Bring The Soap (West Coast) Kumara, South Island, New Zealand
By Bitsprayer on 24-Apr-06. Waypoint GCVMND

done it's dash

#5 of 8 on the first full day of our West Coast weekend away. (Caching with Rincewind3, see his log for more ) TFTC

#5 of 8 today. Not bad considering this isn't a caching trip! Took quite a lot of finding. I think the tree cover was affecting the gps chip in my phone. After wandering around looking for the GZ we finally got close enough to start looking. In the end I spotted the hide several metres from where the phone was pointing: I just happened to look at the right spot and thought it looked like a cache hide. Sadly the log is wet and I lacked supplies to remedy the fact TFTC

Heading to Greymouth with TheWanglers on a caching weekend. Stopping along the way to pick up a few....nice to knock off another. Fantastic spot & TW had a story to tell about it.
As we wandered around to GZ I could just imagine the shrieks and splashes of families playing. No water...just weeds these days. A bit of a search and we soon had the cache in hand. Cheers.

Team_Gaters and I have planned a this trip over the last few months. We finally got to the business end of things and kicked off out West Coast raid. We had two days and a lot of boxes to tick. We started at 5am on Saturday morning and it took over 12 hours to get to Greymouth. We drove a lot, walked a lot and had a lot of laughs. We experienced 4 seasons and even contemplated aborting the mission as we were standing in icy cold weather freezing as the rain came pelting down in Arthurs Pass. We encountered matigouri, rosehips, blackberries, brambles, spainairds, baby gorse and old man gorse!!! Still finding parts of prickles in my skin! We also saw kea, weka, cave weta, tree weta, giant slugs, giant spiders in caves, west coasters, fat wood pidgeons, tui and a giant dragon fly. Had wet feet for nearly two days. Three FTFs and on of them was unpublished (first for me).
After the visit to Londonderry Rock I mentioned to TG about meeting a treasure hunter with a metal detector at some old baths near here as we drove down the road this one popped up. We stopped obviously. Great spot and the cache took a bit to find but we did.
Awesome weekend. TG and I joked that going back to work would be a bit of a let down, so to combat that we would keep one foot in a bucket of water and the other one on top of a pin cusion, that should ignite the memories.

Thanks for the cache.
39 of 104
#1785

Have always wanted to stop here but as often happens we don't until someone puts a cache there! It would of been great to see these swimming baths in it's hay day. Amazing little spot, take a picnic. This one took a while to find. GPS playing tricks on us so probably more luck and a caching eye will help you with this one. The additional hint was no help to us. Great fun though. Tftc

Well hidden!

Sadly, no luck this time. Getting too dark and having difficulty with the GPS, not to mention getting very wet in the undergrowth

Found the cache on a wet horrible day. TFTC

Book is very wet

Wow this one was tough - didn't help that the GPS was having mega trouble locating GZ. I think the clue could be better there are soooooo many punga's around (ponga lol) but none "opposite" where we eventually located cache (maybe it's open to interpretation). TFTC

Amazing the places that you have taken us Bitsprayer, thanks for this one TFTC.

Our second trip without the soap. Managed to find the cache this time. TFTC

TFTC

We're still here in NZ although our trips end is drawing closer. Day 19 and we headed from Greymouth to Akaroa via Rangiora.

Well we travelled this highway in the first few days of our arrival and we are retracing our steps so looking for caches that we missed last time.
This was one.

What a magnificent spot. So glad that it has been preserved and has signposts etc. That said not sure that we would have stopped as muggles so thanks VERY much for putting a cache here to make us stop.

Co-ords seem to be out, but guessing thats the trees etc. Took quite a long hunt and then Mrs Felix came up with the cache in a traditional cachers hide, not too far from the hint??

TFTC Bitsprayer A fave from us for the cache and the name...

Wow...We never would have stopped here if it wasn't for the cache. What an interesting place. Would have loved to have seen it when it was in action.
Cache was found after a bit of a hunt. Thanks Bitsprayer for bringing us here

NZ12. Although this one was not as close to the road as I had thought, It was one of the highlights of the whole trip. I loved what people did to have a bit of fun. A pity it has been let go actually. I am glad there is now a good reason to stop past for a visit. Thanks.

