Hopefully a few of you have seen our new event, GC7NZGK, A gathering in Brunswick, which will be held on Saturday the 30th of June. Our newest sponsor, Bunnings, is letting us run a traditional Bunnings BBQ at the Bunnings store in Brunswick to help raise funds for the upcoming MEGA event, The Parkville Event 2018. Of course we weren’t allowed to mention much of that on the actual event listing, but we can mention it as much as we like here!

The actual geocaching event will run from 11am to 1pm, but we will be there from about 9am through until 4pm cooking and selling sausages. Of course we would love everybody to come down to the Bunnings store in Brunswick and have a sausage to help support this MEGA event, but we are particularly interested in people who might be willing to donate some of their time to help cook the sausages, or maybe take the orders. If you have prior experience in being involved in larger charity BBQs through things like scouts or rotary or the like, or if you’ve been involved in a Bunnings BBQ before and you have some spare time on Saturday the 30th of June, we would dearly love to get in contact with you. You can either email us at info@geocachingvictoria.com.au, or reply to this post.  More hands make light work, so if you can help out, we’d love to hear from you.

And so another fortnight roles around and it is now less than 200 days until The Parkville Event, 2018.  More precisely, it is now 188 days until the big event and so it is time for another BLOG post to update everyone on all the stuff going on behind the scene in the lead up to this MEGA event and to let you all know what you can expect at this exciting location.

The first thing that we would like to mention is that the sale of the FTF tickets is going wonderfully, with over 80 tickets sold in the FTF raffle so far, and we assume many more to come, this is proving to be a great way to raise funds for our chosen charity, The Ronald McDonald House in Parkville.  So if you are a FTF hound, or you just want to support a really great charity, then you can go in the draw to earn the right to call yourself the FTFer of The Parkville Event, 2018.  All proceeds from the raffle go to Ronald McDonald House in Parkville. You can purchase your tickets in this wonderful raffle by following this link!

In some other exciting news, the “Will Attends” just keep rolling in.  But one “Will Attend” log has stood out to us a little more than some of the others this week.  We are very excited that for the third year in a row a Lackey from Geocaching HQ will be attending the MEGA event here in Victoria.  Nykkole logged a “Will Attend” a few days ago and we very much look forward to having her join us and to show her what a fantastic MEGA event we put on in the great state of Victoria.

Also, don’t forget that there is still one place and one place only where you can get your official The Parkville Event t-shirts.  That’s right, Geostuff, the home of all things to do with location based gaming is the only place that you can get these wonderful t-shirts.  These t-shirts come in men’s, women’s and kid’s sizes and have our little mascot Fern in his favourite zoo keeper outfit.  Custom embroidery options are also available for you to include your personal team name and tracking code on each t-shirt and starting from less than $36 this represents amazing value for money.  You can check out the range by following this link and remember; all orders are pre-orders for either delivery or pick up at the store when stock arrives or for pick up at The Parkville Event, 2018 on the weekend of the event.

Of course Geostuff is one of our major sponsors and we would like to thank them as well as our other major sponsors, Cachly and geocaching.com who through providing the finances has allowed us to continue the wonderful tradition of providing an annual MEGA event that is absolutely free to attend.  No cost attendance for not just our MEGA events, but for every event that we run, is something Geocaching Victoria has strived to do ever since our inception way back in 2014.  We are only ever able to do this through raising funds by the sale of merchandise and of course our generous sponsors.

And while we are on the topic of sponsors, we have yet another exciting new sponsor who has jumped on board.   The Parkville Event 2018 and Geocaching Victoria are pleased to announce our new sponsor, The Clear Waters Geocaching event set for Easter 2019 in Queanbeyan, is our new Sponsor.  The Clear Waters event can be found by following this link, GC7MVHE and is now published and open for Will Attends.  Located just 1 km from the nation’s capital of Canberra, it’s expected to be a caching event not to be missed with thousands of local cache hides, tourism highlights, 4WD regions, and 5 days at the event site starting Thursday 20th April, 2019.  The website will be available in the near future for registrations, camping and powered site bookings, official Geocoin sales and meal details.  As well as details on pathtag sets, the daily itinerary, and all the activities based around the greater Canberra region.  All the Canberra geocaching teams are looking forward to your attendance and welcoming you to Queanbeyan and Canberra.  More updates will be here on the event FB page by following this link.  How very exciting and of course Geocaching Victoria wish the OZ MEGA committee and all the geoaching teams associated with this event the very best of luck with what certainly promises to be a very exciting event next Easter.

But back now to Parkville where our MEGA event is being held at the amazing Urban Camp.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Urban Camp, it is a wonderful place that has a goal of “bringing together the country and the city in a unique camping experience”.  Urban camp is designed for sporting and community groups who want to visit Melbourne and explore Melbourne’s cultural, educational and recreational attractions.  With a large hall area that will be used as the main focus for the event plus a number of conference rooms that will be being used for the many information sessions that we have planned, as well as free parking only 200 meters away and of course easy access to the public transport network and bike paths, Urban Camp has presented an ideal space for this Geocaching MEGA event.  Plus, we are able to offer accommodation for anyone who wants to stay right at GZ and be amongst the excitement from dawn to dusk all weekend for a price that’s comparable to a back-packers hostel, but of course without the funny smells.  Accommodation starts at just $130 for the weekend (that’s just $65 a night) and includes early registration so you don’t have to wait in line on Saturday morning, free pick up from the airport if you are flying in from overseas or interstate as well as a host of other exciting bonuses.  You can book your accommodation by following this link.  Also, if you would like to learn more about the Urban Camp venue, you can follow this link to their website where there is lots of information and photos.

