President’s introduction

Kia ora all. I'm looking jealously at the NZ orienteering season a distance here in Canada. The cadence of both local and major events in NZ is something I will not take for granted. An ecosystem with a significant number of paying participants and sufficiently funded clubs resembles a flywheel that we have spinning with reasonable momentum in Auckland. And we can contribute to this virtual cycle by making our events more approachable and engaging, especially for newcomers. This grows the pie and helps us fund more maps, utilise more technology and better support our personnel. I'm looking forward to getting more involved with events once I'm back in NZ, and I hope you are too, as it means better events for all of us in future seasons.

Newsletter Contents

• Auckland Calendar of Events and events coming soon
• Next NWOC event
• Key events around New Zealand in 2024
  • NZ Champs inc details of the Prize-Giving/Social Event
  • Kings Birthday Carnival
  • Tūāraki-Northern Regional Championships - Labour Weekend
• Schools Orienteering
  • AKSS Sprint Series
  • NISS Champs
  • Other AKSS Events
  • AIMs Games 2024
• North West's Bivouac Outdoor Rogaine Series 2024
  • World Orienteering Week
• General Orienteering News
  • IOF Update to Control Descriptions
• Member News
• • We need your help please
  • Club Membership Fees are now due
  • Sunday at Slater Road
  • New Members

Auckland Calendar of Events

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

Two Events coming up are:

• Saturday 23 March; Sprint Event, Mt Roskill Schools hoted by AOC
  • Start times between 4pm and 5.30pm
  • Pre-enter here
  • Entries close 11.59pm Friday 22 March
• Sunday 24 March; Forest Event, Waiuku South hosted by CMOC
  • Start times 10am to 12.30pm
  • Pre-enter here
  • Entries close 11.59pm Thursday 21 March

Next North West Event

• Sunday 7 April; Finals Day for AKSS Sprint Series
  • North West will assist event organisers Lactic Turkey with this day which will include morning and afternoon events.
  • We need volunteers to help - please contact us if you can assist.
• Sunday 14 April; Forest Event, Robinson Road, Riverhead
  • Start times 10am to 12.30pm
  • Pre-enter here
  • Again we need volunteers to help - please contact us if you can assist.

Key events coming up around NZ

New Zealand Orienteering Champs 2024

The 2024 New Zealand Orienteering Championships are being held between Rotorua & Taupo over Easter from 29 March to 1 April hosted by Orienteering Bay of Plenty

The Event website has all the detail here The first event bulletin is available via the website.

Entries are open here - Please note that entries close finally 11.59pm on Friday 22 March.

Note re entries; NWOC Club Captain, Rob Garden has been talking to the Course Setter for the events who has advised that the courses will be vague and hard; 'harder than Woodhill and about as hard as they get' and so Rob recommends that newer/less experienced orienteers enter orange rather than red courses. This may mean entering an Open Recreational Grade rather than your age grade. This info is available in the Event Bulletin available on the Event website here If you would like to discuss what course you shoulud enter, Rob is happy to advise you. Please contact him on 021597070.

PRIZEGIVING & Social Event for the 2024 Champs

As part of the event, host Club, Orienteering Bay of Plenty are organising a Social event that will include Prize-Giving. Read on for details.

The PRIZEGIVING & Social Event for the 2024 Champs will be just a short 8 minute drive from the parking for the Crater Block map, on Sunday 31 March (after the Long). There will be a number of local food carts in attendance with a range of delicious affordable offerings for an easy dinner or snack before prizegiving takes place. We will also have a fun three-legged mini sprint on offer, with the fastest pair winning a special prize.

Kings Birthday Carnival 2024

Nelson Orienteering Club (NOC) will host King’s Birthday 2024 in Golden Bay. The organisers promise:

• High quality orienteering 'off the beaten track' one bay ‘over’ from Nelson in Golden Bay,
• A compact orienteering weekend, with the first start on Saturday at 1pm, and course closure on Monday at 12 noon
• The Long and the Sprint are on brand-new maps. The Middle will take place on the stunning Canaan Downs South map, terrain described by former NOC president Matt Ogden as “Pure New Zealand orienteering, the spiritual epicentre for the sport"

The Event website is here Bulletin 1 is here

Note - the Kings Birthday Carnival includes the trials for the NZSS team to compete at the Australian Schools Champs during the September School Holidays.

Tūāraki-Northern Regional Championships - Labour Weekend 2024

Counties Manukau will host this year's Tūāraki-Northern Regional Championships over Labour Weekend ie from Saturday 26 October to Monday 28 October. More details to come.

