PWGT Rua tekau mā rua Smash Palace Ruapehu District, North Island, New Zealand
By Phronimos on 21-Nov-20. Waypoint GC8ZTX1

A nice easy find here today, and a most interesting write up. I haven't seen the film, being made when I was 1, but now I'm intrigued! Tftc!

The navigation was lagging but once we were in the right spot easy find

Found with Nutty Nora on a blustery day. TFTC

Loved the movie!! Loving this series - found with Piwaka54 on our trip up from Wellington

Easy find

Never heard of a geotour before. Looks like fun!

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

What a great area with lots of cars in various states of disrepair. The cache was very easy to find. Thanks for bringing me here. TFGC

About to start our bike ride to Ohakune. Iconic piece of history

Thanks for bringing us here. Brought back memories. Heading north today and picking up the geotour caches along the way. Thanks for placing

Found whilst on a Cross-country Geoventure with LL113!!

Recently it was my birthday, and GeoHubby (GNARwhal) single-handedly planned a weekend away (including childcare) up to Rotorua to collect the PWGT caches.

The rain seems to be following us everywhere. Every time we have to get out to find a cache it POURS down on us! Thank goodness it was a quick find!

On a mission to do PWGT 2 caches in full and maybe some of Tahi ones too in the time I’ve allowed myself. There will also be some extras along the way to to make break the journey

Been here before for a trad years ago. Hasn’t changed much but maybe a bit tidier

K

Up from Southland with muggly hubby to revisit some old haunts and discover new places. Taking a leisurely trip and the caching goal is to complete PWGT2.
This is Day 3 on the road. Aiming for Motutere Bay.
What should have been a park, grab and go turned into a park, grab and chat with a muggle.
A friend of the owners was taking photos in the nearby paddock and was parked at GZ. He came over to check his vehicle (lots of expensive equipment). He knew about caching and was intrigued that the location was worthy of a cache.
Apparently the whole area is a planned town that didn't happen, so lots of paper roads that can't be sold.
Though interesting for the historic side of things, I don't understand why yards like this are allowed to grow. Retrieving anything that's not on the edges would be a logistical nightmare, and chances it would be rusted or seized so much it would be useless. Each to their own I guess.
Thanks for the cache and the research Phronimos
# 3448 15 November 2022 2:19 pm

Found with ABCDF4 whilst in the area. TFTC.

Mr ABCDF4 had a look here {smash palace}
What a Lot of STUFF
Nice hide still nice and dry
Thanks

Lots of cloud cover but not over the mountains. Stunning views.
Fair mountains of wrecked cars in view as well! Tftc!

•~•

nice n dry thanks

Nice find for our kids on our Ruapehu holiday. TFTC
Was not where we were expecting, but once I actually looked at the map and went to the right spot we easily found the cache

After a grey day of travelling, with intermittent rain, the sun came out (briefly) just before I arrived here,
I remember coming here some years ago to find another cache - I see it was abt 3 year ago, at the Old School House - pleased to see that it’s still active !
Anyway, quick find, thank you fo the hint, Onwards now to Raurimu.

Heading back to Turangi after a wonderful time in Turoa. During the drive, we decided to find some caches along the way. FMZ was telling me about the Smash Palace movie. We had a look at the scrap yard from the outside and found this cache. Quick and easy find. Thank you for the cache!

Found in a one litre official geocaching container, not a bucket? Log completely dry

Ez

Traveling north and focusing on PWGT caches along the way. What a good excuse to stop here.
Accompanying photo relates to a earlier trip with the wagging tails - at the time we posted it with “we’re going to Invercargill!” - those film buffs will know . Tftc

Found it.

Just touring

Oh Smash Palace - wow and Hunt for the Wilderpeople as well. This place is amazing and obviously some history. Searched a bit then finally came up with the goods

Wow what a collection!!! I found the cache easily thank you. I stopped to take a few photos but would like to return for more another day.

