Travelling again: New Zealand

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

I am a little bit behind with my blog, but shortly after my little trip to Burrum Heads I was heading for New Zealand, so not much time to catch up with blogging.

Wednesday morning started early as in 3:30am! The shuttle bus arrived early to take me to the airport.  As it wasn't busy I had plenty of time before boarding and took a photo of the rising sun trying to peek through the clouds.

Brisbane International Airport

After a short and uneventful, but not unpleasant, flight I landed in Auckland where another shuttle was waiting for me to take me to Katikati and where the sun was shining.  After a stormy night with lots of damaging winds, I might add.

Auckland International Airport

Travelling through the mountain range and the gorge changed the outlook completely.  The sun disappeared and the first raindrops came down.  Meeting up again with Dorothee was great and the first night we had to catch up on a lot of news.  The next morning we were woken by a thunderstorm and the rest of the day wasn't any better.

On Friday the clouds lifted and as I had told Dorothee of my passion for geocaching she said she would take me to some nearby places to search for them.

Our first try-out was a cache at the lookout.  I have been there many times before and it provides a fantastic view over Katikati and surroundings.

Lookout

Lindemann Lookout II (Bay of Plenty)

The area was still damp and muddy from the recent rains and I had to climb around on a slope underneath the ramp of the lookout.  Not very pleasant to say the least and worse of all: no results.  I took some colourful pictures of some mushrooms instead:

Our trip to the lookout was rather late in the afternoon, so it's all we did.  On Saturday we had more time, the weather was still good and the plan was to make the short trip to Athenree.

On our way we passed the lookout again, so I had another look.  By now I had had a good look at the logs and pictures, so I was sure I knew what I was looking for, but was still unsuccessful.

The next one was

Tanner's Lookout. (Bay of Plenty)

Tanner's Lookout. (Bay of Plenty)

It was indeed a pleasant lookout and the cache was a relatively easy find after a walk of some 300 metres. The hint was not very helpful, but using common sense helped me locating the cache after all.

First or Last View, Bay of Plenty, NZ

First or Last View, Bay of Plenty, NZ

Walking around and climbing in the tree didn't help me much and I had to climb down quickly again when Dorothee said: Got it!  A sneaky hiding place indeed.  The log was soon signed and we were on our way again to the next one.

Athenree Homestead (Bay of Plenty)

Athenree Homestead (Bay of Plenty)

Again Dorothee was quick!  Looking down at my compass I walked straight past the tree in which the cache was hidden.  I was rather glad Dorothee got it out of its hiding spot, because it was covered with mud, bark and... wood lice!

The next one I couldn't find.  Dorothee stayed in the car as it was a muddy walk in the grass.  I am not too sure if my coordinates were out or what, but GZ appeared to be in a place that I couldn't reach.  Well, there were more on the list:

Athenree Walk, ( Bay of Plenty )

Athenree Walk, ( Bay of Plenty )

This was again a walk of about 300 metres, so not too long.  GZ was easily determined and the cache almost out in the open.  The log was quickly signed and the cache hidden just a tad bit better for the next person to find.

We had lunch at my favourite restaurant, The Flippin' Bear.  Not that we had planned it that way, but I remembered a little restaurant on the way to Waihi Beach and The Flippin' Bear, which used to be on the main road, had moved into this building.  Lucky me, because it's a pancake restaurant and I just love pancakes!  Dorothee had a seafood chowder, which wasn't to her liking, but my pancake, with white chocolate, icecream, cream and raspberry sauce was delicious.

After lunch we were going to try for one last cache, but unfortunately we ended up at 17 metres from GZ which was on another walkway far down below us and which could only be reached by walking the length of that one.  As we didn't feel like driving to the start of the walkway we decided to call it a day.  The cache will still be there for us to find on another day if we're in the area.

Stopping at Maryborough and Gympie

Sunday June 8, 2014

Friday and Saturday have passed uneventful where geocaching is concerned, but have been quite pleasant as Leonie and Ferdy's son Geoffrey arrived and later also a friend of the family.  Friday night everyone was glued to the TV because of a football match, so I retired with my book.  On Saturday other friends, Barbara and Ian, arrived with their caravan and besides chatting and playing cards we had a great night with a BBQ and camp fire in the back yard.

Then on Sunday morning the time has come to go home again.  In the morning Leonie, Barbara and I play a few games of Patience a deux and then I leave, because I am planning to stop for a few geocaches on the way home.

Welcome to Maryborough

Welcome to Maryborough

The weather is not very inviting to stop often, but this cache in Maryborough is quite near the highway, so should be easy to retrieve.  So I thought!  In the end I nearly gave up, because I kept going around and around in circles, walked back to the car and had one last look at the logs... Aha, now I have a better idea.  Walk back, look a bit closer and... voila!  I have the little container in hand and sign the log.  Next I have to wait a while before I can put it back unseen, because it's a busy road, this one...

There is another cache close by, but after having driven past the same house three times I decide it's to close and I feel too self conscious, so I keep going.

Woodworks

Woodworks

This cache is in the parking lot of a woodworks museum.  The container is big, but well-hidden, however, not too well-hidden for me to find it relatively quickly.  The museum is open to the public, but I don't feel like going in.  Besides, I have seen enough museums the past few years to last me a life time...

