Valley of the Vineyards - Dartmoor (Hawkes Bay) Dartmoor, North Island, New Zealand
By Zukin & Lany on 05-Sep-04. Waypoint GCKF9V

Sadly I have to archive this cache.

Regards,
Zero Gravitas
Geocaching.com Volunteer reviewer

Had a really good look with CzechKiwi. no luck. Suggest it be checked again and a new cache placed in and around here as have not heard from the current owner.

Is this cache still operational? Noticed it has not been found since late 2007. Can you advise?

We arrived this morning to find several cars and tents at GZ. We did not approach and left quietly. It was obviously an illegal camp. They have probably destroyed the cache as described by 'vainui' below.

Very disappointing!!!

We looked around for a bit but eventually gave up. Although the area is nice and the vineyard above the cache location (Sacred Hill) is fantastic we would not recommend pursuing this cache. A lot of people have used the area where it's located as a toilet and there are some deep holes in the ground that are overgrown and hard to spot. I can see someone attracting an injury while searching for the cache. Some stupid idiots have viciousely cut down a few trees and left their garbage, diapers, cans, broken bottles and other debris a bit further down from the cache location.
All in all a very sad experience and not one we would recommend to anyone. Team Vainui from Oz

[0paco0 and Red found it, while the Cache-Dogs kept themselves cool in the river (and away from the old possum bait stations that were hanging around - good dogs!
We have wanted to find this cache for a long time - and found out we only had the print-out from a year ago with us.

Our Garmin 76CX is usually pretty darn good under foliage, but it took quite a while for it to settle and show us exactly where the cache was. The place is so overgrown since the cache was first placed here that hundreds of trees have fallen on top of each other. ]All we can suggest is to discard freshly fallen ones.
[Also, the bush lawyer and wandering jew are taking over the area, so bare skin is not the required dress-code here.

Having said all that, it's graded 4, so some difficulty finding it is to be expected.

Cool to see that a cache that is so prone to flooding can hang in there for this length of time.

OUT: christmas stocking
IN: lanyard

TFTC]

Lovely spot for a picnic, Easy find. TNLN TFTC. Leaf-off

A struggle to find this one even with 6 people co-ordinates seem about roughly 8m off
Out Tuatara TB
In ----

I took a team of six of us to find this one. The point our GPS's took us to was very well tracked and we thrashed about here for a while, but it turned out not to be where to look. Had to go wider to find in the end - a cheer when it was found TFTC.

First of the afternoon after Central Districts Orienteering Champs further up the valley. Team effort with Edvern, Tramper Ted, Remlaps and Cach Hunter 1. Coords a bit out but no real drama. TNLNSL.

#647
Easy find once we found the correct entrance to the park. We were initially at the wrong side of the river after taking a wrong turn.
Out Jojo le TB
In Nana Jen's Tuatara TB
SL, TFTC

Found it easily on this visit. (I searched for 40 mins or so on the last visit with no joy!) Dropped off Jojo TB.

Waded across the river, d'oh. However, quick and easy find of the cache, rather hard to miss it when you get close.
TNLNSL, thanks.

Took reading three times. All three times GPS took me to the same place. Found fallen trees. Looked and looked but found only a bag of yukky fleece and crushed beer can. No cache. Will probably not return on this vacation. Right on about the trout, though. Caught and released.

Went to the river. Had to cross it (only ankle deep) and walked to the spot. Innaccurate GPS as its summer but decrypted the clue and couldn't find fallen trees anywhere. Oh well. May visit in winter (although thought of crossing river in winter not that fun)

Took the direct route which meant wet feet, but hot day so thats OK! Yep plenty of vineyards round here. TFTC

Found it very easily this time. Last time had a little yellow basic etrex which was jumping all over the place in middle of winter with no leaves on trees.Each time I started to search it would suddenly tell me I was 50 metres off. With my new blue extrex legend with map it was easy to pinpoint general area with confidence and clue helped with th last bit. Interesting the difference between various GPS's. Thanks. Took little calulator and putting in a fancy christmas stocking and a nice girls hair tie.

Nice spot. My son Luke and I stopped off to find this one on the way to have a look at a house for sale further up the Dartmoor valley.

The cache was dry inside its plastic bag and was an easy find, the GPS led us straight to it. TNLNSL. Thanks very much, Herb and Luke Maynard.

Took up the challenge to find this "really hard" cache. After studying previous log history we came armed with the heavy artillery, secateurs, leather gloves, gumboots. And didn't need any of them!! The GPS led us to a spot where we parked and continued on foot (new vehicle -didn't want to scratch it) otherwise could have driven all the way. Walked in to the hiding spot, no confusion over logs, no blackberries, no climbing over branches etc, there was only one place that fitted the clue description, we looked in that place and almost fell over the cache!! Not hard at all, and one of our quickest finds.

The reserve was lush and green, didn't see any mess or rubbish, no bogs or mud, a very pleasant place and we promised to return with fishing rods as the river looks very inviting. We had fished around here many years ago and successfully caught a trout!

Out - camera and will put it in another cache
In - big green crocodile and ping pong ball

Thanks for the really exciting challenge that turned out to be so easy. A great start to a very enjoyable afternoon!

