Pokaka Mill Campsite (Central Plateau) Ruapehu District, North Island, New Zealand
By rustynz on 14-Apr-22. Waypoint GC9RXCJ

Wow thats a long bumpy windy gravel road to get to the caves! 11 kms it states on the sign - when we eventually worked out which road to take - but fails to mention that it will take roughly 50 minutes to travel to these caches unless youre in a rally car! Anyway it was an interesting experience! Do not be tempted to turn left at the white sign that reads Okupata even though logic suggests that this is the way to go. It just leads to a dam and a very rough 4WD road that scrapes the sides of your vehicle! Eventually we arrived and found this cache without difficulty. TFTC

Found it!

No apples today but what a beautiful tree! We saw a giant pig on the way in, maybe he’s been eating the apples to get so big?

Cache was nice and dry and well attached

Out on my birthday weekend camping trip and doing a wee bit of caching on the way home. -7 last night had us jittering a bit this morning but nothing a big brekkie and a walk around won’t fix. Big scenic drive to finish the trip before heading back to the Manawatu

TFTC
C&J

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)… When it was suggested that we should travel over to the King Country-National Park, I was definitely keen. I intended to do a loop through here at Christmas, but my best laid plans didn’t pan out…

We almost collected a young motorcyclist on the way to this hide. The combination of hidden trails and others in the area should have been cause for caution. Lucky Gap was thinking and reactive… We found the attachment followed by the cache nearby. Gap did some repairs while I surveyed the abundant apples. Thanks rustynz. TFTC.

after nearly getting side swiped by a motor bike going to this cache as this kid appeared from no where ( think he nearly ( Sh-- himself ) the cache Gz was and easy find.
found cache layng on ground so reattached to tree.
TFTC

The sun finally came out after many days of rain. FMZ and I wanted to see the Okupata Caves today and of course had to check out nearby caches. This was the first stop. The apple tree is beautiful but somehow looked out of place. Nice and easy find. TFTC.

It would be interesting to know how old that tree is & it's origin. Seems spring is arriving nearly and some buds starting to form... TFTC!
A bit disappointed to seemingly be following a fresh tissue / handiwipe trail while caching today

Long time since we've been in here, and never as far as this, hardly recognised where we were. Today visiting with zebrafive from Oz. After going to the end of the road we returned to this cache, seeking the best entry point as the tracks were suffering a bit from rain damage. It was a grey rainy drizzly depressing day but something about this area kept calling us on, down the empty forestry roads passing a new generation of pine trees, some fallen trees, some huge trunks chopped down and a magical valley of native bush that dropped down to the Okupata Caves area. The bush always looks best in the rain and we enjoyed our slow trip in. Spotted a lichen tree that must surely be our target and sure enough, there was the cache, nicely disguised and hardly visible. Still no sign of anyone although we thought we heard a vehicle and distant voices but no sign of life until we were on our way out, passed a vehicle coming in, and while stopping for our lunch a troupe of 3 big black 4WDs came passed us. It was good to get out to the main road again! But glad we came. TFTC.

Good

My journey to this cache really began about six weeks ago when it was first published. Knowing that I had a trip up past this way just a couple of weeks after, I was hopeful that the first find honours would still be up for grabs. On the day of my trip I checked the listing and sure enough it was unfound, although there was a failed attempt due to area logging. I put my plan into action, changing schedules and rearranging bookings to allow myself time to come here, and off I went. However, when I got to National Park, I was devastated to find that I had been beaten by just a few hours. After two weeks, what are the chances. Well, better than average it would seem as a few weeks later another cache appeared and as I knew someone would be travelling past the general vicinity I sent her down here for a chance of the first find on that one, and it turns out she arrived within minutes of another (the same) geocacher.

And now another week or so later, a third cache appeared that was the reason I came here today. I was determined to finally make it here, so despite having morning plans in Wanganui and evening plans in Palmerston North, I made my midday plans around Tongariro. Once again I got to the area, checked the listing and no logs yet. I set off down the bumpy road. Its only really the first part that's bad, after about the half way point it gets a bit smoother. No problems navigating my way to the camping area and the cache was found as described.

Thanks to the CO for placing this cache.

I was in the area hoping to be the FTF for GC9RXDK Okupata Caves (Central Plateau) when I met FMZ (I was many thanks to FMZ’s kindness). As I didn’t have this cache downloaded he drove me here. This looks like a great place to camp. I found the apple tree -if this wasn’t my first visit I would have said it could have grown from lone of my apple cores as when I was younger I used to eat a lot of apples and used to heave the core in to bushes {;0}. TFTC rustynz.

Bit of a long story if you can be bothered reading it, but I enjoy the attention to detail. I came down to Ruapehu and Tongariro especially for another walk to do the Tongariro Crossing. One thing led to another, and I never completed the crossing, I had health issues but rusty my partner in crime did do it.

Anyway that was all yesterday and last night FMZ messaged me from Turangi knowing me and rusty were down this way from Auckland for 4 days, he wanted to know if I was keen for an attempt at a {FTF} upon rusty's cache today. Heck yes! It was a good opportunity to catch up with him while down this way. We had arranged to meet up at the junction of Pukehinau Rd and HW47a at 10:30am.

So after checking up on my '3000th' cache along the way, we all met up, me and rusty hopped into FMZ's 4WD sturdy vehicle and off we went to here. Very bumpy ride for sure, and yet what amazes me more is the C.O coming here in her little red Suzuki which is NOT 4WD! A brave woman I say.

Got to GZ, fotos of Bruce the Michigan mascot were taken while I attended to finding the cache, a familiar hide here from the C.O and I signed me and FMZ in. What a random place to find an apple tree, but cool though. I too would love to know what history here that planted this very well established tree.

Then we drove around, found another spot to place a cache and up in the hill nearby, we spotted something unusual, couldn't make head or tails of it, but a little research by rusty later at night revealed it was probably a place to abseil down. Couldn't immediately find a route to it today while here, so left it. Onwards now to Okupata caves for an earth cache and more adventures.

Thanks very much rusty for the cache and the company, who knew that me and FMZ would eventually ftf this together. So random, but also cool. A FP from me for the adventure.

FTF#728

Back, with Gorby and Rusty and boneybruce, who also wanted to visit a few caches/spots around the area. No such access issues today - yay! All quiet in the area today so drove in, parked by GZ and made a very quick find. So lovely and peaceful here, would be great to camp here for a bit. Joint [FTF] with Gorby and boneybruce. TFTC!!!

I needed to get out and clear my head so figured I'd cone for a drive out here. I'm sure the cache is just fine, but oh man, what an exercise in absolute frustration and a waste of time today. I was glad for big tires and big ground clearance as the road is pretty rough in places. Got all the way to 1km from the camp site and the road was blocked- no access because of logging. "Maybe try tomorrow" the guy said. I dont think so, it's too far to come.

Published