We had to head off to Waipukurau the other week firstly to see family and to also attend a family funeral. We ended up leaving on the Thursday so that allowed a couple of days to get down and see family. Booked into a motel in Waipukurau so thought we may as well do a slow trip south and gain some caches, trick was to only find caches that had been on or close to the main roads we were traveling along as we didn’t want to go further otherwise it would just take too long due to having to drive some 400k’s in the day.
We traveled from Auckland through Cambridge along to Taupo then on through to Napier. Hastings and finally Waipukurau.
Turbine (Waikato was the first on the trip, wife had been driving so this allowed for me to quickly get out and search as it was a busy road, early morning and everyone going to work. Found easily so on we went and sure enough another cache came up on the GPSr
You can’t eat this berry (Waikato) this was right across the road from where a police car had been waiting so I had to look as if I was doing nothing but looking suss
Luckily he was too busy with traffic than to worry about me! Quick easy find so on to the next one that came up!
The Giant Steps (Waikato)almost drove past this one as a truck driver had been parked up however didn’t have to wait long as he took off soon after we parked up right across from GZ
Quick easy find.

Close to GZ
Came up to XC’s Corrugated Quickstop (Waikato) this was cool, most of the family got out for this one just to have a look at all the handy art work…. I have to say this one I got caught out! the fence was electrified and yes I got a nice BIG boot
of course the whole family thought it to be a great joke!

What ya looking at!

Hi Ya!

Lets Go!
The Hub (South Waikato) was a quick find although had a council worker wondering what we had been doing so had to wait for him to go, lucky enough it was still early enough that there hadn’t been a lot of mugglers around so this helped.
South we went and soon we came to the cache called Log Shunter (Waikato) was a good stop and while the kids stayed in the car me and the wife headed to GZ, Interesting place this and stayed for a little while as the wife took pictures and so did I while you guessed it the kids had been in the vehicle waiting

GZ

Large Tree
Stopped off to the next cache Rocky Rest (Waikato) While the family had been busy talking on the phone I went for it and soon came up with the goods. Nice place for a stop and stretch the legs!

Cache
The next cache was on the side of the road as with most from today so a quick park to the side road and off we went to find Welcome to Tokoroa from Taupo (South Waikato) It was a little tricky in that there had been a few spots on the item but soon had it in hand and heading south again.
Following the yellow bick road south and parked up to look for What a mish (Bay of Plenty) quick and easy find while others had been waiting in the car

Close to GZ
Next one was some distance as we wanted to get going and make some finds the next day so the last for the day was Expressway Extension (Hawkes Bay) Found but to be honest it was a pain as we nearly gave up, lot’s of trees that it could have been in and the GPSr had us no where near GZ so it was a matter of perseverance and this finally paid off as the wife came up with this one

Clever Hide
Day Two
Next day we had been at our destination and thought we would have a look for a couple as we had been busy visiting family in the local area. The Dungeon of the Red Castle (Hawkes Bay) this was only a few hundred meters away from the motel we stayed in Thornton Lodge Motel Easy find and no one in the house that the cache info states so no waving out today to the owner
We had been heading to the wife’s aunty and uncles place which was one street away from the next so thought we better get this one before getting busy again with family
A’Deane Park (Hawkes Bay) this was a quick easy cache and to be honest most down this way seem to be easy
Picture here shows some snow as we had been heading out of town (Waipukurau)

Heading out of Waipukurau
Just outside of Waipukurau was the cache called 40° South (Hawkes Bay) this wa sa quick and easy find so didn’t stay long in the rest area as we needed to head to Wanganui to visit more family before heading back to Auckland the next day.

Wonder whats there!
We sailed past one cache at Norsewood so didn’t want to miss too many more
Domain & Wildlife Reserve (Sthn Hawkes Bay) was a really cool area, never new this was here and enjoyed the wild life, left a TB here too!

Look Out!

Deer

Oh No Humans!
Wahipai Domain (Hawkes Bay) had been another in the area so found this quickly and interesting to see an area for dog lovers to enjoy there pets.
Almost forgot the next cache called A Hole In A Tree (Hawkes Bay) quick and easy again while the kids had been in the car waiting.

Cache
Headed towards Wanganui and came across Milk Train (Hawkes Bay) Quick stop and I jumped out before the milk tanker could see what I was up too.

