The Enchanted Forest (Auckland) Takapuna, North Island, New Zealand
By RotLA on 11-Mar-05. Waypoint GCN2A0

Another one bites the dust

Down for maintenance, as reported.

Unfortunately this one seems to have been muggled . Found about half the contents of the geocaching spread around a couple of meters from the container (which was in what was prolly the right hiding place, but is missing its' lid). Cool forest though, TFTC!

Thank you so much for bringing us to this wonderful location. The first stage of the boardwalk through the wood was interesting, but we were amazed as we reached the big old trees with hanging vegetation. So many trees, plants and birds that us English tourists have never seen before! The handy hints helped in the cache search and we enjoyed all stages of this hunt. Dropped off Little Piggy TB. SL. TFTC.

Also logging in and out our England Geocoin.

This is a fantastic cache! One of my all-time favourites. I love this little forest in suburban Auckland. Very cool place and a very cool cache! Thanks!

Came to do some cache maintenance with fresh bags, cache is dry and OK.

Did a bug rescue at the same time.

Out Elmo and Bi-Plane TB's.

Came to drop off two TBs here. Thought they might enjoy a visit in the enchanted forest!

+ Round Trip Elmo Bug TB
+ Woody the Biplane TB

The container's fine but the plastic bag with the goodies is ripped. I would've replaced the bag but didn't have any with me.

Did this one in the dark and it wasn't easy. Luckily my GPSr was up to the task on this one, the clues would not of been entirely helpful, well at least not in the dark. Very pleased to be able to log as a find rather than a DNF.
TNLNSL, many thanks.

Loved this one. Picked up a leaflet for the Smith's Bush Nature Trail at the entrance and managed to learn a lot about the native trees in this forest. A fascinating place.
- Scorpion paperweight
+ Superman toy
TFTC

What a nice forest!!

Just used the clues and numbers to do this one, as my GPS just couldnt handle it.

TFTC

- TB
- tick clack toy
- navy badge
+ Dwarf and another toy.

#198 Easy find, thanks for taking us here. We really enjoyed walking through this enchanted forest.
TNLNSL, TFTC

Great one!! This was Amanda's first cache. Met in carpark near entrance to Smiths Bush. Picked up a handy map inside and nice walkways all the way round. (V scarey when dog came charging up behind us though!)
Found the film cannister depsite patchy GPS. (Loved the clue about 'the dragon's snout!'). Followed the instructions and found [22] but looked in all the hollow trees within 6m but never found the cache. Thought we were defeated and left for 2nd cache of the day.

However, passing by the Dragon's snout again we decided to re-read the clues and realised we were searching the wrong place!

We ended up going back to [22] later in the day and followed the path (as per instructions). Soon found the hollow tree and the cache packed with lots of goodies! (Sooo many options we had trouble deciding what to take!!)
In- horse finger puppet
out- pukeko rubber.
And saw the smiley tree on the way out!

[This entry was edited by Phil B and Phil G on Saturday, April 07, 2007 at 2:37:06 AM.]

[This entry was edited by Phil B and Phil G on Saturday, April 07, 2007 at 3:42:23 AM.]

My son was doing an ecology assignment in this reserve so decided to drop off Miro des Chatham to spend some time in a lovely NZ forest and with some native birds.

Gradually worked out this cache over about an hour. Quite amazing in there. Time for lunch now.

This relaly was the Enchanted Forest. I drive past here everyday on my way to work and always thought it looked pretty dark and horrible but what a surprise I got. It is a really lovely peaceful spot. The GPS gave up on me so I had to resort to the clues and once I figured that out I was away. I could just imagine the Magic Faraway Tree being in here and the thought of getting a fist full of dragons snot had me going but I conquered that and was off to GZ.

This is just a lovely place and the boardwalk is fabulous.

In: Navy Badge, Out: TB
TFTC

Just dropped off the ladybug TB, which was feeling a bit bored hanging of my camera

Nice little haven in the middle of mayhem. Never been before so nice to see. Got asked by a muggles if I was trying to get to know each tree personally!

Now this is a real beauty. I love this park anyway and have used it many times for my lunchtime run. The dragon's snout is a beautiful find and then the carvings on the beautiful logs are really from another world or fairy tale. A great experience and I recommend it. Thanks a lot.

Led us a merry dance around the bush Im very familiar with; as boys we spent many hrs exploring this area,later as field trips in High school & then training a german shepherd in tracking tec. Many good memories of a beautiful piece of bush,well named in this caching event,so, thanks for bringing us here,thoroughly enjoyed the event,good stages,cache notes a bit confusing tho,got there in the end,really helped by the new GPSr--garmin 60CSx (great coverage even in the dense parts)
cache is well camoed,in good condition& dry,I also replaced the log book cover--coming apart.
TNLNSL thanks for bringing us here,really like these bush hides!--Took picture.I remember this carving,its over 30 years ago that it was done,there are other carvings on the branch as well,& note--my feet are still on the board walk!!

