The race this year was based around the Mt Lyford Lodge in a spectacular part of North Canterbury. Apart from being a serious test of endurance this event is also a fancy dress competition and Saturday morning saw rocketmen and thunderbirds trudging over high country farmland searching for the hidden checkpoints.
Edge Orienteering blasted away from the start splitting the field. They were chased hard during the first leg by "Talk the Talk and Walk the Twalk again", which included orienteers Julian McLaren, Michael Smithson and Penny Kane. These teams were first home on the first leg narrowly clear of Marahau. Marahau moved into second early in the second leg and from then on it was a two horse race.
Darkness brought with it bitter sleet then snow and the hills were full of lost
sodden people. Everyone survived, and Edge Orienteering came out of the night
triumphant again.
Results are available c/o the NZRA website.
This story was written by Jamie Stewart
for the Maptalk website, which is a newspaper-style
website for map-sports in New Zealand. It was installed here on 27 June 02.