The Carpark (Volcanic Plateau) Tukino Alpine Village, North Island, New Zealand
By Squeekybobo on 07-Nov-04. Waypoint GCM0JB

Thanks for the find!

I was sad to be leaving the Lake Taupo area today. It was a lovely visit from Atlanta in the U.S., but it was time to continue my solo adventures on the North Island. The weather was perfect and I even had time to sit down at a cafe and eat breakfast. I think that's the first time in a couple of weeks that I've been able to enjoy eggs. Yum!I had a lot planned for the day and managed to find everything I looked for which is always a plus. I drove on some curvy roads and stayed on the correct side (phew!). I saw so many beautiful places along the way, too. New Zealand had yet to disappoint in the scenic department.Many thanks to all the COs who hid caches, responded to my earthcache and virtual answers, and helped make another day of my trip truly memorable. I really wanted this old cache so I was happy when I was ahead on my plan and was able to make the find before it got too late in the day. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It was quite the long drive over terrain that was almost too much for my hire car. I went very slowly on the way out there to make sure I was safe. And the wind was WHIPPING. As I made my way to GZ I wondered what I was doing out here all by myself, but I made the find, so there's that. The drive back to the paved road didn't seem as long or as daunting as the drive in had been. I was glad it was the final cache of the day, though. Thank you for the smiley and the fun!

Found with trayc.g on a trip to the CNI. TFTC

Found the best route to gz and headed over and found a cache. Thanks for bringing us here! TFTC

This is where we parked our vehicle and it was also the first find for the day.Thanks for the placement and the smiley

We are on a family holiday and my uncle wanted to come and check out this road. Fun driving on the bumpy road to the carpark, and a beautiful view of the mountain on a gorgeous day. The cache was a nice quick find, TFTC

Submitted via Garmin Live Geocaching

Currently staying in turangi and making day trips for bush walks and getting caching. This is a great little spot with a perfect hideyhole. TFTC

I have been eying this one up for some time, so very happy to find! Great location, but the weather was really gnarly today. TFTC!!

On a road trip for Team BOP over the long weekend.

After a long weekend of full-on days of caching, it was time to head home - tired.

We selected a few caches in the area to pick up as we headed north.

As I had my work 4x4 and there were still unfound caches up here, we had time for a detour up here again, to grab the rest of the caches I missed last time and several the others in the team hadnt found yet.

TFTC

After a great weekend time to head home. Great to get some more smiles.

Just one more!!


I am logging using the Cachly app template so please excuse generic logging along the way. It’s just my way of keeping track, but I do genuinely thank each and every one of you cache owners for taking the time and energy to place these caches. Many Thanks for bringing me here. Cheers.

Hiked the around the mountain track from Tukino Road to the Waihohonu carpark on a lovely autumn day. Picked up this and two other caches on the drive to the trailhead. TFTC

Nice quick find! Cache is in good condition- beautiful day up here for a wander

Nice to find this old cache in good condition in this beautiful place, this is as far as we’re gonna go but it’s been a wonderful drive in.

Thanks for the cache!

Tuesday - 25/01/2022 #3,895

On a week long trip up and down the middle part of the North Island. Same weekend as the Mega event in Auckland (but that's not where I ended up). Targeting a few specific caches, and a few others. This is one of them.

I've been wanting to get the caches down this track for some time but whenever I passed by it was either the middle of the night or I just wanted to get home. Today, I planned my trip to be here with enough time and at the right time. Sadly the weather wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either so in I went.

This is as far as the Yetimobile was allowed to go, but got this one without any trouble. TFTC

2ndbfind of the day! What an adventure

Thanks Squeekybobo for placing this cache

It was dark when I drove up Tukino road for a bit of mountain-time... so I didn't stop for this one on the ascent but enjoyed finding it in the sunshine while descending this morning.

All peaceful and beautiful here with fantastic views back up to the Ruapehu peaks
TNLNSL TFTC

Visited this spot with boneybruce, FMZ, Gorby and rustynz during day tour around Mt. Ruapiehu while staying in Turangi for summer holidays in actually winter conditions.
Container is in a good condition.
TFTC

Spent a very cool night in our bus up here. So happy with our heating. Phew!Such a unique landscape. Saw some interesting animal tracks - need to research them. The girls woke to snow falling - tick
Snowman built - tick
Igloo built - tick
Sledding- tick
Thanks!

Tftc. Found after an afternoon of snow play. Cache isnt snow covered yet.

I am using the excuse of friends of mine getting married in Northland this weekend to finally get to do what I have wanted to do for over 30 years now, visit 90 Mile Beach and Cape Reinga.
And of course whilst doing that I'm also making the most of a rare opportunity to grab a whole bunch of caches that either help me with my Jasmer grid, my Hidden Dates grid, or else are part of the TMGT, or lastly because they are an Earthcache or a Virtual which I like doing.

