Kiriwhakapapa Reserve (Wairarapa) Kiriwhakapapa, North Island, New Zealand
By Zukin & Lany on 03-Jul-04. Waypoint GCJWQP

Found some bits interred with the pill box cache but didn't have a pencil on me to add to the record

Totally worth the drive out here today, finding this has made my day. I had been watching this cache for a while as I needed July 04 for the NZ Jasmer. Today I decided the only way I was going to ever know, was to go check. Failing this one, Nelson is the next closest July 04. Well I roped in NZ_B and we headed out. I immediately lost her as I first attended to making use of the services, but eventually made my way to GZ to find NZ_B already searching. We harnessed all the info we had - couldn't really decide what one was the hint, but our phones agreed on GZ. It didn't take much searching (I was prepared for a lot more) before NZ_B calmy said from over my shoulder found it. We found a lid and some toys and a very wet log book (see photo). There is actually a bit of a natural guide of sorts to the right spot, which is what NZ_B had spotted. I have added a new log, bag and double pill bottle to what was already there to keep this one going. Enjoy - its a very lovely spot and it's getting a FAV from me.

Found the s shaped tree but didn't find the cache.

Found with Kimmy+co. A lovely day out walking. TFTC

On a misty walk with victoriousone and mumandme. Was confused at the hint and the cache was only a lid with the contents hidden below. Tftc.

Found this cache with me 2 boys, Bob -12, Vinnie - 10, on our way back from Cow Creek hut. The cache has only the trinkets, sodden logbook and a container lid. We.couldnt fill in the logbook so we have taken a photo for proof of find.
Thanks for the cache.

Good hide

Quick hunt but hadn’t saved this one so didn’t have a hint or great GPS to find this one. We were here to do the loop track and hit a cache that hadn’t been found in 2 years & rescue the resident TB!

Will have to have another go in the summer, thanks anyway!
C&J

Overnighting here at a lovely DOC campsite, that has the bonus of flushing toilets. A wee hunt for this cache, and found out in the open under trees, with only the lid, a sodden log and a couple of trinkets. Sighed and replaced at the base of tree & covered with small branches.

I needed a cache today and decided to drive up this road as I haven’t driven along it before. Just before finding the cache down the road I had a message from LNM1961 to say they were in the area. So we met up here for a cuppa and chin wag. The birds were flittering around and singing to their heart’s content. TFTC Zukin & Lany.

Cache # 4,988 - Last cache for the day with Astro Hunter and Violet Butterfly, as we have settled into camp. Had some difficulty with the hint, but eventually VB located the cache. All in good shape here. TNLNSL. TFTC!

Did with The Wandering Dragons and Violet Butterfly today. Love the campground! Thank you.

Cache # 1,068

Not a quick find, but had fun traipsing through the woods with TWD and AH. Eventually found it! Thank you.

Cache # 1,595

Fun little cache! Great campsite

Took a bit of a hunt. Very damp. Tftc.

#7923. Barefootguru emailed during the week to see if I was interested in doing a day trip to Blue Range Hut to clean up the active and archived skindo caches along this track. With the current doom and gloom over COVID19 it seemed like a good opportunity to get some fresh air, strenuous exercise and get away from the sorry state of affairs from our globally connected virus spreading world. Social distancing is the new vogue and walking this track is a good way to distance yourselves from humanity. We did encounter three groups tramping up to the hut today. I was also filling out a bird atlas list as we wandered. Fairly quiet up here in the eastern Tararuas but did encounter a parakeet, some native pigeons and some smaller landbirds such as whiteheads and tomtit. Left carpark at 10 am and back to car by 6.30 pm. That included Blue Range hut and Te Mara trig and a fair few stops hunting for caches. Both of us were quite weary by the time we got back to the car with my fitbit showing 30,000 steps. Any damp or wet logs were replaced today.

This cache: Well having walked all the way to the top and back plus the various detours I reckon we had climbed just under 1000 m of vertical ascent today. By the time we got back to the carpark around 6.45pm my legs were stiffening up and made it hard to search for this one. Could barely bend over! BFG had already found the cache a few years back but struggled to remember where it was. We found several spots that might have matched the hint area. I looked around these but it was BFG who finally uncovered it in an area I not not yet searched. Decent size cache as well. Signed the logbook and replaced the cache as found. Thanks Zukin & Lany for the cache.

