Enjoy the puzzle. Open cache and there was a moment of I hope that's not real. Lol. Next cacher will see what I mean. Tftc

11:28:00 AM. Had all these solved before leaving Australia and big plans of doing them. Unfortunately the weather wasn't playing it's part. Found and log signed. Thanks ApacheD for the cache.

First find of this nice wee series. Great parking here.

Day 3 and time to head back home. A chance before breakfast for a few more finds, just the 4 nearby ones then back to the apartment to load the car for the big trip to . . . .K Mart. After that a stop in Rotorua for lunch, then some X marks the spot caches.

We headed up to the Bay to spend a few days with Liv who turns 21 on Monday, but who we arranged to meet up with after collecting her older sister from Taihape on the way past heading North. We had 2 days and 2 nights there, plus a short while there on a wet Saturday morning. When the girls headed for a spa treat mrs c and I headed to the Quarry Gardens and had a nice walk around there. We never got that many caches, just a few AdLab stages and few others. Great weather over the 2 full days though.

Out with the munchkins (AJimbean) on an X mission! Success with this one thanks heaps

Nice parking area & quick find with buzzybb. Enjoyed these puzzles. TFTC

Team work solving these puzzles with kimbathelion. Good to tick them off on our day in Rotorua today. A nice quick find here today.

It's my Mega weekend road trip! This is day six and I'm off to Whakatane via Rotorua and the GC45 tribute. Will expand on my logs, post photos, qualifying caches for challenges, etc. When I get home. TFTC

Much easier parking here.

25 January 2022 11:30 am Find #4833

Sussed out where this one would be as we passed but waited for my return to be on the right side of the road. Out caching with Mum today while visitng family. A nice easy stop here and cache duly located and signed. TFTC and series.

Quick find some time ago, saved up for our Climbing the Peaks challenge. TFTC.

Made a quick find of this one, solved ages ago. TFTC

Once again, malinkaly did the puzzle and made an easy find here.
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, ApacheD
#2562

On the way to Taupo we decided to collect those solved Xs. Love these puzzles.

TFTC Teambop

*** Out on our MEGA Roadtrip with Wilbywarrior. Who says this can only happen when the MEGA is actually held?! Greetings from Dunedin, caching friends
#323 ***

Having solved the puzzle and time to spare found the x spot and signed the log TFTC

Knowing that I was gonna be in Rotorua (from Wellington) for a few days this week, I spent the last couple of weeks working on some of the mystery cache puzzles in the area. This was one of them.

Having visited the GC45 plaque a few months ago on my way through, this visit was time for this connected series. All solved without too much trouble, and this hide was found without too much trouble either (once I got to the correct end of the hint object).

Woo hoo! Finally over this way. Nice easy find. TFTC

Easy cache collection here, nice parking space nearby.

Found on a day out caching with Shonig, I had been on a caching day in a while and had lots of fun. TFTC

Out and about picking up some of our solved puzzles. No problem finding this one. TFTC

A quick find this afternoon. This was the only one in the series we were going to get a chance to do as we were running out of time to get our rental car back. The others will have to wait for another day. TFTC [^]

#12,417. No issues solving this puzzle based in Tumunui. Fortunately, final GZ was all quiet at the time of our visit. Quick find. The cache itself was in good condition, in spite of the hole in the inner container. It was still all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

Thanks for the 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.

Stayed the night in Rotorua on our way up to Auckland to see the kids. Had lots of spare time to cache. Enjoyed solving this series in anticipation of this trip. Parked up by the main road and got the bike out. Good to stretch the legs and collect some smileys at the same time. No problems finding this one. Could do with some TLC as the inner container is damaged. Thanks

No trouble here

#8977. I was up in Auckland for a week and yesterday did some caching in Tauranga. Stayed overnight in Rotorua with family and time to do some geocaches this morning before I drive back to Wellington. I looked at this series as it started a few months ago and had a brain fade with how to solve them. Some friends in a puzzle solving group gave me a hint and suddenly it all seemed rather obvious. Oh well. The brain connections do start to unravel as we get older. Anyway by the time Christmas break arrived I had quite a few solved and decided to start picking up some of them today. Time is short now so only had time to grab 9 of them.

This one was a quickish find once I reached the right end. But big clumsy hands pushed it further in so needed to find a stick to prod it back out into daylight. Signed the logbook and replaced the cache where found. Thanks Teambop for the fun series of puzzles.