What a gorgeous bit of forest right next to the motorway lol
Loved the hiding places!

+ soap bubbles
- pencil sharpener

You've been BUGGED! This is an enchanted forest. Here from USA caching with the pud. Thanks for bringing us here. New Zealand is a very beautiful place. We live in the desert so the green is nice to see. Left spider, cricket, and a scorpion paper weight. Thanks again.

Found with Team Bugmann from the USA.
Log book bag has large ripe in it but log itself is fine.

1900. Was searching in entirely the wrong place for ages until I rechecked my co-ords. Oops! Was a little gem when I got to the right place over 1km away. Cheers.

14h30 - Nice and quiet for a Sunday afternoon. We were admiring this magnificent place so much, that we almost went past the first waypoint. Some years ago I did a construction project not even 100m from this forest and did not know!!
Check out # 22
- bottle fiz spray
+ eraser

TFTC - exellent.

Real fun cache, waypoint was easy but at first we were totally in the wrong place for the final.

Awesome face! I wonder who made it?

TFTC, TNLN,
WallaceDuo

What a lovely forest - waypoint 1 was found very quickly. But after leaving the boardwalk for waypoint 2, finding the carving indicated (enchantment truly), we were aware that given the 6m radius search area, that the very sensitive ecological area was being damaged with every step, and that the signs on entering the area requested staying on the boardwalk, we preferred to log a DNF.

We did check the hint to try to speed up the time hunting, but there were so many items in the search area that matched.

Enchanted forest indeed - a real special gem.

The wonderful underfoot mosses were beautiful. The bird song just delightful. The epiphytes in the large old trees added to the enchantment.
Thanks to the authorities that built the boardwalk so that this area could be appreciated.
Thanks for bringing us to this very special place.

[This entry was edited by Butterfly_lady on Saturday, October 21, 2006 at 11:02:56 PM.]

Liked this one alot. The walk is nice and the trees are realy something. Well worth the vist.
TFTC
In Whistle
Out Telescope

A truly magnificent forest. Not sure whether it is enchanted, but there is no denying it's enchanted. made my way through the waypoints and got to the cache, only to find the pen no longer works. On the return trip from the car, I found the park maps that would have made the whole thing easier.

The kids loved walking around the bush and looking for the dragon. No one around for a Sunday.

Entered the forest through the back door... A great place to learn about the native plants in NZ! Stage 1 was easy to find, for stage 2 some effort was necessary. No trade, TFTC!

Peter (Neo)

What a mission getting parking, with huge netball tournament on. Used to play here as a kid, its a really cool place. The boardwalks were like skate parks! TFTC

Sinautus and I thought we would find a few caches this afternoon before the rain came. (It came as soon as we started but a little rain was not going to stop us.)
After reading the logs we decided to decode the hints straight away so we found both stages very easy. (reception to the first stage was good)What an amazing place so glad we went and will definately be going back to have a better look around.
The pen is starting to leak (sorry didnt have one to leave) and the log bag has a hole in it.
Thanks RotLA for the great cache and your right Smith's backyard is not suited to this wonderful fantasy place.
TNLNSL

4.20pm. Out finding with KazExplorer this afternoon. What a great place. Only saw one 4 legged Beast with keeper the rain must of been keeping them in there hiding places.
TNLNSL
T4TC

I am absolutely amazed that they gave permission to place this cache. You must have had to really jump through some hoops for approval. Went in the evening, so had correct equipment with me.

And yay!!! My first TB!

In: Cernit Modelling clay
Out: Frodo Baggins TB

Thought this was going to be a toughie initially, especially when the GPS reception was awful. After reading the clues, though it all became much, much simpler and we found the micro and the main cache without too much trouble. However, we were debating whether we ought to be walking over the terrain, when signs all around were expressly asking us not to...
In: Action Man telescope
Frodo Baggins TB
Out: Stickers

We used the clues but were supprised that the GPS kept going for as long as it did. It only stopped when we took a seat to let muggles past. Both parts were nice quick finds.

Loved the face although it made me jump for some reason.

TNLNSL Thanks for taking us here. It is an amazing place.

