Pukerangi (Middlemarch, Otago) Pukerangi, South Island, New Zealand
By U.N.C.L.E. (adopted by Sgt_Wilson) on 03-Jan-05. Waypoint GCMDM3

Had a good look to see if this was still here given that it hadn't been found for a year and had been archived. Met a couple from Auckland who were camping in their motor home so introduced them to geocaching. While we were looking the owner of the nearby holiday house came over and showed us where the cache had been moved to after recent pruning. Alas it was not to be found.

We are archiving this cache as we no longer want to be involved in geocaching. We have just discovered that we have had another offensive log posted about us, this time by WEKA. The idea that we are just UNCLE with a different username is not going to go away no matter how many times we try to explain. We started geocaching with UNCLE about 12 months ago because of our shared interest in motorcycle adventure touring. Geocaching seemed to complement that really well. We didn't set up our own account as we were happy to tag along with him but we did pay for a premium membership on his account as we thought it would make planning rides easier. That is the reason we took over the account when he decided to stop caching. Our plan was to set up our own account once the membership expired. The numbers aren't important to us. We changed the username because we aren't UNCLE. We adpoted his caches and agreed to look after them but we are not prepared to do that anymore. We kept out of the politics but it seems the politics won't leave us alone. We read about allegations of bullying in geocaching in the newspaper the other day and after the way we have been treated by woody104 and WEKA we are starting to see what was meant.

this place is isolated right? So, when I arrive at close to GZ a "market" was getting ready for a train from a cruise ship. Fortunately found and logged before it arrived. (The train that is - not the cruise ship!!) Shame the market didn't have a nice cold beer for a thirsty cacher.

Can't have been too far after n!mrod...got round the last corner and curse it, the Taieri Gorge train. Expected to be putting on a weird show for the tourists but thank goodness it was just pulling out and away. The 'market' was just being packed down, the fudge and lollies looked tempting... 2/15 for today.

Tftc, nice drive out.

Found with moneydork and rediguna

Took a bit of hunting to find this one, the GPS seemed to be a little out, but not surprising given the big trees! Cheers Gav [6605]

A very remote and isolated location.
Must be quite busy when the train stops here though.

Found with apple crumble at end of the most magnificent train journey ever! What a journey! Spectacular gorge and views all the way from Dunedin. Wonderful to do the trip in winter too - clear blue skies and no crowds! TFTC and greetings from Scotland!!

What a great train trip!! It is fantastic that there is a cache up here as well - it makes the whole journey just that bit more special and worthwhile! .
Found it quickly whilst the train was 'turning round' - a good hiding place .
Left a geocoin and took nothing.
TFTC

Grretings from Scotland! [^]

Travelling on the Taieri Gorge for my oldests 4th birthday. Quite a few muggles about when I jumped off the train and many headed in the same direction I did, though none appeared to be geocaching. GPS reception took a while to come in and become accurate, but it lead me straight to the likely suspect and the cache was an easy find. Kids got to take a good look at the train at this point and see it being coupled onto the front of the carriages as this was the turn around point. This has to be the best travel/route to a cache I taken so far - and I didn't even break a sweat! TFTC!

Found on a holiday round trip with friends through the south island of New Zealand. Came here by the Taieri Gorge Train.
Thanks from Randleipziger (Germany)

Found with Randleipziger and friends during our holiday trip around the south island. Thanks for the cache. The drive with the Taieri Gorge Train wars great.

What a wonderful trip this has been, with my geobrother MrGrubstake. TFTC SL, Moshima from Orem, Utah, USA

My sister (Moshima) and I are on the Volendam cruising around New Zealand - this was our first stop - we ended up doing at least on geocache at each port of call. This was a great first NZ cache! Loved the train ride! For a while I thot we may not find it before having to get back on board the train but we made it! L-Mr Grub pen.

She is from Utah and I am from Montana USA. Thanks for placing the cache.

Walked right off the train after some tricky maneuvers to move the locomotives to the other end. I did a couple circles around the tree then went in for the kill. This was kind of a strange terminus for the train trip, but the people selling stuff and playing guitar was kind of cool. I didn't buy anything, though the honey was appealing. After about 20 minutes it was time to turn around, and it was back to town.

nice one cheers

2299. Took the train while visiting on Rhapsody of the Seas. What a beautiful ride. While others were busy shopping I was able to make a quick grab of the cache. Left Red Handed geocoin. TFTC

Found by the Jo half of the team who arrived by train. Joe had the GPS, meeting up in Middlemarch.

Please excuse the late log. Caching with Luvbassn, OHSilk, and Mommacakers from the Star Princess. Internet time on the ship is $.75 a minute and just arrived home last night (November 1st). The train ride was wonderful. TFTC Log entry changed to reflect the correct date

On the Star Princess cruiseship from San Francesco and caching with luvbassn, luvbassn2, and Mommacakers. Took the train and greatly enjoyed the ride and the views. Was glad to find a cache at this location - it was a nice surprise. Thanks for placing this one. Much appreciated.