But this MEGA event isn’t going to be just confined to the Urban Camp building anymore either.  It has been confirmed that one of our newest sponsors, the Melbourne City Council have approved Geocaching Victoria to use the entire of Lawn 7 at Royal Park for the weekend of the MEGA event.  As can be seen in the map to the left, shaded in grey, Lawn 7 extends from all around the Urban Camp venue across the expanse of park south of the State Netball and Hockey centre all the way to the tram line and down to Elliot Avenue.  It is a huge gesture for the MCC to allow us to use this space and really opens up the possibilities that we can explore with regards to the Victorian Geocaching Tournament that is making a welcome return, the LAB caches that will be available and of course hosting our traditional Saturday night event that is always VERY exciting.  All this will mean that Urban Camp and the parkland directly surrounding it will be the focus of the MEGA event for the entire weekend, so if you’re looking for a place to stay that is going to be easy to get back to following all the fun of the day, then Urban Camp is the place to be.

Just a quick mention too that the standard geocoin, limited edition geocoin and pathtags are still available at our webstore.  The standard geocoin represents excellent value for money at only $16, the pathtags are available in either a trading set for $15 where you get 5 of the same pathtag and then you can trade with others during the event to obtain a full set, or you can purchase the full set for $25.  The pathtags were designed by Gloria from ozglory.  Also, the Limited Edition shaped geocoin is available in limited numbers too.  You can purchase any (or all) of these by following this link to our webstore.

And now onto our lead up events that are still causing a nice stir all around the world.  There have now been 25 lead up events held with plenty more still planned.  Not only have these events been held all around Victoria but so far also in Western Australia, Tasmania, NSW and the Northern Territory.  We have also had lead up events in New Zealand, USA, UK, Italy, Norway, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, France and Singapore, so we are really trying to show the rest of the world how fantastic our MEGA events are here in Australia.

Since our last BLOG post, there have been 5 new lead up events run.  The first, GC7HKFK, in Berlin Germany on Saturday the 28^th of April was held by our travelling committee member, Earthbound Chief where unfortunately only 4 teams turned up, but it would seem that Earthbound Chief made some nice new German friends who were all very excited about the prizes and giveaways provided by Geocaching Victoria.  The weather was again fantastic, which it has been for most of our lead up events this year and an Australian flag made an appearance.

GC7HKFK – The Berlin Lead Up event.

The next event was a little closer to home, but still quite a distance away in Darwin, Northern Territory.  GC7JHT5 was held by our good friends, corunnaroad on the Nightcliff foreshore on the morning of Saturday the 28^th of April.  Given this was the 87^th event ever held in the Northern Territory and about the 36^th ever held in Darwin, we think the turnout of 4 teams (the same as what we got in Berlin, Germany) is fantastic!

Then, all the way back to Europe in Sweden, our good friend Ingabo (who has already logged a Will Attend for Parkville and has their accommodation and flights booked) hosted an event, GC7JA3M, for us on the morning of the 5^th of May.  As always the weather held off and a number of teams enjoyed a boomerang throwing competition and according to all the logs on the listing, throwing boomerangs is much harder than it was demonstrated in the you tube videos!  Look out for Ingabo at The Parkville Event 2018 MEGA, he has just topped 73,800 finds and has plenty more planned before he arrives in Australia later this year!

GC7JA3M – The Swedish Lead Up Event

Still in Europe, on the same day, in the city of love, Paris, France and our intrepid committee member Earthbound Chief held another small event, GC7HKF2 in what was described as a beautiful Parisian morning.  Only 3 teams turned up, but Earthbound Chief provided valuable lessons to the local geocaching community on getting the Australian accent right so they will all be ready when they make their way to Melbourne for The Parkville Event.

GC7HKF2 – The Paris Lead Up Event

Finally, on Friday the 11^th of May in the busy city of Singapore, Earthbound Chief once again held a lead up event for us, GC7HKGE in the heart of this massive city.  Expectantly our intrepid traveller set up at GZ, but unfortunately the turnout was as dismal as an event once held on the Nullarbor Plain in the middle of the Australia desert back in 2016 with only the event holder actually turning up.  We would of course still like to thank Earthbound Chief for all his effort in not only this event but all the events he has held across the world for us during his travels.

In the coming couple of weeks we still have plenty more lead up events planned.  Much closer to home in the Melbourne suburb of Wyndham Vale we have GC7NDHK which will be held on the morning of Saturday the 19^th of May by our committee member, ahomburg.  Then on Sunday the 20^th of May our friend and massive supporter, ozglory is holding an event, GC7N1EX, in their hometown of Kempsey in NSW. And finally, back overseas again and this time into another new country, our friends Diego and Dora are hosting an event, GC7JW1Q, for us in Newfoundland in Canada on Sunday the 27^th of May.  We look forward to all the logs and pictures from these events too.

