tgsnoopy

The Garmin Rhino's will not be offered for sale in NZ at this stage. It is illegal to import them. They contain UHF transceivers operating on the US FRS frequenecies. Operation of these units will interfer with commercial radio operations and render the operator liable for a fine up to NZ$100,000.00 and the importer up to NZ$250,000.00 . Please don't import any of these units.

Yes Hobbiton is available to the public with guided tours for $50.00 each according to the paper. I was told (and aparently it was also on the news) that it was destroyed after the completion of filming. Obviously it wasn't. I haven't followed it up yet, but it is a cache site I intend to investigate if someone doesn't beat me to it .

Darnit, I like those smoke flares. Lotsa lovely bright orange smoke to alert the chopper pilot where you are. I also often carry a small strobe light available for around $40.00 in case a night rescue is required. I was quite surprised Jeremy had archived this one. Oh well, it is in the rules, and the rules are there for our safety. Lets hope the removal of the flare doesn't put anyone at risk in the future .

Good stuff. Hopefully I'll get Sentinel Rock back in, and two new ones nearby in the next week, certainly before Christmas. Darn it's coming round quick this year. Also I need to check Paku View as well by the look of things.

Hmm, If anyone is wondering where the Dopers Den cache went to. It's been archived by admin . Flammables are apparently a no no. Hmm, no-ones ever growled about the waterproof matches before. Looks like I might head down Te Teko way tommorrow. I need to remove a flare so it can be un-archived .

Despite not finding the cache, my favourite cache location is easily the Pinnacles in the Coromandel. The views from up there are fantastic, I rate it a must do in your lifetime location.

And that is why I carry topo's with me (that and the fact I might take a fall & bust the GPSR).

No Nick, these are real maps, as in genuine printed versions. Besides that, my printer might be water resistant?

Good point, and yes I have quite a collection of Topo maps, and a compass with me most of the time. But boy that aid sure makes life easy. Hmm, I'd be stuck for days before I exhausted the spare batteries I carry with me. Ah well, as long as the satellite signals are there, I'll be a lazy boy.

Wow, good effort. I'm by no means an expert on the mapping side of things, but there are a couple lurking here. Sounds like you have a good grasp of the task at hand. A lot of us have commercially produced mapping programs, personally I'm using NZMapped. If you can handle waiting a little while for my reply, and are interested in a cache or a few caches, I could e-mail the pictures to you if you e-mailed which ones you wanted. tgsnoopy at xtra dot co dot nz .

Hey, I can only try, consider it done .

Ok, I'll show my ignorance. Just what is this tone magazine? I've never heard of it. I did ask for the reference to geocaching.com but alas, like my proof read, it wasn't to be.

The time you really need your GPS is when you are out in the bush, under the canopy of the bush you are in which dramaticly reduces the amount of signal from the satellites available to your GPS receiver. Unfortunately that is the time your eTrex will let you down. It's a great little unit, some of the features are awesum, the problem is, it's deaf when it comes to receiving weak signals. Whats the point in having a GPS with you when you are tramping if it's not going to perform when you really need it. I upgraded my (bought new) eTrex to a (bought second hand) GPS12 and was immediately able to locate 3 caches I'd been unable to find previously, and the coverage at those caches isn't heavy. Before selling the eTrex I took both units side by side into one of the caches mounted on a perspex bracket, the GPS12 maintained coverage all the way, the eTrex lost coverage only a short distance into the track. Whilst at the cache I ate lunch, and left both GPS units running side by side (for over 10 minutes), the GPS12 had a full complement of satellites and a 3D fix, the eTrex didn't have a single satellite locked. This bush wasn't particularly heavy either, it even had a clearing where we were sitting. So there's my reasons for encouraging people to buy GPS12's, and for discouraging eTrex's. I'd hate to think a geocacher (or anyone for that matter) would be tramping in bush using an eTrex for navigation purposes, they simply aren't up to the task. Besides that, you can buy a second hand GPS12 unit for less than a new eTrex whilst supporting a geocacher. So thats what I promote. Hopefully that clarifies ,my stand on eTrexs .

