Hello everyone

Welcome to the reality of Covid-19! Instead of being at work arranging active holidays in Europe for clients, here I am at home keeping you up to date with what’s happening with North West Orienteering Club - sounds better than “what’s not happening”.  We had a wonderful line up of events planned for the orienteering community but like sports all over the world, we have had to put these on hold.

The maps were printed for AOS-2 and AOS-3, the flags and controls were all in place on the new Slater Road map and we were very disappointed to have to make the call to cancel these two events at the last minute.  It was a tough decision but in the light of the rapidly escalating coronavirus restrictions, we think we made the right and responsible choice for the orienteering fraternity.

All the work has been done by the course planners and controllers, not to mention hours of logistics planning by Annemarie and her tech expert husband, Jan and we’re looking forward to holding these two events later in the year.

The NWOC Bivouac rogaine series is also postponed and refunds will be arranged for all who had already entered. If possible, we will try and run the series towards the end of the year.

At least the Katoa Po relays in Taupo snuck in before lockdown – check out the photos from Trevor Carswell who has the distinction of having attended 39 out of the past 40 Katoa Po events!

Note: the NZ orienteering Champs which were to be held at Easter have been postponed - please keep checking the NWOC website for further information about cancelled or re-scheduled events.

Read on for more news and how to orienteer in lockdown.

Lisa Mead
NWOC news hound
 

1. Katoa Po relays 4 March
2. NWOC membership
3. Orienteering from home
4. Auckland School Sprint Series
5. Forest Access

Katoa Po Relays
Once again, a huge thank you to the Carswell family for spearheading NWOC’s team effort at the 40^th anniversary Katoa Po all night relays in Taupo; Scott did a great job as team selector and Trevor provided a stash of powerful headlamps, flashing decorations for the club tent and a distinctive large sign that glowed in the night.  Not to mention the psychedelic flashing shoes, neon glasses and jewelry….
Our new club member and 1^st leg runner for all 3 teams Portia D’Ath, did a fantastic job getting around for her first run as a club member. Sadly, Auckland Orienteering Club proved invincible this year with their anchor 7th leg runner back home before any other team had started the final leg. Recent years have seen the relay mostly all done and dusted by midnight but this year legs 5, 6 and 7 featured very challenging red courses with multiple controls in super dark forest full of trimmings underfoot (as in 7-15 metre long whole trees  strewn across the terrain) which made it difficult to keep to a compass bearing. The mass start was just after 1 am and I believe the last stragglers made it back to base around 3.00am.

Well done to Cam de L’Ísle on the fastest time on leg 7.

The prize giving took place on Sunday morning followed by a one hour mini-rogaine – a good opportunity to check out the forest checkpoints which were still tricky even in daylight. Well done, Mark Lawson for getting one of the top scores.
Overall, a fantastic weekend weekend from Taupo O Club, with wonderful views over the lake and the twinkling lights of the city.

7 person Team

1. AOC

2. OBOP

3. NWOC 1

4. NWOC 2

5 Person Team

1. AOC

2. NWOC

3. CMOC

4. HBOC

NWOC Membership 2020
Thank you to club members who have renewed their membership for 2020. Membership also covers affiliation to Orienteering New Zealand and the entry fees for the Taupo relay. However, given the unprecedented effect that Covid-19 and social distancing has had on the orienteering calendar, and that we do not yet know when some events will be rescheduled, we will liaise with ONZ and look at the possibility of extending membership to cover 2021.

 A warm welcome to new members Portia D’Áth and Kyan Sellars.

Orienteering from home
Self-isolated at home, quarantined, working from home, studying from home; how can you get that orienteering fix?

All the software / links below are “free”, apart, of course, from the cost of your broadband connection / data.
Be careful - the first three ideas are addictive (the outcome will be low productivity in terms of working from home or studying) …

Orienteering headcam you tube videos – head camera shots from an orienteer running in the terrain with a parallel GPS plot on the map. These videos are Dave Middleton’s secret training weapon. Here is an example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ6abrJ8Wuk  Sometimes it is better to speed up the video?

Replays of orienteering races with GPS tracking of the competitors. Look at the course map and work out which way you would run the legs, then “release” the competitor dot(s) and see which way they run.  This website has a big selection http://3drerun.worldofo.com/ .

Look at orienteering maps and courses and dream – flowing through the terrain and nailing the controls, who needs a good novel. The worldofo website http://worldofo.com/ has lots of links to maps.

Develop the computer skills to make O maps and set O courses. Make a map of your section, local park, neighbourhood….

An easy way to start, O map of the world https://o-map.ch/ . Automatically produces an urban “sprint” map of your local area, good enough for a casual or training event. Export as a PDF and use Purple Pen to set the course.

Purple Pen http://purplepen.golde.org/  – course setting software. Underlying map can be a PDF, JPEG, OCAD map etc.

Open source orienteering mapping software    https://www.openorienteering.org/  as the website states OpenOrienteering Mapper is an orienteering mapmaking program and provides a free alternative to the existing proprietary solution    This is the full deal in terms of making orienteering maps. Manual https://www.openorienteering.org/mapper-manual/pages/    One source of base map / template data for your O map is the Auckland Council GIS viewer which has 1m LIDAR contours and aerial photos.   https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/geospatial/geomaps/Pages/default.aspx

The NWOC also owns a number of OCAD team licences that can be shared amongst club members. OCAD is a commercial O mapping and O course setting software. It is widely used by club mappers and course setters. Please contact Gene Beveridge (gene.beveridge@gmail.com) if you would like an OCAD team license for a set period of time.

O map of the world – map of North Head Devonport                          Open Orienteering Mapper

 Auckland School Sprint Series
What a fantastic first four weeks for the 2020 Auckland School Sprint Series which was run brilliantly by Madeleine Collins and Lactic Turkey Events, helped by a wonderful team of club assistants and volunteers.

 Unfortunately, due to the Covid19 Level 4 alert, the morning and afternoon final events for the Sprint Series have been postponed. It is hoped to hold these in Term 3.

Check out individual results for the series on the website: https://www.lacticturkey.co.nz/schoolsorienteering/results/

Forest Access
Most of our orienteering events take place on private land. North West Orienteering Club does not support or condone any access to private land outside of organised orienteering events, unless the access has been authorised in advance by the land owner. Possession of an orienteering map from a previous event does not imply approval for future access.

Access to the areas in which we orienteer is usually subject to the club meeting special conditions, regarding safety or payment of access fees; sometimes landowners have moved stock to accommodate us or have concerns about some areas (spread of kauri dieback disease). Please ensure that we maintain our good relationships with land owners.