PWGT1: Pureora Forest - Protest and Protection Waitomo District, North Island, New Zealand
By squirrel nutcase on 12-Jan-21. Waypoint GC953EG

New Zealand North Island - Day 6
Found with Joolay on a trip to NZ to find the GeoTour. Beautiful short walk in the old growth forest. Thanks for bringing us here.

Thanks for the cool cache squirrel nutcase

This was a fabulous place to visit. Thank you for bringing me here.

Day 6 and loving the chance to explore. Last day of our visit.

So exciting to be heading to NZ. Have not been to the NI so looking forward to exploring. Did not make it to the last Mega because of Covid so wonderful Kittykatch and I can get here now.

Thanks for getting me out and about squirrel nutcase

Today was going to be a long day as I was also targeting the last 12 PWGT caches I needed to complete the North Island. That meant a bit of a zig zag route through the Waikato, but the sun was shining so all was well. In all I spent 14 hours driving, but sometimes it's just what you have to do, although about an hour of that was spent dealing with the consequences of one of the most bizarre finds I've ever made whilst out caching (see my log for GCA31Q7 for details).

This was my last cache for the day, and the final cache I needed to finish off the PWGT North Island (PWGT 1 & 2). So naturally it was also one of those 'out of the way' caches that you never really know what you will find when you get there. It was about 8pm when I finally arrived here, and with another 4 hours of driving still to go to get home I was glad of a reasonably quick find here. There are no issues to report with it. So once the log was signed the whole thing was replaced back as found.

Thanks for bringing me here today.

Up from Southland with Cantabrian Kiwicampnut to get the final piece of the PWGT puzzle.
Day 2 - Hamilton to Te Awamutu... via the scenic route!
This was a bit out of the way, but a nice drive on a warm day. In hindsight I should have done when doing PWGT2 caches in November!
Another wee bit of the Te Araroa trail walked.
Thanks for the cache squirrel nutcase, for MinistryofEducation
# 3562 20 January 2023 1:51 pm

Ruru_Nz and I on another road trip to complete this area of the Geotour before it finishes.

We have been debating if this one should have been part of the Rua section as it is quite a distance in the middle of nowhere so to speak. Quick and easy find though.

The weather has turned and so it's cold, windy and showers. I have driven up from Taranaki and considered doing the Totara walk but am very tired and am aware I have a long way to go yet. I've mentally bookmarked the area for another day. Found the cache easy enough. Thanks for bringing me here.

Yah last one of PWGT Tahi caches for me. Pleased to have it finished. Will be back to do the bike ride. It looks awesome.
Thanks for placing a cache here. Heading across country now to finish Rua

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 3. Today we ended going from Arapuni, to Taumaranui, Raurimu and then various places around Tongariro National Park. We then carried on south through Ohakune and past the Tangiwai disaster memorial to the Gumboot capital of NZ.

We arrived at the wrong time here as there were big bus loads of cyclists just getting ready to set off into the forest. We loitered around and took a gap between muggles to retrieve the cache which was visible from the track. We walked away with it, did the necessary signing and word getting before looking for another gap in which to return it. Thanks for the cache

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

Lovely morning for a drive to collect this cache. Followed the instructions and hints and saw it from the trail, arrived at the wrong time so had to wait for the various cyclist to ride on past before and after grabbing/replacing the cache. Great start to day three. TFGC

TFTC

The start of the trail for us yesterday and I couldn’t find the cache. Keen to move on but sadly a blue face at the start of our adventure!

Quick stroll over here after shuttle drop off.
Biking the Timber Trail over 2 days
Thanks

Found at the start of our Timber trail ride. The container is empty with no log present and unfortunately I had nothing with me to leave as a temporary log. TFTC

Quite a drive to get to this one. Not that it mattered, everything along the route we took was interesting, We had a coffee and scone stop in Mangakino. TFTC

A rather big day today, tracking down Waikato PWGT1 caches. It sure is a fantastic way to see the country and learn its history and geography. This is the furthest south we will get this trip. Thank you for your contribution to the fantastic geotour .

