Logs for de mondo 

05-Mar-11
Found after second attempt, clue a bit ambiguous as we were looking at wrong end. Enjoyed the art gallery and it was nice sitting in the cafe watching the rain and the little birds taking shelter. Thanks for the cache. 
 
[Mr D worked out the co-ordinates and we were sure we had the right spot. There could only be the obvious clue item, couldn't there? but we couldn't see the cache. Didn't know if this was a decoy] and the cache was hidden at the base of say another less grand tree or the other 4 large ones [but without trampling further on young plants ]or pulling apart the trunk, [we didn't want to investigate too much. We were also attracting muggle attention, a lady asked me "what is that noise?" (meaning the crickets chirping which I thought was bizarre, maybe she was a fellow cacher). Glad we came here, this is a magical place.] 
 
Bah, spent ages here but just looking at other logs it seems it has been removed. Sorry about that. Thanks anyway for the interesting information about the tunnels and bringing us here to this pleasant park. 
 
A clever spot by Mr D on our last day in NZ Sad. We didn't see the alley cat but we saw a lovely stone building. How strange that it isn't open on a weekend, unheard of here in England. Thanks for the cache 
 
04-Mar-11
What a performance! (as Grandma would say). We arrived at 11am (me and hubby, 2 people in group). The beach was peaceful and we rented our spade. Then the hoards arrived, people desperate to find the hot spring as the tide went out at 1pm. People were actually stood in the sea with their spade "staked" for half an hour waiting for the perfect spa and laughably digging the sea water - it was like the gold rush. We did find some odd areas in the sea where the sand scalded the feet but our dug spa was a bit of a damp squib with a disappointing reading of 23 degrees. We came back on the evening, again the spa temperature was tepid at best but the beach was a lot more peaceful. Glad we came here, it was an experience and we had a nice day on the beach looking out to sea and the lone rock and of course people watching. Thanks for the cache.

This entry was edited by de mondo on Friday, 11 March 2011 at 14:41:35 UTC. 
 
03-Mar-11
[Mr D found, Mrs D was on the wrong track.] I was looking in the area behind, looking for a metal fence. 
 
Found on our daylight walk around this amazing park - forget paying to see bubbling pools, it's all here - for free! Mr D was enjoying the sulphur smells which seemed to improve his cache eyes. What should we find but a little friend for our Red Jeep Travel Bug, awww, so I took a picture of them both and thought they would be good company for our remaining travels around this lovely country. TFTC 
 
[Came for a walk along Hot Water Beach when we arrived at the campsite about 5pm. Didn't realise actually how long a walk this would be in flip flops. When we got to the stream (which was very warm by the way and far more sucessful than digging your own spa pool) it started to rain. By the time we found the cache we were drenched. Good sized cache] and thankfully no spiders. [Thanks.] 
 
28-Feb-11
We stopped off at this one before moving on to Taupo after staying overnight at the DOC, I think the "easy walk" brought Mr D around after yesterday's efforts. Again our GPS was off but Mr D managed to find the cache. Cool cache bag by the way. Dipped in Red Jeep TB. 
 
We stopped off here on the way heading north to Taupo. We missed the turnoff because it was signed 1.5km before GZ but it was an incredibly long parking bay so we turned in at the end - so lots of parking here and a double entry in case you miss it the first time.
We parked up and had lunch looking out on the waves, what a beautiful spot.
We then walked up the rock and did the measurements and had a seat while having a cup of tea and threw some pumice out into the lake to watch them come back again. We found some plant/organism on the shore, didn't know if it was Didymo to be reported or seaweed. Dipped in TB.
We had the place to ourselves, we only saw one car park up all the time we were here, it is such a beautiful place to miss, we wished we'd spent more time here. 
 
27-Feb-11
Found on way up to lakes. Unfortunately a nosey muggle seated herself on the bench eating a sandwich asking if we'd lost something and staring at us. Mrs D had to pretend to visit the loo while Mr D tried to stand guard. Judging from the amount of loo roll strewn about this proved an adequate cover and the cache was soon in hand, then we were on our way. 
 