Not a 10 litter bucket! Crazy cars

As soon as I arrived and took in the area I realised that I was looking at Smash Palace from the movie. Co-cacher doing the navigation and reading the information confirmed. Then, funny how when you expect something and it’s not what you are expecting that you become blind. Is it a form of man looking? Not sure, anyway the second pair of eyes found what we were looking for. TFTC

Park up and look at hint and off I went. With a big nope came back to the car. Thinking how could I have miss it. Read logs and oohhh. Went back and found straight away. While I was sitting in the car looking for next cache to do I watch a guy come through the gate and make his way to drivers door. Asks if I'm sitting enjoying the warm morning sun and admiring the mountain view. Lol. I replied kind of. Turns out it was the owner of Smash Palace. Spoke to him for a while. He told me he's off tomorrow to pick up a truck and probably a couple Holdens to add to his growing collection. He laugh when he said it. Great meeting with him. Really nice guy. Great start to the morning. Thanks for bringing me back here. Love this place. Tftc.

We made a note to watch smash palace once home, I had never heard of it but being foreign it’s not surprising. I have tried to improve my Kiwiana knowledge and have watched goodbye pork pie, boy, hunt for the wilderpeople, once were warriors and of course lord of the rings. Smash palace is next on the list. TFTC

AliGle and I were heading down to the Wairarapa for a 3 day hike and decided to work on the PWGT2 series on the way there and back again. Parked the car at GZ and soon had the cache in hand. Interesting seeing all the old wrecks around here, been a long time since I've seen the movie. TFTC!

A unique spot. Not the prettiest but quite a landmark. A quick park and grab. Tftc

We looked for some time here but no joy for us today. Not sure how we could miss one that size!

What a funny little place!

As soon as we turned it we just looked in awe at the decades of vehicles left here.

Funny he never wanted to scrap any of them, I guess it’s more valuable as a almost museum like oddity.

Thanks for pointing this out to us!

Found by Blenheim Bear on a wee day looking at bridges, this is on my way from Ohakune to the next bridge in Turangi so a quick stop and grab. Good to see familiar names on the log sheet. thanks for the cache all good today. Blenheim Bear

Quick first find of the day, it was fun to have a look at all the old vehicules. Thanks!

We were on our way up to Taumarunui to go on the golf carts down to Whangamomona hotel for the night and then we were driving along the forgotten highway down to stratford. The golf cart trip was wonderful ! having found MJMNZ cache here it was a quick little reip further along the road and a very quick locate thanks to very clear hint .
it was oon signed and replaced and we were on our way again

Quick stop after climbing Mt Ruapehu, love all the old cars!

We were here on New Years Day and also found the empty spot with no cache, so we came back when we knew it had been replaced. This time it was an easy find, no need to get tangled up in long grass and rose thorns like last time. Always interested in the old wrecks across the road, good grief, we actually drove one like that many years ago......starting to feel really old!!
Interesting place. TFTC.

We were hoping to collect this one today, but when we pulled up a swam of bees surround the car. Will have to get this one next time.

Was happy to see this cache had been replaced since the last time i was here. It's been on my list for quiet some time so it's nice to finally get the smiley. Stopped by after a wander on the old coach road, thought it would be an easy find since it's a large size and had only been found yesterday. Well two of us were having no luck and just about to give up when i read back through previous logs and walked right up to where i had thought it would be all along! Tftc

Gave up waiting for the train to cross the Makatoke Viaduct so headed south to collect this one,. Not where the phone was sending me and not as large as I was expecting but eventually found the cache. TFTC

We loved our visit to Smash palace. At GZ it took a while to find the container. After no luck searching, we looked at the previous logs and found the owner's log with new coordinates and photo spoiler. From there it was an easy find. Both container and logbook are in good condition. The boys spent more than one hour exploring the "palace", and it's parts store and wrecked cars. Thanks for taking us here.