Had a road trip to Inglewood to see my good friend perform her original music for the first time. This cache has been on my to do list for a while and discovered we're driving straight past on the way home!
A quick easy find, tftc!

I'm on a road trip to the far north, attempting to complete the PWGT Tahi Geotour.

This is day one, heading from home to the bustling metropolis of Huntly.

Will expand on my logs, post photos, qualifying caches for challenges, etc. When I get home. TFTC

My first Geotour find of the trip, and a little or of the way. Very pleasant in the first, pity I can't stay long. Grabbed the trackable.

26 October 2022 12:05 pm Find #5074

Giving the promised FP now that we finally have one to give.

Thanks for this cache, squirrel nutcase. I have never been this way before & it’s only the geocaching which drew me here,
A lovely wander into the bush & a quick find. Interesting Forest Park - some areas well developed, others quite poorly maintained (eg the way to the Buried Forest).

We had a discussion the night before about whether we were going to grab this cache on the way back. We have a trip planned to the Far North in January, when we will be able to get all of the other PWGT caches in the stage, so this would be the only remaining one to get. It is a bit of a detour here but in the end worth it to discover a new place that will need to be explored in the future, when the weather is a bit better.

After pulling up to the sign at the start of the Timber Trail we immediately heard the sounds of Kaka around the area, and it only took a short walk into the forest to the area of the cache to find 2 of them up in a tree. Mrs B took a video of them playing around while I grabbed the cache and signed the log. Unfortunately we weren't able to explore further as the rain started to pour down again.

We will be back to do some of this trail in the future, even from the very small part we saw it looks to be an impressive trail. Unfortunately no FP's at the moment but will look to give it one in the future when we have one to spare. TFTC.

We looked at a few hint objects before locating the correct one. All good with the cache, codeword noted and two TBs dropped off. TFTC squirrel nutcase; thanks for bringing us here, we’d like to return and cycle some of the trail in the future.

In the King Country, and thought we should do the afternoon trip over to this destination cache. Nice sunny afternoon and cool in the trees. Tftc and for the geo tour placement

Had a Tiki tour round Taranaki visiting friends and now head back north. This was a quick find on our way to Rotorua. TFTC

Quick find on an icy freezing day, kaka around.

Quick easy find. Unfortunately spending a bit of time here cleaning the car off a bit. TFTC

At GZ we spent quite a long time looking at the wrong tree. Once we moved to another one, the cache was in our hands within seconds. We took a travel bug. We decided to go for a walk in a forest 10 minutes away. Pouakani was an impressive totara, and we enjoyed our walk there. Thanks for placing this here. Both container and logbook were in good condition.

A nice straight forward cache to find - thank goodness. waiting for Mr P to appear on his bike so a nice distraction for me. TB+

Off on an adventure largely targeting geotour caches!

Thanks for your part in making the geotour happen!

This cache feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere, but the forest here is so fresh and excellent!

Thanks for showing us this special spot, I think we may be back!

The forest is beautiful, so many big trees and birds. We hope to get the chance to come back explore the area. Thanks for putting a cache there!

Great place for a walk to see the bush and birds. Camping along the road so walked along before dinner. TFTC

Last caching stop for my trip today, and just the one found in this forest. The local weather is just soooo wet today, after all of that recent dry too. Interesting cache page and the find was nice and easy here. Thanks for your cache and contributions to the Geotour.

On the move today and a big day of travelling ahead. I'm moving (again), this time from Auckland region back to Manawatu where we first lived when arriving in NZ 15 years ago. I have a few kms to travel, a car full of all I need (I hope) for some living for a few weeks away from home, and I also have 'some' target caches. I have 5 areas of interest for the trip; 4 different areas with PWGT cache in each (Huntly, Hamilton, Arapuni and Pureora), and a hope to have time to call by Waitomo Caves area for a Virtual and Earthcache. Mission was possible and 14 hours since I left home, and an extra 800kms of the clock were tiring, some backtracking on some roads, but also enjoyable. And boy, did it rain! And then some more!!
Big thanks to all COs for their hides today. Only 15 finds and a couple of Ad lab stages, but good to get these today, broke the journey up, as well as adding to it!

