Jone's Jaunt (Waikato) Arapuni, North Island, New Zealand
By quinella on 18-Mar-06. Waypoint GCTYCT

Find number 7093. This one has been on my to do list but I had never got round to attempting it. Today was the day. I had done some co-ord projection at home so I made my way to them. After searching for awhile without any luck I decided to go back to posted coordinates and try from there. It took me back to within a few meters that I originally looked. But coming in from a different angle I stumbled upon it. Literally. It was at the base of a small tree below the hint item. Cache has not been found since 2018 and was in good order. Signed and placed it back where I found it. Thank you for the adventure.

Today's mission was to ride from the Waipapa dam to the Arapuni dam as the cycle track is now open.
With all the difficult track behind us, I passed this by accident and when I realised, I was at the bottom of the switchbacks and I was not going back up for a multi cache.

After a bit of head scratching Return2nai located the cache. Gorgeous day for the jaunt, so pleased we found the treasure too. On to the next! TFTC!

Amazing! Decided to walk up here rather than bike and glad I did. Got to GZ and wandered up to the veiwpoint to have a look. Well worth the hike up! Then got down to looking for the cache. Estimating bearing and pace got me nowhere. Tea trees were everywhere. Decided to pull the plug but, as I was passing GZ, thought I'd give it one last chance and went with the flow. The find was almost Zen after that. TFTC.

We loved the walk to this cache... yes it was a bit steep in places... and yes it made us breathe quite hard at time... but those views are spectacular. Clearly we need to do some compass skills because we struggled with that part of the multi. In the end we used geo commonsense and a healthy dose of observation skills and after looking in several places 'The Mr' made the find. Yay! TFTC

On the Waikato trails now. We had to have a double go at this one as where we thought it probably was was not right. This time around we followed the instructions properly and there it was in a great state and in very good condition.

The target of todays find. I saw that it hadn't been found in some time, and decided to go for a little wander. Times were bang on for a slow lad like myself, not that I was in any hurry. Was nice to sign my name in the log too, showing that the container is still in good shape.
TFTC quinella, the cache was found in good order Signed, sealed and returned to GZ. 2 find(s) of 2 today, making this find #1657

A lovely walk on a nice day but you might need spiked tyres if it's wet. Quick find and what a great view!!!

Beautiful day for a walk. Cache was in good order and the track dry, or though parts more suited for mountain biking.

It's been a long time since NZPatoto and I have been out chasing smiles but today we decided it was time to do some. NZPatoto got a new smartphone so was learning how to use it. 5 of 5 for the day. Found by Nahkins. Said I'll be back. Had a good run finding the first four we decided to come and do this one. Didn't take us long to get to GZ but we did have a bit of trouble finding the cache. Logon to the website and re-read some of the logs. We were on the wrong side of the track - we even walked to the lookout before the find to have a musli bar and regroup. - guess we don't know our degrees so much anyways searched for the tree in the clue and found cache rather easy. Sitting there for the debreif I could see how the 10 and 90 degrees worked. So mush easier after you know where the cache is hiding. Even after all the rain cache is nice and dry. TFTC

Well it has been a long time since I last went geocaching. Teamed up with Nahkins and set off to capture a few smiley faces. This one had been on our list for a while. After doing 4 over on the other side of the lake we had spare time so decided to have a walk along the river trail. We parked at Jones Landing. Didn't take long to get to GZ. Took some time finding the right tree though. Nahkins found it. I was on the topside and she was on the bottom side. I had a few scratches. We had walked to the lookout before we started looking for the cache. We discussed the directions to take. We were in the wrong place to start with. Really need to get a proper compass. Anyway we have another smiley face. Took an old path back to Jones landing and it didn't take us very long. Sat having a cup of coffee and muffin watching a couple trying to get their boat onto a trailer. The wind was quite strong and the boat kept moving on an angle to the trailer. There was some colourful language after awhile.

Came in from the Arapuni end, went up the hill and saw something like a container. Tried from another angle and bingo found it. As we were packing up the cache there was a massive crack of thunder, got a huge fright. Cache itself was good however the breadbag is a bit worse for wear. Maybe the next person can replace it. TFTC.

