YOU WILL NEED:

• Plastic toy animals
• Jars or other cache containers (Reiart uses glass jars but this may be impractical for your GZ)
• Spraypaint
• Krazy Glue or strong, quick-setting adhesive
• Plastic or paper cups
• Sandpaper
• Gloves
• Newspaper to spread over your work surface
• A well-ventilated space

STEP ONE:

Use any heavy jar with a solid lid. I am not crazy about how the double Mason jar snap-lids look but they would work too. Decide on your animal, in this case a llama! It should have a fabulous personality, sentimental values and very flat feet.

STEP TWO:

Sand the jar lid and the bottoms of your animal’s feet lightly. This helps the glue get a super strong grip. I have used a lot of different types of glue but I love the strength of good ol’ Krazy Glue. (NB: Krazy Glue Advanced is even better if you can find it.)

STEP THREE:

Wait a few minutes (an hour is best) for the glue to be nice and dry. This will give you time to think about what paint colour you want to use.

STEP FOUR:

Set the lid on a plastic or paper cup. This allows you to spray the whole lid without it sticking to any surfaces.

Beware: Not all spraypaint is created equal. I love the Krylon Short Cuts but have found that some colours can be “watery” and don’t provide an opaque “candy coating” finish. I also love using acrylic paint to paint the jars which gives the finish a bit more of a “shabby chic” look. Both styles are great.

STEP FIVE:

I usually apply two or three coats depending on the type of paint and the colour. Metallics and darker colours sometimes need only one coat.

If you want a super durable exterior, spraypaint, apply gloss varnish and then re-spray with a gloss finish paint.

You can really create any type of mood for your jars … It is such an easy little project that takes hardly any time. Great for ADD-type crafters like myself who love the instant gratification!

*Allergic to DIY or crafts? You can always buy some of Emeli Reiart’s finished glass Animal Jars at her DangerCatByEmeli store on Etsy. Prices start at US$9.98. For other craft ideas, see her blog, La Vie En Emeli, here.

You’ll never be tied to your PC again if four Canadian inventors have their way. In fact, they hope you’ll rove long and far in search of geocaches with their new bluetooth-powered gadget.

The team at Sparkyard Inc say the ROVE was created for smartphone-owning “geocachers and trail creators to instantly share trail maps across social networks and put multiple geocaches right on a GPS” whilst out in the field.

The US$149 unit displays distance, speed, elevation and time “using ROVE’s unique map dashboard” and allows geocachers to add up to 25 Geocaching.com hides within a 50km radius to their GPS – “all with only one click”. Map data can also be transferred to Facebook and Twitter.

Until recently, these options were limited to smartphone cachers or the owners of top-end GPS units featuring internet capabilities. Now, using a smartphone and the ROVE, cheaper GPS models can provide the same service.

Sparkyard’s members, who all hail from Canada’s Nova Scotia province, hope ROVE will help promote greater use of handheld GPS receivers, especially among the fast-growing smartphone market.

“ROVE pulls multiple geocaches from Geocaching.com right to a GPS. Geocachers who use phone apps to find GC.com caches have had the ability to get multiple caches wherever there is WiFi or cellular service. Now geocachers who use a handheld GPS have this ability with ROVE. ROVE makes it easier for geocachers who prefer to find caches with their GPS.

“Three reasons we prefer to use a GPS for geocaching:

1. Accuracy – GPS receivers tend to have more accurate location technology, giving you a geocaching advantage.
2. Battery life – Generally, GPS receivers have a longer battery life than smartphones so you can have a GPS on for the entire time you are trekking. ROVE only needs to be on for 20 to 30 seconds to transfer multiple geocaches to your GPS or to send your trail maps to gorove.com.
3. Ruggedness – GPS receivers are built for the outdoors just like ROVE. You can keep your smartphone safely in your backpack while your GPS and ROVE can be kept out for easy access.”

It’s been nearly two years since Sparkyard began developing the initial hardware and firmware for ROVE. So far, it has completed one “small” production run and the company is about to place its second order. “How many orders we get will determine whether we have another small run or a larger production run.”

The device was the brainchild of the team’s sole geocaching enthusiast and its case was inspired by the range of micro cache containers.

