Message from President Gene Beveridge

Kia ora all. Thanks to Steve Pyatt and Rob Garden for planning our first rogaine. These rogaines are a great way to introduce new friends to our sport so reach out to a few friends and get them to give it a go. These rogaines are also a large part of our club’s funding so more entrants mean more opportunities for us.

Newsletter Contents

• 2023 Event Calendar
• Next NWOC Events
• Schools Orienteering
• Member News
• New Members

2023 Event Calendar

All upcoming events in the wider Auckland area are listed on our NWOC website here
New Zealand wide events are on Orienteering New Zealand’s website here
Check the links above for details of events coming soon.

An event to note coming up soon is the Kings Birthday Weekend 3 day event which doubles as the Tūāraki-Northern Regional Championships for 2023.   

This is a great opportunity to experience a multi-day event relatively close to home. You can enter events on all 3 days or just 1 or 2 of the days.

Event details are here  Entries close at 11:59pm this Sunday, 21 May.  Enter here 

Next NWOC Events 

Bivouac Outdoor Rogaine Series 2023

The first event of the three events in our Bivouac Outdoor Rogaine Series was held on Sunday 7 May.  More than 300 participants enjoyed roaming the hills of Slater Road!

Event 2 is coming up this Sunday, 21 May on the Karaka Swamp map on Wilson Road, South Head.   With a mix of farmland, native bush and and forest - this event offers some wonderful orienteering.

Event 3 is on Sunday 11 June at Grass Track, Muriwai.

All event info is avilable on our North West website here  Hover over the words Rogaine Series to see the drop down menu for more info.  

Entries are now open on Enter O here  - pre-entry is preferred and closes for this Sunday's event at 11.59pm, Friday 19 May. 

For those new to rogaines, these events have a mass start and there is a range of controls to collect; 10 easy, 10 medium and 10 difficult. Everyone has 90 minutes or less to see how many controls they can get.  The events are very social, great for newcomers and as well as all the prizes, there's our famous lolly scramble!

After the Rogaine series, North West will host 3 forest events:

• Sunday 9 July - Hucks Avenue Map, Woodhill Forest
• Sunday 20 August - Mushrrom Road, Woodhill Forest
• Sunday 17 September - Deacon Road, Woodhill Forest

All details about these events will be posted on our NWOC website and in future newsletters.

North West Club Champs - please note our Club Champs will be held on Sunday 13 August at a forest event to be hosted by Auckland Orienteering Club - more details to come.

Schools Orienteering - Auckland Secondary Schools Champs 

Coming up on Tuesday 30 May, the 2023 AKSS Individual Champs event is being managed by Shaun and Madeleine of Lactic Turkey Events with support from NWOC as host club. Shaun & Madeleine need help from club members on the day please - the venue is the beautiful Leightons Farm (by Lake Kereta). If you can help please contact Shaun at lacticturkey@gmail.com

Member News

Member Profile - Tahi Harris

North West Junior, Tahi Harris, has had several wins in recent events so we asked him to tell us his orienteering story.     

Number of years orienteering?  I have been orienteering my whole life with my Dad and competing individually since I was six so that’s about 7 years orienteering ‘properly’.

How were you introduced to orienteering? Dad has been orienteering for a long time and I didn't really have much choice whether I wanted to do it or not so it’s lucky I enjoy it.

Key orienteering achievements to date? Not many - just a couple of good results every second year at nationals and some recent school events.  Editor’s Note - Tahi is being modest here; his recent results include first place in Junior Boys in the AKSS Sprint Champs, first in both the Sprint and the Long events at the North Island Secondary School Champs and first in Junior Boys in the AKSS Rogaine Champs. 

Current orienteering goals? Overall I just want to get better; I am preparing for a school trip to Rio in August (to compete for Mt Albert Grammar in the World Schools Orienteering Champs) so that's the biggest thing I’m working towards at the moment.

Favourite map and why? This is a hard one. There are so many awesome maps that I love but I'd have to go for ones I can't run on very often such as Caanan Downs North (Nelson) and Flock Hill (Canterbury) – they’re pretty hard to beat. In terms of local maps, Robinson Road and Barlow Road are probably my favourites and there are heaps of other great Woodhill maps as well.  I could continue talking about maps for ages ….

Map you have yet to experience but aspire to orienteer on? One map I really want experience is Big Bush (Nelson), mainly because of the name but also because it looks awesome! I have seen some cool looking maps from overseas as well in places like Portugal and Estonia.

Orienteering hero? Generally, I enjoy following Elites and seeing the skills they have.  Matt Ogden’s first at JWOC is pretty awesome and just watching everyone at that level run is fascinating;  watching their different styles and contrast like Gene Beveridge, Joe Lynch and others.  And Carsten Jorgensen!

Other interests? My other interests include football, reading and eating and travelling. 

ONZ Award Winner - Stu Lynch

Congratulations to North West member Stu Lynch who was recently named as Orienteering New Zealand's Mountain Bike Orienteer of the Year for 2022 in recognition of his win in all three distances in Men's Open at the 2022 NZMBTO Champs. Congratulations Stu!

Success at Rogue Raid for Marquita Gelderman & Rob Garden   

Rogue Raid is an epic 24 hour rogaine adventure race held in South East Queensland.  This year's event took place in April on a course that was described as 'unfinishable - spanning 260km of trekking, mountain biking, kayakaing and swimming'. 

Rob & Marquita, competing under their team name of Dated Loaf and Pikelet, won the Mixed Pairs category and finished with a top 10 result overall - very notable results given Rob was the oldest competitor in the race!  Read the full race report here 

North West Members Shared Lunch

On Sunday 14 May, at the Percy's Delight event hosted by Auckland Club, we invited North West members to get together for a shared lunch.  While our newer members were in the minority, those who did meet up enjoyed catching up and sharing their experience on course that day.

Student Successes

Several of our student members enjoyed success at the AKSS Rogaine Champs held earlier this week.

• In Intermediate Girls Teams, Bella Gibson & Ivy Roodt from Pinehurst School placed first and Lauren Barrett-Hamilton & Alexis Heckler from Green Bay High School were second. 
• In Junior Boys Individual, Tahi Harris from Mt Albert Grammar was first with Alexander Robertson from Rangitoto College, second.
• In Senior Boys, Chase Templeton from Pinehurst was second.  

Congratulations to you all.   

Left photo: In first place, Bella Gibson, left & Ivy Roodt, right. In second place on the right in the photo, Lauren Barrett-Hamilton, second from right.

Right photo: Chase Templeton, second.

Congratulations too to Aidan Barrett-Hamilton (right) who was second in his group at the recent Auckland Intermediate Interzone Champs.   

Pinehurst School Student Members

In previous newsletters we've commented on the large contingent of students from Pinehurst School who have joined North West this year.  Under the direction of North West member Kaye Griffiths, who coordinates orienteering at Pinehurst, the students have been participating in a training programme before recent events that's involved several other North West members.  So here's a shout out to Liam Stolberger, Charli Spence, Nick Harris and Adrian Griffiths, as well as Sam Carryer from Auckland Club, who have generously given their time to coach these keen, new members.  

New Members

A very warm welcome to all our new members:  Darren, Kate, Olivia & Evelyn Grigg, Matt & Phia Hearley, Andrew de Ville, Sarah, Mark, Aidan & Lauren Barrett-Hamilton, Bev Mcleod, Stephen Payne, Jason Kim, Tony & Nolan Guo and Debbie Wu.  Welcome back too to Rhyl Kerrison, Etienne de Beer and Jamie Hrstich who have rejoined the Club. We look forward to seeing you at an event soon.