Kauri Dundee (Coromandel) Puketui, North Island, New Zealand
By smarts1 on 08-Aug-06. Waypoint GCX48B

Sad to hear the passing of CO. I am happy to unofficially adopt/maintain when I can.

Followed the old Loggers track after accessing it from the pinnacles track. At GZ Found another Black stump and didn't think it was right so decided to follow my gps a bit closer and found the caches Black stump. Easy find. While sitting on the ground filling out the log book, I could hear foot steps nearby and getting closer. Thought another Cacher was closing in on the cache and rose up to see what it was. Found I was Eye balling a Billy goat with large horns about 15 m away. I said hello and he got such a fright it turned and fled smashing its horns into a tree as it turned and it galloped away. The stump must be a place where it goes. Followed the old loggers track up toward Table Mt and crossed stream and headed back down the loggers track and came out at Tressel View Campsite.

for the interest of other explorers, the track is now mostly cleared and marked all the way round to the trestle view camp end. follow the old white tapes and my new orange flagging tape.

Stumbled across accidently! Came across a blog post by Kauri Dundee about "the road inside the kauaeranga forest" - it's an old logging track used by my great great grandfather, and I was keen to explore. Came across the stump after exploring off the main route slightly and discovered the cache!

The moyles stream appears further upstream on topo map than it is in reality, and the track starts on the right hand side just inside the mouth. There are white ribbon markers the whole way, and we added blue bailing twine markers for personal reference. The track itself is an easy grade but very overgrown with mainly ferns and saplings in places. Did our best to clear the way with slash hook.

Logbook was a little damp but in good condition. Had nothing much to add except a hiking pamphlet. Cleared out decayed items that just looked like old dirt.

Explored track further to where it crosses the moyles stream. A slip has blocked the stream with large trees, but if you climb up the right hand side of the slip and look directly across the creek, you can easily see the markers again.

Keen to explore the whole route down to the Colorado stream and exit trestle view campsite, but that's for another day.

note: plan to return soon to leave a new pen and ziplock bags for cache and continue clearing track.

PS feel free to contact for more info on the track history

Had my eye on the “The 1000 Day Challenge (Wellington)” cache and needed to find a cache that had not been found for at least 1,000 days. Most of the viable caches close to home had a string of DNF’s so not so keen to try them.

Looking further afield indicated that Kauri Dundee had not been found for nearly three years so set off today to find it. Light drizzle, murk on the hills and a forecast of rain as we headed into the valley meant a bit of “will we – won’t we”. Got to the road end and decided to head off, at the last moment one of our muggle friends decided to come with us instead of heading up to Pinnacles.

Went under the bridge and started to pick our way up the river, didn’t take too long to reach Moyle Stream although we didn’t manage to keep our feet dry. A short distance up the stream we saw a plastic tag on a tree so started following plastic markers. Having three in the group made it easier to scout around for markers, some markers are becoming black with fungi and others are on the ground. We found the track was less overgrown than we expected after comments from previous finders, in places it was still quite open and in others we had to push our way through, fortunately only one encounter with bush lawyer.

After about an hour of heading up hill from the river we got to the cache. The markers near the cache appeared to head off further up the hill but we decided not to go exploring. Signed the logbook, had lunch and then 40 minutes back down the hill to the river.

Once we got back to the main river we headed upstream for a few minutes and an easy bush crash had us on the main track to the Pinnacles – time to head for the next cache.

Fun walk with some mates following the kauri dundee trail. Easy to find if you know where to start. Awesome little treasure spot nearby

all good . on the hunt with Jumboz went up the main river then went up the first small stream on the left and followed the white markers which lead us to the cache with in reason.... .from the carpark to the cache 45min and back in 30 Awesome

Good to bump into you in the campground mr dundee! With the local knowledge you gave we should have gone straight out and looked for the cache instead of heading out the next day. With a failing memory, no map, 1gps with a dead battery and one not likely to last the distance we certainly had the adventure we were looking for but decided to end our attempt at a very secluded swimming hole! South america calls but will be back to get this one for sure. All caches should be like this, cheers

What a great cache, this one has it all, stream boulder hopping, bush bashing, interesting GZ and even a crazy "magic circle" nearby - does it get any better than this? definitely deserves a favourite from us. TFTC and thanks to Greenblat for giving us the coords to the stream at the start of the trail.

A bit of a different cache, not the usual systeme behind a bush. Enjoyed the rock hopping, and bush bashing (overgrown track following). Love GZ. TFTC

What a great cache. Grabbed it with a bunch of others after the Kauaeranga Camp Out. Great rock-hopping up the stream, and bush-crashing through to GZ. Glad for the company as my GPS could only get a fix in a few locations where there were gaps in the tree cover. The GZ tree must have been a behemoth !

