Virgin's View (Wellington) Paraparaumu, North Island, New Zealand
By Blarghster on 20-Apr-06. Waypoint GCVHHF

Forgot to log this one, easy find

It's had its day, time for someone else. Sorry for lack of attention.

Cache not found for six months, requests to owner for maintenance unanswered.

Going by the logs this one seriously needs looking at, hasn't been found since Jan. Nothing found in relation to the hint

another dnf

We didn't find this. Tree gone as said in previous log. But someone had scattered some sort of ashes, we hope pet, as there were some pet ashes boxes nearby, in the GZ area. So didnt look too hard, could still be there? Wow Mary is tethered down securely must be windy area, or unstable statue.
Thanks

Scrounged around thoroughly, but no luck! Looked like a tree has been removed very recently, so I hope it hasn't been muggled!

Lovely view, though, and easy trek up. I haven't been there for many, many years (I went to the Primary School below) and was disappointed to find the place isn't very well maintained any more. Also discovered that old convent at bottom of hill has become a guest house, and when we started trekking a fire truck was there dousing out a rather blackened mattress!

Best of luck to the next person!

Nice day for a walk and the view was great. Took a couple of items and left a couple of items!
Thanks

Proudly found by Miss B while the rest of us were scratching around. Took TravelCoin

1630 Great little cache, most enjoyable. TFTC

A steep but short walk to start the day.Thanks.

Had to crack the clue to find it and great to visit one of Kapiti's great landmarks
- Clear pebble stone
+ Silk Pirate eye patch
Cheers for the hunt
Darryn, Kelly & Troy

good bit of exercise to stretch the legs!!! Excellent views. Swapped a pet rock - a cat, for a paint brush

#881. Nice day with lots of traffic on the roads.
+ Cache Run Geocoin LE Gold #1
+ huhugrub pebble
TNSL. TFTC.

Found as part of my three week caching trip from Wellington to Auckland - # 312. Bit of a climb before an easy find. Thanks.

Found with Man In The Field. TFTC.

Beautiful day on the coast. Found along with Riders on da Storm on our family caching day. +Robot -Hacky Sack. TFTC.

[This entry was edited by Man In The Field on Saturday, November 07, 2009 at 6:49:01 PM.]

Needed a bit of exercise after a long drive. The "Virgin" looks better from a distance, not well maintained. The view from up there was worth the walk. TFTC

Nice change using the bearing. Good fun on a lovely day.

that statue is a little bit scary... its so big

Puff...pant...wheeze...found it! There was a great view of Kapati Island (must remember to check if there's a geocache on the island) which was very tempting for Mr Iarekt. He pulled out his camera while us girls started walking back down.
- shell + maze

A great climb after three hours in the car. The kids asked why all the crosses on the climb up I suggested it was all the people that died trying to get there!! What a great spot. The view was excellent and something that I had missed on my drives down. Thank you for that. Out screwdriver in Hacky sack.

7 of 10 finds for the day. We have to agree with W.E.K.A.'s assessment of the close-up view.
My 5-year-old daughter nabbed this one first. Left a lego guy and took the bubbles.
T4TC.

Damp in the leaves. Easy to find without GPS.
TNLN TFTC

Great cache... took plastic panther and left bubbles. Beautiful hot day, TFTC

First geocache! Nice and easy for a first go

Found eventually as dusk was falling rapidly. An awful lot of hint objects. The statue is certainly more impressive from a distance than closeup. TFTC

im with everyone else...looks a lot better from the road but a nice view. took a coin.
cheers for the cache
Pips78

+ Geocoin
- Koala

TFTC!

Tacky tacky statue. I've been looking up at that thing my whole life driving back and forth from Welly but never stopped to look. Have to say childhood illusions have been totally shattered finding it was made of fibre glass!!!! ICK!

Cool view and glad I went up there though!

#156. Quite tough, this one. Locating the cache was easy enough, but extracting it took a bit of timing as there were a group of kids running around playing games. A sit down for a few minutes gave us the gap we needed to nab the cache, SL, TFTC. -car, -marbles, +panther, +koala.

Easy find, TFTC

This must rate as one of the tackiest statues I've ever seen. Is it supposed to be serious or a send up? The Virgins discount store really sums it up ay. A shocking spot and neat place for a cache. + pencil & sharpener. Cheers.

Very nice walk up the hill with my companions Barri-Ster and Hugo the dog. I found this one fairly quickly. Took stone, replaced with token and marbles SL TFTC

Am ashamed to say that this is the first time we have been to the Statue, despite years living on the Coast. SL, TNLN, TFTC. And thanks for the reason to climb the hill.

Got a bit wet, but found easily enough with the aid of the very specific clue. Cache was wet inside, but the log book was dry. Poured out a couple of tablespoons of water.

This time, as on my previous attempt the GPS tended to centre between 5-10m North and a bit East of GZ. Batteries ran flat before I found the cache, so can't give alternative co-ords, sorry.

