Spotlight on – HexTheKiwis!

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What is your real name?

David McNamara, Claire Spackman, Kerry, Jordan and Connor. We now reside in Rotorua, which is located in the province of the Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand.

Team HexTheKiwi - Lost in the Woods Again!

What do you do for a living?

David: Software Developer, Claire: Process Engineer

Care to share any information on your family?

We (David and Claire) moved from New Zealand to England in September, 1989 where David worked for the UK office of SAS Institute. After a fun 6½ years we left for the United States with two very young children in tow.

We then lived in Cary, NC where David worked at SAS Institute. We only planned to stay for 2 to 3 years, but because we enjoyed it so much it slowly morphed into a total of 11½ years. Another junior geocacher joined the clan during our time there.

We then returned back to New Zealand in September of last year so that the kids could be closer to their cousins, uncles and aunts allowing them to get to know them better.

If you have a family, are any of them geocachers?  

David’s brothers’ families have been converted into geocachers (tdbearnz and Hexy), his niece (Lethal Gumboot) and we’ve made progress with Claire’s family as her sister is also now a geocacher (Blonde Titans).

When did you start geocaching?  

Saturday, November 13, 2004. We found three geocaches in Bond Park, Cary that day and all of them were less than a mile from our house.

Where did you first learn about caching? If from another geocacher, who?

We had read a couple of articles about geocaching in the News and Observer but as we didn’t have a GPS we didn’t really look into it too much.

However, SAS Institute’s Recreation and Fitness Center often hold programs on Sundays to introduce employees and their families to new sports and activities and one Sunday they were holding an introduction to geocaching clinic. We thought it might be a fun activity to do with the kids for an afternoon so we signed up for it. We ended up enjoying it so much that the following Friday night (November 12, 2004), after a week of research, we went out and picked up a Garmin eTrex from Wal-Mart. That was it – we were hooked.

What is the origin of your caching name?  

When David first started work as a software developer he was able to perform 16 bit hexadecimal arithmetic in his head, and so was given the nickname Hex by his workmates. It was far better than some of the alternatives they were kicking around at the time!

What has been your most memorable caching moment so far?

This question was a great topic of debate among the family. So much so that we have five different answers for you:

Claire: Black Thing 2 – a real pain in the neck!

Connor: Crossroads III – he kept telling us where it was, but no one believed him.

David: Island hop (Bay of Plenty) – David fell into Lake Tarawera while searching for this one. He kept the ‘waterproof’ GPS above the water, but forgot about his PocketPC that was in his pocket! The whole event was witnessed by another group of geocachers from their sailboat, who had found the cache about 30 minutes before we arrived.

Jordan: RBC – what more needs to be said? It was packed with great stuff to trade.

Kerry: Branching Out – she was the one to find it

What kind of events do you most enjoy attending?

Outdoor, family oriented ones that have plenty of space for mingling and chatting.

What kind of caches do you most enjoy looking for?

We enjoy ones that take us to a special spot that we didn’t previously know about. Definitely ones that allow us to search out of public view - with five of us, it is very hard to be inconspicuous! And more often than not, a multi which requires a bit of a walk.

If we are with our geocaching buddies then it’s perfect!

Describe your ideal cache hunt.

Our ideal cache hunt starts off by meeting up with some friends and heading off with non-moaning kids (you did say ideal) for three or four hours of (successful) cache hunting. The weather would be fine, but not too hot, and someone (not us) would have fallen in a creek to provide us with a good laugh and story for the logs.

What famous person, dead or alive, would you like to take caching?

Claire would like to take Benjamin Franklin. He would be right into its possibilities, and great company.

The kids think it would be mean to take anyone geocaching with you.

Have you introduced other people to geocaching?  If so, about how many people?

Outside of our family members, we have taken many muggle friends on their first geocache hunt.

