BBB (Canterbury) Otarama, South Island, New Zealand
By Sallies on 19-Dec-03. Waypoint GCHBZ7

Cache is fine but logbook is dried brittle paper mache. Tftc!

We jumped on the swing while dad signed this for us. Fun!

Giving this one a favourate point because of the cool swing we found. Thanks!

Great journey to finding this one. The notebook needs replacing, its damp. TFTC

This cache was our aim for the day as I need this month for my Jasmer. I enjoyed the walk around the reserve, the bush was lovely and it was great to explore a new place. I'm impressed that they provide a toilet even though it's on private land. Nice views from near the cache, even though some of the trees have grown in front of the little seat. Thanks for placing the cache here and keeping it going so long!

A quick find with angelic_kiwi. This was our aim for the day. tftc

Interesting walk around the reserve. A surprise section here on the farm! Thanks

Lovely bush walk. Most enjoyable sunny summer hike under cool canopy especially nice is the lookout seat.

This one gets an FP. Such a cool place that I would have never found otherwise.

It’s a bit of a bog and a lot of a maze. Some of the tracks get absolutely feral in places. Change of shoes back in the car is recommended!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cache is an oldie. That made the whole experience even better.

Well done. Thanks for this. I had a grand time.

Found it! Tftc

Down to Christchurch on a trip and out caching today with family. Great to pick this one up for my Jasmer Challenge. A cool little walk in the bush, TFTC

We decided on a few days in Canterbury caching and visiting family.
This was one of several caches we found as we cached our way eastwards.
Thank you Sallies.

We're working our way East to catch up with family and finding caches as we go. We're getting used again to getting prodded and stabbed by the hedges. It was nice to be in bush. Thank you for the cache.

After caching between Christchurch and Springfield yesterday, today, I started caching in and around Springfield and thenon my way back to Christchurch. First off, I headed for Kowai Bush to find the caches around here. This was the first cache I found. A nice walk up to the cache site, although quite slippery on the way down. Cache found after a search of the liekly hiding places. Thanks for keeping this one alive for so long. TFTC, Biggles.

It was a bit wet to walk up to this cache but it was worth it. Mr eldest managed to find it himself and was very proud of it. TFTC

Exploring a bit of Springfield and the surrounding countryside today, finding a cache or two along the way. A nice reserve. took a couple of wrong turns, but once I got there the cache was a nice quick find. TFTC

Must have been a major storm here in 2021 and so much work to reopen the tracks. No good for a pushchair but good foot access now. Thanks Sallies.

After spending the winter woofing on the west coast and the last 3 months in greymouth it's time to head off and start travelling again but not before a couple of search and rescue events in my old stomping ground...
After a weather bomb put pay to my goat pass trip and plan b and c , made the call to stay in oxford for a couple of nights giving me time to grab a few bonus caches...
Rain stopped as I reached porters but the wind is howling through the trees...
More like pine cones for cover no rocks..spotted it peaking through..tftc

Log book a little bit soggy! Had to navigate a few fallen trees to get here. Nice wee spot TFTC!

Targeted this old cache whilst visiting Christchurch. Great to see lots of fresh undergrowth in the reserve, must be some serious pest control being carried out. And there’s a swing at the end for the kid Quick find with elimination search, thanks Sallies!

Had to look through old finds to figure it out. The best one was in plain view and it was!
Thanks

Nice easy find on a lovely day out with Dani3104!

Not able to get to this one today due to fallen trees from the recent wind storm. Eventually lost the track altogether and decided to retreat. Will try again sometime.

In light of the recent log we suggest that you enter the area by going past the main entrance, driving further up the hill using the gz coordinates to decide when to stop. It is a short walk through the fence to get to the cache!

Main track was too damaged with lots of fallen trees from wind or a storm to find the track. Might be possible to go to the top of the road and on a farm track to the right (shown on map at car park).

