Cannons Head is a high point of 390m in the Belmont Regional Park and seems to correspond to where Cannons Creek would start if it were a continuously flowing creek. Down the bottom it is actually a creek and one of the path options to get to this cache requires you to cross it (which just requires a large stride). But looking up towards Cannons Head you can see the valley it has gouged over the millenia. Although this valley is a bit tricky to see from Cannons Head itself it is certainly visble elsewhere along the ridgeline track to the southwest. If you come up from Takapu Road or Belmont Trig you'll see views like this right down to the new viaduct.
There are a few ways to get to this cache as it's kind of right in the middle of the park:
- Start from Takapu Road and head up Takapu Ridge (moderately steep).
- Start from Takapu Road and head up the loop track past the viaduct caches (very steep and the track is not well marked).
- Start from Hill Road in the Hutt and go past the airstrip via Round Knob.
- Start from Stratton Street in the Hutt and go straight up the Middle Ridge Track.
- Start from Stratton Street in the Hutt, head up to Belmont Trig then take the Dress Circle track.
Some routes cross working farmland and others are adjacent (i.e. don't bring a dog). All tracks will be closed entirely during Spring lambing so check for that in advance if it's September or October. The routes from the Hutt are marked as MTB trails which is a transport option for the masochistic. The routes from Takapu Road are steep grassland and not recommned on a bike. Entrances are generally open "dawn to dusk" so this is very much a day-only cache.
It is quite exposed up here and can be windy. Not so much a problem in the summer but dress accordingly in the cooler months.
You can probably expect a round trip to be around 2 hours regardless of where you start. Somewhat less if you're fit and in a hurry.
The cache is kind of camouflaged but turned out to be pretty conspicuous really. Due to the limited options for hiding a cache the container itself is a micro (so BYOP) but the overall cache is somewhat larger.