Darth Vader's Pencil Box (Wellington) Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Tim+Jed: Thanks for all the visits to our cache over the years.
It's time for someone else to have access to this area.

Cheers

Tim

More
Hidden : 5/17/2012
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works
Looking for a different adventure?

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:



Darth Vader's Pencil Box

For many years this was the site of the largest modernist sculpture in Wellington. Visible from the hills and the city, the huge rusting frame stood as testimony to the now faded power of the trade unions.

Now this cache sits at the foot of one of Wellington’s best known ‘modern’ buildings. Standing darkly different from those around it, the BNZ tower (I simply can not get my head around calling it State Insurance), was completed in 1984. It was however designed in the late 60s, and ended up being one of the longest construction projects in New Zealand, not due to its complexity or size, but because of the industrial unrest during its construction. This particularly involved the boilermakers union- who claimed the exclusive entitlement for their members to weld together the massive steel frames of the building- striking and working to rule for long periods. Tales tell of the same weld performed 20 days on the trot because it had to be continuous and was always just unfinished at knock-off time each day, so had to be started fresh again the next day. These actions had huge effects not only leading to the glacial progress on the building, but to the complete avoidance of steel framed buildings in New Zealand for twenty years, the eventual deregistration of the Boilermakers Union by the government, and ultimately the demise to a large extent of the labour movement itself.


FACTS- The building is 102-metres high and was the tallest in New Zealand for the next three years, and the tallest in Wellington for seven years until it was overtaken in 1991 by the Majestic Centre. It is clad in black Brazilian granite, and in this writer's humble architectural opinion, was always about half the height it should have been to look proportionally right!


As for all our Wellington City caches, the GPS signal can not be completely relied on, but hopefully the hiding place will become illuminated to you once you are near. Many many muggles (including some police ones) will be looking down on you from all directions, so be light on your feet, otherwise this might just turn into another pipe dream. There is no need to damage any vegetation.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Nobhg 10Z sebz gur ohvyqvat'f fbhgu pbeare. Ernq ntnva gur ynfg cnen bs gur qrfpevcgvba.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


Attributes

No attributes available

Advertising with Us

Inventory

There are no Trackables in this cache.

View past Trackables

What are Trackable Items?

Bookmark Lists

View all 4 bookmark lists...