PWGT2 - Motutaiko Island views (Turangi) Taupo District, North Island, New Zealand
By Infoferret on 12-Dec-20. Waypoint GC93MGT

Container was removed today, this leaves the area clear for someone else to place a cache if they want to.

We hope you enjoyed exploring this region of the North Island. The Pokai Whenua GeoTour: Rua has now ended. Thank you to the community for all the great logs, photos, and Favorite Points over the last 2 years. It has been so fun!

The Freezer Mice strike again!!!
Quick stop to find this cache.
As others have previously mentioned, use some common sense to your searching, as other visitors have used the bush coverage to relieve themselves.

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.

This was day 10. We travelled from Waipukurau, to Napier and then on to Taupo today. It was a bit slow getting here as there was roadworks between here and Taupo. Glad to get another word for our passport. It took a while to find as my friends phone took ages to settle. I finally grabbed mine and headed to where I first suspected gz to be and promptly had the cache. Thanks for your participation in the Geotour

Fantastic spot. Shame it appears to be an open air toilet!

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

Quick find at GZ on this dismal day. TFGC

Pretty spot to visit. Shame about the rubbish and the smell.

Nice drive on a beautiful day. Quick find once we ignored the GPS and used our geo-brain. Tftc

#1000 and what a way to find it! A cache part of a very special series, that I will eventually conquer in my next few thousand caches (hopefully) and when I have a bit more travel time and money lol. A beautiful spot. Easily found. Interesting reading about the island too. Nga mihi. TFTC

Called in here tonight for our last PMGT cache today
Had a swim to cool off as well. Took awhike to sort the tree concerned but muggle Kev spotted the container close to where I had previously looked. Thanks for the history and the cache

*Catching up on some long overdue logging*Recently it was my birthday, and GeoHubby (GNARwhal) single-handedly planned a weekend away (including childcare) up to Rotorua to collect the PWGT caches.Having stopped in Turangi for sustanence we carried on around the lake to our destination of Rotorua for the night. Time was marching on so this ended up being a quick stop. GeoHubby was quick to make the find here. Some photos and off we went again.

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

TFTC and greetings from Czechia Europe

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

I was about 14m out with gz but just expanded my search till found. Not sure if it’s the trees in area or else something else but it smells like a toilet in area.

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 4 on the road. Staying at Motutere Bay and going a loop back to their today.
First stop, just 3 min from accomodation. My GPS had me 17m away but could be because its a misty morning.
Disturbed some rather large birds on the way in.
Thanks for the cache Infoferret
# 3455 16 November 2022 8:55 am

A nice quick easy park, find, grab, sign and flee.
While Mrs Porknpuha feed the ducks.
TFTC

Great spot nice lookout

27.09.2022 10:40 Uhr GMT+11
Ein schneller Fund ...
DfdC DeSchmidt_n #5

Great spot to stop. First tree no luck but read a few logs & didn't take too long to get the cache. Fav point for a nice place to have lunch. Tftc

Lovely location to stop for a picnic. Looked at first tree where GPS lead us to, but soon geo sense kicked in and cache was soon in hand. Tftc

I passed this way in June / July but the traffic was quite heavy & i hadn’t really done my homework re access. Much better on a weekday around the middle of the day!
I found the cache eventually, my geosense isn’t really up to much today. Thanks for this cache, Infoferret.

Going past heading back home. Not personally aiming to complete the GeoTour, I'm happy with being a contributor to this great idea. TFTC
*Coordinates were close enough with phone **c:geo**, to lead me straight to it, using my geo-senses (including the old reliable common-sense).*

Good hide. Coords out as previously stated. Tftc

Woohoo for us too.
Great location. Stopped with the wagging tails who almost found it for us. A nice stop before the desert road.
Tftc and PWGT

Woohoo

After reading the logs we ignored the coords and found it after a general search around the area. Tftc

3rd attempt lucky! Each previous trip there were always muggles parked close. This time I retrieved the goods, as a previous finder said though, about 13m away. Tftc!

