The 24hr event was run over mostly treeless terrain between Millers Flat and Lake Onslow, but the tussock land at the higher altitudes had very few tracks making for difficult navigation at night. Many teams chose to circumnavigate an out-of-bounds area in the south-east during darkness, reasoning that the deer fences mentioned in briefings would provide a surefire handrail. But only part of the OOB line was deer fence, and the boundary was not so easy to follow.
The winners dealt with the tussock land early on but used the western side of the map at night where the Lake Onslow and other roads provided some help and most of the ground was grazed pasture. They came back through the south-east corner in the morning. The weather was kind, with some cloud and wind keeping daytime temperatures down; although there was some mist on the tops the moon was helpful during most of the night and the sun came out for the post-event meal.
In the other categories, Andy Buchanan and Dave Laurie took both the mens veteran and super-veteran titles with a fine performance for 6th overall. Douglas Woods, Guy and Emma de Lacey won mixed open and mixed veterans (10th). And Chris Byrch and Ali Bell are the womens open as well as womens veteran champions (16th overall). Further evidence that age categories are unnecessary when older teams are regularly beating the younger! (The open mens world champions are veterans...)
Full results, the map, and an impressive collection of photos are on the NZ Rogaining Assocation website. The next championship is expected to be near Auckland in January 2004.
This page was written by Michael Wood and installed on 24 Mar 03.