Just arrived in springfield so decided to check out this reserve. Very nice. Tftc

A lovely detour with magnificent views. A great walk for children as there is a safe rope swing attached to a grand old oak tree. Easily found & quickly signed before others arrived

On a Geotour trip for the week.
All GT caches found for the day. Now to get the numbers ticking over before checking in to the Springfield motel.
A nice walk and a lovely view out over the plains. Thanks for bringing me here. This type of little adventure to an out of the way place is how I got hooked on caching in the first place. TFTC

Found on a nice drive in the area. Enjoying the caches

Wanted to see at least a tiny bit of Beech forest while in the area, and a bonus being a few caches about. Did the walk with the family, and really enjoyed the walk, and being such a short loop the kids managed the walk without any troubles.
Decided to follow the main track as I hadn't read the description before heading off. Once the loop was completed I left the family at the start of the track and headed back up the hill. Didn't take long at all to get to GZ and find the cache. Thanks for the hide.

Lovely walk. Thanks.

Lovely wee walk and the smell from the beech forest
Would be nice if we could bottle that.
Easy find

Very helpful instructions otherwise I would not have know where to look!

Lovely walk with the kids, very excited to find treasure as well as the nearby ropeswing. Can't believe it's been here 15yr! Notepad is damp but intact

Tricky little brighter, it took a while but eventually I noticed a curious looking little spot lying in plain site.

Bit slippery underfoot but the views and birds were worth it.

Thoroughly enjoyed my walk along this beech forest track. Finding this elusive one took some time with us searching all over the place. It was well tucked in but finally managed to track it down. Cheers .

Friday today, we explored from Rangiora to Lake Lyndon

Its Queens Birthday weekend and The Seagnoid, Zara and I are heading out of town for a long weekend to Arthurs Pass, via Kaikoura. Had a fantastic weekend, seeing lots of new places, limestone formations, amazing views, awesome beech forest walks, but getting nowhere fast. Bloody cold at times with -3deg frosts but thankfully the snow stayed on the top of the highest mountains.. Enjoyed driving back via Lake Brunner, Murchison. An awesome few days exploring.

I am quite impressed at how old this cache is - well, that and that it is still here in it's original container. But it sure took a while to find! it was well tucked in and well covered. Beautiful bit of bush, I really enjoyed the walk here. This reserve is not marked on the map so will add it in a few days, once I get the majority of this logging out of the way. Gets a fav.

Taybeedragon and I are on a five day extended Queen's Birthday weekend. Happy birthday marm! The plan was to cache the Arthur's Pass route, from Rangiora to Lake Buller. You would think four days was enough to do the 211 kilometers, but we didn't even manage the 130 to Arthur's Pass village before we had to pull the pin Monday lunchtime for the drive back to Blenheim. But on the way we saw some amazing views, strange geology, weird amounts of ice in the puddles, ice on the inside of our windscreen - it was that cold. Caves, wonderful beech forests, rather a lot of bridge barriers and even a cache or few. And there was blisters, sliding down icy grassy hills on our bums (what fun!) and rather a lot of walking. Many thanks to all the cache owners that made this such an amazing trip.

A worthy older cache to fill a spot on the grid thank you. The description was helpful and made the routefinding much easier.

Super quick find one we actually found the lookout lol. Nice views, but not the river view I had hoped for.

This was the first cache we found After a several year break from geocaching to have a couple more budding geocachers. Team luckystreaks is back! The oldest kiddo found this one and enjoyed making a swap. Thanks for the adventure. What a nice walk

Great hide with an awesome walk

This is a classic neat older type hide. A bit of everything - a walk amongst the beeches, bird song, quite a large spider and a slug at home in the cache, a destination and a bit of an adventure to get there. I loved it so an instant favourite. Followed the directions in and took an alternative route back. TFTC # 13,872

Heading out with 8Man and TG for a Mad Monday Mission. Tidying up the area. Took a bit to locate but we got there in the end. Took a shortcut out.

