Entries came in very slowly with the usual last minute rush over the final week. A big thanks of appreciation to the early entries received. Next year we will be shifting the close off date out by another few days to avoid the late nights leading up to the event.
I was extremely pleased with the entry list, with people coming from Christchurch, Wellington, Westport, Blenheim and a lot of people from Nelson with most of these using the event as training for the Rollos 24hr adventure race this Queens Birthday weekend. There was a mix of seasoned rogainers, some orienteers, mulitsporters/ARs, novices and a few people keen on just going for a walk.
Planning a course is fraught with some angst as to how many controls to have and how much area to use to satisfy everyone. In the end I resolved to retain some of the distant (‘red herring’) controls (which a few people actually went to while worth the geological and landscape value were probably not the best for the legs or total points) and to have a lot more controls closer in to the start to offer plenty of options and interest for the 3 hour course and the 6 hour competitors who usually do not venture so far. Overall I think this worked well with the scores being a lot closer and the 6hr course collecting on average 4.5 controls per hour.
I am sure that now everyone has recovered, reviewed their maps and routes plus with the experience of the terrain will have plotted another option. My initial ‘planned’ route would have been – 30, 41, 50, 11, 42, 33, 60, 51, 81, 61, 32, 10, 31, 53, 84, 63, 45, 36, 100, 43 (+ W), 22, 82, 55, 91, 85, 12 (+ W), 13, 71, 52, 47, 44, 54, then options for home – 83, 62, 70, 35 then 34, 11, 40 & 20, Finish or – 21, 34, 35, 40, 20, Finish. Minimise the climbing, take advantage of good contouring and consider travelling longer distances on even/flat terrain where travel speed can be higher.
The day was glorious, everyone was in good form, positive comments received, people enjoyed themselves, the BBQ was appreciated, no issues from the landowners in spite of a broken fence where some ‘flighty’ cattle pushed through and an unlatched gate between controls 14 & 57 AND we had helpers collect up all the controls the next day
We did receive comments about people wearing watches (Suunto, Casio, Polar etc) with altimeter functions and that some teams were not keeping together. While we do not actively ‘police’ the rules we rely on people’s integrity, honesty and sense of being fair. If you were one of these teams please refresh yourselves with the below for other rogaines that you may enter.
Rules of Competition - The following is an outline of some of the important rules:
I’d like to acknowledge gratitude and thanks to all the landowners who were very generous and encouraging in allowing the rogaine to be hosted on their properties. Special thanks to Graham Cooper of Homebrook for the use of his woolshed. Cheers to Jut Bishop, Dave Forbes, Mea Ivory, Tina Johnstone, Cat Hynd & Mark Preece for putting out and/or collecting in controls. Jut again for the BBQ.
THANKS to our sponsor Adventure Sports (Get Out, Get Active) for the maps. Special thanks to my family for the patience and consideration for the time I spent away from home and late nights during the planning and organising.
See you all next year………………
Results 6hr event (no. controls in brackets)
This page was written by and installed on 31 May 07.