Ecology Cache (Auckland) Tawharanui, North Island, New Zealand
By KiwiGary on 10-Dec-06. Waypoint GCZPZD

Yep rmccrae was correct the cache is gone, and judging by the recent flood that went through here its probably half way to South America now .

Its a fantastic spot and we enjoy our walk today out to the point and back.

We will archive this one to allow room for new people to place a new cache.

Thanks to everyone that visited our first New Zealand cache.

Couldn't find it, enjoyed the walk maybe give it another go next time were there

a lovely walk through the trail, much enjoyed. Many thanks.

3rd cache on a tramp with some scouts today , while camping nearby for the weekend.
Found after a few minutes. Cache container was full of water, but new log was dry. Dried out as best we could.
TNLNSL
TFTC

The 3rd cache we found while tramping in the park with Gr8dad, and camping at the nearby camp area for the weekend.
Tftc

Out and about up north for the day to catch up on some new caches. Great day for a walk in this wonderful reserve despite the heavy showers. Quick find when we reached GZ T4TC.

The park should be open again now, so cache back in play.

Hi,

The park is closed for pest control (including the weekends), the park will reopen on Friday 21 May 2010.

I will disable this cache, this will effect the other caches in the park as well.

Info from the parks website:-
>>
Our pest control programme will be carried out at Tawharanui during these this period, and the park will be closed. This programme will help in the final eradication of rabbits and hedgehogs from the park.

No access is permitted during this period - either by vehicle, on foot or by boat.

The park is also closed at the weekends during this period.
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Very nice forest. Suggestion: perhaps you could add the letter 'S' (for plural) to the end of the hint...

We love this park - we're long standing TOSSI members but haven't been here for a couple years. If we don't overnight the drive is too long and fraught. It has improved with the new highway but wow are there lots of people here on this beautiful day. The bird life is flourishing since our last visit; lots of vocal bellbirds, peaceful patekes and a family of quail (3 littlies!) and lots more. Maintenance well done cache in good nick. Co ords very close but not quite where we first guessed. Out; the lovely Medusa coin. In; Puzzle tribute coin and our pathtag. TFTC

Replaced original inventory after cleaning and drying. Cache in good condition now.

Walked out to the Takatu Tramp cache, and then along the Ecology Track to this one. Enjoyed the bush walk and the many birds along the way - bellbirds in full voice, tuis, a New Zeaand robin feeding on the track just in front of us, even a kaka screeching as it circled high above. And a cache to boot! Many thanks for the reason to explore this part of the park.
Dropped Medusa geocoin.

# 1484

Found it. Beautiful rainforest spot. A 'must place' to visit. As Team Welsh indicated before, the cache is again full of water, logbook sodden completely. Inventory totally rusty. Put in replacement logbook, pencil, pencil sharpener in a new SnapLock bag after drying out the container. Took the old inventory and the sodden logbook home for cleaning and drying and will replace at next visit. Did not sign (forgot), lol. Thanks for the Cache. Cheers, Tawharauni.

Maintenance in progress. Taken inventory and old sodden logbook. Dried cache container. Inventory will be returned after cleaned and dried. Put in temporary replacement logbook, pen and utilities until next visit. Cheers.

Found this cache on the way back from Takatu Tramp. Nice to come back to Anchor bay a different way. GPS had us out by about 20m but the clue was a great help. Sad to say the cache was completely full of water and the log book is sodden. Tipped out all the water we could and managed to still sign the log. Sorry no replacement on hand so a visit may be needed or the next cacher may be kind and take out a new log book . TFTC

First geocach

Found on great day out.

Incredibly bad form logging a find almost 5 months late! Haven't been up this way for a while and, looking at unfound caches, was sure we'd done this one. Was able to dig out an appropriately dated digital photo of me with cache in hand so will log it now. Took a few newbies on their first "treasure-hunt" and all enjoyed it throughly. TFTC.

Good find. Took our cousins on their first ever cache

This park was a great place to explore on a beautiful day.Enjoyed the eco trail especially the bush part with the bellbirds and tuis. But no kowhai?. An easy find with the clues.

Nice trail, did the whole ecological walk. Lots of birds about. Cache is very damp, needs some silica pads and a sunny day.

always a lovely walk, the birdsong near the cache was amazing

worth taking some time just to sit and listen (after finding the cache of course!) maybe this was how nz was before we all arrived...

log book a bit damp, next visitor should bring some silica sachets

older gps units may struggle under heavy bush cover

TNLNSL

Easy and quick find. Oh we like the trails.
TFTF and forshowing us this nice spot.

Great location! It was a beautiful walk! TFTC!

