Hogwarts – Ron’s Search (Auckland) GC164QZ
S 36° 52.706 E 174° 54.792
GeoCaching.com: Hogwarts – Ron’s Search (Auckland) GC164QZ
Directions to: GC164QZ
This cache proved to be our greatest challenge testing not only our newly acquired caching skills but also our sanity 
It took us near on a month of on and off attempts to complete this one but we got there in the end 
Starting point: S 36° 52.706 E 174° 54.792
Click Image below for a full 360 Interactive Tour of the Cache site…
The Cache Description:
from Ron’s Search (Auckland) GC164QZ
Co-ordinates are the right place to start.
Can you help Hagrid, find Ron Weasley?
Ron has lost something and he raced into the woods to find it, and hasn’t come back.
Fearing the spiders may have got him Harry & Hermione left Hagred a note and went into the woods to find him.
Catch up with Hagred if you can, its your only hope. You might learn something on the way so take a pen & paper, there could be a test later.
He’s got a head start but you can hear him in the distance complaining about being dragged out of bed so early, and that the sun is in his eyes. He is counting out loud as he goes, in time to his steps. “338, 339, 340, Ouch…who threw that !!!”
Additional Hints:
from Ron’s Search (Auckland) GC164QZ
We set off from S 36° 52.706 E 174° 54.792…
In Search of Hagrid
Based on the hints
Hidden Spoiler Login or Register to peek
After another 2 unsuccessful attempts we admitted defeat and came home to post the following log entry:
1 December 07 our Cache log entry:
ARGHHHH
Ok… so we have now spent far too many hours on this one… Saturday had us beat but was getting dark so came back Sunday for another look… Kathy armed with coffee thought we were in with a good chance
Maybe it would help to know what we are looking for but them again maybe we are in the wrong place?
Hidden Spoiler Login or Register to peek
Ended up searching every pipe and outlet in site
Glad we didn’t have to come as far as Hamilton to keep trying this one… but we will be back I’m sure
Thanks for the challenge!
Andy & Kathy,
Butterflylady got in touch, confirmed our thinking and reminded us of the pipes… so when we returned on 3rd December 2007 we located the pipe, went back one (10 meters) and tada!
Cache 1 Hagrid
3rd December 2007 3.10pm
Hidden Spoiler Login or Register to peek
Click Image below for a full 360 Interactive Tour of the Cache site…
With the clues we had obtained from Hagred to help us track down Hermione and Harry we set off to locate Hermione first…
In Search of Hermione
With the clue from Hagred
Hidden Spoiler Login or Register to peek
We checked, double checked and headed off… in the wrong direction! Seems when working in ° we were all back to front so a quick opposite of the calculation and we were soon on our way again and it didn’t take long to track down the “lonely one”
Cache 2 Hermione
3rd December 2007 4.10pm
Hidden Spoiler Login or Register to peek
Click Image below for a full 360 Interactive Tour of the Cache site…
with Hermione under our belts we headed off to find Harry….
In Search of Harry
We sat down with our clue from Hagred that would help us to track down Harry, alas this got the better of us… for quite some time. We left that day to return on another 2 occasions… still nothing!
Hidden Spoiler Login or Register to peek
We returned a few days later and decided to not think just read so we head off assuming steps were the same measurement as Hagred… and in doing so quickly located Harry!
Cache 3 Harry
7th December 2007 4.25pm
Hidden Spoiler Login or Register to peek
Click Image below for a full 360 Interactive Tour of the Cache site…
Hagrid, Hermione and finally Harry down, just Ron to go….
In Search of Ron
Armed with our co-ordinates from Hermione and Harry…
Hidden Spoiler Login or Register to peek
we set off in search of Ron…
We searched top, bottom and in between but after 6 more trips in we admitted defeat and with our tails between our legs we headed off on holiday for a week… during this time “Ron” was a part of many a conversation! Did we mention that we find geocaching quite “addictive”
On our return, we settled back into work and preparing for a relaxing Christmas… Ron was never far from our thoughts though so we contact SecretSquirrel to get make sure our co-ordinates (and maths) were correct, clear up the plate issue and to see if we were on the right track…
Hidden Spoiler Login or Register to peek
Feeling a little better about our mission, and with confirmation our co-ordinates were in fact correct, we headed back to search for Ron at the first available opportunity, thankfully to be greeted by success!
Cache 4 Ron
27 December 2007 6.40pm
What a relief! I could have sworn we, in particular “I” had looked in the exact same spot before… but alas Ron had evaded us… but not now!
Hidden Spoiler Login or Register to peek
Click Image below for a full 360 Interactive Tour of the Cache site…
We had a fair bit of work, and required brain function ahead of us, but we marched on…
In Search of the “Final” Cache…
Time was not on our side on 27th so after a super quick look around we headed home to get our bearings, re-think, and work out, the ° given. We printed off a Map of the cache area, took a quick trip to the shop to purchase a protractor then settled down to nut out the final co-ordinates with given clues and thats when it all started to fall into place…
Armed with the GPS and our Map we returned to Hogwarts on 28th December 2007. Thankfully we knew exactly where to go this time and ironically enough we had walked past this exact spot on numerous other occasions saying it would be a perfect location for a Hogwarts themed cache… particularly this one when you consider the clues… and luckily it was a quick find as we were dead on the mark.
Cache 5
28 December 2007 6.45pm
Hidden Spoiler Login or Register to peek
Click Image below for a full 360 Interactive Tour of the Cache site…
Hidden Spoiler Login or Register to peek
28 December 07 our Cache log entry:
OMG! what a cache… I think we have spent more time and brain function on completing this one cache than all the previous put together!
It took the combined efforts of both myself and Kathy to get there.. with some much needed encouragement from butterfly lady and confirmation we were on track from SecretSquirrel2 (Thanks
Kathy found the first clue (Hagrid), I found the second (Hermione), Kathy again (Harry) and a joint effort to locate the final cache!
Located the first clue on the 3rd December 07 and we were determined to find the last before a new year
This was certainly no ordinary cache… thanks to SecretSquirrel2 for creating such a detailed and entertaining experience, the combination of story telling (and such close correlation to the books) with challenging puzzles made the many hours spent well worth it (I think :p )TFTC
- TB1MTBK DNF Troll Geocoin
- Pooh bear stickers
+ jar of magic gold dust
+ Little green police car (arrived after the reported disturbance of car crash!)Kathy & Andy
all done… what on earth will we do with all our time now
