Oruamo Obfuscation (Auckland) Birkdale, North Island, New Zealand
By Navigull ~;~ on 29-Jun-03. Waypoint GCGC3A

Oruamo Obfusction Stage 3 container found by Kiwiscot whilst scouting out a site for a new hide. All in excellent shape. Log book in great shape. A little slice of geocaching history. Container will be re-used in our new hide.

Damn! A cache I really wanted to find. Took some effort to get to the final, which wasn't there at the time. Had a quick look the other night while in the general area, but had another cache on my mind so vowed to come back during the day to search again for the final.

Archived as requested to free up area.
Recent searchers have damaged one waypoint and traffic is almost zero. So not worth repairing I guess

After nearly giving up searching for WP1, we 'uncovered' it by digging around the possible gz. Off to WP2 and we were stumped, GPS was all over the place and as it was a long time since it was found we assumed it was possibly buried under all the leaf litter. Spent about 20mins searching, managed to get dog-poo on my shoe so left scratching our heads and with the horrible stench of doggy-do!!

Found stage 1

To those stalwart searchers who recently got to the final position and reported the cache missing..... I am sorry. The final container with log book was missing but has now been replaced.

Note: The obvious "hide' at the final position originally held a dummy to keep searchers guessing but hopeful in line with the cache's theme. The dummy is no longer there but if you see a likely looking hiding place then your likely getting close but need to search for a less obvious but close by hiding place.

Decided to have a go at this multi today and called up 10cc to see if he'd like to join me for the adventure. Met up with him and 10cc juniors at the first WP, which we found after not too long a search. This gave us the coords for WP2, so off we headed in that direction. This is where we got unstuck first, or more to the point, the WP as best we could tell, was stuck and we couldn't get it unstuck. With some guidance from a previous finder we managed to get a bit further and finally arrived at the final location. We hunted high and low but could not come up with a cache so we drafted our previous finding helper to give us a push in the right direction, however this seemed to confirm to us that we had indeed searched the exact spot where the cache was, and it was not there anymore. So no find for us today. Thanks anyway for the fun - in all my years of living in Auckland, I don't think I had been to that spot.

What FMZ said - we had a great walk in any case....

We had been pondering what to have as our 3000th find and as we had been putting this one off for so long we thought it would be a good challenge. We arrived at the first coords and the WP was spotted by eagle eyes ROS and this gave us a confidence boost that this was going to be done and dusted in no time. On we went to the second port of call where we must have spent at least an hour looking in all the wrong places before we started rechecking the area again and found something of interest. WP 3 was another quick find and then on towards the final. We worked out what we thought was the right area for the final but after missreading the clue we were looking in all the wrong places and then left the area in search of more of these types of trees. After about an hour of fruitless searching we used the PAF option and embarrassingly we discovered the object of our search was within few meters of where we had first looked and beside where we were now sitting . All up we spent about 3 hours completing a well placed multi and discovered some more great North Shore walkways. Thanks for the fun, the well placed hides and an enjoyable 3000th find T4TC.

TB Visit

Finally a yellow smilie! Cache #20

We couldn't have done this without the help of others so thanks, you know who you are. I nicknamed this Oruamo of Frustration however dont be put off we can see how some can do this on 1 or two visits in under 3-4 hours but this did take us 20+ hours and 10+ visits...lost count. (well we are 'newbies')

Thanks navigull for a great multi.
SL
+man1badge
-frog

WP3 has been found...at last ...will try for the final before muggle season starts.

Have WP's 1 & 2

Today offically means WP 3 is still to be found after 3 attempts but know its there as found last week by team Welsh. Will try again ...if not found shortly will attempt other caches to gain experience before looking again for this one. Were no "Greenies" but found too much rubbish on this walk after the great efforts by some to make this area what it is so we've taken a bag of rubbish out for each trip so a lot has been picked up. Thats our excuse for not finding WP3!

