AN EASY ACCESS CACHE, BUT CLOSE TO A SUBSTANTIAL DROP - THE SPOT WHERE THE BOX IS HDDEN IS NOT SUITABLE FOR SMALL CHILDREN
Opened in 1908 this majestic structure was the last of five massive steel viaducts needed to complete the railway route between Auckland and Wellington.
While the structure is impressive today when viewed from the road as you dip down and back to cross the river, think of the effort required to build this over 100 years ago, before a road existed!
J & A Anderson Ltd of Christchurch won the tender to build this structure in 1905, and as the remote location meant that transporting such large steel sections to the site was impossible, they set about building a steel fabricating factory on site, (on the north bank, across the valley from the cache site) with housing for the large workforce nearby. Everything, for the factory plant, plus the 1016 tonnes of raw steel and 1238 tonnes of cement, had to be hauled to the site by bullock team through wild, virgin bush country. Then a system of high wire cableways were established to sling first the cement for the concrete foundations, then the heavy pre-assembled sections across the valley to be riveted together by skilled workers hanging by ropes.
The Viaduct was designed with capacity for the future, however during the period 1925-32 it needed to be strengthened carry larger locomotives and in the 1983-89 period further modifications were carried out to take even greater axleloads of 18 tonnes of electric locomotives now used on this route. One foundation was underpinned with deeper foundations in 2008, to protect the structure from scour of the stream bed.
In its earlier life the Viaduct was regularly cleaned and repainted, but in 2014 a project commenced to completely clean back the old toxic lead-based paint, and coat the steel in a new epoxy-based resin. This project was ground-breaking itself, as the pristine environment in this area was not disturbed, the structure was totally sealed section by section in air-tight covers, and all of the removed paint, sand blasting material and any other debris was completely recovered and removed from the site - all while the viaduct remained in services carrying heavy rail traffic.
Today’s cache replaces a historic early cache GCMNF1 laid in 2005 by Size13, but disturbed a number of times by the painting project and archived in February 2016.
If you (like Radionut50) are interested railways, or significant engineering artefacts, you may enjoy nearby Radionut50 caches GC1MTBF GC484HG GC3C37F and GC3C37C , or other related hides GC43FNQ and GC23XB1
You are looking for a 400ml Sistema click-clack box, in a hole in the retaining wall below the road, around 1m from the concrete peer of the viaduct. Look up to the top row. Access is easy, without climbing any fence, and away from the road, but do be cautious about the nearby drop into the valley. Walk through the gap between the road protection rail and the fence and step down to the foundation. Please do put the small rock back to hide the box, in this very public spot.
Please ensure the box is well hidden when you are finished..
There is excellent safe parking, at the public lookout point nearby.
Logging Recommendations
This cache, (like most of Radionut50’s hides) is NOT meant to be hard to find – so logs saying ‘easy find’ are pretty meaningless. The reason for this hide is to introduce you to this piece of our country’s great history , so logs commenting on your experience are very welcome. You are also invited to crack the hint as you arrive, to reduce the chance of a prolonged search compromising the hide in this very public place.