We also introduced two sixth grade classes at Salem Middle School in Apex to geocaching by giving them a talk about the sport and how GPS-Rs work. We then took them all on a hunt for three dummy caches that we had made up fake geocaching pages for and planted on the school grounds.

They combined classes then entered a travel bug we provided them in the 2005 New Zealand to North Carolina Travel Bug race. Their travel bug, Dr. Griz (TBHZF3) is still on the move and has been cruising around Australia for the last three years!

What type of GPS do you use?  Do you use if for anything besides geocaching?

We used our original Garmin eTrex for our first 100 finds. We then upgraded to a Garmin GPSMap 60c and gave our eTrex to David’s oldest brother and his wife (tdbearnz) to get them started. Once we bought the City Select maps, we often used the 60c to navigate our car around various cities that we were unfamiliar with.

For a trip back to New Zealand in 2005 we installed some free maps for New Zealand that we found on the Internet and used as we traveled around the country. On a trip to Japan in August 2006 we even found some free Japanese maps on it to help us work out where we were while walking around Tokyo city.

Just before leaving the United States we bought a Garmin nüvi 660 and we used that while driving from Cary, up to Niagara Falls and then across country to San Francisco. We also purchased the Garmin New Zealand City Select maps and installed those on both of our GPS units to help with navigation around New Zealand.

We have just recently received our original eTrex back from David’s brother as they also upgraded to a GPSMap 60c awhile back. During the Christmas holidays we managed to get water in our 60c while on a kayaking trip. The unit was pulled apart and dried out, but every so often will begin beeping as if buttons are being pressed, so we now have the eTrex as a backup should the 60c fail totally.

How often do you geocache?

We are not power-cachers. For the first three years we averaged just under one cache a day. However, since we left Cary for one reason or another we have not been as active as we once were.

Where we live in New Zealand, the immediate area does not have a huge number of caches hidden. The ones that are, are not of the park-and-grab variety. They usually involve a 1½ to 2 mile hike up to the top of a mountain for a single cache. The views are usually spectacular, but don’t assist in rapidly increasing your cache find count.

What inspires you to hide a cache?

Above all, a great location in a frequently visited area. We love reading the logs of the folks that find our caches.

If you could hide a cache anywhere on the planet (forget the guidelines for this one), where would you put it and why?

One place that is really crying out for a physical cache to be hidden, but never will for obvious reasons, is somewhere on The Mall in Washington DC. We have visited the central area there twice now and there are only so many Virtual caches that one can take! Finding a physical cache there would be awesome. Maybe we should vote a geocacher in as President and get him/her to hid one somewhere in the Rose Garden!

Can you think of a theme song that would best describe your caching experiences or do you have a favorite caching song/artist?

We’re not too sure about the answer to this one. Several songs were suggested: ‘We’ve got to get out of this place..’, ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’, ‘You take the high road and I’ll take the low road…’, ‘I was walking through the woods one day, in the very merry month of May..’ and ‘On the road again’ have all been suggested. One who shall not be named even suggested ‘The things you do for Love’, but that horrified other team members, so we won’t mention it!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Who says we need to grow up? Being healthy, active with large helpings of fun and friends forever would be perfect.

If you were a cache, what kind would you be?  What would your name be?

We’d be a simple, straightforward park and grab. Nothing tricky. Probably a little leaky and in need of maintenance though! Cache name? Not sure. Possibly ‘Attitude’, or’ It’s all in the Priorities’.

Do you prefer Cache run, long hike or something else?

They all have their place, and help make geocaching the great activity that it is. Some days we’re on for a bit of a run. Other days a long leg stretch is good. A quick park and grab is always nice, but can get a bit dull. The really creative, well though out caches are great to do. Some people put a lot of thought into their caches.

Tell us about your time in the US. When, why, etc.

Our time in the States was great! 1996 to 2007. Our first year there, Hurricane Fran came over, there was a nasty ice storm, we met ticks, snakes, black widows and brown recluses. We wondered what we’d let ourselves in for! Still, we got past that year, and found out more and more about what NC had to offer. It really is a lovely place for a family.

