Christchurch Bus Rogaine

PAPO, 8 July 06

In 2005, teams from Christchurch and Auckland attended the City Safari in Lower Hutt with the help of a grant from the NZOF. They both went back and planned similar events - here's the result of the Christchurch event. First through the eyes of participants Robyn and John Davies; then the organiser Tim Farrant. Link here to the results.

Lots of Surprises

Lots of surprises for us two, who have not been bus orienteering before. We were most impressed with Tim, and the work put in beforehand to prepare the handout for competitors. e.g. Saturday timetables already included in the pack. We only did the shorter course so did not see any of the 6 hr people start off, but reports were good and I think about 20 did it - probably involved more running on the hills along tracks joining the bus routes.

John and I chose to do an area that we do not know so well - Aranui, New Brighton - although we could have scored better with some of the queries if we had done the NW suburbs. Good selection of "jobs to do", times of library opening hours after finding way through large shopping mall, e.g. Had to get off bus to get answers, e.g."how many seats on the Pier". Often there was "route choice" to catch passing buses to next control location.

Nearly all the short course people were in pairs or family groups and took their lunch with them - beaut sunny day out. Nice concept for newcomers to orienteering. Many were a few minutes late back as the buses do a convoluted entry into the Terminal and possibly if you knew their route it would have been quicker to get off near central city and run/walk to the Terminal. I am not sure of the numbers again, but probably another dozen teams did the 3 hr option.

Tim followed up with a prizegiving and handled the public speaking with aplomb. Yes, we will promote the event next time - we enjoyed ourselves! Many drivers soon knew what was happening but there was no sponsorship evident from the "Red Bus" company - maybe next time.

Robyn and John Davies

The Planner's View

The day dawned unusually fine for the first Bus orienteering event. Eleven teams started out for the 6 hour event at 10am and twelve for the 3hour starting an hour later. Just in case anyone was bored while waiting for a bus, an extra competition was for the best song or poem about bus orienteering.

Different techniques were employed by participants. Some almost immediately caught a bus while others spent some time planning before finding the right bus. Questions had to be answered at the control sites marked on the maps. Participants on certain bus routes had drivers who would wait while controls were collected; another group had a number of elderly passengers looking out for controls. By early afternoon the approach of people, bearing maps was enough to get staff at one location to yell out the price of premix concrete. Some buses were frustrating late for some participants and one was delayed by 15 minutes when a car rammed it. The winning technique seemed to be to use a mix of bus travel and running between controls.

While we had less participants than we had hoped it seemed to be a successful event which most people seemed to enjoy. (50 people compares well with 70 for the first Safari in Lower Hutt - webmaster.) Thanks to the members of the Ross family for helping and Dave Laurie the controller/map maker.

Tim Farrant

This page assembled by and installed on 4 Aug 06.