Tour de Forest (Canterbury) Spencerville, South Island, New Zealand
By BaldEd on 23-Nov-02. Waypoint GCAD85

Parts of the forest are now closed due the Christchurch Earthquake.

It has just come to my knowledge that public access to the forest park is no longer available due earthquake damage. I will re-enable the cache once public access is again available.

I started this cache a few days ago, even though the tracks are apparently closed. I couldn't find WP8 but discovered when I got home that it had been moved and I had the old coordinates. I also couldn't get to WP12 & WP13 due to a closed road. I ended up skipping WP14 as well. Today I picked up WP14 first, found a way to WP12 and then WP8 (via 'Peaceful Pond'). After working out the final co-ordinates it was a fast blast to get it. Found spot on. TFTC and exercise.

Seemed like a good day yesterday to do some riding through bottle lake. Got a little befuddled early on as found ourselves on wrong side of 6 ft fence but regrouped at TDF2 and blasted through the forest right up to TDF9. Kept going to find ourselves in some pretty familiar stick territory but headed coastward and thence back north after a swim at TDF11. Got a bit unstuck again just before TDF14 where we had to leave the wicked cambered roller coaster trail for a decidedly unkept probably disused section that didn't seem to recover its mojo. Finally at TDF16 we got totally lost. Not finding an eastward heading road we had to push through a sand track before we picked up the trail again. Last few points were collected and we sat down to calculate the final which was easily retrieved. Probably the last part of the tour could be redone to include some newer tracks, but appreciating this is an ever-changing project and the effort that goes into keeping such a large multi up and running, we were pretty happy with the way it went. Thanks for a good days riding Ed.

Due to deterioration of old site, TDF8 shifted to a new location.

Staying nearby so a great opportunity to do the tour. Very enjoyable and was able to do it with 'slick' tyres. Took me about 3 hours - I went back to try TDF3 again once it became clear how the numbers were 'fastened'. T4TC - M@

The logging barricades have been removed and it is now possible to ride the tour once more. TDF3 has been moved to a new location.

Due logging, one of the waypoints is unavailable. I will reopen the cache once the logging has been completed.

It's only taken about 2 years to get all the bits together after a few bike rides and a few walks at different times for different caches. We were finally in the area today and wandered by to pick this one up while getting the info again for another multi out here. A lot of work went into this one and it was appreciated, getting to see bits of this place that I'd never have any other reason to visit. Cache sitting pretty, in good condition. TNLN Thanks BaldEd.

Having done a 'short' Bald Ed tour this morning I thought I could knock this off my 'to-do' list today as I was in the area. As I went around the waypoints I was mindful of all the effort that goes into making these long multi's. Ended up taking 1hr 44m riding time covering 21km. A really worthwhile trip, so thank you Bald Ed.

The winds today were too fierce for fishing so decided to finished off our caches in the Bottle Lake Forest Park. A well planned multi which took me around the whole park.I had actually found many of the waypoint answers previously from doing other caches in the area but unfortunately had mislaid (lost) the answers. What the heck! I didn't do cross-trainer this morning anyway. All the waypoints easily found but wasn't 100% on the boots but it must have been ok as the final was spot on. Thanks Bald Ed. I look forward to completing your other "Tours"

Easy find in the end. Found the waypoints over a number of visits. Didn't help that I still had the old TDF9 in GPS. Once that was remedied all good. Enjoyed this one, thanks.

Found while at Spencer Park on Waitangi Weekend.

Took my bro in law and a swedish friend (both muggles) out for a ride. Was a good morning out. TFTC, TNLN. Cheers R

Enjoyed doing this today. Took my old ten-speed out. Was a bit interesting in a few places and has sparked my interest in getting a half decent mountain bike to take up a bit more riding.
TFTC.

Started this tour about a month ago when we got through about half of the waypoint. Got the rest of the waypoints and the final today. Hadn't updated the pda and therefore could not find the number at the (old) wp 9. So txt another member of the team and got the correct coords (as I now remembered it has recently moved). Also near waypoint 11 found another manmade object (also had 4 letters), which must have been the wrong manmade object (the equation didn't work out). There must be another further east? Anyway went home to sort out the final coords and back into the forest tonight. The final was an easy find. Thanks BaldEd for the cache.

A great multi cache. We biked it and It took us round all our favourite tracks in the forest!! Highly recommended if you have a few hours to kill and plenty of energy. Picked up Murphy's Paw to redistribute.