Thanks for the cache Sallies.
#6020

#3,502: Rooty Smiley!
Out for a nice MMM with Team_Gaters and TheWanglers.
We had a nice walk through the bush up to this one. Took a wee while to find the prize, but I was able to dig it up after some time. Lots of poo around too.
SL/TFTC!!

Out for a Boxing Day walk with visitors from the UK. This cache was a quick find. TFTC.

Look by the middle pine tree TFTC

Took a bit of digging. Read the description before entering the bush.

Rustynz, Rebel98 and myself Gorby are Westies from Auckland. We regularly head away on cheap flights to here and there, this time we have flown to Christchurch for another 3 day adventure of fun and caching. This time it’s all about the old caches.

This cache was very important to medue to it's age for the Jasmer challenge. There are only a few oif this month and year and if I didn't get this one today I knew I would have to fly to Nelson to get another one.

I had not mentioned this cache to rusty prior to our trip to ChCh, there were so many others in the hotseat and I thought the remoteness of this one would preclude it from our list. But things started to shape up and since we were driving hundreds of km's anyway what's another 100km or so! So with enthusiasm on rusty's part and mine for sure we came here, it started to rain a little clambering up the steep muddy pathway after getting over the gate. Not sure if this was the recommended route, but it was the one that looked good to us.

Got to GZ and the search was ON! As rusty has pointed out, we have no idea how long we spent here, we knew though it was a long time. We searched everything, all the trees in the end... but one last lucky desperate search by moi and I by chance found something, BOY what an effort to get the cache out. But rusty was determined and we got it out, we quickly signed in and replaced it same place, but with more cover and not so tight for the next visitor.

With a group of Westies (rustynz, rebel98 and gorby) on a long weekend of caching fun

We parked at the end of the road. Then walked up to a gate that we had to climb over. Then straight up. I suspect we missed the bush walk, as the track was a little steep (and slippery), but open, and once at the top we turned right following a wide path to GZ. It did not take us long to get searching, but what an epic search it was.

Did not know how long it took, but tried a PAF option, which was helpful in that it was an easy find. And with that gorby called out he had found the cache. Buried, stuck in its hiding place. With some serious digging, pulling, levering, wiggling and twisting, the cache eventually was released from the grasp of the tree roots which had grown around the cache since the last finder.

We were very excited and happy to find this one. We had about 5 minutes of light rain, enough to wet the umbrella. Our only rain this weekend whilst caching. A train did go past while we searched, but due to the trees that have grown, could not see anything.

A cool little adventure. Photos taken, and cache hidden back in its hiding place, with some rocks at the door and natural camo. Thanks Sallies for the hide and bringing us here.

Log later

Thanks!

Camping at the gliding club site for the long weekend but the weather is not great for flying. Decided to take the dog and go looking for caches instead. A lovely little walk through a nice little spot of bush. Sadly some muggles were following me up the hill. I think they thought I was looking for somewhere to go toilet, I'm not sure. They were giving me funny looks. Pretended I was helping the dog find rabbits. They eventually left and i could search properly. I needed every hint. Ground Zero looks completely natural. Found it more by luck than anything else.

Awesome spot so close to Christchurch but my first time visiting. Took a little while to find the cache but stumbled upon it in the end.

27/05/2017 9:50:00 AM
8009
This had been a day in the planning, and a day to look forward to for quite a while!! I took the day off motherhood, left the baby girl with daddy, and headed out to go find some caches - heaps & heaps of caches! - with my mum. Trying to get closer to knocking out as many of those within 80km of home as possible. Not too bad, as I think we found 51 in the end! Well, 51 for me, and a few less for mum. Plus the weather mostly held out!

So nice to find this piece of history! I didn't even realise that this was such an old cache! Spent much longer looking than we really should have needed to!!

TFTC!!

