Message from President Gene Beveridge

Kia Ora all. Thanks to everyone who attended the AGM, we had more attendees from outside the committee than on the committee! This is a very encouraging sign of engagement with the club which manages the maps, skills and relationships that allow orienteering events to be delivered to all club members. Additionally, I'd like to welcome Alex de Beer onto the committee as Secretary. I trust everyone enjoyed the club dinner and congrats to all our prize winners. Enjoy the festive summer period and see you for a new orienteering season very soon.

Newsletter Contents

• Auckland Calendar of Events for 2024
• Events early in 2024
  • Lonely Mountain Sprints
  • Auckland Triple Crown Sprints
  • Katoa Po Night Relay
  • JWOC Trials
• Schools Orienteering
• Rogaine Series 2024
• New Permanent Controls at Shakespear Regional Park
• North West Member News
  •  Club End of Year Event, AGM & Prize Giving
  • North West Prize Winners for 2024
  • Lost Property
  • NWOC Hosted events in 2024 - could you help?
  • Adventure Racing 
  • Junior Camp

Auckland Calendar of Events for 2024

North West together with Auckland and Counties Manukau Orienteering Club have a wonderful programe of events planned for 2024 - details coming in the next newsletter.

All upcoming events in the wider Auckland area for 2024 will be added to our NWOC website here
New Zealand wide events are on Orienteering New Zealand’s website here

Events coming up early in 2024 

Lonely Mountain Sprints - January 2024

Orienteering Taranaki is pleased to announce a return of the Lonely Mountain Sprints from Friday 26 Jan to Monday 29 Jan 2024. Lonely Mountain Sprints will be made up of six sprint events including the inaugural Oceania Knock-out Sprint Championships and Oceania Sprint Relay Championships.
Details and Entry here 

Auckland Triple Crown Sprints - February 2024  

Auckland Orienteering Club invites all orienteers to the Auckland Triple Crown Sprints from Saturday 3 Feb to Tuesday 6 Feb 2024.
Auckland Triple Crown will be made up of three sprint races including the 2024 Oceania Sprint Championship. Not just for elites, this is an all comers event. More details here

Enter here - entries close Sunday 14 January 2024.

Follow Auckland Triple Crown here on Facebook for updates. 

Katoa Po Night Relay &  Explorer Rogaine 

Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 March 2024   

Katoa Po is te reo  for “all night” and the event is the annual interclub night relay hosted by the Taupo Orienteering Club. A weekend for all night owls and also a great option for adventure racers looking for navigation practice in night-time conditions. 
The relay features teams of 7 or 5 runners with courses suitable from younger runners to elite orienteers. The Night Explorer option features teams of 2-4 members and is not a relay.  

Typically North West enters teams in this event and members travel together to Taupo for a fun weekend.  If you're interested in being in a team, email us at northwestorienteering@gmail.com

JWOC Trials 2024 including public forest events - March 2024

Auckland Club (AOC) will host the trial middle race at Riverhead on Saturday 16 March and North West Club (NWOC) will host the trial long race at South Head/Woodhill on Sunday 17 March.

Public races will be held on both days following the JWOC race starts. More event info and entry details coming early in 2024.

JWOC selection notice is here 
An embargo notice for JWOC competitors is here:
 

Schools Orienteering

February sees the return of the awesome Auckland Secondary School Sprint Series (Years 7-13), run by Lactic Turkey Events, with sport ident equipment and support provided by North West. Event dates are 19 February to 25 March. The sprint series programme is available now on the Auckland Schools Orienteering website here.  Entries must be submitted online via College Sport’s EnterNOW site.

For more information email info@schoolsorienteering.co.nz and/or talk with your School Orienteering Sport Coordinator.  You can also follow Auckland Schools' Orienteering on Facebook here. And for regular updates about secondary school orienteering, subscribe to the mailing list via this link here 

Rogaine Series 2024

Our ever-popular Auckland Bivouac Outdoor Rogaine Series will be back in 2024. Three 90 minute Foot Rogaine Events will be held on:

• Sunday 19 May 
• Sunday 26 May
• Sunday 9 June 

All event info will be posted on our North West website here  

New Permament Controls at Shakespear Regional Park 

North West member Steve Pyatt, with assistance from Darren Gosse, has been providing some navigation training to NZ Defence Navy recruits at Shakespear Regional Park. As part of this, Steve has liaised with the park ranger and a set of permanent wooden markers are now permanently out in Shakespear Park and available for others to use.