This is the last of the caches I am prepared to look for.  I rather go home and have a nice rest after the three-and-a-half hour drive.

Another day in Burrum Heads

Thursday June 5, 2014

Thursday is another busy day, but not unpleasant.  Leonie spends some time at the library to do some work on her computer and in the meantime I go out in search of a few caches.  The first one I find is

Burrum - Dolphin Waters

The hint tricked me a bit, because I had not read it correctly, but it didn't take me too long to find the hidden container and log the find.

The next cache was at a beautiful lagoon:

Cheelii Lagoon

I couldn't resist taking many pictures of this beautiful lagoon with the great variety of water birds. Unfortunately the cache appeared to be elusive. I did not have a lot of time to look for it as I needed to pick up Leonie from the library.

After that we had coffee and lunch and then we took the boat to the water again to go fishing.  We rode to the mouth of the river and cast our rods to see if something would bite.  It was rather choppy on the water and within no time I felt rather queasy.  I managed to keep well enough to keep my eyes on the horizon to stable myself and it seemed to work, but marginally.  

We did catch some fish though.  Most of it was small whiting and flathead, but all of a sudden I had a sole on the line.  Now, that was something special.  And just before our return Ferdy managed to catch a rather big bream which he had to fight so as not to loose his line.

Quite a catch!

Marion's sole...

...and Ferdy's bream...

...and Leonie's whiting!!! :-)

While Leonie is has a shower I quickly walk down the road for a cache close by.  It's only two houses down, so easy to do.

Burrum - Boat Ramp

It's an easy find as well as long as I keep my eye on the compass.  It's so easy to keep walking if you get distracted.  I had to re-trace my steps and get my bearings again, but happened to be almost on top of it just then.  Log book signed I quickly walk back home, because next it is time to walk the dogs.  We take them to Serena Beach where I know there is also a cache to be found!

Shells on Serena

Leonie and I go in search for the cache while Ferdy walks the dogs.  It doesn't take us long.  Even Leonie is catching on and knows quite well where to look for something or what to look for...  Great to have company!

When the dogs have had their run we drop Ferdy off at home and go and try for just one more cache.

Burrum - Seek Local Knowledge

As you can tell from the street lights, this is definitely the last one for the day as it is getting dark.  I am not in favour of night caches if they are not designed for it.  

We have a bit of trouble retrieving this cache as neither Leonie or I are tall enough to reach.  Leonie tries to climb up first, then I have a go and.... low and behold, got it!  I signed the log and placed it back where it came from.

Then one last walk along the beach before we go home where we have a lovely soup for dinner.  As it was again a long and busy day we had an early night.

A short trip and some geocaching thrown in

Wednesday June 4, 2014

As I had been invited to spend a few days with friends who were holidaying in Burrum Heads I made my way to the north early Wednesday morning.  The weather was splendid and it was a pleasant three-and-a-half hour drive with a stop-over just north of Maryborough.

At Matilda's on the Bruce Highway

At Matilda's on the Bruce Highway

A short time after the stop and a cuppa I arrived at Burrum Heads where I was informed that I was just able to grab another quick cup of coffee before we had to set out to retrieve the crab pots which had been set out early in the morning.  This is all tide-dependent.

Leonie & Marion on the patio

View of the beach

Lucie and Curry

After the coffee we walk to the boat which is already waiting on the beach of the river bank and we go for the short trip up-river.

One of the bigger crabs

Leonie retrieving one of the pots

Beautiful river

Retrieving more pots

Up the creek

The 12 crab pots contained quite a number of crabs, but in order to be able to keep them they must be males and over a certain size.  In our case we ended up with 6 nice crabs.  Of course we had to have our catch for dinner, but before we can eat there are yabbies to catch for the fishing tomorrow.

The catch just before the cooking

Showing off!

Again a different side of geocaching

Saturday May 31, 2014

No caches to log today, but as Kevin was visiting with Angus and Mikayla we had planned to look into making our own caches and then place them around the area on Bribie Island in the future.  However, while talking about it we decided it would be a better idea to look around for suitable places and create caches according to its intended hiding place.  So, we got into the car and drove around all the while looking around and getting out now and then for closer inspection, this one possibly being one of the intended spots:

It's only been recently planted, so the greenery will expand.  The idea is to create a series of caches along the popular bike tracks on the island.

When we passed earlier discovered caches we also got out of the car, in between showers, for Kevin and Mikayla to search for a few caches that Angus and I had done earlier together with James.

One Degree of Separation: Tree Farm #24

There was another cache that I had not looked for yet either, so we stopped off and I hoped to be able to put another smiley to my name, but no luck.  Four pairs of eyes couldn't find it.  Earlier logs mentioned the big storm we recently had on the foreshore and we suspect, like others did, that the container has been blown out of the tree where it was hidden.

The clump of trees on the left

No photos taken, you know me, so I have added a picture from Google Earth's streetview...

Kevin and Mikayla however, found their other two caches and I had not yet seen Mikayla's TB that she had retrieved from the Logan CITO, so I had a chance still to discover it.  Well, that's all for the day.  I leave you with this picture of a cute little wombat:

A lovely little wombat TB