Waypoint TDF9 has been moved. A new waypoint (TDF10) has been established and all the following waypoints renumbered.

Maintenance check revealed that the TDF9 post is broken - piece with the number was left leaning against an adjacent post. TDF9 will be moved to a new location sometime in the next few days.

Four of us first set out on 19th December on bikes but had to call it a day before we located the final cache as a birthday dinner was calling. The next Friday we set out again but to could not find the cache. So we went out on Boxing day to check a few of our way point answers to make sure we had them correct and they were. Then in desperation we contacted Bald Ed and he pointed out to our embarrassment that we had made a translation error in our calculations. Wasting no more time we went out that lovely evening taking a few extras and found the cache in no time at all. Thanks for the great cache it was fantastic fun and a great ride and walk.
TNLN Note that some of the contents were wet.

I have inserted a new reference point (TDF12) to direct riders to the gravelled mountain bike track and renumbered all the following waypoints.

The foresters have been at "play" at one of the waypoints. I will investigate sometime during the next couple of days.

Another great tour and thanks Ed for it.

[This entry was edited by Cydd on Monday, November 10, 2008 at 10:58:45 PM.]

Dropped off Murphy's Paw

A great day biking the plantation after such a long spell of poor weather.I had collected all the wps months ago but figured I must have made the mistake since others had no problems.Checked the offending wps and gave up for a while.Much easier when the calculation is correct. I note the Peters and Lee tape is still there after 6 years.! Maybe add a tb tag and send them on a world tour.. Excellent cache. TFTH. TNLN

We had a great day today, the sun was shining, packed up a lunch and we were gone, I think the last time I was on a bike was in 2006 when I mountain biked in Peru, so it was pretty cool to get out and to be biking insted of walking for a bit of something different.
We found all the waypoints with no worries, finished in about 3.5 hours, another great multi cache, great fun, Thanks heaps, TNLN, Cheers.

#243 (2/4 in bottle lake sweep). Did this one in a rather weird way. Found c through to k on May 30, when also finding initial WPs of Piney Parallelogram. Thought I'd come back today to find both caches while the bike was still dirty. Found n, m then l, then went in search of Piney Parallelogram, then came back to find b then a.

At this point the problems started. Rain was threatening and the PDA was getting a few spots on it. For some reason, I had trouble understanding the question for a (I think it was just the way the text wrapped on the PDA; looking at it at home the question seemed clear). Then I got 12 for one of the digits. The logs I had with me included one from nofs, indicating that they had also come up with 12, so was reassured somewhat. Pedalled back to n to check I had that right. Hmmm. Then tried a number of alternatives to "12" (luckily I had decoded the clue while puzzling over a, and that was helpful in eliminating alternatives). Jackpot on 4th guess of value of "12".

Got home and found that the cache details had been updated to fix the "12" problem. I knew I should have copied the latest pocket query results to the PDA befoer leaving!

A great cache nonetheless; many thanks.

Accompanied Hello Mrs on several trips to Bottlelake forest finding the WPs. Once we had the correct coords it was an easy find. TFTC TNLN

Took several visits to the forest to find all the Wps. Started in 2006, had a year off noticed the listing had been updated but overlooked some crutial info which had me scatching my head. That sorted the final coords put me out at sea. Oh dear what is wrong now. Another email to the owner and the missing e was found. After all that the cache was easy to find on the next trip. all round. Thanks BaldEd for the challenge to get on my bike! TNLN

Fixed the formula for X. Sorry to those that had difficulty.

The Bottle Lake Forest is a working forest and sections of it may be closed to public access from time to time for logging activities. This can involve temporary closure of some tracks and roads. However, in this recent case there was no logging in the direct vicinity of any waypoints. There are other routes can be taken to reach the waypoints.

Did this ride yesterday and it is a lovely ride, however they are doing some logging and treefelling in the area of WP8 and so I had to skirt round this area. There are no-entry signs. So I could not get to that area

On WP 9 I found what I am sure was the post. There was a short stumpy post which was just about covered with sand from the dune. I dug down all round it, but could not see any number. The other post was about 2.5 feet high, no number on that either. I checked surrounding area and my GPS was being very accurate, so I guess it has been damaged.

It may pay to archive this cache until the logging operation has been completed, then check it again.

