You will NOT find the cache at the listed co-ordinates.
Instead you will find a sculpture of 'The Three Whales' outside the Papamoa Library.
A long, long time ago, a whale and her baby swam into Tauranga Harbour past Mauao and Matakana Island. The two whales swam up the harbour past Matapihi and Maungatapu and into Rangataua Bay. The pair found that the water was getting more shallow due to the changing tides and tried to return to the deeper water, however the tides turned too fast and the pair became trapped.
Both struggled over the mudflats, trying to find a way back to the open sea. Tired, they stopped to drink from a stream on the inner shore near Karikari Point. The stream was magical and life immediately departed from the mother whale fixing her to the spot, turning her into a gently rolling hill gazing northward out to Papamoa and the sea. The baby also drank and became fixed, nestled beside the mother.
A third whale, the father, came looking for his family wondering what had happened. Following the same path he found himself in the same predicament, tired and stranded. Coming upon the stream he too drank and the magic from the stream fixed him in place.
These three whales now stand as high hills overlooking Papamoa and Tauranga. Local Maori identify the mother whale as Mangatawa (a rolling hill of 117m in height near the end of Truman Lane), the baby as Hikurangi (the lower peak of the Mangatawa hill) and the father whale as Kopukairoa (a 265m high rounded hill, south of Mangatawa between Waitao and Rocky Cutting Roads). The stream they drank from is now referred to as "Te Wai U o te Tohora", which means "the milk of the mother whale". Sometimes the water flowing from it is quite white.
This Maori legend is told to many children in the Papamoa area and 'The Three Whales' often feature on local school and pre-school logos.
Mangatawa was also the site of a great Maori pa and was used as a landmark from which fishermen out at sea used to take their bearings to locate the best fishing spots.
The best view of the Mangatawa and Kopukairoa hills is from SH29 near Matapihi and from SH2 near BayPark. To view the hills from the Papamoa side and to find the cache you will need to solve this puzzle. It is based on some popular children stories, some of which you might find in the Papamoa Library. The cache is within 400m walk of the library and there is plenty of parking in that area. If you stand at the cache area and look towards the west you will see the large, bush-covered father whale, which now has an aerial on top. In a north-west direction you will see the smaller and rolling surface of the mother and baby whales. The cache has a log book and pencil only. Happy hunting!
Check Sum : Total = 71