On a roll, so carried on down from Arapuni dam end. Now that we can enter co-ords into the gps we are finding things alot easier. Actually walked past this one, checked gps, we had gone past by about 100m, we were enjoying the walk too much!! Once at location it poured down, umbrella to the rescue! With rain stopped we began to search, LimmyB said I can see something over there. Bit of a wee scamble and bingo there it was. Bread bag needs replacing but contents of cache all dry and well. Can't believe that it has not been found alot over the years. The log book at the beginning was full of peoples exprience, just like what we log on here, so that was interesting. Just as it was being put back, bang, huge crack of thunder, so we quickly made the walk back to the car managing to avoid any more rain. TFTC.

No we haven't forgotten this one it's just that I didn't feel like another long walk and we were running short on time. We will be back and with our cameras for the lookout and to complete the cache.

Woke up to a beautiful morning and we couldn't be bothered getting the bikes out of the motorhome garage so decided to walk the track instead. We are so glad we did as it would have been a fairly challenging track on the bikes! Found GZ and used the GPS navigation to guide us to the final which was pointing 28m into the bramble bushes so found the easiest way in (via the Big Tree in the middle) and the cache was spotted on the ground (again). I think it must be falling out of it's position so popped it back again as it is secure enough where it is. (I don't think a holey breadbag does very much for protection though ). A nicely put together offset. TFTC quinella.

Didn't realise until signing log that it's > a year since its been found. Didn't actually take long once at GZ. Followed instructions only until we had a visual of hint item then worked on a less direct and less brambly way to get there. Think it has washed downhill slightly but it is safe and dry inside so we returned as found. NINO TFTC

Whoop whoop oh gosh yes, that was easy after a re eveuate feel so silly it took so long!!!! Awesome day out in the spring sun with #cathmcp and family

this took a long time to find. had to go back to the start point so many times lol.
Found with "TheCarterFamily"

Got wrong valley, but then found it.

We arrived at the reserve/camping area with friends who were staying overnight. We excused ourselves while they set up camp and headed off up the track not knowing what lay ahead . We admired the cliff faces on the way to GZ without realising we were heading for a closer inspection.
After following the instructions we soon located the cache then as suggested we continued up to the lookout. We could see both our friends and our camper way down below but no amount of yelling could gain their attention. We lingered a while admiring the view then carefully made our way back to camp for a well deserved refreshment TFTC.

Hummed and Hahred over this one. We were feeling lazy, but if we want to clean up Arapuni, we must! So off we went, up the hill, feeling our age all the way. Got to the scary bit and Mrs S got an attack of fear of heights and went back down. Mr S continued and got to GZ. After a dummy run, just to check Mrs S's iPhone compass and cover up that he could not figure if the instructions were True or Magnetic, found the right course and also the cache. Well well. He said, every pleased with his navigation.

After signing the log, got trapped and unable to return to the track unseen, by about 40 School Children and their appending teachers and helpers. Wow what a noise! Until they arrived Mr S was communicating with Fantails and enjoying the peace of the bush.

Took Path tag and geocoin.

Thanks quinella. Nice views. It would be just a jaunt, if we were to shed about 50 years off our age.

Trickey to find seems to be more like 80* than 90 *
Key is the tree

We left this one of the end of our day's outing. Amazing rock formations with a truely spectacular view. Well worth the effort to get this one - thank you.

Nice offset multi, with a easy find. Will have to give this one a favourite becasue the location is stunning.

Got to GZ but not very happy ferreting about in the undergrowth. Finally slipped. fell and hurt my rib on a root so decided it was not for me. Retired hurt.

A not so nice Monday... Told the family I was heading into work... but went caching instead.

Decided I needed a walk after a weekend of overeating. Decided to blitz some more of the Waikato Cycle Trails.

Got the legs burning and the heart pumping to arrive at the cache. Was unsure about the offset part, as I'm not that confident using a compass freestyle. Walked, turned and looked, and spotted where I needed to search. Found a nice, big cache. TFTC.

I think this section would be scary to cycle. If you've done this and cached... You're the MAN... or the WOMAN.

Last one for the area and was pleased to finally find it. Took a couple of goes as I tried to use my eye-ps. Turns out i should just stick to using the G-ps as it is more accurate. Cache was found still hiding away high and all dry.

This part of the trail would be amazing to bike and is a shame that I didn't have a bike with me. Beautiful rock formations and amazing views. Thanks for placing this cache and its always good to claim a Multi... they dont like me much

Coming back from Devine Hiwiroa I made a stop here to try to eliminate a few multis from my must do list (which happens also to be my "Stop Procrasinating List and just get on with it" List).

