Craigieburn Challenge (Canterbury) Traditional Geocache
Craigieburn Challenge (Canterbury)
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(large)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Hidden in the Craigieburn Recreation Area, half way between Christchurch and the West Coast.
Park in the picnic / camping area, 100M West of the cache (the road into the cache location also serves as the Broken River Skifield access road, but the cache is in a public recreation area).
Whilst the cache is only 100M away from where you'll park your car, is set up to be a challenge. Take GPS Co-ordinates for your vehicle before setting off to do this cache as you may need them in order to find your way back to it.
There is no track to this cache, all you have is GPS co-ordinates and a hill covered in trees. The trees are relatively young, with sufficient space between them to allow for navigation (both in terms of GPS signal and walking space).
The cache is hidden in relatively plain view (ie may be visible from 5M away).
It's worth noting that there is a public shelter a few hundred metres into the picnic / camping area, complete with toilet facilities (a long drop).
We often stop by here for thermos-flask coffee breaks when traveling back to the West Coast at night - we simply drive up to the shelter and leave our headlights on to provide light.
There are numerous walks in the recreation area (which I haven't done, due to the time of night that I'm usually passing by) and I'd like to encourage other cachers to place caches on them (perhaps not as difficult as this one though), so as much as anything this cache is here to highlight the area's potential to other cache layers.
IMPORTANT NOTE This cache is located in an alpine region, prone to alpine weather conditions, which include severe frosts and snow. (Infact, I have been planning to place a cache here for a while, but several attempts were thwarted by snow, even in "summer").
Do not attempt this cache when snow or rainfall is predicted.
If you do get lost or disorientated whist doing the cache, note that it has deliberately been set in such a way that walking down hill will get you back to the car park or to the main road.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)