Spokesman Jonathan Layes (GC handle: Lost My Marbles) told It’s Not About The Numbers: “I love geocaching and sharing trail maps with friends but was frustrated with the process of having to spend so much time on the computer to upload trail maps and get geocaches on my GPS. I wanted to be able to spend more time with my kids finding caches and less time on the computer. I designed ROVE so that it is easy enough for a five-year-old to use.” He believes their creation will most appeal to geocachers who like to use a GPS but want a quick way to upload multiple geocaches on to it. “We foresee that FTF geocachers could have an advantage. They would get a notification of a new cache in their area from Geocaching.com, plug in ROVE to instantly load that geocache on their GPS, then quickly find the new cache.”

Already, testing has proven the device is fully compatible with four models – Garmin’s eTrex, GPS and GPSMAP as well as Magellan’s eXplorist units featuring a mini-USB connector. They have publicly vowed to work with customers who own a mini-USB enabled Garmin until the ROVE functions correctly or they will give them their money back. “Our future plans are to test other brands like DeLorme and other units within Garmin and Magellan.”

Jonathan Layes

Layes says ROVE has performed extremely well in field trials. “We have done rigorous testing to make sure that the battery life is behaving as intended and that data transfer is compressed to make transfer as quick as possible.”

Much of this testing was undertaken by friends and family members who geocache, though Sparkyard eventually hopes to sends ROVE “out to players around the world for review”.

“Although I’m the only geocacher in the bunch, there will be some geocaching converts shortly . Even though we may not all be geocachers, we are all outdoor enthusiasts,” Layes adds.

Janet Wilson

Team-mate Janet Wilson chimes in: “Although I’m still a muggle, I will be out geocaching with ROVE soon. It’s important for us to get feedback from inexperienced geocachers like myself as well as experienced geocachers. I’m an avid hiker and will be using ROVE to create trail maps of Nova Scotia and share them with everyone. In our area there are tons of trails that aren’t listed on the tourism sites. Tourists aren’t likely to ever get to see some of my favourite trails. Hopefully, ROVE will change this.”

Aside from its geocaching applications, the device gives GPS users an easy way to save and share GPS trail maps. Map data is stored on the groove.com servers and can be easily accessed through a web browser. In time, the company plans to add the ability to to export GPX data.

Last month, the Canadian foursome began raising funds for their venture on crowd-sourcing website Indiegogo, however they have since discontinued this appeal and plan to sell the device directly from their webstore. “We had hoped that Indiegogo would help us reach a broader audience but it hasn’t worked out that way. Regardless, we definitely appreciate our early Indiegogo contributors and we will be looking after them.

“It will just mean that we will have to continue with smaller production runs. We had wanted to keep our manufacturing in Canada but it may mean that we will have to reconsider where we have it manufactured so we can offer a different version at a lower price point.”

Right now, the group is preparing for its first shipment of ROVEs to go out next month. “There are only 200 available for the June shipment. If we get more demand, we will have more to send out in August.”

*To pre-order your own ROVE for US$149, visit Sparkyard Inc’s webstore.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Labelled as possible international terrorists, the three Dresden residents found themselves being pursued by police and military officials in their homeland and the Netherlands last Thursday after a visit to the tiny Dutch hamlet of Schietecoven.

On duty: Law enforcers patrol the tiny hamlet during the geo-bomb scare. Photos: JEROEN RAMAKERS/L1NWS

Thanks to a tipoff by an eagle-eyed local, law enforcers were quickly able to identify a suspicious vehicle and its German licence plate.

Their suspects’ crime? Allegedly attempting to plant a bomb near Maastricht-Aachen Airport, south-west of Ulestraten in the Limburg province. In reality, the geo-trio were simply trying to boost their find rates by nabbing 14 caches in the area as part of a week-long road trip across Europe.

Their problems began around 4pm upon reaching GC46B1P Breefke oet Schietecoven, a traditional placed on February 20th by naish1967. Upon returning the small cache back behind a Post NL mailbox, the group were spotted by a neighbour concerned over the recent number of suspicious cars stopping on the street outside. He or she immediately contacted police.

Red flag: The Post NL mailbox at the centre of the drama.

Less than an hour later, 15 residents living within 100 metres of GZ had been evacuated from their homes and all four access roads to Schietecoven were closed while an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit investigated. It was 7pm before the situation was resolved, according to L1NWS.

In explanation, the German threesome wrote on GC.com: “Our visit to this geocache caused a several-hour police operation with large-scale road blocks. Federal police in Germany and the Netherlands were searching for our vehicle.

“After several calls with Dutch and German authorities, we were able to explain that the cache we had deposited behind the mailbox was not a b**b. We explained that it was a game of geocaching and GPS, and that in the tube was only a logbook.

