Another Geocaching Event

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Gold Coast Christmas Gathering 2013

As I knew this event was coming up while Madeleine and Mikayla would be staying with me I made the decision to go, even though it was a two hour drive.

Kevin was interested as well, so he, Adele and Angus came down to the Gold Coast as well and we all met up at Pacific Park where the event was being held.

We had a great afternoon meeting fellow cachers.  Some were becoming familiar faces after earlier events, some were new, but all were very friendly and chatty.  And guess what?  Even Santa arrived with a bag full of presents...

Santa paid us a visit

That's us: Kevin, Mady and me in the centre

Pacific Park

Happy Mikayla

Mady receiving her present from Santa

Since the kids received mostly geocaching presents we have them a bit more interested in the activity, which is great.  As for me, I did not receive a geocaching present, but a box of Turkish Delight.  However, I believe I have talked Mady into giving here handy retractable mirror to me as a Christmas present... (Is there an icon somewhere with crossed fingers? LOL)

Since we were close to a real cache, as Kevin had worked out beforehand, we went for a little walk and found

Pacific Specific

The cache was a small magnetic, and I mean small  :-)  However, we are used to it by now and Kevin found it in no time.  This time we remembered to take a picture, so here we go:

Pacific Specific

.... and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

We were in for a surprise too, because one of the presents was the coordinates for a soon to be published puzzle cache that we could search for and log during the event.

.... and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

It was an easy find again, although the tree didn't quite look like a pear tree, and luckily Angus was with us and agile enough to climb the tree to retrieve the 'partridge'.  In the meantime quite a crowd had gathered and everyone was happy to sign the log and have Angus replace the cache afterwards.  The cache was published last night and I am happy to say that I now have 109 caches to my name. :-)

The event itself was such a success that the organiser is thinking about making it an annual event.  Let's hope so.  We quite enjoyed ourselves, but in the meantime.... hoping to add a few more caches during the year.