The cache is a 2.3 litre container in a home-made camo bag, in native forest within the grounds of the beautiful Auckland Botanic Gardens.
Please ensure you replace the cache where you found it, tucked away and well covered so that it can't be seen.
To get to the cache, join the Puhinui Stream Forest Trail (there's a waypoint below for a suggested entry point), follow the Waterfall Walk and then the Lookout Walk. After you've visited the cache why not take some time to wander around the Auckland Botanic Gardens and the rest of the forest trail?
Auckland Botanic Gardens entry details
This cache is within the grounds of the Auckland Botanic Gardens.
Free entry and open daily. Free parking is available - see the waypoint below.
| Opening hours: |
| Daylight Saving (late September to early April) |
08:00 - 20:00 |
| Non Daylight Saving (early April to late September) |
08:00 - 18:00 |
More about the Puhinui Stream Forest Trail
The Puhinui Stream Forest Trail in Manukau was officially opened in September 2009 and banishes the bustle of the city, replacing it with the sounds and sights found under the canopy of native forest. It cuts through the Auckland Botanic Gardens and Totara Park, following the twists and turns of the Puhinui Stream as it winds through a mixed broadleaf and podocarp forest that has stands of trees predating European times. Along the path wooden mini-bridges cross gullies and span the stream which feeds native eels and 18cm koura (fresh water crayfish). There's even a mini waterfall.
Towering ponga reaching up to 8 metres and plantings of colonising species like manuka and karamu dominate the secondary growth. Among the 155 plant species found in the forest are the native puriri, totara, kanuka, taraire, northern rata and nikau palm. Many of them - such as the kahikatea or white pine, New Zealand's tallest tree growing to more than 50 metres high - have identification tags.
The 700-year-old puriri, pock-marked with tunnels bored by puriri moth caterpillars, is not to be missed - the caterpillars can live for as long as seven years. If you're very lucky you might see the deep-green moth with wing spans of about 9cm emerge from its tunnels.
The sounds of the city are gone and the trail's tranquillity is broken only by bird calls - fantail, grey warbler, kereru and tui. The forest canopy is broken by glimpses of the sky and lookouts to the botanic gardens. Where the trees stop, well-maintained paddocks provide spots to stop for a picnic. And young ones who still have the energy can let loose on one of the two playgrounds.