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Heartland Catwalks (Wellington) Mystery Cache

Hidden : 3/21/2009
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
3 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

The posted coordinates are not of the actual cache location, but are at the starting point of the story to get to it.


Tim, our fashion designer, and Elisa, his mentor, are on their way to the airport to travel to the casting road shows for the upcoming Heartland Catwalks series in New Zealand.

As they head down State Highway 1, Tim points across the harbour and says, “Elisa, the airport is just over there. Hurry up or I’ll miss my flight. I certainly don’t want to miss this debut at Heartland Catwalks.”

Elisa takes a quick glance to the left. “So it is. Talking of Catwalks, since when did people start calling catwalks “runways”? … Arh, look, we are just in line with the airport runway too. Don’t worry. We have plenty of time to get there.”

Tim: “OK. I must say I am a bit nervous. There are so many road shows to attend.”

Elisa: “Well, there are only five. But you have to go to all of them – and in the right order too. After that, there is a fashion cache waiting for you.”

Tim: “Remind me again the cities and their order?”

Elisa: “I can’t remember on top of my head. I’m driving now. But you don’t need to worry about the airline information -- all flight itineraries have already been taken care of for you. You’ll find them in the glove box.”

Tim takes out the itinerary sheet and starts reading:

“Flight 1: departing Wellington (WLG) towards the south (to get connecting flight)
Flight 2: arriving Wanaka (WKA) from the east
Flight 3: arriving Dunedin (DUD) from the northeast
Flight 4: arriving Napier (NPE) from the south
Flight 5: arriving Westport (WSZ) from the northeast
Flight 6: arriving Wellington (WLG) from the south”

Tim: “WOW! Real heartland country for these road shows, eh.”

Elisa: “Yeah. … And watch out for a number on each journey. Together these numbers will lead to the fashion cache you seek.”

Tim: “What do you mean? And what sort of numbers?”

Elisa: “That’s what you need to think about between now and when your flight takes off. … Oh, something I nearly forgot. You also need to adjust the numbers you’ll get with a set of secret keys. They are in the other envelope in the glove box.”

Tim: “OK, I think this is the envelope. It’d better tell me the secret.”

The note inside the envelope reads:

“Adjustment keys to flights 1 to 6 are: +0, +0, +4, +2, +9 and +6.

If, after adjusting for each flight, you get a number with more than one digit, then take the final digit only.

The original final coordinates to the fashion cache are:
S 41° 14.(flight 1)(flight 2)(flight 3)
E 174° 48.(flight 4)(flight 5)(flight 6)

Use GeoCheck to see the new final coordinates.

The pathway to the final location is steep in places. The fashionably suited cache is a plastic tube screw-top container, with only a log sheet. Please bring your own pen. You must sign the log sheet to claim the find.

Please re-hide the cache as you found it, as we don't want it to go missing.”

Update 2019-03-25: The access to the original final location has been blocked off by fallen trees. We have relocated the final hide to a new location. While the puzzle solution has not changed, see GeoCheck for the final coordinates.

Update 2019-06-16: We have relocated the final hide to a new location once again. While the puzzle solution has not changed, see GeoCheck for the final coordinates.

Update 2020-07-12: The access to the original final location has been restored. We have relocated the final hide from the temporary location back to the original, which is the same as the puzzle solution. See GeoCheck for additional hints.


GeoCheck snapshot

Here is a snapshot of where cachers have attempted to catwalk. Can you take a better jump to it?


Honour list:

   to Solve  to Find
 First  nzcoozer  Yeetrees
 Second  boxhill  boxhill
 Third  Outward Bound  mtbskier


Additional Hints (Decrypt)

TrbPurpx

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)