Hut Junction (Nelson/Marlborough) Stoke, South Island, New Zealand
By bullertrout on 22-Aug-06. Waypoint GCXWTY

@1500I've been eyeing up a cache on Mt Meares for a few years whenever I visit Nelson, as it helps with my DT loops. Today turned out to be the perfect opportunity. I started walking at about 0630 from the Hackett car park and arrived at the GZ 4.5 hours later. I passed 6 walkers in 3 groups between Browning Hut and the top. While up high, I had enough reception to create an off-line list of the caches en route (which I had neglected to do beforehand). It took 5 hours to return to the car, finding several caches along the way. This cache proved too elusive. Perhaps floated away in a flood, given the nearby river erosion. In total, I walked 28.3km, with 1044m elevation gain. Once back at the car, I went for a welcome swim (fully clothed to give them a wash) in a spot I often frequented as a kid around 50 years ago. TFTC.

I forgot to bring the translation of the hint with me. I still did a pretty thorough search, but nothing. I agree with the better hint suggestion.

ages to find with help from paddle chick while we were staying at The Hacket Up too browning hut TFTC please make the hint easier please

GK found and signed this one on his way back to the car, he had been up in the hills hunting since yesterday morning. What a different world he returned to as while he was away we went into level 4 lockdown. He wondered why he had not seen other people on his walk out today and the carpark was empty. While listening to the new on his drive home he soon discovered what the rest of us were doing.
A couple of days to let his legs recover now that he is home and not back to work tomorrow.
Thanks for placing this cache and thank you for the smiley. Nice to get another oldie cache to add to the statistics.

Out for a walk and a few targeted caches today. This was the first stop for today. Since my last visit to this area this cache had been found after 6 years ( well done Kations). Took a wee bit of searching to find this but was spurred on with the knowledge of a recent find. Age has certainly helped with the camo on this hide. As mentioned the cache is still in great condition.

TFTC bullertrout

"Look, a cache that hasn't been found for 6 years" I said to the others, although I wouldn't describe them as muggles anymore, they are definitely not cachers either. Sunday after staying at a hut, everybody just wanted to get back to the car (except me, I just wanted to find this cache), but they gave me some time, enjoying the river and exploring the best way to cross.
Ca fait du temps que je n'ai pas parler francais, but happily enough I was able to understand the hint. Didn't take very long and I had it! That made me super happy for the rest of the walk - actually now back home I am still very happy about it, so it gets a fav point from me.
The logbook and the container are still in very good condition (see pic).

Found

Returning from an overnight at Browning hut I took the second half of the Hackett Hut loop. I knew enough French to get me in the right area, though I went too high to a very likely tree. Fortunately I persevered! Viva la Geocache!

Water was too high... couldn't pass over to the right side!! Next time...

Back in August 2007 was the first time I heard the word geocache. I'd gone up to the Hacket Hut with some friends for the day and we'd stopped on the opposite side of the creek for a drink. My friend pulled out what we thought was a cell phone and said to his wife "there's one here" and he took off back across the creek returning a few minutes late waving a plastic container in his hand, somewhere I have a great photo of him charging through the creek. They explained the concept of caching to us and I think we had the same reaction that I get when I explain it to a muggle now "ok ... you find a container in the middle of nowhere put your name in there ... why???"

It would be another 5 years before I bought myself a GPS and found my first cache. Nearly 2 years later and over 1848 logs signed and I still get that same buzz he had that day.

I have to say my find today took a lot longer than Kiwi Extreme took back then. I didnt know you could speak french BT! I dont and Google doesnt work here so it wasnt much use. Got there in the end though Thanks for bringing back some good old memories

#1848

A planned trip with Marchwood and Max up the Hacket with a final destination of Mt Meares and the opportunity to collect a number of other caches along the way. The day dawned fine and our adventure began at 8.30 am from the Hacket Bridge on our bikes. Not sure why the French hint but nice getting another Smiley. Merci pour la cache.