Hmm, Me thinks Nick can't knock the eTrex as it was a gift from Bernadette .

Yellow peril

Ah yes I push the GPS12's you and Tony bring in. I've said it before and I'll say it again, your efforts are appreciated.

Ok, for those of you without access to the BOP Times, try this link.

Ok, my turn to be embarrased again, this time it was the Bay of Plenty Times, on Page 15 this time. A quite respectably sized article. As usual I Hate photographs, so no comment there. There's a couple of "Quotes" I'd of had removed if I'd been given a proof read, but all in all not a bad article. As they say, any publicity is good publicity? Hopefully will have an online picture of it for you all to look at shortly.

Hmm, a high value cache. It's something I would be unlikely to produce... Unless 1). I won big at lotto (Unlikely to happen, to win, you need to buy tickets) or 2). I was placing items of value I had lying around the place I didn't want or need anymore (as previously mentioned). If someone else placed a high value cache, I would attempt to match in value any item I swapped, otherwise I guess I'd take only photographs & leave only a log entry and footprints. As lomg as I knew in advance, and had an idea what kind of value my replacement item should be, it wouldn't be a problem. If it wasn't listed as a high value cache I presume it would be prone to items loosing value as the occasional unprepared cacher with the usual low value items might make a swap anyway. I think mentioning the cache was high value would be very important for this reason. Now the alcohol, hmm, thats a tricky situation (the legal implication of the situation), it would be nice to think that we could do that. However, it's a rule for a reason. We have no control over who may find that stash of alcohol, if some children stumbled accross the cache for some reason and got drunk on it, then had some form of accident, well I don't think I need to tell you about the legal implications, and I'm certain none of us want the kind of negative publicity it would bring. If there was some kind of magic device that kept the beer cold (It goes off much faster if not refrigerated, and is soo much nicer if cold) and prevented people under 18 getting their hands on it, then perhaps it could be a different story. But I aggree, it would be nice, now if it was only practical . Perhaps a cache near a bar... Hmm, now you've got me thinking , I know the perfect location in a couple of cities in NZ, pity I don't live in one of them. There are other things you can leave up there aside from Alcoholic beverages that would be refreshing. Geocaching.com suggests just drinking water. It doesn't go off anywhere as quickly as any sugar based drink. I recently (at the request of the trustee of the property) removed a fruit drink from a nearby cache. I haven't logged doing that (oh the shame), but the drink was outside its best before date and was bulging quite seriously. It was surprisingly warm! Thankfully it wasn't inside the cache, imagine if it was and did go bang.. Yuk! One thing I've noticed (and it's something I was guilty of), is leaving small lollies, such as Minties, MacIntoshs toffees, Lolipops etc in caches. Thats all good except for a few reasons that need to be considered. Any moisture getting into the cache will ruin these very quickly, I removed some from one of my caches a little while ago after a rat nibbled on the lid. A lot of cachers won't take these because of concerns about the safety of doing so (unhygenic handling or deliberate poisioning), and of course, the little rodents who try to nibble their way in to get to these foodstuffs. I have observed that these rodents don't attempt to nibble through painted surfaces, only the bare plastic. Can anyone else confirm or shoot down this observaton? As a result I'm painting my cache lids as well. As for the high value caches, bring them on, but please let us know so we can be prepared with a suitable item to swap .

Excellent idea Gav. As for copyright, modify the decimal place by 1 unit in a known direction or convert the WGS84 ti Geod49 and problem solved, as long as we know what you did so we can undo it. Copyright shouldn't apply to something like a location indicator in my opinion, however you never know, so a slight modification is neccessary, you can't be done if they are different. I'm quite keen to look at the different sites used around the country, even if only on a Topo map initially . It's a pity the one over in the neraby (to me) Matamata/Hinuera area was destroyed (it was part of the agreement with the landowner, he didn't want people asking to come on to his land to look at it).

