Hello everyone and welcome to the first club newsletter for 2021. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to more orienteering in the new “normal” of the Covid world.

I am writing this from our campsite on the shores of Lake Hawea, swatting away the occasional sandfly. Geoff and I headed down South for Southern O Week and adventures on foor an by bike before we return to what will be a very busy few months for North West Orienteering Club.

Southern O-Week

It may not have been Oceania but congratulations to Marlborough Orienteering Club and PAPO for hosting a week of excellent and enjoyable orienteering; all new maps for me. The first middle race near Ward started with a van shuttle up to the shoulder of a rugged hill, which led me to naively think it would be all downhill running from there. No - within seconds of leaving the start triangle and climbing through spiky matagouri bushes, tussock and across rocky slopes, I realised this was more like a mountain marathon than a canter through Woodhill’s lovely pine forest. Despite badly misjudging one control, perseverance paid off and I was pleased with my result of 3^rd woman on the Red Medium course. Marquita continued her very fine form and had an excellent win, while Matt Ogden (now in Nelson) blitzed the Red Long course.

The second Middle race was on the Kairaki sand dunes/ coastal strip, north of Christchurch, with some tricky, tight orienteering on a compact map. I was humiliated to be beaten by 7 seconds by an eight year old boy (a PAPO member), about half my height - a future elite orienteer!

A number of NWOC orienteers travelled down to compete in the second part of the week based in the Christchurch and Akaroa region- among them Rosie, Alex and Daniel Monckton, Maddie Longson, Cameron de L’Isle, Carmen Fookes, Rob Murphy, Jan Jager and Annemarie Hogenbirk.

Cameron will have been very pleased with some top results, while Daniel was close on his heels.

Auckland Schools Sprint Series

The Auckland Schools Sprint Series starts on 15 February, with 5 weeks of sprints held over three zones, culminating in the Sprint finals on 11 April. The series is managed by Lactic Turkey with the support of orienteering club members. Members of the public (and orienteering club members not involved with the event organisation) can have a run once all students have started (start between 5- 5:45pm, course closure from 6pm). Costs are $5. Entries on the day are welcome, but if you know prior to the event that you would like to participate, please feel free to contact Lactic Turkey beforehand.
 

NWOC’s Major Events: ROW & NZOC2021

NWOC has two major Multi-day events coming up shortly. The ROW-weekend of 6 & 7 March will showcase the club’s new Riverhead map, which has been produced by Cameron de L’Isle.

NWOC is also hosting the Nationals (NZOC2021) from 2-5 April: Bulletin 1 is available on the event website and entries are now open via EnterO. The closing date at standard entry fees is midnight Friday 12 March.

For more details on both events, the Riverhead Orienteering Weekend (ROW) and the New Zealand Foot Orienteering National Championship, see below.

Membership Renewal

It is now time to renew your North West club membership for 2021, to ensure that you receive the benefit of reduced members’ entry fees at events run by all clubs, and to ensure Orienteering NZ affiliation so that you are eligible for titles at the upcoming Nationals. In addition, the club pays entry fees for club members at the Katoa Po relays (March), the Auckland Interclub Relays; we offer travel subsidies for Junior training camps, as well as some club training days, newsletters and camaraderie.

If you are a past/ current club member all you need to do is pay your annual membership online to the club bank account (03-0243-0247251-000) with your name and 2021 subs as the reference. There is no need to log into your club account or register again.

If you are new to North West O Club then you can register online as a new member, following the link here.

I look forward to seeing you out orienteering soon!

2. Riverhead Orienteering Weekend

Kicking off the orienteering season in Auckland in 2021, the Riverhead Orienteering Weekend (ROW) promises to be epic. Brand new maps, produced by Cameron de L’Isle. This is world-class terrain, with few tracks, a mix of intricate and subtle contour detail and a delicious range of vegetation types. The weekend includes a middle distance and a long distance on two separate sections of a huge, brand new, never used before map, as well as a night event organised by AOC on Saturday night (However, not in Riverhead Forest, but on Hamlins Hill).

The new Riverhead map is a mere 10 minute drive from the North Shore, this is a weekend you can't miss! Join us on the 6-7 March – for the latest information, check out the events on the NWOC website , with online entry now open (closing 3/3/2021). The course planner has written: “Low visibility gully spur with areas of subtle detail - this is Riverhead at its best. A lack of tracks lends to epic route choice for most courses and makes this area particularly special."

This event will be part of the National O League 2021 for elite orienteers – a great opportunity for Aucklanders to score points!