The light was fading and time was short, but I thought the wet feet would be worth it. A few circles, before sighting a likely spot.

TFTC

Really beautiful track, loved the river parts.
TFTC from Germany

Went for a walk in the area. After seeing the flood damage down the valley i was ready to archive this cache. Got close to cache site did not cross river as was a bit too high.The damage around here was not as bad so there is a good chance the cache might still be there. Will check again soon.

Very lucky to be able to log this cache. Out for a walk with Mrs Sobad who remembered there was one here abouts and looked it up on her phone. I couldn't remember if I had done it or not - I hadn't which probably explains it. Found it and signed the replacement log just in case - just as well as it turns out. A wonderful day to be walking this track. TFTC #4542

Bee hive one the ground 20cm from the cache. managed to get the cache using a large stick. threw it back into its hole afterwords. TFTC

Its on the other side meant wet feet for one of our group TFTC

Out for an afternoon walk with Hazedarus to knock off a 'minimum of 1 hour walk to cache' towards MGSc. This one fitted the bill nicely as well as being in an area we enjoy walking so it was an automatic choice. A bit of a hunt was needed as the GPS decided not to play ball but eventually Hazedarus had the cache in hand. An enjoyable walk and thank you for the cache.

On a mission with Holymu to get a one hour walk towards MGSc in one of our fav playgrounds. GPS didn't want to work well at GZ but some French language skills helped TFTC

Found it on our way out from our 4 day tramp from Pelorus to Hacket. Great weather reasonable accommodation and some real backcountry challenging tracks!

Second find whilst out on the bikes with the father-in-law. Wearing biking shoes certainly made the river crossing interesting (father-in-law had sneakers on and bounded across!!). Found by father-in-law. TFTC.

Mrs SoBad had the right shoes - so opted to do the last 30 m or so to GZ. Got there - then had to yell for the size of the cache - and maybe a hint. Before an audible reply, the GPS had settled and pointed - and she spotted the cache. She would have called it a small but otherwise it was all good, although not quite where she would usually expect to find a cache. Thanks for the fun.

Found by chance, just as I was about to dash into the bush to the GPS GZ (which was pointing about 15m away), I never took french and the clue got left at home.

Thanks to one half of AlienKiwis speaking French found with clues translated

Understood most of the clue so found it quite quickly. THanks Ian and Jimmy.

The french was no good and my caching eyes weren't very good either. Gps was bouncing all over the place so Mrs liquorboy09 was sick of waiting for me so came across to help and it didn't take her long to spot it tftc

FINALLY! Phew! Came past here to do 2 FTFs but this was the highlight of the day. I wonder what cache will be my next nemesis cache? TFTC.

I thought that Ms M was going to translate at GZ. I wish. Had a bit of a hunt and finally put my stick on it.
Picked up coin.
TFTC

Good find today on a days walk into this area, took awhile to locate but found eventually, noticed that Marchwood had been here today
TFTF

found it eventually. was planning on going up mount starveall but slept in. tftc

Cache is still there.Changed container as everything was wet inside

...yep, all the geoluck was spent on the tops. This cache has only been DNFed once before - by me, in fact, and all the way down I had this feeling I wasn't going to find it this time either. I literally can not conceive of any place a regular container can be withing a 20m circle of GZ, because I don't think I managed to find a single spot I hadn't checked last time either. I'm not going there again unless I get some precise help from someone . Still, once the Mine cache is fixed and I have precise instructions for this one, it will be a good excuse for a walk.

Combined this cache with several others in the valley and enjoyed the walk up to this cache with my wife (niteowlnz). As we arrived close to the cache site we saw the reason for your comments about rain in ths area. We had a beautiful day to walk in and even managed to catch a bit of sun as well as collect the cache. TFTC and a nice walk

We had a lovely day in the Hackett area today - enjoyed wandering to this cache a good track - was hoping our translation was up to the job - and certainly we got the gist of it as cache was soon located and signed - we will have to return one day to go further up these tracks as we get fitter thanks for bringing us here

Was doubting the reliability of the Frenchman I had do my interpreting after 10 minutes of searching, decided to sit down at GZ to think, and there it was, under my "qreevrer" Watch the iced up rocks this time of the year. Less discomfort getting your feet wet than standing on a rock covered in clear ice.