Halt, who goes there? Vehicles in the area were searched for bomb equipment.

“Police removed the cache and asked us for help to contact the owner to archive this cache immediately. This place is not suitable for a geocache (anymore).”

According to an EOD spokesman, this was the department’s first geo-bomb scare in Limburg.

GC46B1P Breefke oet Schietecoven and another naish1967 cache, GC46BIZ  Vliegtuigspotter, have since been archived but that hasn’t stopped Bruno-X, Spatzlmatz or Suzidriver – they continued with their road trip the very next day.

*The incident was also caught on video by L1NWS:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

John Merry is a real trail-blazer.

Not only has the British geocacher (GC handle: djjohnmerry) created the first foreign intercache (GC44E92), he has single-handedly introduced this new geo-craze to the United Kingdom.

John Merry

“What I like about intercaching is that it is more than just finding the cache; it could be telling a story or being a tour guide on route to GZ. Also it seems a bit geeky as I am an IT person.”

It all started with a scan of the geocaching forums for “new/geeky ideas”, the Essex resident says. “I came across a post entitled ‘Is the Intercache the successor of the Wherigo?’ And I was thinking ‘great’ as I had just created two of my own Wherigos, which I enjoyed it very much; nevertheless, it was very time consuming and a massive learning curve. Perhaps there was a better and easier way to get the same effect?”

After reading as much as he could on the subject, Merry set about creating his own example on his cellphone. Despite having some co-ordinates in mind, he knew his intercache site would need good mobile network coverage.

“This was my first challenge, so I chose a location close to home as well, as I knew there would be LOTS of testing involved – like there was with my Wherigos. I found what I believe to be a great little walk with a great location for a cache and I was in luck – there was full data coverage along my whole route.”

Later Merry fired up his home PC to combine all the facets of his intercache. “At this point, I even contacted [intercache creator] Tim Thomas, who kindly answered all my questions.”

One of those queries was whether Thomas knew of any other intercaches in the UK. His negative response and further research by Merry has since led the Brit to claim a national geocaching first.

“I believe there is another ‘early-style’ intercache here listed on Geocaching.com that uses location services [GC43RAR King Arthur’s Return] but not an actual intercache so this spurred me on.”

Start to finish, the creation process took Merry “three to four hours max”; however, he believes his prior knowledge of html code gave him an advantage when adding photos and location descriptions. In comparison, “learning to create a decent, working Wherigo” required three to four weeks of effort.

“The stage creation and question sections were easy to add and worked very well. The more creativity you have the more fun it will be. Also, adding the radius required to be within a certain distance of each stage is vital as you could do the whole thing from an armchair otherwise. However, a spinoff of that is you can walk through your intercache without going out all the time for testing if you temporary disable the radius settings.”

Since GC44E92: UK’s First InterCache was published in early April, it has been logged five times and earnt four favourite points. Only one seeker has failed to reach the final location but Merry has provided extra clues to assist their second attempt.

“So far so good,” he says. “And each log has been more than just TFTC. This is a bonus.”

His version requires geocachers to follow a particular route in his home county of Essex, located north-east of London using clues given on the Intercaching smartphone app.  “It’s not a massively long cache but I believe it’s a very nice route and it offers a nice change to a traditional hide.

“I stop by areas letting people know of things on the route such as a duck pond and a totem pole that are worth visiting.  Once at the final, it’s the same as a traditional cache, you sign the log and then the intercache software helps you get back to the start if you wish.”

In a bid to stop cheaters, Merry has even recorded a secret word in his intercache which he asks finders to sneak into their online logs. “This way I know they tried it as opposed to just being given the co-ords.”

Yet he’s confident that intercaching will soon catch on in Britain. “There is 100 per cent room for this style of cache but, as you need to have a good mobile signal, it may be more suited to urban areas. The other downside is that intercaches are listed  on GC.com as a puzzle cache. Speaking with different cachers on Facebook groups, I know a lot of people are put off by mystery and multi caches, which is a real shame. I think if it was listed as a traditional, it would get a lot more visits.”

In future, Merry hopes to create a second intercache but says first he must find another great location. “… then excellent mobile internet, and finally some time to take pictures, think of questions and fill in the description. Watch this space …”

*Have you attempted GC44E92: UK’s First InterCache? Tell us about it in the comments section below …

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Where Tim Thomas is going, he hopes other geocachers will soon follow.