On a south pacific run with luvbassn2, OHSilky and Mammacackers. TFTC,SL

The cache was missing. Has been replaced.

I note the two DNFs so will check the cache at earliest opportunity.

Spent some time searching in the drizzling rain after a lovely train ride - and after explaining my activities to the train conductor he also joined in the search - all to no avail. Lots of hiding spots, but no cache to be seen.

We couldn't find this in the short time it took for the train engine to turn around. However I did find a rubber mudguard very close to the hint. Hopefully it is still there.

TFTC found with terman8or

TFTC found while on train from, dunedin.

Great trip with group from work. Henry had fun explaining to caching to Alistair and Joesphine.

Bad weather today, so I went with the Tajeri Gorge Train to Pukerangi and picked up this cache.
Left TravelBug “Ladybird!Ladybird!†here. Hope, it’ll enjoy this place and someone else’s goanna pick it up soon and take it somewhere else.

TIME: 4:45pm
OUT: ---
IN: TB “Ladybird!Ladybird!â€
TFTC, Worlddiver from Switzerland

@ 16.40 # 2122
Going by Taieri Gorge Railway with wonderful sights we had a short stop-over in Pukerangi and had time to get this nice cache. Easily found.
TFTC and for showing us this nice place
NT
Greetings from Denmark
Thue-p and wife on tour 18.000 km from home

Rail trail tip - great day - a bit windy
T: N
L: Backgammon Set

Thanks
Couff and Jinpot

Train arrived as we did, so muggle central for a bit until it moved off ...TFTC nice quick find cheers

Came up on the train and started to panic as we could not find the cache. Then Peter spotted a mudflap under a distant tree. Quickly signed the log and leapt onto the train.
Thanks Jacqueline and Peter #2210

We were on the train ride and got this quite easily while the other passengers milled around.

Thanks!
Wandrr and Mrs Wandrr, Ottawa, Canada

Lovely drive, untidy site. TFTC.

Quick excursion up and back from the main road for this one. Upset a couple of cyclists who wanted to ride two abreast on a single lane road, obviously haven't heard the term "share the road"
Quick and easy find, TFTC

Well, we've found caches in ferry terminals, bus stops, and subway/underground stations, but never, as far as we can recall, have we gotten off a train and made a find. We took the Taieri Gorge excursion train to Pukerangi this afternoon, and while all the other traingoers were taking photos, one of us discreetly tracked this one down. There has been some cutting/pruning in the area, but the cache is safe for the moment. TNLN, then as we finished the log, the train whistle sounded and it was time to head back to Dunedin. TFTC!

Relaxing find, watch over by shunt train drivers and the gorge train. lovely day. TFTC

Ah ... a holiday and a Wednesday = allows me to search with no muggles. Well in fact the cache was not where I thought it was, I could have retrieved it last time despite the muggles.
All good. TFTC and cheers.

#1211 The only cache of the day. Drove down from Ashburton then took the train from Dunedin up to Pukerangi and back. Fantastic journey. Jumped off and grabbed the cache while the "trainload" of muggles was busy doing what tourists usually do. No-one was interested in what I was doing. TNLN DS8300

Pulled up only to discover a stall of muggles right near GZ. Then a few minutes later a whole train of muggles showed up. Needless to say I didn't get to do a proper search. Next time I'll look at the train schedule!

I have changed the cache to a black-painted one litre container. The contents are the combined remains of my now archived Manuka Gorge Tunnel and Berwick II caches. Have updated the cache page and hints.

Was in the area checking out a possible new cache location nearby so checked this cache. Was out of its hiding place. Will temporarily put on hold as I am working on something new in this area.

Found with help of man from crib had been watching us and knew what we must be doing. GPS reading was quite a bit out for us. Train went past while searching.

Our second attempt to find this one, used the clue to find it.
TNLN
Cheers Pipedream.

Great cache with plenty of opportunity for small boys to hunt around for the container.

They loved the singapore dollars...

We left tiggr for someone else to love.....

Train turned up while I was searching but thankfully as it was Friday it went on to Middlemarch.
The long drops here are fancier than the ones on the main rail trail; they have toilet paper! And I love the picket fence around them.
Nice cache, TNLN

No trouble getting to the general location, but the hunt took quite a while - well hidden. Thanks.

Read the description - yes, take the train option.
Oh so near, 30m away, but oh, so far......... trapped in the train... stopped for 1 minute only with clear instructions to STAY on the train.....
onto Middlemarch, lunch and return...
This time stopping again, to drop off passengers, again STAY on the train.
Yes, we did briefly speak to the train manager, no we could not get off the train here

Next time we will have to do the shortened trip which turns around here, but then it will be muggle central.

Drove all the way out to Pukerangi and was not going to leave until I found this cache.

I think the cache clue has been removed however after 30 minutes of searching I found it. Very hard find but definitely a nice place to stop for a rest. Came here by train a few months ago but not much time to search plus lots of muggles around. None today however.

