Achtung! The six clues to this mystery cache can most easily be solved before leaving home, otherwise internet access will be needed in the forest. Waitarere has a cell tower 1.3 km east from the beach serving the three main providers; coverage is not perfect in the forests but can always be found. At the risk of telling Oma how to suck eggs: read all of the description FIRST; take things slowly; think it through and follow the instructions. This GC won't be waving a big flag to welcome you home..
Some relatively simple mental gymnastics are required to discover the coordinates of a 'pointer' tree leading to the GZ. To reward your effort, a special souvenir is available for collection from inside the GC. Please register in the online log that a souvenir has been uplifted so that the GC may be restocked appropriately.
Mystery GCs, sometimes known as bonus GCs, may be found in the forests at Waitarere. The coordinates given for any mystery GC are indicative only and not the actual site of the GC, which will be within a 500 m radius.
Every GC in the two Waitarere forests is located between S 40 and S 41 degrees latitude, and between E 175 and E176 degrees longitude, therefore each will bear S 40 and E 175 as the integer part of their coordinates. Three two-digit numbers representing the decimal fraction part of each coordinate, are needed to reveal a final waypoint leading this mystery GC. Collation of coordinate datat and calculations are probably best done before embarking on the mission.
This mystery GC is close to the south-eastern corner of the managed south forest. Six question-style clues are provided, the answers to which are all two digit positive integers described like so:
The decimal fraction part of the coordinates consists of six digits, Clues 1 ~ 3 for latitude and Clues 4~6 for longitude. The results must be kept in their numerical sequence.
Clue 1. What is the square root of the difference between 4847 and 8211 ?
Clue 2. Specify one-quarter the number of kilometres travelled when 10 return trips have been made between King John's Castle and Caherconlish in County Limerick, Ireland, settlements separated by exactly 15.8 km when traveling by road.
Clue 3. A single photon takes 12.688 minutes, or 761.290322 seconds, to travel from our solar system's sun to illuminate the surface of Mars, a distance of 141.6 million statute miles. Give the integer which results from dividing the speed of this photon in miles per second by 2906.25.
Clue 4. What number is showing on the white glass sperical lampshade fixed to the ceiling of an apartment building doorway located at N 52.50247 E 13.42027 on Adalbertstrasse in Berlin. (Hint: Google street view might be useful)
Clue 5. How many degrees constitute the fourth internal angle of a trapezium when the other three angles are 52, 96 and 128 degrees?
Clue 6. The epoch-making inventions of the telegraph and code by the partnership of Samuel F B Morse and Alfred Vail, are both still used today nearly 180 years later to pass vital information! If you can read Morse code by ear Click Here for a sound file , else go to Cache Image # 6 to view International Morse characters.
Answers are arranged as shown in Cache Image # 1, to keep the results in their correct sequence.
If your GPS is configured for the decimal degrees format, your task is now to enter the coordinates into your GPS and proceed to locate the mystery GC.
However, many GCers use the default geocaching degrees and decimal minutes format, so those folk will need to make a simple math calculation to avoid having to reconfigure their GPS. To calculate decimal minutes, multiply the six digits in their correct sequence by 60, ensuring they are preceded by a decimal point. This result will be a minutes integer followed by a decimal fraction which, if appropriate, must be rounded to three significant places for entry into the GPS. See the example in Cache Image # 2.
The coordinates recovered are those of a 'pointer tree'. To identify this important tree, pink flagging tape is tied to a branch on the southern side of its trunk just above eye-level, and two metres to the ESE of it is a large diameter fence post driven deeply into the gound carrying two now-disfunctional electric-fence wires. At this point you're faced with a conundrum: whether to turn east or to turn west. Unsurprisingly, Rudyard Kipling provides no help in his famous ballad: "Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet".
Hint: Might it be wise to take the path of least resistance? Should you decide in the affirmative, that path will be, as the astute Irish found, by keeping the prevailing wind at your back. Bear in mind that the prevailing wind might not be blowing on the day, but the principle of the roaring 40s from across the Tasman sea will remain the same till the end of time.
Whichever direction you decide to travel, east or west while walking the fence line to reach the GZ, count thirteen thin round fence posts (not the square battens). As you proceed, keep OASIS in mind.
The GC container is a firm sliding fit inside an external weather shield. Please don't drag, move or lift the external weather-shield from its location. To access the GC, lift the east-facing plastic lid by its small wooden handle and grip the internal container on its sides with fingers and thumb, then withdraw it horizontally. Easy-peasy.