An early start out of Taupo, leaving Zara at Whakamaru and heading out iwith Toby to Pureora Forest. Love this forest and all the big awesome trees. Got this one snagged and tagged. Then back to Zara. Cheers. Fav from me.

The Seagnoid has lost his cache kit!! but where. So we search out Toby and Zara with no success. Bummer - so we take return trip to Taupo trying to track it down. Even visiting the night cache in the day. Totally different today. But no success. Not a good start to the day. So lets move forward.

Day 2 - Friday 21 January - Taupo to Hamilton. With lots of side trips to gather PWGTs in the Waikato including Raglan at sunset. Meant to be in Auckland tonight but run out of time. So lets get exploring!

Zara, Toby and I are on our North Island expidition for a couple of weeks. Got The Seagnoid along for the first 4 days, heading to the Auckland Mega. PWGTs and TMGTs are on the radar for this trip. Lots of driving on gravel roads and visited lots of amazing places on our 6000km road trip snagging 200+ caches along the way. Visiting Cape Reinga, Bay of Islands, Gisborne and White Rock along our journey. Another awesome trip. Thanks to all CO's.

Day 2. Taupo to Hamilton. Tried to get to Auckland but with so many diversions to the west to pick up GT caches, which are the main focus of the trip up, it just wasn't doable. As it was we got to bed in Hamilton at 11pm!

This cache is one of those reasons. Taybeedragon and I left Zara the Campervan at Whakamaru and headed west with Toby. We did the little loop walk but later caches today that had similar sized loop walks we skipped due to time. I'm glad I did this walk though - I have constantly lamented that we have no big trees in our forests and here it is great to see them and what the natural density was. In short, I **love** this place!! And the cache is a decent size and dry, so gets a favourite. Alas I lost my entire cache kit in Taupo, so no pathtags or emeralds. Sorry. Picked up a trackable to move on.

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

Found by junior cacher before walking the Totara track. What a great forest! I've never been here before, would love to come back with bikes to do the Timber Trail. Tftc, left a TB here.

#12,700. Stunning wander along Totara Walk off Barryville Road in Maniaiti / Benneydale. 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.

Favorite point added for the interesting write-up of this location.

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.

We drive through the forest from the Pureora DOC camp site. It was a long dusty road but very interesting. Made a note to return to find the cache at the centre of the north island. Had lunch and did this cache with the grandchildren. Will log those shortly. TFTC

Quick easy find. Rode this trail in 2020 and loved it. Will do it again one day!

A bit of a hurry, but couldn’t find it. Will look again next time

#10,518. I am travelling north to Auckland to hopefully get the chance to do the geotour caches in Northland. COVID lockdowns and travel restrictions have twice thwarted my travel plans. So stayed overnight in Taumarunui and now heading to Pureora for this geotour cache. After a short wander around I noticed a trail off the main track and found the cache soon after. Not sure if the blue tape is there for the cache or some other purpose. Signed the logsheet and replaced as found. Thanks squirrel nutcase and Ministry of Education for hiding this cache.

Interesting to read in your description about the past activities here at Pureora. My last visit to Pureora was way back in 1980. I had come over to see the protests in 1977 and returned to show a friend the platforms still perched up the trees, The forest then was full of kokako singing and kaka and robins. For such a small remnant forest patch I was not expecting too much this trip but the bush was alive with birdsong on this warm summer day. I was delighted to see and hear kaka still in good numbers plus parakeets, robins and whiteheads. Sadly the kokako are now gone but are still present in North Pureora. The forest themselves were still stunning with dense stands of mixed giant podocarps. The Totara Walk which I had time to do must be one of the finest short forest walks remaining in New Zealand. Its a magic place with those 1000+ year old trees. So glad the protests stopped the clear felling of these forests or all you would have seen today was rows of pine trees. Favourite awarded.

