Poutu Perfect Picnic Possie (Central Plateau) Otukou, North Island, New Zealand
By funkymunkyzone on 06-Jan-24. Waypoint GCAJ3EP

I'm strategically knocking these Canal caches off on uncached days to complete my calendar. A beautiful day for a quick walk and jog along the bank to get to gz and find, then sign. Thanks for this series

I was heading down to Taupo to take part in the Taupo Ultramarathon, running 24km from Kinloch to Waihopai Bay on the W2K mountain bike trails. I left a couple of days earlier for some geocaching while I was in the area.I spent the night nearby in Turangi with the plan to walk the Poutu Canal loop finding the caches along there. I was looking forward to a nice, flat walk. I arrived early when the temperature was about 5 degrees but as the day progressed it warmed up considerably. The entire walk was just over 13km and completed in under 3hrs 25m. Since it was a Thursday, the only other soul I saw was a worker on an ATV.After a great start by stepping in a puddle attempting to find the first cache, my feet continued to get wetter and wetter with each passing cache as I walked through longish, wet grass to get to GZ. I carefully made my way to GZ where the cache was quickly located.

Perfect! Thanks from the Birderchens

What a pristine place for a picnic!However, it we were on a mission, and only just warming up, as we decided to jog between caches & hoping to dodge the rain as much as possible. TFTC!

No picnic for me here as the withering sandwiches in the car were more tempting, not! Stepped down, found and replaced same.The reason I brought the bike along was assuming the canal banks would be flat (they were) and that I could make good time in between finds (I did) so a good idea. I was on the trail at 0800 and all done by 1030 after a leisurely treadly ride. Thanks Chris et al for the hides and series here.I have (another) long weekend away from home starting Friday, destination is Turangi. Our work has a team-building day on Friday with Whitewater rafting in teams followed by Tokaanu hot-pools and shared lunch. It was a double banger event with half the people doing Wednesday and the remainder on Friday. As chance would have it I'd already identified this weekend as a weekend away at Turangi and booked the work bach to stay in Friday and Saturday night. That was fortunate as I drove myself up on Friday morning and stayed the weekend. I brought a work push-bike along too with the hope to cover more ground, and so it was. I found almost all of my target caches and a decent haul was made. Waking up Sunday morning to overnight rain and fog across the Desert Road left me glad I'd done most finding on Friday and Saturday. Thanks to all COs for their efforts hiding, especially Funkymunkyzone. I even bumped into another caching couple on the trails on Saturday, nice to meet you cympull and fisha1288.

Watching the trout jumping out of the water to eat bugs. very cool.A nice, quick, easy, find, grab, sign, and flee.TFTC

After an event I had these caches on the list to do did a quick measurement on distance which had me at 11.3km roughly and ended up more closers to 13km, fantastic walk with hubby and twignz even with the hot cold temps we were getting around each corner.We had some adventure bikes come through as we were making our way back, thanks for the placement and bring us here.

Today friends of mine held a geo-event in Turangi because...well just because right? I mean, who really needs a reason to host an event? So I drove up from Ohau this morning, over a very miserable looking Desert Road, in order to attend and then go caching afterwards.And now it's afterwards, and Mar1sa and I have teamed up to walk the Poutu Canal trail in order to get all the recently placed caches along it. I had come by this way just before xmas and found the 1 that had already been published at that point, but only a few days later a sudden deluge of these new caches meant I knew I'd have to come back again. Our walk started in sunshine with a bit of a chill wind, with a threat of rain. We came prepared, but in the end we were lucky not to get rained on over the 3+ hours we took to walk the 13-odd km loop. In fact I ended up regretting not having a cap with me as I came away having burnt my bonce a bit! But generally it was actually a good walk out of the prevailing breeze.No picnic for us today, but then we had no problems making the find either. Thanks for bringing us here today.