Followed my nose to this one, and no problem. TFTC!

Stopped in here for a break on the way to rotorua. A lovely little spot. A nice quick find. Thanks for the cache

I pass by this area almost daily and have just got back into geocaching after a long break. Awesome spot and thanks for the cache. May the 4th be with you

Mum and 10YO had dropped Dad and 14YO off to complete the Tongariro Crossing; and were keen to get some caches under their belt before they had to collect them again. This was attempt 6 of 12 for the day.
10YO did this one completely unassisted - she easily located the cache, signed the log, and replaced before Mum could even get out of the car! Beautiful day, and a beautiful spot.

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. Stopped by the Lake on our way down and found this after a bit of a search around GZ. Nice outlook from here. TFTC!

With Vistra heading down the line to Martinborough. Coordinates were a bit out but we found it in the end after a bit of searching.

We are staying at Waiouru for a couple of nights and have taken our small vehicle on a round trip through National Park today to pick up the tour caches.
After refueling our rental car at Turangi we decided to drive a little further north to pick up this tour cache as well. The area was quiet when we arrived, and we enjoyed the view across the water as the sun was going down. Despite using both phone and Garmin we had some difficulty getting a fix on GZ, until eventually we saw a likely hiding spot that was less out in the open, and there was the cache. All good here, codeword noted. TFTC Infoferret!

Looked around the wrong tree for sooooo long. Should have looked for more trash (alas) and would’ve found it quicker. TFTC

First geotour cache of the day. Nice and easy find, nice view over the water. Thanks!

The views from this spot are pretty great!

I just find it sad that the land isn’t being respected here, so much litter in the ground and damage done to the toilet…

Great spot though!

Thanks!

Well this is where I celebrate the last pwgt cache. It's been a great journey and I loved every minute of it.quick find once locating right tree tftc

Day 1. Lower Hutt to Hamilton.
Actually it's only half a day, as I left work at lunchime. This was our first find. A good excuse for a break from driving (as iff this being a GT cache neither of us had found didn't have any bearing on why we chose to stop here! The cache was an easy find out in the open, we reurned it a little better but there was not much we could do.

Only 6 finds today, all between Taupo and Hamilton - today being more about travel than caching.

Normally I take my bicycle and spend at least a couple of weeks on my Mega trips, but this time I went to Auckland with Taybeedragon and a campervan. And normally in that two weeks I would find a few hundred caches at about 40 per day (yes, by bike), but this time I only had 4 days and we only found 70 caches and a few labs (which are also caches). Only a few days as I am trying to save my annual leave for a trip to Seattle. Assuming that even ever happens! We mostly targeted GT caches and the occasional special. Which meant a lot of very inefficient driving (eg 20 km across Auckland for just one cache!) It also meant for some very long days .

It's my Mega weekend road trip! This is day one, on the road to Auckland. Will expand on my logs, post photos, qualifying caches for challenges, etc. When I get home. TFTC

No muggles at GZ this time although there was a tent under a tree, it wasn't the specific tree.

20 January 2022 10:26 am Find #4624

Nice find. Painted rock left for next finder! No trackable inside as has been posted.

Stopped in very quiet today
No TB here

Needed a pit stop on the way to Taupo and I went hunting while my partner used the facilities. The cache is in perfect condition but watch your step as someone has decided that the toilet was far too civilized

Nice stop along the road for a picnic. The lake is really nice, and the view on the island is nice too. It seems so close. It is sad they had to forbid access because some can't behave. I guess that is human nature. Container and logbook were in good condition. There was only two cars in additions to ours, one with people who went kayaking, the other one were paddle-boarding. We took the time to eat before searching the cache. Thanks for placing this here!

One of a couple of caches for which we stopped en route to Turangi from Taupo. The coords on my iPhone led me to a small tree which clearly wasn’t where the cache was hidden. 12-13m away was a larger tree which yielded the goods! Nice spot here. #4436. TFTC.

