What is the title of the first geocache placed outside the United States, on 12 May 2000?
The answer : First New Zealand
First New Zealand
On Geocoins.io
- Category
- Tributes
- Rarity
- Rare
- Published
- 28 August 2026
- Extension
- Reviewer
- Forge
- Craftable
- Collected by
- 23 player(s)
On geocaching.com
- Cache type
- Traditional Cache
- GC code
- GC45
- Country
- New Zealand
- Owner
- Peter McKellar
- Published
- 12 May 2000
The First New Zealand geocache (GC45) was placed on 12 May 2000 beside State Highway 5: a red bucket with a white lid, filled with a few CDs, beer, tools and a Moro chocolate bar. Nine days earlier, Dave Ulmer had hidden the very first bucket in Oregon. Peter McKellar, a GPS enthusiast, took geocaching out of the United States and out of the northern hemisphere.
Geocaching had only just become possible: on 2 May 2000, Washington had switched off the deliberate jamming that degraded the civilian GPS signal, and the news was still circulating only on a Usenet satellite navigation forum. The cache description ended on an invitation that has stayed famous: "Lets get some more stashes going out there..." Chile followed three days later, Australia six.
Nobody ever recorded a find on this listing: the bucket eventually disappeared and McKellar himself removed the last remains. The cache is archived, but a bronze plaque was set in place in 2020 not far from the original site.