The American (GC handle: ChileHead) is the mastermind behind a new, hi-tech software application that allows players to create an interactive geocache similar to a Wherigo.

Tim Thomas

The biggest difference, Thomas says, is that his intercaches “can be developed, edited and played on a mobile phone browser with no software required to download”.

Using his free Intercaching website via an Android, iPhone or Windows device, cache owners first walk their chosen geocache course to automatically gather a series of waypoints. Later, once their intercache has been published on Geocaching.com, finders follow the same trail from their own mobiles, scouting answers to the predetermined questions that will help them advance to GZ.

Although the resulting hides are listed as puzzles, Thomas says they are actually “part virtual cache, part multicache, part puzzle cache, and part Wherigo”. “I’ve always been disappointed with the Wherigo builder and players. It has a lot of power but was difficult for the average person to develop a cartridge. The hardware players were limited as well; I couldn’t use Wherigo on any of my GPSrs, and the Android player didn’t always work well.

“You also couldn’t play a cartridge spur of the moment, as you had to download it to your GPSr before you left home. I wanted something that the average person could use to put together an interactive game without any programming.”

It’s been 18 months since the software architect from Rochester, New York unveiled his creation. He published the first intercache (GC34DQ3 Intercache: Frolic in Fairport) last July and released an updated rollout of his free software back in December.

Live action: A screenshot from Britain’s first intercache.

While takeup of this new technology has been slow, he’s satisfied with the geo-community’s overall reaction to his efforts. “People seem to like it.  I haven’t fully rolled it out as I want to add in new capabilities.”

Unsurprisingly, Thomas seems driven by this idea of offering fellow geocachers extra enjoyment from their hobby. Though he admits it was the thought of showing up Garmin’s wireless chirp beacon that made him persevere with Intercaching.com.

“When Garmin launched its chirp, I thought it was an interesting idea – but fundamentally flawed. Here you have a US$20 (or so) item that you need to leave out in the wild, making it susceptible to theft, battery issues and the elements. For most people, making a 10-part chirp cache would be financially impossible.

“Yet with an intercache, you can basically do the same thing. Create a location in the real world, and leave a message that is only revealed to someone who is actually at that location. You can specify any radius you want before you allow the player to move on, which makes it more flexible than a chirp. I can make a location in the middle of a lake – try that with a chirp.  

“I have no great love for Garmin since they launched their listing site and stole/misused the OpenCaching name, so I have no problems if an intercache replaces a series of costly chirps.  But the Garmin thing is another story …”

Functionality is also where Thomas’ intercaches and Wherigo cartridges part ways. “A Wherigo has a more complete language associated with it but most Wherigos that I’ve seen could be made into an intercache,” he adds.

But, unlike its rival software, Intercaching.com doesn’t require a computer science degree to use. “It’s easy if you have a smartphone,” Thomas says of creating a new intercache. “Start the app, go to a location, click a button, repeat.  Back at your desk you can fill in the details for the location, question/answer and linking locations together. You could do this all in the field too, but I’d rather type longer paragraphs on my laptop.”

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Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Owners can even add photos and video to their listings. “Each location has a description associated with it, which can be as simple or complex as you want.   It’s in HTML, so there is a bit of knowledge there to make something ‘pretty’.”

To-date, seven intercaches have been published by six players. On April 2nd of this year, Britain became the first country outside of the United States to sport its own title (GC44E92: UK’s First Intercache).

As Thomas has played only one intercache that wasn’t his own (GC42QGC Intercache: Explore Buffalo’s Rich Industrial Past), he can’t rate the other examples. “I can’t really see the details of the other intercaches unless I play them. Well I can, since I have access to the database, but I haven’t.”

Tee time: The logo for Georgia intercache Eagles Nest by Asgoroth.

However, all but one of the intercaches available has multiple favourite points.

Despite having previously developed a mobile Waymarking application, Intercaching.com is his first piece of geocaching software.  “I had originally written it using the Google App Engine platform, which I liked because it is ‘infinitely scalable’.  The first intercache I have still runs on this platform, but I have completely rewritten it so that it’s more portable for use in other applications (I have one client who had a rebranded version of this in their own product.)”

Yet Thomas can’t count exactly how many hours of work were required. “It took me a while to complete it, not because of hours and time spent, but because of procrastination.”

Among his tasks during its creation was liasing with Groundspeak lackeys for official approval. “Yes, I’ve talked to [company founder] Bryan Roth and [program development manager] Jenn Seva about it to make sure there were no issues with getting caches published,” he confirms.

