New Lost and Found added 24 Aug, see below.
Dean's comments:
A cold southerly wind, with the threat of impending rain, did nothing to
put-off the 71 hardy rogainers who fronted up to the Makara Peak round of
Orienteering Hutt Valley's Afterwork Rogaine Series. As it turned out the
rain held off, delivering a cool, clear night, with amazing views of the
city lights.
Line honours on the night went to the combo of Debbie Mansfield, Julie Gordon, and Glen Warner. Their route of 55, 26, 56, 64, 42, 50, 70, 90, 62, 100, 36, 71, 27, 80, 13, 21, 43, 102, 10, 57, 72, 73, 92, 65, 44, 12, 47, 29, 74, 34, 53, 52, 101, 51, and 28 meant they were the only team to pick up all the hundred pointers. (If you haven't got the map, this was roughly from the MTBO carpark up the Starfish track; part of the 4WD track to Makara Peak; thru Missing Link and Nikau track to the west side of the MTB park; up the ridge to the summit; brief excursion out on Ridgeline; down to the reservoir on the Makara road; suburban controls in West Karori across to Burrows Ave: up not quite to Wrights Hill and down Deliverance.) 130 points back was the duo of Greg Thurlow and Ross Bidmead, who, despite being a minute late, just managed to hold out Jo McKenzie, Andrew McClellan, and Mike Pratt.
Special mention goes to the team of Lachlan, Kerin, Emma, and Michael - not to forget their minder Julie - who, with a combined age of 28 years, set out to try and be out for an hour only to surpass all expectations, stay out way past their bedtime, and run around for more than 90 minutes! Fraser Clark also has to get some praise for being the only competitor who picked up all the controls on Trickle Falls and Vertigo. I used my mountain bike to place the ribbons (in the rain) last Saturday and riding (well mostly walking) these tracks was...interesting.
Apologies about a couple of mix ups. First, the question for control 45, which refered to the letterbox at number 10, was meant to refer to the letterbox at 22. Second, it seemed Darren the builder had finished his share of the work at control 38, and had taken his sign down before last night's rogaine. Everyone who wrote something for these controls were awarded the points.
PS Greg Thurlow writes...
While I was out collecting ribbons I found a Silva compass with the name of "linda" on it.
It was above control 53 on the building site
Contact
And picked up on TOLL Track between #36 and #71 a polarfleece scarf, two shades of grey.
Contact
Graeme's comments:
It did not seem to go too badly for the weather conditions,
we were pleasantly surprised at the number of people who came on such a horrible
night. Attached are the roughly checked results. Minor changes from on the night
results largely due to arithmetic errors – understandable with the sodden paper.
I have awarded everyone point 24 (ribbon at west end of yellow fence) unless they told me they did not look for it. I went and checked – the ribbon is where we put it, at the base of the tree at the west end of the main section of the fence (the lower part facing the reserve). With the wet windy weather the ribbon had stuck itself to the underside of the branch making it hard to see. Our clue was also not specific enough - sorry. Some of you must have got close judging by the disturbed foliage.
Point 42 got different answers than I expected – when I saw it a week ago the bridge had dozens of tiny toadstools growing on it. The most popular control was 36 the Sinclair Cemetery – 16 visits, then 73 – 14 visits and 93 – 13 visits. I was surprised how many ventured onto the steepest track and got control 64 – 12 visits, at least 4 did it as an up and back. Controls 10 12 30 35 40 50 82 90 were not visited – none of these surprise me – mostly suburban ones.
Controls visited by winners Ross & Greg 17 24 25 33 34 36 37 43 3 53 54 55 62 63 64 65 71 72 73 74 83 92 93 101 102. Only Vicky and Colin visited controls at Mount Lowry in the south west corner of the map – good work – but they could not find the ribbon controls on the Rata Ridge Track reducing their points somewhat. We put them in with the help of a GPS so I am reasonably confident they are where shown – the key was to find the loop track for 90 and the lookout stub track for 30. Sarah and William were the only visitors to controls 11 13 21 23 32 choosing to keep off the steep muddy bush tracks. Maximum score 2750 (designed for 3 hours and half-decent weather!)
Thanks for coming, I hope we got you to go somewhere that you had never been before. We enjoyed researching the area and setting the course – probably more than you enjoyed competing - we got to choose our weather.
We gave people points for the 1 Elephant in the school yard ( actually accessed from Elizabeth St, not Levy, sorry about that ) and for the forklift operating area in Mastertrade if they wrote something humorous in the appropriate boxes.
