Detailed Information 2004

Version date 22 July 04

Status: Final version for 2004 event, for a guide only. A new version will be written for 2005.

This page contains information needed to compete in the City Safari. There are some "rules of the game" and one or two details that weren't final when the entry form was completed. Any unforeseen changes after this version will be specially emphasised at the briefing.

The Map
The map for the City Safari is intermediate in detail between the topo map and an orienteering map. To help those who are used to one or the other, here are some of the characteristics.
The scale is 1:25,000. There are two A3 sheets, provided back-to-back in a plastic minigrip bag. There is an overlap.
The contours are 20m as on the topo map. Orienteers who are used to every hump and bump will find that not every small hill or gully is shown.
On the other hand those who are used to topo maps will find much more information and accuracy about the road and track network. We have gathered a huge amount of information about bush tracks, signposted walkways, alleyways connecting streets, and areas which the public can use such as riverbanks and parks. These are shown as follows.
Roads tracks and paths in black lines as you would expect. Actually the tracks are classified as to their ridability for mountainbikers, because we use parts of this map for MTB-orienteering - the short dashes are unridable, long dashes ridable slowly, solid lines maintained surfaces. The only unusual symbol is that a GREY line is used for a tunnel, such as there are under the railway.
Apart from roads and tracks, land that you can travel on is coloured brown (paved areas), yellow (open land) or light green (easily passable forest). Brown areas include supermarket and railway carparks. Yellow areas include parks and school grounds. Light green areas (passable forest) are very few, but some parks have mature treed areas which we don't want to prevent you from using.
Land that you are NOT permitted to travel on is coloured a darker green (thick bush) or grey (private land). This has been done largely by guesswork, but the purpose in making a distinction is to let you know what's on either side of you as you use a track.
Crossing the Hutt River is prohibited except on road bridges, and the footpath on the north side of the Ava rail bridge. Note that there is NO footpath on the Pomare rail bridge.
The railway is shown as a single black line with regular cross-bars. Where there is a bridge across the railway is interrupted. A tunnel under is shown with a grey line. A railway station is shown with a solid red circle.
Bus routes are not shown explicitly, you have to suss those out from the timetable information. However bus stops are shown with a hollow red circle.
The control points are shown with a purple circle and purple control number. The start/finish is shown by a purple triangle inside a circle.
Other things on the map we hope are self-explanatory. There is a legend. Don't expect to find street names:-))

Rules of the Game
Your objective is to maximise your score. The checkpoints have different values, being the first digit of the number multiplied by 10. That is, control 10 is worth 10 points, so is control 19. Checkpoints will range from 10 to 90 points. There is a penalty for returning late: 10 points per minute or part thereof. Highest score wins, in the event of a tie the earliest to finish wins.
You prove your visit to each checkpoint by answering a simple question on your controls sheet which must be named and handed in at the finish. Swapping information such as the answers to questions is cheating. Obviously we can't police it, we rely on you to play fair.
Except in the case of emergency, team members must stay together, that means in unaided verbal contact, especially when visiting checkpoints. You are not allowed to send the fittest team member up the hill to get the answer! If a team member has to drop out for any reason during the event you must tell us back at base; and from that time you are a new team starting with a score of zero.
You must travel on foot or (in contrast to most rogaines) on timetabled Cityline Hutt Valley bus, Stagecoach Flyer, and Tranz Metro train services.
You must take the bus and train services as you find them. You cannot for example ask a bus driver to stop at other than normal stops. If a bus or train service is late, that's tough, in rural rogaines unexpected conditions are often met.
Electronic navigation aids are prohibited, such as GPS's and altimeters. This is a mapreading adventure!

Safety
Rogaines are run as team events for safety reasons. Although we start in downtown Lower Hutt you could break your leg climbing the Eastern Hills! Responsibility for obtaining help is with the unaffected team members. Feel free to carry cellphones (for use in emergencies only.) An organiser cellphone number will be printed on the map.
Risk analysis. The most likely safety risk is crossing roads, particularly SH2. Stop, look, and listen.

General Advice
Ideally a rogaine is designed so the top team nearly gets all the control points. But we wanted to include all the bus/train routes and the great bush tracks that surround Lower Hutt so the area is bigger than required, the winners won't get anywhere near all the points. (There are 49 points by the way, maximum score 1700). You'll have to be very selective in designing your route. And of course the 3-hour participants even more so.
The map goes from Petone to Silverstream Bridge, and from Belmont Trig and Boulder Hill in the west to the Eastern Hills ECNZ road in the east. But although it doesn't include Wainuiomata or Upper Hutt, doesn't mean that you should ignore the bus services that head there:-)) Note that there is no bus stop on the summit of the Wainui Hill road.
We've been designing question-and-answer checkpoints for 13 years, and we know that in spite of our best efforts, a small number some may not be crystal clear eg the feature that was obvious to our course assistant doesn't stick out to you. If you believe you are at the right place and you can't find the object of the question, don't spend more than a few minutes, record some other fact about the location and carry on. Talk to us afterwards and convince us you were there, this is not a championship and we want to credit you with all the points you visited.
The bus stops shown on the map need to be taken with a grain of salt. Greater Wellington kindly supplied a database of coordinates , but it may contain stops that don't apply to the current Cityline operation. Further, some bus stops are for one direction only, and in many two-way cases the stops are not directly opposite one another. But we believe that you'll see at least one bus stop sign from each of the red the circles shown on the map.
How reliable are the buses and trains? Lateness is a bit of an "urban legend", but the course planner spent a whole day on the buses while designing the event, covering all the relevant routes. One bus was late (7 minutes, there was a relief driver who wasn't familiar with the route) and the others were all on time. We hope you'll get a similar level of service.
Your bus/train pass is a special issue, thanks to Cityline and Tranz Metro. If your pass isn't recognised (remember these are large organisations with lots of staff) just pay up and give us the tickets later for reimbursement.
Unlike most rogaines, you can obtain sustenance along the way. You might like to buy a banana or quench your thirst at a dairy. Likewise, we have no wish to disqualify you if you happen to be passing Aunt Mary's and you call in for a cup of tea...)
We'll provide a soft pencil per team for writing the answers on the question sheet, but you may wish to bring spares. Pencils are better than pens if it is wet.

Start/Finish Point
The City Safari will start and finish in Andrews Avenue, Lower Hutt. The venue has been chosen to be close to the busroute hub at Queensgate Mall, without being right on top of it, and the start times of 9:45 and 12:15 tie in with the maximum variety of bus departures.
Free parking is available in the riverbank carpark. The Saturday Market is now in the SOUTHERN part of the riverbank carpark so parking will be in the NORTHERN part. Directions from SH2 are:

Cross Melling Bridge
Right at roundabout to head south
Right at roundabout over stopbank into riverbank carpark.
To reach the start walk south along the stopbank path or through the market towards the southern end of the carpark, to the southern carpark entrance.
Andrews Avenue heads east from this entrance. (Don't try to use this entrance by car, its too busy on a Saturday!)
We'll have "Orienteering" signs from the Melling roundabout into the carpark, but they can be hard to see at busy city intersections.
Of course, you could always arrive by public transport:-))

Get off at the transport hub at Queensgate
West one block to High Street
South one block to Andrews Avenue.

This page is maintained by , and was updated on 26 Jul 04