Sorry to be the one with this news, but I did enjoy the ride round the forest. Thanks for getting me off the roads and onto the bike tracks Zoom Zoom Zoom ! LOL

Temporarily disabled due logging operations preventing entry to one or more of the waypoints.

Spending Easter at Spencer Park (cleaning loos for 4000 teenagers at Easter Camp), managed to escape for a couple of hours Saturday and Sunday to tackle the Mega. Checked out this on the way around. Great cache thanks. Found every waypoint but couldn't quite make the puzzle work - one digit ended being 12!!! A bit of "think like a cacher" and logic got me to the final on the second guess though. Thanks for an excellent ccache.

One of the waypoints needs changing.

Waypoint data fixed.

Did course with whole family on bikes. Took us about 4 hours! We had to come back for final location as I had a brain fade with BEDMAS never mind it was a fantastic multi. Cheers.
TFTC

Yeah I finally got here to get the cache,and even picked up the coin that rincewind3 had mentioned,thanks for this great cache and all the hard work you have put into making it, cheers

Did it in two stages, but then we always do make it harder on ourselves than it needs to be (D*&% sand!), all up an enjoyable ride in the forest and an easy find at the end. Was going to complete this with bo&bronnie but was in the area and just couldn't help myself!
If he's quick Bo might be able to collect the Canadian Geocoin I left, though.

We did this great tour, over three seperate days,
Going by foot, as if we were slaves.

The GPS showed us the way out, the GSP got us home.
What an adventurous way, to go for a roam.

A quick calculation and the cache was found.
Thanks for the hunt, BaldEd you astound!

Awesome
-Geocoin
+Skeleton

Shifted TDF4 to new location, amended question at TDF9 and amended the formula.

Amended question at TDF9 and amended the formula.

YAY! My 100th cache and I had to work for this one. A very good big multi. Just a couple of issues. Was a compass used while setting up this multi? At TDF4 the banded tree is on the west side of the track and the number on the west side of the tree. The tree is growing over that number too. The sign has gone from TDF9. I just used the obvious. You would have seen it a few times already.
I detoured to do Peaceful Pond and Pegasus Ponds while doing this multi.
+ Geocoin
TFTC!

Finally a sunny day. What better way than to tour de forest! Took us about 3 hours by bike at 9 year old pace. All clues remarkably easy to find. We 'tour' the forest frequently but it didn't matter really as all instructions were very good. Scrutinised closely by some muggles at one particular clue, something to do with the fine day I suspect! Cache in an excellent position, no problems at all. Thank you for the great day. No swaps, just happy to find it!!

Went back today and found the cache 15 meters or so away from where we were looking the other day (15 meters away from where our GPS Unit was pointing us). The Hint was spot on and we went straight to it, I thing we were a bit over tired the other day.
Once again thank you for a great multi-cache.

What a lot of effort you must have put in BaldEd, We had a great time, found all the objects and assembled the coordinates but could not find the cache. We also decrypted the hint and believed we had been looking in the correct area. There was a lot of trampled grass where we were looking so we hope it has not been muggled.

[This entry was edited by macgeonz on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 10:55:06 AM.]

what a way to try out my new bike. very much enjoyed this one. had trouble with one of the waypoint but that was all down to me (not read my gps correctly).
after answering the questions and working out the last way point the gps that wasn't working correctly HAHAHA!!! put me right on the cache. TNLNSL
cheers for a great day
seeker36

Waypoint F15, in it's original position, survived the fire but not the subsequent logging operations. It has now been re-established a short distance away.

Finally. This has been on my horizon for a few years - and we started it months ago - with a team of kids on bikes.
This time I finished it with the help of Rediguana, who had done it quite a while ago.
I got confused quite a few times by the lack of Waypoint name references in the description. It would also be nice to have the turnpoints with different names.
At the final point I sat to work out the coords - only to find that one of my digits was in fact 2 digits.
Luckily Gav remembered where it was - and led me to the general area. I'll need to check whether the formulas or I were in error. A fantastic ride - I'm absolutely knackered - after circling the forest several times doing this and 2 other caches. Mercury was even more so, and I ended up carrying him for the last few km. Lucky he's not a big fat lab! TNLN, Thanks.

The two recent forest fires, one at the northern and one at the southern end of the forest have had an effect on this tour. One waypoint (F10 = h) was completely consumed by the southern fire and all that was left was a charred post stump. It's metal number was found down the dune. Fortunately there was another object nearby ready to assume the waypoint role.

Back in action after the fires.

