Wing it - Taieri (Otago) Multi-Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This multi- is the first of a series of historical themed caches I’d like to do on the Taieri.
The first waypoint is accesible by vehicle with minimal walking, but the cache itself requires a bit of walking up a 4WD track.
This corner of the Taieri was reputedly named by William Stevenson, an early settler in the area. Stevenson apparently shot at a Tui and winged it, liked the sound of “Wing-a-tui” so named his property accordingly in the mid 1850’s.
And yet, some attempts at Maori names are given in books: AW Reed suggests Whiringatua (the place of plaiting of straps); Vernon Roberts, offended by the false Maori name and the nature of its origin, suggested Uingatui (what the Tui said) I presume somewhat facetiously.
But it looks like the name celebrating the recreational abuse of native wildlife is here to stay, and not just for Stevenson’s original property, but for this whole corner of the Taieri.
This multi focuses on the old roadways, namely the steep Bullock Track which linked the North Taieri properties with Dunedin in the early days (and was the route by which farm produce and supplies were transported to and from Dunedin) and Puddle Alley (now a comfortable tar-sealed road), which skirted the hills from the bottom of the Bullock Track to the Silverstream Ford (near Geocache GCNZ9X “Silver Stream” by Mcroni).
The first waypoint is along Puddle Alley, hidden at about eye-level. It is a small (200ml) black-painted plastic snaplock container which contains a brief summary of some local history of the area, from which numbers corresponding to the following letters may be found:
W R G O J S H L D E
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Frederick Tuckett looked over the Taieri Plains from the top of the Bullock Track on the WGth day of April in the year SLHH.
Of the four founding settlers of the 1850’s, E were passengers on the Philip Laing.
William Stevenson died in SLDJ.
The railway tunnel broke through to Wingatui in SLRO.
The longitude minutes for the final cache are 51.113 and latitude minutes are 25.432, though these will need to be translated using the puzzle in the waypoint container. (Perhaps your own pencil and paper may help to translate, if your mental agility is anything like mine – please don’t write on the puzzle sheet itself).
The final cache is a 1 litre black-painted plastic snaplock container. It is approximately a 200m walk uphill along a 4WD track. Initial contents are along a suitable theme for Wingatui.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[Wpt] 3-cebatrq sbex
[Cache] Fgbarf
Treasures
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