8681.102 TNLN
Visited: World Traveling Gold GC A#6 & 365 Days of Geocaching A#222

Albida

Great cache and area, mankind can`t do without our excavators these days, must have been hard men back then. TFTC.

GPS put the GZ deep in the bush. Didn't need to go that far though. What an amazing place. Thanks for bringing us here.

Awesome cache. we really enjoyed coming here and reading the info...oh, and signed the log. Thank you for this one.

I drove the coast to coast bus past here quiet often but never had a look.A good hide in a beautiful spot.Thanks for getting me there.

Amazing place! Just imagine it back in the day!

TFTC

No need for soap, water would have been helpful. What a wonderful place it must have been.

Tricky find. Interesting info

Nearly gave up, but decided to look once more - JACKPOT! What an awesome area - we loved the history of the place TFTC

Amazing the effort someone went to to make the baths. Pity I wasn't wearing swimmers

Just not our day for finding caches. Will come back another time and have another look.

We forgot to bring soap, so took shower bath and left to bells...

What a fascinating Swimming Bath.It would have been awsome in its day.We had the Soap,but alas there was no Swimming here today.Found the Log Book was so wet we had to dry it out on the Hot engine of the car,we also put it in a new bag with Silicas.Thanks for making us stop here and TFTC.

Great cache lovely spot to stop for a break on the way back to christchurch.
thnaks LGM

On the verge of giving up when I spied the container.

Long grass - wet feet - never mind.
+ a marble, - nothing.

Very nice old site. Good painting and information board. Area a little poorly maintained - wouldn't take much to clear blackberry and gorse from track and make walk go all the way around perimeter easily. Searched for quite a while for cache, hint fitted several possible locations. TFTC

Great cache. Followed a historian out to look at the bathes, would just be rude not to look for the cache. Tftc

Interesting place.

Found after an extensive search.

Log book damp and a bit mouldy.

TFTC

Did not realise that bitsprayer had reverted to using ming trees as hint items. What an interesting spot even in the light rain. TFTC

Aha. Now I know why I couldn't find it last time. GPS had me in the wrong alcove and it never occured to me that I had to be elsewhere. It started to rain, so Mr and Jr 4 gave up, again, so Mrs saw an opportunity to show up Mr. And that she did! Great spot to return to! TFTC

great monument to early times

My nemisis cache. I had tried before so was really determined this time. After a lot of walking around and a lot of time the hint made sense and it is a great specimen, not the type I expected.
Thanks it was great to see this area again and very satisfying to make the find.
erninz

The name didnt mean anything to me and we were starting to need to get to Gremouth to log in opps mean check in to the motel so as we were nearing it Stretch0 read out historic public baths (or something to that affect ) when all I could hear was USAKiwi saying (imagine american accent) if you all get down to Kumara way be sure to go to the swimming pool cache !!! told Stretch0 we had to stop and do this one as it was rated a must by someone whose opinion we have grown to value ( and you didnt disappoint Jerry!!!) What a great complex we kept saying wow over and over lol lots of photos taken ( that dont do justice to its size!!) wandered to the cache signed log thanks so much for bringing us here

Forgot to bring the soap and togs so went without. Interesting place, Good size pool. TFTC

This cache nearly got left as we were pushing through to check in to our accomadation and a caffine fix! Read out the sign as we drove past and then Niteowl remembered a comment made by a fellow cacher about this cache so after reversing back up the road we headed off to get one more before Greymouth. We were not dissappointed with it either we were awed by it's size and only wish our pictures would do it some justice. TFTC

On a long road trip with a mission with Kiwi Explorer but he insisted we stop and I check out this classic cache. Glad to have taken the effort to stop and check this out today. TFTC, Biggles.

A bit confused at first - examples of the clue everywhere - but that's Bitsprayer for you. I have a seen a number of these bath houses and swimming pools on the West Coast, but this is probably the largest.

This entry was edited by N!mrod on Thursday, 14 October 2010 at 20:36:38.

