A few more days (and caches) in New Zealand

Sunday, June 15, 2014

While I am in New Zealand the World Cup Soccer is on and not to be missed.  Unfortunately I had miscalculated the starting date so it happened to coincide with my stay here and not all matches are televised. I have to make do with one match a day now and then and the highlights of all matches at night time.  Better this than nothing at all.

Sunday morning, however, I have to cut short my TV time as we are going to visit a friend of Dorothee's. The sun is out, so we walk over and back after coffee and a chat.  The rest of the day is spend playing games on our tablets (yes, us oldies are hooked!) and working on a few of our 12th scale kits, because we are both miniaturists and love hobbying together.  We are making hollyhocks, Dorothee a red one, and I a pink one.  Pictures may follow when I have some spare time... ;-)

Then Monday comes around and we go for a half our drive to Tauranga in search for shoes for Dorothee and... a few caches on the way!  Shoes are found soon enough, but not so the caches.  Most of them are in high-traffic (high-muggle areas in geo-speak!) and with people breathing down your neck you can't do a lot. 

So, the first three already are a DNF (Did Not Find).  A fourth one can't be reached and two other ones on the list I had forgotten to download on my GPS.  I don't have international roaming on my sim card in the tablet, so my back-up is non-existing...

We have stopped for coffee in between the searches and are now ready to return to Katikati.  We stop off at a supermarket and... there is a cache nearby.

Sign of the times 5 (Bay of Plenty)

Sign of the times 5 (Bay of Plenty)

GZ is in the name of the cache, as it often is, so I know to walk up straight to it. A quick grab and the container is in my hands, the log signed.  Under the guise of taking photo's of the supermarket building the cache is replaced and I can do my shopping too.

Further down the road is a cache that we have tried to find on the way to Tauranga, but it's at a combined parking and picnic area, so there were too many muggles around.  We try this on the way back, but it being lunch time and there also being a van selling coffee and hot foods, it still is too busy.  Cars parked everywhere and people eating their lunch.  We stop to eat our pies that we'd bought earlier and that's all we can do.  On top of everything else I discover that I've lost my reading glasses.  B...., such things always happen when you're on holidays!

T2A-R: Stock on Station (BOP)

T2A-R: Stock on Station (BOP)

The last one of the day, close to the main road.  Again discovered by Dorothee, because I'd been reading out the details and was waiting for my compass to settle.  An easy find in a huge container, so I signed the log and put it back.  Then we were ready to head for home.  In Katikati we stopped at the chemist for me to buy new glasses (which later appeared to be too strong and had to be exchanged) and went on to settle with a cuppa at home.