The intersection of State Highway 1 (SH1) and State Highway 46 (SH46) is the location of the northern end of what is known as the Desert Road - a 52km section of SH1, between here and Waiouru, that reaches just over 1000m elevation and passes through an alpine desert-like environment between the mountains of the Tongariro National Park and the Kaimanawa Ranges.
From here heading south SH1 rises fairly rapidly up to the Rangipo Desert, while SH46 heads to the west, joining SH47 and ultimately SH4 at the township of National Park. 10km north along SH1 is the town of Turangi.
Located here is a barrier that is used to block the road when the Desert Road is impassable due to snow and ice during winter. This usually occurs for short periods of time each winter - hence the name of this cache.
This is a short 2 stage multi-cache. At the published coordinates you will find a small magnetic label with the coordinates to the final geocache located some distance away.
Please keep an eye on children as State Highway 1 is a busy road, particularly busy with trucks at certain times of the day.
BYOP. Good luck and happy caching!