Journey completed. Started this one some time ago and discovered that WP1 had gone AWOL. Found once replaced and then onto WP2, had a pretty good idea where it was and confirmed this with PAF but had to bring the big guns (Roy) in to retrieve the co-ords. WP3 fell very quickly along with numerous killer pine cones on the way to the waypoint. Once all the information was in hand the final cache site was obtained and log duly signed. Found a few other finders along the way signed WP logs but not the final so don't give up. Thanks for the journey and another well put together multi.

Found WP1 two wks ago (10 mins) went on to WP 2 searched for a while (thought I had it) went back the following week this time no luck again, went again the following day...still no luck. Finally today have found WP2 thanks to help by Navigull (I actually had it on the first day should have trusted my instinct!!!) Looking forward to stage 3 and HOPEFULLY the final. Must thank Ray for the adventure so far and the quick response to my plea for help!

Cherrs Navigull

Maintenance check shows waypoint 1 has gone AWOL again.
It appears the Friends of Shepherds Park have been weeding in the general area.

Archived by mistake.

Waypoint 1 reinstated.

Found all 3 waypoints last weekend, but the high tide in the middle of a hot sunny day attracted so many muggles to the Final area that a thorough search was impossible. Returned today at a time when few people were around, and we were able to search unimpeded. After coming up empty-handed in the first places we tried, we extended the search a little and found the dummy cache. This gave us hopes that we were in the right place, and sure enough, the real cache was found a few minutes later. An interesting and challenging multi, and a great way to celebrate our 1600th find . Many thanks Navigull.

# 1600

Thanks Navigull for getting WP1 back up and running. Even knowing it was definitely there now it took quite some finding. Waypoint 2 was much easier. Inspected one item carefully, before turning around and spotting the hide. Nicely done! Waypoint 3 took us quite a while, as the GPS insisted the hide was in an object a few metres away from where we eventually found it. We took note of the instructions and headed for the pointer to the final cache position. Got to the pointer, and realised it was not going to be easy to search, on this sunny Sunday afternoon. This is a popular spot! Managed to have a bit of a look at some possible hiding spots, but didn't turn up anything, and it was getting late for lunch. Decided to return sometime for an early morning look. Thanks for the fun so far!

Stage 1 replaced (no longer has a logbook)
Stage 2 and 3 checked.
Final will be checked in a day or two.

It seems I need to replace stage 1.
I will sort it out in a few days.

Checked out each waypoint today and all are OK.

Took the oportunity to swap in a padlock and swap out the "Navigull key ring".

Yee Ha. At long last. In fact now that we've found it, I can't really understand what our problem was.
Thanks for the Obfuscation truely delighted to cross this one off the list. Also enjoyed a trip down memory lane, as used to play and swim here as a child.
In: Navigull Key Ring Out: Nil. SL. TFTC.

YAY!!
Cache number 1000!!!!
Finally got this cache. It was probably one of the most frustrating caches that we have ever done, but that just made the find at the end all the more special.
It took us a total of 4 visits, one PAF and an email to the cache owner...
We probably could have done it quicker but we tended to wait until we had a child free caching window as our 7 year old son has little patience for long hunts!
Very, very glad to have this off the 'to do' list... now on to Leonardos Legacy!
TFTC

Boy this one has been put off for ages. Looked too hard. Decided today that I would give it a go. Not expecting to complete it but at least make a start on it. Collected the required waypoints relatively quickly given the poor satellite reception and lack of hints. Off to the final and that was in hand in no time. All up probably two hours. Another well laid out multi and a pleasure to complete seeing as the last finder was over a year ago. TFTC

Well I'm glad I'm doing this one with helefant, as on WPT 2 I nearly damaged the car, wallked down some rickety steps and rickety wharf feeling like it might collapse at any moment and overall clocked up a lot of walking in vain. Fortunately after retracing our steps and getting a better fix on GPS managed to find directions to WPT 3. Phew this one really puts you through your paces. Was grateful to have a log to sign after all this effort. SL TFTC.

Back today with Joan(Darby & Joan) to find Wpnt2. No probs here, had cache in had with in a minute of deciding that we were at the co-ords (this is the bit that the time). However we were back in the car inside 20 mins. SL TFTWpnt.