What a lovely place to visit - the NZ forest is so beautiful. Saw bikers ready to start biking the Timber Trail. Out and about with LNM1961 again on another PWGT roadie. Locating and signing other logs as well. TFTC squirrel nutcase.

It is lovely to be back here at the start of the timber trail. Hubby and I walked the trail in full after celebrating Christmas with family in nearby Taupo 2017. An easy find here amongst beautiful native bush with Ethness.

18 December 2021 18:35. I came here a few years ago when the lads wanted to cycle the timber trail, and I was in charge of moving gear for them. It was nice to revisit.

However, I had forgotten how far it is from National Park which is where I stayed, so I had a long drive ahead of me, so sadly couldn't linger and explore.

Make sure that you fill the car up and download caches to your phone for this one, reception was very patchy on the way here (spark).

Out and about on geo adventures with my mum, thanks for the great find

Up chasing PWGT caches in this region with Itchyfeet2020. Wow what wonderful spot, you get hit with an "old world" feel as soon as you step into the forest. A quick find, cache all tucked away again. Thanks "squirrel_nutcase" for bringing me out this way, I want to return again one day and do the track justice

That a spectacular forest to wander round - the trees are absolute huge. Talla64 and I have never been here before and enjoyed our walk through the forest and finding more caches. The birds were varied and numerous, although we couldn't always see them we could certainly hear them.
The Kākā in particular were numerous and noisy, I suspect they objected to our presence. They were a delight to watch and to hear. We found a great spot afterwards to have our picnic lunch - an enjoyable experience. Thanks so much squirrel nutcase for the interesting history of the protests. Talla64 and I are learning so much about the history of NZ while working our way through the PWGT series. And thanks for the cache - codeword noted and cache returned to its hiding spot. FP given - I just love this forest, well worth a visit.

Flowerydaze and I are on a mission around Taupo and Bay of Plenty tracking down PWGT1 series and this one was on our radar as well. What a wonderful place to have as a remnant of the past still surviving today, what trees. Thanks to the protestors of so long ago who saved this area of forest from mans search for riches from nature. With apologies to the native birds who made such a racket when we entered their territory. TFTC squirrel nutcase and bringing us to this wonderful place. FP awarded

️ was hoping to pick up this cache, but see it is back in L3 ️
Ahhh well. Another time...

We were heading up to Taupo from New Plymouth today and passed close by here on SH30, so decided to pop in and pick up a couple of caches. Great spot here, TFTC

A beautiful day for a spot of Geocaching so we headed into the Pureora Forest. It has been many years since I have been there and you forget just how beautiful a spot it is. TFTC and bringing me back here.

Yes it rains here, in Pureora We picked the wrong day lol ..but this takes nothing away from the cacheas always a great piece of history here.
Infact I have done this trail and really enjoyed revisiting and absorbing the history thanks Squirrel well done KL's log tell more if our experiences from a distance past

Back in the day (35 odd years ago) the forest in this general area used to reverberate to the sound of high performance engines in the middle of winter. The World Rally Championship, New Zealand leg used to have several stages here. We were rally marshalls and Macwatt was an official Starter. It was exciting stuff, even though it was dark and icy cold. Now it is tramping and biking that is the popular pass time.
Today we headed home from Palmerston north. The day started with sunshine. But at Waiouru it turned very nasty and wet with zero visibility and a balmy 6 degrees. Turangi turned on sunshine so we decided to detour out to find this cache. As soon as were fully committed the rain came down again. The car GPS didn't like us turning down the last road in but we weren't walking and it was ok. Headed into the trail hoping the find would be fast as I was getting very wet even with a raincoat. Lots of hint items all cleared around and trampled. Cache was soon found though. Great now to get in the dry! Thanks for bringing us here Squirrel Nutcase.

