We got to meet fellow cachers from all round Australia and we had overseas visitors from Switzerland, Canada and the United States.
Hello again from the Andrew and Deborah in South Australia.
As well as Jimmy Buffett fans we are avid Geocachers and our team name is SA_Parrothead. We use GPSr equipment to track down treasure boxes that other geocachers have hidden around the world.
We love a good treasure hunt and Geocaching has given us many fantastic adventures and introduced to so many wonderful people along the way. This Easter has seen Australia hold the it’s first ever Mega Geocaching event in the New South Wales town of Wagga Wagga and over 700 fellow cachers met up to attend this event.
This was the log put up by one of the committee members of the event
April 16 by the farmers 5 (1809 found)
There were lots of teams from my home state and we sure were proud and got together for a picture.
After all the good times of the Oz Mega have finished, many thanks must go out to many individuals and groups for their professional input into the 4 day mega event.
Firstly to the major sponsor in “ Riverina Campingworld “ for being involved 18 months ago when we had a venue and Committee and nothing else.
To Wagga Wagga City Council for all their advice and assistance through emails, fax’s and phone calls over 18 months within Tourism, Events Management , Parks and Gardens plus their gift packs and hamper donations and Corbie the Crow approval. Much appreciation goes to Camp Kurrajong and the scouts for their great facility ,well manicured grounds and acreage, many meetings of assistance and advice and much more ,where nothing was too much to complete when requested. Also the Wagga district rovers and scouts who volunteered for marshalling and other duties.
St John Ambulance for their 4 day onsite service with two rotating volunteers at all times within the bunk room set-up.
What a great looking shirt!!
Wagga Base Hospital Auxiliary for their 4 day on site dedication to keep geocachers fed with keenly priced meals 3 times a day and some great smiles to go with it.
To Wilsec Security for keeping the campers secure during the nights .
To all of our proud 28 Sponsors who put all their faith into some exciting and new with many going over and above any expectations. Much appreciation goes to the Eunomy fire brigade who stood besides the fireworks GZ spot with fire engines, watered down dusty areas and supplied the Tin Shed Rattlers with 70 hay bales for stage effects.
Special mentions to “ Partic “ for his online registration assistance and to “Southerncross Fireworks “ in Team Crackers and Fullonphil.Your Firework Spectactular was the highlight of the event and even out performed the Wagga Show.We are all still in awe of your incredible donation to Geocaching.
The two entertainment evenings put on shows to remember and we truly thank the
We certainly put together a nice camp and were easily able to help out the Team with No cheese and No wine.
professionism of Don Hillam and the Tin Shed Rattlers. In tandem with this was Rick and Ben priest for a class act of sound and timing for all entertainment.We also thank whoever blessed us with 4 days of the most ideal weather conditions anyone could of asked for. To all our local and event volunteers ,we thank you for dedication towards something special.Plenty of accolades to the Riverina Media Group for a final day free gift to the teams with highlights of the event in the Daily Advertiser copy per team plus DA Dog approval.
Much personal thanks must go the Hinklenator ,Freeunicorn and my own farmers 5 team of seven kids and Karen ,who all kept the Coke Vans ticking over for 4 days.
A massive thank-you goes out to all the Riverina Geocaching Committee for 18 months, plus ,of hard work, committee meetings , incredible suggestions, new ideas, research, brilliant dynamics, and the highest standard of professionalism that will probably never be equalled .
Each location had a little display with a clue to the co-ordinates of the next location.
But finally we would like to thank the near 700 “Geocaching Family “ that attended Oz Mega Wagga Wagga .The mind boggling distances geocachers travelled from around Australia and overseas by any means possible astounded us . Your behaviour and cleanliness was first class within camp and around Wagga Wagga.It was a pleasure to be hosts for such a great group of friendly easy going people who seemed to enjoy the spectacle that Riverina Geocaching Committee produced.
Further info http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=f2531f81-9a9e-4dd8-985b-60e91f8a75f1&log=y&decrypt=
Local Newspaper article. http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/news/local/news/general/cache-hidenseek-attracts-hundreds/1794131.aspx
PS – in October we are off to Googs Track. A remote 4WD track in outback Australia. We love a good hunt.
Wagga Wagga was a great place to hold the event and the people sure made us feel at home even if we did seem a bit strange to them. Explaining that we use multi-million dollar satellites to find Tupperware in the bush sure got a chuckle from a lot of them and our antics around town certainly left an impression as the local paper did a spread on us.
