Fishing is one of New Zealand’s favourite pastimes and you can often see people fishing from harbour wharfs, along urban shores and where bridges cross the waterways. For most people the satisfaction of fishing is not just in bringing home a meal, but also in the anticipation and planning, reading the weather and sea conditions, and the pleasure of being outdoors.
This is the same for geocaching! A mystery cache is not always about finding it. Sometimes the most rewarding part is the planning and solving that is required to simply get to the cache location.
You will be pleased to note that no previous fishing experience for this cache is required although it may come in handy!
You have been planning a fishing trip for a while now and you finally get the opportunity to borrow a mate’s boat for the weekend. You have been keeping an eye and ear out for possible fishing spots. As time gets closer you have decided to try the following spots;
- You buy some dodgy co-ordinates off the internet, one coordinate is Arabella Rock. Let’s hope this one isn’t a scam!
- You overheard on the radio that “it’s going off” on a rock that comes up to 29m just outside the harbour entrance limits
- Your neighbour went out yesterday and came back with a stack load of crayfish. He claims that he was out at small mound just south of west ledge? Now that sounds like a good spot to set some pots if he’s telling the truth!
- You are driving “round the bays” at dusk and you see a boat tied off to a beacon that’s flashing. It’s a white light flashing every 6 sec. They probably shouldn't be doing that but it looks like they are doing well out there. As you drive away, you notice that you can’t see the flashing light when you are greater than 9NM away
- You study a chart plotter at a recent boat show and you notice some old fishing locations have been left on there. Looking at the “trails” the location labelled Luna Rock appears to have had a lot of attention!
- You are talking up your fishing trip with your work mates at lunch. A lot of them are giving you a bit of stick and claiming you will catch nothing. After everyone has given their 2 cents, one of them comes up to you and quietly mutters “Somes Rock is the place to go if you want real fish”
- You are watching a fishing show on TV one night. You instantly recognise the area they are fishing! It’s just off Hinds Point. Looks as if they are getting some good fish too
- Your family has a secret fishing spot, you get the opportunity to test it out but the directions are very vague. There is a shipwreck approximately 9.7 NM away at a bearing of 215deg from the centre of the Taputeranga Island. The wreck is where you need to cast your lines
The big day has come and you invite one friend along for the big trip. Unfortunately as you start the day you realise this friend has no interest in fishing and is never going to put any fishing lines out. Oh well! But….. this friend is crazy about fish themselves and insists on measuring and recording every single fish that is caught.
Time to go fishing!!! Click on the hook below and try and find one of your fishing spots. You never know you might get lucky! Also you’ve got a big wedding to prepare for so you plan on keeping everything possible that you catch.
It’s been an interesting day out and when you get back to the boat ramp from fishing 8 spots there is fisheries officer inspecting everyone’s catch. He comes over and asks you to open your chilly bin. He asks a few questions about who was fishing and does a thorough inspection looking at every fish in the chilly bin. He can’t find single fault with your catch and congratulates you for sticking to the rules.
To work out where this cache is located you will need to know what you’ve caught and what’s in that chilly bin! You will first need to solve the locations of each of the 8 spots you visited to reveal how well you did at each of these spots (use the hook picture above)
The cache can be found at; South=41 1A.BCD East=174 4E.FGH. Where,
A=Total number of Hapuka in the chilly bin +5 (use last number)
B=Total number of Kahawai caught +0 (use last number)
C=Total number of Crayfish in the chilly bin +6 (use last number)
D=Total length of all Gurnard in the chilly bin +4 (use last number)
E=Total length of all Blue Cod caught +8 (use last number)
F=Number of all fin fish in the chilly bin +9 (use last number)
G=Total number of fin fish caught +8 (use last number)
H=Length of the largest fish caught +5 (use last number)
I=The number of fish that got away ;)
And there's a geochecker for the final :)