And finally we move on to the geocache(s) of the fortnight and this time we are returning to the ever increasing series of geocaches being put out along the bike trails and walking tracks that snake out from the MEGA event location.  So far we have seen traditional caches, multi caches and some challenge caches appearing in this series of geocaches, but on Saturday the 29^th of April we saw the first of the letterbox hybrid caches get published.  4 letter box hybrids that explore different areas of Melbourne but which are all easily accessible from the many bike tracks and walking trails in the area, so no driving required.  One letterbox from sharkiefan, one from day1976 and two from Robmc these all show the various different styles and types that a letterbox hybrid can be and of course go a long way towards providing a varied caching experience for anyone attending the Parkville Event 2018 MEGA in November.  The new letter box caches are…

• GC7FRRC – Parkville Letterbox 1 – 3056
• GC7FWXX – Parkville Letterbox 2 -The Pirates Letterbox
• GC7G5MJ – Parkville Letterbox 4 – Seychelles Letterbox
• GC7FWZN – Parkville Letterbox 5 – Kirkdale Park

This brings the total geocaches within the 12 kilometres of GZ of the MEGA event to 885, which includes 19 earth caches, now 12 letterbox hybrids, 154 multi caches, 554 traditional caches, 10 virtuals and 6 wherigos.  With plenty more new caches still in the pipeline, this number is sure to grow further.

Just before we go though, we would like to remind everyone that Geocaching Victoria has already started looking for people who may want to participate in next years Melbourne Trailwalker Event to raise funds for the Oxfam Charity. This is an event that we have a proud history supporting and we will do so again in 2019. Full details can be found by reading our previous BLOG post one the subject.

Once again Geocaching Victroria and the Parkville Event organizing committee would like to thank everyone who is contributing towards this event.  The amount of effort that is being put in by all sections of the geocaching community, not just in Victoria, but all around Australia and all around the world is amazing.  Thankyou one and all and we hope to see you all in Parkville in November.  Until the next BLOG post, happy caching!

Hello and welcome everyone to this fortnight’s BLOG post for the upcoming The Parkville Event 2018 MEGA event.  There are now 202 days until this massive geocaching event kicks off and as always we have lots of news for you in regards to everything that has been happening behind the scenes in making this event the best that it can possibly be.

The first point of business is to welcome two new committee members to the organizing committee for the Parkville MEGA. 

The first is Steve Cody (scody) who has had a major hand in helping us organize every one of the MEGAs that we have held since the first one back in 2015.  Steve background in organizing large events for the scouts means he brings an enormous amount of talent and energy in organizing all of the back end logistics of these large events and we are very glad that he has decided to join us once again for 2018.  Steve will once again be heading up all the volunteers who generously donate their time for these MEGA events and generally ensuing that the whole event runs as smoothly as possible.  With his big hats, you won’t be able to miss Steve on the day.

The second new committee member is Gemma Siemensa (GemmaSistema) who has been asked to come on board as a committee member with a particular focus towards the traditional Saturday night event.  Gemma has held or has had a hand in organizing many events and CITOs over the years that she has been involved in geocaching and we look forward to working with her on The Parkville Event 2018 and the traditional Saturday night event too.

Steve and Gemma join the rest of the organizing committee, Louise Sullivan (LousieAnn), Bernie Hollaway (BernieH), David Fowler (Earthbound Chief), Karen Ashford (carkisser), Adriaan Homburg (ahomburg) and Day Gowland (day1976) to form the core group that are responsible for the running of this MEGA.

The geocoins and pathtags continue to sell well.  The limited edition coin has been VERY popular, but don’t forget for just $16 you can pick up the very nice standard edition coin.  With the image of our mascot Fern and his mates driving the iconic Melbourne tram on the front and the flip side being the brand new Geocaching Victoria logo this coin represents excellent value for money.  The coin comes in hardened enamel with black nickel sides, each one comes with its own unique tracking code so you can put it out in the wild and experience its adventures, or simply add it to your collection of mementos.  For more information, or to purchase one of these great coins, follow this link.

And don’t forget pathtags.  We’ve had a number of people snapping up the $15 trading set of pathtags lately.  These trading sets mean you get 5 of the same pathtag and then at the MEGA event you can trade with others to make up the full set.  We’ve made it a LOT easier this year to trade as we will be providing badges so other pathtag traders can recognize that you are looking to trade and which pathtags you are trading.  This is of course the whole point of pathtags, to trade them with others.  But of course, if you really want to just skip the whole trading thing, we have an option for that too.  For just $25 you can buy a fully made up, complete set of these pathtags.  To purchase either of these sets, just follow this link.

For the last couple of announcements we have put out the word that we are looking for volunteers to help us with all the back end of this event.  Our volunteers man the admin desks, look after the log book, sell raffle tickets, direct traffic, manage any 1^st aid that might be required, or maybe just take some of the many internationals who are attending out on caching runs.  There is a myriad of jobs that we have for our volunteers and we have been pleasantly surprised with the number of people who have put their hand up to say that they would like to help.  But of course many hands make light work, so if you think you could help out, even for just a few hours on one of the days, it would be greatly appreciated.  As we have said before, we understand that plans sometimes change and we won’t be holding anyone to anything, we really just need a good idea of who might be available to help out.  You can register your interest in volunteering for this event by filling out the registration form by following this link.

