Caching every day, it sure does get a bit tricky finding easy caches near to our day-to-day travels.  This cache GC16EX0 Albany Hall (Auckland) is one we drive by lots of time but haven’t gone to look for it yet as it seems to be a bit tricky to find.  We decided just to have a go as we were passing it, and if it took to long, go drive somewhere else to get another cache.  It was one of those caches when if you stood and looked in the right position, the cache will stare right back at you.  I made the quick find and understand why it can easily be overlooked.  Even though I found it, Kev was jumping up and down in excitement laughing how easily we (note the word WE lol) found it and others struggled.  I even heard him talking on the phone this morning to Kai telling him of our quick find while he had struggled.  I think Kev’s forgotten whenever we  go out with Kai (well most people) they find 80% of the caches and we just happily sign the log lol.

The log book was pretty full so took a pic of me holding it, proof we found it as we had to scribble our name on top of others.

And a better pic of me with the geocar in the background.

This Sunday we’re planning on getting lots of caches done with Kai at Beachlands.  Oh and Kev and I will be attending the new event on Waitangi Day, Blackberry Flats BBQ & Campout Event.  Kev is opting out on the walking, and I’m still deciding, but we definitely will be there for the bbq!

Day Ten of Month Challenge – tick!

21 days to go…

Next to where I work is where Kai_Gotti lives, so today after work we hooked up to do a few local geocachers.  As Kai has done most of them, there isn’t many for us to choose which he hasn’t got a smile face for!  One he hasn’t found was GC2JYJK Field of Dreams (Auckland).  We all walked up the top of the path to the field and Kai and I immediately went under the pines to start searching.  Kev was out in the open giving the orders “look under there”.  Well we looked and looked and looked and even with Kev’s direction, just couldn’t find it.  Kev wasn’t feeling to well so went back to the car while Kai and I carried on.  After some more fruitless searching, we decided to give up.  I just had another quick of the recent logs and noted it was only found yesterday.  With determination, Kai and I went back on our hands and knees and searched again.  Eventually I spotted it – it was one of those moments when you see it, it’s so obvious!  We signed the log and triumphantly went back to the car – all itchy due to pine needles falling under our clothes.

The next one was GC216V7 Carlisle BS (Auckland).  This is on the busy East Coast Bays Road, so had a quick dash in and out while Kev was in a driveway – no time for photos and thankfully a quick easy find.

The last cache is dedicated to my friend Gemma (and Daddy Mike and big sister Chloe) who had their baby boy Lucas this morning (3.6kilos).  They live just up the road from the cache GCKYJT Up Deep Creek (Auckland).  Kev and I searched for this one before and just couldn’t find it.  I was so sure it had been muggled but people had found it after our last failed search.  Today with a little help from Kai, we got it!  Note in the photo, that’s Kai in the background drooling over our iPad lol.

That was enough caches for the day and Kai and us are off to Beachlands on Sunday for a day of caching before we attend Tramper Ted’s Christmas Campaign (Auckland).  Watch out kiwifamily, we’re catching up!

Day Eight of Month Challenge – tick!

23 days to go…

Saturday 16th October 2010

We were out in the Bays to collect some Trade Me purchases and decided to see if there were any nearby caches, and of course there was one just nearby, GC1YE90 Duncan Found It First!! (Auckland).  It was a quick walk from the car park, and once the neighbours stopped looking in our directory I made a quick find.  We left the TB Sextant Manhonho.  Another cache was just a little up the road, but unfortunately a group of skateboarding boys were congregating nearby so we had to leave it.  We went further up the road to the next one, another park.  My ankle was sore and I didn’t feel like walking too far, and Kev had no interest in going himself, so we had a Mr Whippy ice-cream instead before going off to Long Bay to eat a take-out dinner at the beach.

Later that night our iPhone beep telling us there was a new cache published in Greenhithe GC2ERC8 The Family Cache (Greenhithe, Ackl).  This is our friends Trav007’s 50th hide, and we really wanted a FTF.  We quickly got into the car and took off.  We approached the area, found somewhere to park, and walked around in a daze trying to get our GPS’s to lock onto something.  After wasting a few minutes we ended up going in the right direction.  It was the corner of a street, a very flash street, with a wooden area.  I wasn’t too sure if it was private property of not, but assuming it was public, so went through the trees.  Our GPS was pointed down the hill, not something me and Kev wanted to do!  We went back on the footpath and walked down the road a little.  As walking I noticed torchlight in the trees – was it another geocacher or had we scared the neighbours?  As usual, we approached a path leading into the trees – the correct way in!  We heard a familiar voice, it was kiwicouple and thankfully they hadn’t found the cache.  After a few minutes searching Mr kiwicouple found it, but we could log it as a joint FTF – better than 2nd!  Another great cache from Trav.

Sunday 17th October 2010

Today was our first Cache In Trash Out Event, GC2F87T Orpheus Refreshed – CITO Event (Auckland).  As we were leaving it started to rain, so a quick stop at The Warehouse, I was able to purchase a poncho.  We arrived for the 11am start and I was dressed and ready.  I think most people wish they had come as prepared as me, I had a picker-upper stick!

I’m glad they were not orange jackets, people would have thought we were PD workers!

Here is the group of us at our briefing, note Kev’s absent, he didn’t want to hurt his knee or back so stayed in the warm, dry car!

