Logs for Greenblat 

Well. If you look at my logs you'll notice I haven't logged anything for the last two years. Not because I gave up Geocaching but down to an incredible series of events involving this cache. It all started when I had taken a trip to visit the cache and perform maintenance. I popped the 45.52 carat diamond out from the base of the McDonalds toy and gave it a polish (surprised no-one had grabbed that one), noted that Elvis had been swapped for a blank cassette of Justin Bieber's greatest hits, and then I noticed that the Cold Fusion device had been taken with no equivalent swap! Seething with rage at the blatant breach of geocaching swag rules my hand trembled as I read the last log entry that simply said "watch out!". I swung around and didn't see anyone straight away but spotted a white Chevy Corvette parked under the bridge that hadn't been there earlier. But then I felt the hot breath on my neck, was it.....? Damn no it was a Dobermann who somehow had managed to climb the fake tree. I quickly stuffed the waterproof paper log down it's throat to distract it's attention, hurdled the electric fence, and legged it toward the bridge. Nek minit the door of the Chevy flies open and I am overwhelmed by security guards. After barely any struggle I was thrown into the boot and briefly heard the hissing of gas before passing out. When I woke up, a long time seemed to have passed and I was in some kind of industrial laboratory with people in white coats speaking a foreign language, maybe French. A man I later learned to be the chief scientist had in his hand the cold fusion device that I had knocked up a few years earlier and placed in the cache. "You must make zees device work!" he commanded. Reaching into my caching ToTT pack I whipped out a couple of fresh AAA's and put them in the box and bingo 10 Megawatts of power out the 3-pin plug to charge up the white Tesla parked in the lab in 3 seconds flat (not sure what happened to the Chevy at this point). "You must build a bigger one on an industrial scale!" they demanded. So despite my protests I have been held captive for the last few years building a large scale fusion reactor. I tried to signal my presence to the outside world by convincing them to name the project "Ice-cold Tui Export Reactor" but it lost the meaning once they abbreviated it to ITER. So now with the project pretty much complete and making headlines with limitless fusion energy on the way they finally agreed to release me. With a one-way ticket to Mangtainoka in my top pocket and a cold can in my hand I was bundled off to the airport and soon found myself standing a familiar windswept north Wairarapa location contemplating the events of the last few years. With the cache carrying the burden of the truth of the moon landings I can no longer expose the caching community to the dangerous and extended adventures that would entail so I have decided to archive the cache. Thanks to all for the hours of enjoyment reading the logs. Oh and thanks for the great swag swaps - yeah right! 

Best. Cache. Ever. 

Take care of tree die back. Hint not a Kauri t4tc 

New cache on a new old track. Nice. T4tc 

Found after a short look. Superb Swap Scenery. T4tc 

Great view of Ohaka head and PP. T4tc 

First time back on the Gibbons for yonks. Together with KiwiLeon t4tc 

Thanks Beauty and the Beast for cache replacement. Please ensure bottle is squeezed tightly back into place so it doesn't fall out and get lost 

Spend a night in the Waitakere ranges. After a short night of hearty laughs, and lots of
breakfast, a walk was enforced and since Once Were Geocachers maybe we should actually cache a find or two. This short walk fitted the total lack of any fitness nicely and we soon had the cache signed and returned. Thanks for the hide and nice to be allowed back into this bit of bush 

Found together with Team Hot Toddy. Was such a clear day we could have seen the snow avalanching off the nearby mountains if there was any or if we could see straight. Got caught on the edge of a sudden downpour on the way back to the car - no phytophthora agathidicida left anywhere on this cacher. Thanks for the cache and brining us back to this classic spot. 

Found together with KiwiLeon on our way back from the bush. A couple were getting married in the rain and wind as we went past 

Found together with KiwiLeon on our way to Mid Caples. Cheeky wee hide with great views across the lake 

Found together with KiwiLeon on our way back down from Conical Hill to Flats Hut. Great spot to rest take and take in the views. 

Had a pretty thorough look with KiwiLeon and no luck. Probably washed away or picked up as litter I'm guessing. 