Found it

Ehara i tēnei rākau, he tērā kē.
Not that tree, that one. Kia ora for the cache.

A nice drive down from Te Kuiti to get here. Cache took a little hunting down but whenthe GPS settled, it was in the correct spot. Thanks

Ms_KR and I are on a wee break to find some of the Northern PW GeoTour caches. Today we cruiised Around the Waikato. A lovely day for driving and caching.

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

It was a long drive from Turangi to here this morning - the good thing is that meant it was light by the time we got here. Found the nicely tucked away cache in this lovely area. TFTC # 17,073

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. This is our first cache of the day as we make our way back towards Auckland. Nice area, I hope I can come back here one day to explore more. Thanks for bringing us here squirrel nutcase

#11229

i was with cache owner on placement of this cache
enjoyed the visit here that day.
so thought i better log this one
thanks for the history lesson
tftc

Catches found with daughter, Itchyfeet2020.

Nice easy find thank you. Special trip out to this area for this cache and spending time in the forest with family. Just started to drizzle as we returned to the car. Absolutely love this type of old forest with so much moss and ferns and spectacular trees, so glad it was saved. Thanks for the cache and giving us a reason to come out here today.

Up from Dunedin on a roadie from Auckland to Christchurch to get a good number of North Island PWGT caches and some others.
Easy find here. I hope to walk the Te Araroa one day but couldn’t wait till then to sign this one off! Tftc

Wandering around in King's Country.
Very quiet here at present.
TFTC

AliGle and I were on our way back to Auckland from Taupo and decided to focus on some of the PWGT1 caches on our way back, which involved taking some of the much more scenic and windy backroads... a nice day for it though. A bit of Deja vu here, as we were at this spot 2 years ago when riding the Timber Trail. Just a short walk from the car park today and a quick find of the cache at GZ. TFTC!

On our way back from Taupo to Auckland today with Vistra. Our goal for today was to grab of the PWGT1 caches on the way. A great day for it, taking the beautiful scenic back roads as we wound our way home. Vistra and I did the Timber Trail almost 2 years ago exactly, so it was lovely to return to the spot where where we started that amazing adventure. TFTC

A nice easy find a short distance along the Timber Trail. The cache was a little damp inside - managed to get some water out. On previous occasions we have biked, tramped and camped in this Forest Park. TFTC.
+ a marble, - nothing.

We are on a whirlwind tour of the lower North Island in pursuit of the PWGT caches. We are delighted to say that we finished section rua last night and today we need to get back to Wellington ready to cross on the ferry.
We decided to come and do this one in the tahi series as that put us on the other side of the lake, a road neither of us had driven down before. We will have to plan another trip to finish the tahi section of the tour, maybe we will tie it in with the mega that will hopefully happen later in the year.
There were a few cars around and one family went past on their bikes, but other than that this was a lovely peaceful area.
We made our way to gz and gk went to find the cache. The phone took a while to settle but it did not take too long and gk had the cache in hand. It must have been left open at some stage as it was quite wet inside. The log is dry and totally useable. He dried the container as best as he could and then he left it upside down to try to help it stay dry.
Thanks for bringing us here, one day we shall return with our bikes and do some more exploring.
Thank you for all of the effort and commitment you are putting in to make this tour a success

Quick find after a nice walk around the totara walk with the family. Much easier than trying to do the nearby earthcache! Tftc

Have had an interesting Long drive out these ways today. Some lovely countryside of which I have never been before. Lovely forest but late so no time for a walk today nice quick find and siign thx. will have to make a point of comming back at some stage.

I had to drive all the way out to here from Taupo as that was where I had parked my snail shell for a few nights. Driving along Poihipi Rd brought back some memories as I used to drive along part of it 50 years ago when it was a gravel road.

Cheers for the cache.

Gps took a while to settle so got a little damp looking in the wrong place but soon found the right place. Lovely carving.

