The Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour is about having fun discovering the history of Aotearoa New Zealand by finding sites of significance in local communities from early Pacific voyaging and migration, European settlement to present day. The interaction between people, and people and the land have provided a rich history that the GeoTour invites you to explore.
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The presence of Europeans in Canterbury began with Lieutenant James Cook passing by Banks Island (as he thought it was) in 1770. It was discovered to be a peninsula in 1809. In 1850 the first colonists arrived. Edward Gibbon Wakefield of the New Zealand Company, had the idea of a Canterbury Association, a colony based on Church of England beliefs. He sent his agent, John Robert Godley, out to NZ to lead this settlement and he and his family arrived in April 1850. Several months later the first four ships arrived. First in was the Charlotte Jane, and the first Canterbury pilgrim off the boat was James Edward Fitzgerald.
This little trip around statues erected to these men and Canterbury's early Bristish settlers will require you to answer some questions in order to identify the location of the cache.
Some parking is available near the start point, which was the site of the Park Royal Hotel (later Crowne Plaza) until it was demolished after the 2011 earthquake. The walk is not far and may take you less than an hour.
The final is at S 43° 31.ABC E 172° 3D.EFG Checksum=32
Update: Due to major disturbance at the final and the original cache being removed, please add .003 to South coordinate and subtract .005 from the East coordinate. Please take care when retrieving to be ultra stealthy! Thanks.
WP1
A is the number of 7's minus 1 on the plaque on the side of the statue.
B is the number of letters in the first word of the 3rd line on the benefactor's plaque.
WP2
C is the number of words on the statue.
D is the number of letters in the 6th word, 11th line of the plaque at the foot of Godley's statue minus 1.
WP3
E is the number of Māori settlements in Canterbury beginning with the letter O minus 6.
F is the number of words in the name of the first vessel that arrived. Note that the marble lists are in order of arrival.
WP4
G is the number of words (count the 2 dates each as a word) on this statue.
To be able to complete this Geotour and receive your special geocoin, remember to take a note of the codeword on the log book of the cache. This will need to be recorded in your passport which can be downloaded from here. If the passport is unavailable for any reason just keep a note of the codeword and try again later.