We were expecting wet feet on this adventure so packed a spare pairof shoes in the backpack. The river level was low and with some careful rock hopping managed to keep dry for the track up to GZ. The well marked track made navigation a lot easier but the vegetation is starting to grow which may make it harder as time goes by. We really enjoyed this track and the discovery of not only the cache but the 'Magic Circle' just 20-30 metres from GZ. TFTC.

What an adventure climbing up to this one - glad we did stick to the original plan of doing this one before heading up to the pinnacles, or else I just wouldn't have attempted it. That must have been one huge tree in its day for sure. Cache was easily spotted despite our GPSrs all having a merry wander around the area. Just 2 days short of it being 1 year since the last visit! +1 favourite point. TFTC!!!

Really enjoyed the walk in to find this cache! Loved the stream hop and also the bush bash up the track to GZ. We overstepped the mark at GZ and once our GPS's caught up we had to turn around and head back to the most obvious spot for the cache. Definately worth a favourite point for this little adventure! TFTC!!

Found it not even wet my shoes. Thas is the skill.

I really enjoyable cacheing experience. Managed to keep the boots dry on the stream section. Thanks to Greenblat's record keeping we quickly found the marked trail. Somehow I ended up in front for the bush bash up the old trail. I'm bit scratched up but nothing concerning. The White markers really help as the track was invisible in places and one could easily miss a switchback. A couple of times, where the ferns are nearing head hieght, I had to stop and really peer for the next marker. Rosmar's keen eye was a big help in this regard.

Near GZ Rosmar and I got distracted by Greenblat who had managed to find some sort of bizzarre "witch's circle'. Luckily the others had honed in on the cache so only the formalities needed completing. A couple of days later and I would have had a mass qualification for my "A Timely Challenge" on my hands. Sorry guys, keep on trying!

Cheers for the cache and the adventure!

Loved this off track adventure. My favourite kind of caching. Very impressive stump at gz. Tftc and for bringing us here - well worth the detour.

Glad I had Miles to help find the track up, not a place I would go by myself. Boots very wet at the end. Some walk up to the site, Where is the Kauri?

Attempted yesterday the hard way when I missed the tapes and decided to bush bash to location. Got to location and had a good half hour hunt in fading light. No joy. Found tape markers on the way down and made waypoints on my GPS for another attempt the next morning.

Today. Walked up the main track to swing bridge. From there I walked up the river to S 37 03 524 E 175 40 314. Followed all the tapes to cache site. Easy find. Couldn't even see where I was searching yesterday. My GPS must have been at least 50m out ! Suggest to allow 2 hr return if all goes well. Thanks

Took a while to find this one, or get to it anyway! =) went up the wrong ridge, bush bashing and found a cliff with a lovely view!! Found our way there eventually and found the painted tree as well! TFTC

Nice warm up before heading further up towards the pinnacles.
Came up through the (mainly dry) river till we found the side stream.
Quickly found the track marks and bush bashed our way up.
Impressive tree stump (or what's left of it). Must have been a big one.
Went the same way down, strolled a little more trough the river before climbing up the bank and back on the track to the Pinnacles.
TFTC

Nice warm up for the walk up to the Pinnacles. Out today with KiwiLeon. The weather was great and the although a bit chilly, the walk up the river was really nice. No problems locating the side-stream and track marker (yellow lid). Track was very well marked and an easy gradinet. What an amazing tree must have stood over GZ. T4TC

Slow walk up the hill - very overgrown track.

I loved this one (the other 1/2 of petesnz was busy elsewhere in the park at the time) - comments read from other logs were very helpful re. directions, which meant for a fantastic walk.

With all the info from the logs we made sure that we founf the track and from there it was all straight forward. Bit of an expedition really as there was myself and my two children 12 & 9 years old and 3 others who might have to start there own cache names now. We all enjoyed the cache and would like some more info on the old track.

had a early morning start after having a boys camp at the end of the road-sure it wasn't that cold at 1am but it sure was at 8am-told muzy man you got to keep drinking in that weather lol-this cache had us thinking as we though we had the rite stream so follow a well mark track which did get us to the gz but when coming back down we found moyles stream further up the main river-was still a good walk either way and was good to get us out of comfort zone of good tracks-nothing like a good bush bash to warm ya up - thanks for getting us up here-TNLN- jumboz

Great wee adventure Here!, stayed the night in the valley (very frosty one) went for a wander yesterday after 4pm thought we had track sorted but ran out of light fast! so back to roaring fire & a bit of elbow bending (bit too much as it turned out! )with an icy start found a track in a side shoot around new power poles before the first swing bridge,shot up the R/H side of stream, it did lead us all the way to the old native remains in a round about way (nature walk!! ) should have studied a map as this first track was by a stream but not moyles stream. no worries tho well marked an Jumboz doing a great job of bush bashing with new level of confidence with his GPS after our last adventure across table top mountain!, lot quicker return trip down main river but not as much fun, Vans had deiced on return so all worked well! TFTC great spot, cheers Muzy Man!

