TakapariView (Manawatu) Ruaroa, North Island, New Zealand
By MalcolmB on 29-Sep-06. Waypoint GCYK0H

No joy for us today!

Out on a drive up Takapari Road for a Sunday activity. We’ve been up a few times previously (last time in Feb) and the track has deteriorated so badly. You now won’t get up without a winch and getting covered in mud! We made it down near the end to the @ Rock cache which we weren’t able to reach previously due to the weather

We had a good hunt for this cache around GZ but didn’t have any luck locating it. Will try again next time to see if we were just blind today

Thanks anyway
C&J

#12,011. A little exploration of the A Frame Hut and Takapari Road Track above Dannevirke in Manawatu-Wanganui. No one was at the hut and GZ was all quiet at the time of our visit. Found after a bit of a search. The cache was in good condition, all nice and dry inside. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log.

Thanks for the placement, and for bringing us to this site, and …

.T h a n k s. .f o r. .t h e. .c a c h e.
.M a u r u u r u. .k o e. .n u i. .a t u. .h o k i. .t e. .k e t e r o k i.

What a great day we've just had from Pohangina Valley, up Takapari Rd on the eastern side of the Ruahine and across the tops to the western side looking out towards Dannevirke, visiting five geocaches, all successfully found.
We very much appreciated being invited to join searchSteve and his trusty Hilux 4WD for the trip. They both did very well in getting us through some very deeply rutted, muddy, rocky, slippery, narrow sections of 'road', quite challenging at times. We bumped our way over hill and dale about 12 kms to the furthest cache, and then back again. It was great fun and lovely to be out and up, even if the wind was chilly in the exposed places. We had our lunch in the A-Frame Hut to keep out of the wind. It's good to see it is under repair too.
Despite it being quite cloudy when we left Palmy, by the time we were ascending the day had cleared quite well so we had some wonderful views over great expanses of hills, terraces and farmland, even Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe loomed quite large, albeit a little hazy.

This was #3 attempt and #5 find for us today. We walked down to this from the A-Frame hut after lunch, but there were several hint object arrangements possible and the cache could have been well overgrown, not having been found since 2017. We all had a good search around and in the vegetation but had no luck, so decided to move on and come back as we returned. This time we brought the walking poles to prod into the leaf material etc around the vegetation, which wasn't that easy to get in amongst ourselves. Suddenly searchSteve detected a different sound, more like a tap against plastic rather than earth or rock and sure enough the cache was brought out from under! We were all delighted. The contents were in pretty good shape considering how long they'd waited there - a little damp, but probably from condensation in the container rather than a leak from the outside. So we happily signed the log and then all was returned, but covered by a white painted board that was lying there which will hopefully make it a little easier to locate in future. TFTC

Footnote: When we got back to the hut who should be there readying to spend their second night but the two hunters who gave Phronimos a lift yesterday. They were interested we were trying to find geocaches too and amused we actually managed to locate this elusive one!
Unfortunately for them, they hadn't managed to locate any of their prey today, but they were still enjoying themselves.

Thanks MalcolmB for inspiring others to come up here by placing this cache

It has been on my To-do-list ever since I read about it approx 5years ago!

However I am not as fit as I used to be, and until recently had no access to a 4WD...
Today the stars and satellites and weather finally aligned so I teamed up with geodatum in the hope that we could find this old one and the new ones further along the range.

We had lunch in Travers Hut as it was freezing outside, then tried find this elusive cache with 3 keen pairs of eyes... to no avail.
Mrs Geodatum had the bright idea of using a trekking pole to prod the ground but when she turned around got a fright as she couldn't see the Hilux -no it wasn't stolen, just out of sight 100m away.

So we determined to try again on our way back from @rock and if necessary consult the CO about a replacement cache due to recent DNFs.
However on our return with the polesand just as we were about to admit defeat we struck plastic!
This 14y.o cache was still there after a 3year wait between finds!
Still plenty of room in the logbook TNLNSL
Definitely a Favourite!

