Well, it started off with seeing a pile of logs in one of my caches almost a year ago. "Team Y-Cacho" - a crew from the Waikato - mounted a 24 hour cache assault on Auckland.
You get to thinking, as you do, that if the Waikato can come to Auckland, then Aucklanders can go to the Waikato - and - well - 24 hours caching sounds like a bit of a laugh.
After procrastinating a while, and looking for a few cachers mates who might be keen, 2012 finally came along with a firm goal - the 24 hour caching mission was on - and the team was formed:
The first stage of planning came on the day of the last Big Day Out - Sandipants and Loz were going to watch the show - so Furbies, MissFeez and I decided to get some chinese food and sit in front of GC.com and Google maps for the night.
So the basic plan was born - 24 hours - down to Hamilton-ish and back - as many caches as we can - in this trip it is about the numbers - but also having a bit of fun!
The Rules
Not many to be honest - just that we need a time limit - after spending waaaay to long on some caches in the past - 5 min max is imposed on all cache hides. if we don't find it, we don't find it - move along folks! We hope to be done in 24 hours, but it might be less (if we don't stay the distance) or it might get to be a bit more - this is for fun - who cares if we go over by a few minutes?
The Route
The plan is to start early in the morning, after a good nights sleep, and go hard until next morning.
1. To The Tron
this part of the trip is all about making it down to Hamilton - there are a couple of cache rich areas on the way down, Pukekohe and Huntly (not including the 52 cache power trail). This part of the mission is to be fully route planned to ensure we make progress down to Hamilton and don't go wandering aimlessly between caches. To be completed during the morning/day
2. The Tron (and beyond?)
The very cache-rich environs of Hamilton ought to keep us real busy - but if it doesn't, then we've always got the option of Cambridge and TA a little bit further down the line (not that I think we'll run out!) We'll be in this phase later afternoon/evening
3. Show Me the Way to Cache Home
After caching all day, the instincts will be dull, the willpower weak, and the desire to find hard caches probabl gone - so the "way home" is via the 52 Cache Pickup power trail around huntly. The early hours should make it easy on the road, and the hides (with the exception of the infamous "rock one") shouldn't be too taxing
So this is the plan - hoping to keep the blog going in the lead up and maybe during - but mainly to keep a record of what we're doing for future cachers to not how it should (or more likely shouldn't) be done!
Happy Caching
PNZ
