Onepoto Observations (Auckland) Northcote, North Island, New Zealand
By Navigull on 01-Apr-04. Waypoint GCJ2FB

Alterations to psrk have changed some items so this will open the park up for new caches

Nice hide tftc

Sorry should not have logged this one wascox

Found all the photo items well over a year ago except for C. Didn't do the maths that day as was out of energy and brain power. Back in the area today so decided to try and figure out a possible GZ. Found a likely area, then did the projection and ended up in a likely spot. Searched for 30mins with no luck. Read back over the last few logs and spotted a hint. Was soon on track to make the find. Phew. Was shaping up to be a DNF! TFTPC and the wander around looking for the items.

Back for a look where the maths said it should be and easily found the weirdo tree. Took a bit of searching before we stumbled across the cache, because I was expecting it to be in contact with the tree. But duly found and logged. Thanks for the most interesting cache.

Thought that this cache would be a great outing for a Sunday morning explore. The park was teeming with toddlers on various wheeled devices, but we tried to keep out of their way. After 10 minutes we realised that this wasn't going to be easy, having only spotted object A. After an hour, and having expanded beyond the photo's search area, we had found D and something that was very similar to, but not actually the same as E. Unsuccessfully, tried to find where the search area photo was taken, which was a great explore. Expanded our search area again to look for other examples of E, and eventually found C. But no sign of B.

One of our party had also spotted a tree stump that fitted the description, and there were two schizophrenic trees to choose from one 17m east and one 20m east. No cache though. Cleared out a number of RTD cans and 2 washing machine hoses (?!?) scattered in the vicinity.

Having now done some maths work, we were not looking in the right area for the final, so will be back for another search soon.

Thanks for an interesting puzzle, and fun way to enjoy a sunny winter Sunday (though we did find the search area photo quite misleading).

Found a few of the objects, then applied some maths logic which landed us at GZ. However LostCourse had hid it so well we needed to email him to check GZ was what we thought. Being reassured at we were on course and not lost, mr p and i returned to GZ and Mr P found the well camoed, well hidden cache. t4tc

Yeah, daylight hours were exactly what was needed. I actually spotted the cache on approach to GZ this time as it was rather exposed. Happily signed the log and rehid a few cms over in a much more camoed position. Cheers for the puzzle cache!

Popped over to the shore tonight for a spot of caching. Followed my nose around Onepoto and soon discovered a certain stump and a schizophrenic tree. Unfortunetely, despite much searching by torch light, I was unable to spot the cache. Might be one to revisit during daylight hours!

This was fun, though the kids just played while the adults scurried about looking for the clues. The schizophrenic tree was also thorny! TFTC

This cache took three visits (and some extra eyes from the Flipdags' team) to find 4 of the five objects. Master FriwiNZ didn't object to that at all and had heaps of fun on the greatest playground we've seen so far . We had to estimate the position of the final cache as we could not find object C but thanks to the clues given in the cache description we managed to narrow down the searching area. Master FriwiNZ and I went and had a look this morning and quickly spotted the stump. Then we understood what you meant by "schizophrenic" tree we unfortunately had to disturb the inhabitant of the cache (a massive bush spider) to sign the logbook. We replaced the cache under its supervision. TFTC

It required two visits for us to find all of the required information and after a quick calculation we were off towards GZ where we soon spotted the suspect tree. Great hide in a well chosen spot. Thanks for the fun T4TC.

Not sure why I didn't see it last time, it was in such an obvious spot. Had a great afternoon taking our Homeschool Group to this place!
TFTC

We spent a wonderful sunny afternoon looking for the clues and then finding the cache. Our 'shortcut' back to the playground turned out to be very, very muddy!
TFTC

Dropped off travel bug

What an adventure! Found it with our Homeschool Group. Excellent learning opportunity for our 8yo who wrote down the co-ordinates and did the maths (with the calculator). Thanks for the FUN!

I still have this cache on my watchlist, because I like it and it took me a long time to find. Yesterday I was in the area and decided to check the final to see if it perhaps had been muggled. I had seen a recent dnf and I know the feeling after the hard work trying to work out its location. It is still there, so no problem. Thanks to Navigull for the updates as well, I haven't check those, but I am sure he has done that carefully. Don't give up on this one!

