Thursday 16 July - Hawea View

Not much of a view though! It was a cold, grey drizzly day so we decided to take Robin & Phyllis & go geocaching. We tried to do a multi cache around the front of Lake Hawea but we couldn't find the second waypoint. Instead we sat & had lunch & then tried one final time to find that elusive way point.

We didn't find it so we headed off to Hawea View to do this cache. We have tried this cache 3 times previously & each time we have been stumped by the tour buses that pull up & everyone taking their touristy photos. This time we waited for a car to pull off & then retrieved the cache. Then the inevitable happened just as we were going to rehide it a car pulled up. We got out the cakes & sat down & had something to eat & of course a photo, while we waited for that couple to leave. Eventually we managed to re hide the cache.

Sunday 12 July - Fun Geocache

There has been one geocache that was hidden on 30 January this year that we haven't been able to do & it has been bugging us. This geocache has a level 4 difficulty for terrain (with level 5 being the hardest) & the reason is that it is on an island. Today we decided to take a crack at it. We got the little dinghy, that has an outboard on it, out of the garage & decided to see if the engine would still go. We drove around to Waterfall Creek ramp & launched off for Ruby Island. James was very excited about the whole expedition & was even more pleased when Scott let him drive the boat back again.

What I never knew about Ruby Island is that there was a cabaret built on the island during the 1920's & it attracted parties from the "mainland" until it was burnt down. All that remains now are the rocks showing where it would have been.

As a child we used to go across to Ruby Island & play in the water & catch cockabullies. I never realised that there was anything else to do on the island. There is a wonderful walking track there now, a loop one which only take 20 minutes to walk.

It was a fun cache to do & we were all very pleased to get this "closest to Wanaka house" one finally off our list of to dos.

Scott has arrived Saturday

Yay Scott has arrived. I have to say that I was a bit worried about the weather & whether he would be able to fly in to Queenstown. For the last few days there has been low cloud all around Wanaka & I was worried it would be the same near Frankton (where Queenstown airport is). He rang at 8:30 to say that there was a 50 minute delay due to low cloud at Frankton. We left Wanaka at 9:15 & pulled in to this spot, to find a geocache at 9:45.

It was good timing because Scott rang to tell me that they were boarding the plane. We found the geocache & signed the log, but I agree with the owner of the cache that our reading on the GPS wasn't 45S either. It was very cold, about 2C, as you can tell by the boys standing with their hands pulled up into their sleeves.

We arrived into Frankton at about 10:50 & as we were arriving I saw the plane coming in to land. We parked & picked up Scott & then went through to Queenstown to get some morning tea. We then drove back to Wanaka, stopping at Lowburn to find another geocache. This was a nice easy cache to find & we even took away a travel bug (Nemo) away with us. We arrived in Wanaka & had lunch. After lunch Scott took the boys for a walk to the dinosaur park & managed to brave the cold for a good couple of hours.

There are forecasts for snow over night & I say, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! because all is right with the world now that Scott is here.

May 15 - Cob Cottage

We decided to find a geocache on the way to mum's house for dinner. I don't know how many times I have driven right past this cob cottage without even realising that it was there. That's one of the many reasons why I love geocaching, seeing things that have been right in front of your eyes all along.

Doing .....

The Aussie Rock!

We came home again on Tuesday of course we geocached our way home. We stopped at several places but this one takes the cake! This is up beside Lake Pukaki up a shingled road - the Tekapo side of Lake Pukaki not the Mt Cook side. I kid you not there is a rock that is marked out as Aussie Rock - of course there's a geocache here, because geocachers find really interesting places to plant geocaches.

There you go I told you, it's all marked out, the sign points to it. Looks like a plain old rock to me!

Wow that really does look like Australia split in 2.

What astounds me is there is someone driving along a dusty shingly road in the middle of nowhere & they see these weird formations & say lets sign post it. How many people would drive along this road? I wouldn't think there would be many. The sealed road ended miles back & then in the middle of nowhere there's this.

As I have said before you never know what is sitting right in front of your eyes until you start geocaching!

Thursday 9 April

We decided that we would go geocaching today over at Arrowtown & then maybe come back to Wanaka via Cromwell. We went over the Crown Range & stopped at this spot to find a geocache. It has the most wonderful views up the valley & then down into Frankton & the Queenstown airport.



We had a pretty successful day geocaching wise although we did have one DNF at Tobin's Track. It just means we have to go back again & that is no hardship when the scenery is so stunning.

Post Man

On Tuesday 7th April we all hit the road for the trip to Wanaka. We left home at 10am & we geocached all the way there. Consequently we didn't get into Wanaka until about 6pm. Luckily with a DVD player in the back for the boys a trip this long isn't as bad as it sounds. Just a 5 hour ride to Wanaka without the DVD player was awful but that DVD player is a little peice of sanity.

When we drive down to Wanaka we take the Inland Scenic Route (72) to Geraldine rather than going down State Highway 1. Along this route not far from the Rangitata River there has been this really neat looking post man. We usually just zoom past so imagine my excitement when we actually had to stop there for a geocache (appropriately named Post Man). It was an easy find & nice to be able to have an excuse to stop & get a close look at him rather than just driving on past. If you happen to go into gift stores in Geraldine you will see a lot of miniture ones of these so he's obviously become a bit of a local landmark.