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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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Ever since I was a little boy I have enjoyed solving/making jigsaw puzzles.
The cache has been hidden somewhere around Lake Koromatua. Access to this public lake is by a farmers drive. Please follow instructions and close gates behind you. Also be considerate with caching during Milking hours - No night caching.
Bring Gumboots and keep if you take your DOG leave it on a lead as there are pest traps set.
It is widely agreed that an Englishmen, John Spilsbury invented the jigsaw puzzle in ??A??. Spilsbury was an engraver and mapmaker. The ??B?? jigsaw puzzle was a map of the world. Spilsbury attached a map to a piece of wood and then cut out each country. Teachers used Spilsbury's puzzles to teach geography. Students learned their geography lessons by putting the world maps back together.
The idea caught on and, until about ??C???, jigsaw puzzles remained primarily educational tools.
In 1880, with the introduction of the treadle saw, what had previously been known as dissections (not a word with particularly enjoyable connotations in our own time) came to be known as jigsaw puzzles, although they were actually cut by a fretsaw, not a true jigsaw. Towards the end of the century plywood came to be used. With illustrations glued or painted on the front of the wood, pencil tracings of where to cut were made on the back. These pencil tracings can still be found on some of these older puzzles.
Cardboard puzzles were first introduced in the late ?D?00's, and were primarily used for children's puzzles. It was not until the 20th century that cardboard puzzles came to be die-cut, a process whereby thin strips of metal with sharpened edges - rather like a giant cookie-cutter - are twisted into intricate patterns and fastened to a plate. The "die" (which refers to this assembly of twisted metal on the plate) is placed in a press, which is pressed down on the cardboard to make the cut.
Thus, in the early ?E?00's, both wooden and cardboard jigsaw puzzles were available. Wooden puzzles still dominated, as manufacturers were convinced that customers would not be interested in "cheap" cardboard puzzles. Of course, a second motivation on the part of manufacturers and retailers of jigsaw puzzles was that the profit from a wooden puzzle, which might sell for $?F?.00, was far greater than for a cardboard jigsaw puzzle, which would usually sell for about 25¢.
The Golden Age of jigsaw puzzles came in the 1920s and 1930s with companies like Chad Valley and Victory in Great Britain and Einson-Freeman, Viking and others in the United States producing a wide range of puzzles reflecting both the desire for sentimental scenes, enthusiasm for the new technologies in rail and shipping and, last but not least, new marketing strategies.
One strategy was to make cardboard puzzles more intricate and difficult, thus appealing as much to adults as to children. Another was to use jigsaw puzzles as premiums for advertising purposes. Einson-Freeman of Long Island City, New York began this practice in 1931, making puzzles that were given away with toothbrushes. Other premiums followed, but more important to the jigsaw puzzle's enduring success was the introduction of the weekly puzzle. This practice began in the United States in September, 19?G? - very much the depth of the Depression - with an initial printing of 12,000 puzzles. Soon after, printings rose to 100,000 and then 200,000.
It might seem odd at first glance that a non-necessity like a jigsaw puzzle would sell so well in the Depression. But the appeal, then as now, was that one bought a good deal of entertainment for a small price. The weekly jigsaw puzzle could constitute a solitary or group activity, and would occupy one's time enjoyably for hours. And, of course, a jigsaw puzzle was "recyclable," in that one could break the puzzle up once one had completed it and then pass it on to another family member or friend. Another point to bear in mind that jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts in the Depression discovered what many in our own time are rediscovering - that working on a jigsaw puzzle is a great way to reduce stress!
The popularity of jigsaw puzzles has waxed and waned since the Depression. They are still, just like the first jigsaw puzzle, sometimes used to teach geography: I recall assembling a puzzle of the continental states of the USA when I was a boy. (Texas was an easy piece to locate, Colorado quite challenging.) They are still available in both wood and cardboard. They are still a lot of entertainment for a small price. Jigsaw puzzles are a pastime, and I will make no nobler claim for them. But they are a healthier pastime than watching inane (and occasionally vulgar) television shows or playing inane (and occasionally vulgar and/or violent) computer games. And if they are addictive - and they are - they are a harmless addiction.
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Original cache was destroyed when alterations were made to the road. Cache is now a blue plastic container that can be seen when looking down
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Tb gb TM, ybbx bire gur EUF bs gur ohvyg hc ebnq gb ybpngr pnpur. Fbyir gur wvtfnj chmmyr gb trg tvira gur svany pbbeqvangrf. Lbh qba'g arrq nal vasbezngvba whfg lbhe wvtfnj fxvyyf.