In Pureora for an event celebrating 2000 pairs of Kokako, so I had hoped to grab a few caches while in the area.

Came here with a group of people to do the Totara walk, managed to get here first before the group turned up and got the find without any problems. Looking forward to finding more of this series.

Our first find of the day after a long drive from Auckland on a PWGT mission.
There were a few people in the carpark, mostly cyclists about to head off, so we waited for them to depart before heading to the track ourselves.
One muggle was sitting nearby and seemed to be waiting for someone so watched us enter the forest.
We made the very short walk to the cache and loved the feel of the forest so will have to come back someday.
Once at GZ we made a nice quick find and noted the code word.
The muggle who had seen us enter saw us depart and must have wondered what on earth we were doing entering the forest for just a few minutes.
Thanks squirrel nutcase for bringing us to this lovely place and for the interesting history. So sad that our forests are being diminished.
Our 29th stop on the Pokai Whenua Geotour and our 27th on PWGT1

We are spending this week on holiday in Taupo, and taking the opportunity to find as many of the PW GeoTour caches in the area as we can. Today we travelled to the Pureora Forest to find this one. We last visited this Forest in 2010, so it was nice to return. No problems with the find, and we made sure to take note of the codeword. Adding a Favourite point, thanks.

Two of the kids and I came over to grab this tour cache this afternoon only had an hour before we needed to head back so only got a couple of other nearby caches while we were here. Cache had quite a bit of water in container which we tipped out log book ok in bag.Code word noted and returned in sealed bag.
Tftc

A night away to grab some more of these geotour caches and learn more about the history of New Zealand
The rain is just about to start and thankfully this is my last cache to grab, thankfully saw no one until I walked out and a couple were reading a sign. Thanks for all the hard work putting the caches together.

Tagged along with ABCDF4 on a mini road trip, picked up a travel bug, a long way from home but worth it for the bush.

WoW this one is our 6,000 Find
Had to go a few Kms to get something special
We decided to go & get one of the PWGT1 of Squirrel Nutcase as we often go out caching with him.Looks like a great trail which we had more time
So a thank you to the CO

With rebel98 on a weekend of PWGT fun

In is the afternoon, and I guess too late in the day for bikers, just a couple of muggles having a walk.

Following the phone, we were soon at GZ, and I quickly spotted the cache. Love this size container (thankful it is not a bison/micro in the bush!)

When we were walking out birds were screeching, having a big conversation up in the canopy. Could not see them, but they were a very noisy bunch of birds, calling out and over each other. Recording their calls, so that we could listen later to figure out who they were.

As we got back into the car, rebel could see them flying off, got a picture of 5 birds, moved on by the muggles that had just finished their loop walk.

Now home visited the DOC website that has recordings of different NZ birds, and it sounds like we were listening to some North Island Kākā

https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/conservation/native-animals/birds/bird-song/north-island-kaka.mp3

Amazing location, full of history, thanks again squirrel nutcase for the hide. Loved reading about the efforts to protect the forest. And like them, today people still have to protest to save the trees from felling, by climbing up and setting up home in the canopy!

Nice walk on trail rftc.

On the road again learning about the history of our country. Thanks to all of the cachers involved in setting up the Geotour.
After a few days exploring the southern half of the North Island we are now a little closer to home but expect to visit some previously unexplored territory.
Although we have been up this road before, we decided to take both geomobiles and hope for a good turning space near GZ but unfortunately there was none.
Parked up safely and had a pleasant walk to GZ and no problem with the find. Met some campers on the walk who knew all about geocaching. Short walk back to our parking spot then a quick unhitch and turn around to get back on the road TFTC.

The last time I was here I was heading off to do half of the timber trail.
It was much easier going today although I was mindful of biking muggles whizzing past at any moment, however (probably largely due to the wet day) we didn't see anyone.
The GPS was flicking around under the tree cover, so it took a while to pin point GZ but the cache was quickly spotted once in the right area.
Thanks for putting this here for us to find, and for contributing to the new geo tour.

