Most easily accessed from the main Rifle Range carpark on Forest Park Drive (off Taylor Pass Road). There is a map of the Farm Park at the walkway entrance next to the carpark. Follow the Gentle Annie Track. After finding the cache you can continue onto the lookout for great views out over Blenheim and the Wairau Plain. This is by far the easiest of the 3 tracks that lead up to the "Witches Hat" shelter.
Gentle Annie is most commonly known as the Napier - Taihape road, which has been rated Number 2 in the top 10 NZ roads; Distance: 152km
This road, known historically as Gentle Annie, is now a lot gentler on travellers than it used to be. Until recently, the route was full of sections of rough gravel. These days the surface is sealed all the way, allowing a far more comfortable drive through a spectacular part of the North Island.
If travelling the Gentle Annie from west to east, you leave Taihape and immediately climb the Central Plateau.
Here you'll find picturesque high-country sheep stations like Erewhon and Springvale - this often bleak country is particularly suited to farming the merino breed, with its high-quality, hollow-fibre wool. Erewhon - "nowhere" backwards - takes its name from Samuel Butler's influential 1872 novel. It's an apt name for such an isolated place.
The steep descent from the plateau into the Kaweka forest is the gradient that gives the Gentle Annie road its name. It also marks the halfway point between Taihape and Napier, and the many river and lake reserves of the forest park make great locations for rest stops.
"Gentle Annie," is also a Celtic mythological figure with similarities to the Irish goddess Anu, and the title of 2 songs.