Today is the last day of our road trip, completing the PWGT 2 (Lower North Island) caches from Palmerston North to Tongariro.
We have found a Smash Palace cache before, so knew the incredible sights here. We hoped for a quick find today, but it was not to be. The container was nowhere to be seen. And to make matters worse we had no internet connection here to check recent logs. After giving it one more thorough look we decided to drive down the road until we could get a signal. Fortunately we didn't have to drive more than a kilometre, and were able to park up and get onto the website. Aha! The cache has been replaced and the coords have changed slightly! Back we went, and this time the cache was an instant find, and somewhat smaller than we had been expecting. Glad we didn't have to leave this one behind. Codeword noted. TFTC

Coordinates changed from:
S 39° 20.625 E 175° 22.817

Coordinates changed to:
S 39° 20.627 E 175° 22.813

Distance from original: 22.2 feet or 6.8 meters.

Third geocache moved to other side of ROW behind gate post.

Geocache replaced in its entirety.
And moved it a bit. Cache is now a small regular. Huh? 500ml repurposed container.

Spoiler image

*Logged with permission from the CO*

Came by Friday 31/12/21 and confirmed with the co that this was missing.

Stopped in again today to recheck but still no cache, I now see that it has been replaced but I’m about 4 hours away now,

I will however call in again in 6 weeks on my way through to sign log.

Thanks for the placement and replacement Phronimos and allowing me to log the find

Phronimos, we didn’t find your cache today. Sorry, but it wasn’t for lack of trying though! We spent a long time searching for something others said was an easy find! Has it gone missing again maybe?? We’ll keep an eye on the cache and see if it turns up.

Thanks Phronimos for the cache. It’s #1590 for us. We didn’t find this cache on 2 January 2022 as it has been muggled. Searched everywhere and managed to inflict ourselves with several scratches from the trees and a ripped dress for Mrs Bunkshyde! Still, them’s the breaks with caching.
Logged as a find with kind permission of Phronimos who is clearly a great guy and plans to replace the container tomorrow. Thanks for keeping the game alive for all of us.

Logging with kind permission of the CO.

I had left Wellington early in the morning to make sure that I could find (or attempt) all my target caches before I got to Taupo in enough time to check into my accommodation (in the end I had overestimated). I had arrived here at about 12pm and found a car parked at the parking spot. Pulled up behind and it seemed they were sightseeing as there was no sign of activity.

I headed off under the trees and found a spot that would be the ideal place for a geocache (especially one of this size), but no sign of the cache. I looked around some other spots, but none were particularly accessible, so chalked this up to being missing, and carried on up the road to tackle the Raurimu Spiral. Many thanks to Phronimos for being involved with putting out this Geotour (and the many other caches of his I found today), and for allowing me to log this as a find. TFTC

I had much the same experience as bruzie. In fact I could see his tracks in the long grass. I am heading north to Auckland and hoped to get this one on the way north. Well I searched under all the trees for a good 10-15m either side of the coordinates. Knowing from past logs it was a large white bucket I felt it should be fairly obvious. But nope it was not and while I found plenty of decent nooks to hide a container this size, none of the, were occupied by a cache. Not sure why it would get muggled here as its a fairly quiet area. Bugger. Next time.

#10,507. The CO contacted me and has given me approval to claim this find. Its a long way from home and being part of a limited duration geotour I am grateful they have given this approval as travel in New Zealand is always uncertain at the moment due to COVID. Glad it was not a case of cache blindness. Missing a large white bucket would be embarrassing. Cheers Phronimos.

I remember when the Smash Palace film first came out. The opening sequence with the car crash certainly got your attention. This car yard is one of the iconic sites in New Zealand if you are a motorhead. There is something there for everyone dating back decades.

No sign of it...

Find number 7731. On a trip with my daughter. She is doing the Te Araroa Trail and I am being her support for a few days. Today was to drive to Raetihi in preparation for starting the Whanganui paddle tomorrow. Had plenty of time so was able to grab a few caches along the way.
Another piece of education for my daughter. She had not heard of the movie [too young] but she was intrigued by the cars. No problem finding the cache. Thank you for the placement.

18 December 2021 13:31. Another one that I made way harder than it needed to be.... After all, how hard can it be to spot a large white bucket? Very! In my defense, my phone had the coordinates 7m away ....

I came here a few years ago during the Turangi MEGA, so it was good to be able to revisit.

