About the June LWE Event

The SA Geocaching June Long Weekend Event has been running since 2002 which makes it makes it the longest running annual geocaching event in SA (and possibly all of Australia). It is run over the South Australian June LWE (Queen's Birthday) which currently occurs on the 2nd Monday in June. The structure of the event changes from year to year but the basic outline is shown below - this is subject to change, please see the cache listing at geocaching.com for the most recent details.

The weekends activities

Friday: Dinner at the local pub for people who arrive early.

Saturday: Minor games and cache hiding. Dinner event.

  • Morning: Registration - receive game information, caches to hide and info packs.
  • Cache hiding: Hide your team's caches (usually 2) for the main game on Sunday - take coordinates of your hides and return then to the organizers by 4pm.
  • Minor games: A number of small games are run thoughout Saturday - eg. scavenger hunt, meet and greet, kids games, ect.
  • Dinner event: On Saturday night a catered dinner event is held.
  • Flash mob: (not every year) Sometimes a flash mob event is held at some time on the Saturday.

Sunday: Main game and the presentation evening.

  • Breakfast: A barbeque breakfast is usually provided.
  • Group photo: Before the game begins, a large group photo is taken.
  • Main game: The main game (usually) runs from 9:30am to 4pm. Find the caches that everyone hid on Saturday. Pickup your own cache hides after 3:30pm and be back by 4pm.
  • Best cache: Voting for the best caches of the day is open after 4pm.
  • Dinner: Organize your own dinner - usually from the local takeaway store.
  • Presentation night: Theme night - dress up, decorate your tables. Prizes given out for best caches, best dressed and the winners of the various games over the weekend.

Monday: Pack up and go home.

Main game scoring

The scoring of the main games changes every year. This is a list of the rules that have been part of the scoring for at least 3 years - for scoring details of the current event please refer to the cache listing page.

  • Finding: 1 point per cache find.
  • Walking bonus: Extra 1 point per 100m off the road (up to 400m). Applies to both caches you find and caches you hide.
  • Zone bonus: Extra points for hiding caches in certain parts of the playing field.
  • Puzzle bonus: Extra points for finding puzzle caches. Puzzle caches are only placed by the organizers so hiding points are N/A.
  • Cache return: Extra points for picking up your own caches hides after 3:30pm and bringing them back.
  • CITO: Pickup any rubbish you see throughout the day and bring it back in a bag (provided) for extra points.
  • Bonus tokens: Bonus tokens come in a number of forms – they are scattered at random locations throughout the day. Find the tokens and bring them back - 1 point per token.
  • Black thunder: Be at the right place at the right time and an organiser will be there handing out bonus tokens.
  • Good samaritan: Award points to other teams that have helped you out throughout the day. The details of how this works changes a lot from year to year.
  • Late return: Penalty of 1 point for every minute you are late to return at the end of the game.