Schools Orienteering

The Auckland Secondary School Sprint Series (Years 7-13) is well underway. All event information is here Event dates are on the College Sport website, and all competition dates and venues are available on the Schools’ Orienteering website.

North Island Secondary School Champs 2024

North West is the host for this year's event which will be held from Thursday 25 April to Saturday 27 April. Event dates & locations are:

• Thursday 25 April: Sprint @ AUT Akoranga Campus, North Shore
• Friday 26 April: Long distance @ Mairetahi Forest, Wilson Road, South Head
• Saturday 27 April: Relay @ Barlow Road, Riverhead Forest

First starts from approximately 1.00pm on Thursday 25 April.

The event website, including Bulletin 1 is live here

Entries are now open; enter here

There will be public races available on selected courses for the Sprint & the Long events once the students have finished competing on those days.

Other dates to note for Auckland Secondary School events ar

e:

• Sunday 7 April - Finals day for the Sprint Series. Details here
• Thursday 9 May - AKSS Relay Champs. Event deteails here
• Wednesday 29 May - AKSS Rogaine Champs. Event details here
• Tuesday 18 June - AKSS Individual Champs. Event details here

AIMS Games to include Orienteering

This year, for the first time, orienteering is included in the

Zespri AIMS Games - an inter-school competition especially for 11, 12 and 13 year olds that is Australasia’s largest junior sporting event, held annually in Tauranga Moana.

The 2024 Event information booklet on the website is here.

North West's Bivouac Outdoor Rogaine Series 2024

Coming up in May and June is our North West Bivouac Outdoor Rogaine Series. Three 90 minute Foot Rogaine Events will be held on:

• Sunday 19 May - Stoneybrook
• Sunday 26 May - Barlow Road, Riverhead Forest
• Sunday 9 June - Grass Track Road, Muriwai end of Woodhill Forest

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

World Orienteering Week 2024 (WOW)

World Orienteering Week is on between 18 and 26 May and clubs around the world are encouraged to organise an event to help spread the word about the wonderful sport of orienteering. During that week we will host the first event in our North West Bivouac Outdoor Rogaine series for 2024 at Stoney Brook Farm. We registered our event for WOW and we made the WOW news! Read the story about our hobbit-related event here

General Orienteering News

IOF update to Control Descriptions

In the January edition of Orienteering Australia's E-News, Robin Uppill, Technical Director for Orienteering South Australia described updates to IOF Orienteering Control Descriptions. The updates cover both ISOM (Forest Maps) and ISSprOM (Sprint Maps). A number of new symbols are included e.g for eg a railway or tramway, a map flip and other symbols are updated/redefined. The full article can be read here

Thanks to Robin and Orienteering Australia for sharing this article

Member News

NWOC Hosted events in 2024 - We need your help please

With event one behind us, we turn our attention now to the next events on our NWOC calendar. Coming up in April is the AKSS Sprint Series Final on Sunday 7 April and a week later, on Sunday 14 April, an event in Riverhead Forest. Later in April, we host the North Island Secondary Schools Champs before our Bivouac Outdoor Rogaine Series starts in May.

We need and value help for all events from all Club members - if you're happy to help please contact us at northwestorienteering@gmail.com There's a variety of jobs to do; some pre-event activities that might involve admin work from home as well as on-the-day assistance with everything from running the sport ident technology that ensures we have results for events to control collection at the end of an event. All those who help are awarded a voucher for discounted or free entry to another NWOC-organised event.

North West Membership Fees for 2024 are due now

NWOC membership fees remain unchanged for 2024 and are due NOW please. Thanks to those who have paid already. Note - to participate in the National Champs in Rotorua you must have paid your Club membership fees.

And as in the last couple of years, we are again offering a combined deal of club membership/rogaine entry fee that offers good savings for those who love our rogaine series. (We have 3 rogaines planned for 2024.) The new combo deal means you effectively get free entry to one rogaine – plus all the benefits of club membership.

To ensure you get members’ rates at all orienteering events, please pay your fee as soon as possible.

Existing members can simply credit NWOC's club bank account (WESTPAC Account 03-0243-0247251-000 and include your name in the reference field.) No need to log in or re-register. Those selecting the membership/rogaine combo deal will receive a credit voucher before the start of the rogaine series.

Sunday at Slater Road

Today was our first event for 2024 on the Hedley Farm map, accessed from Slater Road. The weather was wonderful, the courses were challenging over some testing terrain and the feedback has been fabulous! Thanks to everyone who went and especially to Marquita and Rob who were both Controller and Setter and hosted the event on their property.

New Members