After a scramble through the trees on the wrong side I corrected my approach and soon found the geocache. So the log book has been signed and the cache is nicely back in its spot all ready for the next geo-hunter. Thanks heaps for taking the time to set up this geocache. I really appreciate your efforts in doing so. TFTC

#717. Mr and Mrs Northwood headed to Ohakune for a couple of nights to walk the Old Coach Road. And of course this meant a number of opportunities to look for some caches in some interesting spots. We were not always successful - sometimes because we're being a bit more careful these days!

This spot is back at the start of the walk, we stopped in on the way home to visit "Smash Palace" and grab the cache. Could not believe how many old cars there were in the area!

TFTH

What a lovely big cache had a smashing time here on the PWGT tour thanks Phronimos TFTC

It was getting dark & wasn't in the first place we looked. Then there it was, very big cache. Tftc

Co-ordinates were playing up on phone, but located after a bit of searching

Cool little hide

Great spot. Fun finding it.

Hubby found this one hanging around!

Very interesting to read how the film scene was actually constructed... what a peculiarly Kiwi and desolate site it all is. Might be better when it's not raining?? Thanks, Phronimos, for the write-up and the cache.

With Flowerydaze on a mission to knock off some of the PWGT caches in the Rua area.
This was a place we had heard a lot about but never visited before today TFTC Phronimos FP awarded.

Another stop for Talla64 and I completing part of the Rua PWGT trail. A very interesting place indeed. Thanks Phronimos, for the history and for placing a cache here.

nice hide

Only had the coords loaded, so luckily a easy find ( though as several others have noted, bush bashed in the wrong spot initially; seems the coords are slightly off) Nice to have another excuse to visit the Smash Palace , and to find a BIG cache & proper logbook. Thanks!! Sadly, the large container bwas devoid of anything except the logbook. The TBs currently listed were not there.

A quick find at dusk due to the colour of the cache.
Our trip continues after being curtailed on day 2 when we went into lockdown (that was an 800+ km day to get back to our respective homes). The trip with LNM1961 (logs signed either with our own names or ‘LE’) continues. We are travelling around the Rua area of the PWGT to collect all of these caches, plus some in the Tahi area. However, we aren’t just focussing on them. We are targeting others - oldies, ones that help us qualify for challenges, ones out of the way (especially on the Desert Road), as well as having fun, exploring NZ and seeing the countryside. TFTC

Brr it is getting cold )3 degrees) and also dusk, thanks for being an easy find.

All good

Wow sooo many wrecked cars - I had no idea! Arrived 'out of hours' so couldn't investigate further. My mobile readings were a little wobbly due to nearby power lines, good thing the cache container was so big. Heaps of room to leave goodies. TFTC Phronimos.

Interesting cache. One of those assume its over here total distractions, before heading to the right place. TFTC.

Forgot pen, but got a photo on a cold and rainy walk awaiting good ski conditions. TFTC

A great snowy day excursion. What a fascinating place! Found with @putputcat

Found today with fleurinator2006 on a geo adventure today!!!

Looked in the wrong place to start with lol had fun bush bashing though good cache TFTC

This weekend had been planned a couple of months ago, the plan was to stay in National Park and venture up the mountain ride on the sky Waka and pickup a cache or two three or four and we managed to do all three.
Found with xsaveya and emiliyah coords for us were 10metres out but did not take to long to locate.
Log signed and replaced as found

Got the day off work so heading up to National Park. Collecting some caches on the way. Lots of new ones here since we last visited. Second PGWT today. Cache all fine and remembered to collect the code word. Thanks Pete for placing this one. Living in Gisborne we have our own Smash Palace which I presume is based on this placed. It has a old plane in the beer garden plus lots of junk hanging up inside. Well worth a visit if you are ever on the East coast.

Thank you for taking us to interesting and varied places. It was teeming with rain but I’d like to go back and look at the old cars.

Nice to get another Large cache on the trip, and another code word for the collection. I note from the logbook that this has been muggled (stolen) once, but the current hiding place should leave it safe enough. I like Horopito car yard, I got some wheels for my caravan a few years ago now. On to the next tour stop and Raurimu next.