Having said that, for both forest events there will be easier white, yellow and orange courses available for less experienced orienteers. In addition, there will be coaches on hand to help newscomers, and help select the right course level for each participant.

3. NZOC2021

General

The Nationals, formally known as the New Zealand Foot Orienteering Championship 2021 (NZOC2021), is New Zealand’s premier annual orienteering event, organised by an orienteering club on a rotational basis. In 2021 it is the turn for North West to organise this event, and planning is well underway. This year, the middle and long distance events also double as World Ranking Events for elite competitors.

Covid-19 is an unprecedented worldwide phenomenon and we are fortunate to be leading relatively normal lives in our kiwi bubble, compared with many other countries. We are continuing to plan for this event at Alert Level 1, with contingency plans for Alert Level 2. Stay safe and keep scanning those QR codes! More information about Covid-19 and NZOC2021, including the plan developed in close consultation with ONZ, can be found here.

The event website is the main source of information for the Championships: previous maps of the embargoed areas and Bulletin 1 can already be downloaded. There is also a Facebook page (search for NZOC2021) if you wish to participate in any pre-event banter, online social interaction with your fellow competitors and/or the event organisers.

Online Entries

Online entries are now open, and standard fee entries close Friday 12 March 2021 while late fee entries close Friday 19 March 2021, with a 50% late fee added to the standard entries.

Late entries received after Friday 19 March will only be accepted at the organisers' discretion. Overseas entrants, and only overseas entrants, may pay their entry fee in cash before their start on the first day of their competition.

Please be familiar with the Covid-19 policy for NZOC2021 before registering online. This policy document follows Government and ONZ Covid guidelines on gatherings and social distancing and provides clarity on our cancellation policy, event fee refunds as well as practical guidelines during the event, depending on the Covid Alert Level at that time.

Camping 'on site'

With three of the four events scheduled for a compact area on South Head, NWOC is very excited to offer the option of basic camping ‘on site’, O-Ringen-like at Leighton’s farm (320 Wilson Road, Helensville) for the duration of the event. A great option to minimise driving and maximise the time socialising and unwinding with old and newly made orienteering friends from New Zealand and (hopefully) overseas after each event.

Leighton’s farm is a 450-acre deer farm, where lush grass and pockets of sand cover the hills as well as perfect flat areas for camping. Native kanuka trees provide shade, while deer and turkey roam free. Unfortunately, this means that there are NO DOGS or other pets allowed on site.

Camping is available from Friday night after the Sprint event (2 April) until and including Sunday night (4 April). Camping costs are $12 per person per night. Leighton’s Farm has basic facilities: six toilets and four showers, and one big tent for shelter, but no electricity or cooking facilities. There is a lake to cool down and have a swim after a day running in the forest, and the hot pools at Parakai Springs are only 20 minutes’ drive away. If you are interested in the Leighton’s Farm camping option, please indicate this while registering for the event online (under ’Merchandise’), or add your camping wishes later.

Volunteers and milk-drinkers?

We welcome volunteers for a variety of roles – if you would like to be part in making the 2021 Nationals a great success, please contact Annemarie on NZOC2021@gmail.com: all offers of help are very welcome!, In addition, we are specifically looking for a camp coordinator, and day coordinators for the forest events. Thanks in advance!

For the Sprint event, we are unable to secure tents into the ground with pegs against the wind. As a result, we need A LOT of 2-3-4 litre empty containers (like the ones used for milk, with a handle), which can be filled with sand or water and subsequently tied to tent corners. Please start saving up your plastic containers: these can be dropped off at 20 Highwood Grove in Torbay, or brought to an event organised by NWOC. We need heaps of them, so please start collecting!

4. Club member profile – Renee Beveridge

Elite orienteer and a NWOC member practically since birth, Renee Beveridge recently holidayed in the South Island and could not resist competing in a Southland Orienteering Club (SOC) event in December. SOC took the opportunity to talk to Renee and profile her in their January newsletter.

Years Orienteering and how I started: Since I was born! My dad started Orienteering in his 30s as he loved long distance running. My mum started after meeting my dad, and then my brother and I were indoctrinated into it. We belong to the North West Orienteering Club which has maps in North West of Auckland, most notably the famous Woodhill Forest.

What do I love about Orienteering: How varied the sport is. You run in so many different areas and types of terrains, from complex building and town settings to sand dunes, marshy forests, and open rocky areas. Every course is different, instead of running around a track 10 times. Because you can have thousands of competitors competing on the same day in the same area, you have young and old, and non-elites and elites all at the same event. You mingle with 100s of people at each event rather than just your team or who you are competing against. You can travel to Orienteering competitions all over Europe all year round with elites competing at the same time as non-elites, which you cannot do in many other sports that only hold events for the top athletes.