We found the tree stump,
we even found the schizophrenic tree.
What we didn't find, however, was the cache.

Either I'm the world's worst geocacher (and that could really be the case) or the cache wasn't there. We looked for over an hour including the surrounding trees as well. We discussed at length about the exact direction of true east, but the cache just didn't want to be found.

If the cache is still there, then I bow my head with shame and I truly am the world's worst geocacher.

Took us a while to find all 5 items but then my maths skill must have let me down. The final coordinates seemed to be way off and we didn't find anything resembling a schizophenic tree

Object E is a new image but near the original position. The description of pointer for the final position has been updated
The formulae used to calculate the final have also been updated.
All systems ready to go!

Following the demolition of the original toilets and the opening of new ones point E has been changed and updated photos of a couple of others taken.
I hope to enable the listing in a few days.

We enjoy this type of puzzle with objects to locate from slightly cryptic photos. The way the final co-ords are derived in this puzzle means you have to find all 5 objects. We managed to find 4 out of the 5 objects. We think the fifth has been replaced recently, but assumed we had the right location. Must have been close enough, as our calculated co-ords took us to a grassy area in another part of the park, from where we were able to locate the cache. Hard to be sure with our less-than-perfect co-ords, but we think the 'spindly tree' is now a stump. Thanks for a fun hunt, made all the more enjoyable by the successful outcome and our 200th puzzle cache find .

# 1468

Really enjoyed matching up the photos with the actual items. One of them we nearly gave up on, but perserverance made it in the end. TFTC

It seems that Object A has changed colour.
Thanks to KiwiLeon we can now add an updated photo.

Nice start to a beautifully fine day. Combined search with KiwiLeon, we had all the objects in sight relative soon although one of them has changed colour! Bit 'stumped' at the last waypoint to the final but soon onto the unique object hiding the cache - never seen anything like that before!!

T4TC & the puzzle.

Out with Greenblat in the morning on our way to the WallE CITO event. Wandered around the area to collect all the information. Nice object at the final.

TFTC

#719
Well this was a fun little puzzle cache! Miss Geckoh was more interested in the playground and left us to find all the waypoints. Loved the final cache placement with the item that didn't know its up from its down.
TNLN TFTC

Nice quick walk around the waypoints today, makes it easy with the new photos. Tried last week but missed two of the points. Nice park for a walk. TFTC

Today I replaced photos of objects D and E with updated ones so interpolation should no longer be necessary.
I note that further alterations alterations are scheduled for May to September 2009 so further updates may be needed but in the meantime all the photos are current.

[What I like about Geocaching is the history of it. The website is recording a lot of detail about what people do and how they get on solving puzzles. Each log adds to the history of the cache, but also the location changes over time. This one has been on my unfinished-business list for a long time. I found most of the waypoints early on. But finally today I managed to find the final.] I found something that looks like one of the WPs earlier, but the photo must be taken of a different object. Maybe the pole used to have a (not identical) twin brother. Eventually I assumed, that the pole I had found was the right one and assume I had found the spindly tree. A thorough search through the logs including a photo taken during a find confirmed, that I was in the right place. Interesting enough the tree in the photo is no longer there! It has been cut off at the ground. This makes it harder to solve the puzzle and this year only one find has been recorded. Maybe a review is needed, but then, I am adding to the history right now, so if someone cares to read this, they may be able to have the same satisfaction of solving a fascinating puzzle. [Thanks for the cache. I loved it.]

This was a challenging cache due to the fact that things have changed since the cache was set up. I see that someone found it the next day also so it is possible to still solve it with some lateral thinking. Object E isn't there but a similar object(with appendage) is nearby and a rough cement job marks the spot we imagine E used to occupy. The "spindly tree" has become a stump but we loved the loopy schizo tree which we found with a little help from our friends.

Man, Im getting slack! found this on the day of Kiwi Explorers event in taka. Not a bad walk about, but got there after a couple of visits, thanks for the hunt.

Cheers!!

19:55 This one took a while, we managed to locate all the items. But trying to locate the final was hard going, you can't just follow your arrow .

Once at ground zero the cache was found pretty quickly as it wasn't hidden at all. So we rehid it and the days caching was over.

TNLN. Thanks for the caches today Ray.