After four visits had to use PAF option. Darby & Joan and myself had been looking int he right place, but hadn't delved quite deep enough, as didn't want to break anything. First ime i've found a note book in a waypoint but felt after this hunt it was very much needed. On to number 2 another day.

Back on the hunt for waypoint 2. Had to use the PAF option, but really glad we did because that is one very, very impressive hide. It needed a little persuasion to give up its secret too!
Waypoint 3 then fell very quickly in comparison.
Felt we were on a roll and headed towards the final, but... we must have made the same error as Yugeo4 because we were very definitely not in the right place.
The need for food was calling so we decided to give up the hunt for the night.
After a bit of thought, we think we know where we should be, so we will be back in the near future!

Have had this one in the file for sometime. Took Helefant with me deciding two heads were better than one. Alas sweat, cuts to hands and legs have us completely Obfuscated!! Notice looking at logs that it has been some time since anyone has logged a find. Can owner confirm that wpt 1 is actually there? Felt we were going to damage plants if we started digging!! Which didn't seem quite the right thing to do in our native parks. Heeelp..... Will keep an eye on this one and try again on a definite cooler day.

Ok... well we'd found wpt 1 quite a while ago, but this was the first time we'd had a chance to have a go at the 2nd. Searched and searched for ages, but were being eaten alive by mozzies so gave up. We'll be back though. I hate to be beaten!

(1215)
Finally found it on our fourth visit. The hints gained at WP3 had us in the wrong area for way too long. We must know every square metre within 20m of the spot where our interpretation of the hints indicated– however, still no find.

Used up another PAF lifeline (thanks Gary) and realised our error, no wonder we couldn’t find it. Our GZ was 50m away from the actual final. Easy peasy after all that, and in a nice hiding spot as well. Nevertheless it was another thoroughly enjoyable Navigull cache. Thanks.
TNLNSL, TFTC

(DNF)
How humbling, full caching licence has been revoked. Learner L plates on order. Worked out where GZ was easy enough, hunted for ages but couldn’t find the prize. Used the phone a friend option (thanks Glyn) and hunted some more, still no find. Will have a re-think and try again another day. TFTCSF – enjoyable and yet frustrating all at the same time, thanks.

Found all three WPs on our second visit, tricky hides indeed. Needed the assistance of the owner to retrieve the WP2 clue, as some maintenance was required. Had a quick look at GZ, but decided to try on another day, the place was infested with muggles.

15:45 This was good fun, enjoyed all the way points. The first one was the hardest because we didn't know our latin. We had to PAF on this one (thanks Zork).

Congrats to Glyn on find 300 , this is a great milestone cache to do it on.

All the other way points were pretty easy finds. We did find one dummy one, which was near the end.

After reading all the logs we surprised when we had finished it so quickly. It only took us two hours from start to finish (According my track logs). TNLN. Thanks for the cache Ray.

Logged in a TB "Nelson" for the mileage...

YAY!!!--my 300th find & the scary monster in the bag!!!What a cache to do it on!
Well done navi, this one took us 3 hrs of sweat on a almost drizzly day, up & down & along the trails. Nice hides!!
Only took one FAF to get us started,bit annoying really as we were heading in the right area too.
Dont know why so many DNF's here,but we had one & a half good cachers on the job
Found waypoint 3 a little exposed,& then the final fell easily. Took KNIFE from cache, left fridge mag.Thanks for an enjoyable event! (cache in good condition)

Probally one of the hardest puzzles ever. A few visits, but got there in the end.

TFTC!

TNLNSL

I followed Zork along to help him with this one after my PDA crapped out in Milford. This cache was at the very bottom of my 'I give up' pile so it was good to finally see how the story unfolds.
Cheers Navigull - M@

Found after 2 visits to all caches. I admite I did P A F or 2, but very glad I did it as they were all excellent hides. Dummeys still exist!!

Took Badge

Left Pirate clicker

T4TC Nav.