**What an amazing day.** Started off foggy and frosty, getting down to -1°C out Rangiotu way on my RD Post Run. But so clear and calm. Beautiful. Stunning.
Raced though my Run and made the most of the rest of the day, trying for at least one of the FTFs still on offer along the 4WD track from here.
Left the Tamaki West roadend at 13:00, jumped the creek, and found GC8JN15 Teddy Bear's Picnic cache. Then climbed the 2.7km track to here. Took an hour and three quarters. The track from the ridge above the zig-zag is horrible (but horrendous descending). Even though it's mid-afternoon the ground was still frozen with frost so not so muddy meandering among the Leatherwood above the bushline.
So I arrived here. Didn't hold out much hope of finding this cache as it's been over three years since last found with one (only?) DNF since! But one lives in hope. Searched indicated GZ and every flax bush within cooey but no smilie. (Obviously not every flax bush I guess, or I would've found it! How hard is it to find a regular size cache? Too hard it seems today.
Anyway I did get the FTF at the nearest new geocache another km along the ridge, so not a wasted trip. In fact a very good trip.
Great that you've kept it alive for 14 years. But is it?

Had a quick look around but couldn't find cache. It's either gone or deeply buried under leaves!

A not so enjoyable mountain bike ride on the way up with little biking done and lots of moaning from me ! The A-Frame Hut was looking a bit tired with lots of possum poo all inside the interior - hopefully it will be maintained some time and not pulled down as I imagine it would be a god-send in bad weather even in its current state.

We parked by the DOC gate and rode the 3 km to the farm boundary which it hindsight was a good idea as there are a few spots on the road up that really do require good ground clearance.

Found cache in the obvious place on the 3rd attempt even though the coords were spot on - must have been too tired to look properly.

Gets a FP for the stunning views in all directions and we could even make out Ruapehu on the way up. Also it was no surprise that the trip back was much more enjoyable !

A friend from out of town was visiting with his mountain bike and I suggested that we go for a ride up here because at the time the weather forecast was good. On the day the weather was looking a bit cloudy, but we decided to go anyway. It was a good ride with a few challenging climbs. As we neared the hut, the mist parted for a moment, giving us a brief view across to Dannevirke, before it disappeared into the mist again.
Then once we arrived at GZ we actually had quite a good view.
The coordinates were good and the cache was quite a quick find.
Great location for a cache. Well worth the trip.
Thanks.

Went looking for it at night may not have been the best idea. Couldn't find it

This has been on my to-do-list for a while, I was finally able to make it up here today thanks to a friend's 4WD. We left Masterton at 4.30am and we were drinking coffee in the hut at 6.40am. We chose the right day to come up here, with fantastic views of Mt Ruapehu & Mt Ngauruhoe, and we could also Mt Egmont in the distance.

It took us a few minutes to find the cache, which was in good order. Thanks for bringing us up to the amazing view point and thanks for the cache MalcolmB

Found on a day trip around the A Frame - Stanfield loop. A good day out in good company, and perfect weather. Thanks for the cache.

Found this one after looking for some deer. Easy enough to find. TFTC

Great cache. Wasn't keen on continuing further once we had found the other cache up this road, but Man wanted to. But what a lovely track, would of been better if the cloud lifted more. Thanks for putting a cache up here. Found TB in cache but it is not logged at being in cache.

This entry was edited by frenchm on Tuesday, 23 October 2012 at 05:20:11 UTC.

This entry was edited by frenchm on Tuesday, 23 October 2012 at 05:21:38 UTC.

Nice little "drive by" as described by Morgan Ed. Enjoyed the haul up to the cache and views were cool too. TFTC

big smiles from me here The best drive by cache in New Zealand for sure. Loved the drive up, found cache quite fast. Had a chat with some trampers at the hut then took some photo's can finally take this one of my short list. Have walked up this way earlier bit easier to drive here than walk TFTF happy caching. Left a TB

What a brilliant windless day to be on the tops with views both east and west. We found this lonely cache easily by relying on the GPS rather than Google earth. Possum said to muggle Nigel it must be there so he poked about with his tramping pole and we heard a clunk. Cleo opened up the cache to find it quite dry inside in spite of it not being visited for a year. We left a car and took a different car. Then we carried on in the company of muggles Nigel, Ann and Jill to complete the circuit past A-frame hut, along Takapari Rd and down the overgrown Rimu Track to the river and hence back to the carpark. Thanks MalcolmB for this great cache.

Pretty cool for a roadside cache on a public road
Amazing views today. The gate 800m from the cache seems to be pernanent.
Found together with nutcase 99. Nana Greencase had the cache quickly in hand. T4TC

For the second time around, and aided by GreenBLAT and "mum", it proved an easy find.

Brilliant drive, thanks for the cache.

Nice view on a fine day!