A plan was hatched to meet up with friends in Turangi for the easter break, and this trail was on today's agenda.The weather looked ok for the most part, with a possible chance of showers around midday, but we decided we were tough and we'd be fine. Well, the icy cold rain did eventuate and it turns out we were not that tough after all, as we lost all feeling in anything that wasn't rugged up warm enough. Thankfully it didn't last for too long, and we were very grateful when the sun re-emerged and we slowly thawed out.All and all it was a very enjoyable day, with a great selection of caches on a nice easy cycle trail, and with excellent company - thanks matagouri, watcache and Rosmar.All caches were signed as MR WR.Cache was found as securely nestled as described. Thanks for setting this trail up FMZ

A planned trip to Turangi for Easter with rattll and watcache to complete the Poutu Canal trail on the bikes, amongst other things. Very nice to have rosmar join us. Just prior to the trip, I'd been ill, and seriously considered pulling out, but stayed the course. Very glad that I did, because it was a great fun ride up and down the canal, despite cold rain early on. Most of the caches were easy finds, although some gave us a few minutes searching. Signed as MRWR for matagouri, rattll, watcache, and rosmar. Thanks for setting up this series, we thoroughly enjoyed it! Tftc!

Turangi was our chosen destination for Easter this year and despite the weather forecast the cycle trails and local event were on the to do list.ROS headed out with other cachers who were also staying in the NZMCA camp.Today the Rangipo trail was on the list. Quick find with bad weather on its way TFTC.

Nice spot and the sun is out again. Added some swag. TFTC

We were watching this trail as it was getting published. Tuesday was a public holiday brilliant lets go caching Fap and Gap, Squirrel Nutcase and I decided to head south. The weather was perfect overcast in the morning so not to hot. Backpack with water and snacks and we set off. All caches were found in good condition tanks for setting up the trail.

with Squirrel Nutcase and Davidson clan wanting caches on a certain day we decided Turangi was the place to go.we had no problems to locate any of the caches on this fairly new trail.TFTC

With Davidson Clan and Gap (of Fap and Gap). Tuesday has rolled around again and today is a public holiday. Every find is super important to us and counts towards us completing the All Week 400 - Challenge (GCAHJZQ)We also noticed the randomly abandoned koura bodies on the roadway - Talk about picnics! This seemed to be too widespread to be caused by humans. We suspect a bird is responsible and using the asphalt to break open the koura shells. An interesting conversation on the way to finding this hide. Thanks FMZ. TFTC.

Found on our a trip away with tmann421, heading north for a few days.Another area we have seen so many times on the way past but never realised what a great walk it was.Stopped here and did the caches at either ends and saved the rest for the return trip.Nice quick find, all in order hereSigned log tm/ww NZTFTC

Nice little trip away with woolwood9.*These caches were the main focus for us today but due to ongoing bad disability we had to leave a big section to do on the way home!* Another good cache in the series which was soon found.SL tm/ww NZ *Thank you for giving us a reason to stop and enjoy this location.*

Down staying in Trangi for a couple of days and saw this group of caches. Such a beautiful day we decided to it was worthy of a ride Thanks for bringing us here an awesome ride. TFTC

The weather wasnt good enough for us to do the Tongariro Crossing, so we decided to do this trail instead.A nice quick find here and we were on to the next one. There were lots of Koura heads and legs along the trail today. We tried to work out how they got here, but arent sure!Thanks for a great hide and great series along the canal.

Good spot

**#20,597**Reading P&P's log I recall seeing lots of crayfish body parts along the track, next time I will keep an eye out for them swimming in there, I did see a couple of trout but no Koura.Yes it would be a good pozzie for a picnic, the whole area is great, I wonder if anyone kayaks along the canal?

Published

Kept walking along the canal, spotting lots of trout and even a big live koura and watched as a trout tried to sneak up on him but the koura gave him the flick off, showing off his claws. Low water gave me a good view. Another nice spot for the cache and an FTF. Lovely and peaceful along this canal walk. Quick easy find. TFTC.