Found together with KiwiLeon on a day trip from Flats Hut. A foot of snow to deal with on the upper slopes and verglas in the gully but well worth the walk. Blue dome day with no wind and the view across the Darrens and down to Martin's bay was stunning. T4TC 

Found together with KiwiLeon on our way up to Conical Hill from Flats Hut. Sat up above the track while unsuspecting walkers carried on below us. Stupendous views from around here 

Out for some exercise so checked on cache - all good - in fact bone dry inside after all these years. Took the wooden helicopter - it will end up in another cache  

Went and found my own cache today. Thanks CyclicalCaching for rescuing and re-hiding the cache. Puzzle/Title/Clue updated and a Geochecker added. 

Container & log replaced 

Found together with KiwiLeon EvilNo9 Alpenmilch80 "Team Gluten".

Brilliantly sunny day with high mares-tails clouds signalling a weather change (that is now raining down on my roof as I write the log). We packed plenty of water, muesli bars, and a can of baked-beans. We took in the azure views at Lower Tama and carried on up to the lookout. After gazing at the amazing cloud iridescence display, we had lunch on the stone bench seat that someone had built on the ridge, and carried on along the ridge. The scramble up the next bit took a bit more effort - swinging out to the left on a diagonal helps.

The last km or so is not anywhere as steep as it looks from further back and we were soon on top. Didn't take the 20kg swappable but did take lots of photos. Great place for a cache

T4TC 

Found together with KiwiLeon and Lil Red Hood. This has been on the to-do list since publishing but has taken all this time to get here. We were very lucky with calm clear weather and no snow underfoot.

Initial height was easily gained on the ski field but above the Giant cafe, you need to start navigating across the stream above the waterfall and below the permanent snow slide. There were a couple of snow bridges that we crossed between. Sticking close to the snow now on your left seems to be the best tactic to avoid boulders early on, but once you reach the smoother lava slabs, straight up is good to reach the skyline view over the Mangaehuehu glacier to Girdlestone. On the rock band, we swung left on a handy diagonal but remember to swing right again or you'll end up steeply below the summit ridge.

View from the top opens up in the last few footsteps - just an awesome place to be.

T4TC 

Track has officially re-opened https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/environment/plants-animals/pests-weeds/Documents/waitakere-ranges-open-tracks-map.pdf 

In need of a post-lockdown breakout, grabbed hut bookings as soon as they were up, figuring there'd never be a chance to do this walk without booking far ahead. Was quite a swell so a bumpy trip and exciting landing off the water taxi at Totaranui. Heading for Whariwhrarangi for the night we dropped the packs and did the short side trip to the point - well worth it. Without reading the sign I was fooled by the Gannets until I realised they were somewhat (ahem) 'inanimate'. Found together with Nutcase 99 we chose this one as the token find of the whole walk. T4TC 

Bakery is awesome! Together with KiwiLeon & Alpenmilch80. T4TC 

Fortuitous find thanks to the watertaxi driver having to call in for a bit of hut maintenance. Great spot that we wouldn't have visited otherwise. We had the eels in a frenzy over some blood n guts. Found together with Alpenmich80 and KiwiLeon. T4TC 

Nice one! Together with KiwiLeon & Alpenmilch80. T4TC 

Clever set up - good fun. Together with KiwiLeon & Alpenmilch80. T4TC 

Relaxing overnighter after the hike up to Constance. We'd been through here a couple of days before, unloading from the water taxi onto a very icy jetty. We had stashed a few cold ones and drank a toast to poor Tom who refused his porridge and didn't wear his hat. Such a Stupid Way to Die. I've stayed at the previous incarnation of this hut, coming here in Winter was a much more pleasant experience than being eaten alive.

