Category Archives: Wangaratta

One Week To Go til MEGA TIME!

Posted on by
Reply

It’s hard to believe that we have only ONE more week to go until we start arriving at the Whittlesea Mega. I don’t know about you, but the committee is very very excited as this has been in the planning for a long time. As we head into the final count-down, we wanted to give you some updates on a few key items.

Friday Night Social Event Catering

We wish to thank our local catering partners Ferguson Whittlesea and Whittlesea Rotary for their support of this event.  They will be providing the following food options:

FERGUSON WHITTLESEA (PRE-ORDER)
A selection of meal deals including pies, pasties and sausage rolls (inc plant based and gluten free options) are available to pre-order from our website. 

Pre Orders close Monday 14 November. 

Meals will be delivered directly to the event and will be available to collect at 6pm sharp. Book Pre-Order Here

ROTARY BBQ (NO PRE ORDER REQUIRED)
Whittlesea Rotary will also be onsite selling sausages and hamburgers (including vegetarian options).  These can be purchased on the night direct from Rotary (cash and card options available).

A selection of drinks and donuts will also be available to purchase onsite during the event. We look forward to seeing you all on the night.

Auslan Interpreters

With special thanks to our sponsor Whittlesea Council and our hearing impaired community, we can confirm that we will have an Auslan Interpreter available at certain times over the Mega event.

  • Welcome to Whittlesea (GC9YKBR), plus an additional hour after to support navigation around Gadget Ally, Puzzle Room and general questions
  • Whittlesea Celebration and Awards Night GC9NVQQ

Puzzle Room

The Puzzle Room Adventure Lab is similar to an escape room, you have 20 minutes to unravel 5 mystery words within the puzzle room. Bookings are required (at the puzzle room).

So what do you have to do?

You have been asked to assist Professor Cachington in developing an antidote for a new disease known as Geopoxitis – a debilitating disease that causes the human body to create its own magnetic field, interfering with any navigational instrument that comes near them. The professor was only 5 ingredients short of finishing the antidote. However while stopping to get a cache on his way to the lab, Professor Cachington contracted the terrible disease. It is now up to you to finish his work, by identifying the 5 crucial ingredients and completing the antidote. The effects of Geopoxitis become permanent after 20 minutes, so time is of the essence. Hurry, the caching world is counting on you!

FTF and Maccamob Raffles

With so many attendees at a Mega, it’s only fair to cool the competitive FTF hounds. For those of you that are new to Mega’s, what we do is host a FTF raffle, which you can enter by purchasing a ticket or two near registration desk so that you can be in the final draw for the FTF.

Make sure you also bring some gold coins so that you can enter the draw for the inaugural Mega Maccamob raffle – their hampers are always amazing and it is a great way to donate to a local charity. This years chosen charity is to support the fundraising of a defibrillator with Rotary and Lions.

Out of interest we recently presented a cheque to North Eastern Health with a cheque for $1050 from the fundraising efforts from the Wangaratta Mega. Thanks to everyone who support this great cause.

Other Snippets of MEGA Interest…

  • Yes the rumour is true… we have planned for fireworks at the end of our Awards Night on Saturday!! A night not to be missed! (GC9NVQQ)
  • Missed the detailed Mega Event Schedule, here is the link
  • Four Lackeys will be visiting from Geocaching HQ – be sure to be on the look out for them!
  • We can confirm that Signal will be in attendance and has arrived ahead of the Mega. For those that have not yet logged the locationless cache for signal (GC8FROG), you will be a great opportunity at the Mega.
  • If you are planning on bring your geo-pup to the Mega, please consider the geo-dog etiquette for everyone’s consideration
  • PURPLE is our chosen colour, so be sure to purchase your ribbon and attach it to your car

And the winners are…..

Posted on by
2

I think we can all agree, that the Wangaratta Mega was a huge success and heaps of fun. Old friendships were rekindled, new geo-friends were made and hundreds, if not thousands of new caches were discovered.

