The Bench Seat That Almost Rocked
So Gorby and I were over on Rangi in search of a couple of caches, and to place a couple more. We were walking along the road when I spotted a big piece of timber that had washed ashore - perfect size to make into a bench seat somewhere by sitting it on some stacked scoria rocks. I thought, if we could drag that up over the lava, then it could serve as a nice reward - seat to relax on while signing a cache log after an adventure to get there.
Well, I climbed down and retrieved said piece of timber - which turned out to be fairly heavy (go figure) - and climbed back up onto the road. We took turns lugging this piece of timber along. We carried it up a loose scoria slope, past a new cache that we found, and about 100m further up the hill, the weight and unweildiness of this piece of wood severely hampering our progress.
Unfortunately, with the prospect of dragging this thing another 3-400 metres up the hill and this potentially taking an hour or more, we had to admit defeat to the laws of physics. In fact, Gorby took the piece of wood back to the road, some 120m away, in about the same time it took me to travel another 5-600m up the hill and place 3 more geocaches! Doubly unfortunate is that when I reached the spot, just short of where this cache is placed was the perfect spot to place the seat, with a great view over the gulf and back to the city.
In the process of returning to the road, the piece of wood split in two, and is now (at time of publishing) serving as two rather rocking bench seats either side of the main track. Hopefully they are still there when you visit. But you know what, at least we lived to tell the story, no injuries to self other than pride - after all, traversing the loose lava and scoria is pretty hectic and precarious.
Please take care coming to this cache - it's dangerous and if you fall, you could hurt yourself. Sturdy footwear, and long pants and sleeves are recommended. Gloves are also a good idea. Take your time and be safe!
