Geocaching

I brought along two travel bugs with me.  One wants to make it back to NZ, and this race car wants to get to Australia.  Its a bit trickier caching when you don't have data on your phone.  But we found a cache on our hike to Mt Victoria today and dropped off this fellow.  We picked up a new travel bug (I really can't help myself), and tried to find two other caches in Devonport, but struck out.

Lake Rotorua - there were a ton of water birds along the shore, including a large number of black swans.  None of which were close enough for us to get a good photo.

They were doing of construction/improvements to the board walk, so we had to hike around it before finding our path.

The walk extended to a geothermal area on the edge of the lake.

The birds really liked it along here.  It was a bit steamy and muggy for us to enjoy. 

Geocache found in Wellington.  No travel bugs, but a great view of the seals on the beach!

Three caches in the Blenheim area.

One on Robin Hood Bay.  There were two kids playing in the small stream right next to it.  They came up and asked us "what you are looking for?"  We had to pause until they found something else to do on the beach and wandered away.

One out in the vineyards.  It was a 'Christmas cache' with a stuffed, singing Santa inside and a Christmas card for cachers to sign.  The bonus was that there were four travel bugs inside!  Delaney and I selected two to bring along with us.  One to stay in the US, and one to continue on to London with our scout troop in the spring.

"Yule logs" at the cache.

Merry Christmas. 

The third one was along the river walk in Blenheim.  It was well hidden on a bridge structure.  Had to be spotted from below, but reached from above.  Delaney and I made a good recovery team for this one.  Also had to look out for muggles passing by.

In Kumara:

We hiked to a waterfall today and I decided to turn on my geocaching app to see if there were any caches around.  Sure enough, one just 100 feet away down the trail.  Delaney and I searched around and eventually found the box tucked away in a rocky area.  The log and contents were completely soaked unfortunately, but we logged it electronically.  We also discovered there is one across from the house where we are staying...we’ll go looking tomorrow when we have more time.

In Christchurch

High muggle zone right by the museum - its the grey rock next to the gate. Dropped our NZ travel bug back home here.

Inside this car / planter