In further exciting news we have ANOTHER new sponsor come on board.  The Bunnings store in Brunswick, the nearest Bunnings store to the GZ of the Parkville Event 2018 has come on board as a sponsor and we couldn’t be happier.  Bunnings obviously stocks a lot of different stuff that is used in geocaching, in particularly in the creation of geocaches so we think this is an excellent fit for our event.  They join our many other minor sponsors, pathtags.com, McDonalds, Coca Cola and the Melbourne City Council and they join in with our wonderful MAJOR sponsors, geocaching.com, cachly and geostuff to make everything that we have planned actually happen. This is vitally important because every one of the MEGA events, as well as every normal event that Geocaching Victoria has ever held, is always and will always be completely 100% free to attend.  It is only with the support of these great companies that we are able to do this, so a BIG thank you to all of our sponsors!

And whilst we are on the topic of sponsors, one of our major sponsors, geostuff is still the only place that you can go to get the official t-shirt for The Parkville Event 2018.  Available in men’s women’s and kid’s sizes these great t-shirts have our mascot Fern dressed up in his zoo keeper outfit and will be very popular around the event.  You can check these out alongside a huge range of products relating to all sorts of location based games and also purchase these at geostuff’s on line store, by following this link.  Note: All orders are pre-orders for either delivery or pick up at the store when stock arrives or for pick up at The Parkville Event, 2018 on the weekend of the event.

Wow, the lead up events just keep coming.  On the day of our last BLOG posts (15^th April), there were two Lead Up events.  The first one was in Latrobe, Tasmania (GC7HNQX) which was held for us by the wonderful 2y’stassies.  An amazing 22 teams turned up to this lead up event in a small country town in Tasmania including a few teams from the mainland and plenty of teams coming up from Hobart as well, so an extremely successful event and a big thanks to 2y’stassies!

Also on the same day as our last BLOG post was a lead up event held for us by Ostra74 in Bergen, Norway (GC7KCBF).  Although there are no photos from the event, the weather seems to have been a mild 17 degrees with plenty of sunshine.  According to the 11 attended logs, run through a google translator, there was a boomerang throwing competition as well as a few other competitions too.  Thanks to Ostra74 for holding this event for us.

GC7JVTQ – The Warrnambool Lead Up Event.

The next lead up event was back closer to home in Warrnambool, Victoria on the 21^st of April (GC7JVTQ) where only 6 teams turned up on a lovely Saturday morning in the western district of Victoria.  The weather was great and the company was nice.  A nice chat about everything geocaching ensues as it often does before everyone continued on with their weekend caching.  A big thanks to LouiseAnn for heading down to Warnambool and holding this event for us.

GC7MHYC – The Munich Lead Up Event – Kangaroo Races

The next day on the 22^nd of April, near Munich Germany an Australian themed lead up event (GC7MHYC) was held for us by our good friend Theatralis.  They had kangaroo races (read sack races) where people bounced from one end of the field to another in true kangaroo style.  They had a selection of foods which of course included tim tams and ANZAC biscuits.  The weather again was perfect and it appears that all the participants thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  The BIG news that came out of this one in regards to Australian MEGA events is that the original Steve’s Hat trackable finally resurfaced here in Germany.  Steve’s hat belongs to Steve (Clever Monkey) a local geocacher who has had an enormous amount of involvement in the MEGA events held in Australia.  In 2015 during the lead up to the first Victorian MEGA, Steve accidentally left it behind and Lex (skullracing) nabbed it and turned it into a trackable.  With a goal to go on some grand adventures the hat went across Australia to SA and WA.  It made its way to Vanuatu, Fiji, New Zealand and even Hawaii before being handed to Theatralis before she went back packing around Asia and then back home to Germany. Unfortunately Theatralis is a little behind on her logging, but it is good to see that this iconic trackable is still around and hopefully going to start making its way back to Australia soon. A big thanks to Theatralis for all the effort that she put in to holding this event!

GC7MHYC – The Munich Lead Up Event – A selection of food

And then on ANZAC day on the 25^th of April, in Prague, Czech Republic, our jet-setting Australian geocacher, Earthbound Chief, held another lead up event for us (GC7HKBK).  Except he didn’t.  Circumstances beyond his control meant that he was again unable to attend his own event and unfortunately had to archive his event the day before.  But, how amazing are the Czech people?  One geocacher, StavrosNiarchos took it upon themselves to create a log book and head down to GZ anyway.  Just as well too because 13 other teams turned up and even though again it was in the absence of the official event holder they all appeared to have a wonderful time on location in beautiful weather.  A BIG thanks to local Czech cacher StavrosNiarchos who went above and beyond to help out with this event.  THANKYOU!

GC7HKBK – The Czech Lead Up Event (Prague)

And they just keep coming too.  Yesterday we had two further lead up events, the first in Berlin, Germany and then one in Darwin, Northern Territory.  We will bring you all the information on these two events in our next BLOG post.  Until then we also have 2 events on the 5^th of May, one in Gothenburg, Sweden and then one in Paris, France.  We also have another on the 11^th of May in Singapore too.  You can check out the full list of lead up events by following this link.

