Geocache Safari of New Zealand

[+bshwckr]

Have a trip planned September 2007 to NZ and plan on spending 1 week on each island. I have spent a lot of time in NZ and love the place (a bit un-Australian I know!) and have finally talked it up enough to bring my wife and 2 other friends.

Fairly new to Geocaching (44 finds as of today) but appreciate that it takes you to the best locations and places only the locals might know about.

Therefore, I would like to include at least one geocache each day. Starting from Bay of Islands and finishing in Invacargil 2 weeks later.

So could the NZ Geocachers recommend some special caches that would help to impress my travelling party? Caches that are not far to walk would be appreciated as every traveller with me is either unfit or has fragile health (double transplant). I however, would like one that takes at least half a day to walk out and back but near an attraction that would keep the others happy in my absence. (I have been to most places in NZ so I can probably miss out on what they are doing).

You have nearly a year to come up with an itinierary so I hope you can help.

Regards

Bshwckr

[+GSVNoFixedAbode]

Hi Bshwckr,

 

To start you off here's a few threads on similar 'caches to visit' threads in the NZ GPS forums (where most of the Kiwis hang out).

Favourite caches

Auckland request

Christchurch request

 

Hope that helps.

 

Cheers,

G.

[+bshwckr]

Thanks,

Just a quick look tells me Im going to want more than 2 weeks! Im off to apply for a transfer with my company. 4 years might cover it.

I would like that special, only get to after hours of walking through scenic wonderland type cache, if you can recommend one.

Regards

Bshwckr

Edited November 2, 2006 by bshwckr

[+GSVNoFixedAbode]

Oooh, that's a hard one to answer!

 

Probably the South Island has the more mountainous scenery than the North Island, but having said that, LOTR was filmed in both islands! (I'm really going to have to put that LOTR caches bookmark listing together!!)

 

One high on my list of to-dos is Key Summit as a a spectacular walk.

 

Cheers,

G.

[+The Dinkers]

I was so excitied to see your post about New Zealand! I'm just getting into geocaching and hope to geocach there some day since my family lives there! I'm not sure if there are any caches in Queenstown, but the scenery there is spectacular. Also, if you have a chance while in Invercargil, take the ferry out to Stewart Island. There are a lot of great hikes around the island and learn about the history. I wonder if there are any caches there...

 

I am trying to decide which GPS unit to buy. I want to be sure it will be good enough to use in New Zealand. Do you have any advice about that?

[+GSVNoFixedAbode]

Hi The Dinkers,

 

Yep, there are a few around Queenstown. A mix of drive-by's, short & long walks and a couple of virts. As for Stewart Island, have a look at A Rakiura Nugget (not that I'm boasting )

 

New Zealand doesn't have any WAAS birds in sight, but goot sat. cover. I'll normally get 4-5 meters accuracy on a 60CS. If you're going to go bush though - and there's plenty of it - then one of the newer SIRF-equipped units (60 or 76 c/s/x series) is a good bet.

 

Cheers,

G.

[edit: Waas bit]

Edited November 2, 2006 by GSVNoFixedAbode

[+The Dinkers]

Hi The Dinkers,

 

Yep, there are a few around Queenstown. A mix of drive-by's, short & long walks and a couple of virts. As for Stewart Island, have a look at A Rakiura Nugget (not that I'm boasting )

 

New Zealand doesn't have any WAAS birds in sight, but goot sat. cover. I'll normally get 4-5 meters accuracy on a 60CS. If you're going to go bush though - and there's plenty of it - then one of the newer SIRF-equipped units (60 or 76 c/s/x series) is a good bet.

 

Cheers,

G.

[edit: Waas bit]

 

G'Day G,

 

Thanks for all your input! :-D I'm afriad that I haven't started geocaching and I'm trying to figure out what unit to buy. I'm still learning the GPS lingo. Can you tell me about SIRF?

 

Thanks so much!

 

-Dinker

Edited November 3, 2006 by The Dinkers

[+GSVNoFixedAbode]

Hi Dinker,

 

Okey dokey! First, have a GOOD read through the following links:

http://www.gpsinformation.net/ <== good place to start

GPS Units and Software thread here

http://gpsinformation.us/gps60c/g60review.html

http://patrick-roeder.de/reviews/garmin_gpsmap_60CSx.htm

 

The Sirf 'chipset' is an update to the internals of some of the GPS range - it gets far better coverage/signal strength under bush cover than the older Etrex range. The Blue Legend is an older unit but a good starter with mapping. Although as mentioned in another thread, it's probably better to buy a Venture Cx/Legend Cx for a few pennies more: colour + more memory.

 

Buying in the States, the pre-loaded world basemap is not worth it for NZ: shows the basic shape of the country, and a few points for some of the cities but that's it. You'll need a PC to download any new maps to whatever mapping GPS unit you get.

 

Hope that helps a bit.

 

Cheers,

G.

[+bshwckr]

Hi Dinkers

As you would have read earlier, I am also fairly new to geocaching. It doesnt take much to get into it. I have a Pocket PC phone that I have on a plan from Telstra in Australia at no cost to get started. I pay $90 a month on the plan but I use that much on phone calls anyway so I consider it free.

I spent $100 (seen for $60 on ebay lately) on a blue tooth GPS and $35 on GPS Tuner software. With this set up I have managed to find over 40 caches. I have also placed one cache which has been found and reported as acurate. This is an NMEA system which is not the best but obviously good enough for my purposes. My daughter has been helping me find some caches and has become as addicted as I am. She has spent the money and bought a Garmen Etrex (which is still the low end of the market). I think it might be slightly more acurate on first approach to GZ (ground zero). With my set up and a bit of patience, I end up with the same results.

I personally favour the Pocket PC as it gives me a colour screen and allows me to scan in topo maps and calibrate them in GPS tuner. However, I would also like a dedicated GPS unit to compliment it.

I believe it could be possible to geocache without a GPS unit at all. I copy/paste the GPS coordinates from the cache page into the search box in Google Maps. This gives me an arrow that points to the exact location of the cache on a fairly detailed map. I use this all the time to make sure I dont get caught on the wrong side of a river etc. when I plan on walking to a cache.

Therefore, I believe you could spend a lot of money or nothing at all to enjoy geocaching. However, there is nothing like getting just the coordinates (with no other clues) and heading off with your hand held bit of technology and finding something in the middle of nowhere that contains a travel bug that came from the other side of the world.

Maybe we will bump into each other next year at Key Summit. Thanks GSVNOFIXEDABODE I have already set the GC as a waypoint (only 1963.02km from my home coordinates!)