Yusss I got there after meaning to for 8 months. Thank you for the excellent walk, hair raising drive there though! Found with lauralouwho.
TFTC

Loved this section of the hike.. Fantastic fairy forests here.. Thanks for bringing us back here again.. Left a Geocoin.. T4TC

(1985)
Wow – what a relief to get some shade from the hot sun. Quick find in an interesting spot. Stopped multiple times to admire the trees.

Note: logbook damp, but nothing major. Many thanks Gary and Margaret on your first cache placement in KiwiZone.
TNLNSL, TFTC

No problem to find this, awesome track with birdsong galore this time of the year. Di was busy taking photo's so could take my time. Thanks!

Found this one easy as cache was quite exposed and visible from track. replaced with a bit of covering to help hide. Cache a bit wet too. I have walked the bottom part of this track hundreds of time but never the top section. Cheers. TNLNSL

[This entry was edited by Paora on Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 10:42:55 PM.]

[The oratia scouts were on a camp and have been walking this track for many years and] we never knew what was under our feet. [This is our scouts first cache and they have now decided to plant one of there own, although the cache was a bit damp when we got there.
TFTC]

[This entry was edited by oratia scouts on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 10:03:22 PM.]

Came back for a second time after cache was moved, to introduce Clare to geocaching. Found it with help from the clue, as the Garmin was out by 30m due to tree cover.
Took carabiner
Left 'Hiker'

Storm brewing but lovely sheltered walk along eco trail.

Only one third of the team visited this cache along with a friend who was being introduced to this exciting geocaching. She found the cache and very pleased too. What a lovely walk through the bush and back down through the cows!

We found this one on a brilliant New Year's Day (and birthday for one of our cachers). It was a rather lucky find (helped along by Park familiarity and the clue) as our trusty GPS spat the dummy at the start of the walk! Grrr! Needless to say with no operational GPS this cache was the only one we attempted and found on our holiday in the area. However, it takes a lot to stop us from doing the things we love so in the words of Arnold S "[we'll] be back"....

TFTC, TNLNSL

Quick stop on walk on to Takatu Tramp cache in late evening after sail from Great barrier.
Took diabetes TB, LN Thanks

Nice walk on a hot day through cool bush. 2 of the team took a shortcut from 40m above the cache directly down the hill to avoid all those bothersome stairs which greenBlat thought was great so she got to grab the cache.
Dropped Aracataca Columbia Diabetes TB
+ LJ Hooker Pen
- smiley ball
TFTC

Cruised to this one, what a magical spot, thanks for showing us. Made my way to the cache, and found it ok. Took some pics, lovely day. Took TB (Dragster)
. Took some pics. Swa a good range of bird life up here, fantails, yellowhead, gold finches.

TFTC Kiwigary

This has to be one of the places I have visited in some time, fantastic place and a beautiful day to take in the scenery and walks. Great

To be honest, I got to this cache and thought it was a goner, there was flood damage everywhere. I hadn't seen the recent maintainance log.

Searched around for ages, and nearly gave up, after wandering downstream to see if it had been washed away.

Decided a bit more commitment was needed and after getting muddy, found it where it was supposed to be.

Chuckled at the recent neices comments, so Gary thinks we are all Nancies and Big Softies huh?? Ay??

TNLNSL

15:34 Maintenance check and all is well at ground zero. Rescued the two travel bugs. Loads of bird song today in the bush. Really enjoy this place.

Took: BCGA 2007 Geocoin and Ozzy the Otter TB

** Coordinates Changed From **
S 36° 22.414 E 174° 50.756
Distance From Old: 149.6 feet
Went up to vist the cache today to have a look for a new location. Went up with my niece and Mum. Please ignore silly niece comments in logbook .

Found somewhere that is almost on the track and also is a Yellow friendly location. Our old Etrex had a signal as well .

So cache back in action, but please note the new co-ordinates.

Left: Ozzy the Otter TB and BCGA 2007 Geocoin

Cache is back in action, please note new co-ords.

The cache has moved quite a far distance from the last, so if have visited the old location you can reclaim this if you find it again.

#549. Found with Tramper Ted without whom I wouldn't have cause as the owner of the e-trex mentioned I was standing 10m from the cache site and it was saying 90m SE.
Looked in lots of places that matched to clue but on the wrong side of the stream.
The park was looking great in the late afternoon with loads of people surfing. TFTC.

After a few cachers comments, we are going to disable this cache until we get a chance to either move it or remove it.

Will go and have a look and see if we can find a better location closer to the track.

Hopefully this will happen over the Easter break. Thanks to all visitors so far.

Great walk, lovely day, fabulous tui song. Thanks for the cache. Found it with Cara.

