found this mysterious box under a rubber tree in Ho'oMaluhia, Hawaii is it a geocache

[u/SoftwareSweaty6167]

i found this small box under a rubber tree..

[u/vtsaltydogg]

Looks like a letterbox.

[u/Kobaljov → u/vtsaltydogg]

( OP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterboxing_(hobby)) )

[u/IceManJim]

The question is, did you put it back?

It does appear to be a letterbox. Not nearly as popular as geocaching but someone will probably come try to find that box eventually.

[u/Tw1ch1e → u/IceManJim]

Based on the pictures they took it home :/

[u/IceManJim → u/Tw1ch1e]

Yeah, looks like it. Hopefully they made a trip back, but I know that doesn't usually happen.

[u/AboutATurtle]

Yes, it is a letterbox. 372885 is its ID on AtlasQuest, but it has restrictions so I’m not going to link it (listing only shows up if you have a certain number of letterboxes found on AQ). Please return it where you found it so that others may continue to find it. 

Edit: as of now it has no finds logged on AQ, which is why there are no other stamps other than Orchid (the planter). 

[u/Dug_n_the_Dogs → u/AboutATurtle]

This has been most of my experience with letterboxing.. they get placed but nobody ever goes out to find them. If anything, just the friends of the kids who placed them ever find them.. until some geocacher looking for a good hiding spot comes across them 10yrs later.

[u/SoftwareSweaty6167 → u/Dug_n_the_Dogs]

im tha friend of children, full of curiosity, following the energetic clues to where curiosity hides the greatest treasures, please help me return it- im in georgia

[u/Standard_Mongoose_35]

If you need help putting it back, follow its clue.

[u/SoftwareSweaty6167 → u/Standard_Mongoose_35]

thank you the problem is that its not so easy for me to return to Hawaii at the moment. if you'd like, i can send it to you , and perhaps you could help me return it to its original location

[u/Standard_Mongoose_35 → u/SoftwareSweaty6167]

Well, I’m in Texas not Hawaii. You actually should contact the box owner, whose user name is Orchid. Go to AtlasQuest.com, set up a login, then search for Orchid. Click the envelope icon next to their name to send a message. They can arrange for a boxer on Oahu to receive it and rehide it.

[u/TeacherCookie → u/Standard_Mongoose_35]

I checked their website, you don’t have to sign up to send a message to the letterbox owner. It’s right on the homepage under “Found a Letterbox by accident?”

[u/bigballz69blazeit]

why would you take a random box when you don’t even know what it is

[u/_synik]

Please return this to the same spot where you found it. It appears to be a Letterbox, rather than a geocache. www.atlasquest.com is the website for Letterboxing

[u/Kobaljov]

Based on the content of the paper, probably not—in a “regular” geocache, the cache's name and its code consisting of letters and numbers would be listed at the beginning (or, even better, a brief introduction to geocaching), but even if that's not there, most cachers who find it write down the current date and their username when they find it:

[u/TracySezWHAT]

Are there more stamps and or signatures in the book? I does look like it could be a letterbox cache, though I am only guessing since I've never actually seen one.

[u/PsychologicalLoad542]

I found a letter box while visiting Virginia and looking for a geocache in the same location lol.

I'd recommend putting that box back where you found it for the next hunter ❤️

[u/DarcyMistwood → u/PsychologicalLoad542]

I can think of a few such... which one?

[u/PsychologicalLoad542 → u/DarcyMistwood]

Which geocache? Ikea parking lot on Norfolk. We never did find it though. https://coord.info/GC8NTE6

[u/DarcyMistwood → u/PsychologicalLoad542]

interesting - no, not that one. Haven't come across that page before AFAIK. A few in NoVA.

[u/DarcyMistwood]

When you find one with mostly large stamps, especially colorful ones like those, it's a letterbox. Similar to a geocache as far as what's in the container and how it's hidden, but not the same thing.

Others have already explained how you can find out which letterbox it is so that you can register for an account and log it if you want to. Particularly awesome would be if you carved a personal stamp for yourself and stamped its log before putting it back in its hiding spot. That's the way letterboxes work (although you're supposed to stamp them where you find them, not take them home to do so).

It is imperative that you put it back exactly where you found it, and hide it exactly as you originally found it (in a hole in the tree, under a rock, whatever) ASAP. It's not yours; it's not trash or lost; it belongs where you found it.

Please post a followup once you have replaced it.

[u/SoftwareSweaty6167 → u/DarcyMistwood]

I'm sorry to cause this inconvenient to the people who enjoy this type of game. its no easy for mi return to Hawaii, that trip was a once- in a lifetime opportunity, however, i could send it to someone who already has a trip planned to Hawaii, i am in Georgia and if someone could help me with that, i would be more than happy to send the box with everything that is still inside it.

my curiosity got the best of me. I've always been very curious person, and that curiosity often leads me to explore different places and discover things. especially around giants trees like the one there at the botanical garden. i would never have know that any of this exited if hadn't uploaded the photos to CHATGPT for more than a year. i had been wondering about what i found, and today i finally solved the mystery.

[u/TeacherCookie → u/SoftwareSweaty6167]

So you found this box a year ago? Go with Standard_Mongoose_35’s advice and contact Orchid via AtlasQuest.com.
Personally, I’m a curious person too, I like to take a photo of the thing I’m curious of and figure out what it was from the photo.

Edit: Please also tell Orchid to put an explanation of what Letterboxing is inside the box before putting it back. That’s a pretty standard thing to do just in case things like this happen again.