Our last day of 4 to collect all the PWGT series south of Auckland down to Lake Wairarapa. Today, I’m with FMZ in his 4WD and it’s been quite the mission so far.

Gradually heading north now, back home to Auckland. Me and FMZ have driven up from Lake Taupo and headed west thru the forest, this has been an awesome trip. No sun anywhere, fog/mist galore, we have stopped several times to admire the fantastic trees and get film and fotos. I’m so glad we still have an actual forest here and it hasn’t been cut down in haste. Once it’s gone there is no going back. We passed several groups of cyclists which we carefully navigated past.

Got thru the other side, go left, park up. We walked in, it’s not raining at the moment, so no need for raincoats. I found the cache in the first place I looked and signed us in and off course got the code. Came back out, there is a large green paddock across the metal road, that would make an excellent place to camp, another day I suppose. The cache page shows 2 dudes cutting down a tree. Try cutting down a tree that is 10 times wider, and do that manually with a hand saw blade that’s not powered. That’s how the Kauri were devastated. If I was a protester in the early 1800’s I would have told the loggers not to cut down the huge Kauri in the Coromandel that were MUCH larger than Tane Mahuta. So sad.

Day five of a five day North Island Pokai Whenua GeoTour expedition collecting all the geotour caches for PWGT Tahi and PWGT Rua. 3550km travelled over 5 days, 70 geotour caches found. Today we travelled from Turangi to Auckland via the Waikato. Our group today consisted of Gorby, boneybruce and myself.

Heading north towards home, came through the forest from the Lake Taupo western road, which was an enjoyable drive through a misty mystical forest. Went past a few cyclists on the way through. Easy find once at GZ. TFTC!!!

Out for a few days away tftc

Really nice out here in the native forest - feels like you're truly isolated. TFTC

**12,833**
PWGT #49 (for us)
Arrived at the carpark and tried to remember the last time we were here. There were only two cars in the carpark and not a muggle in sight. Hunted around a couple of hint items until the correct one was discovered. Again a nicely concealed, good sized cache container, which was pleasing to see. This was the last Tahi series cache for us and it was a relief when it was found. One area down and five to go. The rest won’t get done as quickly as this section but we are already working on Rua, whilst trying to work out how we can manage a trip to the South Island. We have really appreciated the effort that all the cache owners and coordinators have gone to, to make this tour something extra special for all those willing to attempt it. TFTC

Found with JutyBug on our way home. Cool and quiet in the bush, and rather a lot of head high spiders' webs, too. Thanks for putting out these caches.

Loving this new Geo Tour. Loving all the fabulous containers. Many Thanks to all COs for time and effort put into these. Much On a spur of the moment roadie with fellow cacher Philip.Perry Left early this morning and have to be back in time for night shift. Fab placement.

These Pokai Whenua caches are certainly well spread out - suffice to say it was quite an early morning... Luckily I had McJandals to keep me company for most of the day venturing through rural Waikato.

This Trad was found quickly and without fuss. GZ was straight forward and we've left the TB there for some other (more responsible) geocachers. One thing I can say is the CO's have lifted the bar on this tour - some much better locations, hides and containers. I'd always wondered where the start of the Timber Trail was - but there's still not enough geocaches in there to make me want to do it

Cheers Squirrel Nutcase - congrats on being part of the Pokai Whenua team and well done on this cache

On the way back from Taupo so did the little detour for this one dropped a TB. made for a nice spot to cool off thanks for the placement TFTC

A fun wee drive out here and the cache was soon found safe and dry. TFTC

Quick find and nice to be in the Bush. Handy hint helped me. Thank you team for the tour

I've always enjoyed the drive coming out here. A quick find, then off to the next! TFTC squirrel nutcase, #2386

Published

Enabling these GeoTour caches

Left a traveller here...

Staying the night so took the opportunity after dinner to get a cache and it was my first ever FTF also took the travel bug