Every control was visited other than 90 ;-) Most popular was 42 ( Mt Vic tree paint spot ), closely followed by 43 ( Ribbon on Mt Vic ), 45 ( Mt Alfred Survey Mark ), and 29 ( womens toilet at the velodrome). Most incorrect were 14 ( ELECTRONIC security was provided by Circuit Systems), and 61 - looks like a number of people stood too close to the cannon when taking their bearing.
We got some feedback on the night, but any more would be much appreciated!
Course Planners Colin Slater, Jo Holden. Time 3hrs, 100% dark. Max score 2460.
Jo writes...
Birthday cake, bubbles and pizza greeted the 74 finishers of the 2nd of the
Wellington after-work series, held in almost balmy conditions on June 8. The
course was mainly urban, with a few off-the- beaten-track excursions to points
less visited. Control 63 proved to be a little contentious, but if it was clear
you went there, you were given the points. The 4 100-pointers clearly made for
some challenging choices over a course that included controls from Island Bay
to Strathmore.
Dean Ford scored 1540 points, although the slick partnership of Andrew McLennan
& Jo McKenzie took the honours after Dean's 10% solo discount was deducted.
Special thanks to Chris, Billy & friends for the (totally unexpected) birthday
surprise!!
Results:
1 Andrew McLellan/Jo McKenzie 1520
2 Rachel Ockelford/Ian Bowie 1480
3 Dean Ford 1540 - 10% (solo) 1386
4 Glen Warner/Debbie Mansfield 1370
5 Dave Rudge/Jo Forbes 1380 - 10 (late) 1370
6 Gerard O'Flynn/Brent Smith 1340
7 Matt Flannery 1420 - 10% (solo) 1278
8 Fraser Clarke/Dana Moran 1210
9 Matthew Allen/Justin Tampeau/Mike Sherwin 1160
10 Lara Shepherd/Leon Perrie 1150
11 Jennie Cassie/Merryl Park 1130 - 10 (late) 1120
12 Jenny Cossey/Mike Judd 1100
13 Greg Thurlow/Dave King 1080
14 Allan Mills/Eddie Meijer 1080
15 Graeme Silcock/Sue Eastwood 1050
16 Leo & Bernie Holmes 1030
17 John Stobba/Josie Lewis 1030
18 Simon Rea/Jeff Williams 1010
19 Nick Warren 1120 - 10% (solo) 1008
20 Mike Wespel Ross/Rob Stone 1000
21 Keiran Paton/Bernie Smithyman/Jan Keats 990
22 Janet Greenwood/Fleur Young 970 - 10 (late) 960
23 Harry Smith 1050 - 10% (solo) 945
24 Alyn Higgins/Guy Short/Amelia Geary 910
25 Sue Chesterfield/Rowena Johnston/Paula Antonchich/Norilie Lopez 870
26 Christine Whiteford/Peter Whiteford/Cathy Milne 850
27 Gordon McDonald 980-50(late)-10%(solo) 837
28 Sophie Egden/Dominic Martin 820
29 Jenny Visser/Jill Ford 810
30 John Bocock/Rex Hayes 760
31 William Power/Sarah Underwood 740
32 Sharon Ross & Neal 720
33 Claire Sherrington/Sam Winslow 630
34 Dave Whitfield 650 - 10% (solo) 585
35 Jill Westenra & Rhonda Cooper 450
36 Vix & Chris 430
37 Marc Hasenbank 390 - 10% (solo) 351
Course Planners Paul Abbott, Jim Jones Time 3hrs, 100% dark. Weather moderate temperature, still conditions. Max score 2550, elevation range 360m.
Paul writes...
There were 73 participants, and all controls got at least one visit. Perhaps too many visits from the point of view of the tramps, who apparently had to move from their seat in Central Park at Control 30 for rogainers to inspect the plaque.
Control 80 (friend of the pukeko and the takahe) must have flown away, er, been moved inside the Karori Sanctuary office at night. (It was a kiwi). Everyone who went there was awarded points; advice in the event of a similar situation with Q&A controls, if you are sure you're at the right place just write down some other distinctive fact about the location. Also the intended building at Control 59 (a public toilet) which was unexpectedly demolished prior to the event:-)) No one who wrote something down was docked points on this either.
The winning team visited the following controls (not nec this order): 10, 21, 24, 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 67, 70, 71, 72, 80, 81, 82, 90, 91. Phenomenal effort! Note they passed up 100...