Hotel Hemideina (Taranaki) Traditional Cache

The cache is located on the western end of the Carrington walkway, which has access points at the end of Brecon Road down the side of the Maryann rest home, and the town boundary end of Regan Street next to No.1.

There is no need to undo anything, just swivel the top cover 180 degrees so that you can access the top chamber.

Less intrepid people may want to bring a pair of gloves or do it at night when there is less chance of the guests being in residence.

From Wikipedia:

Tree weta (Hemideina) are those most commonly encountered in suburban settings in the North Island. They are up to 40 mm long and most commonly live in holes in trees formed by beetle and moth larvae or where rot has set in after a twig has broken off. The hole, called a gallery, is maintained by the weta and any growth of the bark surrounding the opening is chewed away. They readily occupy a preformed gallery in a piece of wood (a weta motel) and can be kept in a suburban garden as pets. A gallery might house a harem of up to 10 juveniles of both sexes, females and one male. Tree weta are nocturnal. Their diet consists of plants and small insects. The males have much larger jaws than the females, though both sexes will hiss and bite when threatened.

The seven species of tree weta are:

• The Auckland tree weta Hemideina thoracica (also called tokoriro) can be found throughout the North Island apart from the Wellington-Wairarapa region.
• The Wellington tree weta H. crassidens occupies Wellington, the Wairarapa, the northern parts of South Island, and the West Coast
• H. trewicki is found in Hawke's Bay
• H. femorata is found in Marlborough and Canterbury.
• The rare H. ricta species occurs in Banks Peninsula.
• The West Coast bush weta H. broughi largely overlaps with the Wellington tree weta in Nelson and the northern portion of the West Coast.
• H. maori, the mountain stone weta, lives in the drier areas of the South Island high country from the Kaikoura Ranges south to Rock and Pillar Range near Dunedin. At most sites, it lives on the ground, under stones or in crevices, but in at least two island (within lakes) sites which have not been modified greatly, it readily lives both in trees and on the ground.

When the territories of species overlap, as with the related species H. femorata and H. ricta on Banks Peninsula, they may interbreed, although offspring are sterile.