Enjoyed the bike ride, though I must say that ChCh residents usually travle to my part of NZ for Mountain Biking.
Thanks for the Marathon cache.
Did Peaceful Pond and Piney Parallelogram whilst doing this cache.

Maintenance visit. Cache moved approx 7m, math formulae rejigged, hint adjusted.

Thought I would have a crack at this multi. First time to Bottle Lake and it was great intro to the area. Didn't find one of the waypionts ('F' I think) but my guestimation of the final cache site was spot on.
Thanks for putting the effort in for this one.

Cheers Kiwitastic.

Great bike ride around the forest, just Stephen as Liz is in Wellington for the weekend. Have sore legs now as I did Foggy Fun yesterday and now all this bike riding today, will put the feet up tomorrow. The bad weather did not arrive until a few hours after I had finished the cache so that was great. My biggest fear was that I might note a piece of data down wrong and then have to do the whole circuit over to check but no the cache was found fine and dandy. Left Silca gel & squash ball, took stringray keyring. Great cache Ed, Ridders76.

What a great multi, and what a great ride. We though we would try out out new bikes on this cache. Joanne wasn't too impressed with the track at first, being her first off-road ride, which involved falling off the bike on the first 3 downhills! - after 20km we found the cache and Joanne had several bruises. The stump at WP FO8 is really hard to find, it's all over grown with broom, had to send Cameron crawling through on his hands & knees that what kids are for! The tree at the end is not what I would call a large tree, was almost lost in the grass. Thanks again BaldEd for another great day out. Took pen, left sea shell.

[This entry was edited by metrafolk on Saturday, November 05, 2005 at 12:07:45 AM.]

Really good tour of the forest - be aware that as time passes some of the tracks are rerouted (waypoint J) and some others become very overgrown (waypoint F) - I just trusted my GPS unit and found them all - However, on the day I did it there was a digger and reconstruction happening around waypoint 18 which could result in the clue disappearing - Overall a great way to see the forest - thanks for making the effort

Well, Eddie, I finally made the rounds of the forest today, and collected all the waypoints to find the final cache - just under 2 hours. Given the huge number of people not too far away (early afternoon Sunday!!) it was great to find the final cache in so private a spot. However, its cover is looking a bit sad.
Now my bike is working, and I'm getting used to the saddle-soreness, I'll definitely be back for another round of the forest - next time NOT holding a GPS in my hand and often nearly steering off-trail with the other hand!! I'll be back.
No swaps, cheers, Grandalf.

Wow - what a mega cache. There's been some serious work behind setting this one up. This cache has been on my todo list for almost 3 years now, and today, with the help of a few others we finally bagged it. I don't think I've ever seen a multi with so many waypoints - I keyed in each of them by hand, and even managed to get none of the coords incorrect. Riding the tracks was a blast - this used to be a frequent MTB playground for me before I started living close to the port hills. There are a couple of primo jumps that launch you just at the right angle for a nice bit of air time and a smooth landing - just loving it. Didn't have a bike GPS mount, so had to suffice by stuffing the GPS in my backpack between waypoints and stop quick if I heard the arrived-at-waypoint BEEP! Waypoint f was rather hillarious - I suspect the trees in that area have grown up quite a bit since the cache was originally laid - but we found it in the end. Oh - and the object the final cache is hidden beside is not doing so good these days!
Many thanks for this mega-multi.

Started this with Oli and his cousins today, but had to cut it short to go get Liz from the Airport.
I noticed that the link to the Loc file is broken - it points to Nick's server. However, using some 'tricky' skills, I managed to find a copy on Ed's server!
Also - it would be pretty helpful to have the Waypoint numbers along with the coordinates in the cache sheet.
It's been great fun so far. We've ridden around the south part of the park quite a few times, but not gone this far north much.
We also managed to end up going the 'wrong' way on a track. Pretty scary when people think they have right-of-way...

Ist cache I've done of Bald Ed's. Are they all this much work! Great mountain bike trails though. See ya round Bald Ed as I'm based down here now - at the office with a better view than yours. Was tough leaving Nelson but that's progress for ya.
Nil trade

Enjoy the ride to the coin.

Dropped in to check on Moun10bike Geocoin and take it for a short ride in one of my favourite forests. What a fine object it is. See photos.

Updated the F8 coordinates (see EasyGPS.loc file) and question as developers have removed the track marker. Picked up Moun10Bike Geocoin TB to MTB to other caches.

