Do not leave the boardwalk when searching for this cache! Our permission from the ranger to have a cache here is dependant on people not leaving the boardwalk - walking on the soil crushes delicate native tree roots. The cache is on the boardwalk. You're looking for a 200ml Sistema inside a camo container. The Bush is enclosed by a predator proof fence, the gates are open 6am-8.30pm every day.
This cache is a team effort between angelic_kiwi and Maus1, the idea nutted out during our weekly caching expeditions together. angelic_kiwi had the idea of location and arranged permission, and Maus1 constructed the cache, the camo of which was specially requested by Mike the ranger as reflecting the local fauna.
In the 1850s John Deans and Charlotte Godley, who lived alongside the Bush, recorded kākā, kererū, tūī, korimako/bellbird, South Island robin, and kākāriki. Today the native birds left are kererū, pīwakawaka/fantail, riroriro/grey warbler and Tauhou/wax-eye. The trees are mostly kahikatea, with the oldest in the Bush estimated to be 550 years old! Māori used kahikatea to build waka, and used a dye made from the resin as the pigment in tattoos. Europeans used kahikatea wood to make butter boxes for butter being exported to the United Kingdom, as the wood is odorless and doesn't impart a taste.
This cache is part of Cache Quest 360, a Worldwide Geocaching Series in almost every country on Earth, promoting the hobby as a worldwide phenomenon.