This one proved quite tricky.
As stated GPS of no use.
Follow the clues and you cant go wrong.
Excepting the final clue the track is not where you might expect!!
TNLN
TFTC

Absolutely loved the forest. It's a bit environmentally unfriendly needing to hunt in a 6m circle in such terrain. Can't believe we managed to find. Lucky we had the torch with us as it certainly was needed.
+ Bungee cord
- Mickey Mouse

Very, very enjoyable cache, this one. The first of two completed on the way home this evening, highly therapeutic.
TNLNSL, TFTC

This is a really lovely little walk that my wife and I did together. Easy enough to find, but fun descriptions as clues. Good way to start the day.
In: blue car
Out: glove key-ring
Thanks

What a fantastic spot. Thanks for bringing us there. Visiting neat spots is the best part of caching for us - and this is a classic example. GPS was remarkably accurate for the WP and not too bad for the cache. The cache container was very obvious. Clue is a bit ambiguous though. TNLN - thanks.

What a lovely wee piece of bush! There were some fantastic trees in there. Needed the hint for the first waypoint as the GPS pointed me a wee way away, but found the final cache easily enough. No exchange made. Cheers Gav [664]

My 6th and last for the day, seeing that it is 5:30pm. A great place to visit. I shouldn't have left this one for last especially at this time of the day when all the forest creatures are beginning to stir and come out to play.

Lucky for me the dragon was asleep so that I could get the clue for the cache. Was pleasantly surprised to find the cache in the near darkness.

There were a few muggles going around and around the boardwalk (saw one couple 4 times - they must have wondered about me). My wife, kids and grandkids all wonder about me as well. So I should be used to it by now.

In: Teal-coloured dinosaur
Out: Float key ring.

TFTC, RotLA. A great place to visit. My team member wants me to bring her after hearing me talk about it. Certainly is enchanted.

Tuesday, 19 July

The junior ‘tanetops’ team spent an exciting afternoon sniffing out the dragon’s snout. Thereafter followed a frantic dash along the boardwalk to reach the location of the final cache, which was guarded by the ‘smiley face’. All felt very proud of their triumph. Miss’K’ extracted the film camera and substituted a ‘cat with mask’ and other baubles.

My first real find as I beat BenMc's son to it another one really, really close to our house +Disposable camera, US Flag, KnicNak - Lazer key ring, Spiderman cards and marbles SL

Thanks had a lot of fun finding it, i used to vistit that grove all the time, kind of a shock as it was right under my nose .

- 2x AA Batteries
+ 1x Golf Ball

Cheers Rather Geekish

[This entry was edited by Rather Geekish on Monday, July 18, 2005 at 11:17:46 PM.]

Picked up TB whilst geo caching with The Retards

Now this was a great spot and the kids just loved it. I don't know how many times we must have driven past here and never gone in. Really cool cache. Thanks RotLA [^]
Dropped off TB Quala Koala
- Plyers
+ Shell Necklace

Nice little multi and a good one for kids.
+ AA Batts
- Battleships game
SL

Despite the fact that fact the RotLA's had recently [url=http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=089ce18a-30ca-42d6-9b70-58048c6cc97b] pulled the wool over my eyes [/url] I swallowed my pride and took the kids to this cache.

We found it a really kid-friendly cache. With the spooky introduction read out, the kids entered with anticipation and were not disappointed at all.

Thanks for a well stocked and well prepared cache RotLA's.

- Chopsticks, screwdriver set
+ Long-nose pliers, sticker.

The kids couldn't wait for this one. They thought it was so cool going to the Enchanted forest having read the Faraway Tree books. They certainly weren't disappointed - this is an amazing piece of bush with all of the parasitic plants growing on the tall trees. It is nice to see that they have gone to some effort with the boardwalk to preserve what is there. I sure we made a trade but I have lost my notes sorry and can't remember what it was. Many thanks for a great cache.

5.15pm. Stopped by to grab the TB's for a trip south.

Found stage 1 quickly, didn't take much longer to find the final stage. A lovely walk in a lovely native bush. Useto play cricket near by a few years ago. Remember walking in this bush many years ago well before the boardwalk.
Great to come back into the native bush.
GPSr was well behavied, but didn't really need it for the find.
Cheers
+ TB 'Crispy'
- Nil

Our first find as geocachers. Very satisfying.
+ mini book for cohocolate lovers
- travel bug "Elizabeth - $ & a dream"

Well, what a fun family cache
Wandered in between showers with the external aerial. Very impressive Puriri, Kahikatea and Totara. These little forest remnants in the North Shore are often real gems.
Found the first stage with a little help from the clue (GPS was reading 30 metres away at the time). Then onto the second stage which was an easy find in the midst of the enchanted forest.
- love chain
- snake & ladders
+ key ring glove
+ bag of marbles
Thanks for the cache!