Found on our walk up to the second lake. Had a nice view of the lower lake. GPS was measuring altitude 1338. Thanks for the cache. 
 
25-Feb-11
Found after enjoying the viewing at the observatory, great little museum inside. Lots of muggles but managed to grab the cache. Then enjoyed a lovely stroll through the botanical gardens. Thanks from the UK. 
 
24-Feb-11
We didn't attempt this. We thought we knew where to look in the wall but it is a memorial ground so we didn't want to walk over it to get to the wall. It sounds like it has been muggled anyway. 
 
Came here on our 2 day stay in Wellington. Met up with a fellow cacher, Bruce, and we had a good look around. Couldn't find anything, we noticed a couple of chaps sitting near the end so decided to move on. Pity we missed this one, it sounds good. 
 
Our sat nav was still reading 9metres out but we found it on a second attempt. It is a nice view here. Thanks from the UK. 
 
22-Feb-11
Found on walk along path. Good size cache. Thanks 
 
Found 3rd time lucky, GPS was taking us out into the water being 10 metres out. Mr D found in the end. Thanks for leading us to this scenic path into town. 
 
20-Feb-11
Poked around a bit in the many leaves, [couldn't see any obvious places & GPS has had us 9 metres out before but I think we were in the right area.] Maybe it is buried? [Such a refreshing change to be able to cache in a park without the fear of dog-muck, wish it was like this in the UK. Thanks anyway even though it was a DNF, we certainly enjoyed the park.] 
 
Couple of goes at this, GPS was reading out by a few metres but I'm sure we were looking in right place from other comments. Noticed another DNF, wonder if it is still there? 
 
Found after an enjoyable walk in the park. Good cache, took Jeep TB. 
 
14-Feb-11
Found. We looked and looked then saw a party of people looking over at us and we realised they must have had the cache. They came back and replaced (very cleverly I must add), then we could log our find. Thanks, enjoyed our time here. 
 
We spent ages here on the hunt for the FTF. We were certain we were in the right place. With all the finds logged I wonder what went wrong? We did see a chap walking away with a black cylindrical object and wondered if he was a cacher going to log the find. Gutted we didn't find this. Bright side, lovely view of the lake here. 
 
Brilliant. Looked in all not-obvious places then Mrs D searched in the only place left. Then a muddy squelch back to the long old road back to our camp site. Great cache, loved it! 
 
11-Feb-11
Took a bit of searching but Mr D found it. Left a compass. Frisbee Golf is lethal, very slow and frustrating but we had fun trying to retrieve it around this lovely park and watching other players to see how it was done. TFTC. 
 
Found on our visit from UK. Enjoyed picking up a few caches in the park and always like an Earth cache. Pics enclosed, answers to follow.. 
 
Found after a bit of poking around. Dropped off travel bug - couldn't log it until today but found it's already been picked up. TFTC! 
 
Bah humbugs!
Came on 11th February but water was high and didn't know what to expect so decided to come back after casing the joint and more discussion on the likely place it will be.
Came back on 12th with shorts and flip-flops ready to have a good old rout around but the water was really choppy so had to abandon, took a look in the shallower areas but found a small child following me so abandoned - how does a lake get so choppy?
Returned on 13th . Found a group of blokes looking over at me asking if I'd lost something, then asking what I could see - they wouldn't leave, turned around to find another child following me to see what I was looking at.
Searched in what I thought was the likely places but was beaten by this one. 
 
Our first find on our 3 week holiday in New Zealand. What a lovely sculpture. 
 
02-Jan-11
Found today after a diversion through the bushes and back, Mr De Mondo spotted this one. We hadn't been to Belas Knap before so thanks for bringing us here. TFTC.


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Sunday 09 Jan 2011 ... [url=http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?id=1947157][u]on holiday by mistake[/u] ![/url]
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This entry was edited by de mondo on Tuesday, 04 January 2011 at 04:19:52. 
 
18-Dec-10
Had a couple of friends with us and they were grumbling about detour from Calder until they saw the cache - brilliant. Glad they were with us when we found this one. Not much dignity for spiders though! TFTC lol.