Thomas is pretty pleased with the end result, though as an “ongoing project” he has plenty of additions planned. “One change I haven’t released allows for time-restricted locations, so you can build a new sort of night cache.  I also have incomplete changes to add objects and inventory to an intercache, so you can restrict locations unless the player has a certain object.”

Later on, he even hopes to introduce multiplayer varients. “So, for example, you can only more forward if there is another player currently at the same location in the ‘game’.”

And after that, Thomas has already got another geo-idea waiting up his sleeve – most likely something that will have us following his every move again.

*Have you played/found an intercache yet? Tell us about it in the comments section below …
**Stay tuned for our follow-up interview with djjohnmerry, the creator of Britain’s first intercache.

That’s right, it’s the official documentation for an early GPSr device by American company Cobra Electronics. Patent USD469367 was submitted to the United States Patent Office in June 2002 and granted the following January.

By that time, Cobra’s three handheld units had already wowed crowds at the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show, requiring organisers to create a new event category for them. This GPS 1000, its top-of-the-line device priced at US$209.95, featured “500 waypoints, 50 routes, ‘points of interest’, a PC interface and a street-level detailed map for the road-tripper”.

Until recently, such historic paperwork would have continued to gather dust at the bottom of a filing cabinet but now dozens of webstores are offering patent imagery as works of art.  

And thanks to It’s Not About The Numbers, you can even buy posters of geocaching-related inventions from Etsy’s PatentPrints. Store owner Cole has just introduced two new designs honouring Cobra’s GPSr and the first-ever satellite structure.

The latter was submitted by American inventor Robert C Baumann back in August 1957. Patent No US002835548 was granted the following year but Russia had already won the initial space race, launching two of its Sputnik satellites in the same period.

PatentPrints offers unframed reproductions of both iconic apparatus on 90lb cardstock (either white or a parchment paper colour) for US$7 (NZ$8.42), regardless of whether you buy the 8×10, 11×4 or 11×7-inch version. Larger prints can be custom-ordered, with the 18×24-inch costing US$12.99 (NZ$15.63).

Best of all, if you follow PatentPrints’ Facebook page, you can earn a free print with every order.

*Want to search for your own GPSr’s patent? Visit Google Patents or a rival service such as FreePatentsOnline. If you find anything interesting, let us know in the comments section below.

Morgan C Talbot, author of new Caching Out series novel Death Will Attend, puts her hobby under the magnifying glass.

“I like challenges. Things I think I can master, endure, and/or solve, if I work hard enough. I pushed myself into earning a black belt, despite numerous broken bones and dislocated joints, and even a few stitches. Geocaching, while less violent, has the same appeal to me: it involves a set of skills that have real-world applications as well as making me feel awesome while I’m doing it.

Morgan C Talbot

I’m absolutely rubbish at driving to new places. I get lost about 75 per cent of the time. No, really. I miss a street sign or a freeway turnoff because I’m daydreaming about something and not paying attention, and the next thing I know, I’m in the next county.

“Geocaching has given me more confidence in exploring new areas. It’s even taught me better map skills, things like remembering landmarks and street names for reference when I inevitably lose my way. Some of that small-lost-child-in-the-store feeling has never really left my psyche but with the navigation skills geocaching has taught me, I don’t panic. Now I waymark things and keep going.

I thought I had a good gift for detail, until I took up this hobby. Then I realised what true detecting skill is: seeing what’s right in front of you and realising its significance. Our lives are crazy busy. We have media and advertisements in our faces all day. We eat on the run. We never have time to catch up with old friends, or enough time to finish everything we’re working on. But when we stop, just for a moment, to appreciate something that’s staring us in the face, to focus entirely on one thing for just a short while, it stands out in our memory.

I have so many good memories of finding cleverly hidden geocaches (like the now-archived GCTWZT Four Gin Splash in Seattle, Washington) because I stopped everything, went outside, and poked around with all the mental focus I could muster. Seeing what’s in front of me, and recognising its significance. An excellent camo job, my adorable kids, that tasty pizza I enjoy with friends. I choose to remember them. Focus is good. Geocaching taught me that.

The old adage about an ounce of preparation is also true for geocaching. Few things are worse than forgetting that pint of water you needed to float the cache to the top of its tube, or forgetting to double check your puzzle before uploading it to the geocaching site, resulting in a deluge of confused requests for hints. Anyone can participate in geocaching, it’s true. But the journey is smoother when we go prepared.