The last day of a four days break in Rotorua so I headed down SH5 to visit some of the traditionals and solved puzzles. This was my last find of the solved X marks the spot puzzles I had done of this series. Thanks for this cache.

I am down in Rotorua for a few days, but today I was joined by two caching friends, Nufrat and AlunB. We continued our quest down this road. TFTC.

Agazo quickly had this in hand, TFTC

out with agazo and alunb today, yes boys, its there so why havent you got it out, they were waiting for me with smaller hand to get in there and grab it, nice team work, tftc

Time for some biking along the trails gathering a few smilies. A nice quick find on a detour from the trail, thanks.

Ms_KR and I are on our annual pilgrimage to Auckland for our family Christmas. Today we cruised around Rotorua. Please excuse the generic logs, there have been a few finds and they get muddled up sometimes.

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

A simple puzzle to solve and a nice easy cache to find. These caches may become more difficult later when the geo-trails grow over. TFTC.

Day 2 of some of us South Island cachers hitting the area around Auckland. Today was going to be something to remember as heading down to GC45... excited much?!!? Nabbed that then on to the X's!
One of the many puzzles solved in covid lockdown in anticipation of this pilgrimage. Nice quick find tftc

On a day trip to Rotorua came out to collect the X series of caches. Sorry for the cut & paste.
Quick find. TFTP

Visiting Rotorua for the day collecting caches as we go. Solved during covid. Quick Find. Sorry for copy & paste. TFTP

In lieu of Akld Mega 2020, we decided a side trip to the new tribute cache (to GC45) was in order. Travelling with South Island cachers, we found a number of caches including this one.
We have typically signed as mrandmrschosen1978 or occasionally MM78.
Tftc

Full log to come

Another nice easy find. I am on a North Island Figure of Eight your. For the first 4 days I spend time in the Bay of Plenty with my husband JDScout. We are basing ourselves in Rotorua during this time.
Thanks Teambop for creating this hide. It was find 8942 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 the road around Rotorua with Ethness and Nosynel. A busy wee spot. A typical Canterbury hide! Thanks for the cache.
#6062

Lovely and dry and I like the beaded spider in the container.

Jude_E, NosyNel and I are completing a figure of 8 tour of the North Island collecting the ‘Tour’ caches, plus others, plus seeing the scenery, plus having a good old time. TFTC.

Although I was nearby when these where published (for the unveiling of the GC46 plaque) I had not solved them, and really had other adventures planned

So are back in town, with them all solved, and are happy to turn these into smileys.

Thanks Teambop for the puzzles and the hides

Like the others made my way to what I thought was an obvious place (I have found a couple hidden within!), but with no cache, looked about, wandered over. Retrieved the cache, and without being able to see what I was doing, thru touch had the log and base returned to its hiding place.

Out and about with the Team collecting a few caches.

I made life a bit difficult for myself by jumping to a conclusion about where the cache would be hidden. Once I checked my GPSr, I soon had it all figured out. D'oh. I did make a better job of solving this series of puzzles though.

We solved the series a couple of months ago and came looking for the caches today while in Rotorua on other business. We bypassed this one earlier due to muggles in the area then returned when the coast was clear. The inner container was broken but the log was dry. Thanks for the puzzle and cache!

Find number 6928. Down doing this series. I had difficulty extracting this cache. Got there in the end. Thank you for the enjoyable series.

We had solved all of this series on publication, and arranged to meet up with Team Welsh, Pagenz and urbangypsynz to make the finds. We had bypassed this one originally as there was a car parked nearby. On our return the cache was quickly located and the log signed. Thanks for an interesting little series of puzzles.

Met up with Kiwi Couple, Urban Gypsy and Team Welsh to collect these puzzles.

Enjoyed solving these puzzles, no problems with the find.

Had this little series of puzzles solved on publication so was nice to pick up today with Kiwicouple, UrbangypsyNZ and Pagenz for company. No worries with the solve on any of them and great to get out of Auckland for a few days. All good here and tuolei would love the hide. TFTC

I was out with Butchie bum today and we were off to do the X Marks the Spot caches over Rottenrua way.

We went to the GZ earlier but had to move on as there were several muggles here. But lucky that they had moved on fairly quickly.

Cheers for the cache.

Enjoyed the puzzle solves on the X marks the spot series. Out and about collecting the smilies thx.