Also, just a reminder that there is still beds available at the actual event site.  Not only is Urban camp a wonderful venue to host this MEGA, with a large hall for the registration areas and conference rooms for the information sessions, it also has sleeping for up to 100 people and you can be one of those by purchasing 2 night accommodation at the event location for just $130 (that’s only $65 a night).  The cost is similar to that of a back packer hostels, but without the smells and the unknown weirdos in the bunk next to you.  Plus there is a whole host of bonuses that are only available to those people who are staying with us during the MEGA and you get to be at the MEGA site from the moment you wake and open your door to the moment you finally retire to your bed.  You can purchase your accommodation at the site by following this link.

And now we move on to this BLOG posts geocache(s) of the fortnight.  And this is one for those of you who like to get number of types in a day.  A MEGA event is always a good excuse to see if you can up the number of types of geocaches that you can achieve in a single day.  A MEGA not only enables you to get the elusive MEGA icon (Parkville will be only the 9^th MEGA event ever held in Australia), but it also helps you get the LAB cache icon too as LAB caches are generally only available at MEGA events.  There are usually a few other normal events and CITOs held in conjunction with the MEGA event so these icons are usually easy enough to come across too.  Fortunately, The Parkville Event 2018 is in a very cache dense area where there are still plenty of the old virtuals around as well as a couple of the newer “rewards” virtuals as well so this plus an earthcache at Parkville are quite easy to achieve.  Also, the organizing committee have been hard at work making sure there is a good range of traditionals, multi caches, puzzles, wherigos and letterboxes for people to grab whilst they are in the area. 

So that makes 11 different types of geocaches that are reasonably easy to achieve whilst attending The Parkville Event, 2018.  But from there to get to 12 you need to grab a webcam and the nearest webcam is Rhinogeo’s Spirit of the Skier (GCMJ2J) on the top of Mt Buller, 150 kilometres away.  But what if we told you it’s not?  What if we told you that there have just been 10 new webcams created around Melbourne and that the nearest one to the GZ of the MEGA is less than 3 kilometres away?  Well that would make getting 12 different cache types in a day a LOT easier.  But the fun doesn’t stop there.  You see over on the Geocaching Australia site, where these 10 new webcams are listed, they have even more cache types.  Including History caches, Burke&Wills caches, geocacher caches, trigpoint caches, locationless caches, gadget caches, reverse caches, podcache caches, beacon caches, dedicated night caches and they even still have the moveable cache type aswell So using GCA caches it is possible to achieve more than 20 different cache types in a day!  Therefore, this BLOG post’s geocache(s) of the fortnight are the 10 new webcam caches put out by ahomburg on the GCA site.  You can find the links to them all below and if you’re looking at increasing the number of different cache types you can find in a day over the MEGA weekend, then GCA can make that challenge a lot more interesting.

• GA12173 – Springvale Road, Looking South (Cam29)
• GA12174 – Springvale Road, Looking North (Cam28)
• GA12175 – Princess Highway, Looking West (Cam20)
• GA12176 – Princess Hwy, Looking West (Cam21)
• GA12177 – Queens Road, Looking North (Cam25)
• GA12178 – Beaconsfield Pde, Looking South East (Cam1)
• GA12179 – Flinders Street, Looking East (Cam9)
• GA12180 – Mt Alexander Road, Looking South (Cam17)
• GA12181 – St Georges Road, Looking South (Cam30)
• GA12182 – Princess Street, Looking South (Cam23)

So that wraps up another fortnightly BLOG post.  The excitement for this event is certainly building as it promises to be a MEGA event like no other held in Australia before.  We love the interest that is being shown in this event from all over the world and we look forward to putting on an event that will be talked about not just around Australia but all around the world.  Thank you to all the people who have already volunteered, to the sponsors who are helping make it all happen and to the many people who are already helping out behind the scenes. 

Kind Regards

The Parkville Event 2018 Organizing Committee.

And yet another fortnight rolls around and we find ourselves only 216 days away from the Parkville MEGA Event and so that means it’s time for yet another fortnightly BLOG post.

Firstly we would like to thank all of the people who have already volunteered to help out on the weekend of the Parkville MEGA.  Remember though that many hands make light work so we are looking for as many people as possible to help out.  Volunteering doesn’t mean working the entire weekend though, usually it’s just for a few hours to help out at the registration desk, maybe direct people where to go, help out with traffic control or even just being available for 1^st aid if the need arises.  The volunteers are the backbone of our MEGA events, so if you think you could help out, follow this link to our volunteer registration form and remember, nothing is set in stone at this early hour and we won’t hold you to anything because we all realise that plans sometimes change.  We really are just looking at expressions of interest at this stage.