TNLN & TFTC.

An awesome statue. Was pleased to locate the cache. Thought I may have gone missing with the big garden clean up that is taking place. TFTC

Some maintenance on the vegetation and the fence behind the virgin evident but cache still intact.

Nice easy find on a beautiful but cool evening as the sun went down. Great views

Found with angelic_kiwi. Had to wait for some muggles to leave. TFTC

Found with mumandme. Lovely spot, thanks.

Great statue, with a steep wee walk.

Many Thanks Bitsprayer

bit of a mission to find at first but little pbhurricane came through. + nemo toy. - sanjuan TB. TFTC. SL.

Quite a secluded area indeed. Quick walk up the hill to GZ. Then after a bit of a search found it. TFTC

Never been up here before in spite of driving past so many times over the years. A quick walk and easy find, even if the greenery was a bit wet after all the rain in recent days.
+ gonefishing fish
TFTC

Great cache - took one of the kids to find it...

Nice walk to the top and a great view. We are dedicating this to our good geocache buddy, Rob the younger. He would love the Virgin Mary Statue. Took NZ geocoin and will take it back to California. Left San Juan TB and a Turtle Bay Flashlight. TFTC.

Really cool cache – even though we did not find it!!! We huffed our way quickly up the hill as the sun was almost setting and we were on a mission to get to 900. Well, we got to see the sunset but failed to find the cache. Awesome statue – would like to see what it looks like with the lights on from down in the town. We wonder if the cache has been disturbed during the recent tree cutting in the area. Or else it was just that we didn’t see it in the half light of dusk. This was to have been cache #899, before finding the Stargate cache for #900

Quick find this afternoon on the way back to Wellington. Took GeoGermane's first Traveler GC, +nil. Have always wanted to walk up here just to say I have done so, the cache gave me the excuse Signed log, TFTC!

TFTC, found no trouble at all. Some new plants have been planted around the cache area.

The Freezer Mice Strike Again. Hmmm not such a nice place to go when it's drizzling with rain. View was pretty limited due to low cloud. TCTF and bringing us up here often wondered if you could get up to Mary.

[This entry was edited by The Freezer Mice on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 7:45:20 PM.]

Walked up to the statue while the others in the party checked out the Bargin Barn. Nice easy find. last of the day up the coast. - yellow dragster + Felix the cat badge. TFTC

Jr taybee has this own account how am logging this old find under his new Username (Jr taybee) was log as part of taybee team

found it the cache was wet dry out and rebag log and things drop off Geocoin also.
thanks

Although I have lived in this area for almost thirty years, I never knew it was possible for the public to access that land. A wonderful experience. TNLNSL TFTC.

Puff puff, pant pant.. What a climb to this one.. Got there and while scratching around the neighbour popped past and said "Is this what you are looking for?" and pointed out the cache.. Nice guy and great views from up here...

Richkai and crystal fairy were just about to give up on this one and log it as a dnf when the GZ neighbour and gardner came across to show us where it was. There had been allot of bark work in the gardens and we suspected it had been muggled but the gardner who is not a cacher him self knows about the game and was making sure it was ok. Cool ahy.
TFTC

After slightly more of a trek than anticipated, found it in the end. TNLNSL TFTC

Went there today, many muggles, Two outstayed me, maybe they are geocachers I couldn't wait any longer but I shall return.

Nice rainy day, passed a few people on our way up but was all clear of muggles at GZ

TNLNSL TFTC

Made it up here but had a group of worshippers who pretty much settled in and prevented us from having anything more than a cursory look - no way of being discrete. Waited a bit but then gave in and moved on.

Rain still holding off but only just! Quick puff up the hill, and needed the clue as the GPSr led me to open ground. No problems after that.

TFTC

badger badger badger

Quick find on the way north. TNLNSL Thanks

Was a good walk up to the GZ great to see someting like this up there - didnt see any mugglers but had to keep very quite as very close to houses. Got part1 of the clue. TFTC TNLNSL

We enjoyed this walk up to the top and the great views from GZ. We picked up the shooting star travel bug to move on to Wellington. Took rugby card and left toy car. A good find TFTC.

Nice short walk up to the statue. Lovely views. Took us a wee while to find. Left shooting star TB. TFTC.

A pretty quick find just as the drizzle started to come down again. Cheers Gav [2162]

Really enjoyed the stroll up - from the Statues Bargin Barn area, but once again with no clues or notes did not know where to look. Searched for 1/2 hour, but not near the agapanthus as I now see we should have!!! Good view & hunt!

Looked for about half hour, took bearings off back of statue with compass and GPS, the trees have recently been chopped down and only a pile of mulch remains, agapanthas contained no goodies but a rock.
Went with Blakamin and he says he has been up 3 times previously and never found it, this makes the 4th trip with no success. even having 2 GPS units didn't help as the waypoint seems to just be the position of the statue

What a fantastic spot, made the walk up the hill. *Wow*, way cool, took some pics, thank you for showing us this great statue.

