A traditional cache placed near the 433m mark on the NZ Topo50 map of the area.
This is one of two new caches placed on the Mount Riley/Mount Sunday loop track which makes five in total or six if you include the one at the car park. If you are doing the loop anti-clockwise then when you get here you will be sucking in the oxygen to replenish the lungs after a steep climb. However, if you are doing the loop clockwise, you are about to take the express elevator to the basement.
The cache is a Rite in the Rain log placed in a pill container, placed in another camouflaged pill container, placed under a rock 8 to 10m off the track. Although this is supposed to be near the 433m mark on the Topo map, my GPS was reading 420m, however when I got to the top of Mount Riley which is 1311m or 1314m depending on what website you check, my GPS was reading 1300m so I guess it needs calibrating.
The Mount Riley/Mount Sunday loop is a 15km route which takes 8 hours according to DOC. I guess that would be about right, as it took NZDi and I nine and a half hours including finding three caches and placing two, as well as have more frequent snack and rest breaks as we are in our 50's.
Take the usual precautions when venturing in the New Zealand outdoors as the weather can change quickly. There are three or four stream crossings which can easily be negotiated without getting your feet wet in dry conditions, but after rain...
The track is steep in places, unrelentingly so onthe Mount Sunday side and similar on the Mount Riley side but with more frequent flat or near flat sections so a moderate level of fitness and good footware is required