Barrett Reef (Wellington) Mystery Cache
jardisliketardis: Archiving as I’m no longer able to upkeep.
Barrett Reef (Wellington)
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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The listed co-ordinates of this Geocache are for reference only - please do not attempt to go there.
The cluster of rocks that is Barrett Reef (often known as Barrett's Reef) is one of the most treacherous reefs in New Zealand.
It lies on the western side of the entrance of Wellington Harbour, on the approaches to the city of Wellington. The reef is named after Richard (Dicky) Barrett (1807–1847), a whaler and trader. Its Maori name is Tangihanga-a-Kupe. It is popular with recreational underwater divers.
The reef, much of which is exposed even at high tide, is located to the west of the two-kilometre-wide channel that links Cook Strait with Wellington Harbour, close to the shore of the Miramar Peninsula. Due to the channelling effect of Cook Strait, which lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea, the currents are strong and fickle and gales are common. Add to this the volume of traffic which uses the channel (including several crossings daily of the inter-island ferries to Picton), and it is not surprising that the reef has a lengthy roll-call of shipwrecks.
The above text is released under CC-BY-SA. The original text can be found at the Wikipedia page for Barrett Reef.
Among the many ships that have struck Barrett Reef are the following vessels with the (partial) dates they were wrecked:
Earl of Southesk - A8/0B/1874
"A heavy sea broke over the vessel, filling the forecastle, and the fore and main masts went by the board. The master and crew, numbering twelve all told, embarked in the ship's boat, and abandoned the wreck five minutes before she slipped off the rocks and sank in twelve fathoms of water."
Hunter - C8/04/187D
"The schooner stranded on the southernmost rock of Barretts (sic) Reef, at the entrance to Wellington Harbour. No lives were lost, but the vessel became a total wreck. A fresh gale prevailed at the time, and the Hunter was struck by a squall before she had gathered headway after staying, and was driven on the rocks."
Wanganella - 1E/0F/194G
"The liner Wanganella, nearing the completion of a voyage from Sydney to Wellington, ran on the rocks at the southern end of Barretts (sic) Reef. The ship was on her first post-war civilian voyage across the Tasman Sea, and had 400 passengers on board."
Wahine - 10/0H/196J
"The wreck of the Wahine in Wellington Harbour, with the loss of 51 lives, can be attributed, primarily, to one cause - stress of the weather. On the day of the disaster , Wellington and the surrounding area was savaged by a storm, the force and violence of which had never before been recorded in New Zealand."
The above shipwreck descriptions were taken from the book 'New Zealand Shipwrecks 1795-1975' by C. W. N. Ingram.
This Geocache is comprised of 3 puzzles and 3 waypoints to visit on your way to the final.
The first 2 puzzles, 'Take it from There' and 'Associations' will suggest resources which may help you in discovering the location of the final waypoint. The third puzzle, a 'Kakuro', in combination with the first 2, reveals 3 waypoints which you must visit to collect items that you will use to direct you (as the resources indicate) to the final waypoint.
Take it from There Puzzle
Place the listed 3-letter groups in the empty squares before and after the given grid letters to complete 9-letter words. Words read across only. When the puzzle is filled correctly, the two yellow-shaded columns spell related words.
AMA ART BLI ERY ESS FIC
FIR LAU MEL NAL PAD PLE
QUA RUS SLY THE VIC WER
Copy the letters from puzzle grid above to the phrase below where the numbers match.
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Associations Puzzle
Form a chain of associated words by filling in the blanks from the list of letters. Each word you make will be associated in some way with the words above and below it. The initial letters of the words are already in place. Each letter in the list will only be used once.
DAY
B __ __ __ __
1 2 3 4
F __ __ __
5 6 7
Q __ __ __ __
8 9 10 11
S __ __ __
12 13 14
D __ __ __
15 16 17
B __ __ __ __
18 19 20 21
HORSE
A A A C D E E G G I K K N N R S T U U U Y
Copy the letters from the 6 puzzle phrases above to the phrase below where the numbers match.
__H__ __ __V__ __ __ __ __ __ __ OF __ __ __ __ __ __
7 2 3 14 17 13 7 8 1 2 6 7 9 16 7 9 13
__H__ __ __ __ __ __ __ OF __H__ __ __ __ __O__ __
7 17 6 2 10 1 17 7 7 2 15 16 9 10 1 13
Kakuro Puzzle
Research the shipwrecks to ascertain the dates required which will give you the values of A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and J to replace in the Kakuro puzzle below.
Checksums for the shipwreck date puzzle answers:
- Shipwreck date letters from Earl of Southesk and Hunter add up to 13
- Shipwreck date letters from Wanganella and Wahine add up to 29
How to play Kakuro:
- Fill in each non-grey square with the numbers 1 to 9
- Each vertical or horizontal block adds up to the number at the top or on the left of that block
- Numbers can be used only once in each block
When you have solved the Kakuro puzzle, use the coloured cell values going from left to right and top to bottom to give you (most of) the coordinates of 3 waypoints:
waypoint 1 = yellow cells = S 41° YY.aYY E 174° YY.xYY
waypoint 2 = red cells = S 41° RR.bRR E 174° RR.yRR
waypoint 3 = blue cells = S 41° Bc.BBB E 174° BB.BBz
Referring to the yellow highlighted region of the 'Take it from There' puzzle, substitute the following in the 3 sets of coordinates:
a = # of character S
b = # of character B
c = # of character M
Referring to the 'Associations' puzzle, substitute the following in the 3 sets of coordinates:
x = value of character R
y = value of character T
z = value of character S
You can check your answer for waypoint 1 at Geochecker.com.
You can check your answer for waypoint 2 at Geochecker.com.
You can check your answer for waypoint 3 at Geochecker.com.
At each of these 3 locations you will find a cache containing an item required to determine the coordinates of the final geocache.
You can use the resources mentioned in the answers to the 'Take it from There' and 'Associations' puzzles to help you with the use of the items.
You can check your answer for the final at Geochecker.com.
(Barrett Reef is number 4 of 4 in SJME's Pirate Geocache preliminary series)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Jnlcbvag 1 - Obggbz ebj ergnvavat jnyy;
Jnlcbvag 2 - Orgjrra gerr naq ebpx;
Jnlcbvag 3 - Va bira;
Svany - Va ubyr ng ryobj qrcgu
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
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