Staying in Masterton for a week of work. Targeted this cache as it fills in one of our old missing months. Beautiful place for a walk. Thanks for this old cache which has survived so well.

Fast obvious find this time Thanks for the old cache Zukin & Lany!

We didn't identify the hint object but B found the cache fairly quickly anyway. One of the oldest caches I've found! TFTC

This one took a little while to find as we could not identify the hint object. In the end, my son found the cache in a location we hadn't been looking in! Picked up the TB! TFTC!!

TFTC good fun hunting for this cache.

Nice spot tftc

Found, Thanks!

We were going to try this one again after our walk, but Mr 3Prettys was definitely not up for it, so we'll try again another time.

Caching around Palmerston North, collecting a few caches along the way with rustynz and gorby. Thanks for the hides

Beginning of our walk to Blue Range and Cow Creek huts, then over Cow creek saddle and down the Rumahanga river. My phone GPS played up a bit but still didn't have too many problems finding cache. Log very damp!. TFTC

We 3 (rusty and Rebel and myself) are down from Auckland for 3 days of caching, we regularly fly away together for 3 day caching trips, and today is our 1st day of our adventures.

We had a list of caches we wanted to do. Me and rusty also have in mind the Jasmer challenge and this cache fitted the bill for her, I have this month though. But we came along the dirty metal road, and rather surprisingly it opened up to a very nice little camping ground. So we parked up and when GPS's were concentrated on to GZ, we could see a camping family were right about where we thought GZ was.

Too bad, we went for it and into the bush we went, if they were interested enough, they'll ask! Within seconds I spotted the tree in the foto, then I showed this to rusty, she then within seconds spotted the cache! Whoo hoo, just like that! So we were very happy about that esp rusty. She can sign off another old cache.

Then we headed back another way missing the campers. Thanks for the oldies cache.

We made a diversion to this old cache, as I like finding these when I can. Was a little apprehensive that because it had not been found for awhile, it might be gone.

After scrolling through the previous logs, could see a few other co-ords, so used this one to get to GZ:

S 40° 48.506 E 175° 32.774

We arrived at the carpark to see a tent near GZ. Decided on the "tell them" what we were doing if they wondered what we were up to. But no one asked!

So here we are - rustynz, rebel98 and gorby on a 3 day weekend of fun.

So within minutes the cache was found and the log was being signed. Thanks Zukin & Lany for the cache, and bringing us here.

Log later

This geocacher reported that the cache might be missing.

No find here.. i think it is gone

Cache and the ol’ ‘find a tree in the forest hint’ flummoxed me.

We thought we would head this way for the weekend so lucky with the weather. We arrived at the reserve to see a wedding happening, but they kept to one area so we could still set up camp on the other side. such an amazing area. once the wedding party and guest went on their merry way we decided to search for this cache encase someone turned up and camped near by. hint was good but not sure on one part of it but it was a quick find after all especially when it wasn't covered up. we signed the log and placed it back where we found it but covered it up from muggles finding it. Thank you for placing a cache here, TFTC now back to setting up the tent and to enjoy the adventure ahead of us.

Had just walked up the Kiriwhakapapa track to the saddle and back. Had my lunch at the campsite and made the grab for the cache. Thanks for the cache.

We have had an amazing day with great company, edvern, PJMacNZ, and two great supporters who enjoyed the walk and the hunt, loved this track, a little muddy in places but I had sneakers on and I still came out with clean shoes, we came across some very wet logs, and replaced the ones we were not able to write on - first cache of the day, big spider had made home, PJMacNZ had to clear it out for me. tftc

Seeing that I had done the southern part of the Mikimiki to Kiriwhakapapa walk yesterday I thought I had better do the northern today.

Cheers for the cache.

