Geocaching Gear

[+rediguana]

Right, lets try this again. I am now in the US, so I shouldn't have too much trouble ordering and taking delivery of geocaching gear.

 

BigNick and tgsnoopy have offered to help me out on this one. The plan of attack is this.

 

1. Email BigNick if you live in the South Island or tgsnoopy if you live in the North Island what you want to order. They will consolidate the orders and pass that onto me.

2. I'll order and receive the stuff here in the States, and forward it to BigNick and tgsnoppy.

3. I'll let you know how much you owe, including NZ postage, and you can pay me.

4. BigNick and tgsnoopy will send the stuff out.

 

Let's see who is still interested in gear then... At last we'll have our own travel buys to run riot. Mwahahahaha

 

Cheers Gav

[+BigNick]

For those you are new and have not fully explored the geocaching.com website, the "gear" that Gav is talking about above can be viewed here.

For South Island orders I can be contacted at nick at automata dot co dot nz

 

Cheers

Nick.

[+tgsnoopy]

For North Island Geocachers, view the gear available courtesy of the link kindly provided by Nick in the nessage above. If you would like anything please e-mail me at tgsnoopy at xtra dot co dot nz. Thanks

[+nandor]

Hey guys, just wondering what the status is with the gear order. No hurry - just want to know what our ETA is

[+rediguana]

I'm just collecting the orders from snoopy and BigNick, and will place them Thursday US time. I'll keep people posted via this thread as to movements from there.

 

Cheers Gav

[+rediguana]

I have opted for ground shipping. So it should reach me sometime next week. I'll then sort out with BigNick and tgsnoopy the best way of getting the loot back to NZ.

 

Cheers Gav

[+BigNick]

An update from Gav:

The order has arrived in his hot little hands, but he is away from his home base in the US for a week, so will ship them when he gets back. All going well they will arrive in NZ in about 4 weeks from now. At this time we will know how much each item costs, and will contact people who placed orders to get money and then they will be couriered to you. At this stage, payment will be made by money transfer into Gavins bank account, once he has confirmed to tgsnoopy or myself that he has the money, we will pop your items into a courier bag and send them off (In my case, if you are in Chch, I can probably drop them off, saving you a courier, but costing you a beer/coffee and a chat with my ugly mug )

 

Looking forward to seeing lots of NZ travel bugs in our caches.

 

Cheers

Nick.

[+rediguana]

I should be posting the loot within 24 hours, will drop another note then. Cheers Gav

[+rediguana]

Loot duely posted, ETA to BigNick and tgsnoopy 2-3 weeks. In the meantime we'll sort out prices and let you know in a week or two what things cost. Cheers Gav

[+BigNick]

Gavin has worked out the total cost of the geocaching order (that is in transit) and broke it down to the unit costs:

Static Cling Window Decal $8.05 each

Compass Keychain $8.05 each

Travel Bug $11.44 each

TShirt Serial or Long Sleeve Crayon $43.07 each

Cap $43.07 each

TShirt Standard (L-XL) $29.60 each

TShirt Standard (3XL) $37.68 each

Neill and I will be contacting the people who have ordered items about payment and delivery when the items hit our shores - this is a heads up so you can start saving

 

Cheers

Nick

[+tgsnoopy]

Actually thats not quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. Now I'm really eagerly awaiting the arrival of that parcel

[+ssarc]

There are going to be heaps of travel bugs around now,I will definitely be releasing a couple in the Nelson area.

Nick- let me know the cost of my order and I'll fix it up

[+tgsnoopy]

Well, I jokingly said weeks ago in e-mail to Gavin that he might beat the Geocaching gear back to NZ, at this stage it looks likely to happen. Gavin arrives back from his big OE tommorrow, and this morning there was still no sign of the geocaching gear in my PO Box. Thats 7 1/2 weeks so far and no delivery. Not good odds if I do say so myself.

 

Unfortunately some parts I need for repairing a peice of equipment have just been dispatched by US International Mail, not my favourite method of forwarding, but the only one available from that particular supplier. I'm hoping like crazy that this order won't take as long as the geocaching gear has.

 

Maybe the gear might turn up in time for Christmas presents perhaps? I'm checking the PO Box a lot more regularly in anticipation now. Surely it can't be much longer, I wonder if my parts will arrive first?

[+rediguana]

quote:

---

Originally posted by tgsnoopy:

Gavin arrives back from his big OE tommorrow

---

 

Gav's back, and the South Island package isn't here either. I know that even though they said 4-6 weeks economy, I sent some packages in August that didn't turn up till October, so don't give up hope, I think they are just taking their sweet time. And I would have been badly pinged for excess backage coming back if I had have done that - it was bad enough as it was!!

 

Cheers Gav

[+tgsnoopy]

I rang NZ Posts freephone number (0800 501 501), and asked how long surface mail from the USA should take. To put it simply, the answer was, they didn't know! Apparently I can't even get them to try and work out where the package is on it's journey, it would need to be done at the mailing point by the sender. An interesting phone call, no help at all really, but I just had to ask anyway.

 

The parcel of mine I mentioned earlier, supposibly sent by international mail, was received promtly in a DHL courier bag (I wondered why it seemed so expensive on my credit card). It can be rather difficult doing business with USA based suppliers who don't quote what they are actually going to charge you before you confirm your orders. The international courier cost about US$35.00 by my calculations, but as the invoice with the pricing is slowly working its way over by mail, I can only guess in reality, some of the bill may have been a picking fee that gets added because the order was below a preset amount.

 

Ah joy, next time I think I'll get my geocaching gear straight off Team Ideology Geocaching in Australia. Getting stuff from the states just takes too long, or costs too much in postage.

 

Despite the delay, which was somewhat unforseen, thanks for you efforts Gavin, I can't help wondering just how long it's going to be though, it's become the standing joke between the lady at the Post Office and myself. I'm starting to thing she'll nab me with the package when I go in before I clear my PO Box. Everytime I get a parcel I go to the counter in anticipation. Yesterday their was a little tell tale yellow card, but alas it had been put in my box in error, talk about get my hopes up. It's a pity the T-Shirts are only printed on the back, still I've brought that up, and with a bit of luck, they might start producing geocaching T-Shirts which have logo's that won't be obscured by our packs. Happy Geocaching everyone.

[+ariwa]

Don't worry Neill I'm like that too whenever I get one of those dadgum yellow tags. Only problem is that I never go to my PO box when the PO's open so there's never anyone there and the parcel tends to sit for quite some time waiting for me to pick it up.

 

It frustrates me when I go there on the odd occasion - out of my way - to pickup my parcel and get told it was put there in error..

 

I've come to the conclusion the people that do the PO Boxes are illiterate. If i get one yellow card every month in error, and there's about 2000 boxes at the PO box, that means there's 2000 cards a month on average in error.

 

Then there's all the misdirected mail. I constantly get mail for PO Box xxxx but for a different branch, all because these people are sending mail to AUCKLAND 1036. On top of all the mail destined for PO Box 3456 which gets put in box 3426 or something. They just can't read!!

[+rediguana]

Well, the South Island package has arrived. All those from the SI who ordered goods should contact either Nick or myself to arrange payment & collection.

 

Cheers Gav (just thinking of all the TB's on the loose around NZ!)

[+tgsnoopy]

Choice, I wish I could say the same, but as of this morning the North Island package hadn't arrived. Hopefully Monday now, I'll be keen to check on Monday morning. Thanks for letting us know

[+tgsnoopy]

The North Island gear has arrived. We will be contacting the purchasers shortly to arrange delivery etc.