But before we close the final curtain on the Mega, there is one more set of announcements we need to make. Below is a list of all the winners for each competition category. Please note if you are one of the successful receipients named below, email us directly and let us know your postage details, so we can send the prizes directly to you or confirm next steps on how to claim your prize. secretary@geocachingvictoria.com.au

Unobtanium Winners

1 – Winner at the Welcome to Wangaratta Event – The Coffee’s

2 – Winner at the CITO event – injuryman

3 – Winner at the Community Celebration Event – albida33

4 – Winner of MEGA FTF – fitzy_1965

5 – Winner of random draw from MEGA attendees – Bowdenfamily

6 – Winner of of all camp sites at the MEGA. – Aussie Liahona

7 – Winner at the Farewell from Wangaratta Event – barb2e

8 – Maze FTF – locus cache

9 – Maccamob Raffle – frilk

10 – Maze Letterboxes – Ausyowie

11 – Maze VIP Night – AlphaDeltaIndigo

12 – Bingo Winner – Joolay

Mega Survey

Thanks to everyone who took the time to provide us your Wangarratta Mega Feedback. We appreciate your comments, suggestions and areas you raised for celebration and acknowledgement. As mentioned, all those who completed the survey, went in the draw for a annual premium membership from geocaching.com. Four memberships were up for grabs. The winner of these memberships are:

1. magpies22

2. dty73

3. suss vulture

4. Wilbert67

January Photography Competition – Mega Fun

There were so many great entries into this months photography competition, it was actually hard for us to reach a decision. However we have agreed to announce the following entry as the winner…. congratulations McAdies, an awesome capture of camping at the Mega as the light show rolled in! Please contact us so we can send you your Pathtag set.

Raffle Thank you’s

To everyone who contributed to our fundraising (either maccamob raffle or the FTF raffle), we have collected raised $1050 – a massive shout out and thank you to you. We will now be able to donate it to our chosen charity – North East Health Wangaratta – https://www.northeasthealth.org.au/support/donations

Welcome to the Geocaching Family

Finally the last annoucement is that we always love to welcome and celebrate when a geocacher attends a Mega for the first time. The following geocachers attended their first Mega and were randomly selected to receive a years premium membership with geocaching.com. Congratulations and welcome to the geo-famliy.

  • WolfTeam3
  • alissahgrace
  • BlackOpal2005
  • Sherpani8000
  • GeoJoe_

Raffle Thank you’s

To everyone who contributed to our fundraising (either maccamob raffle or the FTF raffle), we have collected raised $1050 – a massive shout out and thank you to you. We will now be able to donate it to our chosen charity – North East Health Wangaratta – https://www.northeasthealth.org.au/support/donations

Mega Feedback

Posted on by
Reply

Every year, Geocaching Victoria runs a follow up survey after each MEGA event to gauge what people liked, what people missed, what people want to see more of and what people want to see less of. Of course, there is no pleasing everyone, but filling in surveys like this help us understand what works for people and what doesn’t. Your responses, good, bad and indifferent, help us create bigger and better MEGA events in the future. Please complete the survey below and let us know your thoughts.

From the submissions we receive, four entrants will be randomly selected to win a year’s premium membership with geocaching.com

Complete survey form here

RSVP Required – (GC8HMWW) Community Celebration in Wangaratta

Posted on by
Reply

Due to the overwhelming popularity of this event, the Wangaratta Football Club has asked for the meals to be divided into 2 sittings. One at 6pm and one at 8pm. 

We need to confirm both attendance at this event as well as an indication of meal preference.

Please fill in this form as it will be used to confirm you are still coming to this event, what time you would like your free dinner reservation for, and an indication of which meal you might prefer on the night.

This will greatly help the Wangaratta Football Club in preparing our meals and the night to run as smoothly as possible. If everyone could fill this form in by Tuesday 2pm, the numbers will then be sent to the football club to confirm.

January Photography Competition

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome to Geocaching Victoria’s Photography Competition for January 2022. The theme for this month is “Mega Fun in Wangaratta”.

Everyone is welcome to enter this months competition, but each entry must comply with the following criteria:

  1. Take a photo geocaching in the Wangaratta LGA during the month of January 2022 at either a Mega event or collecting a cache in the area.
  2. Digitally log the cache
  3. One entry per person
  4. Submit entry by midnight 31st January 2022 via email

Entries need to be emailed to heymissjo@geocachingvictoria.com.au with the following details

  • Name of photographer
  • Geocaching name
  • GC code where photo was taken (event or cache)
  • Mobile number

The Geocaching Victoria Committee will select the winning entry and contact the winner directly. The winner will receive a Wangaratta Mega Pathtag set.

Please note that we may use any photo’s submitted for future geocaching promotional material.