Cheers

One of the favs of the whole trip.

cool was a nice day and found it

bargains galore (and a view too)
spent too long looking in obvious places!
+TB

this is the tb i actually put in here! having a rather spazzy logging session today sorry.

19: Went with a friend to pick up some stuff and then during afternoon hours we decided to go for a little walk and went hunting instead of walking along the beach. We didn't find the origin path to go up, even though if we had, it is to hard to get up with a push chair We found a road going up at the back, stranded at someone's property. People were really nice and let us pass though Then we found the cache eventually but needed the hint. Anyway, it is a great spot to have a nice view over the town. TFTC. TNLN

First time I have visited this statue having lived on the Kapiti Coast 31 years. Nice spot for a cache, great view of the island on a sunny day. Easy find, no muggles about. TFTC.
- Frog
- CD (was too big for container)
+ Dinosaur

Could see the cache, and feel the cache but unfortanately somebody from the parish was using a weedeater just in front of the location to trim the grass so could not pick it up without a Muggle in view. As it was, I got some strange looks

#1034
Our last cache for 2007, quick find after a slow walk up the hill. Didn’t know the statue existed, thanks for sharing.
TNLNSL, TFTC

Quick find and walk, I like the parking cords. TFTC

thanx for the cache!! TNLN
teamKollMont XX

found it quite easily but it was good fun. its my first time so thanks!!

Paid a quick visit to the cache today. Needs a new bag, will replace very soon.
Dropped Kiwi TB.

Interesting walk up to this spot. All serene and quiet today. TFTC

Seen from a far many times, but never up close, didn't take long to locate cache.

TNLN TFTC.

there at 10.30 at night...nice hide..have lived in Kapiti coast area for 16 years and never been to see Mary....even though my nephew of 5..some time ago... told me we should vist Mary cos everyone knows her!

A windy but fine day kept the muggles away. A quick find. PS A new plastic bag is required for cache protection. TNLN T4TC.

driven past many times, never actually been up here. a nice spot. some of the nearby trees could do with some trimming to improve the view!
TFTC TNLN.

11.15am. Two attempts today. Came up first about 10.30am to find a family waiting around. We waited, and waited for the to go but when others started to arrive to join them we thought something long term may be planned so we left them to it and went to find Trolls Treasure. On the way back the cars were go so I "ran" up and just started looking when three others arrived to take photos. Another wait but the did leave and it was then a quick find. - Cards + screwdriver.
Just realised that I fogot to make a note of the puzzle number!! Thank you David & Noeline

Have looked up at this statue many times from SH1, so it was interesting to take the time to walk up on a sunny morning. Cache was well hidden in described location. Out Old Mac TB, in coloured sticks. Thanks Blarghster.

Checked up on cache today whilst in the area. Cache was indeed VERY exposed, but not in original hiding position - under some pine needles instead! Have re-hidden in original place; co-ordinates have not changed. Could we please make sure to re-hide our caches a bit better?
Cheers,
Blarghster.

Took nightlight, left All Blacks interactive trading card and Old Mac TB. TFTC Miowmix and Ben.

Is it true that the statue also doubles as a cell phone tower (just kidding).
Awesome spot with great views - TFTC.

The second successful 'blarghster code' find for the day. A bleak miserable day ruined what would have otherwise been a fantastic day. TNLN. TFTC

All the trees in the area are in the process of being removed, in fact there are only two trees left standing, one of which hides this cache. I imagine, judging by the level of work going on, it will also be gone within a few days so the cache needs to be repositioned urgently.

Fantastic views from the top.
Bit of hard work after my cycle ride this morning though!!

Lots of work being done around cache so be careful.

+ funny cards
TNSL

Thanks for the cache

Thanks for an easy find despite the steep walk.
+troll
- nothing

14:42. Sitting on 249 caches, I just *had* to do this...

A short sharp climb rewarded me with great views. Thanks Blarghster. Noted the partial coordinates for 'The Blarghster Code'. TNLSNL.

After J having to make a return trip to the car because K forgot the clue, and despite the neighbour who kept looking over the fence, we did eventually find it. This was our 6th find for the day in a mission this weekend to get to 200, so only 3 to go now! TNLNSL, TFTC

Had driven past Mary many times but had never visited before.

-keyring
+dice

0paco0 and Red found it (No dogs today).

0paco0 with sore leg from sciatic nerve, Red with sprained ankle. I think after our torturous pilgrimage to the Virgin we deserved to find it - and we did.

OUT: Bionicle

IN: DVD

Oh, we also got the VV part of the coordinates for the Blaghster Code. We'll be back for that later, once we walk with more ease again. Now it's time for a quick trip home, a well-deserved hot bath and some arnica cream!

Thanks for the cache, Blaghster. Nice one!

Interesting statue.
+ frog
- US badge
TFTC