Message from President Gene Beveridge

Kia ora all. I’d firstly like to share my appreciation for all the members who helped with the Tūāraki Regional Champs. NWOC has a reputation of putting on high quality and innovative multi-day events, so living up to the expectation time and time again is very impressive. Many of our most involved workers have valuable skills like course setting, controlling, and understanding of the computer and SPORTident technology we use. They all started with a first step at a more casual event, like those early in the season. We’ll be assigning jobs for these more casual events by getting less experienced members to step up, so have a think about which areas of our sport interest you the most.

Newsletter Contents

Event Calendar

Next NWOC Events

Tūāraki Northern Regional & Auckland Champs 2022 - Report & Results

ONZ Junior Camp 

Member News

Robin Ambler

Member Profile - Matt Gardner

New Members

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. 

A couple of different events coming up are:

• Lactic Turkey P3/P6 adventure race on 6 November*. This is an introductory adventure race  for those keen for a new challenge.  Details here 

• For mountain bike enthusiasts, the NZMTBO champs will be held in Rotorua and Tokoroa on 19 & 20 November.  Details here  Please contact Rob Garden on 021597070 to learn more about this event and the intricacies of MTBO.

• Summer Nav.  Auckland Club are once again hosting their annual Summer Nav series. This weeknight series runs from October 2022 to March 2023 and each week is at a different location across Auckland.  Event details here

*A little bit more about the P6 race

The P6 Adventure Race (and the P3 3 hour event too), is an introductory type adventure race using stages of rogaine. This will be based at Rob & Marquita's place at South Head using a traditional orienteering map. There is a 6 or 3hr option to choose from. Be prepared to do some P…....Pedal, Plod, Paddle, Plan, Pursuit and Puzzle. The event involves a water activity, mountain bike (for the P6 only), run/walk, simple navigation, team work and strategy, and mystery activities. Choose from the P6 (6 hour adventure race with mountain bike included) or P3 (3 hour event without mountain bikes).  More information and entry here 

Next NWOC Events

Sunday 4 December  -  our North West Club End of Year Gathering. 

Come and join us at beautiful Mairetahi Forest, Wilson Road, South Head.  We’ll start at 3pm with a special rogaine-style event for one hour and follow with a BBQ/shared dinner and prize-giving.  Mairetahi Forest was the location for an AOS event earlier this year and is a pretty special place. Featuring open park-like grounds with picturesque lakes plus pine forest, native bush, and exotic forest of all ages, there’s lots to explore.  The rogaine will have a mix of very easy controls to more difficult ones meaning there will be something for everyone.  Bring your family members so they too can try orienteering. 

All members will receive an email invitation to this event with more specific details and at that time we will ask for RSVPs. For now, mark the date in your diary!   And for a reminder of how beautiful the Mairetahi map is look here 

Planning for 2023 - At the end of year event, we will be seeking people to volunteer to help with events as Controllers, Planners or Coordinators in 2023.  Please don’t think you will be coerced into doing something beyond your ability though.  We always try to partner people new to specific roles with experienced orienteers so they feel supported. And feedback from those who have a go at, for example, course planning is always about how much more they learned about orienteering from doing this!

North West AGM 

Our club AGM for 2022 will be held online, via Zoom, on Wednesday 7 December.  Details to follow.

Tūāraki Northern Regional & Auckland Champs 2022 - Report & Results

North West was the host Club for Tūāraki Northern Regional & Auckland Champs 2022 over Labour Weekend.  And what a weekend it was - after weeks of planning and preparation, beautiful spring weather was the icing on the cake and set the backdrop for 3 intense days of orienteering. Feedback from competitors has been very positive with specific comments about how they loved the technical nature of the courses that provided so much variation plus the physicality of the terrain.  Putting these two together meant all aspects of one’s orienteering were challenged and staying focussed was key! Congratulations to the Course Planners and Controllers who made the most of the magic of Woodhill, using the variety of terrain to create wonderful engaging courses. 

Day 3 saw a chasing start which made for an exciting day of racing.  Competitors started in order of their combined times from the previous 2 days with the fastest first off and subsequent runners following based on their times behind the leading competitor.   The first runner over the finish line being the winner within each class for the three days of competition.  Huge thanks to Greg Flynn who masterminded the technology behind the Chasing Start – some competitors were heard to say ‘we need more chasing starts!’

Results from the weekend, including the combined results for all 3 days, are now available on the event website here  Please note that only those competitors who completed all 3 courses are included in the overall results.

Photos from the 3 days are available on North West Club’s Facebook page here and on the event website here

Special thanks to all the NWOC members who contributed to the success of the weekend. Whether that was as a controller, planner, on the technical team, the set up and start crews, control collection, parking marshals, registration, portaloo pick-up, prize-giving or packing up (and sometimes many of the above) - thank you. It was a terrific team effort bringing off an event we can all be proud of. North West has a reputation for hosting quality events and Tūāraki added to that.

One last comment, it was especially good to see lots of our new members helping out.  We hope this made you feel welcome and part of the Club.  We’re sure that Club camaraderie is enhanced when we all work together.

Lisa Mead & Jenny Cade, Event Co-Coordinators

Results from Tūāraki for North West members

North West Members who were placed overall in their grade (i.e. the combined results for competitors who completed all 3 courses - DNFs/MPs excluded):

There were also a number of first places for NWOC members who were unable to compete on all 3 days because of their involvement in the event

  ONZ Junior Camp - 

    Camp Manager needed for 2 nights 

ONZ is seeking someone to take over as Camp Manager for the last 2 nights of Junior Camp on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 December.  The camp is being held  at Houghton's Bush Camp, Muriwai.   Participants will leave before lunchtime on Monday 19th.  A Camp Manager has been appointed for the first part of the camp from 14 December to the afternoon of Saturday 17 December. The job description is here

If anyone is able to assist, please contact Lisa Mead and/or General Manager Orienteering NZ, Christo Peters. Christo: gm@orienteering.org.nz  Lisa:  mead10b@gmail.com

Member News

Robin Ambler Long-time North West Club member, Robin Ambler passed away in late September. Robin's daughter Kirsten Blake and grandson, Seven Blake are Club members and Robin’s wife Gae is also well known to many in the Club.  Dave Middleton, who encouraged Robin to join North West back in 1987, commented that Robin was always a very willing helper and had coordinated many Club events.  We extend our sincere sympathy to the Ambler family. 

Member Profile - Matt Gardner reflects on his first experience of Woodhill and being upside down in the world!   

"Balancing other sports, orienteering offers something refreshingly different, both frustrating at times and rewarding. I have been orienteering on and off for seven years, but until now, only in the UK.  Coming to NZ for nine months I wanted to take the opportunity to try orienteering here and the Northern Champs was conveniently near my arrival. The weekend was a very enjoyable, well organised event. It was a pleasure to meet so many orienteers and to challenge myself in very different terrain to much of the UK. Along with adjusting to the terrain and temperature, in all the excitement, I forgot that I was in the Southern Hemisphere and went all out using my northern hemisphere compass, proceeding to get very lost! Very glad to finish the following two days with a compass that points in the right direction.

With a healthy respect gained for the technical terrain of Woodhill forest, I look forward to getting along to more events and further experiencing what NZ orienteering has to offer”.

 New Members

A warm welcome to new members Modi Chen, Frank Ding and Luke, Daniel and Aviel Ding and Matt Gardner.