A good day out walking the track from Kiriwhakapapa to the Mikimiki road end...and following the geocache trail...good company-edvern,marisa&kaleb and 2 other out for the walk and hunt.This was our first cache of the day.Marisa found the cache and the spider...all good! TFTC!

We tried to find this the first night and again on our last, but just couldn't come up with it. The GPS was bouncing all over the place and we never found the S shaped tree.

Thanks for the cache, cool redwoods nearby.

spend the night here and after a few muggle left the place
it was time to reach this old cache.
thanks

#1384

Wasn't able to look here today too many muggles

Bad thing usualy happen at the end of the day, so it was with this cache KiwiExplorer and I had quiet a search party in the trees before we finally gave up, maybe we were both blind or its no longer there?!?

[size=1] +-++-++-++-++-++-++-+ |T|N|L|N|B|F|P| +-++-++-++-++-++-++-+
[size=1][font=Impact]Cache.Mike[font=arial][/size]

Our only DNF in this area. Searched in a few spots but couldn't locate the cache.

Funny people were wondering what we were doing in the bush behind their caravan

Found with TregearP and JoJo&Dobby during a trip from Wellington to do all the caches between Mikimiki Road, Kiriwhakapapa Road and Blue Ridge Hut.

Had a blast and only missed one. Thanks to Skindo (and others) who have made this a caching power trail - and effectively ticks off February for Boxhill's Baker's Dozen!

Two of the team ran muggle interference while the other team went for the GZ, quite a few campers as it was such a nice weekend

In the area to walk the Kiriwhakapapa track to Mikimiki. Second visit to this cache and it was a quick find today. Thanks for the cache.

Found it very wet traded some treasure

Some years ago, I set myself a challenge of finding Wellington region caches before they have been in existence for more than ten years. This one has been top of the list for quite a while and, after two previous unsuccessful visits, this was likely to be my last attempt before the ten year period expired in July. To my surprise, I found it rather quickly. Despite four layers of protection, the logbook is now quite damp.

Finally found it!!! Waypoint 1 was no longer there, and we had no GPS, so it took three goes to find waypoint 2 by searching the area randomly. On the fourth try we found the cache! Good that my son Godispojken is so persistant and didn't want to give up. Good that we stayed for two nights here so we had time to find the chache.
The log book was very damp, so a bit difficult to write in it.
TFTC

This is my first treasure to log!!!! I have gone treasure hunting with my Mum before, but now I have my own username.
I put a lion in the box and took another toy. It was difficult to find the treasure, but I didn't want to give up.
TFTC

Decided to do a run on the near by cache filled track. We've had a look for this one before, but been hindered by muggles around.
Found it today, although not quite where the hint suggested - close enough though.
Left a pet rock - an elephant. TFTC

#5129. Nice reserve ... popular today. Thankfully GZ was relatively quiet during our visit. The item in the photo of the bush entry point was no longer here. Easy entry though ... ground not swampy today. Yes, GPS was wandering a lot here. Found the other hint object quickly enough, but took a bit longer to locate the cache. In the end, found not too far away - well hidden. TNLNSL. TFTC.

Nice easy find with capperz
TFTC

A quick find after lunch today whilst caching in the Reserve. Logbook wet, needs replacing.
TFTC

Found after a big expedition to Blue Range and dealing with some of the 'ground level' caches in the area. We were running short on fuel and patience when we got to this so we were happy to make the find after some puzzling and 'not sure' why.
Cache in order, although very wet, and log wet too; log signed, cache safely re-hidden, just as found. Some CO TLC needed here.
TFTC found with team cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

Found stuffed at the base of a tree. Took a little while, and got a little wet. TFTC

Collected while camping at the DoC campsite for our Labour weekend camp. Tent within 10 mtrs of cache! TFTC

We had to go in from above as there were campers setting up for new years below. They will be in rain about now as we are being poured upon in Wellington. Easy find with great clue.

TFTC

Took a while searching around the co-ordinates to locate the cache- now logging it have seen comments that would have helped find it slightly quicker- got caught up looking around the "clump of trees" rather than "the close singular prominent tree" base! TFTC

Try as I might I could not find this elusive little green tupperware container. I was confident I was in the right place using the waypoint and clue, however it would not reveal itself to me. Perhaps I am not worthy...

