New at this

[sgkahu]

Greetings all

 

We are a family of new geocachers in Wellington area. We found out about geocaching totally by accident while looking on the web for other information about Waikawa Beach (DUNE cache).

 

Looking on here I wish we lived in Tauranga or Christchurch where there are so many caches! Still, we will hide a few and help to increase the Capital's count.

 

Is there a source of travel bugs in NZ??

 

Any tips or warnings re hiding caches that we should be aware of??

 

One thought - we have only found three caches so far but the difficulty/terrain ratings don't seem too consistent! Is either of the ratings intended to give an indication of distance from carpark? Having young kids means that's a vital piece of information.

 

Great hobby - will have to consider buying a GPS as a family Christmas present I think!

 

Ella

[+tgsnoopy]

Welcome to Geocaching Ella.

 

Unfortunately their is no source of Travel Bugs in New Zealand at this point in time (that I'm aware of). However that may change in the future. The closest source of Travel Bugs is Team Idealology in Australia, or you could buy them directly from Groundspeak in the States.

 

As far as your GPS receiver purchse is concerned, I could reccomend buying a second hand GPS12 from Tony & Steve, you'll save money and start off with the unit that seems to be the best performer without spending rediculous amounts of money. Give me an e-mail and I'll forward you Tony and Steve's details. tgsnoopy at xtra dot co dot nz

[+ariwa]

Neill are you getting commission on those GPS12s or something?!

 

I'm still convinced there's little difference between the eTrex and the GPS12 (apart from the fact the eTrex looks cooler and has a 4-level grayscale screen!)

 

Steve

[+tgsnoopy]

No I'm not getting a commission on the GPS12's Steve (Although, now that you mention it... ).

 

Steve, Next time you are down here, let me put my GPS12 alongside youe eTrex at a bush clad cache, you'll soon see that the GPS12 runs circles around the eTrex when it comes to ability to gain a location. Don't get me wrong, the eTrex is a fine GPS, however it's Patch Antenna just doesn't cut it under a canopy in the bush. Now if I could get a GPS the size of an eTrex which received as well as the GPS12

 

Another reason I promote the importation of the cheap 2nd hand GPS12's is I want them to keep selling so they are available if required, rather than Tony and Steve stopping the importation because they aren't selling. I don't see anything wrong with supporting the efforts of other geocachers.

[+BigNick]

Welcome,

quote:

---

Originally posted by sgkahu:

Is there a source of travel bugs in NZ??

---

Drop me a line at nick at automata dot co dot nz, I have an extra bug I can sell you (only one), from memory they are $11.44 each.

quote:

---

One thought - we have only found three caches so far but the difficulty/terrain ratings don't seem too consistent! Is either of the ratings intended to give an indication of distance from carpark? Having young kids means that's a vital piece of information.

---

Have a look at the Clayjar cache rating system - this is how I rate all our caches. The rating should include the distance from parking, but as you will find out, there is usually more than one way to approach a cache - this can make a caches terrain rating a lot higher or lower than the one on the webpage. (Physical or Electronic maps can help find the best approach)

quote:

---

Great hobby - will have to consider buying a GPS as a family Christmas present I think!

---

Looks like you have been bitten by the geocaching bug - watch out, it can be addictive (having just travelled 1270Km for 9 caches, I can attest to that )

Cheers

Nick

[+rediguana]

quote:

---

Originally posted by tgsnoopy:

let me put my GPS12 alongside youe eTrex...

---

 

I too have been recently able to make a comparision between my GPS 12XL and a standard etrex that I won. I have found the etrex to be perfectly adequate, but as Neill says, under canopy the 12 maintains a much improved lock. For the enthusiast, I would always recommend the 12 over the etrex.

 

And the external antenna plug is great in a car - sure beats having the gps slide all over the dash!

 

Cheers Gav