Beautiful forest. Fabulous views. The quietness and stillness are just the tonic my soul needed today. Thank you. Oh and trees are just magical, I just wanted to stay here all day. Thank you very much.

A good place to hide it as it is very dry plus its off the beaten track.

16:09
FITW ambertron9000
Was around Woodstock today, and as I had set my eyes upon this cache earlier for it is a filler for one of my "Found by Hidden Month" cells, thought that I should go and get it while I'm there.
So, on the way back to ChCh, we made a little detour to take this cache.
Detour turned out to be longer than expected. Cache was only 3km form the place where we were as the bird flies. BUT, there's no bridge over Waimakariri at the end of Woodstock road... So, the total driving distance to the cache turned out to be 34km [8][8][8]

Anyway, got it, and now I have one more month crossed off the list!

The "Scenic Reserve" at Kowai Bush seems to be completely forgotten by both caretakers and visitors but it's a nice place and walk, quite overgrown though. And so much sheep poop! There is also a decomposing sheep carcass not far from the cache site.

But other than that, great wee walk, great views, magnificent pine trees!

Thanks for the cache!
#4636

What a wee treasure - the bush, the views. Get stuff

#13118. We enjoyed our walk through the bush (the track has been nicely divert around a number of fallen trees). We gave the sheep as wide a berth as possible, and once we started looking around the correct tree the cache was soon located. TFTC.

After a couple of weeks of grey and often drizzly weather, it was great to finally see the sun again, so StreetWalker and I decided to have a drive to Kowai Bush to find a few caches.
Neither SW nor I ahd been to Kowai Bush before, but a mini trail of some newish caches were all the incentive we needed. We appreciated the clear instructions of what tracks etc we need to take to get us to GZ.
Great viewpoint here, though we would have preferred it without the dead sheep near GZ [xx(]. Luckily it was past the pongy stage. Thanks for bringing me here and great to find another old cache - still going strong after nearly 13 years! TFTC.

Definitely good views

In the area on a mad Tuesday nights mission with KarmaReprint tracking down some eggy FTFs.
Made an egg FTF down near the start of the track and figured since we were here that we would continue up to the 'lookout'. A great night for a walk; the bush was lovely. Quite warm still with the NW. Surprised ourselves with a fairly quick find and sign. The night views were a bit muted! Couldn't see much of the countryside but fantastic stars and a few streetlights of Springfield and Sheffield in the distance. Nice one. Cheers.

The view I am sure would be good in the daylight. TG made a quick find as a focussed on other possible spots. Thanks.

I was just settling in for the night, after a dinner and movie date with Ms KR. Got a text from Team Gaters to see if I was free for a mission and well, yes I was. So off we went into the night up to Kowai Bush, Oxford and home again. A great way to pass the time!

Thanks to the CO's for the hides. Cheers.

JDScout and I planned a drive out to Springfield. We were planning a cachehunt. This was our eighth find on this trip. It was such a nice spot and a clever hide. It took us ages to find we nearly gave up.

This was tricky to find. It was on a nice walk.

I stupidly didn't park at the given co-ordinates but at the end of the road. I ended up walking around the perimeter of the fenced off bush until I came to the cache area. Soon found it tucked away. On the way back to the car I found the stile but didn't take the track because I didn't know where I would end up relative to the car.

With the geocachlette and geomissus on a walk, I couldn't spot it and as usual cachelette says how whats that be your foot, yep there she was. TFTC.

I was fortunate enough to be able to squeeze an 11 day holiday out of two leave days!! I headed out west to find some caches, see some sights, and relax before the madness of the semester hits. The weather was unbelievably good, only a bit of a storm over Arthur's Pass on the first day, otherwise hot and sunny. I found a great variety of caches, drive by's, walks, hikes, even a power trail. Thank you to all the CO's for their great hides!!!

Well hidden. TFTC

Out on a Jasmar mission today, picked up this one an a few others to fill in some blank spots.