An impressively large swimming pool! The cache was found fairly quickly using the hint. TFTC

Wow, didnt expect it to be so big, it mustve held alot of water in its time! My GPS didnt like the tree cover so wasnt much good and the clue just confused us more so we ignored both and went with our geosenses and it was a quick find TOOK Butterfly & Glitter Tube LEFT Cat Toy & Whistle. TFTC and the bit of history we would never had stopped at unless there was a cache

This was third day of our vacation in New Zealand. We are driving from Arthur’s Pass towards Franz Josef glacier today. This was an unusual spot. Quite nice to see. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the cache. Greetings from the Lowlandfamily from The Netherlands

Nice, we liked it, but there was no water.

What an amazing concept. Couldn't find the cache - do you know how many places match the hint? Thanks for making me stop though it was facinating. This one lives for another day.

Only thing missing was the water on this sunny day!
T- Chalcedony
L- Glitter Tube.
TFTC.

Interesting spot. Would be a nice place to have a wee rest from travelling. Easy find. Thank you.

Quick and easy find, TFTC

What an odd spot! Always amazes me the places you end up whilst Geocaching...

Very interesting site! You just don't know what to expect, thanks. #959

Last find of the day as the rain started just after finding GZ. Took a bit of searching even with the hint,have you seen the number of pongas.TFTC

Found some time ago, during our travels. Interesting spot, TFTC.

Found with mongyspeeds Help TFTC

Loved this historic place, reminded me so much of one of the ruins at Ankor Wat with the overgrown pools. Had a little trouble finding and was about to give up when one last look reveal the hiding place. Nice site. TFTC

This is another one of the places that I have always thought about stopping at but never have until now. Thank you for bringing me here. TFTC Cheers Bevyb.

[What a cool place to visit. Raining (unusual for the West Coast - not!) so got wet up to my knees. Not an easy find even when standing in the right place] so left a small cairn to help.

In one word? Gutted. Just couldn't lay my hands on it. Gave it a good 20 minutes, but the clue is pretty much useless as you can find the objects in the clue from any given starting point . Still great to have been here - what a place. TFTC.

We brought the soap, but needed some water!!

[blue]Took a few minutes to snab the cache. Then some dude with a chick came along and started scanning the ground with a metal detector - the chick looked really really bored....[/blue]

TFTC

Found by McAdies on our holiday around the South Island.
This took a while before Karen found the cache. Well hidden.

A nice cache to find dropped off whos your ducky shame he cant go for a swim

TFTC . Date of my finding is not correct, my gps didn't write it to it's log during my long holiday.

After dnf-ing this a while ago, we came back today and found it. The gps was out, I think because of the rocks interferring with the signal. We needed the clue. TFTC

On our way from Hokitika to Christchurch we also looked for some caches to spice up the journey. Nice spot.
TFTC, TNLNSL.

What a nice spot, again thanks to geocaching we were able to not miss out on it.

Went at this one from the wrong side to start with, then looked, and looked and looked etc etc. We were about to give up when I spotted thehidey hole. Our GPS was saying it was about 7 metres away when we were at the hidey place so keep that in mind as your gps might be out when you are looking too!

I followed what looked like a geotrail through the high grass/plants. Must have been a great place once... Quick find. TFTC

Found it by GuanacosTeam
TFTC!

Trobat per l'equip GuanacosTeam
GPC!

Found it!
Cache found in our holidays in New Zealand.

Interesting place. The cache can be difficult to find...

TFTC
Greetings from Barcelona

Last of our finds of the day. Interesting history thats just off the road. Amazing - had no idea it was here.
TFTC

Haha what a great cache. We originally were looking on the wrong side of the Pool for quite sometime. This cache took us quite a while.

Cheers. [^]

TFTC

Always wanted to come to this place and finally did.

Took ages to find the cache and finally found it

Thanks, Jake The Muss.

[#437 (14/19 on a Greymouth -> Chch day). Very interesting place. GPSr a bit erractic. Decoded clue when we heard muggles approaching, and soon had cache in hand. TFTC.] Note that the two pungas mentioned in the hint may well have been converted to two punga stumps.

What an amazing place. Spent a while searching as reception was bad. Heaps of possible hiding places, too.

No idea where this one is hidden, searched high and low for about 15 minutes but had to give up due to time constraints.

Spent the night in Kumara so thought we should check out the local facilities. What a place this must have been.
-spoon
+pedometer
Picked up "Best of British" Geocoin as had been here a while. Seems to have been logged before we had access to a computer.
TFTC

Great cache! 6/7 of Grady Bunch Found This Cache.