Whew, who said the 13th was unlucky! Finally after finding the 3 intermediate waypoints before Christmas, everything was in favour for a decent search, ie it was raining and the tide was out. Had been back once before in the rain, the tide was in, there were fishermen everywhere, their families picnicing in the rain and even people swimming, needless to say a search was out of the question.
So with the morning miserable and the chores out of the way, checked the tides, and yes perfect, so was on the way.
Got worried as I crossed the harbour bridge as it seemed to be clearing up. Arrived at GZ and not a sole in site, the rain had stopped and the sun was trying its hardest to get through.
First hidey hole looked, that familiar clunk, yes! no! its a god damn dummy cache!
A few more furtive prods here and there and within a minute the cache was in hand.
While filling in the log a couple of muggles arrived, I was well out of site so didn't worry, until I heard, "we will have our picnic over there". I prayed for a while that they weren't going to position themselves right in front of where I was hiding, but thankfully they moved further along allowing me to rehide the cache and escape.

TFTC Navigull, it certainly was a challenge, though a most enjoyable one.

A Christmas bonus! Back again with a new plan, the grandchildren keen to play on the beach and generally cover up our activities, and not hungry.

Our original new plan got revised, and woah - whats this - a strike! Wait - its not the real cache, its a dummy (well we were warned). A bit more searching by everyone and soon we had the real McCoy in hand.

Only 5 visits to sort this whole cache out, but you sort of get dedicated to solving things even if it takes months!

Thanks Navigull for your devious invention. On a par with other devious inventors who shall remain nameless!!

Yahoo progress, found the devilish wp1 in about 10minutes this time, sure I had loooked there before.
WP2 a little easier once we were in the right place.
WP3 tricky but we eventually got there.
On to the final, searched one area OK, but the next place we wanted to search had a couple with a large bottle of bourbon. It didn't look like they were going to leave for some time so we did. We will be back though after finding those micros how hard can the cache be.

WP1 was very wet, we replaced the bag and through some gel in, had to throw out the cache note, and the staple has rusted out on the logbook.

Following the sp8sm8 progress report I have done a maintenance run and checked all stages.
I have removed the stage 1 log book temporarily but a new container is in place with waterproof notices aboard.
Stages 2 and 3 look ok and the final is in place.
An interesting story on this one. I visited acouple of weeks back and found a birds nest, with eggs in situ on top of the container. I nearly made the cache unavailable until the birds had flown but alas the nest has been deserted.

Note: This does not indicate a need to climb to find the cache. It is perhaps the lowest level birds nest I have ever seen.

Alright, so with a bit of time in hand we were back to WP2 site today, having confirmed with Navigull we were in the right place. Grid searched the area for some time, made a plaintive call to Navigull for just a tiny crumb and lo and behold we had been right all along, just not quite positive enough about it. Then on to WP3, easy as.

So to the final. Muggles with beers lurching all over the place slowed progress. Reckon we had the final location sorted, but lots of searching didn't discover it.

The call of food eventually got to us as we realised a bit more specificity needs to be in place. Must have only just missed Sp8sm8 and probably Navigull as well! We will be back!

Well, we have to admit that this was our third visit, and finally found WP1, woohoo. Unfortunately the surrounding area is getting a bit in need of care. We then dashed off to WP2, but got variously muggled, bitten by mossies, and then GPSr couldn't decide where it wanted us to go. So in the end we had to (temporarily) retire to regroup. But progress has been made!!

Have visited before but was quickly put off by a constant stream of muggles. Today in the rain returned for a thorough search. Spent an hour looking for the first wp, but turned up nothing. Time to constuct another effigy I feel.

I formally record our second failure at WP1

No luck and this was our second visit. Searched every clue we could find in the immediate area.
Since this is only 743 metres from our house, we will be back.
Also, have done more research and think I might know what to look for next time.

Seeing Zorgon's note has reminded me that the dummy caches have mostly fallen victim to changes in vegetation and weeding activities. the stage ! dummy had a clue to alleviate the finders dissapointment and frustration. I have now included this clue in the hints section as the dummy has been muggled or destroyed 5 times and I have given up on replacing it.