Large Vat
Headed to the house where the wife had grew up in at one point and then found a cache called On the QT (Wairarapa) strange place I thought but apparently years ago the wife said it was a cheese factory. Found the cahe easily enough and snapped a weird boat just sitting there all along….. Strange I thought..

No Where To GO!
The Manawatu Gorge (in Maori Te Apiti, meaning ‘The Narrow Passage’) runs between the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges of the North Island of New Zealand, linking the Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay regions.We had intended to travel this way as we usually do when down this end of the country however we couldn’t as it was closed. We had to go through the detour which meant heading along Saddle road this in turn has a cache and this is also where the wind farm is. the cahe is Feel the power (Manawatu)and the wife found this with no trouble. Been here before and always a great place to see.

The power of wind

Many of these.
Next was close to where we are heading for the day Avicache2 (Manawatu) This was a really easy cache as there had only been one possibility so in for the find….. pit stop here for the kids.

Large cache

Microlight Club
Straight up the road and we found Planes, Trains & Automobiles (Manawatu) took a little finding as the grass had been long here

Cache
Onto the next on the main road to Wanganui Mt Stewart (Manawatu) It looks like the locals use the back of here for there personal gatherings as there was a rubber! close to GZ……
On to Samson and yes the unusual house that we have past many times and never stopped outside until today! Cache was found by the wife while I took a picture of one of the local residences Meet the locals (Manawatu)

Onlooker
While the family waited I crossed the road (busy too) and quickly found the cache called Cameron Park (Manawatu) easy enough but crossing the road was a worry!

Cache
In Wanganui and on the way to visit and stay with the brother and Sister n law, while travelling one of the many roads we had in years by (we used to live in Wanganui) we suddenly found a cache come up so I yelled out stop!
Got and and this was a very easy find but was really good to find as this was all about a school project… How cool I thought and signed the log! MS4 (Manawatu-Wanganui) was it’s name.

School Project
This was our last cache for the day as we had been visiting family and the following day we was to head back home to Auckland!
Last day of our trip.
We wanted to get away nice and early as we had lot’s of caches to pick up along the way… Little did we know the Sister n law was interested in having a go at caching and wanted to do some locally… Yes we had been in a hurry but as we wanted also to show someone else what we had been doing and hoping they too would catch the bug we opted to do some local caches and to head off later than expected. first up….. Over and Under (Wanganui) some mugglers had been under the bridge looking at the waters edge so we had to wait some time until they went
All good as quickly came up with the goods on a great day!

Another Cache
Next was just up the road, I used to work not far from here and live not too far either… Balancing Act or sharpen up(Wanganui)To be honest we had been thinking the caches here are just too easy and no challenge… Not like Auckland
this cache ended up being the easy one to find but was in a cool spot as it’s amazing how things pop up when you have been away for sometime

Attack of the pencils
You know how I just said we had been finding these caches just too easy….. Well this next one was just the opposite
A challenge at last
and yes it was a great challenge yet so simple Ye Old Gaol (Wanganui) recommend this to anyone as it had us going for a little while with the Sister n law barking out instructions
Wife came up with an idea and I just had to find the way to open it! FOUND

Clever Hide
The next one the wife grabbed while I was coming from the other direction, really I had just gone the long way
The Steam Age (Wanganui) we went driving across all the various rail line tracks to get to this one


Close to GZ
The next cache was in a park or close by. This park is very popular with the local kids and adults alike
The brother n law has his food truck here on a regular weekend and this weekend was no exception so a hot dog and chips had been the order of the day while caching
McGregors Trees (Wanganui) this was a clever hide too.

GZ

Kowhai Park
Up the hill to The Tank (Wanganui)was a little annoyed as we used to walk up the tower all the time as good views and good for ham radio
But sadly enough there has been people jumping off and dying hence the fence and no admittance now! lucky we hadn’t been here for that so the cache was a good find

Found the cache
Last one for the trip as we had been running out of time and just had to leave for home so this was the last one to find
Gordons Bush (Wanganui) Nice walk in the bush with good tracks and finally found although I figure it could have gone the other way as lots of places to hide a cache here.
The trip was a good trip south and really enjoyed the drive down due to all the stopping and finding the cahes along the way
Going down again around Christmas time so will ensure we do the same but stopping for caches on the way home too!

On the way home