Instead of leaving in 1998 as planned, Claire picked up a job in Raleigh, and we became even more entrenched. In 2004 we started Geocaching and met a whole new group of people.

It was a very tough decision to leave. We left some good friends behind. We hope to see many of them again. It’s the people that make or break a place.

Do you think you’ll ever come back to the US?

At the moment, a long term return to the US is not on the plans. We’ll get the junior geocachers through school here. That’s at least 7 years. Then, who knows? We all have US Citizenship, so anything’s possible.

We lived over 6 years in England. We think a long term return to the US is more likely than one to England.

How would you compare caching/cachers/caches between the US and New Zealand from what you have seen?

We think NZ caching is about where NC probably was a few years ago. Not many micros, no really tiny nasty ones, mostly in nice locations. One thing that has annoyed us a little over here is inconsistent classification of caches. We have been caught out by several where the cache is not at the given location, but it is still just classified as a regular. Terrain ratings are not consistent, but it’s young here yet.

Tell us about your cross country drive before leaving the US.

The key factor in this one way, 4100 mile drive was having a 15 year old minivan to donate to the Kidney Foundation when we left. We realized we could just as easily donate it from San Francisco as from North Carolina. And so the planning began.

Then we just listed what we wanted to see on the trip, and bought a Garmin nüvi 660 GPS. Brilliant! The trip gave us a much better appreciation for the size, variation and beauty in the United States. Some of the highlights were getting soaked in the spray at the Niagara Falls, watching prairie dogs in the Badlands, rock hopping around Devils Tower, applauding the vets at Mt Rushmore, just about everything in Yellowstone!, finding out that yes, Super Glue would hold the van’s windscreen seal in place, and finally arriving at a friends house in San Francisco.

A bit of a low spot was watching that friend drive our van away from San Francisco airport, after dropping us of for the flight to New Zealand. That van was a big part of our life in America.

Loading up the Minivan for the Trip to San Francisco Airport.

Are there any changes that you don't want or wish had not already occurred?

The web site updates are going very well. We like most of the changes they implement.

We wouldn’t want any changes that removed a style of caching. The good thing about geocaching is that it can suit just about anyone. Not everyone likes how everyone else does it. That’s fine. Holding one style of caching above another seems pointless and intrusive. If we all cache the way we enjoy, respect the values of the activity and give back to it what we can, we will all benefit. Tolerance is good.

What other interests outside of geocaching keep you busy?

For the last 6 months, moving to New Zealand and settling in here has kept us pretty busy. David has just started a 10 week running/mountain biking course. The junior geocachers swim a lot, and Claire is waiting to hear back from a job application at a paper mill. But more than anything we are all enjoying life now that the move is behind us.

Who knows, we might even get a cache or two published soon!

Anything else you would like to tell us about?

We really find geocaching a wonderful family activity. Here it is getting us to some beautiful places. It feels like many unseen hands are guiding us to their favorite spots. We haven’t met any cachers here yet, but we will.

Even so, there is no way they will replace the wonderful people we met through the activity in NC. The first cachers we met to cache with were Kenny and Jason. The first cacher we stumbled over while out caching was ncfinn. The cachers we cached with most frequently were Johnny Cache and the Cachettes and Geo roaches. And the hard work put in by a number of other local notable geocachers was amazing. We haven’t found a geocacher we didn’t like. What is it about the sport that does that? What sort of people want to wander about looking for boxes, using a modern divining rod? Only nice people it seems!

It was a great pleasure and privilege to be able to play a small part in GeoWoodstock V. Although we didn’t have much time to socialize with many of the visitors, working hard behind the scenes with out local geocaching friends was well worth it and was a great experience that we’ll never forget.

One thing that we find fascinating is that geocaching brings together folks from a great cross section of society. There are few other activities that can boast that!

Connor shortly after the completion of Holy Wastewater.