Have always been too chicken to have a go at this one but today was the day to try. Got to WP1 at lunchtime so we found our GZ and marked out the potential search area then sat down and had lunch to contemplate things before having a hunt. Spent 25 min looking without success then decided that we had had enough and moved on to easier pickings. Might have to come back with 20 or so people and do a proper grid search like you see he cops doing on TV? The reality is that I was psyched out before even starting - must have a more postive attitude on our next visit!

7.10am. Was here yesterday afternoon but there were muggles, and we didn't want to arouse any suspicions. SO we retreated till this morning and had a early shot at it.

Found after ½ an hour looking, as it was easier to work out from a distance.

Only 4 visits to finish the whole cache, about 5 hours and a little maintenance assistance from Navigull. Only found 3 of the dummy caches, the other 2 must be hidden better than the real caches.

Glad this one has the big red tick on it now, Woooo Hoooo the first page closest from home is complete.

+ Bungy Cord.
+ 5x US1c.
- Paper Weight.

TFTC and the FUN Navigull.

Cheers M+S [:O)] (253)

5.30pm. Back again after Mr Gull had conformed the first cache was till in place. Found it after 10 minutes looking.

6.15pm. Stage 2 fell after a bit of a search as the GPSr was not getting a good lock and was pointing all over the place. Couldn't find the dummy.
LOADS of mozzies, pack you repellent if your doing this cache.!!

7.00pm. Stage three is found, those dam mozzies followed us to the stage as well, so a quick log and we were off to the final.

Had a VERY quick look. We'll be back.

Cheers M+S [:O)]

2.00pm. This one has been on the radar since we started geocaching as it's only 1.7 km's from home.
Having finally got GCHBT6 http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=ee25824e-ca89-49e1-a819-133342ebbd2c
after 9 months we thought we would try another Navigull tester.
Knew we wouldn't get a find with the first visit, in fact all we came up with was the first dummy cache after 2½ hours.
Cheers M+S [:O)]

Finally decided to have a crack at this one, its within walking distance of home so no excuse. Had Cole my cocker spaniel with me to help. Found the general spot for stage 1 but to many muggles around for a good search. I will return.

Picked up the travel bug to get it moving. Cleared out a big nasty piece of barbed wire that i got my foot tangled up in too. Aaah the perils of caching at midnight without a torch and the ruddy glow of your gps as the only illumination.

Very nice Navigull! Excellent challenge, and a great variety of hiding spots!
It was good to have St. Ouens on the team too; we met while searching for Loenardo's Legacy.

Thanks Navigull, for putting in the effort to make an interesting and challenging cache.

Success! Teamed up with RotLA we were a formidable combination. Having found stages 1 and 2 last week, we found stage 3 and final cache over last couple of days. Cache was damp but all dried out / cleaned up and rebagged now. Dropped off Percy the Penguin TB.
Lots of nice features to this cache ranging from the different microcaches; different placements and the directions to the final cache. Well done Navigull - and thanks.

Doing this cache with RotLA.
Unsuccessful attempt at stage 1 last week smartly turned around today with Stage 1 and 2 bagged. We were hot!
Had to retire due to bad light whilst looking for stage 3.

Hahaaa! Nailed it at last!

Jar too full to add TB Sedona Sunrise, so TNLNSL

Thanks for the amusement over the last year Navigull, I did consider moving to Auckland at one stage just to allow more than an hour each attempt, but perseverance paid off...and no hints either

Thanks for the cache, the coffee & chat.
HLD

Woohoo! Finally! I can't believe how long this one has been taunting me. Feels really good to be able to get it off my "nearest caches" list. Thanks Navigull!

I had to be up early this morning, but didn't need to be at work until 8:30, so I made an attempt on the final cache as I figured there would be few geomuggles about. There was nobody about apart from a couple of guys in a boat at the wharf, but they left not long after I arrived.

I found the dummy cache fairly quickly, suspecting it was the dummy before I'd even retrieved it from its hiding place as it was just too easy to find. There was another possible hiding hole but it was flooded after all of the rain we've had recently, so I wasn't about to poke around in there while I was dressed for work. If the final cache is in there, then I hope it is totally watertight.

The cache container has found and returned to its original position as of today.