Together with KiwiLeon & Alpenmilch80. T4TC 

Surely one of the Holy Grails on NZ tramping, Blue Lake + Constance are an awe-inspiring location. Third time to blue-lake, first as a teenager scout some 40 years ago and then 10 years after that to cross Moss pass, this was the first time I had been to Constance and absolutely worth the extra walk. Hard frost had settled by a bout 4:30pm when we lost the sun and the hut was cold enough to freeze the small change off a Dutchman as the wood stove is pitiful. DoC would do well by swapping it out with the furnace at Sabine hut. Together with KiwiLeon & Alpenmilch80. T4TC 

Extremely happy to see this hut - hadn't had that feeling for a while. Swing bridges in different places from last time and missing the hut across the E Sabine. Together with KiwiLeon & Alpenmilch80. T4TC 

Gimme Hope before the morning come.... well would have been but we stopped for coffee and pies. Mmmmm pies. T4TC 

Start of a great tramp. So good to be out of lockdown. So good to be back in the NLNP after 30 years. Together with KiwiLeon & Alpenmilch80 

Scenery was gorgeous of course. Water so blue. We were on the way to its source. Together with KiwiLeon & Alpenmilch80. T4TC 

Found together with the usual bunch of suspects and Brent the muggle. Stunning day for a walk - views are always worth the slog. T4TC 

Found together with the usual bunch of suspects and Brent the muggle. Iconic spot on a classic walk - good to be back up hear after quite a few years. T4TC
 

Headed up to this newish hut for an over-nighter on Friday night after work with a keen group of friends starting off in the setting sun. After passing a curious flock of cows we were soon in the bush and headlamps on. The climb up wasn't as steep as we seem to be expecting and we soon flattened out at 500m. There were lots of night creatures to spot including possums scuttling up trees and orange-eyed Koura swimming in the side-streams. The hut and surrounds are very spacious and facilities impressive. Next morning we were up at the crack of half way to lunchtime and decided to swing round via Maungamuka hut to getting our money's worth. T4TC 

A bunch of us decided to escape the big smoke after work on Friday, stop over night at Port Waikato's most salubrious accommodation, and have a go at FTF. First Lab cache for me and an interesting experience both to get the app working and a look around this area. Clues all made sense and questions were answered, and with the info in hand we went on to find the bonus. Coords were close enough to spot the hint object next to it's bigger cousin and we soon had cache in hand. T4TC 

Found together with KiwiLeon and Little Red Hood after a big night out in Port Waikato - was good to blow some cobwebs out. This one took quite some searching - like previous logs said. T4TC 

Found together with KiwiLeon and Little Red Hood after a big night out in Port Waikato - was good to blow some cobwebs out. Interesting little wild strawberry growing here. T4TC 

Found together with KiwiLeon and Little Red Hood after a big night out in Port Waikato - was good to blow some cobwebs out. Nifty wee hide. T4TC 

Found together with KiwiLeon and Little Red Hood after a big night out in Port Waikato - was good to blow some cobwebs out. Leon had to resort to tying his shoelaces as the muggles passed. T4TC 

Together with KiwiLeon and Little Red Hood after a big night out in Port Waikato - was good to blow some cobwebs out. Spent quite a while looking with no luck. Maybe it was too well buried in leaf litter?. T4TC 

Found together with KiwiLeon and Little Red Hood after a big night out in Port Waikato - was good to blow some cobwebs out. No problems here. Carried on to check out the falls, which were really nice. T4TC 

Found together with KiwiLeon and Little Red Hood after a big night out in Port Waikato - was good to blow some cobwebs out. Busy talking, we overshot and had to come back for this one. T4TC 

Found together with KiwiLeon and Little Red Hood after a big night out in Port Waikato - was good to blow some cobwebs out. Could have proved tricky but Leon soon had it. T4TC 

Interesting history for this area and one of those spots that you wouldn't know about except for geocaching. Took a bit a looking but with plenty of pairs of eyes we got it. T4TC 

Nice walk taking in the sights of Port Waikato with the rest of the gamng. Couple of attempts to get the wording right but reasonably obvious. Nice park T4TC 

wow what a great garden reserve. Found together with the usual suspects, we approached from two directions to converge at the cache. T4TC 

Out walking along the beach with a team effort to crack the new Lab cache, so was nice to also to have a trad in the area to grab as well. Nice Hide. T4TC. 

As previous logs GZ is covered in felled scrub.