Cape Reinga roadtrip day 1 - the drive from home to Auckland.

This was my first cache stop for the day. This one filled a hole on my Jasmer grid so I was hoping for the find. I had never previously driven down this 'road' before, and today I pretty much had it all to myself. Being in a 2WD I was happy that it wasn't winter! But the journey to GZ from SH1 itself wasn't too bad, albeit a little slow.

Once parked, the cache location was fairly obvious and the cache itself was a quick and easy find. There were no issues with being able to do the usual caching administration, so once completed I was able to head back to the highway to continue on my way.

Thanks for the cache, and for getting my trip off to a great start.

Nice easy find and amazing views

Quickly spotted. TFTC

I love it up here! The landscape is just so so beautiful. Beyond words. TFTC!

Found as a part of a previous group TanjackMley, aka WanderingSparrow. Now I'm continuing on my own. TFTC

Planned to hike to the next cache. Made it 600m to the top of the hill took a photo and walked back. The wind is as crazy as I've ever felt. Cache was easy as not many hiding places. Tftc!

Myself and two of the kids spent the weekend in Ohakune caching came home today and decided to do the caches up here. Quick find here cache in good condition.
Tftc.

An early start, and we arrived at the Mountain just before 1 pm. The cloud is low and the wind blustery. A few light sprinkles of rain, not enough to put the jacket on.

So here I am making my way to the cache, all good here. Thanks for the hide Squeekybobo

Number 4 on our Waitangi Day odessy. Easy find.

We absolutely love this place, we've been here a number of times and it never fails to impress. Tftc

While waiting for a ride found this cache. Good way to kill a bit of time.

After making the trip in which was pretty awful, my cousin and I were left at the carpark to entertain ourselves before our ride came back from Tukino lodge, my uncle who had found this before said look at that tree, you will know what to do. So that filled in 5 of our 40 minute wait, now let me take a selfie

What a great place!

Very unique tree but easy find on way back from skiing thanks!

Instant find in this amazing location. Love it here! Drive in was enjoyable, not too bumpy, so I carried on to the 4wd park.

We thought we would have a bit of a drive up the hill and grabbed this one on the way. Thanks.

Tftc

Found with deonrocks and zayn2016. Was hoping to see some horses as I always do when up this way, but still nothing. I wonder if there are any left??!! Cache in good condition. This was as far as we went up the mountain. Hopefully make it to the top next time.TFTC. Love this side of the mountain

Today we were skiing at Tukino

TFTC

Found it

Yes

After an enjoyable weekend in Palmy we are heading home today. Fanfan-77 decides she wants to explore this road as we plan a tramp to the hut one day. Question is how far can our little car make it? Sunny and dry we head in and pick up the caches along the way. 2WD carpark… well we have 4WD so cache found and logged and up we go… TFTC

I've been driving up and down the Desert Road for years but it's often with a purpose of going somewhere and time is often limited because it's a long trip. Today sveppi and I are returning home from a long weekend in Palmy and we have a bit of time to spare... Great! I've been wanting to explore this road for years!
After a bumpy ride we arrive at the carpark. Almost no need for the GPS within about 60m and certainly no need for the hint: there's only one place it could be in this desert! Quick find, although container much smaller than expected. This isn't a regular.

Nice spot. Quick find. TFTC

Found after driving down the hill from Tukino skifield after spending the night up there on a school ski trip.
A quick and easy find in a very scenic spot with a great view of the mountain.
I enjoyed driving both the 2WD road and the 4WD road.
Great cache.
Thanks.

On the way home from a rather wet Wellington. So nice to see the sun on the Desert Rd and the great views. This road intrigued Richard and we went right up to the ski field as the weather was so good. The views were amazing - enjoyed the little walk to the cache and the snow balls TFTC

Unfortunately this was as far as the car was able to go. Was hoping for more snow but did manage to find some and make a few snowballs! TFTC

Quick walk to cache. Lovely day. Tftc

Easy find. Beautiful views

Found together with 49tiger and Nils.

Found Geocacher from Luxembourg with sanpa254

Lunchtime stop with awesome scenery. Thanks!

Quick drive-by on our way to the Whangaehu hut - signed as team FOT.
We used the upper carpark today.
TFTC

A quick drive by cache on the way to Tukino - and Whangaehu Hut. Weather looking fantastic, great views of the mountains all the way in. Signed with Alpenmilch80, Evilno9, Greenblat, Kiwileon and Slieschke, signed with our team name of F.O.T to save room on the logs.