Nice big adventure around the park with some fluky finds (great spotting Gary) that got us there to the maths end of the puzzle (who likes puzzles?)The final had us going with young Gary certain it was "over there", in response to my "cant be over there,surely." Gary won! [:(!]
Final fell rather quickly in the gloom of the fading light, the cache was found out in the open, rather exposed & we placed it back where I would have placed it had I been hiding it,(might pay to check where we placed it Ray). Enjoyed the little outing, walked a lot today! TNSLLNTFTCACHE!!

[#359]
Found all the objects of interest easily on our first pass, although object C is now a plank short. Co-ords for the final quickly computed, and then for an interesting walk to retrieve cache, loved the crazy tree. Kids enjoyed the playground before heading off to the next Navigull cache.
TNLNSL, TFTC

F I N A L L Y ! !
Today was my eighth attempt!
Liked the chosen tree. Have walked close to it many times, but never passed it.
Very happy to finally tick this off my list!

If this wasnt so close to my house I would have given long ago!! SEVENTH attempt today (since sussing out the picture clues)!!- but every calculation is different! Used Phil's GPS and mine, walked to and from each point, got different waypoints, added them up, devided them, averaged them, searched all around and still not got to it!!
I have one more set of co-ords to try (forgot my cellphone with calculator today so need to do the maths before I go again)....

Set aside a couple of hrs today and went out on my own to do this one. Found A,B and D with relative ease. Searched for ages for C+E and never found them. Plenty of muggles around prevented me getting on the play equipment to check various platforms. But when the rain came everyone dissapeared so had the place to myself! (Went up to the look-out but didn't go down the tube slide, but should've!)

Bit dissappointed that I never got to the cache.

Can anyone give me a hint (just to find C+E) ?!

We had fun finding this one, patience and team work is required along with a little lateral thinking.

Had this on the to do list for a while now. Set forth with B&W photos, but ended up resorting to the PDA for some coloured ones. Enjoyed the area, found the cache without too much problem. Found some pathetic offensive drawing in the logbook so ripped out offending page, however one page still there - probably local youths. Anyway TFTC.

Brilliant cache, thoroughly enjoyed it, as did our daughter who made the most of the great playground. Also enjoyed watching the radio controlled boats on the lake and the glider on the field. It's a nice walk around the park to find all the locations and luckily our maths and GPS were spot on with the final cache.
- Wombat
+ Stickers

Went to do this on a miserable, drizzly day, but still plenty of muggles. Found most clues quite quickly, but one took us a while to find. Great set of clues, though. Once we had them all, final found quite easily, even with the nifty hiding place.
Took: smiley bouncy ball
Left: #2 lizard
Cheers Navigull.

We started this one at lunchtime and found all the objects fairly quickly, but ran out of time before we could go for the cache itself. So had to come back later on in the evening. The council is doing some work nearby but slipped around the fences, beat off the mozzies and successfully found the cache site. Nice hiding place!
TNLNSL
Thanks for the hunt, we really enjoyed this one.

Found it first try. Really amazed because I had got all the co-ordinates right and the division. Sailed my radio controlled yacht in the pond first, as I do every Tuesday and Thursday, then went hunting for the cache. Most amazing tree. Lots of mozzies but absolute solitude there. Great hiding place.
Uncle Brian.

Found with no fuss on the way to work this morning. Had to swat a couple of mozzies at GZ. Brilliant clueset, very enjoyable hunt... TNLNSL, thanks Navigull
On the way back to the car, a plane crash. A couple of muggles were flying an electric R/C aircraft... which apparently suffered control problems, nose dived and disintegrated before my eyes.

[This entry was edited by banaari on Thursday, January 19, 2006 at 1:33:57 PM.]

[Half-done Found all the objects, but ran out of time... also cold & windy. Back tomorrow morning to do the final retrieve, fingers crossed.] Had to do some downright suspicious loitering to get one of the fixes...

Took me three goes at this one, but with so help from BenMc found the little beastie.I found the the spindly tree to be quite big and a bit brocken.

In Zorkmid #43

Out Sk8r Boy

Thanks for the hunt.