Walked in with a friend from Auckland who's a keen tramper rather than cacher. He went off from here to Mt Starvell and beyond. I went off to a spectacular DNF at GCPZ98. This was a goody though. Log and cache contents a little damp. Tipped the water out before replacing everything. TFTC, Biggles

A great ride up to cache site with a quick find at the end. Thanks

Sorry, should have logged this at the time but forgot. I do remember a bee getting inside my trouser leg and stinging me here, gave me fun all the way up to Browning TFTC

wee mtb to brush off cobb webs. wasn't where I thought it may be , but gps knew ! straight to it. Bumped in to a mtb friend who left nz 9 yrs ago and unknown to me untill today, he came back 2 wks ago. we spent more time catching up than the actual ride.....well almost! thanks.

A quick and easy find, found on my way out from hackett hut, 1 hour or so each way, a bit of a wet old day but great to be out tramping and caching!!! TFTC.

Checked up on cache. Covered cache with more rotten wood as it was abit exposed.Everything was okay.

How could I have missed it? I guess I'll come check on that soon

No luck for Mr B today. Will try again after another cacher logs a find.

Interesting, logical clue once we stopped flapping around! Had a great walk, good place to put a cache Thanks

Checked up on the cache.Put a new container and log book as it was abit damp

An easy find once we scampered over the rocks with our MTB shoes on!
Cache is a bit wet inside.
TFTC
Took Geocoin

found on the way up to 'Straight to the point' cache.
Easy to find after translation.
TFTC

Found by Mr Explorer while on an after work MTB ride with a work mate. Good ride, pretty hot though. The GPS didn't zero out too well and then I saw the French hint oh dear. Deciphered enough from my basic French knowledge to make the find. TFTC.

We managed not to get our feet wet on a nice warm afternoon womble from the car park to the cache and back, did "Can't Hackett" on the way back,
TNLN
Thanks
Bryan, Joan, Henry, Sue, Pat and Nolien.

Found along with Q,Moto while out on MTB ride

called in while out on thr mtb
- coin

We were a day walk to the Hacket Hut and discovered this one was on our GPS whilst having lunch at the hut, so on the return walk we had to make a little detour to find this one, managed to cross river keeping feet dry but not so on the return...... Really nice day and a very enjoyable walk, completely recommend it to all....

Nice day for a bike ride, allways loved biking up their, nice easy find TFTC

Nice One!!!!!!!Great walk with just about everything you could ask for with swing bridge as a bonus. Dry feet all the way. Only 70 minutes of easy walking from carpark to cache site. Quick find, lunch by the river and then took some extra time and went on up to the hut. Well worth the effort. TNLN Thanks

Nice little diversion on the way to Starveall Hut.
TNLN

Got there with dry feet, just! TNLN

nice easy find on the way back from the Hackett Hut,did a loop around on the MTB(this is one of my favourite rides)
Didn't need the French translation which is just as well as I don't know any French.
TFTC
-Tb

Eddy and I decided that a walk up to Brownings Hutt was in order this afternoon so we dropped on by to see if we could find this one on the way.
After about 10 minutes of chasing a wandering waypoint as the satelites were not playing the game today, I callled in "The Nose" and Eddy had it found in about 3 minutes!
No wet feet for us though, obviously Buzz Tasman went when it was flowing fater of fell off his rock!
TNLN
Thanks for the cache Buller Trout

Great walk up to be FTF.
Took us 70 minutes from the carpark.
We were a bit worried about our french translation which didnt seem to make sense until we got there and then it all made perfect sense.
Good work Jim, thanks for bringing us up here. We did a small side trip for lunch to the Hackett hut.
Left the Battleship TB

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