After finishing the all the current caches that were placed near the Upper Ruamahanga River walkway it was time for use to decide which caches we were going to look at doing before heading back to Wellington as it was far too early to go back as the day was still far too young. So after a bit of discussion with agcnz and Hurricane Luke we decided to go and check out the caches on the Kiriwhakapapa Reserve, as we were heading towards the reserve I decided to give Skindo a call and see if he wanted to join us on a short walk around his caches that were in the area. Arriving at the carpark we managed to find a park not too far from GZ and decided to go and grab this cache first and have some lunch while we were waiting for Skindo to show up. After a short search agcnz managed to track down the cache and then once Hurricane Luke came back out I was able to go in and sign the cache while he kept an eye on our car as it was still unlocked. Was quite surprise how close this cache was to the muggles and we even got approach by a muggle that had said that they found the cache at the top of the Tararua's, but we told them that we were going to leave that one for another trip as we really didn't have enough daylight today to get up there and back. Thanks for placing the cache here and it was really great to finally get the chance to knock off another older cache that was placed here. TFTC TNLNSL (4047)

Find #1120. The first find on the second walk of the day with Yeetrees and agcnz (skindo decided to come along too). The weather persisted with the all-day cloud and a bit of drizzle thrown in at times, but that wasn't going to stop us! Lots of people at the camp site, and in fact a group of people were parked up right beside the cache! By a stroke of luck however they knew about geocaching themselves...

A short bush bash and the cache was in hand, coordinates are surprisingly accurate. Nice to be able to grab one of the older caches in the lower North Island! Thanks, SL TFTC.

Found on a Wairarapa caching day trip with Hurricane Luke and Yeetrees. A very pleasant and well set up area, first time I had ever been here. Found the cache after a short search, note that it's slightly above ground not on it. I took a good averaged reading using my Garmin 62s, it's provided here in case it's any additional help to future searchers. Good to be able to find one of these older caches! Signed log, TFTC.

This is an excellent road end camping area, really well set up. Finding the cache took a bit of hunting. Didn't have the updated co-ordinates which might have helped. However in the end managed to find it thank goodness. TFTC

Found it eventually

Found on bit of a clean up tour of the Wairarapa. An easy find using markhnz's coordinates - repeated here to keep them fresh: S40 48.506, E175 32.779 (+-6m).
TFTC

Re-visited this cache after a day tramp up to Blue Range hut with the Thursday tramping group from the Manawatu Tramping and Skiing Club. Have visited this cache twice before and it is still in the same place, but about 20cm off the ground and continues to be well hidden with leaf litter. Removed most of the contents which were wet through, rotting and rusting. Fortunately the replacement log book is in good condition, but the container could do with a few new swaps now. Note that the BBQ photographed as a hint is no longer there.

Located the S shaped tree then looked around for a prominent tree and searched around its base. Found with Edvern, it was very well hidden in undisturbed leaf litter. Returned it to the same place and placed a few sticks on top.

Looked for ages but to no prevail

No go for us on this one, spent a considerable amount of time looking too.

Pleased to find it, I rate this cache as a real challenge. Area very wet and GPS signal in the bush very poor. I searched for over 40minutes before finding. Cache is VERY well hidden and hard to spot. In the end resorted to carefully checking around all trees. SL TFTC

looked and looked
got wet shoes cut up on blackberry
still had fun!!! but didnt find

Nice place; must come back here.
TNLNSL. TFTC.

Took a little bit of looking, but I found it.
Emptied out some water. - Cache definitely could use some maintaining.

We found these co-ords to be closer: S 40.48.501 E175. 32.772.
We note that the owners of the cache haven't accessed the geocaching website for nearly 2 years so I guess that they won't be doing maintenance any time soon. The cache is very wet and is really unsuitable for this type of damp area. If anyone who intends doing this cache wants to, maybe they could replace with something better ie.more waterproof! Perhaps a local could adopt it! Anyway, we have been out here before - 3 years ago in our motorhome (didn't know there was a cache here then), but it was so windy we had to move in the middle of the night for fear of being blown over. We found out later that the wind had blown so strong that it had blown out one of the windows in our van.

