Gavin Grimmer
I then used to easy to locate positions that I named “Track intersect” and “WAC EAST” and calculated the magnetic compass headings from those points to the position of the object (030°M and 270°M) as another way of locating the spot, and Terry and I both walked the 270° heading to confirm the area. After checking out all four possible GPS spots and finding nothing, we then checked out the stream all the way to the bottom of the hill to where it intersected with a stream coming down from the northern hills... still nothing!
Our GPS Tracks
From there we trekked all the way up a steep hill and returned to where we had parked the Suzuki, had lunch and then walked the 030° heading. As we were approaching from this direction, we came across a clearing that allowed a view through the tree canopy of the area in question and was able to view the positions of the Punga trees/main trees, and a Nikau tree, all visible in the 1988 aerial photo. It then became very easy to pin-point the exact spot.
We had been using a metal detector all around the area, but the problem was that the main expensive, high quality detector that should have given the best ground penetration detection, wouldn’t work! Hence the only unit we had was one that only could detect to a
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