TFTC

Took the Taieri Gorge Train for a ride. Had GPS but turned it off half way up as kept losing signal - so my plan of creating a 'track' failed...

Was looking on Mapsource the next day and what did I see? Pukerangi. Was I disappointed or what? Moral of the story is: Always have your GPS on!

Never mind - I will do this cache another day... Enjoyed the train trip anyway. Very worthwhile.

Checked the cache and all is in order. Someone had placed a small rock in front of the hiding place which, whilst no doubt well-meaning, may have contributed to the recent "Did Not Finds" as the cache notes say "Visible from 2 metres". Have removed the rock. The free hint referring to 0976 still works too. GZ was being indicated to within normal GPS accuracy. So cache up and running again. Happy hunting.

I've picked up on the fact that the last three searchers have been unable to locate the cache and the last note about treework having been carried out. So will temporarily disable the cache until I can check it out, hopefully within the next week.

Arrived as the train was picking up the Rail Trail cyclists.Hunted fo 30 minutes then took the free hint but still couldn't find the cache.It looks as if there has been a lot of tree trimming going on recently, so the free clue wasn't much help.

We searched for about an hour (4 people)and couldn"t find the cache or 0976.As a bonus though,the Taieri Gorge tourist train pulled in while we were there.May be we"ll have another try some other time.

Enjoyed the afternoon on the TGR whilst in Dunedin for a couple of days on our adventure tour through NZ. Happened to turn on the GPS just as we pulled into the Pukerangi stop / station.

Yippe I thought - a little caching! Jumped off the train and went in search of the elusive cache without any clues. Scratching through the trees for a good 15 minutes prompted a number of enquires from the fellow train travellers, "Have you lost something?" "What are you looking for?" "Can I help you to the nearest mental asylum?". Sadly the whilstle blew and it was time to board the train and return to Dunedin....without the prize!

Ah well...may be next time!

Cheers, Rav 4 Raiders

Took a while to find, co ords all over the place,had to use clue in end.thanks

This was very difficult as it was raining and there were about 40 school kids on a biking trip sheltering under the trees - plus a couple of teachers curious as to what I was looking for. Could not find the free hint numbers anwhere at GZ for ages but once located elsewhere it was only a matter of waiting for a dozen kids depart from that area. The coordinates given appeared to be 15-20 m too far south-west. Averaged the position with an external antenna for a good 5 minutes and would thus suggest trying S45 38.061 E170 12.710. Thanks.

Luck of the Irish! We arrived just as the big long yellow thing full of tourists arrived, and poured out around us. So we sat having a few sandwiches, kids watched the engine change ends, go toot, then head back the way it came. We started searching then, but the 11m accuracy of the waypoint and bountiful possibilities of small caching sites lead to a good 5-10 min of searching, mostly around in circles! Nice little challenge in a nice little spot, thanks.

We had 12 people (mostly children) and 2 GPS's and it still took 15 minutes to find the cache. That is 3 man hours! We were staying at Sutton and enjoyed the drive through the rocks to Pukerangi. Thanks for the cache. Left a Singaporian $2. Thanks for the cache.

Found it just before a tourist bus of muggles arrived. Last for today.

Nice little bonus added to a cool train trip on a warm sunny Autumn afternoon. Didn't take too long to find with GZ spot on pointing to the obvious place . Thanks U.N.C.L.E.

Cheers,
G.
+/-0

Took a little while to hunt down, but it revealed itself eventually. The sweets are still around on the ground.

A couple of TB's visited.

TFTC, Mike.

Found the cache after a bit of "hunting". No exchange made. There are some interesting historical displays in the Railway Station "Waiting Room" which seems to be kept unlocked.

Cheers
Bruce

Another great spot just missed seeing the train by about 15min's... Man was it hot in here... And as for Froogal comments, let's just say if it was left up to him we could have caught Monday's train home ...


Many Thanks Bitsprayer

Found with Bitsprayer i did most of the work this time. Nice place!!

Cheers Froogal

Found it quickly after I saw those sweets on the ground (they are still there). I noticed that the pencil was broken, so sharpened it and left my sharpener in the cache. I took the sweets that were in the cache, as there was not enough room and they were food.

That old railway station is well preserved. But, most of all, I liked the old road/railway bridge that you have to cross while driving to the cache. I didn't know that there were any left operating in NZ.

Cheers,
Donovan.

We were hoping to be the first to find, but didn't quite get there early enough. A nice day for a drive. We knew someone had found it first as there were lollies scattered on the ground (to our daughters delight) and when we picked it up it rattled and we knew from cache description it had nothing in it. We had never been to Pukerangi before (infact didn't know it exsisted) ideal for a picnic area. Thanks for dragging us out there.

Our first FTF
Figured the race might be on with this one. Found after some tree stabbings - the numbers helped. Alex found it in the end. We saw the lollies too - figured we'd leave them as a second prize
Nice spot U.N.C.L.E - we have plans for Strath Taieri caches as well

Left a dice