+ smiley ball
- red ferrari

Here with St Ouens. Great walk, lovely bush, but depending on what sort of GPSr you have will influence your success. The poor Etrex can't cope at all so anyone with one of those may struggle to find this cache. The 60CSx will hold the fix, however that didn't stop us hunting for a fair while before one of the team tried from higher altitudes and had success. We were concerned at the location as very soon environmental damage is likely to occur and agree that a better site would be near the bridge where there are heaps of good hiding places and little chance of damage.

This is a very beautiful park and the increased bird life is a pleasure to see. The colours on the beach and water late in the day were vibrant. A great spot. TFTC

We took the wrong track (alternate path) so endured a bit of a climb before returning and finding the right track. We could never get to closer than 30m and, despite searching every item mentioned in the clue - and we found 4 or 5 - we couldn't find the cache.

Ruth and Bren (from the UK)

Up here nice and early, the cloud hadn't quite burned off enough for a swim yet, so we headed off for the cache. Gpsr overshot a bit then decided to turn us around, but we decided to use the clue straight away as we didn't want to damage this great piece of bush. Found we were standing right above it anyway.

Was intrigued by the high concentrations of bellbirds in here, they must have been re-introduced since the fence went up. Sure I read somewhere that the Hunuas were now the northern most reach of the bellbirds.

-geocoin, +TB

Took me a while to find this one, GPS gave me the run around!, must have been a bit much tree coverage, the clue was a lot more helpfull in finding it! Tend to agree with lone scotsman re location, heaps of spots on the trail where it could have been hidden without being found by others, ie near bridge, (on which i spotted a rather big eel from). Is an excellent walk, highly recommended. At Tawharanui with family so had to find while was here
TNLNSL

Our first kiwi bush cache and what a beauty. Get walk with great views and then a lovely stroll in the jungle. Lots of insects but not many birds.

12.05pm. Nice walk with three grandsons. Took a while because we looked at a number of places that fitted the description. GPS was doubtful but got us there eventually. - 2 Keyrings and a mirror. + 3 cars and a balloon pump and something else.
Got soaked on the way out when heavy rain fell. Nice and warm though. Thank you David and boys.

Lovely to be walking in the shade on such a hot day. Half of Auckland are here!
T4TC KiwiGary - M@

Easy find but not happy with area. 6metres off track and lots of small ferns to stand on. Other good hiding places near by with out leaving the track

Nice to escape the pre-Christmas business and head out to the park. We were surprised how few folk were out there on such a great day. We really enjoyed the Ecology Trail. We usually get as far as the sand and that's it! We have been told that the newly introduced Kiwi have made themselves at home and make quite a racquet at dusk. Thanks Kiwi Gary.
-Cup hooks
+ Skater Keyring

14:17 Quick maintenance visit before the Christmas rush, we must have just missed "BBPM" which was a shame. Great day for a walk in the bush.

Left: 2006 Kiwi Geocoin and World Travel Geocoin

This was our first visit to this lovely park and we were not disappointed. It was lovely - we had brought a picnic so we sat down to eat it while watching the surfers in the water below. Then we decided it was time for the cache, so we started to walk the Ecology trail from the beginning. Our 5 year old loved it and we learnt a lot about the local fauna and flora before we came to GZ. We made a very quick find before continuing on with the rest of the trail. We took about 2 1/2 hours to go all the way around but we were walking slowly and our little one walked all the way, which is certainly a first!
Took TB
In: Golf ball
Out: Grumpy the dwalf

Thank you for bringing us to such a lovely place.

Had a realisation the other night and as I had a job in the area had an early lunch to swing by this morning.

I was in the wrong area before and this time had no problems finding the right spot. There is a wee bit a bush bash more a bush brush past to get to cache and it was a bit slippy. Cache was very well hidden and I did my best to replicate it upon return. probably best to have done it this is a bit steep for my toddler and she wouldn't have stayed on the track.

Great fun to find this one and the bird chorus was lovely. thanks for a fun one.

out geocoin & miss piggy
In I see the lights TB (I've not been able to get where I had intended for this chap so maybe someone else can help on it's way & a miss kity compact.

With the nice weather I took the day off to get out and have a play with my daughter. This is a favourite spot so seemed like a good option.

Couldn't get any signal close to gz. 50m away from one direction and a 80 the other. Had a look were dead reckoning took me and used the clue scouring a few of those to no joy. Puller the pin after almost an hour of back and foward and the little one was getting due a nap.

Had a look a the spolier back home and while I think I had a quick look at that one it wasn't my focus so looks like another trip!

It's a beutiful walk regardless.

Dropping of a Geocoin for the first visitor.

Published