The course is at yellow/orange level and is set as a rogaine but members could select some controls and make a course, noting some areas are physically challenging. 

This course has been added to our North West website under Resources/Coaching-Permanent Courses here  
There is a suggested competition for children with a scoring sheet. Answers are provided.  

NB If you're wondering why an app like MapRun isn't being used by the Navy for an exercise like this, Navy recruits aren’t allowed phones for 14 weeks so its old-school style for them!
                              

North West Member News

Club End of Year Event, AGM & Prize Giving

On Sunday 3 December, around 50 North West members and family braved the rain and gathered at Rob & Marquita's home at Slater Road, South Head for our end of year Club gathering.  The afternoon started with the Annual General Meeting for 2023 then a 60 minute rogaine on the Rob's Garden Map that is part of Rob & Marquita's farm followed by the prize-giving and dinner.

The AGM spanned the distance, and different time zones, between Vancouver, Christchurch & Auckland. We are very pleased to welcome Alex de Beer as our new Secretary.  Thank you to Heidi Stolberger for her services over the past year.  For those who'd like to read a summary of NWOC's activity in 2023, President Gene Beveridge's report is here

The rogaine on Rob's Garden made good use of lots of new tracks in the forest - we hoped you admired the more than 10,000 new redwood trees planted there! The damp weather added to the fun; fogged-up glasses and a slippery slope which Dave M rolled down in spectacular fashion plus a pretty waterfall at one control site.  We scarely got any wetter than we already were before scoring bonus points with the final control floating in the (very) deep end of the swimming pool!   

Special thanks to Rob & Marquita for generously hosting the event and for organising the rogaine. Thanks also to others who helped with organising key aspects of the event:

• Judy Ng-Wai Shing for the delicous ham and the engraving of the trophies ( a task Judy has undertaken willingly for many years) 
• Trevor Carswell for the portaloo, Ezi-Up & photos
• James Christie for the event timing. 

North West Prize Winners for 2023

Age-grade winners*  

 *not all grades were contested

Above; Lisa & Geoff Mead, our W60 & M60 Club Champs for 2023

North West Special Prize Winners for 2023

Each year North West awards trophies to club members to recognise special service to the club or excellence in orienteering.  Our 2023 recipients are:

Most Improved Junior Male           Isaac Stewart

Isaac has been orienteering for North West for about 2 years as well as in Schools competitions. This year at the NZSSOC Isaac placed 1st in the sprint and 2nd in the long events. And in club events we have watched Isaac steadily improve culminating in his 1st Place in M14 in the Forest Cup.

Most Improved Junior Female   Alexis Heckler

Alexis has been orienteering for around 2 years, having joined NWOC in May this year. She has become confident at orange level orienteering, with consistently excellent results in the Forest Cup series.

Top Junior Male   Tahi Harris

Tahi Harris has had a wonderful year orienteering with some fabulous results. He started the year placing 1st in the AKSS Junior Boys Sprint Comp followed by 1st in Junior Boys in the AKSS Individual Comp. At NISS, Tahi won both the Junior Boys Sprint & Long; at NZSS, again in Junior Boys, he placed 2nd in Sprint & 1st in the Long. And representing his school at the ISF Under 15 Schools Champs in Rio, Tahi won the Sprint. Tahi was also a member of the NZSS team that competed in the Australian Schools Champs and the Australian Champs in Perth.     

North West Shield for Most Improved Senior   Ben Ross

Ben joined North West in 2022 and has graduated from rogaines to competing (and always completing) at red level at forest events.  Notable results for Ben include 2nd on Red 3 at the notorious Karaka Swamp and 6th at Kereta Dunes.

