As a geocacher, I have always wanted to put out some geocaches - and wanted even more to get 100 of them! Well, that is exactly what my weekend birthday was planned to be. Celebrating 100 caches, 2 hides, and our first earthcache find, I couldn't wait! Our family, with a geocaching username of KKchickpea, had already put out one cache - Black Hole, a holey Karekare cache. However, it wasn't getting many finds, and I wanted another placement, preferably a placement which more people would go to than Karekare. I had 88 finds, and so all I needed was 12 finds to top them off at 100. We also hoped to find our first earthcache - but where could we find a good place to fill all of these requirements? We decided Whatipu was the place, after seeing available accommodation at Whatipu lodge.
The decision was made - we would start at our house in Karekare, walk to Whatipu, collecting 7 geocaches along the Muir Track, then stay overnight at the lodge after 3 night caches. The next day we would hopefully find another geocache, plus the local earthcache, then finish off the party with a (hopefully) superb placement. It was a good plan.
I woke up. This was it! Soon my local friends Moses, Erik and Leon were here, but my orienteering buddies Haydn and Cameron were almost half an hour late, as they came from the North Shore and underestimated time. Eventually we were all here - apart from Toby, another of my friends who was just recovering from a cough and was coming for the night, but not for the hike. Half an hour later we were all ready to go and our party of hikers set off the road, Erik, Leon, Cameron, Haydn, Moses, my sister Kyla and my dad Alan - not Julia, my mum, as she still had a bad knee and was driving bags to Whatipu.
Finally, we were off! Through the Karekare Glade we went, and soon we were on the black beach. We headed down the beach, and along the track to Tunnel Point. There we collected a cache that we had already found, but as all of my friends were 'muggles' (geocaching slang for non-geocachers), we needed to show them how to find a geocache and what it looked like. I stepped aside to let my friends find it, and eventually, they did, and we headed off to the Pararaha.
Here we were: Pararaha. Over the board walk, and through the river, and we were at the Pararaha Campsite where we stopped for a rest. This was where the real geocaching fun started. 7 geocaches, along the Muir Track, 3 on the way up, 4 on the way down.
At the summit of the Muir track, we needed to find the 3rd cache, which was right where we were, on the summit.and we found it within 2 minutes It was an amusing one about a dentist and a tree that looked like a gaping mouth! Then we stopped for a rest, having found 3 out of 3 geocaches. 4 to go!
Halfway down the Muir we stopped abruptly, to find another cache. We had found the two further up the track, which made 5 in total. The one we were about to find was our 6th. The location was an exposed cliff, with gorse everywhere. 20 minutes later, we gave up, scratched and cut by gorse. This was bad news, as I had hoped to find all of the caches on the Muir. Would we reach 100? We continued on down the hill.
After finding the last cache successfully, we finally saw a track junction up ahead. We ran down the track, turned left, and there it was: Whatipu Lodge. We settled in, and waited for Julia to get there. Then my friend Toby, as mentioned earlier, got here and I opened my presents, before we had a nice dinner, followed by... CAKE!! So delicious! Anyway, us kids played outside in the dark in some long grass as high as us for a bit, but then it was time to go night-caching!
We set up our torches, put on several layers of clothing, and set off, first along the road a couple of hundred metres. We found the cache within 30 seconds, and realised we had plenty of time to start another one, so we decided to climb 100 metres vertical up the Omanawanui track, in the dark! Eventually we made it, found the cache, and climbed all the 100 metres back down, to the warmth of the heater in the lodge. Then we grabbed our sleeping bags, and all slept as soon as our heads hit the pillow.
The second day already, and we needed to get 4 caches in one day, including an earthcache and a placement. Would we be able to do it? I doubted it. Soon we were walking along the beach to our first cache, called Burning Thighs. So true, as we felt our thighs burning as we scrabbled up a large sand dune. When we got to the top, we had to cimb up a jutting out piece of rock, but it was so windy on the sand dune that we decided not to even try and get the cache, as we thought you would practically get blown off the rock if you tried!
Halfway up the beach, we were loooking at our placement location: Ninepin Rock. This is a small rock, 20 metres wide and 20 metres high, with a small lighthouse on top. Soon we found the perfect spot, and we snuggled the geocache into it. Scrambling back down the rock, someone pointed out an even better place to hide it, when I saw a container, not ours, in that exact spot! There were no geocaches shown on the online map, but then I realized. This was a premium cache! (You have to pay to be a premium member, but then you get to see and find caches that basic members - like us - cannot see) Oh well. I climbed back up the rock, and grabbed my cache.
The next cache was at the Whatipu caves - the earthcache. We spent half an hour having great fun exploring the caves, and wading in the water thigh-high in some of them, before sucessfully answering all the questions for the earthcache. At last! A find! One placement to go, and...3 caches!
Back at the lodge, we looked at the other caches in Whatipu. There was one on top of a bush covered 200 metre high hill, with no track going up to it. Getting it would be crazy, we thought, but not as crazy as my idea was just then! I looked out the window and saw another bush covered 200 metre high hill, next to the other one. I said that if we placed a cache on top of the other one, now that would be cool. And so, unexpectedly, me and my friends set off. We reached the summit and boy. what a veiw! You could see for miles and miles! Now this, this was a superb placement. In fact, I decided to name the hill Mt Ryan. I raced down the hill, very happy about our placement. I couldn't think of anything better!
However, one worry remained: I neededs to get 3 more caches! Within the next 10 minutes, all the parents came to pick up my friends, and I said my goodbyes. However, I had a plan, and I was determined to get 100 caches. My dad and I would run up the Omanuanui Track, collecting the 5 geocaches on the way - more than enough.
We were at our 100th cache location. This was it. We found it within 30 seconds, but as I finished signing the log, I jumped in the air. This was it! My 100th cache! I had placed a cache in an awesome spot, found my first earthcache, and reached 100 caches!
The next cache was at the summit, and as I trudged up the hill, I began to wonder whether I should have skipped the last cache to make my 100th the summit. However, my wonder was settled, as when we reached the top, we soon discovered the cache had been lost for half a year. Soon we started our way down, collecting on last cache one the way. I have to say, when we got into the car and drove back to Karekare, as soon as we hit 100 caches, we were no longer a beginner, but now we are at 101, and...well...I feel novice again!
And that was my best birthday party ever. Period.