International experience: I first competed outside NZ in 2011 as part of the NZ Schools Team that competes in Aussie every year. The competition is usually held over two weeks, with schools competitions, public races, and Australian and State Championship competitions. Sometimes this is held in conjunction with Oceania that adds a number of other races to the mix as well. Competing in Aussie definitely motivated me to commit to Orienteering more seriously. I was at a point where I needed to start training a lot more if I was to get close to being competitive in NZ junior and senior elite races. Australia has some really challenging types of terrain, including beautiful open Eucalyptus forest with massive boulders and cliffs to mining terrain with a labyrinth of trenches and gullies. Many of their forest terrains have broad hills, with not a lot of detail but rocks, and this showed me that my compass technique was rubbish.

My next overseas experience was the 2013 Junior World Champs (JWOC) in Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. This was the first time I had been to Europe and it was a really great trip. Czech Republic is beautiful and also cheap. Again, this competition taught me the level you needed to be at to be competitive in foreign terrain against people who were a lot fitter than me and used to competing in terrain that had everything from rocks, marshes, vegetation changes, complex contour detail, stone walls, open rock etc. You are also hanging out with people from lots of different countries. I was feeling a lot more motivated now, and realised I still needed to train a lot more. In 2014 I was in the NZ team for the World Uni Champs (WUOC). It was in Czech Republic again but in Olomouc, which had different terrain compared to JWOC. Because it was so cheap a lot of gelatos were consumed…which wasn’t great for my body but how could I say no to a 4 scoop gelato in European summer? World Unis was very cool, with many of the competitors also competing at World Champs. I also went to Fin5 in Finland and O-Ringen in Sweden. My brother also competed at WUOC and O-Ringen with me (map shown below is typical of an O-Ringen event).

European competitions are always bigger than NZ ones, but O-Ringen takes the cake. O-Ringen is an Orienteering competition that has been going for over 75 years and has an average 15,000-20,000 competitors over the six days. A huge area is booked out for accommodation, where people tent or stay in campervans in the host town. There is a banquet hall and heaps of shops at the accommodation. Pretty much an Orienteering city. O-Ringen is definitely an event you need to go to if you are wanting to orienteer in Europe. It’s massive and well planned, with 8 finishing lanes with young kids through to people in their 90s running down them the whole day. In 2015 my brother and I competed in Scotland at the World Orienteering Champs. That was pretty scary and also a bit different from JWOC and WUOC in that the teams stayed in separate places. But still very cool to be competing against the world’s best, and alongside the best NZ orienteers. I then took a bit of a break from going overseas due to Uni, but still went to the Australian Champs and Oceania a number of times.

In 2019 I couldn’t resist going back to Europe again. I did a bunch of travelling and then went to watch JWOC and do the spectator races in Denmark, then to Sweden for O-Ringen again, and then to Slovakia for the Slovak O-week. Since it had been a few years since my last European trip it was really cool to see the new JWOC team in action and be travelling alongside many Kiwis that had only just starting Orienteering when I was first competing internationally; now they were experiencing international competition for the first time and loving it.

Favourite discipline and terrain: The middle distance is my favourite discipline. Middle distances are often held in technically challenging terrain (lots of rocks and land or water features/complex contours) and isn’t overly physical and nasty. I enjoy the fast pace of middle distances and the challenge of technical navigation a bit more than big route choices through steep grunty terrain. But maybe I would like long distances if I did more hill training!

Weakest trait in Orienteering: My weakness is probably uphill running. I also need to improve my navigation and confidence when running through terrain where vegetation hides the contours as I tend to doubt my compass bearings. I also lose my concentration a bit sometimes, particularly in big competitions when stress levels are high.

Renee's orienteering tip: One of main things I see with new orienteers, particularly adults, is moving onto the next navigational level too quickly. Often new adult orienteers feel pressured to run their normal age grade; which is red navigation. Unfortunately, they really struggle at this level as they haven’t gone through all the different levels like a young newcomer would have, and have missed out on crucial navigation skills such as contour recognition. Red courses require a strong understanding of contours. When people can’t get around the course using contours they tend to fall back on other techniques, such as compass bearings. They continue relying on their compass to get from control to control for quite a long time, but because this isn’t an efficient way of doing red courses they don’t improve their results or advance their contour understanding, even after years of Orienteering.

Moral of the story is, Orienteering is more about map reading than compass. If you are struggling, drop down a level. There is no shame in this and will help you in the long run.