Reasonably quick find. Co-ords spot on but it pays to read all info provided TNLNSL

What a great way to spend a sunny Sunday morning. Object A was so popular we couldn't get near it, took a while to find c. Did the maths and headed to final, nice quick find, only 7 meters from where we calculated.
TFTC Navigull
+smiley ball, -lime bottle opener

Second attempt. Don't know how we missed it the first time. Out with Sinautus and my son.

Our second attempt at this cache. We had the location first time round but missed the cache. Found it within 2 minutes this time round. Thanks Navigull, fun cache kids loved it.

+ Tony Hawk skateboard toy
- Pen

4.00pm. Much enjoyed challenge. Easy find after we had the clues but spent some time finding object D.
+ racing car & biro keyring
- Canada keyring.
Many thanks. M&P.

Very busy little park today with a soccer game going on, remote controlled yachts racing and the playground full of kids and their minders.
Quite relived to find that the arithmetic worked out OK and that we had packed the gumboots - we needed them!
Most enjoyable thanks Navigull. TNLN

What an excellent cache! Lucky I bought my son along otherwise I'd have been roaming around the park all night. Also, my PDA ran out of juice and I was relying on it to do the last calculation - had to do it the 'old fashioned way' (ie tongue to side of mouth scratching head!!). Great stuff.
TNLNSL

We thought this hunt would make a welcome change for the kids from museums, and it did. They had a fantastic time in the play area while we found the objects and did the calculations. Mum enjoyed the walk to the final location and found the cache in good shape. Took nothing, left a Canada keychain. Thanks for the family-friendly cache!

Found cache. kids enjoyed finding objects.

Husband found it again!! It took two visits and the second time I forgot the calculator!! Very pleased with myself when we arrived at correct destination.

Left Nil
Took Nil

The best cache that we have done so far. Congratulations Navigull and thanks.

Had found all the waypoint to this one months ago but couldn't get back to do final hunt this cache was great for a change in pace
TNLNSL
Thanks

Willbuild
Stopped on my way between jobs.
Great place for a walk , Ground nice and dry and hard.
Few people around but lots of ducks.
No swop but left some blood on tree near cache after it bit me.

Great cache, enjoyed hunting for the five objects, an enjoyable sunday afternoon.
+ Corona Bottle opener keyring
- Nothing
The tree isn't schitzo, it's well and truely a sad unit!!![:d]

Very cool concept. This was our first 'clue' cache, and it was quite a lot of fun. We did it over a couple of days, due to fading light, rain, etc. but had few problems finding the cahce in the end. Enjoyed the schyzo tree...

- little lady magnet
+ toy soldier

Ground a bit drier now, and it's not pouring with rain
Must have made a big difference because I found the cache almost immediately. Not sure how I missed the first time now
TNLN
Thanks Navigull for the fun.

Finding the clues wasn't too much of a problem, neither was the maths - The major problem was trying to keep feet dry (I didn't bother in the end) So with a small roostertail of mud, the Dwarf flaied his way through and emerged triumphant. Jar too full to trade, so TNLNSL.
Thanks for allowing me to amuse the muggles by wandering around...and around...and around...and...

Found this in conjunction with dapozo cache-seekers. Lots of fun....muggies sure were curious!

What a great cache! The picture angles made this a bigger challenge than we expected it to be - it took some local help to find one of the objects. Thanks for putting so much time into organizing a fun afternoon's hunt! In: Mini Playing Cards, Out: Golf Ball

Re-logging this because the Australian geocaching site randomly misses find on geocaching.com
Wonderful. Loved the combination of spotting the visual clues (B was difficult); the maths to find the coords of the final location (didn't take a calculator so the old mental arithmetic had to work - rock on 60s schooling!!); the accuracy of the descriptions and directions for the final destination and the location of the cache. Very well done. I took photos as proof.

As at today, this is very much walking boot territory. E.g. the trip back the the car park via the path was 4 inches deep in water.

Norfolk Island Golf Ball IN; Smiley bouncy ball OUT

[This entry was edited by St. Ouens on Sunday, May 20, 2007 at 4:05:52 AM.]