And here I am at work.

It was a great event, two hours picking up all the rubbish.  We ended up with at least 20 or more rubbish bags!  And while we were there, a few of us went to go get GC1QA72 Orpheus (Auckland).  A great disguise and the end of a geocaching day – time for lunch and rest!

As for Kev, he could have helped with the clean-up as he ended up hurting his knee anyway!  And to top things off, it was his normally good knee!  I couldn’t resist and had to take a video of him, ps the language is R18 lol.

I had a meeting at work at 6pm, so I had two hours to kill since I finished at 4pm.  I located two caches close to my job.  I went to the first one GC10ZJW The Stream (Auckland).  This was a nice and easy find, the biggest issue was when I nearly knocked over the cache into the stream!  Next one I went to was GC11ZEM The Stream Revised (Auckland).  When Kev and I first started geocaching we tried to get this one – we spent ages and walked up and down, and all around but couldn’t find it.  Today I found it within a couple of minutes.  We’re blaming our iphone because the GPS was way out and we had to return it for a new one.  This cache had excellent cammo.  I’m really looking forward at attending the GC2A18A Geocaching Skills Day Version 2 event to get some tips on camouflaging.

Later that night, around 10.30pm, the phone texted with some FTF’s.  One was just at a neighbouring suburb but I was fast asleep and Kev was nice and warm inside – hopefully might be able to get some this weekend! 

We are planning on attending Hawkes Bay’s first ever geocaching event GC29MRJ on Friday, 09 July 2010.
Hope some more Auckland geocachers can attend.

Kev

(A post from Kev)

We decided to go off to the Hamilton WWF GC24JAC which was caught on video and now available on the YouTube site. OMG Fame at last !

Day 2 – Saturday 1st May

Happy 43th Birthday Kev!  We spent the day celebrating Kev’s birthday and after our shopping spree, had a quick stop for a local cache in Tauranga.  A big beautiful tree and the cache was found in no time, GC1T0RN The Lost Boys (Bay of Plenty).  For the evening we drove to Rotorua to celebrate the GC255AW 10 Years! Rotorua, New Zealand geocaching event held at GenCuster’s house.  We had a fabulous time and met some old friends and made a few more new ones.  If you check out the event link, you will see me and Kev in the official photo.

DAY 1 – Friday 30th April

Every year we like to go away for Kev’s birthday (May 1st), so this year we decided to go to Mount Maunganui in the Bay of Plenty.  It happened to coincide with the 10 Years! Rotorua New Zealand (Lost and Found Event Cache) so perfect opportunity for us to go to our first non-Auckland event.

We left Auckland just after 7am and arrived at the Mount at 5pm – lots of geocaching along the way!  Our first geocache was a nice and easy find GC231YF Monumental Effort (North Waikato).  The next cache GC24KAT Millennium Bridge (Thames Hauraki) we had to log a DNF – it looked easy, should have been easy, but no cache .  Luckily enough, our next cache GC1TCCA HMS Otago’s Deadweight (Waikato) was super easy, but what a terrible smell!  Not sure if it was the “country” air or the tree next to the cache, but Kev and I both agree we were happy it was a fast find because we couldn’t hang around for much longer.

Next stop was Paeroa, and we retrieved the GC10QY2 World Famous in New Zealand (Coromandel). 

Assumed it will be close to the famous L&P bottle, but the cache location indicated other type of beverages had been consumed – as the logs suggest, not the best to look at night time.

Our next cache, GC13C1X Crown Battery (Coromandel) has been our favourite so far.  It was a beautiful location with great historic information about the gold mining in the area.  No one was around so Kev and I had plenty of time to locate it – which we needed!  Once we finally got in the right spot, was a nice and easy find.

We drove to the next cache GC16TKB Owharoa Falls (Coromandel) and some workers were having their lunch at what we assumed was the entrance so we did a quick tiki tour up the road.  On our return the path was cleared so in we went.  Entering the track we noticed the gorse was a bit overgrown but we had our hiking sticks so pushed passed.  After a endless walk we reread the info, and noted we were not meant to go over the bridge – we were walking towards the top of the falls, not the bottom where the cache was!

Back to the car Kev decided to sit it out and I went by myself.  After walking the proper way, I was greeted by the beautiful falls, and after a few minutes searching in the trees, found the cache.

It was approaching 3pm and we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast in Pokeno around 10am.  We stopped at Athenree Flip ‘n Bear Cafe and Pancake Den.  It had been recommended but we had never been before.  We highly recommend this place – the pancakes are absolutely delicious!

With our tummies full, we did a final few caches in Waihi.  We stopped off at Martha’s Mines and completed our first earth  and virtual cache in one go!  They were GC1G06V Martha Gold and Silver Mine (Waihi) and GC367B It’s not mine, it’s Martha’s (Bay of Plenty).

The final cache of the day was GC21W6W The Pumphouse (Bay of Plenty).  Kev was pretty tired and didn’t fancy the walk up the hill so he rested on the bench while I went up.  My GPS was pointing me slightly in the wrong direction and after a good 30mins going around and around I had given up.  With my final glance I just caught the edge of the cache, I love when that happens!

With 8 finds and 1 DNF we called it a day and went to our holiday accomodation for a good rest before a weekend of geocaching!