After reading Tramper Teds log, I looked for the Moyle side stream first. Found some distance downstream to where my Freshmap was telling me it should be. Once found, it looked like following it upstream was such the obvious choice, that I completely missed the markers on the side showing the track! The stream was very nice initially, but eventually the waterfalls got too big to climb and I ended up bush bashing the rest of the way up through steep supple jack hell. Eventually the terrain relented and the stump was found easily. A moment of panic when I realised I'd dropped the printout on my scrambles up and without the clue thought I may not be able to find the cache after all the effort. Found easily though anyway, phew!
The terrain rating is about right, but the difficulty rating is way too high - may put some people off coming up here.
The first find for this cache for a year - it is still in superb shape. Followed the "bushmans forest road" (yeah right!) back down. Fortunately it was extremely well marked, so although overgrown was very easy to follow. When I saw the markers at the stream I couldn't believe I'd missed them! They're right near the start. The LHS (looking upstream) is very obviously marked, but I'm not sure where that would take you. I followed the RHS (northern spur).
A very memorable 300th geocache find for me.
Thanks for the adventure smarts1!

TT never does things simply. Convinced ourselves we had the right ridge, even saw some pink paint on trees, but ended up with a mighty bush bash through supplejack, around bluffs, and through boulder strewen valleys. Finally arrived at the cache site and found the cache easily.

What a fantastic tree this must have been, we were in awe!

Of course the way down was so easy, and the markers make life even easier. We saw the error of our ways when we arrived back at the river - we had been about 50 m upstream!

Morale of the story is - make sure you find the side stream before you start!!!!

All that said, this is one of the highlight caches we have visited. TFTC

What a great adventure!! With thanks for some guidance from Zorgon, the trip up was relatively straight forward. The old bushmans road track is very well marked along the way, which is just as well as there are times when you can't even see the track. This must have been a great speciman of a tree. Thanks for bringing me here smarts1.
Cheers, M@

** Coordinates Changed From **
S 37° 03.437 E 175° 40.188
Distance From Old: 837.9 feet
Updating coordinates as requested

As I had had a failure on this one a joint effort with the team leader the Mighty Zorgon. I followed him like a sheep and taking notes of this mans skill to help with further hunting.

After comparing notes on this one and learnt that we had been on the right track but different parts it was found not far from the old hauler road.

In fishing lure. Nil out

After a DNF on the first attempt Smarts1 kindly offered to recheck the coordinates and found that there was a problem with the original set. Armed with new coordinates "Boges" and I decided to team up this time around.
It is just so much easier when you follow the old bushmans trail that was discovered last time and so it only took an hour from the car to the cache for the joint FTF!
It looks like the cache site is still used as an overnight bivvy which was handy as it started raining just as we arrived and we needed somewhere dry to fill in the log.
Called into Wainora camp on the way out and said Hi to the cache owner - very nice to meet you Smarts1 and thanks for creating a caching experience that is much more physical and adventureous than most.
In: Silver Fern fridge magnet, Out: Nil

This one has sat there for way too long without anyone having a go at it so today was the day! I took the direct route and soon realised why real trampers wear gaters and long sleeve shirts. My shorts and bush shirt didn't do much for the unprotected lower legs and arms which didn't take long to get cut up from the undergrowth. My route was definitely not optimal and at times was struggling to make any forward progress due to the dense undergrowth, supple jack and bush lawyer. Such a contrast to the usual cache next to a path in the park scenario!
Eventually made it to the same altitude as the cache but was too far up the valley so had to traverse some steep terrain to get to GZ. Upon arriving I realised it was not going to be straight forward as there was still quite thick ground cover and bush and it was not easy to spot the old Kauri Stumps.
The 60CSx didn't have any problem holding a lock and I managed to find three possible candiates close by but I was kicking myself that I didn't bring the spoiler photo so spent around 95 minutes hunting likely spots before calling it a day. Looking at the photo now I am pretty sure I didn't even find the right stump.
Luckily I did find the route marked by white tapes for the return journey but it was still pretty hard on the unprotected legs.
Disappointing to have to log a DNF but this cache took me well out of my usual comfort zone and a I came away well satisfied for having undertaken the adventure.
I am keen to have another go and of course know the right route now (and the right gear to wear!) but might have to wait until someone else confirms that the coordinates are correct first.
Many thanks Smarts1 for placing a cache in this amazing place.

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