Detailed Information 2006

For a guide, read last year's details.

Detailed Information 2005

Status: Final version.

This page contains information useful for competing in the City Safari. There are some "rules of the game", one or two details that weren't final when the entry form was completed, and some general advice. If it seems a lot relax, most of the participants last time were non-orienteers, they managed just fine.

The Map

• 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 (mostly without the buildings). 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.
• The railway is shown as a single black line with regular cross-bars. Where there is a bridge across it, 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 control points 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. Control points 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 control point 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 control points. 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.
• You may use the "txtBUS" service for the next three scheduled bus services in the Hutt Valley. (It won't however tell you if a service is running late, and it doesn't yet cover Wainuiomata or Eastbourne.) Here's how it works:
  • You're going to send your text to "bus" or 287 on your phone key pad.
  • For the times of the next three bus services for your stop - key in the 4-digit bus stop number eg 9115. You will find this on all bus stop signs.
  • For the next three services for a specific route at your stop, add a space or a comma and then the route number, eg 9115,110
  • Within a few seconds you'll receive a reply with the three times.
  • Calls cost 20c on both Telecom and Vodafone networks.
• Electronic navigation aids are prohibited, such as GPS's and altimeters. This is a mapreading adventure!
• Spiked shoes are prohibited out of consideration for our bus and train sponsors. They wouldn't be our recommendation anyway.

The Prologue

• Both the 3hr and 6hr events are preceded by a 15min prologue which is a mini version of the main event around downtown Lower Hutt. You will be able to score points at a faster rate in the prologue, so it will be worth your while to go as fast as you can for this 15 minutes.
• The map for the prologue will be an orienteering map at 1:5000, a much larger scale that shows a lot more detail. Same Q&A system for control points. But no planning time, ie you pick up your map at the start time. Same penalties for late return.
• The detailed timetable for the 6hr event is as follows:
  • 8:45am maps available, you can start planning your route
  • 9:15am prologue starts
  • 9:30am prologue finishes, hand in prologue control sheet.
  • 9:45am main event starts
  • 3:45pm main event finishes, hand in control sheet
• The detailed timetable for the 3hr event is as follows:
  • 11:15am maps available, you can start planning your route
  • 11:45am prologue starts
  • 12:00noon prologue finishes, hand in prologue control sheet.
  • 12:15pm main event starts
  • 3:15pm main event finishes, hand in control sheet

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. Stop, look, and listen.

General Advice

• The map goes from (N-S) Avalon to Days Bay, and from (E-W) the Korokoro Stream to Wainuiomata (all of it). But although it doesn't include eg Stokes Valley or Upper Hutt, that 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 control points for 13 years, and we know that in spite of our best efforts, a small number may not be crystal clear eg the feature that was obvious to the course planner 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 last year 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. The feedback after last year's event was overwhelmingly positive, and 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

Free parking is available in the riverbank carpark. Although its a bit of a movable feast, we believe the Saturday Market will operate in the NORTHERN part of the riverbank carpark, so parking will be in the SOUTHERN part. Directions from SH2 are:

• Cross Melling Bridge
• Right at roundabout to head south
• Ahead through two roundabouts
• The third roundabout is Andrews Ave. You can go left for drop-offs, or right and over the riverbank to the free parking.

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.