Wow what a spot, I would never had stopped here had it been for this cache, Its amazing how much hard work went into this project and even hard to believe it was one of the largest swimming pools in NZ, it took me about 20 minutes of hunting to finally locate this cache,but got it in the end. I resorted to the clue but that still didnt help me so I have left a couple of stones there to grab the next geocachers attention..I have dropped of a geocoin aswell.. Cheers

Couldn't find the cache, but an interesting spot none-the-less. Had a whitebait sandwich in the nearby town, something we hadn't eaten before - in South Australia whitebait is exactly that - BAIT!! It was actually nice!

What an absolute hidden gem of history. What a lot of effort must have gone into building this way back then. Just loved walking around the perimeter, and the cache find as well. Great spot for a cache. TFTC

Mr Explorer stayed with Littlest Explorer (5) while she slept in the car. Mrs Explorer and Little Explorer (7) went in for the find. They returned cacheless so Mr Explorer went in and returned with a big smirk. The cache was found by spotting a small rock on the track that he thought marked the spot to look, turns out Mrs Explorer might have dislodged this while searching and forgot to pick it up. So really his quick find was a fluke. Great cache location, very interesting bit of history. TFTC.

A couple of muggles were down here when I arrived, but they quickly left and I had the place to myself to find the cache. Cheers Gav [1875]

What a great place it was fantastic and found the cache as well

What a great spot it would have been great in its day as the pictures showed,just wished I had of taken my cammera.

Saw the sign post on the way to Greymouth late at night so was very keen to go see on the way home. Loved the history lesson. The picture looked so inviting a swim would have been fantastic on a hot day like this. Finding the cache was a bit of a walk and easy enough with the clues once there.

Our last one for the day #13 needed a bath after that effort, Whoops forgot the soap!!
Thanks to the Butterfly Lady for the help this was our second go at this one. Finished our day off great.
TFTC

Found it this time with the help of Butterfly Lady's update! Think we may possibly have scared off another cacher who was doing today's trip in the opposite direction to us. TN (except photos of this intersting area)LN Thanks.

Well, we looked at the original location - as it is a few days since I printed out the description so hadn't read Butterfly Lady's info. We were pretty sure we I.D.ed where it used to be. Will have to look in the new place another time.

[Fascinating place!!!
What vision to build this, essentially using rubbish and an unused water supply! I imagine every rock was man handled to move from it's tailing pile to it's final position. A pity this only lasted a decade!

Cache took a bit of finding as the hint item has changed, and the waypoint hard to get an accurate fix.

Found at
S 42 38.266
E 171 11.385]
Hint now - at base of large punga on bank, above the pool, where two punga stumps are at pool edge, or something similar.[
Thanks for showing us this gem, which I note is listed with the Historic Places Trust.]

One of a series of very enjoyable caches we found on our 10 day tour of the the South Island. Searching for caches along the way made it far more exciting than it would have been otherwise and took us to all sorts of interesting places we would not of found otherwise.

This was Mary's most favourite cache ever - the pool simply captured the imagination and you could almost feel the bathers from yesteryear there with you whilst you walked around - eerie!

No problem with the find.

TNLNSL. TFTC

This is an amazing place. The facility would be impressive even in the current time. Not to mention it was built during the depression. Pity we couldn't find the cache. We were feeling quite jaded, after spending almost nine hours geo-caching today, (so far).

What a fantastic place! Never seen anything quite like it and we would have loved to have seen it in use. Enjoyed the stroll around the edge and spent quite some time searching for the cache. We used the hint, but so many places seemed to match! Got it eventually though. Thanks for bringing us here. SL. TFTC.

Also logging in and out our England Geocoin.

Interesting place; but searched long and hard but no cache

4th today. Off to get ice-creams. Has turned out hot. Awesome spot. Have never stopped in. Thanks bitsprayer FTC.
-key ring
+$5

Found this one so we could take bungee sheep back to England with us, having brought Joey out to Hokitika. Found by our 3 year old neice (with a little help). Left English coins.

TFTC.

Rather suprising place, I would never have guessed that such a place was every built, fascinating.
TNLNSL, many thanks Bitsprayer.