The old bloke( somewhat rotund with a long white beard) whom Pappa Bear Left met is Frank Larking who is something of a legend in the area and is likely to be found in the area at any time and in any weather. As of today he is aware of the cache and its position so if he spots you hunting around do not panic. But as Bear left noted you may likely receive a bit of a lecture.

Frank is almost soley responsible for the creation of the facilities in the area round the final cache. He has put in prodigious efforts over many decades to make it what it is today.

[This entry was edited by Navigull on Monday, June 21, 2004 at 10:02:13 PM.]

Found the original!! Had to return to the area twice and on the second occasion the weather was really stormy. One of the boats moored nearby was making a terrible ghostly sound when a gust of wind hit it. A super spot for a picnic and there is sand on the beach now,thanks to the efforts of resident caretaker Frank Larking.

Left Stanley Knife
Took Butterfly Key Ring.

After talking with Caroleetess about her searching unsuccessfully 0for the final cache I checked tonight and it has been ?plundered or removed. I will endeavour to have it replaced in a few days. In the meantime stages 1 ,2,3 remain in place.

Well, that was fun!
We were thinking we'd eschew this obfuscation, but it turned out to be soooo close to where we were visiting Papa Bear's new Mamabear-In-Law, we just couldn't resist!
We had the usual frustration at WP1. We knew the likely _kind_ of hidey-hole, but there were so many opportunities within an EPE! Still, Mama Bear eventually sniffed it out (just before Papa Bear was about to send a plea for a clue to Navigull!) and we were off to WP2.
Papa Bear took one look at it and _knew_ it was the one. There's a very similar waypoint in a certain ChCh cache set by one Bear_Left team. Great minds, so they say...
WP3 was Papa Bear's favourite, even though he didn't find it. Classic camouflage!
We didn't read the clue at WP3, so we spent quite some time being puzzled (and muggled) at WP4 until we read some previous logs and went back for it. Then it made _much_ more sense! Pity that it cost us the better part of an hour, though.
We found our first decoy, then the final cache fell into Mama Bear's wet and muddy paws.
We had to wait while we heard the entire history of this lovely area from the old bloke who's fought the council for decades to reclaim and develop it. He finally left and we got the container back to its spot.
This has gone on the list of our favourite caches; well done that man Navigull!
Took: nothing but 3.5 hours!
Left: crystal dragonfly.


[This entry was edited by Bear_Left on Sunday, May 02, 2004 at 6:57:03 PM.]

[This entry was edited by Bear_Left on Sunday, May 02, 2004 at 7:00:32 PM.]

Well eight months after my first visit, I finally conquer the cache!
Went back to Stage 3, because the longitude didn't appear right yesterday. This time read the contents more thoroughly and realised that a clue was also given.
I was expecting another Navigull sneaky to end, but instead once I arrived at the waypoint, the clue was straightforward. It also accurately pinpointed the cache for me.
Found the dummy cache almost immediately. Dummy cache - what a surprise! A bit more thinking and puzzling then - much to my amazement - the real cache appeared a few minutes later.
It's been a great cache adventure. Stage 1 definitely drove me to the verge of insanity (Thanks Navigull for the clues here). And thanks for the cache too.
TNLN

From the logs, I see that I first started chasing this cache in August last year. Hmmmm... Last try was over three months ago!
Better luck today; Stage 2 fell within 10 minutes. Stage 3 took a lot longer, but I finally realised the trick and was onto it.
By Stage 4, it was twilight and the muggies were out in force. Added to which someone had got their shiny 4WD stuck, and was attracting a large crowd.
I'll be back for Stage 4.

Sneaky, sneaky Navigull But with only a couple of hours to spare, it was all on! Stages 2 & 3 fell within half an hour - No-one would have been more surprised than me (aside from the cricketers who must have been watching this figure with a 'cell phone' popping in and out of the shrubbery. Onwards with hope to the final stage - Right into a Muggle-fest!!! Bugger. A quick firkle found the compulsory decoy, but further searching would have been too risky, so I headed off to claim another nearby cache... Thanks

Woohoo! We (LRPnz and I) got stage 3 after about 90 minutes of searching. Got the coordinates of the final stage and headed off there, but we didn't understand what the directions in stage three were telling us to look for, so given the size of the potential search area involved, we decided to leave it and come back later. A bit of searching through the dictionary and on the net and I'm still none the wiser.

