'One cache, that's all it took'

Oamaru Geofest 2017 presenter Tom Siegenthaler, aka The Seagnoid, gets ready to trade some of the path tags he created at Oamaru's path tag swap. Photo: Hamish MacLean
Oamaru Geofest 2017 presenter Tom Siegenthaler, aka The Seagnoid, gets ready to trade some of the path tags he created at Oamaru's path tag swap. Photo: Hamish MacLean
More than 200 ''treasure hunters'' were scouring Oamaru and the Waitaki district at the weekend.

The treasure that participants in Oamaru Geofest 2017 were looking for was geocaches, typically small waterproof containers, holding a logbook and, at times, toys, ''trackables'' or ''path tags''.

Oamaru Geofest 2017 presenter Tom Siegenthaler, aka The Seagnoid, said he got hooked on geocaching four years ago.

The Blenheim man was then living in the Manawatu district and was told there was a geocache hidden nearby. ''I like puzzles, so I tried to find it.''

He failed. And then he tried again, and failed again.

He set his sights on another one and this time, he found it.

''One cache, that's all it took, and I was hooked,'' he said. ''It takes me out to places I have never been, shows me places that are awesome.''

Mr Siegenthaler has since found 8000 geocaches around the country and has created 245.

He created a puzzle cache with a submarine theme; once geocachers had cracked his ''Enigma code'', they were led up a river to his hiding spot.

The puzzle he created for other geocachers took eight hours' work over several weeks.

When he lived in the Manawatu, he hid 40 caches with clues based on railway stations, the ''historical series'', which included defunct railway lines.

Mr Siegenthaler was in Oamaru as a guest presenter for the event, which brought together more than 270 geocachers from as far away as Denmark.

He also took part in the path tag swap, where geocachers traded the collectable tags often found in geocaches. Mr Siegenthaler has created a series of path tags based on his avatar The Seagnoid.

Event co-organiser Nellie Vink, of Christchurch, said despite forecast rain, and a hiccup with transporting some geocachers up Waitaki Valley, the weekend was a success.

Some people were keen to find as many geocaches as possible. For others, ''it might be all about the journey''.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz

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