Found in the company of a group of 12 Thursday trampers from MTSC. It took a little while for the GPSr to settle but once that was achieved the cache was quickly found. Contents are all dry - a few trinkets were added. It was a great day to be on Takapari road - above the fog, enjoying the sunshine and light breeze. Thanks MalcolmB.

After 3 hour tramp up from Tamaki Rd we found the cache after a fruitless search in the leatherwoods . We took the container to Travers hut to examine leaving a rock on the track to mark rough location. Unfortunatley 10cm of snow overnight made it a little more difficult to return in the morning. We carried on tramping along Takapari Rd / ridge and on to Standfield hut and out via Tamaki River. Great weekend especially the snow. (Beware:- Travers Hut has no fire place, mattresses, table or chairs.)

Took Malaysian $1 note and left Rangitikei Badge.

Hmm, a tough one maybe, 100% sure we had the right place, I'm debating as to wether the cache is still there.

A DNF on this one Oh well gives us a great excuse to do this drive again! A TON Of muggles here today!
Luckily they were all sheltering from the wind in the hut.

Drove in with the Boxers and found the cache no problem,no muggles here!!! The Boxers chose to take the dinosaur so left
toy car in exchange.
TFTC

Found my first cache yeah!! What a great day to take the 4WD up Takapari Road, only saw 2 other vehicles, both parked up with no occupants. Parked the truck at the hut and off I went, a bit moist underfoot so next time I'll take boots. Got it all wrong on the first go and wondered how I was going to get 50m ito the leatherwood! Think alternatively and you too will find it. Signed the logbook and left the cache as found.

Strolled up from the Tamaki West Rd and walked straight to the Cache! Took it for a walk to Travers hut to examine the contents out of the wind and rain!

Wanted to take the dinosaur, but had nothing to trade!

TNLNSL

Chucky

Visited cache today and found it safe and well. Road in is OK but marginal for two wheel drive vehicles.

A quick 20 minutes from the Park entry gate to finding the cache. Had awesome fun blasting up this road, it was made for trail bikes. Magnificent views from the top, well worth a visit. Weather was great and still had lots of time left so shot further up the valley and hiked into Rangiwahia hut to find the pioneer cache of this area, GC34F "Ruahine" by manawatu.

TNLNSL

Finally managed to get some time put aside to do some caching. So, dusted off the trusty Garmin and decided on an afternoon touring the Pohangina and pillaging a cache or two for my sins.

First of the afternoon was ValleyView and this was followed by Triggerpoint - both cache's by MalcolmB. Both enjoyed and rewarding.

So what's the story with this cache called TakapariView? Another MalcolmB cache, first published 29 September 2006 and no visitors. Shall we check it out? Yeah, lets; we'll go as far as the gate at least and see what we reckon.

Well folks here is a cache not to be underestimated. Go back and reread the owner's advice. If you were coming in here without the benefit of 4-wheel drive and from the Pohangina side, then you have an 11km walk ahead of you from the last gate - where you could park, to the cache site. If you were considering mountain biking it then you'd need all day and an iron-clad R's (I borrowed this expression from GenCuster)! We did it in the Subaru Outback, and this was a tad marginal, better to have been higher off the ground in places. But hey, we made it there and back. However it takes time. Allow 3 hours for the return trip from Pohangina Valley Road East.

It was a fine, warm, sunny afternoon with little wind. DO NOT try and come here in adverse weather conditions.

An alternative to using the road in from the Pohangina side would be to tramp in from the Hawke's Bay side. You could do this in a single day return trip I expect, use the track from the end of Tamaki West Road and climb up to A Frame hut. This would be quite a good tramp (I haven't done it though), strenuous on the way up, rewarded by great views, and cruisy going back home.

This was a great adventure, rewarded by finding the cache - actually Sweet P was the one to first find the cache. But a FTF it is!

We found the cache container's lid to be fused (like it was glued) to the container body. In removing the lid the possibility for the container to maintain a sound seal in the future was compromised. I have taken the liberty of replacing the container (which as a happy and well equipped geocacher I just happened to be carrying around with me). A pic of the replacement will be posted here soon, but it is a cylindrical, screw top, 1 litre plastic container painted camo green and with a 'Official Geocache' label on it. Of course I replaced the cache where it was found.

This is a great cache location. One that will (metaphorically speaking) sort out the men from the boys, with huge views to reward the effort of getting here, nearby accommodation if needed and best of all, the lowest probability of being disturbed by muggles!

TFTC MalcolmB

+ dinosaur
- Atom Ant

A FTF, SL

The Turtle strikes again!

Published