Legend of the Welsh Whaler (Waitomo)
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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This is a 5/5 cache! It is not to be underestimated and requires a
range of mental and physical skills. If, at any time, you feel out
of your depth (metaphorically speaking!), don’t hesitate to call it
off and try again another day.
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THE LEGEND OF THE WELSH WHALER:
There was once a bandit who wended the Waikato hills. His true name has been lost to time, but the Legend of the Welsh Whaler lives on. The story goes that, with his mind half lost to whisky and waves, the whaler took to plundering the early colonial villages, in search of wine and wenches. For many years he inflicted his wicked ways upon the Waikato region.
The whispers of his whereabouts warned of war. A call for weapons to be worn - to protect the women and children, to enforce the warrant for his arrest and to capture a wealth of many years’ wages.
The war only needed to be won once. It happened a wee way west of Waitomo......
An officer from the west of the Waikato had been tracking him for weeks, when he heard a wild wailing from a nearby widow's window. He whacked on the door and out burst the whaler, walloping the officer as he went. The officer was winded while wrestling with the whaler but willed himself to pursue, wheezily, as the whaler weaved through the bush.
The whaler waded through some waist deep water, and as he scrambled up the bank the officer took his shot. The whaler staggered into the bush. The officer plunged across and saw a blood trail which had wept from the wound, but no other sign of the whaler.
A faint trail weaved between the white pines, past a wallow and through some willows. Although the trail was wet and weedy, he found the way, pursuing the Welshman along the wire, at last when he thought he had him cornered, he approached a wall of rock with a dark opening. It was in there that the trail went, so the officer wriggled in after him.
Within the depths of the earth he chased the wounded Welshman. A way into the cave he was faced with water of unknown depth, he wavered, part wishing to return, part wanting to win the whalers bounty. Slipping in he pushed on, worried about taniwha and wishing the wintery waters would wane. Once across the officer came upon the body of a woman the whaler had wasted. Whilst wondering what wickedness had befallen her he heard a whisper. A wee bit further on he found the whaler wallowing in the mud, wounded and whimpering. The officer raised his rifle one more time and WHAM! He wiped out the whaler.
While the officer waited to catch his breath, the whalers body slumped, revealing a box in the wall behind him. He stood, with wobbly knees and weakly grasped the box. He wrenched the lid off the box and stared in stunned wonderment at the wealth of coin before him. What will I do, he wondered…. After a while, his warmth had waned and he shivered, he wished he was wearing his woolen clothes and wellies. He filled his pockets with the well-deserved reward and stashed the rest back in the wall. He would return.
Meanwhile, word that the Welsh Whaler was in town had spread. Armed with a wide variety of weaponry, the weekend warriors gathered to watch over the village. When the officer from Wellington wearily walked into Waitomo, wet, cold and covered in mud, someone whistled and mistakenly shouted, “There he is!” The posse fired a volley of shots. Silence fell and, as the gun smoke wafted through the village, the officer stood wavering in the street for a moment before falling to the ground.
Of course, when the villagers looked more closely, they saw their mistake and wept. Seeing coins scattered everywhere, the witnesses realised the officer had found the Welsh Whaler’s wealth and that its whereabouts had died with him.
Can you solve the mystery of the Welsh Whaler’s wealth? Retrace the Officer’s journey. It is rumored that a few have solved the whereabouts of the Welsh Whalers cache. The clues that were set 10 years ago have faded with time and water has washed the trail of blood away, there was once a rhyming riddle that set wanders on their way but that has become irrelevant so the above words have been reworked (December 2018) and written anew with a clearer set of direction to help with your wayfinding.
During your quest, it is strongly advised that you:
1. Do not attempt this alone or with young children.
2. Come prepared with appropriate equipment, including waterproof torches, helmets, old clothing and at least one spare torch.
3. Tell someone else where you are going, most parties will return in 1-2 hours.
4. Consider cave conservation ethics – move through the cave carefully, do not break anything (including your bones), do not leave anything behind and do not remove anything.
5. Do not attempt after heavy rain, the Waitomo stream can be deceptively difficult.
6. Do not take anything valuable, fragile or important on this mission, including your car keys, wallets, phones and cameras.
7. The cave is normally partially flooded. This cache requires that you swim whilst in a cave, consider your abilities and if appropriate take additional flotation.
BE SURE THAT YOU ARE OPERATING WITHIN YOUR OWN LIMITS AND HAVE TAKEN ALL REASONABLE STEPS TO ENSURE YOUR OWN SAFETY. FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME IF YOU WANT FURTHER INFORMATION OR CLARIFICATION - THROUGH THE MESSAGE CENTER IN ADVANCE OR TRY CALLING BRENDON 021 706 536
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gurer ner ab ybatre nal culfvpny pyhrf gb yrnq lbh gb gur ragenapr. Gur pnir ragenapr vf jvguva 200z bs gur fgnegvat pbbeqvangrf naq gur svany vf jvguva 300z, nygubhtu gurer vf ab TCF be pryy fvtany gurer. Gur ragenapr vf pbafcvphbhf naq vzzrqvngryl fybcrf qbja nobhg 3z jura vafvqr, vagb n ernfbanoyr fvmr punzore.... nsgre gung lbh ner ba lbhe bja.
[Good luck and safe travels]