In our last BLOG post we revealed the back of our standard edition geocoins as being the new Geocaching Victoria logo.  But of course this won’t work with our Limited Edition Geocoin as they are a very different shape, so we needed something extra special for the back of this very special coin.  There will be only 100 of these Limited Edition Geocoins being made and a good percentage of these have already been presold and that is without anyone ever seeing what the reverse side of the coin will look like.  So, without further delay, Geocaching Victoria is very pleased to announce the back of the Limited Edition coin is our little mascot Fern, dressed up in his Tram driver uniform in the park at Parkville with an iconic Melbourne tram and the city skyline in the back ground.  The individual TB number of each coin will appear down the side of one of the high rise buildings in the background.  The entire image is at 90 degrees to the main image on the front and they complement each other beautifully.  Full details can be seen in the image below…

This is a hefty 2 inch coin, so larger than the normal 1.75 inch coin and made of hardened enamel with raised black nickel edges.  There is a load of detail in this coin and is still available for purchase for $40 from our webstore by following this link, but hurry because as we said, there are only 100 of these being produced and once they are sold out, that’s it.

Speaking of the back of things, the next very cool thing that Geocaching Victoria is very pleased to announce is our new pathtag backs.  These backs will appear on the back of all of our pathtags for the Parkville Event and you can make them the back of your pathtags in time for the Parkville MEGA by selecting them (Geocaching Victoria) as your back when producing your pathtags.  We are very pleased to once again have pathtags.com as a sponsor for the Parkville MEGA and you can show your support for pathtags and for Geocaching Victoria by proudly displaying our back on your next order of pathtags.

And speaking of pathtags, don’t forget that our series of 5 pathtags are still available to purchase from our webstore.  You can purchase a trading set of pathtags where you get 5 of the same pathtag for only $15 and you can trade with others at the event to make up the complete set, or you can purchase a full and complete set for just $25.  You can follow this link for more details.

So since our last BLOG post, there have been two further Lead Up events held around the world. The first was last Saturday on the 7^th of April in Perth, Western Australia (GC7JPK6) when more than a dozen caching teams turned up to an event held for us by the wonderful Kyzabra.  All reports in say that everyone enjoyed themselves and there were some nice prize giveaways. 

GC7JPK6 – The Perth Lead Up Event

The other Lead Up event however didn’t quite go to plan.  You see our intrepid travelling friends at Earthbound Chief, who were holding the proposed event in Boston, USA (GC7HKAN) for us, caught a flight that they thought would take them to San Fransisco, USA.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) for them, the airplane had other ideas and took them to Honolulu, USA.  Hawaii is definitely a nice spot to go, but not really good for making it to an event in Boston the next day.  Anyway, it appears that at least a couple of teams turned up at the location despite the lack of presence of any actual host, so we are awarding the relevant points to them.

Today we also have two further lead up events happening.  The first is in the lovely town of Latrobe in Tasmania where the lovely caching team of 2y’tassies is hosting an event (GC7HNQX ) for us and the second is in Bergan, Norway where Ostara74 is hosting an event (GC7KCBF) for us.  Both events look to be a lot of fun.  Over the next fortnight we will have lead up events happening on the 25^th of April in Prague, Czech Republic (GC7HKBK ) and then on the 28^th of April in Berlin, Germany (GC7HKFK).  Both events will be hosted by the wonderful Earthbound Chief, if they catch the correct plane this time.

Next we would like to welcome our newest sponsor who is none other than the Melbourne City Council themselves.  The MCC have come on board in supporting us towards making this the best Geocaching MEGA event that it can possibly be.  They join a growing list of sponsors who are throwing their weight behind this event and we welcome their support.

We’d of course like to take this time to acknowledge all of our major sponsors, Geostuff, cachly and geocaching.com and thank them for their wonderful support for this event.

And whilst on the topic of Geostuff, they are still the only place that you can get the official The Parkville Event 2018 t-shirts.  As well as a massive range of other geocaching related products (as well as products from many of the various other location based games too) you can get these stunning t-shirts and show your support for the Geostuff store and for the Parkville MEGA at the same time.  Available in men’s, women’s and kids sizes, these t-shirts display our mascot, Fern in his little zoo keeper uniform and is available with customisation to include your team name and tracking codes if you so wish.  You can check these out and purchase them by following this link.  Note: All orders are pre-orders for either delivery or pick up at the store when stock arrives or for pick up at The Parkville Event, 2018 on the weekend of the event.

Also, don’t forget that tickets in our FTF raffle draw are up for sale already.  Yep, you can go into the draw to win the right to call yourself the FTF for the Parkville MEGA and all proceeds go to our chosen charity, The Ronald McDonald House in Parkville.  So even if you’re not a FTF hound, you can still purchase a ticket with the knowledge that all proceeds are going to a very worthwhile cause.  Tickets can be purchased by following this link.

Moving on finally to this BLOG post’s geocache(s) of the fortnight and we can’t go past the 5 wonderful new multi caches that have appeared around the event site.  These multi caches were supported by Geocaching Victoria, organized by the wonderful RobMc and put together by the renowned Team Crackers so you surely can’t go wrong with that kind of line up, can you?  The new caches can be found by following the following links.

• Parkville Multi 1 – Electricity.
• Parkville Multi 2 – Burke and Wills AND King
• Parkville Multi 3 – C.S.L.
• Parkville Multi 4 – Can You Follow Directions
• Parkville Multi 5 – Melbourne Trams

Once again, Geocaching Victoria would like to thank everyone who has supported us so far in the Parkville MEGA.  The people who have put their hand up to volunteer, the sponsors who are helping out, the many people who are already behind the scenes, hosting events, placing caches, designing artwork or even just offering us advice.  It is all very appreciated, so thankyou and happy caching everyone

Geocaching Victoria.