The best hobbies and activities are ones that carry over into the rest of our lives and better us. Geocaching betters me, and that’s why I love it.”

*You can buy your own copy of Morgan C Talbot’s new Caching Out title, Death Will Attend, at Amazon for US$11.99, Kindle for US$4.99, Kobo for US$6.04 and Barnes & Noble for $4.99 (Nook version). Her first installment, First To Find, is also available from the same outlets.

**Follow the remainder of her Double Caching Out blog tour here, and be sure to enter Red Adept Publishing’s competition here. It’s Not About The Numbers will have its own giveaway from tomorrow.

Caught up in the moment: Mandy Page finds yet another way to get stuck while paddling down the Waikato River.

Travel agent Mandy Page (GC handle: PageNZ) – best known for her international geocaching expeditions – drops us a line after paddling New Zealand’s Waikato River.

“Nineteen caches all of level five terrain and a difficulty rating of 2.5? Bring it on!

The calm before the storm: Enjoying a moment of serenity.

By 9am Saturday morning, our kayaks were on the water for the Forgotten Highway series (GC43MH9 to GC43NYY) in the North Island of New Zealand. 

Seven of us – Team Welsh (my sister Tracey), Zorgon (Mr & Mrs), Boges (Senior and daughter) with cache owner Cats&Dragons and myself – took on the challenge of kayaking from Cambridge to Hamilton to nab these 19 caches.

With jade water, emerald banks and blue sky, peace just descended like a comfortable blanket. The Waikato River was running at five knots which meant even during rest periods the current carried us swiftly toward Hamilton.

This forward movement was grand until we overshot caches and had to paddle back to make a landing – a wee bit too much talking but with more than 20,000 caches between us all, there was a lot to discuss.

The boss: Cats&Dragons

Expedition guide Steve (GC handle: Cats&Dragons) led from the rear ensuring all health and safety procedures were in place – although once he got the measure of my awkwardness on the water, he was a little preoccupied by my comic antics.

Chief navigator Zorgon did a superb job of getting us from cache to cache. (“How far to the next one? Two kilometres? You’re not joking?… Oh well, paddle on chaps.”) His wife was the auxiliary power in their double kayak.

Boges, our search and research expert, took a laidback approach, despite knowing the reputation of Aucklanders in extreme terrain and having had the pleasure of getting some of us off mountain sides. (See the logs for GCZ3AX A Night of Terror in the Hakarimatas from November 2011).

One down, 18 to go: Signing one of the Forgotten Highway series logbooks.

Team Welsh was first mate, while I provided the comic relief.

Who knew there was so many embarrassing ways to get out of and back into a kayak? Vanish in the mud to your knees; crawl down the kayak spine; trap yourself (and your vessel) in hidden weed/rock/branches/sand; and my all-time favourite, balance on the edge of the kayak until the craft rejects you with a vicious sideways rock.

Cat&Dragons had carefully hidden their bomb-proof Forgotten Highway caches above small beaches or landing areas beyond the river’s highest known level. All 19 were consistently well placed and even a vertically challenged person like myself could reach them easily.

My favourite hide was probably the last one, as it was the hardest to retrieve - having to be collected from under the noses of some teenage muggles. Upon landing, Zorgon engaged this group of boys by taking their photos as they jumped from the bank into the river. Whilst he kept them busy, I landed and moved left toward the cache; Team Welsh stayed on the rock ledge with Cats&Dragons to direct me to its hiding spot.

Team effort: Five of the seven intrepid explorers.

Suddenly, the teenagers decided they would like to hitch a ride down the river on our kayaks. Zorgon came into his own as he further tried to distract them with action photos.

I then needed to answer the call of nature at GZ - what can I say? The usual covers of environmental inspector, or geology professor weren’t going to be in these lads’ vocabulary. On to the cunning disguised cache; I honestly thought it was rubbish.

So, our rating for this series? 10/10. A great adventure down the river, beautiful New Zealand scenery, interesting history and all those smileys – although I understand it’s not about the numbers.”

*If you’re interested in joining Tours Direct’s second geo-expedition to Singapore and Cambodia from July 20-29, visit the Auckland-based company’s website. The nine-day trip – being led by Page’s sister, Tracey Welsh (GC handle: Team Welsh) – costs NZ$3980 per person and includes visits to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, a boat ride on Tonle Sap Lake, geocaching events in three countries (Auckland, New Zealand, Singapore and Cambodia) as well as the opportunity to cache in Malaysia.