(# 6963) On a new years trip to see my brother in Tauranga. Grabbing a few caches while out and about. Got lucky on this one. The area was quite busy with plenty of people around but The was one parking area available right by the hide. A quick find without being spotted. Might have helped that it was a scorcher of a day and all everyone could thing about was having a swim. Thanks for bringing me here.

Will have to attempt at another time - muggles are camping right next to GZ

Gorgeous day. Heading south for a kiwi summer adventure

Thank you for bringing us here!
There weren't many people spending time here but further down the road at the camping grounds was so crazy and full. Didn't take us too long to find the cache but some onlookers and their dog were a bit puzzled by us bickering between the trees in the area haha. Then we traveled on down to Whanganui.

Find number 7784. My daughter is doing the Te Araroa trail And I have been a support person for a few days as she paddled the Whanganui [I was the other in the canoe] and cycled from Pipiriki to Whanganui. A 7pm crossing of the river at Koitiata where I met her and we camped for the night. An early start as she set off to walk to Bulls and I cached my way back to Hamilton. Doing just specific caches.
Another sort of park and grab. All quiet in area today. Thank you for the placement.

Just spent a couple of days in Taupo and now heading to Turangi. Stopping for a few caches on the way. The spot was very quiet apart from a raft of ducks that appeared while signing the log. TFTC

#12,649. Good spot in Motutere to view Motutaiko Island. Fortunately, GZ was all quiet at the time of our visit. Relatively quick find. The cache was in good condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

Interesting write-up in the description. Favorite point added for the things learnt here.

Thanks for the 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.

Chasing the PWGT cache series in this region over a long weekend with Itchyfeet. Location very scenic with the lake like glass on this beautiful sunny day, and mother duck with her wee ducklings swimming around. Oh drats, a muggle is parked near the GZ, eventually he changes attire and goes in for a swim ... at last 'in for the kill' so to speak. A bit of litter and other undesirables about. Trusting instinct rather that co-ords were better for finding this one. Cache all good and tucked away again.
TFTC Infoferret - pumice pieces look ideal for those rough heels!

Us to! its a perfect camper spot. Muggle couldn't decide if coming or going while we stretched our legs. Turned out they were preparing for a swim. We decided it was the perfect spot for pumice selecting while Justlooking00 ducks in to retrieve. My last Rua PW - that's one section completed yah. Day 2 of a PW road trip for many of the Waikato ones and came down from Whirinaki for this one. TFTC Infoferret. Good fun.

Haha! What are the chances that there were muggles right where we wanted to look! TFTC

Lovely spot

Great day for grabbing a couple of caches with the grandkids on the way home from the mountain.

Yay romantic weekend away what better thing to do that hit some caches nice east find tftc first find in the pwgt series for us yay!!!!

A fairly quick find, though my phone has been sending me on the bumblebee dance & 15 meters out again . TFTC

Well the road trip continues with Flowerydaze on a mission to seek out PWGT2's. No problem here as all was quiet, no muggles around on such a lovely day, so nice in fact I had lunch here. All well with this cache nice and dry, Thanks for bringing us here Infoferret.

Continuing our mission to find caches in the PWGT series, it was lunchtime when Talla64 stopped in this lovely little reserve. There was not a muggle around, so no problems looking for the cache - it was a quick find. Thanks for placing a cache here Infoferret.

Day 8 of our road trip to the not happening Mega. Last time we passed this way there were road works and we were unable to access the rest area. Today there were some workmen parked up at the southern end which gave us full reign of the north end. A quick find once the gps had settled down.
TFTC

The lake is very low and there isn’t much wind. Quite a few black swans feeding.
Our trip starts again 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

Nice to find. Swans enjoying the stillness of the day.

Nice easy find no muggles around today

Down this way on hoilday nice easy find what a beautiful spot

Found with Spudge. A good place to take a break. TFTC

Our last cache of the trip. A very nice picnic area and great place for a cache. We didn't have a pen so took a photo of the cache (available on request).