This was just a stop for us, we will be using the higher carpark (mainly because those Aucklanders want to test out their 4WDs) A nice quick find here thanks.

Found on the F.O.T- Road Trip together with slieschke, evilno9, Greenblat, KiwiLeon and 11hpg11
P&G on our way to the Whangaehu hut enjoying our 4WDs on the way up. TFTC

Parking? Nahhhhhhhh..... we is 4WDing
T4TC

More fun in the 4WD as team FOT (slieschke, alpenmilch80, Greenblat, KiwiLeon and 11hpg11) continues to make its way up the hill. Another dusty and bumpy drive followed by a quick find and an awesome spot - TFTC

12:00
Found during nice long walk: round the mountain Ruapehu- all together from SH1 to SH1 it was almost 90 km during 24h, over the night.
Almost at the end of my journey.
Only 7 km to the SH1.
TFTC

#7280. Another glorious day to explore the Tongariro National Park further. This time on this side of the mountain. What a wonderful landscape, with great views of all three mountains of the Park. The car park was all quiet when we arrived. Not another vehicle in sight. Quick find. The cache was in excellent condition, all nice and dry inside.

- Farewell Spit lighthouse (pathtag)

Left nothing, signed log.

| = = = = = T h a n k s _ f o r _ t h e _ c a c h e = = = = = |

Found it easy. Thanks

Found on a extremely windy day, Thank you.

Brr!! Tftc easy find on the way back down the mt

A quick find, exactly where it should be, following a long walk from Tukino village.

In the area as part of a convoy of muggle adults & kids from the mighty Waikato on a tramping adventure &, having to wait for my turn to be ferried up the 4WD section of the access road, had some time hanging around the carpark so wandered over to look for this cache. Quickly found, signed & replaced, TFTC

Another good find in the desert. Great views. Tftc

Quickly found thanks. This carpark is where we begun our 8 hour trek up and down the mount! Found on a very misty morning.

Quick easy find! thanks for the cache

5.15pm Gnarled landscape. Sunny but cold. Tftc.

Cache 22 of 42 - Out with Tommygun9 & Spudnz on an afternoon excursion to the mountains. Got to experience a lot of different climates on today's adventure.. Rain, hail, sun, wind and even a bit of snow thrown in for good measure! Got up here alright even though the snow was now coming down fast! Cheers FTC!

Off on an afternoon geocaching mission with tommygun9 and hunterhillson. It was truly a 'four seasons in one day' excursion. It started with heavy hail followed by a torrential rain, driving wind and eerily quiet snow falling on the desert road. The sun even made an appearance on occasions. We found between 25 to 45 caches each and finished with an unlikely first to find back in my hometown.
It was at this point where we realized that the snow was a lot deeper than thought. Deep enough to pick up and eat or turn into snowballs. Found the cache easily and replaced as we found it. Thanks for the cache and the smiley.

I wouldn't like to bring my car out here (especially in this weather) but SpudNZ's trackable was up to the job.
We walked through the nice fresh snow to the hide area where there was tracks from some tiny animal in the snow (no sign of him or her though). The find was reasonably easier and then we walked back to the car and drove on to the last cache (and lots of snow!) in this stage of the mission.
I see this cache turned 10 years old not long ago. Good work! It's always nice to come across these older caches.
T F T C Squeekybobo.

My last cache for the weekend, time to head home, now for the 3 1/2 hrs drive...

On a quest with Gap (of Fap and Gap) to find and log three Earthcaches to complete a GIO License Challenge, and to pick up as many caches along the way. Today, we headed south to Turangi and Tongariro National Park...

What a surprise to find half a dozen cars parked up here and others arriving behind us. Fortunately, the cache was a short distance from the parked vehicles. The coordinates were bang on, so a quick find. TFTC.

No problems here, quick find with good hint and still going upwards. SLTFTC

Great drive up here. Gives a really different view of the area. Lovely little hiding spot!

Awesome drive

Found it, TFTC. Spending Queens Birthday weekend in caravan at DOC Camp ground near Ohakune and having a geo caching long weekend around central North Island!!! Awesome day clear skies.

Forgot to log this one Found it with Pepsicool earlier this year.

The gps had a malfunction and initally had me ~40m away from the cache and reading the hint didn't make any sense at 'phantom GZ'. The gps then finally decided to play ball and the hint started to make sense. A quick find once at proper GZ.