Hi
After 2 DNF, I went out today to check if it was still there, and in short yes it is, in the same place, under the 2 fallen trees, if anyone is having difficulty with Geocaching then I would suggest they miss this one out due to the GPS accuracy, those that are up for the challenge, this is one for you.

Soon the vineyards will be in fruit so it makes the drive through here really nice!

Cheers Scott

Oh boy, carla6, we certainly agree with you, and no.....your GPS was probably correct so do not start to panic unnecessarily. What a messy site. If one was looking "where the two fallen trees cross", they may as well have looked for a needle in a haystack! Unless one actually knew where the cache was, no one could find it in the thousands of fallen trees criss crossed all over the place and the obvious flooding that happens on a regular basis. Our GPS read clearly and took us to the co-ordinates within 1 metre, but what a fiasco. Was a thorough waste of time.

Did not manage to find the cache even though we spent a lot of time looking in the indicated area. Did have some problems with the GPS changing it's mind...it is just a basic etrex model. Does this mean it is more susceptable to interferance from trees (in middle of winter)etc that better models..I also read some-one else said about recalibrating..I must find out about this..Anyone got some thoughts let me know? Difficult to clamber over all the dead trees/shrub branches etc to find the right one..felt like looking for a needle in a haystack and I did remember thinking, while I was out there, that you could have a 44 gallon drum cache hidden in this area and it would still pose a challenge. Anyway got home and looked on this site to discover it was a hard one...so I guess a new comer was always going to struggle..I'll come back another day.

How amazing, the cache was still there, even after the floods, I had to dig for it under 2 inches of silt!!!

I have replaced the cache as it was full of water, I put another one there in exactly the same location, most of the goodies are ok, I added a few more including a camera!!
First in first served

The old cache will be recycled for another one.

Please ensure the plastic bags are sealed before placing cache back.

Cheers

I expect that after the recent floods in Hawkes Bay, that this cache may of disappered
So if someone is planning on visiting this cache before 27th May, could you please take a new log book etc so that you can get it running again.
I will do the rounds on that weekend to check it is still there and to replace the wet items. Cheers

Looked for a long time under the trees but could not find it
nice place by the river

Fairly easy find... but a big dissapointment... and now after reading the above logs,, it has been in this state for a while....

couldnt log the visit in the log book as it is a soggy soaking wet mess..... NEEDS URGENT MAINTENANCE....

duh.. didnt realise thay had added to the choice of icons.... needs major dry out... and new log book the whole cache is a soggy mess

A lovely drive from Napier past all the vineyards. It does look like a very "fishy" river.

Unfortunately the cache was soaking wet. I was unable to use the log book.

Must be well hidden! I searched for a good hour with no luck. Had good GPS signal the whole time and the GPS tracklog has me on top of the location on many occassions. The clue would suggest I was in the right place. In the end the GIANT sized mosquitoes got to me and I had to give up - will be back though.

Found the cache very good hiding spot unfortunatly the cache has been flooded badly and needs replacing couldnt log our entry as everything was wet and smelly. Still a good cache.

Lovely spot, lots of crossed fallen trees, lots of ivy and not much GPS reception.

Searched for 45 mins and even had our nephews scrambling around trying to find the cache.

Couldn't find it so walked out into the river and re-calibrated the GPS - second attempt, no luck - third attempt we gave up!

Will be back for sure, maybe for a picnic a game of family cricket and a swim - as well as a search.

Cheers
Jonno, Dawn and Jorja
and... Mike, Fleur, Dims and Bradley

The cache is still there, I thought about moving to an easier to find location, but I decided instead to increase the difficulty level!
Happy Hunting

There has been a bit of tree felling here. Maybe the cache has been disturbed as we hunted for ages. There were lots of crossed fallen trees and the GPS didn't like the area at all.

Just a quick note to say the cache is still there, my GPS had me with 5m of the cache, I was going to increase the difficulty level but I will change the clue. Cheers

Initially turned up on the wrong side of the river then once we got that sorted out we were frustrated again when we found a muggle car with a woman occupant parked right where we wanted to enter the scrub for the hunt.
I let the kids play down by the river while waiting for the car to depart but it didn't. Eventually decided to go in the "back way" and came across Zork from Auckland hunting for the same cache. It was his wife in the car who had already given up the hunt in disgust.
Zork had already given the area a pretty good going over and my GPSr was indicating a fairly similar spot. My enthusiasm for this cache was soon dampened after discovering that there is blackberry mixed in with the ivy! Lots of places that match the clue was rather frustrating.

Look really hard for this one, I don't like giving up! But this one got the best of my Adee, Zorgon then me. Too many good hiding places but all match the clue. Bugger!!

Well well beaten by wilbuild congrat's on being the first to find. This was our last Hawkes Bay cache for the weekend . myself and tgawookie were on a geocaching mission for 3 days.
the clue said we were looking for a plastic bag but we thought we had struck gold when we found this box in the cache area.

this would make a good trashout day as we think it is a place where undesirables dump their victims leftovers

TNLNSL

Found this one with Rick-a-mortis. Had very good GPS lock, but it had us about 10 meters away from where we did find it.

TNLNSL

Willbuild

Sorry , First to find again, few campers around, lots of rubbish all over the place, nice river, no problem with GPS under trees. Cache 26 of 42 on this trip