Found it this morning had to be stealthy as muggels camping nearby! But got it unseen!!! Thanks

Geotour cache en route, of course it's a target! After a long-ish stretch of road works it was a nice break and had the place to myself. Parked fairly close and circled the host before coming from another angle and spotted straight away. All good here though covered a little better on leaving, grabbed the resident TB, thanks infoferret.

Left Taihape later than I'd hoped thanks to a certain thing taking Extra time and I paid the penalty with a reduced itinerary. Caching still happened though.

The weekend is here and for a change I've got a four-dayer planned with a trip across from Taupo to Napier to have a couple of nights in Havelock North and local area, followed by a trip back across the Napier-Taihape Road to stay at our daughters for a day before watching the football on Monday and then Coming Home, he's coming home, capperz is coming home (football didn't as it turned out! Well done to Italy.
A few nice caches found, not huge numbers so quality rather than quantity. A few more of the PWGT caches as well as some others here and there, thanks to all COs.

Needs a pen

No problems with the find here. Lots of discussion about previous caches we had both previously found on the shores of this lake. TFTC Infoferret # 17,067

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 had the reserve to ourselves so had a nice quick find. One day I want to circumnavigate the lake, good to know that the island is out of bounds, my first thought when I saw it was that would be a good place to camp. Thanks for making us stop here and an interesting cache Infoferret

#11221

#9651. I am heading up to a conference in Thames over the weekend and decided to leave early and drive up to pick up more of the geotour caches. I am driving north with a muggle friend from work who has done some geocaching with me on past trips and proven a dab hand at locating caches. Motutaiko Island has always been a location that has intrigued me because of its name and connection with the taiko seabird, a long way from the sea here in the central North Island. Thanks for the excellent write-up that provides a lot of details about the natural and cultural history of this landmark in the lake. The cache itself took some time to spot as its well hidden under natural camo. Luckily my friend has better eyesight than me. Signed the logbook and replaced the cache where found. Picked up the trackable. Thanks Infoferret and MOE for the cache. Favourite for this one.

Up from Dunedin on a roadie from Auckland to Christchurch to get a good number of North Island PWGT caches and some others.
Finally no fog here so I get to see the lake. Quickly found. Dropped TB and grabbed TB. Tftc

A quick find this morning while undertaking a pilgrimage around Mt Ruapehu finding a few caches and visiting some interesting spots. Cache was located quickly with no one around and we dropped a GC from Canada off so it can continue its travels. TFTC [^]

We did the nearby Waipehi DOC trail and came down to the lake to get this cache. A great place for a cache. TFTC

Our last PWGT cache for today. The sun was in the wrong direction for a photo - shame as the view of Motutaiko Island from GZ is great. TFTC.
+ a marble, - nothing.

Pulled in here for the views then realised there was a cache after driving past 2 a few minutes before. Strolled over to GZ for a nice quick find. TFTC.

We loved the history of this place and the sacredness of it. I wonder how many people would find refuge on this island during war time, the island must have looked a lot different with its kumara pits and its defences. Thanks for sharing a bit of the ngati Tuwharetoa history, sad to hear that burial sites have been desecrated... TFTC

GPS led us on a bit of an explore of the trees! Found it when I asked my cache brain where I would put it. This series is just awesome!!! Found with Piwaka54 on our journey south from a funeral. So double thanks for the smiley!!!! TFTC

Found with Nutty Nora

We are on a whirlwind tour of the lower North Island in pursuit of the PWGT section rua caches. We were pleased that the weather had improved by the time we got here, it was still windy but at least we had left the rain clouds behind us.

We pulled in to the reserve and were pleased to see that we were the only vehicle there, we parked nice and close and gk jumped out to go and find the cache while I enjoyed the views out over the lake to Motutaiko Island. We enjoyed reading about the island and the history that belongs to it.