TFTC

I took a detour up here on my way home to scout this one out. I got to the carpark to find there was a running event on there today. One of the organisers who seemed to own the place came over and made it quite clear he didn't want me there. Thankfully the others in the group were more accommodating, when I got back to the car another guy came over and apologised, we had a chat and I headed off. Nice to find this old cache in an alien world. TFTC

Great spot! Happy New Year! TFTC

A perfect day for some quick caching, d.a.z of team bedaz were on the case and in 2 hours had 6 caches in hand. The final cache before it was home for a cup of tea (and a ginger nut ) z. did some fantastic superman leaps over all the gullys to fly to where the cache was located. A quick signature and then superman flew back to the car. A great family day out and about. TFTC and the family bonding.

A MEGA Adventure

Both Nova Lightning and myself had set ourselves caching targets that we were hoping to meet in time for the NZMEGA in a few weeks. So with a plan in progress and fuel in the tank away we set.
Departed home at 6pm Friday, returned home 3.30pm Monday, 7 hours sleep approx 470 caches and a great adventure.

Little side track to get these four lower caches, will come back in summer for the remainder.
Thanks to all those that have placed caches especially Skindo as I think we gave his caches a bit of a nudge

Thanks for a great weekend of Caching and Bull.

Mega Weekend

It all started about a month ago when Cats&Dragons brought up the idea of heading down the line to collect 350+ caches. We both had targets that we wanted to meet before attending the NZ Mega. Plans and locations were drawn up and puzzles were begun to be solved. It took me a while to get my head around a few of the puzzles and with the help of a cacher I was soon on a roll.

The weekend finally came and we departed Hamilton at 6pm on a Friday night. 3days, 2,000km, & 11hrs sleep, later 472 caches collected. Thanks to all those who's caches I found especially Skindo with a huge number laid.

Two cars but no alien muggles

Went exploring up the road to tukino on a beautiful day and thought it was the perfect time to find a couple of caches. First find for my mum! She was a little excited. TFTC

Great spot and a fun detour on the way home from Turangi. T4TCSL

Found a couple of aliens vacationing from a nearby cache. Nice spot, a smidgen of snow here and there but road all good. Decided the old subaru could handle the next section and ploughed on. Worth a favourite.TFTCSL

Found with Spt8sM8 on wy back from Whangaehu hut.TFTC

Quick find on the way down the hill.

TFTC

Stopped raining for a minute to give us time for this one. TFTC.

Found after a day tramp up to Whangaehu hut in brilliant weather. A straight forward find thanks to the helpful hint. Stunning scenery here in the Rangipo desert, thanks!

We were heading back to Auckland after a weekend caching in the company of FMZ. I was advised that making this slight detour off SH1 was well worth the trip despite us driving a 2 wheel drive camper van [:0]. Managed the slight climb to this spot but did park at the side of the road as suggested. There was recent evidence of a cachers visit the same day as tyre tracks lead right up to GZ. Thank you for a reason to take this slight detour & TFTC.

Quick find while travelling around the mountain!

Surprisingly cool in the shade, pretty hot up here otherwise today.TFTC.

What an amazing spot. We had lunch here, and fossiked around for quite a while.
We would have liked to have gone further up the road, but we didnt have a 4WD

Thanks for bringing us here.
TFTC Taupotiger

TFTC, Saw army trucks doing night time exercises.

Was on my way north to Auckland and after finding the cache GC2H6G3 - No Mans Land (Central Plateau), I thought that since I was in the area it would be rude not to check out this cache as it was very accessible.

After a short drive that really didn't take too long to drive around to the carpark with spectacular views of the mountain and surrounding scenic landscape, arriving near GZ I was able to find a carpark not too far from GZ and even though the carpark was full of cars I was able to find a carpark nearby and it was as quick and easy walk to GZ.

Arriving at GZ it only took me a few seconds to narrow down where the cache was hidden as it really could only be one spot and I managed to find it in the first spot that I looked, signed and replaced it back in its little hiding spot and took a few minutes to take in the views of te surrounding area before hoping back into the car and making my way back to the main road before carrying on my way North, thanks for placing the cache here and for bring me to this lovely spot that I havent being before and not quite sure why not as it was very accessible especially when you have the correct vehicle. Will definitely be back again to clean up the rest of the caches in the area, TFTC TNLNSL (4621)

Came on to here after finding "No Mans Land" back down the road. Cache was a quick find, all in good condition. I did think of driving further up the road but it's a long way up to the next cache and I didn't have snow chains with me, so gave that away. Signed log, TFTC and for bringing me to this great spot.

I read the log, asking for this cache to be "rescued" as the owner is too far away these days to maintain it. My intention was to do this......UNTIL I GOT THERE......and realised lots of people should visit here! So I left it there. The cache is in very good condition. I am sure as geocachers WE CAN MAINTAIN IT. I see the closest one, has been repaired by fellow geocachers. Here's hoping!!!!!! A favourite from me.