Parked at Jone's Landing and walked in, with the grass coming up through the track I guess that there has been a lack of cyclists lately. It was a nice morning for a walk and into this spot, As I was walking through I heard a chant from the water as a Waka came into view, I guess that they were ensuring no one was going to take "their" water (although I struggled to see how they were going to get down past the penstocks or race) to keep patroling the rest of the river.

As only getting used to the concept of projecting waypoints was sceptical of my abilities but after a few moments I came up with the goods so was all smiles, TFTC and a nice day to boot

Out for a walk/wade in the rain, glad to have a good hint coz my GPS was not happy today. Cache all good, TFTC

Our wee family had fun looking for this one! Great spot
Left trackable "Remember" here...definately a place of "peace & harmony"

Boy when I get something in my head - hard to change - visited this beautiful spot again and was having trouble so took a seat and reread and retraced - aha ! well what was so hard about that - Enjoyed the walk up here again - beautiful day and view TFTC

Had some great photos, until I deleted them by mistake. Will have to come back. View from lookout is well worth returning for!

1.40pm - Second attempt at this one, came from landing end this time, climbed to lookout first then back to rest area on track, pondered description and on second attempt had in hand. First to find this year and another cache off the watchlist. SLTFTC

Checked out cache due to recent DNFs. All good where it should be, but well covered with debris. Moved a metre or so to a more obvious location and clue ammended to be precise.

No luck finding this one and I hunted high and low - sure I had the right tree and have added photo - Went up to the lookout as well and was rewarded with great views which helped with the DNF

This entry was edited by NZFlossy on Saturday, 25 February 2012 at 02:22:24 UTC.

Had to have a DNF on this one. What a B...... Just couldn't find the right T Tree.

This was a bit of a luck find really - GPS was doing funny things and didn't even zero at the obvious resting place so i just stopped and looked for a bit went by my own bearings and there it was - yay

Was tired after this one. Easy once we got the right tree

TFTC

(2:39:35 PM/fwgb) You know you're unfit when..

Beautiful area, lovely mirror lake. Excellent walking track - obviously seen some work recently. Nice walk to cache and soon located. Had the whole area to myself, no-one anywhere to be seen my entire visit. Left bag of balloons. SL TFTC

The track from Jone's Landing to Arapuni Dam is closed from 19/4/2010 to 30/4/2010.

Awesome,finally got to get up here from Jones Landing.
Great walk up,nice and dry and excellent offset.
Cache nice and dry and all intact.
Thanks for the adventure.
NINO

Came with cashkids up steep walk Ok for me cause been training for pirongia summit.
nice one thanks

4014 A most enjoyable walk to the lookout with some awesome views of the mighty river and impressive rock formations. Found cache out in the open, approx 8m away from the hint item, placed it back where we think it should be hidden. May pay to check it out. Found with randomkidz. Thanks Quinella for a cool cache.

Nice views. Found with Yugeo 4

Loved the walk in from the Dam (went through to Jones Landing and back again) but couldn't locate the cache. Beautiful views along the way. Signs all say to stay on the track so presumed cache would be near track but following instructions headed us well off track.

We really enjoyed this hunt, we did the walk from the dam on a beautiful day. Had lunch at top of side track. Thank you

Very quick walk as time running out. Staying in TA for the orienteering events at Wharepapa. Mr TT amusing himself caching whilst Mrs TT runs about! TFTC

Nice little walk for the boy and myself.
Just had to watch him on the steeper parts.
T4TC

Great walk! stayed a nite at Jones landing & didn't realize how close I would be to a cache! Many thanks Muzy Man!

#297

Awesome walk in and a bit of a search as wasnt sure if i was at the right GZ spot. came prepared with compass in hand, worked a treat, nice cache container!! (cache owner must be a builder?)

Took 1965 NZ half penny,

Left Peg person and Mum temp tattoo

Very daunting walk, must get fitter!
Great cache TFTC TNLN

Nice walk in but in my enthusiasm passed spot and had to back track. Nice views today despite threatening rain.

I had just been given a PLB (personal locator beacon) so this walk was the first time it had been out of its box. This tramp certainly blew the cobwebs away.
Cheers for the cache.

Beautiful walk on a nice day, nice views.
Nice easy find, needed the rest after walking up here.
Maybe we should work on our fitness a bit more.
TFTCSL

Fantastic walk for an Easter Saturday! Took a while to find as GPS signal not too strong here but found it finally

TFTC

We enjoyed the walk, but a misbehaving GPS sent us off into blackberry territory, and quinella's ancestry was called into question. Found it eventually.

