Where are the goodies?

Geocache: Thanks Mr. Gull (GC13WBK)

I couldn't believe it when I turned up (late) and saw so many excited faces anticipating the next treasure hunt. I think that's the biggest group we've ever had since we started geocaching a few months ago! Awesome!

Because of the weather and not knowing what it was going to be like that day, I'd decided to do a quick geocache, just in case it was going to be raining. It didn't. And 'quick' was definitely an understatement. Our very experienced geocaching kids had found the cache even before the last of our group had arrived at the site. I think that broke the record of quickest finds for us.

The container was an old army ammo tin, but it was so rusty we nearly didn't manage to open it. Some hard tugging and pulling finally did the trick, but the disappointment was great. Such a huge container and hardly any goodies... I think we all expected a lot more in there. Thankfully the kids were all a good sport and swapped trinkets between themselves and we added some more into the container, so that the next finders won't have the same disappointment.

After our quick hunt we gathered up the kids again and some of us went to the playground for afternoon tea and others decided to explore the rock pools. And others decided to watch the construction work at the beach. Nice digger!

About the cache name: The person who hid this cache three years ago dedicated this one to another geocacher called Navigull. Hence the name :-)

Why it takes me so long...

.... to announce the next geocache?

There are so many geocaches on the North Shore and I have a really difficult time choosing which one to do next. I'd love to do them all and all of them now!

Some of the ones on my list are for example the one underneath the Harbour Bridge. Or the one called Raining Cats and Dogs - wouldn't that one be so suitable for a rainy day? I'd love to do some more along the beach between Milford and Takapuna but it really needs to be sunny for the beach, don't you think? Then there are two buggy ones, which sound like they have bugs (plastic?) ones as clues. Little Shoal Bay has a hidden path. We could look for Gollum's Lair in Centennial Park. Or we could find out where it all goes (sewage ponds in Albany). Or... or.... or....

One of my favourite hiding places is the geocache in Tui Park, Beachhaven. So clever and so undiscoverable! Around the North Harbour stadium we're supposed be looking for fake ducks. Albany Scenic Surprise takes us through a stunning but wild reserve. Wild as in lots of rocks and ups and downs.

I'd love to take you all to Rangitoto for a day of geocaching. There are nearly 20 geocaches hidden there. I bet there's one in the tunnels too!

And if I click on the North Shore, I can see there are over 300 geocaches hidden. Plenty to keep us busy for a while!

So now you see why it always ends up being Friday or the weekend before I put up the details for our next Geocaching Day. There are just too many to choose from!

Manhunt on the Caribbean!

Geocache: Manhunt on the Caribbean! (GCYPE0)

About 10 years ago, an armed suspect was seen entering Exeter Park, carrying what appeared to be a gun. This sparked a manhunt and the area was cordoned off with police helicopters circling overhead and the armed offenders squad moving in to capture the suspect.

This fun multi geocache re-enacted the manhunt and had us find various locations, pretending to be the armed officer squad.

LOCATION: EXETER BUSH TIME: 1:00 PM

MISSION: SECURE BUSH AND FLUSH OUT SUSPECT

1:20 PM - Suspect has dropped weapon - find it!

Definitely in charge!

1:30 PM - HELICOPTER RADIOS IN TO SAY THAT SUSPECT HAS BEEN SIGHTED ON TRAIL AHEAD.

1:40 PM - AFTER A LONG SEARCH, A CLUE HAS BEEN FOUND IN THE FORK OF A TREE.

1:50 PM - ARMED WITH INTELLIGENCE, OUR EXTRA-ORDINARY TEAM WITH POLICE DOG MANAGES TO SECURE BUSH, FLUSH OUT SUSPECT AND FIND THE FINAL CACHE.

Our highly efficient AOS, sorting through evidence

2:00 PM - DEBRIEF AT PLAYGROUND. POLICE DOG CHASES BALL.

Well-deserved de-briefing

A sunny winter's afternoon

Geocaches: Milford Reef (GC13DTE)

Milford Beach (GC276KR)

Giants Chair (GC1M02X)

Thornes Bay (GC29ZK6)

Compared to last week's storm we were greeted with wonderful sunny weather this afternoon. Perfect to go geocaching!

This week we did one of my favourite geocaching walks: the walk along the beach from Milford to Takapuna. This walk has geocaches hidden every few hundred metres and some with very clever hiding places. We decided to start walking and see how far we'd get.

Our first geocache was hidden in such an unlikely spot that it was ignored by most. One clever mum then decided that maybe there's something inside after all and guess what? A little magnetic box with dirt camouflage was stuck to the top of it. Our first find for the day!

Next our GPS took us to a wooden stairs and a lot of knocking and pulling on the wood. I had done this one before, so I knew that the geocache had to be there somewhere, but where was it? We then realised it was stuck - wood expands when it was wet and after some pulling and tugging we finally got it free. Another very cheeky hiding place.

Our walk continued along the beach, over rocks and stones and wooden bridges.

Our third geocache was the Giant Chair. For those of you not familiar with the Giant Chair, it's about halfway between Milford beach and Takapuna beach. The chair and the walls are part of Merkesworth Castle, also known as Algie's Castle, which was built in 1926, from locally quarried basalt, for Captain John Alexander Algie after he arrived from Scotland. Who would have thought we had a castle on the shore?

The chair and the castle also featured in a local children's book about a lonely, friendly giant Jasper who lives in the castle and builds the chair to encourage visitors. The children who feature in the story are all named after the grandchildren of the author Pam Laird. If you want to read the book, have a look if your local library has it. It's called 'Giant Jasper's Chair' by Pam Laird.

The geocache itself is another one of those very clever camouflages. It's in plain sight and literally right before your eyes, which is why I could never find it. Lucky we had a very perceptive dad with us who fished it out of it's hiding spot, leaving the rest of us to 'oooh' and 'aaah' about it all!

Our fourth and last geocache for the day was a typical nastly little nano. I call them nasty because they're very, very small and usually very hard to find as well. But as a group we are really fantastic, even the tiny little nanos can't escape us! Look at how small it is:

So that was our last cache for the day. Two hours walking, approximately 3.5 kms, and four geocaches. Not bad for a sunny winter's afternoon, eh?

Stormy weather

It was pouring down with rain when I got up this morning and it had been stormy all night. Normally a bit of rain wouldn't put me off from going geocaching but this morning even the dog only put his nose out of the door and went straight back to his basket.

To me that was a sign that maybe today going outside wasn't such a good idea. And so, with great regret, I cancelled today's geocaching. I hope you all had a warm cozy day inside today instead!

PS I did go out to Milford in case any one turned up (no one did) but as you can see from the picture, the weather really wasn't appealing.