We had solved these puzzles on the day they were published but decided to collect at a later date. SLTFTC
Took Travel Bug

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)... After yesterday’s persistent rain, it was encouraging to see longer patches of improving weather.

Gap and I solved this new series of puzzles on the roadside, on the afternoon they were published. Chasing down the ‘First to Finds’ didn’t seem so important at the time - We were more focused on reaching a milestone that day...

Good parking - We figured there would be a hide around here... Thanks Teambop. TFTP and TFTC.

A nice easy drive by for this cache ..everything good and dry here many thanks

When this series was published we were "out of town" Today after seemingly endless days of rain, it was good to get out in the sun (briefly). The internal container is broken, but all good. Thanks for the cache.

We were out of town when this cache was published and once we got home we forgot all about it for several days, while catching up with others things. Finally we got around to looking at the puzzles that were published at the same time. Once we figured those out we came out today to make the finds. Wow, lots of traffic here. Mr S parked the geomobile and Mrs S went to make the find. No trouble finding it just had trouble getting the log to fit back in again, in-between all the passing traffic.

Thanks Teambop.

We parked near GZ, spotted a likely hiding place and were pleased to find we were correct.
A nice container that fits in perfectly.
We took the Geocaching HQ trackable to continue its journey.
Great puzzle series. TFTC.

tftc nice sneaky we hide found with abcdf4

Off to Rotorua today with EyeSpyBen to tide up this new X series, awsome puzzles and quick finds.
Thanks for the placement team work.

Tenth birthday log of the day. Missed out on the plaque event last weekend so aiming to get as many of the new geocaches as possible today. Drizzle in the air but hopefully that means not so many muggles around. Tftc

Time to charge my phone and have some lunch. Yay for a geocache big enough to drop a TB in

**12,447**
Glad of the convenient parking area nearby - was mildly concerned that we might be being watched but used the van as a shield and retrieved the cache easily. TFTPC

As I was grabbing the cache, I reflected on the absurdity of what we do and wondered how I would explain to a muggle "It's a treasure hint but there's no treasure, just old cold cream jars..." Hmmm...TFTC.

Located this one on weekend visit to the area after doing our homework last night, no problem with the find TFTC.

As Tryfyn says sometimes we do wonder what we do and how to explain And it is sometimes hard for muggles to understand our enthusiasm . But anyway - these puzzles came out and there was a mad scurry with phones. It is nice to have some solvable puzzles when you are out in the field. TFTC

It was an early start in Rotorua today gearing up for the Community Celebration Event. But for anyone who knows the cheeky locals - it would be totally safe to expect a flurry of new cache publications to coincide with the GC45 memorial. So we waited.... and waited.... even managed to celebrate squirrelnutcases 10,000th milestone - but then we went back to waiting. We piled into the van where it was warmer and eventually... the first ping came through. We were off! Thankfully these were straight forward solves and with so many of us working on them at the same time, the answers came thick and fast. A nice joint [FTF] with merlot58, Jag50, NZFlossy & McJandals. Cheers and TFTC

***

**Early 2015 a group of Tauranga based geocachers started a [BOP Geocaching Facebook Page](https://www.facebook.com/groups/GeocachingBOP/). 197 cachers currently make up this [Closed](https://www.facebook.com/help/220336891328465#What-are-the-privacy-options-for-groups) group where we organise various geocaching events and excursions as well as share information and friendly banter. Please check us out if you're interested.**

Enjoyed learning new skills today and how to solve these puzzles...some folk rushed off but we took our time.

Was with nette1234 at Rotorua doing some roadside trads when some new caches were published !
Great excitement!
Jan quickly learnt some new skills...then we drove to the finals!

In Rotorua for the GC45 plaque reveal event and were out with some of the BOP guys when this series was puzzled, we quickly solved them on the side of the road and raced off for a joint group {FTF}

Whilst attending the Event for First NZ outside the USA was pleasantly surprised by part of the BOP Team with a new series of Caches, seven of which were published today. A quick scurry around with phones going hot with the solves, off to the first three in quick succession before heading back to the T5 one. Joint {FTF}s. Great idea guys and nice to be able to solve, cheers.

Published

First road trip since COVID-19 and we headed to Rotorua for a long weekend. As we were leaving the GC45 event some new puzzle caches were published. Solved this on the road and were soon at gz where the cache was soon in hand. Joint {FTF}