Spent a while wandering around the domain. Three of the objects were easy finds; the furtherest away object took longer to find. One of the objects looked unlike the photograph, but I couldn't find anything better - despite a detailed search.
However it must have been right, because I went directly to a spindly tree, and whence to a more weird tree. Had a scrounge around in the mud - and thorns - but nothing showed up. I think I'll come back when the ground is a bit drier.
Amazing - there are three caches all within in spitting distance of this point. Two of them are mystery caches, so you'd have done them to know

Lovely day to wander around matching photos; took my
parents for a walk (does that count as kids play?!)
Trusted GPS (despite some visual doubts) and it took me
right there. Excellent entertainment, thanks.

Voted best cache to date by the Fergs. Very family friendly, kids ran around for ages seeking the clues, allowing parents a bit of quiet time. Finally Dad had to lumber into action to seek the furtherest clue. All found and after a bit of dodgy maths, lead straight to the cache.

Well prepared page, with a lot of effort and thought put into the photos, well done Navigull. Still not quite sure how it worked out, but it did!

Out: Cards, Tiger
In: Bouncy Ball, Girl fridge magnet.

Thanks again, the Fergs

We found the (thorny!) schizophrenic tree, but not a sign of the stash.

This is the third for the day but second successful one. I wasn't certain on one of the objects but took a reading at it anyway hoping that it was.

Did the calcs and should have waited for a day with at least four days previous without rain. In other words, should have worn my gummies, just like the big boys with the RC toys.

Found the trees, spindly and the schizophrenic.

In: Pack of small playing cards.
Out: Trundler Coin TB.

Thanks, Navigull, for another brain teaser. And thanks to my team mate who had a calculator in her handbag. (Dividing by 8327 is a little hard doing it by long division.)

Had a go at this one a few weeks ago and got all but one clue. Went back again today to "nail" it. Found last clue,
did the maths and went straight to location. I must admit that it took a bit of searching to find cache. Well hidden.
TNLNSL
Cheers.
Also dropped off "Trundler Coin" TB.

Found it, visited Onepoto with Bigfatrob and Surgez last week and found all but 1 of the objects. I wasn't able to go with them and find the final.
Got down to final cache while it was dark. Have to admit it was a bit hard to find in the dark, my Mag Lite was handy.
Cheers for the cool cache close to home.

+ Key ring surf board
- Key ring tape measure

The numbers worked out rather well - great idea. Great evening, with a group radio controlled yachts in the pond. Third to find, though. I'm getting to know this area well! Went to check on my cache while I was here.
+ key chain tape measure (came in mighty useful for "Baxter's Mill" )
- key chain compass.
Thanks Navigull.

Woohoo! A first to find (at 12:39pm)! I was worried about the accuracy of waypoint C, but it turned out that we'd got it right after all. "Eagle eyes" LRPnz found all of the objects fairly quickly and then I sat down to do the maths while she snapped a few photos. We headed off to the final cache waypoint and got to what appeared to be the edge of the domain, then noticed another approach, so trudged off to explore further. Found an area matching the description and searched for about 10 minutes before finding the very well hidden cache. We managed to find all of the objects and the final cache just within an hour. Added keychain compass and took Donald Duck.

On our way out we were pleasently surprised to meet bigfatrob, dysentry and Surgez who managed to find all but one of the objects yesterday and had returned today, found the last object and were about to tackle the final cache. Thanks for an enjoyable walk in the park Navigull!

Found with JDHnz... It was a gorgeous day for a plesant stroll around the park.I must be enjoying the new job I started this week coz I was certainly on the ball today Managed to find all of the clues in a very short time. Anyways - while ole "brainy box" did the maths - I did the photo shoots of the park and the pukekos! Thanks Navigull..Ps Good to meet some fellow "geocahees" today - first ones we've ever met!! Bigfatrob, dysentry and Surgez - thumbs up - hope you were as fortunate as us

I forgot to add a note that Kiwi Crossing was in residence.

Well we attempted this one on friday night in failing light and the threat of the gates being closed... we had managed to find all but one of the required points so it was a return on sat afternoon to nail it.
Not to suprised to meet fellow cachers LRPnz and JDHnz as it was a wonderful day.

-tb
+yu gi oh tazo dics thingie.

Found with bigfatrob and dysentry. nice and easy to locate quite a treat of a cache. got to watch lots of rc sailing boats having a race. nice day, and i finally have a tb!

visited with surgez and bigfatrob! finally got round to logging it.