Milestone in NZ Rogaining: 100 Events

As rogaines were added and subtracted from the calendar during a busy spring, there was some doubt about which would be the 100th. Until recently it looked like Egmont OC's 1 Dec Twilight event would be the one, but unfortunately Bruce McLeod had to cancel his Prophet's Rock EPIC event in Central Otago. A warm spring led to high flows in the rivers, and a later than anticipated lambing season prevented Bruce from access to re-jig the courses.

So the 3-hour Christchurch Twilight Rogaine was the one! The afterwork event attracted 160 people! Organisers Chris Forne (current NZ champion) and Emily Wall (current mixed champion) reckon that holding a fun event at this time of year when there is not too much else going on in the multisport/orienteering scene is a great idea. They gave the event a 'christmas' theme, and cryptic clues such as "reindeer refreshment station" were given to help competitors locate the hidden blue markers. As pioneered in their previous twilight event, competitors were given a topo map with large-scale orienteering map inserts which provided more detail in some areas.

The clues were located from the bottom of Victoria Park (edge of surburbia) to the tops of Marley Hill, Mt Sugarloaf and Mt Vernon (high points on the hills between the city and Lyttelton Harbour). It was won by Al Cory-Wright, Jonny Sinn and Jacob Roberts,with the first mixed team Sara Wallen, Aaron Prince and Sia Svensen in third place. The top two teams both took on Marley Hill first, before running over Sugarloaf and then completing the Mt Vernon insert. They both finished by collecting some of the many points avaliable on the orienteering map in Victoria Park.

Emily writes, "We had three large christmas hampers for the winners of each category (womens, mens and mixed), and spot prizes such as figgy puddings and mince pies. I got an email after the event which summed it up as a success to me: It was my first one and it really was just like a giant treasure hunt! Lots of fun!"

Results can be found on the CUTC website where (if you have broadband:-)) you can also download a 3MB copy of the map of the event.

PS Rogaining is gathering momentum: the first 25 rogaines took 9 years from the start in 1991; the second 29 months; the third 15 months; and the last 25 rogaines have been run in the 10 months since February! Even though the number is boosted by the popularity of 3-hour afterwork events, total participation is also growing seemingly exponentially. Results from all 100 NZ rogaines are available through the RogaineNZ results page.

This page written by and installed on 22 Dec 04.