[Woohoo! LRPnz & I dashed in and retrieved the cache after confirming last night with Navigull that it was where I thought it was,] I just needed to use more elbow grease. [We furtively retrieved the cache, got the details for stage 3 and returned it to its hiding place, due to some children playing nearby. The approaching sunset and hungry tummies meant we didn't have time to try for stage 3. Tomorrow...]

Please no! Not again!

A late start at work today (I slept in, oops) meant a late finishing time, which meant a late start to my second attempt at stage 2. An hour of searching produced nothing. My GPS insists that it is in someone's back yard, but a check of NSCC's GIS system shows that it is not, but doesn't really help with any distinguishing landmarks in the aerial photos.

Woohoo! I finally found the stage 1 microcache after another 45 minutes of searching. I'm sure the Geneva Convention says something about this kind of cruelty. The cache contents were a little bit damp, so I aired them as best I could and put them into a zip-lock bag before returning them to the cache. Navigull, you might want to retrieve the log book for an overnight stay in your hot water cupboard.

On to the 2nd stage. After 10 minutes of wandering around the creek bed, following my GPS, it eventually settled and I found the dummy cache. Turned the GPS off after that as the tree cover made it fairly useless. Searched for another 35 minutes without luck before calling it quits because of the fading light.

Yet another hour of searching for the 1st stage by LRPnz and myself, this time in brilliant sunshine but it didn't help.

Had planned on having yet another attempt at the first stage today, but arrived at the cache area to find three teenagers making use of the picnic table, so decided to move on and attempt a different cache where we were likely to have more success anyway.

You would think I'd have learnt by now...

1ST220 and I spent another couple of hours after work looking for stage 1. After reading a couple of logs that implied that it was darkish near stage 1, I thought it might be a good idea to bring along a bright torch to help in the search, but it made no difference whatsoever

Another 2 Hrs and finally claimed the first stage - unfortunately out of time so unable to start on stg 2.
Definitely NOT recommended as a night or even low light cache Tally so far: 8 visits, 14Hours and 4800km in round trips!

Back again with 1ST220 for some more punishment, which we got in the form of finding the dummy cache for the 1st cache, but still couldn't find the actual 1st cache even after a couple more hours of searching.

Joint effort by JDHnz, LRPnz & 1ST220 on the first waypoint. We searched for 2 hours but found nothing. Looks like there has been some recent work in the area, trimming back some of the manuka and planting some kauri seedlings.

So much for my obvious talent
(JDHnz, LRPnz & 1ST220) frustrated by our inability to get a stable fix on the 1st cache waypoint. Searched and searched but to no avail, will return...

Finally found the final cache . I had just got the cache and sat down with it, then 2 families decided to come down there to have dinner. Decided i should wait till they left, after an hour of waiting [:(!] decided to come back later tonite to re-place the cache in its rightful place.
The cache was a bit damp so i dryed it out whilst it was in my care.
A great challenge Navigull.

Took: Mini mouse
Left: Snoopy

Final cache has been re-placed in its correct spot, that was when there was no mungles around.

attempted this cache with surgez and bigfatrob.

took several return visits over a week to finally get it all stages and find final cache. some where hidden very well good work navigull.

enjoyable challenge.

we left: glass paperweight
we took: mini pliers.

found with bigfatrob and dysentry. very challenging and lots of fun. many visits mean we now know the area considerably better than we did before.

Found stage 1 along with surgez after a lot of searching and getting annoyed at gps wentlooking for stage 2 but was getting late and sorta getting annoyed at finding nothing. Returned on the 16th with surgez and dysentry found a dummy at stage2 bout 2 mins b4 dysentry found the real one... went to look for stage 3 but just couldn't find anything after a long and hearty search decided to call it quits.
will get this one.
update... after a hint from navigull we found stage 3 damn right in front of our eyes!! went searching for final cache but didn't get it so we went back today and after finding a dummy got the real thing!!!!
-plyers
+paper weight

[This entry was edited by bigfatrob on Thursday, January 22, 2004 at 10:18:50 PM.]