And yet again another fortnight roles around and we now find ourselves with 228 days until The Parkville Event 2018 kicks off and as always, your planning committee have been busy working towards making this one spectacular MEGA event.

Before we get too far into this BLOG post though, we would like to take some time to congratulate the OZ Geomuster committee and all the people involved in last weekend’s OZ Geomuster in NSW.  It was a beautifully presented MEGA event that was a LOT of fun.  A number of the Parkville Event 2018 organizing committee attended and besides having a very enjoyable time we have all walked away with greater inspirations for The Parkville Event too.  The amount of excitement that The OZ Geomuster has created and the amount of fun that all who attended experienced is a credit to the organizing committee.  For those of you who did attend, make sure you hold on to the Parkville Event 2018 drink holder that you got in your registration pack at the Geomuster.  Bring it and the little card that was inside it along to The Parkville Event 2018 and get yourself a matching bottle opener for free as well.  Now, how’s that for incentive to get to both MEGAs?

Last fortnight we put our first call out for volunteers for The Parkville Event 2018 and as always we are amazed at the number of people who put their hand up and say “Yep, I can help you guys out”.  Volunteers are the back bone of our events and without them the Victorian MEGA events just would not run.  “Many hands make light work”, as they say and we can always use more volunteers on the weekend.  Usually it’s just for a few hours on the day of your choice and can be everything from manning the registration desk, to helping out with parking, ferrying people and things to places, whatever you feel good and comfortable at.  At this stage we are of course just seeking expressions of interest, so we won’t be holding you to anything if your plans changes.  If you think you could help us out too, please follow this link and fill out the volunteers registration form.

Still available for sale is our set of pathtags.  These are 5 beautiful pathtags, each depicting iconic Melbourne buildings in and around the Melbourne CBD.  Designed by our good friends at Ozglory Designs you can buy a trading set of pathtags for only $15 where you get 5 of the same pathtag and then you can trade with others during the event to make up the complete set.  Trading has been made easier this year too as you will receive a special badge that you can display that will make you instantly recognizable to other pathtag traders as to which pathtags you are currently seeking.  Or, if you want to just skip the whole trading pathtags thing, you can purchase an entire set of the 5 individual pathtags for $25.  Follow this link to have a better look at the designs and order your set of pathtags today.

Also selling well is our standard design geocoin.  The design of the front of this coin (to the left) was available for people to see and purchase from day 1 of the announcement of The Parkville Event.  It’s amazing to think, that so many people have already purchased this coin without even seeing the other side of it!  But today is the big reveal.  Pictured alongside (to the right) is the new design that will be the flip side of all our future round coins.  Obviously we have been waiting for the new Geocaching Victoria logo to be finalized and have it made into a coin format, but we are very pleased of the results.  This very special geocoin is available for purchase for only $16 at our webstore by following this link.  But we hear you say, “What about the Limited Edition shaped coin, what does the back of that look like?”  Well the Limited Edition coin has a new design for the back as well, but you will need to wait until next fortnight’s BLOG post to see that, so stay tuned…

A few months ago we talked in one of our BLOG posts about travel options of getting to the Parkville Event 2018 and the different methods of getting yourself around geocaching whilst attending this event.  Of course we realize that this event is very close to the CBD of Melbourne and with that comes traffic issues.  However these are not insurmountable problems so if you’re a little worried about these issues, here are some points that might help you get around the area easier and help you enjoy the MEGA event more.

• • If you live in Melbourne, instead of driving to the event, consider taking public transport, there are tram stops and train stations only a few hundred meters from the GZ of this MEGA event, and if you live close enough, definitely consider riding your bike.
  • If you are driving from outside of Melbourne and don’t like the hustle and bustle of the inner city, consider parking at one of the secure car parks near the outlying train stations and catch a train in.  Once you are in the city and have your myki card for the day, your options of getting around via public transport are very good.
  • If you are still set on driving but worried about parking, don’t be.  There are hundreds of parking spots about 200 meters away at the State Netball and Hockey Centre and they are all absolutely free, so no parking fees and no parking fines!
  • Instead of driving around to get caches definitely consider catching public transport, there are plenty of good options in the inner Melbourne area.  Or, consider bringing along a bike and riding.  There are many really great bike trails that snake out from the MEGA site which already have plenty of geocaches along them and there are certainly more planned in the future.  Check out our page that gives some details on the over 800 geocaches that are within just 12 kilometres of the MEGA site.
  • If you are one of the many people staying at the MEGA site overnight who are coming in from outside of Victoria, consider taking up the option of free pick up from the airport, just send us an email to let us know your flight details.
  • If you have any other queries regarding the Parkville Event 2018, you can check out our FAQ page, and if you have no joy there, please feel free to email us your query.

Our friends at Geostuff continue to sell the official The Parkville Event 2018 t-shirts and they are the only place that you can buy them.  Available in men’s, women’s and kids sizes, these t-shirts display our mascot, Fern in his little zoo keeper uniform and is available with customisation to include your team name and tracking codes if you so wish.  You can check these out and purchase them by following this link.  Note: All orders are pre-orders for either delivery or pick up at the store when stock arrives or for pick up at The Parkville Event, 2018 on the weekend of the event.