Finally found this one on my fourth attempt - luckily it's just down the road TFTC

A reasonably quick find using the information posted in the recent logs, the given co-ords where a bit out for me this morning. TNLN SL 0835hr TFTC

Found after a bit of a hunt - GPS coverage not great and clue a bit tricky to deciphert. Cache itself is pretty wet inside. Poured out excess water but needs a good dry out. TFTC

Nice drive in, not much day light left, took a few minutes to hunt down.

Many Thanks Bitsprayer

Found it this time. Was a bit damp inside the cache. Was heavy rain in Masterton when we left but beautiful up in the cache area. Did the loop track with the kids. Will go camping here soon.

A lovely dry, double bagged log, inside a wet soggy cache. The BBQ is gone - just a concrete pad there now. Found by parking below and enjoying the pcinic area.
Thanks

Quick find - nzcoozer coords & description spot on. What a great little campgrouund. Found with the help of Nutcase99 jnr after a trip over to cow creek. T4TC.

Found it fairly easily, although the BBQ is not there any more. The stuff inside is pretty manky due to the ingress of water, this one needs a bit of TLC. We also went on the nearby loop walk, great fun with the kids and only takes about 40-50 mins.

Found cache without a problem this time. Nicely hidden but in common with all caches that are placed at the base of a tree it gets lots of water down on it but the double bagging of the log book has helped considerably. TFTC.

An easy find when you follow NZcoozer hints of 24March.
Murrayroma and Soggyboots

[Last time I was here I couldn't find the cache. This time I stayed in the car while my wife found the cache for me.
I agree with previous finders that the coordinates and clues are no longer correct.
My wife found the cache at 40 48.506, 175 32.779 (+-6m).
]Take the track behind BBQ into the trees. There is a big straight tree with two trunks, slightly to your right. Cache is behind/against this tree.[
Cache was pretty wet. We added another new log book and made sure to properly close all the plastic bags enclosing the log books and cache.
I like the location. It is quite a nice little secluded reserve.
Thanks for the cache.]

Thanks to nzcoozer who visited the cache a few hours before us and then texted us his co-ordinates and a hint, after Mrs nzcoozer had found the cache. We had visited this spot in pouring rain last year and been unsuccessful. Thanks also to nzcoozer for the replacement log book which is double bagged.

Found after quite a bit of searching. I contrast to Miowmix I struggled to find anything that fitted the clue well??? Perseverance did pay off though. Really liked the hiding place, though the container needs rethinking as the location seems to hold water. Both the old log and replacement log are soaked (even though the water seems to flow out just as efficiently as it flows in). So, cache is in place but really does need some lovin'.

Was on a caching foray in the Wairarapa today but think I'll leave this one for after the owner has had a chance to check out and maintain. Reports would seem to have this one a bit the worse for wear perhaps.
TT

Sorry, late logging this. LOg is wet and bedraggled, some distance away from supposed GZ and really does need some TLC

As this is working camp ground at this time of year, Scoop81 and I decided it would be far too suspicious to attempt to retrieve it. We wondered why the cache was not place near the track in the reserve itself as there seemed to be many good hiding places.

Great location. Quite hard to find - there are lots of trees that can match the description of s-shaped! Took parachute man, left spinney thing. TFTC.

Note to owner: Cache is very wet, logbook all soggy etc.

Maintenance note below

Were up there today, on a lovely summery Wairarapa Day. Its still there, nicely wedged by the tree. Showed it to D. Didn't open.

0paco0, Red and the dogs looked for an hour, found the right shaped tree and combed the ground for about 15 m around it - to no avail. [B)] Ouch!
The footprints, Carla they were ours

Road going in is easy, though narrow in places. Very nice area of the ranges, but it would have been even nicer if we'd found the cache

Oh well, onwards!



[This entry was edited by 0paco0 on Monday, September 24, 2007 at 3:14:03 AM.]

[This entry was edited by 0paco0 on Monday, September 24, 2007 at 3:14:34 AM.]