View of Aoraki from the cache.
There’s a story to this cache.
Back in 2006 I prepared the outline for my fourth novel. Its working title was Hidden Talent, but since made-up words fair better in search engines it soon evolved into Thalamorph.
The climax of this global thriller would be near Aoraki for two reasons: 1) the location suited the plots well, and 2) it was a place I wanted to visit more than anywhere else.
A year later most of the novel had been completed: the chief protagonist had just set out on a journey from New York to Christchurch and onward to Aoraki for the final revealing chapters of the book. Being obsessed with ensuring my geographical and cultural references would be correct, I needed to spend some time in New Zealand and that’s where I stalled. Several matters intervened and the opportunities for faraway travel never arose, although from 2009 I did become an active cache finder and setter (and set a puzzle cache based upon the unfinished Thalamorph).
At the beginning of 2015 my circumstances changed and then began a plan to hop around the world with staging posts in San Francisco and Sydney sandwiched with four memorable weeks in New Zealand.
With caching now a major pastime I wanted to plant one as close as possible to Aoraki to commemorate the beginning of the completion of Thalamorph. My original idea was to place a cache at the Ball Shelter – the nearest trekking (as opposed to mountaineering) access. I set out from the Blue Lakes car park and got as far as the end of the 4WD track having passed through two avalanche areas. The terrain got tougher but there were plenty of rocky places to hide the container I had with me. However, I hadn’t seen another trekker, let alone a cacher. I liked the idea of a tough terrain, remote cache, but not with the forecast of no one visiting.
The actual GZ is now in a more popular area. A few days ago I hiked the Hooker Valley track and it was a beautiful and comfortable 12 kilometres return trip from Mt Cook Village to the Hooker Lake. Early season but there were already plenty of walkers enjoying the views and sunshine. The cache is close to the Lake and at the end of a spur from the main track.
The coords will get you to the hide but there is a photo spoiler if you are stuck at the last few metres. When placed the container included my NoCMoC travel bug. Would an early finder grab it and let it travel New Zealand for a while before it comes home to its owner.
So, now I have finished my research I can at last complete my long outstanding novel. The Related Web Page will get to my author site if you want to see the progress.
I am indebted to local cacher drawp for making this cache possible by offering to maintain it on my behalf.
Ray Crowther
November 10, 2015
STOP PRESS
Thalamorph, the novel, has now been published. The climax of the book takes place at the cache location. The book is available from Amazon (UK) or directly from the author.