[This entry was edited by bigfatrob on Saturday, February 07, 2004 at 3:25:03 PM.]

Had another go at stage 2. Had to stop by stage 1 as I'd accidentally deleted the waypoint.

No luck again. Any chance of another clue, Navigull ~;~?

Well... finally found Stage 1, with hints from Navigull. Found the Stage 1 cache in a position that I'd already searched thoroughly (or so I'd thought).

Located the Stage 2 position but left soon afterwards.

Another four hours of frustration. I'll crack this one if it kills me. Might be time to start taking packed lunches!

[This entry was edited by Hairy Little Dwarf on Thursday, January 08, 2004 at 10:10:33 AM.]

After getting driven off the site in August 2003(!) by geomuggies, I was curious enough to have another attempt.

Started methodically searching the likely area, but alas, nothing turned up. Without any obvious waypoints or clue, it's basically a needle in the haystack search. After a while frustration set in, and it was time to leave.

Ditto Amadanon Inc.

Found Stage 1 on my second visit - crafty camoflage! My daughter and I found the general location of the second cache but had time to find the dummy only.

Finally found stage 1.

Didn't have much time to look for stage 2, though I did look long enough to find the false clue.

Found the dummy cache. Got the clue. Had to go home to find out what it meant (though I had a good general guess, which turned out to be right).

Back for more some time soon.

Despite hints, no luck finding the first cache.

I must have been looking less that 10 cm from the cache, but no luck.

No luck yet - only had an hour to search, as it was my lunchtime (who needs food anyway?)

Since this attempt, I have talked to Tufty, who told me that I must have looked right past one of the false caches, and described what the hint consisted of. I'm fairly sure I know where it is, now (13/9/03). Going back there some time soon.

Yippee! We beat the B......!!!
Yesterday we asked for a clue to the first stage.
Returned today and after 3 hrs and much scratching of head we all the stages plus several dummies.
What a good cache really had us going.
The tide always seemed to be out and we wondered were the beach is? This is Beach Haven isn't it?
We were sure we'd found the final stage, but it turned out to be a old plastic bag full of 6mth old oysters, or was that another dummy???
Well done Navigull you really challenged us.
In Minnie Mouse out TB The Fly.

[last edit: 9/7/2003 9:20:43 PM PST]

After reading the previous logs we didn't expect to get all the way through this one today, but we were hoping to get at least to Cache #1! Found the dummy cache fairly quickly as it was spot on the coordinates, but even with that clue, an additional small hint provided by Navigull (thanks for the amazingly quick response!), and almost three hours of looking above, in, near and under everything in a 50 meter radius of the dummy cache that related to those clues, we still couldn't turn up anything. We will now spend some time pondering what we are obviously not getting in the clues and return to hunt another day. Thanks for giving us an excuse for a great afternoon out!

After spending another 2.5 hrs on separate occasions at Stage 3, I had to ask for a clue to stop me from having less hair than what I have now - and there's not a lot to spare. I finally succeeded in eventually finding it. Yippee. (Thanks Navigull).

Onto Stage 4 and then the final cache. I first thought that this was another dummy as it was quite easy to locate. I found (what I thought was) the original location first as this had the possibility of being drowned. I then moved 3m South and found a 1 litre camo'ed coloured container and was quite suspicious at first but no, it was the real cache.

Thanks, Navigull, for a certainly frustrating, dirty hands, cobwebs in hair, search for a cache. It was definitely a challenge. I'm just sorry that I had to weaken on a couple of occasions.

In: Fly T.B.
Out: Smilie Fridge Magnet.

I picked up where I left off in July and after a while found cache 2 in a fiendish spot. I had already put my hand on it several times.

Cache 3 proved a bit easier and I found the dummy quickly and knowing I was in the right area the real thing wasnt to hard.

Cache 4 was quite a treck away but when I got there I couldnt decipher the clue so im still stuck, and not even sure I had the right spot.