GK did comment when he got back to the campervan that he hopes this one does not get muggled as it was pretty obvious and tricky to camouflage in its current position.

Thank you for the effort and commitment you have made to help make this tour a success and thank you for the smiley

Another quick find by Mr 10 on a round the lake caching day. Tftc

We got confused at first but found it pretty quick great find

Did with Crystal Fairy.

Fifth cache of the trip north with Mycro Man and Ezratar. Stopped here so the kids could go search for some pumice stone. Found quite a bit of it and at the same time found the cache here. In good condition and nicely hidden. That makes two of the series now completed .. Lots to go. Thanks for the cache

On the way back home we made this the second to last for the day with a quick stop, Mrs B took photos of the view of the lake from here while I grabbed the cache. Quick find and no problems with the cache. TFTC.

Spent the weekend away in Ohakune and stopped to get this cache on the way home. Really pretty area TFTC

Almost home after an epic 2 months being alive and having lots of fun in our motor home. Arrived here to find the surf was up. The island was shrouded in heavy cloud. The rain eased off enough to find this cache. Thanks for the placement infoferret.

Today we head for home after around 10,000 ks of travel..... although it's Pouring with rain it was pleasing to start the day with a traditional cache the weather didn't do this spot justice ..as the Island was barely visible ..but from my experience this is an awesome spot on a good day with great lake and Island views the cache was found in good condition and the log duly signed, code retrieved..thanks infoferret a nicely done cache

Lovely lake side stop while heading south today. nice quick find thx.

A nice quick find thanks. Good to get out of the traffic for a while.

Ms_KR and I flew up to Hamilton to catch up on family and a few caches, especially those in the new PWGT geotour. Day 4, National Park back up to Auckland. Hint driving linto Auckland at 5pm on a friday is diabolical!. We are looking at completing those in the Central North Island this holiday.

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

He tino põturi ta māua haerenga na te mea katahi te waka. I haina te pukapuka ,ā, whakawātea te ara.
Our journey was very slow because there were so many cars. We signed the log and the road was clear. Kia ora.

I shifted my snail shell from Whakatane to Taupo today. After parking it up and having lunch I ventured out to sign off of a few caches.

Initially I drove south past this one but I then did a U-turn a bit further on and came back to the resr area.

Cheers for the cache.

After taking a day off Geotouring to do the Tongariro crossing nice to be back gathering clues. Lovely view of the lake today.

Long weekend in Taupo for Easter meant a chance to collect a few caches from PWGT Rua. This one was collected on the way to the 42nd Traverse. A couple of camper vans there but was a pretty quick retrieve so we went unnoticed. Took a couple of photos and we were off again. Thanks to the CO for the great write up and placement, and to the Ministry of Education for the GeoTours

Early start, strong wind overnight, now the air is calm. Beautiful spot, happy to find. Thanks for the history of the island. Fun find this morning.

Been, seen and logged thanks for the hide. Restored my mojo, so pleased to find with rustynz

Roadtrip time, day 1.
Seeing as this is Easter weekend, I have taken 4 days leave next week to get in a driving tour, hoping to get as far north as 90 mile beach in order to seek the recently published PWGT caches throughout Northland, as well as catch up with 4 different sets of friends.

Being Good Friday, I was able to set off this morning at a leisurely pace, but was still surprised at how many cars were on the roads initially. But by the time I had got to here they had thinned out a bit and my progress was steady.

When I pulled in to the layby, there were only a couple of other vehicles there, but sod's law there was a campervan parked not 5m from GZ! It had all its doors open too. Hmmm, what to do? What followed was, if I do say so myself, a choice bit of stealth caching. I ambled my way around to the far side of the bushes, and then creeped my way very slowly through the undergrowth, taking exquisite care that no twigs or suchlike were underfoot to give away my presense. I finally got to the cache, and was able to retrieve it and do the usual logging etc and then replace it all and melt away without the campervan's occupants ever being any the wiser

Thanks for placing this cache. FP given for the location and the mini adventure of the find