Ok, I got a little motivation this morning (first job of the day postponed). Now those Whangarei caches, most were placed by two different cachers. One of them I have no idea how to contact, the other fortunately I have an updated e-mail address for. I've made the appropriate contact asking for the two caches that appear to be missing to be checked. The other cache simply appears to have the wrong co-ordinates, I understand the hints are accurate and a number of people have found it ok using the hints. One cacher suggested perhaps it was a Geod49/WGS84 error. Lets hope we will be able to resolve this shortly. I'm hoping the cacher I've e-mailed (and it didn't bounce - Yay) will be able to lead to the other cacher who's e-mail is bouncing. Lets keep our fingers crossed. In the mean time, if you are going up to Whangarei, please take the time to read the comments from people who have already found/attempted to find the caches to save a little heartache.

Well, thats a tricky situation. One of my caches has that situation (Cathedral Cove). Lots of people have decided to leave that cache alone and come back later. I must admit I placed that cache in the evening. I'm pleased people have err'ed on the side of caution, but I'm also considering moving the cache. However, I figure I'll need to do it one evening, so it's on the to do list, and there it may stay for a while. All you can do is trust your judgement in that situation. I'm amazed when visiting some caches as to how much foot traffic there really is. If the cache gets plundered, it gets plundered, in the case of my caches, I'll simply find a new nearby location and replace them. Hopefully other cachers will have the same attitude. There are a few caches around where the cacher who placed them isn't around anymore, Whangarei is a prime example. Unfortunately when those caches get plundered, they are unlikely to be replaced. In fact I understand there is concern over a number of them. Something I should find the time to research, another item on the to do list. Trust your judgement, we do .

Ok, I obviously aren't going to post the exact reply here, however I can e-mail it to people who I recognise as NZ geocachers, drop me an e-mail tgsnoopy at xtra dot co dot nz if you would like to see it. Basically Jeremy recognises that for most people the US$30 isn't too bad (and I must admit compared to the amount of money I've spent on creating caches or the gas going to place or find caches, it's not that much), but for some people it is quite a lot. He is prepared to compromise. Contact me for details. That should hopefully make everybody happy .

Well, what can I say? I'm already wearing my tinfoil hat in anticipation of the Leonid Meteor shower that peaks in about 2 hours time (J/K ). I'll be heading off to the same observation point I was at a year ago. Although not as spectacular as in the Northern Hemisphere it should be worth watching. It's unfortunate that we will mist most of the show though, as the peak is before most of the show will be visible to us. Check these links if you are interested: NASA - The Truth about the 2002 Leonid Meteor Storm Wellington Astronomical Society The NZ medias coverage has been rather inaccurate or non-existant on this event. I just hope it's as good a show as last year. Needless to say my vantage point is high on a hilltop miles away from city lights (yes, it's a radio site I maintain, a solar powered one). As for Gavins little trip, I was semi conversing with him whilst he was packing and he said surprisingly little, Sounds like Nick knows more than me. All he told me was "Hey i better dash, I've got to pack, leaving for a real holiday first thing in the morning. Can't tell you where i'm going yet, but lets say that I'll be the first person to place a cache there in fact I might place a couple hehehe" He never indicated it was in a different country though! The sly dog, another story I look forward to hearing.

Actually it cost a bit more than that, as you use PayPal (I doubt if many (if any at all) Kiwis have existing PayPal accounts), you have to join PayPal, and it costs on top of that. I think when I joined it cost me around $85.00 all up, PayPal did give me a credit when I verified my e-mail address (US$5 from memory), although I doubt I'll be able to use it in a hurry. I have sent Jeremy an e-mail asking him to look at this situation, and pointed out that it's quite a lot of money for us Kiwi's. Hopefully we will hear directly from him in here. But! and it's a big but, we all have to relaise that it could be a logistical nightmare for him to impliment this, and it could create a problem with lots of other countries that might plead poverty as well. I suppose also he will have to weigh that against the fact that at a lower subscription rate he might get a larger number of subscriptions and hence the same income. Perhaps a lower membership rate will be the answer? Either way, hopefully we will know his decision soon.