A nice and easy bush walk, quickly found, nice and dry

We have had this one in our sights a couple of times but never had the time to leave the highway while coming or going to Greymouth. Today we were heading over to Christchurch for the MEGA Event this weekend and with a chance of a FTF opportunity nearby it was worth it to come and get these both. After the FTF (which we got) we headed around here. A nice bush walk and a quick find. Very surprised when we found the cache that it had been visited today! Months between visits and then twice on 1 day! (I guess MEGAs in town) Thanks for the cache

Drove in and checked this cache on our way home after a week geocaching on the West Coast. 177 caches found and five maintenance checks completed - so a success. Everything was fine with this one. Just a pity there haven't been more visitors! Today it was lovely at GZ with several centimetres of snow on the ground. Rodney and Iris.

What a nice walk.

A super little cache. A beautiful reserve we knew nothing about. A short walk and a great view. Thank you.

Take time to enjoy the view, the peace and the sounds of nature

Great view

Good spot, great views. I live just down the road before you go up the hill. Being. Local you never realize these things are here!! Cheers to the creators

Drove past here a few years ago and wanted to explore so came back today to see the bush and collect a cache. Seems like no one has been here for a while as the tracks were quite overgrown. Great patch of forest. Beech forest, bees harvesting the honey dew and baa lambs guarding the cache. Thanks for bringing me here.

Camping close by, great view TFTC

Did a wee detour of the Main Road,and had a quick walk up the Hill,while listening to the Birds singing.TFTC

This is our second Cache today our first experience with Ballbreaker2. A lovely walk through the Beech tree bush. Lovely views from the seat at the Cache.

Lovely walk through a well marked bush track with chimpchoker to a great view at the top. Few trees down but easy to negotiate. - tftc

Funnily enough this is one patch of Canterbury I have never set foot on before, so it was about time for a visit.
This is a pleasant enough spot, but I suspect the pine trees in theforground were a lot smaller when the cache was placed.
Cheers and thanks for my first Sallies cache in quite a wee while,
S.t.

great little walk to find this one, and fantastic view from the top

Enjoying exploring the area. A nice patch of bush to walk and the added incentive, a cache to locate. No probs. Great veiws of the Waimak.

Found at 4:31:00 p.m. on 31/03/2013.

A lovely walk in a nice patch of native bush.

TFTC Sallies

Thanks for a good excuse to walk all the way up. Did a round trip along the bottom, up through the bush then back via the paper road. Log book a little damp.

Fantastic wee walk, always wanted to see what was here, met some friendly goats At GZ TFTC

A pleasant walk through the forest and up into open country this afternoon. A good view out over the Canterbury plains too! The cache was a quick find - signed log, TFTC.

Beut view. Found quickly and easily. TFTC

Lovelly spot. Found it after our young geocacher lead us down to the bottom of the hill where I realised the compass had frozen. Hence the old fart (that would be me) is pudding and erasing

That was supposed to be puffing and weasing after a steep hillclimb but pushed the send button by accident.

great area and views thanks

Lovely walk and views.

Spent 20 minutes scouring around the roots of all three pine trees (trying to avoid the two rotting lamb carcasses) but failed to find the cache. Sad.

The second find of the day getting off the beaten track caches. Thanks for bringing me to this bush I'd often thought of going to but never had the time. Thanks to caching today was the day I made the time, and appreciated the walk through the bush. TFTC.

What a great remnant of bush and lovely views. We found the cache using the clue in the obvious spot. Then were just sitting down to lunch on the seat and our six year old son found a second cache container in the pine needles right behind the seat! Same cache name. Seemed like this was the original (had a purple lid)as was placed in 2003 (we put this back where we found it). The container where the clue says it should be was the replacement put there in 2005 (yellow lid). Two for one! Thanks guys

Took me far too long to find, must clean my glasses. Have been here before pre caching. ha ha

A really nice area to stretch the legs after a couple of car caches. Found it eventually with the hint. Thanks.