It's the next day and time to leave Taiahape and head home. I have a couple of options on the way home but with poor weather forecast for later, we didn't make that many stops and made a mess of the Tangiwai Multi which consumed some time, with no find (sorted now for next time).
Definitely another quality rather than quantity trip which yielded four more Geotour caches, and codewords.

A planned trip to Manawatu/Rangitikei region has been on the cards for a while now, it's baby Kaiah's first birthday this week and she's having a birthday party in Palmy on Saturday. mrs c headed down South earlier in the week and I flew down on Friday morning, getting in nice and early. We were on baby minding duties so there was never going to be many caches up for grabs, so it was just opportune finds when convenient. I ended up getting a few more of the Region 2 Geotour caches, a missing DT combo to leave me one off a second trip around the buoy and a few Multis from Phronimos. A good weekend to catch up with family and enjoy a change of scenery from Auckland and recall that we do really enjoy the area down south too.

**S 39° 20.624 E 175° 22.814**

#12,624. Good to return to another most interesting park, walk and grab on Matapuna Road in Horopito. We have not yet seen the movie *Smash Palace*, but we were introduced to Horopito Motor Wreckers by watching the other mentioned film *Goodbye Pork Pie*, which also featured this place. Fortunately, GZ was all quiet at the time of our visit. When we first arrived here, we searched in the wrong spot. After widening the area, we eventually found it about 5 metres away. The cache was in good condition, all nice and dry inside.

Took Surf Life Saving Jandal TB and SDBX4 - 075
Left nothing, signed Replacement Logbook.

Thanks for the very interesting history write-up 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.

The kids loved finding this one. Always wanted to stop here so great to have a reason to!

Isis58 and I are on a mission over the long weekend to find as many TMGT and PWGT caches as possible with the occasional normal cache thrown in as time allows. We dropped our stuff off at the accomodation in Turangi and set off in the dark to do a loop around the mountains. A nice easy find. Thanks Phronimos for your contributions to the geotour

#11227

Damp logbook replaced today.

tb drop

Co-ords had us about 8 m away, but widened the search area and there it was! Nice to find a big container. TFTC

Thanks Phronimos for the interesting story that goes with this cache and for this straight forward drive-by. Found with Tramper Ted, enjoying our trip through Raurimu.

GPS had me in the wrong little piece of bush, eventually widened for what turned out to be a simple find.

TFTC

Up from Dunedin on a roadie from Auckland to Christchurch to get a good number of North Island PWGT caches and some others.
Wow there’s a few cars here. Quite a few muggles about but their interest was focused elsewhere. Quickly found. Tftc

even with the size of this one my phone wanted me to go in a different direction but i soon found this one, tftc

i have purchased parts for vehicles over the years.
business closed today but still a few people about looking .
soon found this large container even though my gps was sending me in a slightly different direction.
tftc

I worked for Horopito Motors for a number of years so no what yhe yard involves. Great for bringing me back again. TFTC

We are on a whirlwind tour trying to find the rua section of the PWGT. We were both a bit excited to come and see Smash Palace. We both have seen the movie but it was quite some time ago so now that we have been here we are going to watch it again.

We were quite blown away with what we saw and we drove up and down the road several times trying to take it all in. GK's father has restored several vintage cars over the years and we can just imagine how his heart will race when we show him the videos we took today.

We were in amongst really cold rain showers while we were in this area, luckily for gk there was a gap in the rain while he went to find and sign the log.

Thank you so much for the effort and commitment you have given towards making this tour such a success.

After a bit of a break from caching I am catching up on my logging that I hadn't finished due to various reasons, including procrastinating.
Heading North for a few days to attend the wedding of one of redants cousins, and find some caches on the way.

TFTC Phronimos, for Ministry of Education.

The weekend was long and we had to get to Hamilton by Sunday. Road was easier, so we packed up the car and headed north with a spot of caching to break the monotony of the scenery rushing by.

Day had broken and we had Cambridge on our GPS- but no rush to get there. Early morning mist gave the car yard an air of mystique and sneaking across to GZ was an excellent start to the day. Love the large container, love the location. TFTC