44 Deg & below, its Tuff, I tell ya---#2 Northcote, North Island, New Zealand
By G_2 on 01-Dec-23. Waypoint GCAH086

To slippery 10 paces up

Our second to last cache going around the crater. Found a trackable too! TFTC. #77

TFTC

Out on the Shore caching with Team Welsh again today, this time concentrating on caches to the west of the motorway that neither of us have found. After having trouble locating the first cache on the walkway at the end of Exmouth Rd Mrs TW and I walked on to the next couple, while Mr KC backtracked looking for his lost sunglasses at previous cache locations.We left the track where the GPS indicated, and looked around for the hint item. Mrs TW spied it pretty quickly, and the cache was then an easy find. TFTC

I remember #1 along here so knew where to go, soon found the indicator and the cache soon after, Many thanks for the caches around the crater.

Great walk, good hide. Thx.

A handy spot to hide from the elements and appreciate the trees If youre continuing to head around the crater, take a moment to look at the pouwhiwhi/native coastal morning glory/ipomoea cairica - its hard to miss, its swamping everything about 50m from here! Quite beautiful when it flowers in April.

A very well-worn geotrail led right to it. Thanks for the cache.

I remember the original that was here , better prepared this time as I knew what to look for .That camo tape blends in very well! Lovely stroll , many thanks Photo

A little tuff, but not too tuff. Luckily it wasn't covered, so I spotted it while standing right beside it. Perfect little hiding spot. Thanks for hiding and maintaining. Tftc

I counted steps.. put bag down circled spot. SINGS I saw the sign....all snug here.

Thought this was shaping up as quite tricky to find, but it helped overshooting the mark. Spied what i needed & soon was signing the log. [TFTC]

Third find of the evening, thankfully despite its terrain rating this one wasn't too tuff, and I quickly had the cache in hand. TFTC!

Found the previous version so went to the same area looking for something of a pointer that I found last time, didnt see that but had the cache in hand relativily quickly. Had to go back to the car to drive around to the other side to pick up the last 2 caches remaining. Cant wait to be fully fit again as its a relativly easy walk but thats the way it is at the moment.

Found on our stay in AucklandTFTCHilgenerSchatzsucher

Found on our morning walk Tftc

Today we will finish the trip around the crater.First cache for today. TFTC

I remember finding another interaction of 44 below many years ago. Ruthhide didnt take too long to spot this one

Remembered looking for the previous cache here. Looked in a few likely spots until I eventually found it. Then as I was looking around, the cache name suddenly made sense. Cheers for another cache on this walk.

TFTC

Phew !Last cache of the 4 today...And it took the longest.Followed my Phone compass, which took me too far up....Headed down....and saw the hidey hole before I saw the tag!All good here... Thanks G-2 for the fun.

Teamwork with ewokMK12 who came from East Cape for a few days in Auckland. I needed 12 finds for a solstice souvenir so we picked up several caches to qualify. This one was one of them.....About the cache :I remember this location from a previous hide. Easy when the marker was spotted. TFTC!

Im sure we found this one before

Out with Jag enjoying the walk around the crater.Went up higher and came back to make the find.Thanks Glyn

After finding the new cache at the Onepoto domain, we carried on walking to find the new caches around the Tuff crater. We initially went to far into the bush and passed the hint item. Looking back down to the trail we soon spotted the hint item and soon after the cache. TFTC

Mr Coblet left the track and got a bit over enthusiastic with his paces taking larger than average steps and ending up too far up the bank.From the trail below Mrs Coblet spotted a likely hiding place a bit further down and pointed it out to Mr Coblet who slid back down.It turned out that Mrs Coblet wasn't quite right but had got the elevation correct and the cache was soon located.A lady walked past and asked Mrs Coblet if everything was okay just as Mr Coblet called out that he had found it, which looked very odd and was very bad timing. The lady was somewhat taken aback so Mrs Coblet tried to explain geocaching but she didn't seem to listen properly and made a quick retreat no doubt assuming we were up to no good but confused as to what we could possibly be doing.The log was quickly signed and the cache returned before any more muggles came along, and before the shocked muggle called the police.TFTC

I decided to take advantage of the fine weather today and go for an urban hike around Northcote, letting some eight recently published caches be my guide. I parked up in the Onepoto Domain where I started my walk. I made my way, from there, to Heath Reserve and along the Tuff Crater. After finding "S Milee 2023" I made my way along the much improved track to access this ground zero. Geocaching stop number three. I left the track and went bush as per the cache page. It took a few minutes to spot the hint item; a quick find after that. This is more like terrain 2 than terrain 1.5 I would suggest. Cheers for the cache placement!

The title of this cache became clear once I spotted the cache. I like what theyve done with this walkway, the only thing to be mindful about is your head with the number of low trunks crossing the path. TFTC

Published

Out for a weekend caching trip, didn't realise there was new caches on this trail. Thanks for the 'Happy Holidays Travelbug Tag' ! Merry Christmas TFTC

Unfortunately I woke up at 5am for no apparent reason, when I should have been still fast asleep, so organised my coffee, then sat down at the computer. Wasn't long later at 6am when a cache popped out dedicated to FMZ, righto then! So got my self sorted seeing as this cache could be my {FTF} for the month. But then a short time later, at 6:31am, 3 more caches popped out, also in the Tuff crater. So.... spoilt for choice I decided to come to this cache first, so on the 13 bus I went, then picked up the 11T at Interchange A for the city, got off at Queen St, picked up the 923 on Wellesley St that dropped me off on Exmouth Rd right next to the walkway down to the crater walk at 7:30am. Then a brisk walk to here, meanwhile off course, I had all the 4 caches on my watchlist, nothing went off getting here, so I assumed I was safe. Shot up the bank and found a very likely hidey hole, but NO cache! So looked around a bit and soon spotted another hidey hole but not as good as the first hidey hole I spotted, but that was where the cache was! So that was good enough for me, would I be first here?? YES! Blank log, so there's my ftf for the month of December sorted. Thanks G for the hide, I left all the goodies in the cache for others to explore. Now off to the next one. FTF#829 .