Found with dysentry

Found with Dysentry and Surgez.
My yellow E-trex really struggled. Cache 1 waypoint had me flip flopping between three locations based on poor reception.
Searched the actual location of the cache without finding it initially, until returning with D & S when it just looked too good a / likely a spot. Had another harder look using appropriate gadget and all was revealed.
D found final cache quickly despite our literal interpretation of the clue.
Great bush with some fantastic Puriri trees.
Took Platypus TB and left clown.
Thanks RotLA

[Visited with Surgez, but stumbled across St Owens also searching.

We then teamed up and started scouring the area for the first cache.

The location seemed a bit dodgey, but Surgez volunteered to recover it. It was well hidden, and without the help of St Owens ]torch[ we would not have been able to see it.

The trot round to the final cache was very pleasent, and I was suprised to discover how nice the area really was. All these years living on the shore, and I had always thought this was a dirty scummy bush area - how wrong was I!

We found the final cache after a bit of searching, we must have overlooked it on the first sweep.

Took: nothing.
Left: key kaper tb, dollar-and-dream tb]

Wonderful park. Seriously something out of the Lord of The Rings right next to a motorway, and urban areas... The birds, just amazing... cool, just too cool... anyways
+Battlefield magnetic travel game
+Platypus TB
-Electronic tetris multi-game
-Badminton Burge TB
SL. We used the first hint, yeah, the GPS was all over the place, but got us pretty close. The second time, we didn't need the hint, as the GPS took us right to the right place!!! Also did the nearby ZorkV's cache - by the goat track

Not too hard to find, really wish reception was better, my Garmin 72 lost it soon after entry to bush. Lovely cool walk on a warm morning.

In: Badminton Burge

Out: Beaker Soft Toy

T4TC RotLA

Great piece of bush, and an abudance of birdlife too, theres an awful lot of possible hidey holes in the GZ, but got there in the end.
- lightstick
+ snakes and ladders game

A friday off meant it was cache time(and sleep in).... unfortunatley none of the reg crew could join me on this one so I went it alone.
I've seen this bush but never been into it.... infact I thought you couldn't get into it. Lovely area but I can see it would be swampy in winter with out the board walk.
Went in with sportrak and got to within 5m of both caches useing the gps but yes it is tricky to lock on in there.... reminded me of cuddle up cache and the fun i had doing that one with a etrex.

neways... found and loged cheers for the awseom cache Rotla.
TNLNSL

Willbuild

Great place for a walk .
School Group was having a Class here looking at all the trees so made my job of finding the cache hard.

What a great place! The birds and crickets are in full song, and it's nice and cool in here. Excellent cache contents too.
+ rachet screwdriver
- lighting earpick
- Farmer Fleming TB
Thanks RotLA - M@

Found with JDHnz

What an awesome forest!! Extremely airy - especially at night.... It was almost as if....even when something died...it came back to life

12.39pm. After RotLA was the FTF my multi cache GCMZYP http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=51142291-5856-47d4-b27f-032806fe5f9f I decided having seen this on the site I had better return the favour. [:d]

I thought we may have trouble with parking on a Saturday with all the sport on, but parking was a plenty.
A nice easy stroll along the board walk to the first part, and after getting the co-ords to the second we were off.
Yes you are write RotLA the coverage is not great here my GPSr managed to hold a lock till we were about 20m from GZ.
Had a look around at the most likely spots and there it was.[^]

Fellow cachers you had better be fast at GZ as the mozzies here obviously don't have a lot to suck on, so with a nice piece of human flesh on offering they were all over us. [:o]

+ Glow Stick.
+ Beaker soft toy.
- Buddha.

Thanks for the cache RotLA
Cheers M+S

15:21 hours (to late!)
I half expected to gain a FTF on this cache but it seems;
You have got to be quick!

A pleasant stroll in behind to old ladies who were certainly taking their time.

My 76S with external antenna on my hat held lock all the way with the largest EPE of 13 metres at the final GZ. But I had 4 satellites high in the sky.

I found quite a choice of hides at GZ and as light rain was just starting to fall I opted for the clue and soon had the "jar" in my hot wee hand.

I guessed I had missed the FTF with out taking out the logbook, as the bag was not sealed. In my experience the owner can be relied on to seal the ziplock on his or her own cache.

I have walked in here often but had never investigated the GZ area,
although at one time I had thought about a cache in here.

TNLNSL, thanks for a well executed cache RotLA

found @ 16:55

Found it just in time as some showers started to fall. Great reserve, thoroughly enjoyed the walk. I can see this place would be a RotLA favourite. TNLNSL, thanks!

Dropping off Farmer Fleming TB.