Anybody who knows me or who has read one of my recent logs will have heard me use the term 'Self-licking Ice Cream' when it comes to geocaching. I've placed a definition of the term above, but to explain what I mean, I'll give an example. In May 2015 I did all the caches (except two) on Staircase Road which is off the Top Valley Road in the Richmond Ranges on the Northbank of the Wairau River. When I got to work the following Monday morning, I told my fellow cachers about the trip and a few months later one of them travelled to the area, got some caches and placed some more. A few days later one of the regions most prolific placers did the same and a month after that another of my fellow cachers did the same again. Which is why, when I recently decided to get the two caches I left behind on that day back in May 2015, there were now nine other caches to get as well. Hence the term Self-licking Ice Cream.
While on a day walk from Kiwi Road to Fosters Hut with NZDi we noticed what appeared to be a side-track off the main track. On our return trip we went exploring and this is what we found.
The cache is located approximately one third of the way along the track from Kiwi Road to Fosters Clearing, so should take you just under an hour to get there if going in that direction. If going the other way, allow just over an hour once you,ve reached Fosters Clearing, but don't forget to do the side-trip to Fosters Hut first.
For the benefit of 'the Seagnoid' at the time of placing, Kiwi Road could only be accessed from the Barletts Creek end as the road is still closed for logging from the Onamalutu end.
As you near GZ keep a lookout for the start of a side-track mentioned in bumandworkers 'Drink @ Fosters' cache. He says 'even an old D.O.C. track (not maintained since 1994, still there) heading down towards the chimney, but cut off by pines now'.
You won't get far before you come across this sign:
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You will find the cache at the base of a tree three metres past the sign on the left-hand side of the track. The cache is a 35ml Sistema container with a coloured screw-top lid. Keep a note of the colour of the lid as you will need it for a future 'Self-licking Ice Cream Bonus Cache':
Self-licking Ice Cream Bonus Cache
As with all my latest caches, the log is a strip of 'Rite-in-the-Rain' paper protected by a ziplock bag. BYOP