For the second in the spring series 26 teams turned up, and there were only a handful of maps left over! They found many of Allan Stowell's controls quite tricky, placed off the network of tracks which wind through the Western Hills of Lower Hutt. None were very far, but you had to read the control description carefully, and start from a known point: standard navigation advice.
The other interesting aspect of the course was the high density of points close to the start at the Oakleigh St entrance to Belmont Regional Park. This confounded the conventional wisdom that you do best to head out to the perimeter and feast on biggies until it's time to head for home. Those who ignored the 100-pointer upstream from the Korokoro Dam were able to find a 90 at the top of Korokoro, an 80 and a 50 close together near Cornish St, a 90 at the Normandale overbridge and an 80 near Normandale School. Not to mention controls on the extensive tracks in Galbraiths Gully and upper Percys Reserve. I mean up above the waterfall, not the tame little paths that people push their prams round on a Sunday:-))
Visitors to the 100-pointer might have carried on to a 90 in Stratton St at the bottom of the 4WD track to Belmont Trig. But the nearest controls to that were only 30's, and the other controls in the northern part of the specially-drawn 1:25,000 map were large distances apart. The furthest control from the start was at the reservoir at the top of Park Road, worth 70 points. Unfortunately Korokoro Stream below the dam was out of bounds; while passable, the track was officially closed when the event was being planned, with many bridges washed away.
Top team was Fraser Clark and Paul Chaplow with 1130 out of about 1700, although solo runner Bill Edwards made 1370 before a 60-point lateness penalty and a 10% "solo penalty". This interesting idea reflects the rogaining rule that teams must have 2-5 members, and if you pulled a team apart, one of its members is going to travel faster than the group as a whole. Teams are required for safety reasons in the rural areas usually used for longer rogaines. In third place was the mixed pair of Mike Sheridan and Fiona Clendon; Mike is the overseer of the series and planner of the next major rogaine in the Wellington area: the Rimutaka Rogaine on 13 Nov.
Results have been posted. The next Wellington shoestring will be based in Karori on 27 Oct, although Mike may come with an additional surprise event prior to that.
This page written by Michael Wood, installed on 22 Sep 04.