And as always, we would like to thank our major sponsors, Geostuff, Cachly and geocaching.com who have all been very generous in their support for our event. 

So there were no lead up events anywhere in the world over the last fortnight, but for those who are interested, there are four in the next two weeks.  The first on the 7^th of April in Perth, Western Australia is GC7JPK6, then it is all the way to the other side of the world in Boston, USA on the very next day, the 8th of April where it is GC7HKAN, and then we are back in Australia on the 15^th of April in Latrobe, Tasmania for GC7HNQX, followed later in the same day in Bergen, Norway for GC7KCBF.  It’s been great to see the level of excitement that these events have created, not just in Australia but also all around the world.  We know it has brought some awareness to the international geocaching community of the fun things we Australia geocachers get up to and maybe might lead to a few more international visitors making their way down to explore our corner of the world and find some geocaches in the Southern Hemisphere.

We realize that a lot of these BLOG posts sometimes contain a LOT of information.  There are literally that many different things planned and organized for this event, it’s sometimes hard to keep up.  So we’d like to do a little recap on some of the cool things that have been announced over the last few months that you may have missed out on.

• Accommodation is definitely available still at the MEGA site.  Accommodation includes two nights staying at Urban Camp in Parkville where you will be right on the door step of this exciting MEGA event.  Prices for one bed start at only $130 (that’s just $65 per night) and include a range of extras, including free pick up from the airport, early registration and a range of fun, exciting activities that are planned only for those who are staying with us.  With plenty more extras still to be announced for those who stay with us at Urban Camp over the weekend of the MEGA, be sure to join the ever growing community who will be having the most fun at this MEGA by checking out the accommodation options using this link.
• A couple of months ago we put out the intended schedule for this event and it is still available by following this link.  We felt it was important for people to be able to see the schedule early so they can better plan which days they would like to attend, when they can go caching and maybe when they might be available to volunteer.
• Every year the Victorian MEGA chooses a charity that we would like to support and raise funds for through our MEGA event.  A little while ago we announced that our chosen charity for 2018 was Ronald McDonald House.  Ronald McDonald House Charities is an independent charity that helps families of seriously ill children.  They help keep families together and close to the care their child needs.  The Ronald McDonald House in Parkville provides a “home away from home” for the families of seriously ill children being treated at the nearby Royal Children’s Hospital in Parkville.  Throughout the lead up and during The Parkville Event 2018, Geocaching Victoria will be raising much needed funds for this very worthwhile charity.
• One of the most successful ways that we have raised money for our chosen charity in the past has been by raffling off the exclusive right to call yourself the FTF of our MEGA event.  Every year at registration attendees have had the option to purchase a ticket in the raffle for the FTF and this year will be no different, however, to avoid the queues and to get in early you can pre-purchase your tickets in this raffle by following this link.
• It was announced late last year, but we thought we’d bring it to everyone’s attention again. Both Signal and Fern have already booked their “Will Attends” with The Parkville Event 2018 so if you want a selfie with either Signal the Frog, the geocaching.com mascot or with Fern the Geocaching Victoria mascot, or maybe both, then make sure you get to The Parkville Event 2018 for just that opportunity.
• The immensely successful and a lots of fun, Victorian Geocaching Tournament that was one of the real highlights of The Surf Coast Event 2016 will be making a well anticipated return.  Further details on this will be forthcoming in future BLOG posts, so keep an eye out as this will definitely be worthwhile.

And as always, we would like to highlight our cache(s) of the fortnight and this time we are going to blow our own trumpet a little as many of you may have realized a small series of 10 caches came out entitled “Escape from the Zoo”.  These ones are dotted all around the many bike trails and walking tracks that snake out from the MEGA event location and are the first of many geocache publications that we have planned for the entire area, so watch out for plenty more new publications of all geocache types over the coming months.  The Escape from the Zoo series encourages you to find the 10 animals that have escaped from the zoo and are hiding out, waiting for our MEGA event.  It is a fun series produced by the very clever Robmc and we hope you all thoroughly enjoy the work that he has put into this and the many more that we have in the pipeline.  If you would like to check them out, they are:

• GC7FD4C – Edward the Elephant
• GC7JN0G – Genevieve the Giraffe
• GC7FEK1  – Hermione the Hippo
• GC7FWWM – Terence the Turtle
• GC7FWWX – Cyril the Crocodile
• GC7FWXC – Leonard the Lion
• GC7FWY7 – Percy the Platypus
• GC7G5N2 – Rex the Rooster
• GC7G5MZ – Katie the Koala
• GC7FWZK – Sybil the Serpent

If you haven’t caught up with it, all the Geocaches of the Fortnight and many other cool caches are listed on a page on our website, so if you want to plan you geocaching adventures whilst attending The Parkville Event 2018 and visit some choice geocaches, then follow this link to see that page.

Once again The Parkville Event 2018 organizing committee and The Geocaching Victoria committee would like to thank everyone who has so far been involved with the process of getting this event up and running.  The many people who are already behind the scenes helping out where they can, will insure this is going to be one very memorable event.  Thank you to you all and we all look forward to seeing you in Parkville in November.

Happy Caching!