Great views. Had picnic by the lake with gjdjb. TNLNSL TFTC

Excellent walk enjoyed with lostpukeko. Great views of a beautiful area. tnlnsl tftc

Found it easily - i.e. it's still there! Where are all the visitors??? Great walk, lovely views, beautiful day - what more could you want?

We were heading for Taupo for the weekend but detoured to have another crack at this cache. We had aborted our previous attempt when a downpour coincided with our visit.
Today the weather was ideal but I shuddered when I saw where the arrow pointed. However it was easier than expected and we soon reached GZ if a little breathless.
I turned 90 degrees as instructed but the wrong way and tangled with some rather mean blackberry. Eventually I tried the other direction and soon had the cache in hand.

TNLN
Then we climbed to the lookout although not as high as psychrn's picture indicates one can climb.

Thanks for the cache and the spur to visit here. Infact we were so impressed we brought the extended family to visit on the return trip to Auckland bypassing several other caches as a result.

Supurb walk the Waikato river trail. I spent my childhood swimming in this river and never tire of returning to the area. Stay with friends on lakeside farm and enjoy the quiet and tranquility.

Arrived at this one with the rain now stopped. Started the trek and at the farm paddock the cows ALL started to moo. Those things can get quite load. please to get out of range. Made it to the GZ and started hunting. Found it after a little search. Thanks.

A lovely afternoon stroll up to the cache. Got out of the car, and thought the cache is where? There? was a good stroll indeed, pleased the handrails were there for assistance.
Picked up the geocoin to move on. Thanks for the wee challenge, great views and best of all, a summer midday stroll in the shade!

Lovely spot thanks. Dropped off geocoin and travel wipe from Canada with my sidekick.

Have corrected co-ordinates for Jones landing commencement point as error noted by last two visitors.

Well, this was quite a 'jaunt'....
The problems began with our map not being detailed enough to name any of the 'landings' in the area, so we started on the wrong side of the river! After deciding Mr Jones must have been on the other side, our return was complicated by the direct route undergoing some serious reconstruction requiring a significant diversion.
So, on to Jone's Landing finally, but at the appropriately signed spot the GPS still said 1.5km further south. Deciding it was better to be sure, we drove further down the road to find the co-ordinates indicated the middle a paddock. Hmmm...after checking the GPS again we concluded that there was probably a typo in the latitude in the description.
Now finally out of the car and on foot, we quickly moved on the the GZ. After a bit of a fossick about we stumbled (quite literally) on the cache, as the clue had us looking up when we should have looked down. Glad to get there in the end, but it was a bit of a 'jaunt'! (Nice views of the river though.)

Very nice spot on the river. Well maintained track and very pieceful today - apart from the odd pot-shot at the ducks.
+ Torpedo7 stickers
- alphabet stickers
I started from Jones Landing - 38 06.128, 175 38.277
TFTC quinella - M@

Came in from Jone's Landing on a nice autumn day with my daughter. Fantastic little walk that we highly recommend. Met a couple of keen trampers at the lookout who were doing the out and return from Arapuni and they were very interested in hearing about Geocaching.
Out: Stickers + Tabetha TB
In: Stickers

Pleasant trip in from the North.....left Tabetha for someone else to help

We arrived here in the middle of a mighty downpour. I contemplated going after the cache anyway but my wife talked me out of it. At least we know where to go for the next visit.

We felt sorry for a Scout/Cub party under canvas here.

Lovely drive and walk - bit wet but view was still good. We will come back on a nice day for some better photos and a longer walk. Found cache - good spot!

This was a lovely walk despite the cloudy day and showers. We will be back when it is much clearer and better for the awesome viewes to photograph.

i was aiming for this to be my 2nd ftf but alas it wasnt to be. I got here 1st ok after my Kaimai ftf. But I searched in vain-then lo and behold Boges turned up and got ftf in a short time-my only excuse was i was getting over a cold and was tired after my exploits this am-plus left my instructions in the car and was going by memory. Either way well done Boges. Left TB







[This entry was edited by psychrn on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 at 3:39:01 PM.]

I though with psyco working lat shift that I would be second to find this. This was the 1st time I have meet a fellow hunter in the field. After a jog to ground zero and a find it was back to the Cossie club for us to wet the dry dusty throat. Nil in or out great sport will be back with my partner

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