King Trophy for most Improved Newcomer   Lauren Barrett-Hamilton

Lauren joined North West earlier this year and has been a regular at  events and coaching sessions. We’ve watched Lauren steadily improve and tackle red level orienteering courses with confidence.  Along with her brother Aidan, and parents Mark and Sarah, we welcome Lauren's enthusiasm for orienteering, from SummerNav to club events and the 2023 National Champs. 

Stone Trophy for most Outstanding Performance of the Year Tahi Harris

Tahi is this year’s winner of the Stone Trophy for his performances at the 2023 Australian Champs held in Perth. Competing in the M14 division, Tahi was 1st in the Sprint Champs and 2nd in both the Middle & Long events.

North West Shield for Valuable Service to the Club   James Christie

James has shouldered the responsibility for providing all the technical expertise for events hosted by North West throughout 2023 – all the pre-event, during-event and post-event requirements for sport ident and O-lynx so we can provide event results. This is a vital requirement for our Club and requires a huge commitment from James. Thank you James. 

Bert Chapman Junior Service Award   Quinn & Tahi Harris

Brothers Quinn & Tahi Harris have helped at almost every event this year, typically with both control collection & general pack up duties. If not specifically asked to help, they have offered to help, asking what they can do. We appreciate Quinn & Tahi's willingness to get involved and contribute to the Club and know that Bert Chapman after whom this award is named would agree they are worthy recipients of the Junior Service award for 2023. 

Westie Kindness Award  Paul Ireland & Andrew de L'Isle
This award, first given in 2020, is symbolised by the NWOC teddy bear mascot 'Westie', dressed in North West colours and with a compass aiming North-West. This prize, devised by Annemarie Hogenbirk, is intended to honour a North-West club member who performed a kind deed before, during or after an orienteering event. 

This year’s recipients are Paul Ireland and Andrew de L’Isle. As Course Planner and Controller for the Forest event North West hosted in Riverhead back in February 2023, Andew & Paul put in a mammoth amount of time, preparing for the event. This involved building a bridge for that bridge only to be washed away in the floods Auckland experienced. Undeterred Paul & Andrew went back and built another bridge as well as creating new tracks & clearing existing tracks and carrying out a safety check of all areas post the January 27 rain and Cyclone Gabrielle storm events. We're sure you’ll agree this was above and beyond the call of duty and Andrew & Paul are worthy recipients of the Westie Kindness Award for 2023.

The recipient of this prize keeps Westie until he or she in turn decides who the next club-member recipient is, without any time limit. Fellow club members are free to make suggestions and the current holder doesn't need to have witnessed the next kind deed personally.

Congratulations to all our 2023 Prize Winners

Lost Property

A nice pair of sandals, two stools and a few other items were left behind after our end of year event - see photos below. If any of this is yours, please contact Rob Garden rgmg@xtra.co.nz or 021597070.   

NWOC Hosted events in 2024 - Could you help?

As well as the JWOC trial event and the Rogaine series mentioned above, North West will organise a number of other events in 2024. As always we are keen for members to get involved and help with the organisation of these events - there is a lot to be learned from doing so whether in the role of Course Planner, Controller or Coordinator. We recognise the level of experience a member has when agreeing a role and when possible partner an experienced Club member with a less experienced member; this often results in a wonderful learning opportunity and a new friendship!  If you're interested in being involved in 2024, please contact Club Captain Rob Garden rgmg@xtra.co.nz or 021597070.

Adventure Racing 
In October 2023, North West members Rob Garden & Cath Heppelthwaite (plus friends Leigh Cockerill & Robyn Marchant) as Team Fuse Creative, competed in the Whangamata Adventure Race. This was a 6 hour event featuring trail running, mountain biking, orienteering, and surprise challenges.  Fuse Creative finished 5th in the Mixed teams Category and in a write-up of the event, Cath featured on the cover of the Whangamata News. 

Junior Camp

Seven North West Juniors will be attending the Junior Camp at Woodend Christian Camp in Canterbury between Thursday 14 and Wednesday 20 December. Typically this is a fantastic experience for Juniors - providing great skills training as well as the opportunity to make friends from the NZ orienteering community. 

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and a New Year of peace and happiness.

North West Orienteering Club