G'Day BaldEd,

Your email contact through geocaching.com seems to be broken. (IS broken)
Was wanting to contact you,(& have been for 3 months)

Regards,
mtbikeroz.

Just amended the clue for "c". Foresters have recently logged the tree, but "c" has been left on the stump!

Popped in today and dropped off a Moun10Bike Geocoin that I stole from the North Island. Figured this would be a good cache to place it in Wow the frogs down by the pond were so loud today! Cheers Gav

Absolute Champion Cache! Well done on all the planning and effort for setting this one up.
Took just over 2 hours on the bike. The area that was closed for trimming is now open.
Thanks for a great cache BaldEd.
Took nothing and left nothing.

Woohoo! Finally got round to doing this one! I went out for a MTB ride with a friend today and the mission was to do this cache at last. Was a nice ride from a different direction and saw a few interesting sights on the way. Took around 3 hours with a little stop time. I admire those who did this cache on foot!! Little trouble finding the waypoints, and found the cache around 1720. No exchange made. Great cache Ed! Cheers Gav [211]

Hi adventurex. Welcome to geocaching. Good to have another Christchurch participant. I revisited the cache this afternoon (at 2pm) and it is still there. I saw where you had trampled the grass and saw the 'hole' you mentioned. Unfortunately it is at the wrong gerr. You need to read the rest of the clue carefully. As a small point of geocaching etiquette your log entry should have been made as either a "Didn't find it" or as a "Note". You only log a "Found it" entry if you have actually found it and made an entry in the small logbook which is inside the cache container. For your info, there are other caches that make use of Bottlelake Forest and the nearby areas. Cheers

Right, well I've gone back and have actually found the cache this time. I was in the right place last time, found the right tree, but my brain was in the wrong gear and I looked on the wrong side of the tree, don't ask me why I didn't check both sides, it must have been a senior moment.

Thanks again BaldEd

[^][I live near the bottle lake end of this trip and decided to do it from that end on MTB and zig zag up to the Spencerville end. All in all it went pretty well and I was really impressed by the amount of effort that you obviously put in to create this tour, good job. After biking, running, and orienteering through the forest hundreds of times it was abit of a laugh to find a "secret" course in there. I made one mistake with the answer near] geodetic survey mark [but figured out what the number should have been with a little reasoning. After that false start I found the] cabbage tree [and a good size hole at] the base [but no cache. I'm pretty sure I was in the right place and wonder if this cache has been moved. Aside from that I had a great time buzzing round the forest with a new challenge. Thanks]

[This entry was edited by adventurex on Tuesday, November 04, 2003 at 11:58:32 AM.]

Well done Sallies, and also tush&bubble . [^] You guys amaze me. I wondered whether anyone would attempt that on foot. I bike through that forest fairly frequently and it has always amazed me where I come across walkers. Christchurch must have more walkers per head of population than any other city in the country. Glad you enjoyed your two day ramble.

[last edit: 2/14/2003 12:12:59 PM PST]

We were out with Sallies for the weekend, and also did it by foot. Lots of walking and stategic planning of where to start each time. Good cache this one, I would think it would be a lot quicker on a bike, although the tracks are pretty easy to run on. We were not as quick to complete the final code, so we (Tush) found it later. Thanx Wayne

This is a great way to exercise!! We don't own bikes so we did it on foot - over two days, since we were camping in the area. It is a very long, hot walk, even when broken up into spells.
Got the clues ready for the final fling and then discovered we had missed one, so back into the forest again. After recounting the clues went to the final spot and couldn't find anything, so decided we must have one wrong, especially since the area didn't quite fit. Went back again later since it was only 350m from our tent and found it only 20m from where we had been searching. We were put off the first time because we assumed bike track at the end. Took 2 batteries and left a keyring. Thanks for a great two days. Sallies.

Great muti cache BaldEd, really enjoyed the ride . You've obviously put a lot of effort into this one which is very much appreciated. I ride out here quite often, so it was a nice change to start the ride from the Spencer end.
Swanny found this one, I was about 10m out. In our haste to find the cache, I left my exchange gift in the car , so didnt exchange anything.

Cheers BaldEd.

Yay! First equal to find the cache (a team effort with Robinson). Good to get out on the mtb. Pitty about the rain , which just got worse as the day went on. That gorse certainly holds some water too, glad Robinson went first. Thanks BaldEd for all the hard work you must have put into this cache[^].